Good Genes
Zoom in close. The young performer engages every facial feature to deliver this song. Pan out slowly, take in her full frame. She’s comfortable at the microphone and at home behind her guitar.
Her singing is inspired and sincere. The lilt and texture of her voice is an appealing…
So Fast
… and then it was over. More than a year of searching, planning, budgeting and finger crossing, reduced to a memory in an instant.
“Everyone tells you it will go by fast,” said Ashley, “but I remember thinking ‘it’s a whole day, how fast could it go?’”
I’m with…
Quietude
The first thing seized is the nose. The smell is, at once, familiar and exotic: chocolate, ginger, hyacinth, grandma’s house and ocean breeze. This must be the scent of ambrosia.
Next, the eyes take in the organic symmetry of the room: open and clean lines, recessed nooks and uncluttered…
… and One to Go
Tom and Marge are almost there. One kid is halfway through college and the other has just vacated the guest room.
“You’re not off duty when your kids turn 18,” says Tom. “Not even when they’re out of college. A good friend warned me long ago that 30…
Optimization
“I don’t have the personality to keep asking questions that someone doesn’t want to answer,” Dustin says. “I’m not imposing enough and I don’t like to make other people uncomfortable.”
Coupled with a dawning shrinkage of the newspaper industry, Dustin abandoned plans for a journalism career…
Rocks in their Pockets
They were like the prologue for a coming of age film, an assuring glimpse at how adulthood will frame their childhood adventures. John, with his salted hair, and Perry, with laugh lines softening his eyes, fell into the couch beside mine talking and laughing with the fluid shorthand of longtime…
Co-Conspirator
Co-Conspirator
I’m on a stakeout. Granted, I’m not disguised as a delivery person or hiding behind a newspaper. There are no binoculars or dark shades involved. No two-way radio tucked into my sleeve. Although the excitement tickling my gut might suggest that I’m crouched behind…
The Society
There are rules, and there are rules. The first kind, we largely agree to be hard fast: stealing is wrong, kindness is good, unhealthy eating creates an unhealthy body, and cutting off someone in traffic fills your rear view mirror with crude hand gestures.
The second kind of rules, even…
Prizes
It’s like a Couples Wonderland in here tonight. Practically every chair in Blu is filled with someone’s better half or, perhaps, better halves to be.
Beyond the south wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, a starlit and indigo sky stretches across the view, mirroring the dim hues and…
Widgets
This isn’t what I expected at all. Where’s the fast talking guy with the water purifiers? What about the charming woman in the quilted vest with the doggy spa? The tall, awkward man in a bowtie who brews “savory” beer?
When the elevator doors slip open onto the…
Going Somewhere
It’s early evening. The downtown streets are still basked in sunshine and summer dresses. Bursts of citrus colors, flirty fabrics and bare shoulders breeze past the open patio windows of Mason Street Grill.
Inside, the lounge hums with an eager energy. Friends fill the space with animated banter. The…
Laws of the Ladies Room
“I’ve lived in Milwaukee my whole life and never been to the Pfister.”
This is how Dana and I became best friends. Okay. Not really. We were more like Spontaneous BFFs, the kind you experience at intimate intersections, such as the ladies room. What begins as a comment about…
Chatter
The steady pacing is a ruse. They navigated easily through an obstacle course of more than a dozen cardboard boxes outside the Imperial Ballroom. I’ve orchestrated large events and will confess that set-up never runs this smoothly without precision planning. I was, most certainly, observing a pro team…
Pink Frosted Dreams
I sensed them before I saw them. A carbonated excitement that pushed aside the steady hum of the front lobby. It was a gaggle of girls, perhaps 10 or 11 years old. They had tote bags on their shoulders and duffle bags dropped to their feet. Their small group, roughly…
Candlelight Vigil
As the minute hand makes its incremental sweep toward five o’clock, the atmosphere on the main floor swells with anticipation for the weekend. A boisterous cluster of men greet one another near the lobby bar. A young co-ed rushes to the concierge for directions. A preschooler fingers the…
People Watching
I feel enchanted tonight. Maybe it’s the night air, the saucy décor of Blu, the nighttime glitter of city lights or, maybe, it’s my first Narrator assignment. Yes, let’s go with that last one.
Excited, I take a seat at the bar and begin to survey…
We are proud to announce our next Pfister Narrator, Dasha Kelly
We are proud to introduce Dasha Kelly as the fourth ‘Pfister Narrator.’ In the role, she will spend time in the hotel’s lobby, speaking with visitors and guests and sharing their stories right here on the Pfister blog. As narrator, Dasha will be posting blog entries at least twice…
Shelby Keefe’s Final Farewell
Unfortunately for us, our Artist in Residence, Shelby Keefe, has reached the end of her fellowship with the Pfister Hotel. We have been honored to have her diligently working in the gallery all year and want to celebrate her achievements and recognize the impact she has made on all of…
Shelby Keefe reflects on her time as the Pfister Hotel’s resident artist
Shelby Keefe has been the Pfister’s resident artist since April 2011. As all great things eventually come to an end, her studio torch will be passed to Timothy Westbrook in April 2012. Shelby and I had been trying to get together and talk for a few weeks and it…
The Next Pfister in Residence Finalists
This January’s gallery night tested the courage of every driver. The six finalists for the Pfister Hotel’s next Artist in Residence displayed their work in Gallery M at the Intercontinental. I braved the seven block walk from my Wisconsin Avenue home base and spent an evening taking in…
Our Quaint Spirits
A 1yr-old tiger cub is racing around the lobby. He bounds and leaps down the main hallway, creeps by the lobby tables and pounces on the stair steps. With his muted “Rawwwwrrr,” he terrorizes the guests – terrorizes them with his cuteness.
It’s Halloween and this adorable nipper is…
The Fuel of Magnificence
“When I first decided to be a professional artist, I wanted that fishbowl experience, so I got a storefront studio,” Reggie says.
“It’s not intimidating to discover an artist in public space,” adds Caitlin.
A group of us are seated in the Lobby Lounge, discussing the two residency programs…
The Pfister Hotel Selects Ed Makowski as Next In-House Storyteller
The historic Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee has named Ed Makowski as its third ‘Pfister Narrator.’ In the role, he will spend time in the hotel’s lobby, interviewing visitors and guests and sharing their stories on the Pfister’s blog (blog.thepfisterhotel.com). As narrator, he will be posting…
Words in Blu
An artist, a summer camp director, a theatre operations manager, a board member, and two poets walk into a bar. There is no punchline, this is something that happened a few weeks ago.
“Hello sir,” the bartender greets them as they arrive, setting a napkin on the bar, “what can…
Letter to a New Narrator
As the proverbial pen is about to passed to the next Pfister Narrator, recently chosen through hours and hours of deliberation by a committee of writers, editors, marketers and businessfolk, and soon to be announced, I wanted to pass the pen not only to my successor, but also extend it…
