Last year, while his mom was off on a well-deserved warm weather vacation, my boy and I had a date night Downtown.
After sharing a pizza at Calderone Club, I asked him if he wanted to see his favorite Downtown landmarks from the sky. At about 2 and a half, he didn't even know it was possible.
We walked across the street and rode the elevators to the top of the Hyatt and stepped into the spinning hyper-reality of Polaris.
The Hyatt recently announced that it would close the spinning rooftop restaurant, which for many years has seemed to suffer from an image problem among Milwaukee diners.
That night, we got a table and ordered some skim milk, a glass of wine and a sinful dessert to share and we began seeking out his favorite sights. We saw the "light-up tower" atop the building at 606 W. Wisconsin Ave., and the radio tower on top of the Hilton.
The weather was crazy that night and the lightning strikes helped illuminate the city, the jolts pointing like fingers to Miller Park, City Hall, the Allen-Bradley clocktower and "the old beer place" (that's Pabst to you).
The rain came down and to see the storm from above was pure magic. We watched the cars -- and especially the flashing lights of police and other emergency vehicles -- as they wended their way through the illuminated streets that looked like a living map.
It's been more than a year since that first visit and we've been back again with him -- this time bringing mom along, too. He talks about it all the time and although I'm sad we won't be able to go up and spin together anymore, I'm glad he had the chance to do it a couple times and that those experiences are seared into his memory, as if inscribed there by lightning.
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.
