To discourage Europeans from searching for their precious cinnamon supplies, early Arab traders concocted an elaborate myth about the spice's origins. They insisted that the spice only grew in areas inaccessible to humans, but within reach of large, predatory birds that built their nests from cinnamon...

“We lost everything overnight,” says Deanna Amidzich of the January 2010 four-alarm fire that destroyed Pizza Man, the historic East Side restaurant she owned with her husband, Mike. In the aftermath of the fire, which had been deliberately set at a neighboring North Avenue restaurant, the couple scouted new...

Thirty is the age at which rappers traditionally begin to feel disconnected from hip-hop, often either because of the call of adult responsibilities or out of...

Beginning with the 1994 independent comedy Clerks, director Kevin Smith and longtime friend Jason Mewes have worked together on more than a half-dozen of...

Jayme Dawicki isn't the tortured type. The Milwaukee singer-songwriter giggles frequently and speaks in the cheery cadence you'd expect from a former Miss Wisconsin, and her emails usually contain at least...

Bars, restaurants and liquor stores around Milwaukee County will host dozens of beer tastings and dinners from April 28 to May 8 as part of the third annual Milwaukee Beer Week. Modeled after similar...

After years of inner-band tension, singer Black Francis dissolved The Pixies in early 1993, notifying his band mates via fax. Given that famously acrimonious breakup, few fans had long-term hopes for...

Big Bay Brewing Co., the North Shore craft brewer that launched last year, has made it easier to sample its products. The company has opened a tasting room (4517 N. Oakland Ave.) on an increasingly developed strip of Shorewood's main street, near...

The Riverwest Public House Cooperative's business model is unique in more ways than one. The bar, which celebrates its opening with a week of events beginning with a potluck and beer tasting on Sunday, April 3, is one of only two cooperatively owned...

Where a greener band might be giddy with hope after signing to a label like Dangerbird Records—home to bands including the Silversun Pickups and Minus the Bear, and one of a handful of large independent labels that's actually growing...