Chicago, Brazilian Drums, and Irish Tunes

 

Yesterday I wasted too much time in the morning and then had to rush to Cecil Markovitch's house to meet him, the Single B-Boy, and the Dairyman's Daughter for our whirlwind trip to Chicago. We drove down and got to the Italian restaurant where we had dinner in almost exactly three hours. Dinner was wonderful (I had my favorite black squid-ink pasta with seafood), but the Single B-Boy and I had to run back across the busy street to Cecil's car, me so I could put my leftovers in Cecil's cooler, and the B-Boy to take his contacts out. We must be living right, because the traffic seemed to pause for us both ways. The B-Boy did point out that it would be a lot more efficient for Cecil to cross the scary road once, to get his car and drive it to the other side of the street, than for two people to cross the road twice, but Cecil wasn't buying it. Then we all walked to the concert venue to see the Tallis Scholars sing works by Palestrina and Lassus. They were amazing! On the drive to Chicago, Cecil had asked the name of the plantation where some of my ancestors had lived, and all I could remember was that it was a very English-sounding name starting with H. Halfway back to Madison, I remembered: Hollingsworth! So the B-Boy looked up the Hollingsworth Plantation in Virginia, and it was in Cecil County, so they were all joking that Cecil and I could be cousins. 

Meanwhile, Travalon went to a powwow in town, and he got a stuffed eagle. 

Then he went to a bar in Lyndon Station.

He went to Mirror Lake and to the dam in Sauk, where he saw lots of pelicans. I will post photos tomorrow. Then he went to a movie about the band Talking Heads, and one of the members was there for a Q&A afterwards. So he had a great day too.

Today after Mass we went for a walk on Governor's Island, then Travalon dropped me off at the place where my first Brazilian drumming class was held. Because I have no experience, they put me on one of the big drums where you just hit the downbeat, and it was so much fun! The woman to the left of me was a dancer, so she had good rhythm, but the guy to the right of me... not so much. It was quite a workout, but after that I went to the Slow Irish Session, and my bandmates all showed up except for Hardingfele. It went really well, and the leaders declared it "the best session ever!" We had all sorts of crazy instruments besides the usual fiddles, mandolins, guitars, whistles, and accordions, like someone brought a large harp, and someone else had an autoharp, and one guy was playing the melodica, which is a keyboard that you blow into. 

When we got home, we went out onto the dock, and Travalon took some photos. Here is the goose that got its egg stolen by the mink.

What is Tux Duck laughing about?

A beautiful sunset.

And Travalon's King Arthur bear arrived!

Also, his little creatures are happy because Wolverhampton won!

I believe this means they are now safe from relegation. However, the Bucks are losing, so this is probably it for their playoff run.

Famous Hat