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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First Women's Pagode Rehearsal

 

Today I worked from home. Travalon left mid-morning to hang out with his high school buddy, so in the evening I made dinner: tempeh, rice, and snow peas. I've been reading about how we should all eat more fermented food, and tempeh is fermented. Then again. so are coffee and chocolate, and I have no problem with consuming those! It's been a while since I've cooked, so I enjoyed it. I am really loving this Mediterranean diet so far, even if "Mediterranean" seems like a misnomer if an Asian food like tempeh is allowed on it.

In the evening I met with a bunch of other women at the Quadra for our first women's pagode rehearsal. Pagode is the softer version of samba than what we do in my drumming classes, and it's more tuneful, so I brought my mandolin. Mandy has sure had some adventures! The others all took up different percussion instruments while I strummed the rhythm... and then we all had to switch instruments, so I put the mandolin away and tried some of the drums. I was probably the oldest one there, and I felt a bit remedial since the leader kept coming over and showing me how to do the rhythms. (There's a different rhythm for each percussion instrument.) Afterwards people were hanging around and chatting, but I wasn't part of any of the conversations, so I was just going to go home. Then a woman I know from drumming school started chatting with me in the parking lot, and when I got home, my neighbor and her boyfriend started chatting with me in the parking lot. So it got late, and so I'll limit what I post here.

Travalon went to Horicon Marsh with his buddy, and he took lots of photos. I'll share more soon. Some of these photos just made me laugh, like the two barn swallows on the boardwalk and the egret peeking out of the grass.

This is a male blue-winged teal.

And I believe these are gadwalls.

Here is the cormorant rookery again.

Not sure what this is - another gadwall?

And some yellow-headed blackbirds.

Here is a black-necked stilt.

And here is one flying.

Travalon said they saw three of the four Big White Birds. Here is a swan.

Another stilt flying.

Egrets are another Big White Bird.

This is a black-winged tern.

Some adolescent geese.

And this is an adolescent yellow-headed blackbird.

This is a sandhill crane. They never saw the third Big White Bird, the whooping crane.

But here is the fourth Big White Bird, the pelican.

After Travalon dropped his buddy off, he went to the Portage railyard again. Here are some photos of graffiti on train cars.

Sorry, no graffiti in this photo.

But here is some fantastic graffiti.

Tonight as I was playing pagode, I wished I could take all the beauty humans have created in pagode music and train art and whatever, and create the ultimate work of art. Not sure what that would be, but apparently as my middle-aged brain was being confused by syncopation, it was dreaming up something that looked urban and sounded Brazilian. And that actually would be pretty cool. My big contribution to the group today was when we were voting on a name, and there was a tie, so I suggested combining them. To my surprise, everyone liked that idea. So since combining things was a winning theme for me today, why not combine music and visual art?

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