Readers,
I’m happy to report that yesterday this blog received a Milwaukee Press Club Award for “Best Critical Review” and it’s good to know they’re hardly stuffy about their award style. Below is a photo of me with my award, taken in the Pfister Hotel hallway of the banquet room, right after a delightful dinner and awards ceremony.
The event included a presentation of an annual “Newsmaker” award to Mark Murphy, who is retiring as president and CEO of the Green Bay Packers. He’s a very unassuming guy whose “aw-shucks” thank you address belied the dramatic skill he displayed recently in announcing the Packers’ choice for their first draft pick, Texas Longhorn Matthew Golden, before a massive crowd to kick-off the NFL draft in Green Bay, for the first time. That extraordinary event — to happen in the NFL’s smallest-market city, Green Bay — was Murphy’s doing as much as any single person. 600,000 people attended the three-day event. And Golden is the first wide receiver the team has chosen as their top pick since 2002, a big part of the excitement for the thousands of Packer fans attending.
Also feted as a “Newsmaker” was Sherrie Tussler, the highly worthy longtime director of Hunger Task Force.
Their remarkable and inspiring (for some people) humility left it for me to do just a bit of hot dogging over my award, as you can see.
Oh well, it’s time to fess up — that aint’ me with my award. It’s me nuzzling up to a giant fake hot dog at a custard drive-in, and taken eons ago. I stumbled upon this old photo recently and, I guess, couldn’t resist taking a bite out of it.
Here’s the correct photo of me with the Press Club award.
I received the silver award for my review of eclectic jazz guitarist and bandleader Bill Frisell titled “Bill Frisell and the artful power of improvisation.” at the Vivarium in Milwaukee.
Bill Frisell at The Vivarium talking to the audience. Photo by Bob Ojeda
Thanks again to the Milwaukee Press Club, and to Ann Peterson who accompanied me and took the correct photo.
I am including a link here to the winning review (which was originally published in The Shepherd Express) for those who might want to read it, or revisit it:
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