Willy Street Fair 2026

 

Since we went to Mass last night, Travalon was able to watch the Wolverhampton game this morning, and they won! Sadly, there was a brand-new mural someone had pained with some of their star players on it, and a guy from the other team defaced it - it wasn't even 24 hours old!

Then we went to Willy Street in time to catch the parade. It was surprisingly cool today, and I was trying to think how to be extra in warm clothes, when it occurred to me that I have that silly thing that looks like a fuzzy, three-eyed blue monster that sits on my head, and I can make the ears move. Is it a hat? Is it a stuffed animal? Yes. 

We watched the parade, and I made the monster's ears move in time to the music. I could see that some of the Brazilian drummers saw me and laughed. Travalon made some videos, and I compiled them into a movie but am having some technical difficulties so watch for that hopefully tomorrow. Here are a couple of photos. Sorry, my monster hat is not in any of them.

After the parade we went to check out the fair and immediately ran into the Kiwi from the Shamrock Club and his delightful girlfriend. Then another person they knew saw us and told us it was his birthday, so I sang him Happy Birthday in Basque, which he loved - he said, "That's a great birthday gift!" Travalon and I found the booth with the amazing kebabs, then we continued on and came across a band playing Latin music, so we sat and listened. They also did reggae and other styles - very versatile. Travalon got more kebabs and baobab shakes, then the Kiwi and his girlfriend joined us, and we split into two conversations based on gender. Then they went to check out other bands, since there were at least three other stages at the Fair, while we heard the whole set by that band, called Los Bad Hombres. Then we explored the Fair to the end, getting pork dumplings and coconut shrimp and hibiscus juice, and Travalon bought a pair of sunglasses from the local radio station just like the pair I bought last year. Somehow I lost a $5 bill. We passed a place selling gummies, so I bought a package and took one, since that was 5 mg, but it didn't seem to do much at first. 

We went back to the main stage, where a funky jazz combo called Rare Element were playing, and we listened to them. At some point the Kiwi and his girlfriend came back, and some guy gave them free little books, but he was gone so I couldn't get one. There was one of a poem of Gerard Manley Hopkins, my favorite poet, so I would have liked that one. They chose Dante's Inferno. They wandered off to hear a band called Yolk, and then the third band on the main stage played, I think they were called Automatic Lover. They also played funky jazz and Latin music, and at one point the lead singer asked, "Are there any Capricorns in the house?" I hollered, but nobody else did, and I felt a bit like that time at World Youth Day in Paris when the Pope was giving a shout-out to each country in French, and when he said, "Etats-Unis," Ethel and I hollered, but nobody else did for miles around, and the people around us asked, "Only you two from the US?" 

I saw a little kid looking at me, so I made my hat's ears move, and he was transfixed. Then someone brought over a baby to watch my hat. I had to keep doing it for so long that my FitBit said I got my steps for the hour just squeezing the paws of my monster hat to make the ears keep moving. Then we saw the Daughter of Denni, so I showed her how my monster hat's ears move, and she was as delighted as the children and bought us a beer. Part of a beer on top of the gummy did finally make me feel stoned, and suddenly the bassline in the music sounded AMAZING. Wow! Oh, I forgot to mention that at the place where I bought the gummies, Travalon bought an adorable stuffed bong.

So cute! Then on the way home we saw some train graffiti - thought I'd forgotten about that, didn't you?

We were enjoying the Willy Street Fair so much that I never got to the Slow Irish Session, and I would have had to miss the second half anyway to get to band practice. It was at our newest fiddler's house, and I stupidly didn't wear the blue monster hat, since she has a four-year-old, and also a four-month-old named after the Pope who was asleep the whole time we were there. We practiced some hard Cajun music that we had never played before, so I think the preschooler was annoyed. Cajun music does have a whiny quality even when played well, so you can imagine how weird it sounds when people are sight reading it. Travalon picked me up with a decaf iced pandan latte, what he always gets me when he goes to Leopold's. A wonderful ending to a wonderful day! 

Famous Hat

Herb Alpert, Again

 

Travalon and I had a very lazy morning, then I had to go do an audit for the local because I'm a trustee. The other trustee has done them before, so she knew what to do, and so it only took an hour. Then Travalon and I went to evening Mass before going to the Orpheum to see Herb Alpert.

Longtime readers may remember that we saw Herb Alpert almost exactly three years ago. We had to go down to Chicago for that, but this time he came to town with the Tijuana Brass, and Travalon got "free" tickets with the credit from the time he tried to get Weird Al Yankovic tickets and the seller never sent them to him. Then just last week the Dairyman's Daughter asked if we like him, because two friends of hers had tickets and couldn't go. I said yes, we are such big fans that we already had tickets, but it turns out Rich and another regular from the Night Prayer group really wanted to go. We didn't go with them, but we did run into them there. 

So now he's 91, but he's still going strong. He's very funny, and he still plays the trumpet beautifully. He started with one of Travalon's favorites, "The Lonely Bull," and then he asked people to shout out what song from Whipped Cream and Other Delights they wanted to hear, and both Travalon and the guy on the other side of me shouted, "Taste of Honey!" They did play that, and they did a long jam on "Rise," which was my gateway drug to Herb Albert because I was too young to encounter him in his heyday, but that song was big in the early 80's when I was a tween, and I just loved it. Still love it, especially the version they did tonight. We all clapped on the appropriate beat. They did most of his hits, and some other songs (like "Love Potion #9") that I had not heard him cover before, and then during the encore they played another favorite of mine, "Tijuana Taxi." I just love the horn at the end! Afterwards we went to our old church to use the restroom, and when I was talking to Rich about how cool it is that a nerdy Jewish kid could grow up to be a sex symbol, own a recording label, and still be going strong in his nineties, some guy came out of the bathroom and said, "Wasn't that a great show?" I have no idea who he is, but to get into our church at night he must have had a key, so he must have been some sort of parishioner.

Here are the screenshots from the final video Travalon made on our ten-train day. He made this one with his cell phone, but he held it horizontally, so it doesn't have those weird black patches on either side.

I am finally caught up on train video screenshots, that I know of. I'm sure there will be more in the future.

And once again, I have to do a little DuoLingo bragging:

I only spent about an hour and a half doing it this morning. Now it's time for my night session.

Famous Hat

Happy Birthday to Jilly Moose!

 

First of all, Happy Birthday to Jilly Moose! I don't actually have anything else to say, having been at home sick all day, so here are some more screenshots of train graffiti from Travalon's videos.

That's enough screenshots for one post, and this is all from the same train as the last post! Now I only have one minute of video left to check, but a minute can contain a lot of graffiti at the speeds these trains are going at. 

Famous Hat

Halfway to St. Patrick's Day Hoolie

 

Today I worked on campus and met with the president of the Shamrock Club over our coffee break so that we could discuss my possibly joining the board, then on my afternoon break I walked with Hardingfele. She did break her toe, but she's doing better now. Then after work I drove to the Village Green Tavern to join the Shamrock Club for the Halfway to St. Patrick's Day Hoolie, which was a lot of fun. The table was totally packed, so four of us ladies sat at a booth until Travalon joined us, then they left me to sit with him alone, but people did keep popping by to talk to us. They are all such fun people!

Here are more screen shots of the first train we saw at Von Loppy's. Even though I posted a number of the photos already on a previous post, there are still so many photos that I can't put all of them from one train on this post. Travalon took these with his cell phone, and you can see how clear they are even though the train is going so fast, so the phone is better at train videos than his good camera. Sorry about the black around the edges; he took these vertically, and I don't know how to get rid of those yet. I'm still learning when it comes to screenshots.

I just have to add these two amazing photos someone took in the Horicon rail yard.

Are those not incredible? I've seen some Alien tags before, but nothing this elaborate.

Famous Hat