Author Rob Wieland

Tracklist: 6 Safe House improvements we’d like to see

June 22, 2015

Local movie money moguls Marcus Corporation announced late last week their purchase of perennial tourist bar Safe House for an undisclosed sum. With nerd bars popping up all over the city and kitsch theme pubs ...

Postmodern Jukebox brings YouTube razzmatazz to Turner Hall

Rob Wieland

June 11, 2015

Novelty acts have it rough. Not only must they catch a popular song before it hits saturation, they have to come up with a clever riff on it, record it, and get it out to the public just long enough to have it ...

Off Base: 10 Brewers/Star Wars bobbleheads we’d like to see

Rob Wieland

May 28, 2015

Wisconsin’s recent run as a contender in various sports has been a refreshing change of pace. The Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Bucks both made the playoffs last season, and are full of young talent. The Wisc...

Table Top Hobby Game Shop won’t stop until the orcs drop

Rob Wieland

May 19, 2015

Milwaukee’s nerd community is getting spoiled these days. The city has several excellent comic book shops to help folks keep current on today’s big crossover events that will become tomorrow’s tentpole summer b...

Chris Hardwick makes dick jokes for science at Pabst Theater

Rob Wieland

May 9, 2015

Scott Fitzgerald is famously misquoted as saying there are no second acts in American lives. Anyone can prove the folly of that quote by jumping onto the Internet where celebrities reinvent themselves as the su...

A certain point of view: Milwaukee’s connection to Star Wars reference site Wookieepedia

Rob Wieland

May 4, 2015

The Star Wars Expanded Universe—all the books, comics, video games, and other materials that expand the story beyond the original films—has a complex relationship with the ever-popular franchise. Some things ar...

Milwaukee Record’s guide to Free Comic Book Day 2015

Rob Wieland

April 30, 2015

When Free Comic Book Day began in 2002, comic books were really only just beginning to climb into the mainstream of pop culture. Films like Spider-Man and X-Men 2 spurred comic book sales, even without the mode...

Funtown Mountain Wondershow to bring carnival-style insanity to Club Garibaldi

Rob Wieland

April 20, 2015

Wisconsin Dells once boasted dozens of weird roadside attractions before it erected a strange mix of water parks and human Habitrails masquerading as hotels. Many Milwaukeeans have an affinity for such guilty p...

First Impression: Binary: Games, Food & Spirits

Rob Wieland

April 14, 2015

Milwaukee is known for having a bar on every corner, with many of those bars featuring a theme. Sports bars work because it’s awesome to share the thrill of victory with a room full of fans. Irish bars offer a ...

Where to go (in Milwaukee) and what to play on International TableTop Day

Rob Wieland

April 9, 2015

Now that March Madness has ended and the usual hopeful-yet-melancholy Brewers buzz has settled in, it’s time for the nerds to have their day. On Saturday, April 11, International TableTop Day will encourage gam...

Why can’t Milwaukee support multiple nerd-themed conventions?

Rob Wieland

March 24, 2015

Last spring, things were looking pretty rosy for board gamers, role-players, cosplayers, and all the other geeks in Milwaukee with money to burn and wall space looking for some signed pictures. Three new nerd-t...

Bob’s Burgers LIVE! brings comedy, music, butts to Riverside Theater

Rob Wieland

March 23, 2015

Shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons are the anchors of Fox’s Sunday night of animation. Other shows have come and gone, but few have built a cult audience like Bob’s Burgers. The cartoon chronicle of the Bel...

Anime Milwaukee is Summerfest for geeks

Rob Wieland

February 11, 2015

One of the many non-beer-related nicknames Milwaukee has racked up over the years is the City of Festivals. The most obvious evidence of that moniker exists on the lakefront during the summer, with a series of ...

Midwinter Gaming Convention celebrates 15 years of dressing up as sexy vampires (and other things)

Rob Wieland

January 15, 2015

Time stretches out like a barren graveyard, with the headstones marking the frailty of joy and hiding crypts full of regret. But enough about the shitty weather. There’s only so much time one can spend huddled ...

TARDIS party: Inside The Time Lords’ Ball at Turner Hall

Rob Wieland

December 23, 2014

Milwaukee rarely lacks options for celebrating the end of the year. From the bottle service pub-crawls on Water Street to the packages in the ’burbs that allow guests to get shitty in a ballroom and stumble bac...

First Impression: 8Bit

Rob Wieland

December 18, 2014

The concept of an arcade bar has been around since someone got the bright idea to put video games in bars. The arcade classic Root Beer Tapper, for example, wasn’t always about serving root beer. The concept ha...

Neil deGrasse Tyson enlightens Riverside, explains how the universe is trying to kill you

Rob Wieland

December 11, 2014

Of all the unusual acts that have come through Milwaukee, never has their been one stranger than noted astrophysicist and ambassador of science (or perhaps, more correctly, SCIENCE!) Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. Dr...

UberDork Cafe brings family-friendly geekiness to Menomonee Falls

Rob Wieland

November 6, 2014

Not so long ago, nerd culture incubated in small, dimly lit shops featuring surly customers and even surlier help behind the counter. Many of these nerds grew up, found partners with similar interests, and star...

Spocktoberfest: Fantasticon to bring geeks, nerds, dorks together this weekend

Rob Wieland

October 21, 2014

Milwaukee is flush with celebrations during the summer, ranging from big lakefront ordeals to neighborhood events full of carny food. That leaves a lot of time to fill the rest of the year, with recent summers ...

The drinking dead: A movie and drink guide to the Bay View Zombie Apocalypse

Rob Wieland

September 23, 2014

The Bay View Zombie Apocalypse features a string of Bay View pubs mixing the sweets of a pub crawl with the bitters of shambling through the streets dressed as zombies. $25 gets access to a celebratory t-shirt,...