Amazing Drum Lesson, Odyssey Movie, and Small Moldy Jam Session

 

Yesterday was so, so hot. The church where Travalon and I go to Mass was having a festival, but we couldn't bring ourselves to check it out for even a few minutes after Mass; instead, we went home and sat in air conditioning. I felt like a slug and was kind of down, but on the way to my drum lesson we stopped by the mini rail yard off Fair Oaks, and we saw some graffiti.

The lesson was going to be taught by a woman from Brazil who runs an all-woman samba group. We students got there, but the "real" drummers had a lesson before us, and it was running late, so we had time to chat. One of my fellow students knows a lot about graffiti and even told me where to get supplies. I'm not planning to paint any train cars anytime soon, except maybe model train cars. Then we had the lesson, and the woman teaching it barely said a word, maybe because she doesn't speak much English. We started an infectious groove, and then she would come over and show us how she wanted us to change it up. We drummed for a solid hour, and at first I thought, "I can't do this!" but then the endorphins must have kicked in, and I was flying high. My FitBit said I did "sport" for almost an hour. Oh yeah, both before and after the lesson, I said, "Obrigada" to her, which is Portuguese for "thanks," and both times she gave me a big hug.

After getting cleaned up, I met Famie and the red-headed flute player at a Thai restaurant for dinner. We almost had to leave before getting our food, but they brought it out with enough time for us to eat for ten minutes, since the movie had so many previews. (I brought half my curry squash with tofu home, and even though it sat in the hot car for three hours, I had it for lunch today and feel fine.) Then we went to see The Odyssey. It is a very long movie with a lot of violence, but the story is much deeper than what I remembered from reading it in high school. At that time I thought Odysseus was very clever and resourceful, but now I realize he was a jerk who got himself into situations and then destroyed other people's peace to get himself out of them. For example, I felt VERY sorry for the cyclops, who was just minding his own business, making cheese. At the end of the movie, Odysseus surveys the carnage and realizes how many lives he has destroyed by being so stupid, so at least he had an epiphany. Don't even get me started on Agamemnon, who sacrificed his daughter to the gods for success in battle and then was shocked that his wife killed him when he got home. And I'm not sure why the haters were complaining about a black woman playing Helen of Troy, since she is gorgeous, or a trans man playing a youthful guard who was sacrificed by Odysseus. Most of the actors seemed perfect for their parts. I liked how Agamemnon looked kind of like Darth Vader, but then when he talked, he sounded like a loser, because he was a loser. Who sacrifices his own daughter? They didn't show this in the movie, but he also brought another woman home with him, so can you really blame his wife for killing him?

Today was still very hot, so I only went for a walk in the morning and then stayed inside until going to a small Moldy Jam group at the house of the guy who had his ukulele in the pouch of his guitar case that one time. It was going to be a small group, and there was a woman who was coming, then she wasn't, then she was. There are two women who have similar names, and I thought this was the woman who is a lot, if you know what I mean, but it was a different woman who is much pleasanter. The host had a washtub bass that he had lent to someone two years ago and then couldn't remember who he lent it to, and then two days ago it appeared on his front lawn. He played it on a song, then the really good mandolinist who had the terrible saw accident with his fingers a while back (but is recovered now) played it, and then the other woman played it. Only the guy playing guitar and I didn't try it. I brought both Mandy and the violin but only played fiddle, but it's okay because Mandy will gets lots of love at Choro tomorrow night. The host played guitar, ukulele, and concertina accordion, and the other woman brought a guitar and a fiddle but mostly played different sizes of recorders. Then she told a story and I realized she was Katzooks's sister! I haven't seen Katzooks in ages, and it's been decades since I had seen her sister, until I'd seen her recently at small Moldy Jam groups. Isn't that crazy? What a small world it is!

Tonight Travalon watched videos of British steam locomotives (one was called Capricorn, and another looked like a double-decker locomotive), but yesterday while I was hanging out with the ladies, he went to Mazomanie and took more photos of train art.

I think he has some more photos on his good camera so that's something to look forward to tomorrow.

Famous Hat

Mallards Game and Pagode Practice

 

Yesterday I had a really strange day. I was working from home when suddenly the internet stopped working, so I texted Travalon, and he confirmed that there was an outage. I couldn't just go to my own office to work, so I messaged my boss, who said I could go to the coworking space I had worked in the day before. I thought about it, but the day was so nice and I was feeling so sniffly that I just took half a day of personal time. This was probably due to the road construction I complained about on my last post. At first they said the internet would come back at 1:30, but then it was 5:30, and then it was 10:30. When Travalon came home from work, we went to the Culver Springs Natural Area. Here are some photos.

We hadn't been to a Mallards game yet this year, and the happy hour on the Terrace was canceled due to the police killing here in town, so while everyone else was at the vigil for the victim, we watched baseball. I had an infused drink, forgetting that they slow down time and baseball is already so slow that time seems suspended, so it was a very meditative game for me, although the Mallards did keep hitting three-run homers. In the end they won something like 14-2. Here are photos.

This guy was batting 1000 because he had one at-bat and hit a three-run homer. 

They have this stuff over the bleachers now, I guess to block out sun? And at night they light it up.

Here is a video of that.

Oops, this is out of order, but before that we went to a place in De Forest where train cars are parked, and we saw some graffiti.

And then, still before the game, we went to my future parking lot and saw more graffiti.

And here are a couple of Wisconsin and Southern engines.

And here are some screenshots I got off a couple of videos of local trains posted on social media. I recognize a lot of this graffiti, but now I'm wondering... is 4AL "for a laugh" or "for all locations"? Both are represented on the same train!

Today I was supposed to work on campus and give blood, but I felt sniffly again and canceled the blood donation, since they won't let you give when you're under the weather, and that was the only reason I was going to go to campus. Oh, and also to make sure my plants were okay, and to check for a book someone was waiting for. In the evening I went to the pagode jam again, and this time there were nine of us, which seemed like a better number than the large group last time. I am the weak link, but I still had fun, especially playing the drums with the deep bass notes. I brought the mandolin but never cracked her out. A lot of the group are in the real Handphibians, and they were supposed to play tomorrow at the Atwood Fest, but the whole festival has been canceled because of the shooting. Bummer, I was hoping to check it out tomorrow. I don't understand the facts around the shooting enough yet to have an opinion; it's always bad when cops execute people of color when you feel like they could totally de-escalate if it were a white person, but I've also heard the person was armed and had wounded one of the cops. But then I've also heard the guy was on the ground and they shot him point-blank in the back of the head, so that doesn't sound like self-defense on the part of the cops but rather vengeance. All I know is the system has got to change because entirely too many people of color end up dead at the hands of cops. I read something recently that said liberals believe the law should treat everyone equally, so they try to appeal to fairness with conservatives, but it's a lost cause because conservatives believe the law should protect high-status groups and bind low-status ones, never bind high-status groups or protect low-status ones. Which I guess if you want to be that horrible, that's your right, but then quit saying how Christian you are. Jesus totally taught that everyone is equal in the eyes of God, so they should be equal in the eyes of the law too.

While I was at pagode, Travalon went out on the dock and took sunset photos. Here's my favorite.

When I came home, the moon was big and bright, so I brought my telescope out to look at it. I would get it in view, but then when I tried to focus, I'd lose it again. Travalon came out and took a photo.

Honestly, this is probably as good as it would have been looking through the telescope. 

Famous Hat

Research Study and Brazilian Drumming at the Fete de Marquette

 

Yesterday I took the day off of work for an all-day research study on aging. I had to do memory tests (like the one Dear Leader keeps saying that he's acing), motor tests, and an MRI that lasted a whole hour. They let me listen to Earth, Wind and Fire for most of it (there were a couple of scans were I had to let my mind wander), and I could hear the annoying sounds of the MRI through my headphones, but at one point they were in sync with the beat of "Getaway," so that was kind of cool. I also got free lunch from Jimmy John's and a couple of protein snack bars, and eventually I will receive a generous check in the mail.

Meanwhile, Travalon went to Duplainville and Waukesha to see trains. He made several videos, and here are some screenshots of graffiti from them.

Whew! That was just ONE train! I may wait to post screenshots from the other four videos until another day when I have nothing else to blog about.

Today was the big day: I was marching with the Brazilian drumming group to the Fete de Marquette! It was only students, not the "big kids" who know what they're doing. We gathered at the Quadra to bring drums to Hotel Indigo, where we gathered. Here is a picture of only the women drummers with the dancers, who are all women.

And another angle.

I felt like a little kid as we marched, trying to keep up with the others. I started in the middle of the pack, but soon everyone passed me, and I was struggling to keep up at the very end of the line. I did laugh at the videos Travalon took, because I even looked like a little kid, much slower and shorter than the others and in that big sun hat. My drum was also much smaller, and it kept swinging around and bashing me, so I now have quite a bruise on my left knee. But other people sort of naturally joined our parade, so I had a whole bunch of random people marching after me. We reached the Fete de Marquette and gathered on a rise to perform for a few minutes, then we sped right back to Hotel Indigo. My FitBit said I took a run at that time.

Other people took the drums back to the Quadra, so Travalon and I walked back to the Fete and hunted down some extremely healthy food: key lime cheesecake ice cream, Portuguese chicken curry (that's probably kind of healthy - I mean, it did have vegetables), deep fried cheese curds, and mint lavender lemonade. This year the Madison Irish Fest was a tent at the back of the Fete, so we wandered that way after eating with some congenial strangers, and we sat in one of the precious spots of shade while listening to Irish music. Famie my Irish teacher had just returned from Ireland, and she stopped by to say hi to us. The Shamrock Club asked both of us to volunteer at the exact time I was performing, and neither of us could do it. Meanwhile, my drumming buddy was at the Great Dane with her husband, about to watch the Norway vs. England World Cup game. We debated about joining them or staying at the Fete de Marquette, but we decided to go to Bagpipes in the Glen.

Durward's Glen is out near Baraboo, so it took us some time to get there, but I really enjoyed sitting in an air-conditioned car after marching around at top speed in the heat. I would give this event a ten out of ten for venue, because unlike the Fete there was tons of shade, and it was so green and beautiful. I'd give it a three out of ten for bathrooms, because there were four for all of us, one was out of order, and then the others went out of order too, but fortunately there were random ones scattered throughout the main building. I would also give it a three out of ten for being as advertised, because there was about five minutes of pipes and drums, and otherwise it was groups playing Irish tunes, which I didn't mind that much, but we had come to hear bagpipes. We had fried chicken and desserts from a bake sale, so an altogether non-healthy eating day. Oh, and more lemonade. When we bought the baked goods, they were two for one at the end of the night, and then they gave us even more for free. Then we took the ferry on the way home, and Lake Wisconsin was so beautiful in the twilight (or, as the Scottish say, the gloaming). We debated going to hear a zydeco band at the Fete, when it would no longer be six billion degrees there, but we were tired and just came home.

I forgot to post this photo of a plant coming out of a pipe that I saw while doing a rosary walk yesterday evening while waiting for Travalon to come pick me up.

I got done kind of early because the study coordinator forgot I was coming in, so I could only do two-thirds of the MRI. Which is fine, an hour is long enough in there. I couldn't have done it for another half hour. I'll go back on Monday and do the other half hour.

I also saw this by our dock yesterday.

It looks like shamrocks, but it's actually wood sorrel, which is a type of oxalis. It tastes like lemon because of the oxalic acid in it. Actual shamrocks are those clovers with the really small yellow flowers - "seamrog" (pronounced shamrock) is Irish for "small clover," or "seamar." We have it here, it's invasive, and it's everywhere, but it's a very nutritious plant for wildlife so whatever. The Irish used to eat it before they had potatoes. We could still eat shamrocks and wood sorrel - probably healther than what I ate today!

Famous Hat