Just about a year after Milwaukee lost record shop legend Geoff "Stinky" Worman, the home of his last venture, located just south of Koppa's Farwell Foods, appears to be getting a new tenant.
A shop called Off the Beaten Path is slated to "open soon," according to a homemade sign in the window at 1936-38 N. Farwell Ave.
According to the sign, which you can vaguely see in the less-than-stellar photo I took with my phone today (I love ya sunshine, but you're not helping with the reflections!), Off the Beaten Path will be a mix of a record shop, art gallery and jewelry store, vending CDs, vinyl, jewelry, art "and more."
The owner of the shop, Chris Kruse, dropped me a line to update me after this blog entry initially ran on Tuesday.
"I know I've got some big shoes to fill in opening in that spot," he wrote in an e-mail, "and all this came about because I lost my job with UW-Madison in December. So I worked out a deal with Geoff's brother to purchase all of the vinyl and some other items, and open in Flipville's spot."
Kruse said he's working hard to get the shop fixed up and ready to open soon. In the meantime, he is looking for artists to sell their work at Off the Beaten Path. He is getting a phone in the shop this week and as soon as I get the number, I will post it here, so check back.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
