Today, as I celebrate my newly advanced oldness (it's my birthday), I also celebrate my ninth anniversary at OnMilwaukee.com. I expect that a year from today I'll be graciously thanking my co-workers for the lovely paperweight commemmorating a decade of work in what I heard was a doomed industry.
When Jon Krouse sent an e-mail asking if I knew anyone looking for a job at OnMilwaukee.com -- I worked for one of the nascent company's advertisers -- I said, "No, but I'll keep my eyes open."
Then I went to Italy and as I sat on a train watching green fields fly by, I realized I needed a change. I didn't want to come back to Milwaukee and keep on keepin' on.
So, when I returned and saw another message from Jon saying the job was still open, I thought, "Wait a minute, I'll apply!"
I interviewed with Andy at The Eastsider over a couple pints of Guinness and the deal was sealed. I figured, who knows, maybe this won't last but at least it will move me along. Hey, if I stay two years and then start looking for something else, that'll be great.
Instead, I found new friends, new experiences and helped create something that Milwaukee had never seen before. In fact, something that no city had seen before. We were the only independent daily online city magazine around; the only one that wasn't an arm of a newspaper or some other old-school media outlet.
My first day, I wrote a preview of Eric Benet's Summerfest gig and soon after a story on the Cactus Club. I remember talking to my wife on the phone and telling her that my boss just walked by barefoot and kicking a beach ball.
The mood was infectiously light -- yet driven and scrappy -- and within months, two of us and an intern or two were putting up a site that readers thought was written by a staff three or four times our size.
It's ironic. My previous jobs were at a daily newspaper and an independent bookshop; and I thought a job in the Internet world was risky. Funny how quickly the world can change.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
