Welcome to Food/Drink Week at Milwaukee Record, brought to you by Third Space Brewing. From May 12 through May 19, belly up and enjoy adventurous, odd, and elaborate coverage of all things edible and drinkable in Milwaukee and beyond.
Has this ever happened to you? You’re hanging out with friends in Sheboygan and you decide to go to some bars. The last stop appears to be a normal enough place called Rewind on account of its underlying theme of nostalgia rooted in the ’80s, ’90s, and early aughts. Operating under the “When in Sheboygan…” mindset, you partake in the house specialty dark blue “Trash Can” cocktail featuring five types of liquor (none of which are disclosed to you) that’s all garnished with an open can of Red Bull tipped into the pint glass. It comes with a free pull tab.
After taking in the sights, sounds, dog-related interactions, and flavors offered within Rewind proper, you’re summoned out to the bar’s patio that you didn’t even know was there. You’re surprised by the tropical decor and seclusion of the side yard oasis. Then you turn in the general direction of the outside bar and you see it.
“Wow. There’s a lot going on with this mural,” you think. Similar reactions from those in your group confirm this sight isn’t a strange hallucination created by the Trash Can you drank a little (or maybe a lot) too fast. The characters painted on the wall run the pop culture gamut. There are prominent figures from the realms of video games, pro wrestling, cartoon shows and animated movies, comic books, card-based collector games, and quotable comedies. (There’s also a John Daly cardboard standee nearby, but that doesn’t count.)
There’s not really much rhyme or reason as to why certain characters were included. It’s confusing, but it rules…but it’s weird. And even though Trash Can #2 made other portions of the night in Sheboygan a little bit fuzzy, this mural won’t be something that’s soon forgotten.
Since we—for both reasons of potential reader enjoyment and also needing to document what’s all going on with this piece of perplexing patio art—are listing each character present on the mural, we figured we might as well rank them while we’re at it.
21. Whoever TF this is
I polled our staff and our best guesses were Gimli or “Dwarf With Cloak.”
20. Link
19. and 18. Cat and Dog from ‘CatDog’
17. Bulbasaur (?)
16. Earthworm Jim
Hidden behind the John Daly standee.
15. Papa Smurf
14. Wolverine
13. The Rock
12. Stone Cold with either a shadow on his head or a strip of black hair
11. Pumba
10. Genie
9. Michelangelo (partially obstructed by the John Daly standee)
8. Green Ranger
7. Cartman
6. Mario
5. Slimer
4. Sonic
3. Butthead
Where’s Beavis?!
2. Wayne with oversized teeth
1. Stoned Homer