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Brandon's Toolshed/Little Free Library Event MAY12

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 19:50:50 UT

JOIN WITH BRANDON’S TOOLSHED IN A FUN COMMUNITY PROJECT.

Drop in on May 12th between 1-4 PM

The Little Free Library social enterprise is on a mission to build 2,510 free book exchanges around the world. The movement began in Hudson, WI with a son’s tribute to his mother. Our son, Brandon would have turned 29 this year, so in his memory we have begun a community effort that will result in 29 little libraries being installed in Milwaukee. This project is a perfect combination of handiwork and heartwork that Brandon would have loved.

Picture a big birdhouse or converted kitchen cabinet that holds donated books for visitors to exchange and you’ve got the basic idea. Take a book – Leave a book forms the pay-it-forward “business model”. Location? Well you name it! …the front porch, outside the storefront, in the park, at the crossroads, in your yard … somewhere with a steward close by to play landlord and librarian to make sure that the structure stays sound and the shelf is stocked.

Now, how to accomplish the goal of 29 little libraries? That’s where YOU come in! Collaborating with Milwaukee Artist Resource Network and the Milwaukee Public Library, Pat Wyzbinski and Scott Gelzer have planned a celebration and launch party on Saturday, May 12th at the Historic Pritzlaff Building, 333 North Plankinton in Milwaukee, from 1:00-4:00 PM.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED:

Donate funds to pay for construction or purchase of Milwaukee little libraries.

Your tax-deductible contribution should be payable to Milwaukee Artist Resource Network.

Contribute a bag of books to stock the little libraries.

Become a steward of a little library site.

Build and/or decorate a little library to give to a site or install as your own kits and pre-built libraries will be available on May 12th.

Save the date of May 12th for Brandon’s Toolshed annual event: “Little Library Gallery Day”. Join us for refreshments and to support this grassroots community reading movement. Little Libraries will be on display in every phase of construction from model to building to decorating. They will be available for sponsorship or purchase in a silent auction. Proceeds will be donated to the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network.

The Little Free Library Gallery and Kickoff party to build, decorate and install 29 Little Free Libraries is Saturday May 12, from 1-4pm and features up to 10 artists decorating little free libraries, the national team from littlefreelibrary.org, Brenner Brewing Co. beers, refreshments and a chance to bid on a little free library for your front yard, neighborhood or business. Admission is a donation check payable to Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (LFL coordinating organization) and/or a bag of books to form the first LFL Milwaukee collection. The event is brought to you by Brandon's Toolshed, a project of Patricia Wybinski and Scott Gelzer in honor of their late son, who would have been 29 on May 9th. The event will be held at the Historic Pritzlaff Harware Building at 333 N. Plankinton.

Following the event at the Pritzlaff, MARN will be hosting their annual fundraiser, the Art Treasure Hunt, at the Great Lakes Distillery from 6-11:30pm. Tickets to the Treasure Hunt are $30.

Boris & Doris - Flapjack Flipping

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:25:00 UT

read the article on the Shepherd Express' website or click image below to view the article full size

2011 Year in Milwaukee News

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:15:00 UT

Mentioned as runner up for June.

read the article on the The Onion's website or click image below to view the article full size

Making a Scene: Milwaukee's Avant-Garde

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:55:00 UT

read the article on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's website or click image below to view the article full size

Who's Your Favorite Milwaukee Bartender?

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:00:00 UT

read the article on OnMilwaukee.com's website or click image below to view the article full size

Pezzettino at Cathedral Square

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:50:00 UT

read the article on The Onion's website or click image below to view the article full size

Best of Milwaukee 2011

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:30:00 UT

read the article on Milwaukee Magazine's website or click image below to view the article full size

Food trucks turn streets into food courts

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 23:35:00 UT

read the article on the Journal Sentinel's website or click image below to view the article full size

Right or Wrong?

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 23:10:00 UT

read the article on Third Coast Digest's website or click image below to view the article full size

07.30.11 - Hirschgarten: the World's Largest Beer Garden

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 03:45:00 UT

Today was my last full day in Munich. I wanted to experience a few of my favorite things one last time.

I had a late breakfast of curry noodles and chicken at Quán Sen before heading over to the San Francisco Coffee Company to do some blogging. I stopped at the Hauptbahnhof to have a cranberry smoothie at the Chiquita Fruit Bar and pay $1.50 to pee. Then I did my favorite walk in Munich from the train station to Marianplatz. After tripping over tourists, and watching lunatics shove pamphlets about terrorism into the faces of Muslim families in Karlsplatz, I finally got to Marianplatz only to discover the second Vegan Fest in two months was going on. I thought I would stop at the Andechser am Dom for one last meal and a beer, but it was super crowded so I decided to head over to Hirschgarten.

Hirschgarten is the largest beer garden in the world, and can accommodate 8000 people. It's kinda like if Lake Park in Milwaukee got rid of the golf course and put in a HUGE beer garden and a pen of deer and goats. I'd never been there and wanted to check it out before I left town. It's actually a LOT less impressive than it sounds. The park is really nice, but the beer garden is pretty trashy and the food was expensive and mediocre. It's probably a lot of fun on a gorgeous summer day when it's packed with people, but like the rest of my two months in Munich (other than two days) it was cloudy and about to rain any second.

I had a pretty big meal of a 1/2 duck with dumplings and blaukraut. For dessert I had these apple slices wrapped in dough, deep fried, and served with ice cream. One of the apple donuts actually looked like a cartoon pig oinking up at me, so I only had a few bites, paid my check, peeded on a urinal that was a whole wall, and headed home.

07.29.11 - Graduating Siebel/Doemens a Master Brewer

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:55:00 UT

I am officially a Master Brewer!!! It's been a LONG road, but it's really nice to have my MBA and my Master Brewer training behind me. Now the tough part begins... raising the money to make this vision of a brewery that can also serve the community a reality. I'm excited to get started.

Tonight's ceremony was a good time. We all showed up in our lederhosen, get out diplomas, drank and ate, told stories, and talked about plans for the future. I'm really excited to find ways to collaborate with all these guys. Looking forward to the future. A great conclusion to a very challenging portion of my academic life.

07.29.11 - Getting Grades and Munich Weirdness

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:55:00 UT

We got our grades this morning, and I am definitely graduating. In less than 8 hours I will be done!

After a quick meeting with the director of the program and some pictures, I headed out to walk around Munich a bit and do some last minute shopping. Everyone is wearing lederhosen to graduation tonight, and I want to pick up a feather or some wild boar hair to pin to my German hat I'll be wearing. I also got this awesome Ram's horn the is a horn, but I need to find a cork for it so it can double as a drinking vessel.

I ran into some weird shit though today. First, some dude on this huge unicycle on the train (you'll probably be surprised to know he had a pony tail), and then a bus ad for some performance where they are apparently in black face. I was pretty sure that black face was not socially acceptable, but in German it's still ok, I guess. Crazy!

I also checked out the new bubble tea place in Munich. Super tasty. Wish we had one in Milwaukee.

07.28.11 - Bottling Soda at Doemens with Many Problems

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:30:00 UT

We had all sorts of problems getting the soda bottling going. With a ton of good problem solving and a lot of screwing around, we finally were up and running. I was actually in charge of running the bottling line. It was a lot of fun. We started out running it pretty slowly, but I kept pushing it until I had it running at max speed.

The first soda was an orange lemonade, but when we switched to our cola, all hell broke loose. I started having issues with the filler, and had to slow it down considerably. It was shooting the soda into about every 5th bottle to fast which would make it gush up and over flow, which led to a lot of short fills. After I finished the batch of cola, we switched to a red schorle, which tasted kinda like watered down cranberry juice. We quickly had a clog in the pump on the dosing machine that mixes up all the soda from our recipe, and again had to do some quick problem solving to get back up. The schorle was even worse than the cola, but I got the bottling line humming and we cranked it out.

After we finished, we cleaned up the whole bottling plant and I went to eat lunch, and then wandered around Munich a bit before grabbing a big plate of doner meat, a salad and fries for dinner.

07.27.11 - Egg Sandwich. Filtering. Ai Weiwei

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:20:00 UT

For breakfast I had this egg sandwich on a pretzel roll. The Germans put butter on their rolls and sandwiches like we would use mayo or cream cheese.

Today was LONG. Out schedule got switched around today cause part of the filler we need to bottle soda didn't show up, so we ended up filtering and transferring a bunch of beers.

After school, I went to a discussion panel at Munich's Haus der Kunst on Ai Weiwei. It was really interesting. There were a couple Chinese artists/professors speaking that had some interesting views about Ai Weiwei. One of the other panelists is a freelance journalist. He was probably the most interesting. His viewpoints about the growth and transition of a society and government where totally new to me. I'm still digesting all of it. Definitely a lot to think about.

07.26.11 - Exams Finished. Drinking at Weinstephan

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:55:00 UT

We had our last two exams today. I was actually first to take mine... stupid alphabetical order! It was pretty damn tough. They were 15 minutes each. It may not sound like a long time, but when each is conducted by two brilliant professors grilling you the whole time, it gets you shaking.

The first one I was given two plated samples and told they were found in filtered beer. Then I had to plate them view them under a microscope, and say what they were and whether or not they were potential beer spoilers. Every statement I made was followed by like 23 questions about process and method. It was the longest 15 minutes of my life.

The next part I was given a sample of filtered beer and asked how I would analyze it. Again, every single thing I said was followed with a million questions. When I was finally done, I actually felt pretty good about the whole thing. I guess I really do know my shit!!!

It was also nice to get feedback from the program director that he all the multiple choice exams had been graded and nobody failed. Based on the system of evaluation, that means that I am DEFINITELY graduating!!!

In the afternoon, we all took the train out to Weinstephan. It's not only the oldest brewery in the world, but home to the most respected brewing school in the world. You are probably asking why I didn't go there instead of Siebel/Doemens... well... Weinstephan is a MUCH longer program (4 years+) taught all in German, and I think you need an undergraduate degree in chemistry or microbiology to get in. We actually met a bunch of students who were studying. We started quizing them, and decided we knew more than them anyway. Maybe is was all the beer we drank.

We had such a great time. It was a really big group of guys, most of the folks in the program. We had a ton of great beer and these HUGE plates of food. We became the highlight of the beer garden by singing in opera. Every once and a while I would bust out my best opera voice, and all the locals would burst into applause. It was hilarious. I have no idea why they were applauding and not throwing shit at us.

By the time we left, I was pretty drunk. I ended up trying to run through these bushes and tripped and skidded across a pea gravel sidewalk. I scraped up my elbow and my hands pretty good. I've got a nice blood blister on my left hand. It was right in front of the HUGE group of students. They were all totally stunned and staring at me, but I jumped up and started singing opera for them and they all applauded. Another great day at Doemens. I'm really gonna miss all these guys.