1. Go to Summerfest
ALLI WATTERS, DIGITAL & CULTURE EDITOR
It’s opening weekend for Summerfest! The massive music festival kicks off Thursday, and there are a lot of great acts to check out. Personally, I’ve always preferred the festival stage headliners over the big names at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater. Here’s a list of great acts that you can catch with your standard entry ticket: The Wailers, The Avett Brothers, Tegan & Sara, Noah Kahan, Social Cig and DJ Shawna.
2. Combine Good Coffee and Adventure
ANN CHRISTENSON, DINING EDITOR
I’m not a camper – or adventure hiker – but I appreciate the handy Venture Pouches from Eau Claire-based Hikers Brew. This company’s mission is to further the sustainable packaging movement when it comes to outdoor travel and coffee – good coffee, not the instant stuff. Say you’re making your morning fuel by campfire. Grab one of these compostable pouches, your brewing vessel and water. Each pouch makes two to four cups of coffee and can be prepared any way you like – French press, pour-over, aeropress, cowboy, etc. I gave the dark roast pouch a shot in my French press and it turned out well – bold and roasty. I’ll try the medium roast next. They also have flavored coffees like hazelnut, vanilla and s’mores. You can buy the pouches, and 12-ounce basecamp bags, on the website and, starting sometime in July, at Whitefish Bay shop Yellow Wood.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
3. Stroll Along the RiverWalk
BRIANNA SCHUBERT, ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR
One of my favorite summer activities is walking along the Milwaukee RiverWalk. It’s the perfect extension of a date. My partner and I went to dinner in the Third Ward the other night at the Wicked Hop, and we were having such a great time that we weren’t quite ready to go home yet. So we took a stroll along the RiverWalk for a bit. It was lovely!
4. Watch the new season of “The Bear”
CHRIS DROSNER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Yes chef, there’s a lot going on in Milwaukee this weekend, but it’s entirely possible that the serious fans of this addictive FX series will have cleaned their plate of the new season in time to get out of the house on Saturday. Ten new episodes feature Carmy (the smoldering Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) broadening the culinary appeal of The Beef, and I’m curious how the writers work in new announced co-stars Bob Odenkirk (“Better Caul Saul,” “Mr. Show”) and Molly Gordon (Booksmart). The bingeing begins Thursday on Hulu.
5. Read Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
ARCHER PARQUETTE, MANAGING EDITOR
Dennis Lehane has long been my favorite crime novelist. “Elevate” is kind of a stupid word, but it’s what comes to mind when I think of his what he does with his stories of murder and shootouts in Massachusetts. Gone, Baby, Gone turned a kidnapping plot into a profound moral dilemma. Mystic River turned a whodunnit investigation into a meditation on trauma. And Shutter Island was just nuts. I even got to meet Lehane when I was in college. I shook his hand really awkwardly. Still makes me cringe to think about it. But long story short, he’s a phenomenal writer and his novels are both thrilling and profound, and he just released a new one, Small Mercies, set during the ’70s busing crisis in Boston. He says this might be his last novel, as he now plans to focus entirely on movie and television writing. This makes me sad – both for him and for the future of novels. If I linger on that too long, I might start weeping so I’m just going to say that you should read this new novel, and if you haven’t read any of his others, you should definitely give one a shot.
