This morning Travalon and I went downtown for Small Business Saturday. We got on the free Holiday Trolley right away to get the bag with coupons in it, but the coupons weren't for places we were planning to visit today. However, they were to places we will go to soon. We took the trolley to the campus end of State Street and went to Paul's Books, where Travalon bought a book about railroads and I bought the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and a book about Tibetan Buddhism by the teacher of the guy who wrote the other book about Tibetan Buddhism that I recently read. Then we went to the University Bookstore because we had gotten a coupon on the trolley, and Travalon got a journal and I got a squishy Bucky Badger. We went to Sunshine Daydream, and Travalon got a Woodstock T-shirt and I got a tapestry. Then we went to B-Side Records, and he got the new records by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. (Didn't know they were still putting out records, did you?) We caught the other trolley and went around the Square, and then Travalon got a map of local Wisconsin bookshops at Anthology.
We had to head home, because I had a gig at a retirement community in Verona. Travalon kindly drove me there, and he checked out a new bookstore in town, but it was too feminist for his taste. He went to the Hop Haus and had a beer while we led a Thanksgiving singalong. When he came back, we weren't quite done because they had requested an encore. Eventually we will get paid for this gig; they are mailing the check to one bandmate, and then she will pay the rest of us. The residents and their visiting family members seemed appreciative, and I have to say that they sang with great gusto. I was afraid they were just going to sit and listen to us sing.
On the way back, we listened to the Badger game in the car a bit, and the announcers said you had to love the quarterback Tanner Mordecai, so we were joking that you had to love him and hug him and squeeze him and name him George, after that Bugs Bunny cartoon mocking Of Mice and Men. When we got home, Travalon turned on the game, and to our surprise the Badgers killed the Golden Gophers, so the Paul Bunyan Axe is back in Madison. Is this the same team we watched getting slaughtered by Northwestern?? Might I point out that they were on the road today, which makes it that much more surprising when they couldn't beat Northwestern - NORTHWESTERN!! - at home.
In the evening I went to an early music concert that was just wonderful. I sat with a bandmate and the former bandmate formerly known as Banjo (then Lute) Player, and her husband. I loved the two Monteverdi madrigals sung by a soprano and a mezzo-soprano. The soprano also sang a fun piece by Barbara Strozzi about how all love songs suck, and the mezzo sang a haunting aria by Telemann, accompanied by recorders. There was a flute concerto by Telemann too, and Corelli done on a viola da gamba, and I'm pretty sure it was the same guy I saw at the free noon concert a couple of weeks ago doing the same Bach harpsichord pieces, and also a very interesting piece for just two violas da gamba. I think there were also a couple of pieces in there by composers I'd never heard of, which is typical for this group. They really find the obscure composers... and most of the time I think there's a reason they're obscure. Some music still sounds amazing hundreds of years later... and some might as well be forgotten.
Here are some photos to tide you over, because I forgot to take photos of the stuff I've bought in the last two days. First, Ma and Pa Hat really decorated for the season. I think most of these fruits and vegetables are plastic, but the pumpkin outside of the cornucopia looks like it is possibly real.
And here are a couple photos Travalon took from our short walk by Mill Creek in Delafield yesterday.
Photos of the stuff we got coming soon, I promise!
Famous Hat
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