Staff, Author at Milwaukee Independent

Year In Preview 2021: Bring it on New Year, you can’t suck more than 2020 did!

Posted by Staff | Jan 2, 2021

It seemed like the pain of 2020 would never end. At least the calendar year is over, but the overwhelming effects of the past 12 months will not diminish as instantaneously. Metaphorically speaking, the mother of Baby New Year 2020 went to the hospital to give birth to her son on December 31, 2019 at 11:59 p.m. While everything would appear fine at midnight after the delivery, that child would quickly resemble the 1974 horror film “It’s Alive,” about a mutant child that goes on a monstrous rampage. After lamenting at length about all of the upheaval in 2020,...

A Pandemic Plunge for 2021: Looking back at past Polar Bear dips into a freezing Lake Michigan

Posted by Staff | Jan 2, 2021 |

As a “Supercharged” COVID mutation takes root in Europe, and irrational denial of about the pandemic continues in Milwaukee, the annual tradition of taking an icy plunge in Lake Michigan on New Year’s Day became another casualty to the 2020 legacy. 2021 started as the previous year ended, with a mix of fear and hope. The new and more transmissible strain of Sars-CoV-2, known as B117, added to the uncertainty of attending events even as the vaccine reaches more of the general public. While the 2021 Polar Bear Plunge took place outside with a sizable crowd, a combination of...

Year In Review 2020: Jacob Blake and tragedy of Kenosha

Posted by Staff | Dec 31, 2020 |

2020 has been a turbulent period beyond the conventional methods of description. In terms of COVID-years, the past 12 months have had the glacial progress and weight of 12 regular human years. Each month brought a new chapter of events for the public to process, which required an expanded vocabulary to explain the news and a library of images to show the extent of what was happening. It was a very dangerous year for photojournalism with a pandemic and civil unrest. To be embedded in the heart of events as they unfolded required physical stamina, professional skill, and a...

Year In Review 2020: Wauwatosa police and their brutalization of civilians

Posted by Staff | Dec 31, 2020 |

2020 has been a turbulent period beyond the conventional methods of description. In terms of COVID-years, the past 12 months have had the glacial progress and weight of 12 regular human years. Each month brought a new chapter of events for the public to process, which required an expanded vocabulary to explain the news and a library of images to show the extent of what was happening. It was a very dangerous year for photojournalism with a pandemic and civil unrest. To be embedded in the heart of events as they unfolded required physical stamina, professional skill, and a...

Year In Review 2020: A deadly COVID-19 crisis and the country that ignored it

Posted by Staff | Dec 30, 2020 |

2020 has been a turbulent period beyond the conventional methods of description. In terms of COVID-years, the past 12 months have had the glacial progress and weight of 12 regular human years. Each month brought a new chapter of events for the public to process, which required an expanded vocabulary to explain the news and a library of images to show the extent of what was happening. It was a very dangerous year for photojournalism with a pandemic and civil unrest. To be embedded in the heart of events as they unfolded required physical stamina, professional skill, and a...

Year In Review 2020: Some regular things that almost made life feel normal

Posted by Staff | Dec 30, 2020 |

2020 has been a turbulent period beyond the conventional methods of description. In terms of COVID-years, the past 12 months have had the glacial progress and weight of 12 regular human years. Each month brought a new chapter of events for the public to process, which required an expanded vocabulary to explain the news and a library of images to show the extent of what was happening. It was a very dangerous year for photojournalism with a pandemic and civil unrest. To be embedded in the heart of events as they unfolded required physical stamina, professional skill, and a...