Ukulele Strum with Songs about Animals

 

Today I worked on campus, and Seabird and I were able to walk between storms. I showed my younger and much tech-savvier coworker the photo of the train artwork featured on this blog yesterday, specifically the one with the figure between two tags, and she said she loves train graffiti too. We agreed that "modern art" you see in museums is often terrible because it's either produced by nepo babies or artists who are so famous that they don't have to try anymore, whereas train artists don't make money, and they constantly have to prove their cred to other artists, so their work is often amazing. She also laughed when we found the photo of Seabird and me on the Alumni Association boat, because it's specifically an ad for the party we are going to on Friday where we hope to ride the boat again, and my coworker said how meta it is for me to be in an ad for an event I'm going to. I also asked her if she could help me find the photo of Travalon and me canoeing on the Wayback Machine; we had no luck, but we did laugh really hard because at one point the website had a photo of two guys in a canoe from a side angle, and then later they had the same guys in a canoe, but from more of a head-one angle. I asked if she could help me with the bewildering folder of files of an unknown type that saved to my computer when I tried to save the image from the website, but she had no ideas about that either. I guess the photo is lost to posterity. 

Speaking of photos, I took this one of a tree peony seed pod that looks like a star when Seabird and I were walking in Allen Centennial Gardens.

We also saw this tree that looks like hops, and in fact it's called a hop hornbeam.

There is a guy who makes videos of every train that passes by and then posts them on social media, and I saw that he made a video of the train Travalon and I heard pass by around 5:20 yesterday evening, so I watched the video to see if there was any good graffiti. Answer: yes.

As you can see, I still need to learn something about screenshots, since these all have the "pause" button on them. Fortunately, it's higher than the graffiti in every photo.

I already had my steps for the day by the end of our lunchtime walk, so I was thinking of skipping my afternoon walk, but I needed more fresh air. I could hear a train coming, but the way campus is set up, there wasn't a good point to see it from for about a football field's length away, so I started running until I couldn't anymore... and then I heard the horn very close and started running again. And I saw the whole train! It was short and didn't have a lot of graffiti, just the 4AL that I thought was "YAL" until I saw the "Four" spelled out, and later I saw it was "4 A LAUGH." No "Puck" this time.

I left work early to catch the shuttle before my usual one in order to get to the ukulele strum on time. The sky was getting dark as I headed north, and I thought about going home instead of heading all the way into Waunakee, but I did beat the storm. It started shortly before the strum did, so right when I would have arrived had I taken the later shuttle. After the storm, a rainbow!

We played songs about animals today, like "Horse With No Name," "Three Little Birds," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - you get the idea. Everything was clear once the strum ended, and when Travalon came home, we went to take care of our neighbor's cat. There were some beautiful pink clouds.

As astute readers might have noticed, I have mostly given up on clever blog post names and now call the blog post whatever it's actually about. This is mostly to make it easier for me to find past blog posts, because if I'm looking for the time I went sailing but the blog has some clever pun of a name that has nothing to do with sailing, it gets frustrating for me. Maybe I'll save the clever titles for days where I'm just working from home and nothing happens.

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Trains and Choro

 

Today I worked from home, so not much to say about that. Travalon had the day off, so he went to Portage and took more photos and videos in the railyard. Here are some photos he took. Even the sign has graffiti!

These are screenshots I made from videos he took of train cars that had awesome graffiti.

A better view of the same car.

I just thought this tanker was cool-looking. The graffiti isn't that exciting.

Some more really beautiful graffiti.

My car is repaired now (and the front bumper is black), although there is some quick fix that needs to be done on Thursday. However, it is drivable now, so I drove to the choro session today. It was the leader on guitar and mandolin, the guy from the drumming collective on cavalquinho, a student who is a really good Irish fiddler that I convinced to come, the owner on cello, and some random hippie guy on drums. It was a lot of fun, but by the end I did feel like my brain was going on strike. When I saw an F flat, I played an F sharp, because what's an F flat? An E - so why not just write that?? When you're playing at those kinds of speeds, it's too hard to think that fast.

After I led Night Prayer, I went out for a walk to get my remaining steps for the day, and I heard the train at the second closest crossing from the north. I hurried to where I could see the train but heard it at the closest crossing and thought maybe I was too late. However, when I rounded the corner, I saw the engine going by. It was too dark to see the cars, so I have no idea if they had excellent graffiti. By the time I got back to the front door of our building, I heard it at the first crossing to the south. Travalon heard it too, so he started to come out to see it, but I said, "Too late - it's already passed." That's okay, we recently saw one coming from the north at the nearest crossing. That one was much longer than the one tonight. This one sounded like it only had five cars.

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A Song about Songs about Trains

 

Today I worked from home, so I don't have much to say. Then we had a condo board meeting this evening, so I didn't have time to make recent videos into movies and post them on YouTube. Instead, I'll just recount some things I forgot to mention before:

Last week Travalon was in a meeting at work where one of the people in charge said they have to get to know the kids and understand their world, and he said, "It would be easier if I understood what 'six seven' was all about." Everyone laughed.

Yesterday Travalon was playing an arcade game called Tapper where he was a bartender and had to sling drinks down the bar to a customer and then catch the empty glasses coming back. The customer came closer, and Travalon thought he was picking up a beer to fling to him, but instead he picked up the customer and accidentally flung him down the bar! He lost the game but he was laughing so hard that he didn't even care.

Last night at the open mic the kids were cute, but they giggled more than they sang. When we first got there, a guy was singing a song he had written that just kind of went: "Pink moon, pink moon, it's a pink moon." Made me think of the time at the late, lamented rock jam when another guy (same guy?) sang a song that just went: "Good dog, good dog, he's a good dog." This might be a good time to write the lyrics to the song Travalon and I wrote last night:

    You can write songs about love and loss,
    You can write songs about Christ on the Cross,
    You can write songs with your big old brains,
    But I don't want to hear songs unless they're about trains.

    Trains, trains, songs about trains,
    I only want to hear those songs about trains,
    I don't want to hear no songs about planes,
    I'm only gonna sing those songs about about trains. 

   
    I wish I had a second verse,
    But if I did, it would only be worse.

    At least this song has got a refrain,

    I only want to hear those songs about trains.

    Trains, trains, songs about trains,

    I'll sing about them till you put me in chains,

    Trains, trains, songs about trains,

    I only want to hear those songs about trains.

    Trains, trains, songs about trains,

    I really didn't mean to cause you any pains.

    But nothing about me is going to change,

    I only want to hear those songs about trains.

    Trains, trains, I'll sing about trains,

    Whether the sun's out or whether it rains.

    Nothing about me you can rearrange,

    I'm only gonna sing those songs about trains.

    I don't want to sing about the universe,

    I don't want to sing about what is worse,

    I only want to sing about the thing that's best,

    And that's the sound of a train going west!

    Trains, trains, songs about trains,

    Full of coal and full of grains,

    Empty boxcars are all that remains,

    I only want to sing those songs about trains.

There is a tune, but I'm not sure if it's original or if I stole it from a song that already exists. If there's any demand for it, we could sing this masterpiece and post the video here.

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Make Music Madison 2026

 

Today at Mass a family sitting ahead of us all left right before communion, which seemed like odd timing to me - most people leave right after communion if they're going to leave early - but maybe they had Father's Day brunch reservations. Then we went home, and I changed into my band T-shirt for my first Make Music Madison gig, with my band. We played in the driveway of the house where we usually practice, and Travalon and I were running a bit late to get there, but it didn't even matter because the group before us had just finished and there was a lot of confusion going on. We finally started about eight minutes late, but the audience seemed enthusiastic... and unfortunately, so did the mosquitos. It was a cold, gloomy day, and Travalon went to Leopold's and got not one but two coffees for himself, and an iced pandan latte for me after the gig. Then we went home so I could change again.

Our original plan was to go see Nauti Nauti, the yacht rock group we'd seen on the Monona Terrace rooftop a couple of weeks ago, at the East Side Club today. They started right after my gig ended, plus I wanted to put the mandolin away and change into a more tropical T-shirt and my hot pink captain's hat, so we were a bit late getting there. It was starting to drizzle, so we wondered if it would be called off, but the parking lot was packed, so we would have had to walk blocks in the rain to watch them play in the rain. (The band itself is under an overhang at the East Side Club, so they don't have to worry about their equipment getting wrecked by the rain. Only the audience gets wet.) I had brought my violin, so we went to the music club for the usual Slow Irish Session, which today was incorporated into Make Music Madison. They had acts all day at the club, mostly ukulele groups, but I couldn't have done that with my own band's gig. (Still, it would have been pretty sweet to play all three instruments in one day!) Travalon went to fight with Bald Bull at the arcade, while we only had half a dozen people playing and no audience when we started the session. More people joined, and some audience members wandered in, including a guy I work with who had just gotten back from Alaska. In the end I'd say it was a pretty successful gig!

Travalon and I went to Jiffy Lube, and we looked to see if there were any other Make Music Madison groups playing nearby. The big band was playing at the park near Hilldale again this year, and we thought about going, but then we found an open mic on Merry Street, which wasn't too far away. We went there and watched a couple of guys with guitars who had written mediocre songs (one about a pink moon), and some kids who were cuter than they were talented singing along with pop songs, and three guys named Dave reciting something by Dr. Seuss about too many Daves. It was in someone's backyard, and we got the distinct feeling everyone else there knew each other, but it was a publicly listed venue so we were free to attend. I think the big band might have been more fun to see, but this was entertaining in its own way. On the way home Travalon and I started writing a song about how we only wanted to hear songs about trains which may not be any better than what we heard at the open mic, but it certainly isn't any worse. Maybe sometime I'll record it and post it on this blog.

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Juneteenth, Circus World Museum, and Night with the Cranes

 

This morning Travalon and I were enjoying our lazy Saturday too much to join the local Juneteenth parade with my Union peeps, but we did see them at the party afterwards. Guess who else we saw? Bugs Bunny and Peppa Pig!

We wanted to get some Jamaican food, but the line was long for all the food carts, so we just went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch after giving my Union peeps a ride back to the Labor Temple. Then we drove to Baraboo and went to the Circus World Museum. We pass by it all the time, and I have always been curious. We wandered around the grounds, not wanting to spend too much time inside on such a beautiful day, but eventually we did wander into the Big Top tent, where an actual circus show was going on. Was that ever entertaining! We didn't see the whole thing, but we did see people doing tricks on horseback, and one was a clown. Then we explored the circus wagon pavilion. Here are some photos. This was a little train you could ride for $5. (We did not ride it.)

Here are some beautiful circus wagons.

This is a train car advertising the circus.

And this is a little pony you could ride for $5, but we didn't want to squish it.

I love this waste recepticle!

I don't know why this clown hat has a shamrock on it.

I took these photos of circus wagons with my phone.

The part I found most interesting was a display right near the exit about priests and the circus. Due to a combination of a lot of circus performers coming from Catholic backgrounds and also the fact that the Catholic church has a mandate to try to save all souls, they had more of an outreach to the circuses than other denominations. I had no idea! Then we went to the gift shop and bought a goat.

Travalon named him Gabby after Porky Pig's roommate in old Looney Tunes cartoons. I'm not sure what happened to that character, but he complained nonstop, so maybe he never caught on with audiences. I don't think our Gabby would complain so much. He's very soft.

Our next stop was the Crane Foundation for their big fundraiser. We had never gone before, and it's not cheap, but if we were wine drinkers we could potentially have drunk the whole value. There was so much wine there! It started with little commemorative glasses full of champagne right at the door.

The flag is, obviously, from the earlier festivities. My Union peeps who had marched in the parade each had one, and when I asked where I could get one, the guy who looks like a leprechaun gave me his. Anyway, at the Crane Foundation, we went around looking at all the cranes, and along the path would be different wineries or breweries or restaurants with little samples of their goods. My favorite was a bean salad much like cowboy caviar that Travalon didn't even want to try. There were also tamales, paella, snacks, chocolates, meatballs, and pastries. Here are some photos of the cranes. I don't remember what kinds they are, so sorry I can't explain them better.

I like how this one has a fancy tail like a rooster.

This photo of the blue crane just makes me laugh so much.

Another funny one.

These Siberian cranes are Travalon's favorite.

In the gift shop we each bought a journal.

Mine is the one on the left. I used some more of my gift card from the wellness program at work to buy it. By then we had gotten over 10,000 steps, but none of our walking was continuous enough for my FitBit to give me credit for a workout, so we went to Devil's Lake and took a walk along the South Shore. No photos of that because by then Travalon's camera was running low on space, but it was as beautiful as ever. He did take some videos of the circus show and the cranes, so at some point I'll try to make a YouTube video or two of that. Something for my readers to look forward to.

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