Welcome to the winter doldrums. The time of year when the sky above and the cement below are color-coordinated, making a unified gray backsplash for the entire city. Meteorologists on the morning news deliver forecasts in apocalyptic tones, making me shiver just from hearing the wind chill. This is the time of year when I could clock in 10 hours of sleep, wake up and still feel blah, lethargic, missing my sun and Vitamin D.
Key word: could. I could feel that way.
But I don’t. It’s taken me a while, but I’ve learned the best way to survive. When you live here, art exhibits, live music and great food never stop, even when sunshine and warm temperatures do. If there is anything I am going to spend more money on than I should, it’s something related to entertainment: my one guilt-free zone. And believe me, I know guilt.
If you are a Midwestern kid, like me, you have been raised with something called “sun guilt” instilled in the depths of your soul. If the weather is nice (in other words, the sun is out and it is more than 25 degrees) you better be outdoors and savoring it.
Slathered in SPF 65, of course, so your pale Irish skin doesn’t fry and freckle (now that might just be me).
The only way my mother let me see movies on summer afternoons was if someone had already died that day from heatstroke. Otherwise I was expected to be outside. She didn’t really care what I did — climb on the roof, streak, dig holes — it just had to be outdoors.
Even as an adult, I still have sun guilt, but Milwaukee winters leave me with few opportunities for this combination of remorse and obligation. Instead, I am left with plenty of time to do fun, entertaining things indoors. If you feel mopey, my friend, winter doldrums aren’t to blame. You just aren’t doing enough. So, come on, get out there — or in there.
This Saturday, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie fame and Jay Farrar of Son Volt will perform at Turner Hall Ballroom. Their collaboration, “One Fast Move Or I’m Gone,” is an album based off of Jack Keraouc’s 1962 novel “Big Sur.” Kerouac’s prose set to music? Yes, please. Count me in — especially if it involves Gibbard’s vocals. Tickets are 25 bucks, a small cost for the amount of creativity this show involves.
If you’re tired of seeing more gray than green, get to the Milwaukee Art Museum on January 30 for their first Green Fair. When you walk in, you may very well feel like Dorothy Gale landing in Munchkinland, leaving your grayscale world behind. At least for a little while.
Visitors can shop in a green marketplace and visit various eco-friendly vendors. Designer Hongtao Zhou has found another purpose for our inclement weather — he is set to assemble an exhibit of furniture made out of snow and ice outside the museum. Now there’s something you’d never find at Arizona State.
Finally, if the cold has you craving some comfort food, get your little homesick butt over to Hotch-A-Do, 1813 E. Kenilworth Pl., over on the East Side. Close your eyes, point a finger on the menu and what it lands on will inevitably be delicious, hearty and reasonably-priced. Family-owned, Hotch-A-Do serves up homemade soups, salads and sandwiches in a cozy environment with roomy booths and plenty of newspapers to pass around.
These are just a handful of ideas to survive winter doldrums. So, leave Debbie Downer behind, button up your coat, put your mittens on and tell yourself that, yes, the sun will come out tomorrow. Whenever that is.