I’m honored to say that an article I contributed to, “High Dive,” for Milwaukee Magazine, won a National City & Regional Magazine Award in the “Lifestyle/ Leisure” category. Bar culture is big here in Milwaukee, so this piece lovingly took a look at some of our city’s best “dives.” I’ve spent over half my life hanging around one bar or another, so it was music to my ears. I was assigned what I’ve named the “apostrophe beat,” Just Art’s, Dale’s, Gordie’s, and Mamie’s, all great places in their own way.

The other writers on this package were Chris Drosner (who also edited), Tom Kertscher, and Spencer Creal, fantastic photos by Aliza Baran, designed by Chelsea Mamerow.

I’ve won a few awards now and when that happens, I like to try to reflect on what made it stand out. They ain’t all going to be winners, that’s for sure, so what makes this one special? Well, as my mind tend to do, my thoughts began wander. I’ve been running into a lot stories about A.I. these days and it perks my interest, but usually not in a good way. There are a lot of people trying to “cheat” with their writing by using A.I. to do the heavy lifting for them.

I really don’t get it– why be a writer if you don’t like to write? People are publishing books written by A.I. RFK Jr.’s recent “Make America Healthy Again” report had fake citations as A.I. generated papers “tend to hallucinate references,” as Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch says in a USA Today article (the White House says it was a “formatting error.” Yeah, sure.) It’s all kinda depressing to me.

But not everything is online and able to be stuffed into an A.I. meat grinder, and it struck me that this piece was a great example that. Some of these places have little internet presence at all. Part of the package was a guide of signs that you’re in a dive bar. I think one we forgot is “Facebook page that is only updated once every three months” or “stopped with status updates six years ago, but still open.”

We’re still a ways off from an A.I. robot putting on a pair of pants or a bathrobe, heading down to the corner bar, taking a shot with the bartender and chatting with some regulars about the weather or the Brewers or sharing a dirty joke. A.I. can’t really duplicate that experience (yet). They can’t hear the slamming sound of a game of bar dice or smell the mixture of rail whiskey and frozen pizza and secondhand smoke wafting through the door when someone opens it.

Thank the stars for that. The next round of Schlitz is on me (but only if you can prove you’re human).

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Please Clap (and donate) Dept.: Speaking of not being A.I.-generated: Fundraising for QWERTYFEST MKE is underway and we got a long way to go to meet our goal. Our fundraiser page is here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/qwertyfest-mke-2025 and includes great perks like tickets, shirts, zines, even a historic bobblehead. We’re also doing a “Telethon” at Sugar Maple (which will also be livestreamed) on Sunday, June 22. More info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1529533825125088/ Please help make it happen!