Early Music Festival and World Cup

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Thursday evening Travalon and I went to the Monona Terrace with his old high school friend and his wife, and we listened to an 80’s cover band. It was a gorgeous night, and the other couple were really taken with the venue. “We have to come back with our kids!” they said.

Friday I took the afternoon off of work and met Tiffy and the Daughter of Denni for lunch on Library Mall, where we all went to a different food cart: I went to the Indonesian one, Tiffy went to the Peruvian one, and the Daughter of Denni went to the umami one. We went to the participant concert, which is like an Early Music Festival talent show, with some groups obviously amateurs and others just mind-blowingly good. We joined Denni, his wife, and their buddy for beer at the Union, then the Daughter of Denni’s partner picked us up and drove us to Ichiban for dinner, and Rich joined us so we had an almost even gender divide. Only we ladies went to the Schola Antiqua concert; they are a vocal group from Chicago who specialize in early sacred music, and they did a sort of vespers service with lots of fauxbourdon, which I only just realized when I heard it was something we did a lot of in my OTHER choir.

Saturday Travalon and I met Rich and Tiffy for coffee, then Rich left and the rest of us met the Daughter of Denni and her de facto stepdaughter for lunch at the Bel Air Cantina. We all went to a free loud band concert, then the other ladies left for Art Fair on the Square and Fete de Marquette while Travalon and I relaxed on the Union Terrace. In the evening I met Tiffy and the Daughter of Denni for the spectacular final concert of the Early Music Festival, when all the students and faculty perform as a massive choir and orchestra. The first half was a lot of hymns by Luther, and the second half included amazing pieces by Buxtehude and Hammerschmidt, who is also a great favorite of mine. Next year the theme is “The Grand Tour,” so I am guessing they will revisit favorites from the past nineteen festivals.

Yesterday after Mass Travalon and I watched that disappointing final game of the World Cup. Considering his heritage, of course he was pulling for Croatia, and I always go for the underdog. However, France prevailed 4-2. A woman at Hawkes, where we watched the game, bought us a mimosa, and then she must have had good karma because she won not one but two door prizes at halftime. My band had a gig right after that at Capital Brewery, a fundraiser for the Humane Society, and it was so hot that I was afraid my mandolin might slip right out of my sweaty hands! However for whatever reason I seemed to be playing really well, and people noticed and told me afterwards, “Girl, you can really play that thing!” My solo during our last piece, “Ashoken Farewell,” seemed to go particularly well, maybe because I was praying so hard that Mandy didn’t go flying out of my hands when I played the tremolo! I bid on a piece of artwork, a painting of a very cute bunny, and had the winning bid. Then Travalon and I ran to Fired Up because Jilly Moose had told us they were having an activity to make little clay cacti. I hadn’t signed up ahead of time, having no idea how soon I could get there from a gig on the other side of town, but when we got there, the owner happily gave us five lumps of clay, so I made four cacti and Travalon made a very elaborate one. In the evening Rich had a birthday party for the Dairyman’s Daughter, who had a big birthday a few days earlier. Kathbert, Cecil Markovitch, and the Single B-Boy were there too. The birthday girl got lots of funny cards, but none better than Cecil’s, which had a picture of a dinosaur chasing a caveman on the front, and then inside it said, “Hey, look! I found one of those ‘What happened the year you were born’ cards!” I am still laughing about that!

Famous Hat