Naked Vine
Auditions for Snowdance®
Racine's Over Our Head Players' Snowdance® 10-Minute Comedy Festival is a longstanding Racine tradition that features short comic sketches. Over the course of the festival, audiences vote for their favorite sketches and there's a cash prize for .. more
Avenue Q in Oconomowoc
The adult puppet musical Avenue Q gets its next local staging this week as Theatre on Main presents its production of the popular show October 18th - November 3rd. The musical details the trials and tribulations of muppet-like head-and-torso pupp.. more
Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts
Dean Martin was a talented entertainer from theold school—a singer as well as a comedian. He began as a nightclub vocalist inthe Bing Crosby mode, but came to attention as Jerry Lewis’ straight man at aNew York club. They drew .. more
Stress and Infertility: A Staged Reading of WAITING
The Milwaukee Chamber Theatre hosted it's first staged reading of the season last night as it presented Kimberly Megna Yarnall's Waiting as a part of its Montgomery Davis Play Development Series. Yarnall's work concerns a thirty something couple .. more
Massandra 1931 Ai-Danil Tokay
My dad just turned 80. I could devote many column inches on the enormous impact my father has had on the fabric of so many people's lives over the years (google “John Rosenberg AppalRed” or “John Rosenberg... more
Super Tuscan
Super Tuscan. Yet another WineSpeak term that can make a novice wine drinker feel over his or her head -- like "full malo" or "highly extracted." This term for certain Italian reds was all the rage for a few years, and I think has died down... more
Rucking the Right Bank
Hand it to the folks at Planet Bordeaux. They're a creative bunch. As I've mentioned before, Planet Bordeaux is the marketing arm of the winemakers who produce Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur wines. These are the wines that often get lost ... more
"Crap! What did I do to myself?"
Hangovers -- a hazard of the occupation. No one can work with wine without tipping back too much from time to time. The morning after. The headache, the nausea, and the sun, as Nicholas Klar once wrote, "is like God's flashlight." Nobody t... more
Stream Absolutely's "Learns to Love Mistakes"
I hear a bit of early Unwound in Learns to Love Mistakes, the debut full-length from the Milwaukee trio Absolutely, but I hear a little bit of early Unwound in pretty much every post-hardcore album I love, so perhaps it's best to take that compari.. more
Lake County, California
I love it when I’m lucky enough to score a couple of wine samples. I opened the box to discover a couple of cabernets from Lake County, California -- two 2005's from Snows Lake Vineyards named "One" and "Two." "One" was more
NYE with The Hold Steady and Jaill @ Riverside Theater
This Riverside Theater announced the performers for its annual New Year's Eve concert this morning: Brooklyn rockers The Hold Steady will headline, supported by Milwaukee favorites Jaill. The Hold Steady's celebratory, riff-heavy rock 'n' roll and.. more
Floating Vineyards? Wha?
There are occasional perks to being a shamelessly self-promoting fledgling wine writer. Every now and again, perks appear. Several weeks ago, I was working with my fellow blogger Harlan Weikle, proprietor of "Here's Cooking at You, Kid." We... more
Alphabet Soup Project: C is for "Cooperage"
One of many wine-related befuddlements is trying to understand what the big deal is about oak. If you listen to some wine folks at (usually higher-end) tastings, as part of the oenological word salad that they're coming out with -- they mak... more
For Mooch.
“Do you like dogs?”The Sweet Partner in Crime and I had been dating for a few weeks when she invited me to swing by her place for some food and a glass or three of wine. My family had had dogs while I was growing up, although my sister was ... more
Greatest Misses
"You know, Mike -- by nature, you're a cynical bastard. But when you write about wine, you always find the good stuff. Have you ever run into a wine you didn't like?"Actual quote from a recent conversation. And it's a good question. I mean,... more
The Naked Vine Italian Wine Primer
Ah, Italian wine. Love it. Love it. Love it. As the foodie that I am, I’m hard pressed to come up with wine that goes better with a meal than Italian wines. After all, one of the few things that Italians do better than making wine is cookin... more
Testosterone Sauvignon -- Wines for Men
Men like wine. Why don't we see it advertised to them?Watch typical "male" programming. You know, sports, wrestling, action movies, "24," and so on. You don't see wine ads among the deluge of "light" beers, gadgets, and How more
Blush
When in doubt...pink.Words to live by when you're considering food pairings. Few things go better with...well...everything than rosé. As I've pointed out in the past -- I'm not talking about white zinfandel here. White zin is perfect for more
Spoiled baseball fan
The Brewers are neither completely sucking nor riding the high tide, and I feel like there's nothing to write about. Sad, isn't it? If there are few things to cheer or few things to whine about, I'm stuck. Rough spot to be in, the Astros fans s.. more
Surprise, Surprise!
So, I get mail... Vine reader Steve K. asks: "You go through a lot of wine, and you seem to like most everything. I get it -- there's a lot of good wine out there. But do you ever get surprised by a wine at this point?" more
