1. See Real Flicks at the Dialogues Documentary Festival
EVAN MUSIL | ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Movies are more gripping when seen in a theater. It’s a truth that hit home during the pandemic and continues to resonate as we embrace anything that makes us get off our phones. But there’s something else about watching documentaries on the silver screen, with an audience. Our minds are a little sharper, more open and more curious. We feel more connected, as a city, to the world around us. My college town of Columbia, Missouri, holds a documentary festival every spring called True/False, and it was one of my favorite times of the year. So when I learned in 2024 that Milwaukee Film would be jumpstarting its own doc fest, I was thrilled.
Dialogues Documentary Festival arrives this weekend for its third year. It’s worth popping in for a screening (or multiple) and letting yourself learn something, be surprised and feel like a citizen of the world. Great choices abound, but films I’m interested in seeing are Once Upon A Time in Harlem (Friday at 8:15 p.m., Oriental Theatre), First They Came for My College (Friday at 4 p.m., Oriental Theatre), and Heavy Is the Crown (Sunday at 4:30 p.m., Oriental Theatre), about local community activist Vaun Mayes.
2. Shop Local Farmers Markets
ANN CHRISTENSON | DINING EDITOR
This is the best time to visit a farmers market. All the fall stuff is out there – apples, pears, squash, late-summer bouquets. I love it. On Sunday, I went to Shorewood’s market in pursuit of what I’d missed the week before – a loaf of bread from Peace and Love Sourdough. The previous Sunday, they were out of what I wanted when I got there, and I’ve heard great things about their bread. This past week, the rain kept some vendors aways, including Peace and Love. But I did still find some Love – a cold brew from Love Café, which has also a stand-alone space at 3801 N. Oakland Ave. The cold brew (made with beans from the local Sugar Leaf roasterie) was thick, rich, chocolatey – pretty much my idea of cold brew heaven. Most of the outdoor markets wind up their season in October, so time is of the essence!
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3. Do Not Watch the Green Bay Packers
CHRIS DROSNER | EXECUTIVE EDITOR
The last nine months have been pretty bewildering for Green Bay Packers fans, especially trusting ones like me. I am never a fire-the-coach guy, but Matt LaFleur has repeatedly, maddeningly and consistently blown leads in games and seasons, and fielded a team that is manhandled by its opponents. Instead of firing him after the playoff debacle to the Bears (a script we have seen so many times during LaFleur’s tenure), the front office extended his contract. Instead of addressing an offensive line that was an obvious need during the offseason, the front office rolled with what it had left. And for that, we have a chronically soft, unfocused, unprepared and undisciplined 2027 Packers team that is only 1-1 by the grace of the suckitude of the New York Jets. For me – a lifelong (and generally patient!) fan, a literal son of Green Bay, a shareholder – the Packers are no longer must-watch football. Full disclosure: I’m going to the home opener on Thursday night, but only because the tickets were a birthday gift from my sister, and she’s a lot of fun to hang out with. I fully expect them to get housed by the Carolina Panthers, and I strongly advise having fun with your night and watching “The Traitors” instead.
4. Read Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin
ARCHER PARQUETTE | MANAGING EDITOR
This past weekend, I sensed it wafting in on the chilly air with the heavy rains and the dark clouds. I felt it in the gentle fall of the moonlight through my window. I heard it in the relentless shriek of the Raven that’s been perched outside my chamber door for, like, a week now and won’t shut up.
I speak, of course, of Halloween. Yes, it may not quite be October, but the weather has turned vaguely autumnal and this particular spooky fellow is excited to get into the spirit of the holiday. That means, among other things, that I’m reading horror novels again. This one is an unexpected entry in the back catalog of George R. R. Martin – a sworn knight of the Order of the Perpetually Unfinished – famous for his “Song of Ice and Fire” series. Fevre Dream, published 14 years before A Game of Thrones, is something entirely different from that tale of kings and dragons. It is set in the pre-Civil War American South, following Abner Marsh, a Mississippi riverboat captain who finds himself partnering to build a massive new boat with Joshua York, a strange, pale man who drinks a nasty homemade wine every night and refuses to go out in the sunlight. If you can’t guess what kind of creature this “man” is, you clearly don’t have even the slightest familiarity with Halloween. What follows is an engaging tale of vampiric mayhem, anchored by its memorable main characters and evocative setting.
5. Play Sheesphead Online
CHRIS DROSNER | EXECUTIVE EDITOR
I know I mentioned the new sheepshead website NoSchnitz.com in this space a couple of months ago, but the platform has advanced enough that I feel the need to call it out again. Developer Jacob Dixon (a Wisconsin native, of course) has added features including game options like leaster, schwanzer and cracks; a leaderboard; and, critically, multiplayer games that don’t require you to have a full table of five players. That’s thanks to the core innovation of NoSchnitz, which is an AI that plays – very capably, as it’s been dialed in constantly the past several weeks – any hands not manned by humans. I’ve treated the site as a sheepshead lab, testing picking or game play strategies quickly and iteratively. But really, it’s just fun to fill a few empty minutes playing a few games of the game I grew up with. I also think it’d be a fantastic way for a novice or entirely new player to learn the game. Because of NoSchnitz, I’ve been playing more sheepshead hands than at any other time in my life lately, and I’ve found new ways to love the game.
