Monday, March 7, 2016

Motown and Downton Abbey


I hope my readers had a good weekend. I had an excellent one, helped by the mild weather that promises spring is just around the corner. Although Friday it was snowing when I went to Stoughton with Cecil Markovitch and the Single B-Boy to see Beau Soleil, a Cajun band from Louisiana. It was an excellent show in the beautiful Stoughton Opera House, and we got our tickets too late to sit together, but the people around me were very friendly so I didn’t feel lonely. The lead fiddler, Michael Doucet, was amazing – I wish I could play like that! And he plays the accordion too!

Saturday Richard Bonomo, Kathbert, Pete the Sailor Man, and I went to Mr. Why’s grave to commemorate the seventh anniversary of his untimely death, then we convened back at Rich’s house for hot cocoa. Pete was telling Travalon about the local jazz jam, which keeps moving from venue to venue. Then Travalon and I stopped at a chicken and fish joint on the way home, where a kind of nutty guy kept telling me that Jesus loves me very much. He wanted us to go to his church, even though he admitted that he hadn’t been there in a while. When we left, he approached other people, presumably about the same topic. Travalon and I spent the afternoon walking all over downtown, stopping at the Red Elephant chocolate shop, a tavern called Rigby’s which has a 60’s music theme, and we had dinner at a Peruvian restaurant called Crandall’s. In the evening we went to Motown: The Musical, a Broadway show about (of course) the history of Motown Records. The performers were phenomenal, particularly the kid playing little Michael Jackson. Some other people who saw the show said he was even better than the real Michael Jackson had been! He sure could sing and dance.

Sunday Travalon and I went for a messy hike with Rodney in a park near our house called Lakeview, which does in fact have an amazing view of Lake Mendota. Then we went to a brewery called Octopi up in Waunakee, where the bartenders were very friendly and the beer was very potent. Do these small breweries put something special in their beers to give me such a buzz? The one in Paoli is like that too. My car had been making a terrible rattling sound that Rich felt was nothing serious, but he said he could look at it, and he found an enormous branch stuck under my car. I will try to post a picture of it soon. In the evening Travalon and I went to the house of a friend of Mamastep’s for a Downton Abbey party. It was the final episode, and we had a lovely dinner of Cornish game hens made by Mamastep, then during the show we had tea and the spotted dick and Hobnob cookies Travalon and I had brought. If you are wondering what spotted dick is, check out my previous blog post about it. If you are wondering how it tastes, it is delicious. We were all very satisfied with the ending of the show, since all the characters got a happy ending. I will miss it, though!

Famous Hat

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