kenoki wrote:indeed, wisconsin is a superior state. almost immediately after crossing the border into wisconsin from illinois you see a pleasant, sharp change in amount and quality of foliage. but the cities of chicago v. milwaukee... that is tough.

one thing i'll say is that during winter months milwaukee can become an extremely depressing place. pair that with the spooky architecture, lutheran churches and super pungent yeast smell... a little weird. this seems to take a toll on its people, who are also a little weird. not bad weird. just weird. that place sort of sucks you in.

after only a year of living there, having been raised in the thickness of texas, my southern accent was completely gone and i was left saying "hey?" after every sentence and calling water fountains bubblers. be careful out there.

i would never move back, but i vote milwaukee.

The part in bold I can totally sympathize with...it's not something you can put your finger on. Wisconsin is extremely insular...Madison is notorious for "sucking people" into "The Womb."

I'll tell you what's weird about Madison...their little LARPing scene in that town is some sort of bizarre cosmic nerd nexus. Anyone who has ever lived in that city and come close to even resembling a geek somehow knows every other dweeb, nerd, and dork that has ever resided there. I don't know how many times i've met someone who lives/lived in Madison whom i'd never met before but inevitably knew about 5 different people i know. It's messed up.

I love both of these cities.

I will not choose between them because I do not have to do so.

THUNDERDOME DENIED!

Having considered moving to both cities, I have to comment on Milwaukeean (Milwaukeeites? Milwaukonians?) lack of social graces. My friends notwithstanding, any time that I've been in that city, strangers have seemed far less likely to approach me than in Chicago or anywhere else I've ever lived or traveled to. I feel as if I'm in high school again and restricted to a specific clique.

I don't mean to sound overly harsh because I've had some great times in Milwaukee, but half of the time I wind up surrounded by my old friends from up north and some 22 year old who gave Connor Oberst a blowjob last week is glaring at me like I have the plague for whatever untrendy item of clothing I'm donning, and sizing up my scene cred like a horn-rimmed vulture.

Overall, I feel that Chicago is much less snobbish and Milwaukee is even more conservative and stuck-up than D.C. was when I lived there, which is saying quite a bit.

Minotaur029 wrote:http://www.myspace.com/theboxsocialrocks

this is some faggot ass shit right here
fuck this band right in the face

fuck everyone, I swear to god


Chicago vs. Milwaukee is like
Blow job vs. Car accident
oh I just don't know which to choose

Mandroid2.0 wrote:some 22 year old who gave Connor Oberst a blowjob last week

Seems a little old for his tastes, don't you think?

DrAwkward wrote:

Mandroid2.0 wrote:some 22 year old who gave Connor Oberst a blowjob last week

Seems a little old for his tastes, don't you think?

Gah. You're right! I'm getting old and my frame of reference is askew.

BadComrade wrote:

Minotaur029 wrote:Nina Nastasia's MySpace for example has 110,000 plays or so...and she's been working for years to build her reputation.

Nina has actually made a few decisions against "building her reputation". She could have stayed on Touch & Go, she had the chance to appear on a Starbucks CD and turned it down...

Please don't use her as an example. Use that OK Go band or something instead.

The point is that these plays were "naturally" acquired. I was trying to make the point that she wasn't trying...it was just natural because as a talented musician on the scene for about 10 years or more (in addition to extensive international touring) these plays actually make sense. The Box Social has done extensive touring for a couple years across America, but then, so have a ton of good bands that I know. Their plays generally range from 10,000 to 15,000. The Box Social is at more than 50,000. What is the deal? Like I said, the little hipster shitheads in Madison all know that I'm making music, but I doubt a single one of them could tell you what the fuck the Box Social is.

Nastasia is a fine example.

And Mandroid...your social grace comment is totally spot on...although I would attribute this less to Milwaukee and more to the rest of Wisconsin. The local hipsters that all turned up in Madison from all over the state behave in just the way you described. The kids there react to me so strangely...it confuses me and well...I guess you could say it sometimes disgusts me. I am way more at home in Chicago...it's not very snobbish at all. Chicagoans are brilliant at making people feel welcome (my opinion...back me up if I'm right).

I broke up my last band for a number of reasons...but my old girlfriend followed me to Madison...started going out with my backstabbing, exploitative, fucktard Milwaukee drummer. He either didn't know that fucking her after I went out with her for years was definitely not cool or he was just an amoral piece of shit. Hard to say...probably a little bit of both with a leaning towards the latter. It's hard to be in a band in a state where passive-aggressive pussy-dom is the norm...DrAwkward is lucky to have some people he can just get pissed at. If I ever got angry at a bandmember for doing something completely stupid, they'd wallow around like a spoiled dog that you are trying to explain that shitting on the floor/tearing up the mail is not cool...and often they would do things that were the human equivalent of that...fucking with promoters that treat me well...getting absolutely annihilated at practice or before a show...unbelievable behavior. My new group is all Chicago locals...and the difference in the professionalism has been a 180 degree turnaround from before. Hopefully this trend continues...

kenoki wrote:

i was left saying "hey?" after every sentence

Did you live on da sout side?

Redline wrote:kenoki wrote:

i was left saying "hey?" after every sentence

Did you live on da sout side?

Ugh. Please don't.