Condomania

On floor one of this condo building, is a spacious Community Room, which one of my recent guests remarked, “somewhat resembles a luxury box” at a Brewers game. The usual luxe reigns: gas fireplace (actually it blasts out too much heat), full kitchen with ice maker, frig, and lots of counter space. Cushy couches in a rather outdated burgundy colored plush fabric, a clutch of comfortable upholstered chairs, necessary tables, soft lighting, book shelves with actual books (mostly not to my taste), CD player, flat screen built-in television, and on and on. It’s street level so the view is Prospect…

Well, he wasn’t exactly the Iron Chef, but the Milwaukee fireman in line at Gold’s Pick ‘N Save is indeed a chef to 10 firepersons (is that the correct term?). His fellow fireperson, who towered at 6’5” and 250 lbs. stood in line with him. The two were dressed in their working clothes…heavy duty toast-colored duck trimmed in yellow. Five splendid fire trucks stood in the sun in the parking lot outside the store. I seldom shop at this store though it’s near my condo, the reason being that the parking lot is an area where almost anything goes. Why…

For your viewing pleasure, here is an image of a fave work of art. Circa ’48, it was taken by a local guy who specialized in photos of dancers. His name has been lost to history. If you recognize the image, let me know. To downsize or not?  In my case, I’ve collected art, mostly by artists from Wisconsin, for over thirty years, and let me tell you it adds up and gets to the point where I store it under beds, in closets and anywhere space allows. The bulk of it went to the collection at Carroll University a…

Summer’s spunky red geraniums fronting the Shorecrest Hotel are faded. The patio is gloom personified. Inside the grand old building, owner Joe Balistrieri’s booming voice is gone forever. The last time we met, he kissed my cheek and asked why I didn’t stop in more often. A gentleman to the end, he died recently, still living in a penthouse on the top floor of the historic Tulgren building. In 2004 I wrote a full feature for Milwaukee Magazine, titled “Where Legends Dwell,” a tale loosely based on Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, and lord knows the hotel had its share of…

The signs are all there: big puffy coats of down in department stores, boots standing ready for feet and shovels and salt on center stage in the garage area. We condo dwellers do not shovel. We pay to have others shovel. We pay to have our windows washed twice yearly, which is one wash too many. The condo board makes those kinds of decisions. If you live in a condo, you bow to the wishes of the elected leaders. You have to hand it to anyone who serves on a condo board. It’s a brutal life consisting of nasty notes…

Their beautiful balcony glitters with thousands of lights. It’s a crisp clear night, not yet winter. A sunset blazes to the west. A buzz on the buzzer and I’m in, headed for a dinner party with assorted friends. My hosts and their two felines nest in a two-bedroom modest unit that makes sense. There’s no view of the lake, but with fascinating art purchased from local artists, the space is akin to a mini-museum. The wine flows, mingling with the scent of spicy enticements drifting in from Maharaja on Farwell, and in the efficient condo kitchen just a few feet…

My condo building is near four grocery stores: Metro Mart, Gold’s Pick ‘n Save, Whole Foods, and by far the smallest and most neighborly of the quartet, Koppa’s on Farwell, where I shop most often. Their selections are limited, but now that my doctor has decreed I can’t eat anything that has a face or a mother, I find myself heading for big box spaces where vegan runneth over. OK, so today I loaded up with soy milk, frozen veggies and frozen fruits to use in the soy milkshakes that start my day. This week I’ve been eating 15-bean soup…

On Friday the 15th of October, I cab it to the Pfister Hotel, glad to have an invitation to mingle with people. Down on a lobby couch I plop and am shortly joined by a tall gentleman who plops onto the couch directly opposite me. The stately clock reads 11:30 a.m. A woman with hair the color of peanut butter fudge prepares eye-openers behind the intimate bar. A fireplace blazes nearby. The other couch-plopper studies his phone, so I wait to make contact, at least until his double espresso (with a shot of water) arrives. It does, and I launch…

In the world of condo views, there are only so many to go around. Not everyone can be perched on a bluff with an unobstructed panorama of Lake Michigan. Some folks have to stare at blank walls, dumpsters and/or the neighbors strolling around in their underwear. When you purchase a condo with a great view, be advised it sure doesn’t come with a lifetime guarantee. No siree. Five years back my two friends purchased an elegant spread with an unobstructed view of the sparkling waters of our Big Lake. Talk about your sun in the mornin’ and your moon at…

Now that I’ve kicked cigarettes (it’s been a year and a half), my senses are tuned to any cigarette smoke that blows my way and you can add to that cigar or pipe smoke. And who needs culprits flipping butts over the balcony of a unit above me, sending them spiraling downward to rest on my balcony? So far that hasn’t happened, but I heard a resident complain that someone above her unit was regularly flipping menthol cigs onto her lower level unit’s patio. It happens. In fact, flipping stuff over balconies seems to be a form of entertainment in…