About The Dioskouroi

City bloggers usually come in two predictable varieties: “The Insider” and “The Hater”—and neither work well in Milwaukee.

You see, there isn’t enough churn in this city to merit self-described scensters. And it doesn’t have the cosmopolitan panache to justify counter-culture rants.

What I’ve learned by returning here is that Milwaukee is . . . well, it just is.

So rather than dish out stale optimism about how Suite will revolutionize the club scene (it won’t) or pretend that Aura isn’t as crappy as Aqua was (it is), I’m offering a sort of travelogue for the weary Milwaukeean who needs a fresh take on it all.

While no hitchhiker’s guide is ever complete, I promise to try and document every curiosity, eccentricity and oddity that crosses my path here in Milwaukee. Please share your own encounters in the comments or at thedioskouroi@gmail.com.

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The Dioskouroi is the collective name for Castor and Pollux—Gemini twins of mythology, skilled horsemen and protectors of sailors.

One was immortal, the other was not.

Like so many characters of myth, The Dioskouroi’s lascivious pursuit of women—in this case the daughters of Leucippus—got them into trouble.

More precisely, it got them killed.

This turn of events was especially bad for Castor, since he was the mortal one. But Zeus, always the meddler, gave Pollux a choice: let your brother perish, or share half of your immortality with him.

Pollux choose the latter.

The twins now spend their days alternating between the heights of Olympus and the bowels of Hades. Zeus also made some room in the night sky for Constellation Gemini, where the twins will be forever remembered and frequently blamed for manic-depressive disorders.