Pagode Player Yet

 

Check it out - Niko can wear the backpack he fits into! So he can carry his shelter around with him!

Also, I swear neither of us set her up like this, but this morning Valerie the Vulture was gazing longingly out the window, like she'd rather be soaring high above our roof.

This morning after Mass there was a Care for Creation meeting, and three of us were from Moldy Jam. Then Travalon and I took a walk in the woods, and I saw lots of lovely woodland flowers, like very light violets.

And very dark violets, as well as yellow violets.

And my favorite woodland flower, the Jack in the Pulpit.

Before my drum class, only two people were playing pagode samba, including the one woman in the group. She asked if I liked pagode and I said yes, and she said she is trying to form an all-woman pagode group. Wow!! The whole reason I joined the drumming collective was because I actually wanted to play pagode, so it looks like my dream may come true! Of course, with what time? I'm already doing a lot of Irish fiddling and old time fiddling and two other kinds of Brazilian music, the choro and the drumming. But I will make it work somehow! If you are wondering how to pronounce "pagode," it's Pah-GOH-jee. Also, one of the guys in the current pagode band has a catamaran, so it's not entirely impossible that I might someday get a ride on it, if I keep hanging around.

After my very hard drum lesson, my one buddy asked me where I was going next with the fiddle, so I told her about the Slow Irish Session, and she wanted to check it out. Then Travalon and I went on a walk and found a beautiful lakeside park.

We saw some beautiful flowers and trees on this walk, like these purple and white violets.

And a couple of Japanese red maples, so beautiful with the late afternoon light shining through their leaves.

Some very red tulips.

And some very fragrant lilacs.

There were a lot of people at the Slow Irish session today, including Famie (but not the red-headed flute player), my ex-bandmate who always comes, a couple of current bandmates, and my drumming buddy just listened but said she might come back with her guitar. We played some tunes nobody knew, so I had to look at the music, since I can't learn by ear if nobody knows the tune. We also played some we know well. One guy who came for the first time said he would just listen, but they have all sorts of instruments at the music club, so he ended up borrowing a mandolin. Apparently people donate instruments to the club, so I may unload some of my many instruments. Not my violin or mandolin, of course - they're family heirlooms, and I use them constantly - but maybe the mountain dulcimer a coworker made me buy from her decades ago, or the woodrow that the Former Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player gave me recently that I haven't had time to learn to play, or the bowed psaltry my former neighbor gave me. And definitely the "garbage" violin, if they would even take it. I would keep the tamburitza, the balalaika, and the sitar because they were all gifts from Travalon, and I do plan to learn to play them. And of course I'd keep the ukulele, which I play monthly, plus it's a souvenir of Hawaii. I'm not sure the music club would even want my rebec, and maybe someday I'll get to play early music again. Then there's the odd guitar-like instrument I bought at a silent auction - should I keep that or give it to the club? Oh, and my electric mandolin isn't going anywhere either, because it's come in handy at the most random times. As you can see, I have a lot of thinking to do.

Keep Pa Hat in your prayers. He may die tonight. He was going to have his big 80th birthday later this month, but it looks like that won't happen.

Famous Hat

Slavic Day in Milwaukee

 

Yesterday Travalon and I went to Cecil Markovitch's house, where we were soon joined by the Single B-Boy, then we all piled into Cecil's car to drive to Milwaukee. We met Tiffy at Franklin High School, where we watched the local tamburitza orchestra, plus one from Cleveland, perform. The little kids were super cute but not that impressive, although I did adore one boy named Darko who plucked a smaller-sized bass like he just didn't care. Pluck, pluck, who gives a... The teens, however, were quite impressive, especially a group of girls who sang a cappella, and the dancing was really good. There was a reception afterwards in a totally different place, but we had reservations at a Serbian restaurant, where we weren't allowed to say anything about our Croatian cultural experience. This is part of my agreement with Travalon, that if we spend too much time doing Celtic stuff, we will also do Croatian stuff, and honestly I don't mind. I love all sorts of ethnic celebrations. Dinner was delicious; I wanted to try the lobster pie, but they were out, so I went with my old standby of burek. (Bonus: I always get at least three meals out of it.) I also tried a walnut martini, but everyone laughed at me because I nursed it for the entire two-plus hours we were at dinner, and then we all got dessert except the B-Boy, who just had ouzo. I had the sour cherry strudel, Tiffy and Travalon had the palachinka with the chocolate hazelnut filling, and Cecil had baklava. I should note that for their main courses, Travalon and the B-Boy had chicken paprikash, and Tiffy and Cecil had moussaka, though she had the vegetarian one and he had the Serbian one. We also had lots of bread with cheese spread and ajvar, which is like Serbian salsa - so good! Everything was so good. The only sad note was that on such a beautiful day, we spent most of it inside or in the car, and I was really short on steps so I cheated by moving my arms the whole drive back from Cecil's place. That got me almost all the rest of the steps I needed, and my one workout of the day - my FitBit thought I was using an elliptical trainer.

Today we had a ton of plastic to recyle after Mass again, then there was a bit of excitement right after Mass when a tween girl puked all over the floor right in front of the plastic bins. We managed to dodge the puke on the floor while preparing the plastic for recycling, then after a quick lunch we went to Governor's Island. The carpet of early spring flowers is mostly gone now, at least the white Dutchman's breeches and trout lilies, but the purple and yellow violets are still blooming. We saw a couple of goldeneyes there, but I don't know why they look so brown. I think of goldeneyes as black and white, but Merlin confirmed these were goldeneyes.

It was so beautiful out that I was sad to go inside for my drum lesson, but the feeling vanished as soon as I stepped into the Quadra and heard the soft samba band playing. Since they changed the ukulele strums from Wednesday to Thursday, now I have to miss their monthly concerts at Working Draft brewery, so it was fun to get to hear them. We worked really hard at our drum lesson, and I always hate it during the lesson itself, but then the endorphins must kick in, so afterwards I think of it fondly. Also, the people are really cool there. I decided it's no more money and time than if I were doing an exercise class, plus it's music and parties so totally worth it.

Meanwhile, Travalon went fishing at Yahara Park and saw some coots.

After he picked me up, we went to the part of Cherokee Marsh with the little island, but all we saw were a couple of geese. However, along Wheeler Road there is a pond where we saw several wood ducks.

And a line of turtles on a log.

Then Travalon left for a guys' night dinner with Cecil, the B-Boy, Trinidad Cap, Prairie Man, and Richard Bonomo. (When Travalon said, "That's a lot of Cecil Markovitch, I might need a break after this," Cecil replied, "Imagine how I feel - I never get away from Cecil Markovitch!") Meanwhile, I went to band practice. Our leader thought we should resurrect some of the songs we used to do and haven't done in a while, and honestly I don't know why we stopped doing them. Sometimes the version our leader had was totally different than the one Hardingfele and the other fiddler were looking at, and sometimes the chords made no sense. We went around taking turns choosing tunes, and after a long evening of playing things we are rusty on, we ended with the gentle waltz "Tumbalalaika." So that was lovely. I do like playing chords on that one, because I love hitting the one D major chord among all the D minors, but if I play tremolo on the melody, I sound like a balalaika. So that's what I did.

Famous Hat

Two Concerts in Episcopal Churches, a Ghost Train, and a Terrible Trivia Host

 

Travalon has provided some more photos of Tux Duck on our boat slip.

And also a wild-type mallard drake at Stricker Pond.

Yesterday we met Tiffy at the usual Park and Ride, then we drove to Wauwatosa because Just Bach was performing the same concert there as the one they did Friday night during the tornado. I always think of Wauwatosa in a rosy, golden light after my brief sojourn there last summer for Irish Fest Summer School, since I was able to walk everywhere, and we played so much music. Yesterday we went to the restaurant with the North Woods theme, and Tiffy knew it because she had gone there with her brother and his family over Christmas. The food is really good, and they play loon calls in the bathrooms. Then we walked to the chocolate shop, and this may really be why I think of Wauwatosa so fondly, because the chocolate gave me kind of a buzz. We had affogatos and truffles, but not whatever "tirimasu" is.

I am a fan of tiramisu, but we didn't get that either. Then Travalon dropped us off at Trinity Episcopal Church for the concert, which was supposed to last an hour. There were still several songs to go at four, and we had to be in downtown Milwaukee by five for our next concert, of Chinese music, so we snuck out between numbers. I felt a little awkward doing so, since I know several of the people in the group, but one of the leaders knew we were going to the Early Music Now concert, so he probably understood. It was such a good concert, and when Travalon said it would only take eighteen minutes to get to our next venue, I was so bummed: "We could have heard the whole concert!" I was all for sneaking back in, but Tiffy said, "We're out now, let's just go." 

Of course we got to the next place, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, with lots of time to spare, so we took a walk and admired these fritillaries in bloom.

Nothing like a checkerboard flower! This concert was also very enjoyable, but we were sitting way in the back, in the cheap seats, so we hoped to see the interesting instruments up close afterwards, but the performers rushed off the stage with them. Meanwhile, Travalon saw the Amtrak train and discovered a pedestrian bridge that used to be a railroad bridge.

He picked us up, and we went down by the lake and saw these cool clouds.

He told us about the pedestrian bridge, and how it has a light show called the Ghost Train after dark, so we went there and discovered it happens at 9 pm this time of year. We went to Indulgence Chocolate and got more chocolate (that we didn't eat until today), and then we had dinner at the Three Lions Pub, which was started by three actual British guys. We got done not long before the Ghost Train, so we went to see it, and while we did see the light show, we didn't hear the promised whistle and train sounds.

Today Travalon and I relaxed a bit after Mass, then I said I'd like to see birds but wondered if there was time before my first drum lesson of the new session, and he said let's check out a place nearby where there are often coots. And were there ever coots!

There were also two Tux Ducks, and one was almost black.

There was also a pied-billed grebe.

The straggling coots were rushing to catch up with the big group.

And we also saw a killdeer.

We had a ton of people at the drum lesson today, many of them new. My buddy from the other sessions was there, just back from Costa Rica. It was new for all of us, because we played a different kind of drum today, a big bass drum as we stepped back and forth. The guy who plays the little instrument like a ukulele never seems that impressed with me, but today he asked if I would be at the next Brazilian jazz session, and he said, "I heard you were killing it over there!" Oh, but I desperately need to practice! It's one thing to be a great sightreader at your first session, but there's no excuse for not having looked at the music since then. I definitely want to learn this music!

After my drum lesson, Travalon and I went to the East Side Club for a member event consisting of a pasta dinner and a trivia game. I should have taken a picture of the setup - it was a colorful stand with four spots for contestants. Travalon and I were a team against another couple, and we were pretty closely matched, but this wasn't the trivia I'm used to, it was identifying clips from movies, TV shows, and songs. Travalon was much better at it than I was. A couple of ladies who sat with us at dinner went before us, and they beat the team they played against, but the one lady was laughing about how terrible the host was - he was always playing the wrong clip, like he'd say, "Identify this TV show by its theme song," and then he'd play a clip of someone saying. "I am your father," or whatever, and then he'd go, "Oops, wrong clip!" The ladies told us we would have won our game if the host had been consistent about deducting points for wrong answers, since he did it to us and not the other team we played, but we lost by one question. It was hard to care, since it was so hilarious how bad the host was. Travalon went over to the prize table after we played, and I had to remind him that we didn't get to choose a prize since we'd lost, but he was coveting a Bucks baseball cap, so toward the end of the game I said since there were tons of prizes left, and nobody was paying attention, he should just take it. All the prizes were booze swag the club gets since they buy so much alcohol for the bar, and his cap said Jagermeister on it. During the game Hardingfele texted me to say they were all at band practice, and was I coming? but you will be shocked to learn I never made it to band practice. Next week.

Famous Hat