Enjoyable Election Day

 

Travalon suggested the title for this blog post, because we voted for a couple of things today. He read an email from Literatus that you could get 10% off your order if you voted for one of four ciacconas, so we listened to all four on YouTube (links provided in the email) and both felt Choice C was the best because of its totally lit theorbo line. (You can sell me on anything with a great bass line, whether it's a song released today or a 16th century ciaccona.) We decided to head there, but first we went to the bonsai show at Olbrich, and they asked us to vote for our favorite. The one I chose was leading in the polls, as I saw on my way out, while only a couple of people had voted for Travalon's favorite. He took a photo of his favorite, but I didn't think to take one of mine.

Edit: I found a picture of my favorite on the bonsai society website. It did win!

Here are some more photos from Olbrich.

Then we drove to Watertown and got lunch for 10% off, and it turns out Ciaccona C was leading in the polls there too. This must mean I have very populist tastes. After lunch we walked over to the antiques shop in Watertown, but Travalon didn't see anything he wanted, and I only found one rosary that was not like anything I already own, and none of them seemed to be begging me to buy them. Sometimes with antique rosaries, I feel like the previous owners are calling to me to come find them, but that didn't happen today so I only got the one. I did like this fire hydrant right outside the antiques shop.

Then we went to Lake Mills and walked along the Glacial Drumlin Trail, where we saw lots of honeysuckle and red columbine, as well as views of Rock Lake.

This evening I had a gig at a wedding, which is the first time we have played for a paying gig since the pandemic started. We had a caller we had never worked with before, and she was excellent, especially with children. Everyone was having such a good time that it just filled me with joy to see them so happy. It was a fusion Jewish-Scottish wedding, so the groom wore a kilt, and we played some Irish and Scottish jigs, but we didn't know about the Jewish part so we didn't bring our klezmer music. We did play "Metsakukkia," our Finnish waltz, at the end, and some people thought it was from Fiddler on the Roof. One woman did some kind of gymnastics dancing during that. Hardingfele (who is Jewish by blood, if not in practice) said they had excellent latkes. (All the food was delicious, in my opinion.) Not only did they pay us, they also tipped us well! I love playing out so much. Being a musician is the essence of what I am. I just crunch numbers to pay the bills.

Famous Hat