Every Friday, Stuff We Missed looks to other Milwaukee publications (and beyond) for, well, stuff we missed throughout the week.
• We’re spending November revisiting some of the best Milwaukee music of the past decade. It’s been a hoot listening to great local music from the not-so-distant past, and it’s stirred some additional Milwaukee nostalgia, too. For instance: REMEMBER THE TIME MILWAUKEE USED A SONG ABOUT ORAL SEX TO PROMOTE ITS DOWNTOWN?
The year was 2013. In downtown, Fiserv Forum, The Hop, the Night Market, and the impending Democratic National Convention were mere gleams in the city’s eyes. Sculpture Milwaukee didn’t exist. Saint Kate didn’t exist. The Shops of Grand Avenue existed, sort of. It was in this decidedly un-sexy climate that the Milwaukee Downtown Business Improvement District came along with a decidedly sexy new ad campaign. It was called “Cya Downtown.” It featured a song by Peaches. The song was called “Downtown.” The song was—and still is—about oral sex.
“Interpret it as you may, but the song is catchy and sexy,” OnMilwaukee‘s Jeff Sherman wrote in 2013. “Its original lyrics ooze sex appeal and its beats are contagious.” Some of those original lyrics include:
Cause I wanna take you downtown
(Show you my thing, show you my thing)
Your face never saw the sites, the bright lights
The walls that always invite
Get it right no more fight
You’ll be there up all night
If those original lyrics conjure up tilt-shifted images of people playing table tennis and holding hands at Discovery World, then you’re definitely on Milwaukee Downtown’s wavelength circa 2013. Also: Hi, Laura and Andy!
Was the “Cya” campaign a success? Well, we’re still talking about it six years later. And while the Milwaukee Downtown BID has since moved on from the campaign, downtown itself has never been more alive. It’s like our pal Dan says:
Maybe this is what did it. Who’s to say, really
— Dan Shafer (@DanRShafer) November 22, 2019
• Speaking of Fiserv Forum, the arena has two new sensory rooms for guests with sensory processing needs. [WUWM]
• A Milwaukee County Parks-style beer garden may be coming to Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. [BizTimes]
• A new tapas restaurant called Cavas is coming to the former Batches bakery, 401 E. Erie St. Cavas is expected to open “in time for the holidays.” [BizTimes]
• Tom Barrett officially announced his bid for a fifth term as mayor. [Urban Milwaukee]
• There’s an automated Twitter account called Every Lot MKE that is slowly tweeting out pictures of every parcel of land in the city. Huh! [Urban Milwaukee]
• Have a great weekend, Milwaukee!