Brazilian Party and Banjo Player at Band Practice

 

Today was cold again, after that almost summer-like day yesterday. We bundled up and went to Mass, and there was a ton of plastic to recycle afterwards. We took a brief walk outside, but the wind was biting, so we mostly hung out until heading to the Quadra for the party to watch the Brazilian drumming extravaganza. This was not as exciting for Travalon, who of course watched the whole thing in real life, but I hadn't gotten to see some of it while waiting to go on or having just gotten off the stage. The video wasn't actually that much higher quality than the one Travalon took with his phone from way up in the balcony, which surprised me, but I could still see that I was mostly out of step with everyone else. I did enjoy hearing the really good drummers and watching the dancers. Unfortunately we had to leave before the end, so we didn't get to see the acts that we left before in real life. That was today - all my hobbies stepping all over each other, because I had to miss Irish conversation for this watch party, and then I had to leave the watch party in order to get to band practice on time. I did enjoy watching the dancing girls dancing in real life in the Quadra, and a little girl of about three trying to imitate them.

Tonight at band practice we had a new person, a woman who plays the banjo. She said she started as a guitar player from a young age and then lately got really into the ukulele, which is how she knows our band leader. She even knows people from the ukulele group I hang out with, although we are on the north side of town and her group is on the south side. Their group is called FUN (Fitchburg Ukulele Network), while I hang out with the Wauna Strummers and Prairie Strummers who are, of course, from Waunakee and Sun Prairie, but one group meets Mondays at two and another one meets Fridays at one, so I only ever see them at the monthly Lone Girl strum. Anyway (sorry for that ukulele tangent), the banjo player decided to learn the five-string banjo, and she is pretty good! I loved the sound she added to our band. She said she has heard us play for Make Music Madison and always wanted to join us, which amazes me since we are not that great of a band, in my opinion. Hardingfele did say she is trying to get us a gig at a retirement home. For some reason she dyed her hair purple tonight, which was her excuse for coming late this time. (Usually it's something to do with cats.)

I said I really liked the color with her turquoise top. You can see our other fiddler behind her. Our newest fiddler is incommunicado at the moment, but she is extremely pregnant and has a toddler, so she has other things going on besides our band. We could use another fiddler, but it's great to have a banjo again. We haven't had one since the Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player played banjo with us years ago.

Here is a lovely photo of flowers at my aunt and uncle's house in Colorado. They sent some others too, but for reasons I can't explain, my phone is refusing to download those.

It says the other photo has already been saved to my iCloud photo album, but I can't find it. It's not in my phone's photo library, and it's not in Boethius's regular photo library, but when I go to "recently saved," I can see that I have saved it about eight times. OK, if I search "recently saved," I can find it.

I hope that was worth the trouble. There's also one of a tree leaning over in front of a sunset.

So weird! This has never happened before. And no, my blog post title is not a secret ad for BP gas stations.

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Crazy Banjo Players

According to sometime reader Hardingfele, banjo players can be very dangerous, especially when denied a drink. She found an article about an underage banjo player who attacked the bouncer asking for his ID with a banjo and a hatchet, and Banjo Player says she thinks her Vega banjo could do more damage than a hatchet. She says she could break someone’s knees with it. The tragic part of this story is that the crazy banjo guy’s dog was taken to the Humane Society. Hopefully some loving family can give it a good home! My office mate Light Bright is also a banjo player, and while she denies ever attacking anyone with a banjo, she does enjoy firing shotguns, so I wouldn’t mess with her.

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Wasp Wars and Banjo Spam

The Wasp Wars over my balcony have officially begun. After being stung without provocation TWICE in the last few weeks, I have decided the yellow jackets have got to go. Tuesday evening I put icky scented candles and a bowl of sugar water with bleach in it out on my porch (mixed messages, I guess: Go Away vs. Come Drink Some Lovely Poison, but whatever works, right?) and then I watched them. They have thus far ignored the water, and the candles seemed to have little to no effect. I felt as if I were living by a tiny wasp O'Hare as they continuously came and went, taking off and landing, as they went in and out of a hole on the back of my balcony. I started squirting them with water, which annoyed them, but they didn't come over and sting me. (Huh... maybe that smelly mango-and-apple-pie-scented smoke really did work!) Someone suggested WD40, but Hardingfele refuses to aid me in this endeavor, which she has termed "insecticide." In my mind, it's self-defense, since I can no longer sit on my balcony, and the wasps are certainly not helping me pay the mortgage! So they are squatters... STINGING squatters!!!

And now for something completely different - banjo spam! Unlike the bagpipe spam Hardingfele received, which really was about bagpipe gear, this has nothing to do with actual banjos as far as I can tell. It also has no amusing grammatical errors, but it fits with the Totally Random theme of this blog, since what have banjos got to do with fishing? If you know, feel free to tell me in the comments section.

AS SEEN ON TV!!

(Too bad I don't own a TV)

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