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

Mando-Uke and Marimbula at the Jam

 

Here's a photo I forgot to post, of a Christmas ornament we got at Siesta Beach back in December.

Today I worked from home and had to wear a mask during my walks, since the air quality was still bad due to the Canadian wildfires. However, I felt a lot better and decided to go to Moldy Jam tonight. Travalon went to see Graham Nash, so he was able to drop me off and pick me up. Right after he dropped me off, the feisty mandolin player said, "I have to show you something!" and she handed me a white ukulele, so I tried to play a C chord and it sounded awful. She laughed and said, "I tuned it like a mandolin. It's my travel mandolin for taking on the airplane." That was not the only interesting instrument there tonight; a really good fiddler brought a thing like a giant thumb piano and used it to play bass. Wish I'd gotten a photo of that! He probably would have let me take a photo. Halfway through the session, the feisty mandolin player said I should use the uke-mando, so I did, and I loved it! It was a joy to play, although I discovered that I couldn't do tremolo since it only had single strings. Here is a photo.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the other instrument, which he called a "marimbula." It looked like a giant, wooden kalimba. I did find an image online that looks a lot like the one this guy had.

It was about three feet tall, and I loved the bass sound. Apparently these are only $270, which seems like a really good price for such a thing. So it was a really fun jam session tonight with all these crazy instruments.

When we got home, it had cooled off a lot, and I went for a walk because the air quality was so much better. I thought the moon looked so beautiful reflected on the lake. This photo doesn't quite do it justice.

I have to get to the most important part of this post - the DuoLingo bragging!

That's right, I was 10,000% correct! And check this out:

Know why I'm acing Portuguese with 97% accuracy? Because it's 3% different than Spanish.

Famous Hat

Healthy Groceries and a Light-Up Ukulele

 

Today was a busy day for Travalon and me. After Mass I had our monthly Care for Creation meeting, where we talked about how we would get people to contribute to the fund for putting solar panels on St. Peter's. The church we go to, St. Dennis, already has solar panels. Meanwhile, Travalon recycled the plastic and went antiquing. I forgot to take a picture of the cute little coal car he got, plus he got a couple of books, and all that for ten dollars.

We were running a little late to my drum lesson, and then my water bottle leaked in my "Train Nerd" bag, so Niko was soaked. Poor guy! I pulled him and my phone out of the bag, but then I forgot the phone in Travalon's car. Worse, the water had gotten onto my jeans (it was kind of cool out today), so it looked like I had peed my pants. Everyone was all ready to go with their drums when I got there, but people are so nice - they helped me out with getting a belt, a drum, and drumsticks. I asked my buddy in the class if I could text Travalon from her phone, and he texted back that my phone was safely in his car, so then I could focus on drumming.

Afterwards we went to the co-op, and I insisted on buying a bunch of healthy stuff that's on the grocery list for the Mediterranean Diet. Back home we took a walk on the bike path along Highway M (and the vermilion and purple and white flowers are blooming by Athens Grill), then we had rotisserie chicken, whole wheat pita, and kale with feta cheese for dinner, and afterwards we both did feel good. Is it psychological? I have to change my evil ways, and Travalon says he should too.

We had band practice in a new place tonight. A banjo player has recently joined our group (she and our leader both play in the same ukulele group), and we had practice at her very lovely condo, with her musician husband and grumpy dog listening to us. (The dog didn't like when I had to powder my nose, and he wasn't going to let me come out of the bathroom if they hadn't intervened. He is a very small dog, but I still wasn't sure if I should just walk past him when he was barking angrily at me.) We were told not to pet the dog, so I didn't even try. The banjo player didn't know that we play each tune in a set until the leader puts her foot up, so she had moved onto a second Irish fiddle tune while we were still playing the first one. She said, "Something's wrong! I'm not playing the right chords!" and I said, "They're not actually in the same key - 'Coleraine' is in A minor, while 'Cliffs of Moher' is in A Dorian," and they all sort of rolled their eyes and were like, "OKAY, Famous, enough with the 'Dorian mode' stuff." When Travalon came back to pick me up, we went down into the basement and saw all their instruments, her husband's guitars and bass and her ukuleles. She has one that lights up! I thought I was recording longer than this, but you get the idea.

As promised, here is the video of the two trains we saw yesterday in Portage. Watch for the windshield wipers on the freight train engine just as it starts to leave. Just be warned that this video is almost ten minutes long, but it's worth it to see all the different types of cars and the awesome graffiti.

And here's the video I made of the train we saw at the crossing on Thursday night. This one is almost six minutes long, but again it has lots of cool types of cars and awesome graffiti.

The beautiful thing about today being so busy is that it was only at the very end of the day that I remembered it was Dear Leader's birthday, and I hadn't spared him a thought all day. It's surprising that there weren't any protests planned in town, but maybe everyone felt like I did, that the best way to commemorate the day was to forget that he existed.

Famous Hat

Irish Tunes and Ice Cream at the Elks Club

 

Today I worked on campus, and one of my coworkers and I were puzzling over a poster advertising a class about palaces put on by the history department. The poster featured a European castle, an Asian palace, and... the Taj Mahal. But that's a tomb! So my coworker emailed the instructor to ask how a tomb was a palace, was it one for the soul of the dead lady? Then I bought Hardingfele Indian food at the cafe in her building, since she had bought it for me last week. We also split a blood orange she had in her pocket, and we each had a kind of stale Russian gingerbread cookie also provided by her. I told her about my instruments, and she said, "Wow, and I thought I had a lot!" I have divided them into categories:

1. Non-negotiable: family heirlooms that are keeping me sane - the violin and the mandolin.

2. Very useful: the ukulele and the electric mandolin.

3. Gifts from Travalon: the balalaika, the tamburitza, the Chinese moon guitar, and the sitar.

4. I spent too much money and nobody else would want them: the rebec and the German folk instrument.

5. Who cares: the garbage violin, the bowed psaltry, Bubba Sue the mountain dulcimer, and the woodrow. I should probably donate these. Hardingfele suggested donating the garbage violin to a school. 

I also have a little ukulele from an antiques shop that I haven't tuned up, but it takes up so little space. And of course there is the tiny ukulele, but I'd never get rid of that. It's so adorable.

My boss had asked a colleague I know well to help me during this time of grieving/way too many expense reports because there was just a big conference, so she came down and we divided to conquer. I figure I'll be the one to back her up if something happens with her sick mom, so this works out well.

Meanwhile, Travalon went back to the wood duck pond today.

I like this next picture because you can see so much blue on the one wood duck's wing:

Travalon also went back to the island in Cherokee Marsh, and the pelicans were there again.

At the end of the day, the instructor from the Palaces course emailed my coworker and me back to say we were the first to have noticed she put a tomb on a palace poster, and she wasn't going to address tombs per se, but if we wanted to take the class, we could do that for our final project. Hmm... I am curious about the class, since it's asynchronous and online, so it wouldn't get in the way (other than taking up time) of my other activities, but I'm too young to be an auditor and too old to be a regular student.

Right after work I went to the Elks Club for the monthly Advanced Irish Session that I am not allowed to play in, unsure if anyone else would be there, but four other Shamrock Club people were already there, including the couple we see all over the place. (This reminds me - I still need to post the videos Travalon made of the farewell party for the red panda. This couple were there too.) Soon Famie joined us, and then Travalon came from work. We all had dinner, and most of us had a little ice cream, as we listened to the fiddle tunes. I knew a lot of them but wasn't sure about their names. The fiddler who used to play bass in our band played in the session, and so did the red-headed flute player. After everyone but Famie, Travalon, and I had left, she came over to chat for a little bit. These are all such pleasant people, and I'm embarrassed that I talked too much, a problem I used to suffer from greatly, but I thought I had mostly gotten it under control. Hopefully people cut me slack for my mourning period.

Yesterday Travalon made a video of a train. I love the soundtrack! (He was listening to "40's Junction" on the internet radio.) The ending is a little weird, but if I edit it and put it on YouTube, they might slap a copyright injunction on those tunes, so enjoy the raw footage.

I have other train videos he made that, like the red panda videos, need to be edited and put on YouTube. I just haven't had any time lately.

Famous Hat

Pagode Player Yet

 

Check it out - Niko can wear the backpack he fits into! So he can carry his shelter around with him!

Also, I swear neither of us set her up like this, but this morning Valerie the Vulture was gazing longingly out the window, like she'd rather be soaring high above our roof.

This morning after Mass there was a Care for Creation meeting, and three of us were from Moldy Jam. Then Travalon and I took a walk in the woods, and I saw lots of lovely woodland flowers, like very light violets.

And very dark violets, as well as yellow violets.

And my favorite woodland flower, the Jack in the Pulpit.

Before my drum class, only two people were playing pagode samba, including the one woman in the group. She asked if I liked pagode and I said yes, and she said she is trying to form an all-woman pagode group. Wow!! The whole reason I joined the drumming collective was because I actually wanted to play pagode, so it looks like my dream may come true! Of course, with what time? I'm already doing a lot of Irish fiddling and old time fiddling and two other kinds of Brazilian music, the choro and the drumming. But I will make it work somehow! If you are wondering how to pronounce "pagode," it's Pah-GOH-jee. Also, one of the guys in the current pagode band has a catamaran, so it's not entirely impossible that I might someday get a ride on it, if I keep hanging around.

After my very hard drum lesson, my one buddy asked me where I was going next with the fiddle, so I told her about the Slow Irish Session, and she wanted to check it out. Then Travalon and I went on a walk and found a beautiful lakeside park.

We saw some beautiful flowers and trees on this walk, like these purple and white violets.

And a couple of Japanese red maples, so beautiful with the late afternoon light shining through their leaves.

Some very red tulips.

And some very fragrant lilacs.

There were a lot of people at the Slow Irish session today, including Famie (but not the red-headed flute player), my ex-bandmate who always comes, a couple of current bandmates, and my drumming buddy just listened but said she might come back with her guitar. We played some tunes nobody knew, so I had to look at the music, since I can't learn by ear if nobody knows the tune. We also played some we know well. One guy who came for the first time said he would just listen, but they have all sorts of instruments at the music club, so he ended up borrowing a mandolin. Apparently people donate instruments to the club, so I may unload some of my many instruments. Not my violin or mandolin, of course - they're family heirlooms, and I use them constantly - but maybe the mountain dulcimer a coworker made me buy from her decades ago, or the woodrow that the Former Professor Formerly Known as Lute Player gave me recently that I haven't had time to learn to play, or the bowed psaltry my former neighbor gave me. And definitely the "garbage" violin, if they would even take it. I would keep the tamburitza, the balalaika, and the sitar because they were all gifts from Travalon, and I do plan to learn to play them. And of course I'd keep the ukulele, which I play monthly, plus it's a souvenir of Hawaii. I'm not sure the music club would even want my rebec, and maybe someday I'll get to play early music again. Then there's the odd guitar-like instrument I bought at a silent auction - should I keep that or give it to the club? Oh, and my electric mandolin isn't going anywhere either, because it's come in handy at the most random times. As you can see, I have a lot of thinking to do.

Keep Pa Hat in your prayers. He may die tonight. He was going to have his big 80th birthday later this month, but it looks like that won't happen.

Famous Hat

Apologies to Noelle My Car

 

Today Travalon went back to Cherokee Marsh and took more photos of the common mergansers and the tundra swans and the flicker.

I think this puffy little bird is a chickadee.

Judging by some of his other photos, which weren't clear enough to post, he also saw red-headed ducks, canvasbacks, scaups, goldeneyes, and ring-necked ducks. I have posted his photos of all these types of ducks on this blog previously, or you can just google them if you wonder what they look like.

Meanwhile, I worked on campus, and in my building not one, not two, but three people said they liked my new plaid tam, two of our grad students and someone I didn't know in the elevator. One guy said it was very stylish. When I walked with Hardingfele at lunch, she said it is very 70's, but I think it's an older style than that. She wants us to play for some singalong at her department, on a Tuesday when I'm not usually on campus. I have to think about this one. Maybe I'll take the afternoon off and drive in - she said she could get me a parking pass. I asked if we had music, and she said no, but everything's in G, so she's right in that I don't need music for that. She wants me to play the mandolin, and she and her coworker will play violin, and a woman we don't know will play the guitar.

Speaking of playing, this evening I brought the violin to the Moldy Jam jam. I left home earlier than usual but had to park far away, and I got to the music club in time but they had already started to play. My A string is starting to unravel, but it is a gut string I've had on there since I did early music, and that was ages ago. It may be time to put new, steel strings on the violin. Heaven knows the mandolin has needed new strings for ages; Travalon bought a set for me some time ago, and now I can't find them, and Hardingfele always mocks me for it. She changes her strings every year - is that really necessary? The string didn't break during the jam session, but I didn't know the first few songs and wondered why I had even come. Then people started to call out tunes I did know, so it was more fun, and the ones I didn't know seemed easier to pick up. I called out two tunes I've known since childhood, "Rakes of Mallow" and "Blackberry Blossom," and they were happy because those are tunes they know but don't do all the time. (I was trying to do old timey tunes instead of Irish ones, since I always do Irish ones, but "Rakes of Mallow" is Irish - oops!) People were really friendly to me tonight, so I was kind of late leaving the club, and then I had the long walk to the car, plus it kept sounding like a train was coming but it never came on the track alongside the street where I parked. On the drive home I hit a median really hard (no idea why), and the plastic wheel well came off of the front driver's side wheel, so I had to stop and pick it up. I apologized to Noelle my car, but she drove fine without it. She is fifteen years old now, so we have to think how much we really want to spend on repairs for her. If she drives fine without this part, and you can't really tell there's a problem by looking at her, does it really matter? Maybe it was the full moon that caused all this weirdness tonight - it was so beautiful, with a rainbow around it, but they say it makes people crazy. There's supposed to be a lunar eclipse early this morning, around five, but I don't plan to be up to see that.

Famous Hat

Coventry the Dragon and the Republic of Leip

 

If you needed further proof that Travalon is a prince among men, today he went to Milwaukee to get a little Christmas dragon that we had seen on Saturday but hadn't gotten at the time. Then we thought maybe this coming Saturday we could go early to Milwaukee and get it at that time, but now Mamastep is able to go with us to the wild game dinner, so that wouldn't work. Travalon said he'd get to the Museum between 10-11, which was right when I was in a meeting, so I had my phone with me. Partway through the meeting I had to powder my nose, and his timing was so good that he texted right then, when they didn't see me on my phone. He sent me a photo of the Christmas dragon.

As you can see, it's holding what I assume is supposed to be a present, but there's no bow. A quick internet search showed there was supposed to be a bow, but some kid probably ripped it off. So it looks like he's playing the accordion instead of handing you a present, and that got me to thinking that it would make a good "Get Kraken with Jerry" episode to have him play the accordion. I sent Famie a text asking if she could send me a short audio clip of her playing the accordion - I'll see what she says. If she says no, maybe I can get the accordion player from our band to do it. Anyway, since one of my favorite Christmas carols is the Coventry carol, I'm calling this little guy Coventry. Here's another view of him:

Today I worked on campus, and Seabird sent me a message: "Come upstairs. We have treats." Usually on Wednesdays most of the FART 5 people are in the big office they all share, and when I come in, they all say, "Famous!" and we all chat. This time they all ignored me - even Seabird, who was busy talking work with another colleague. So I went to talk to another colleague, but then she said, "I have a meeting at 11:30." She didn't say, "Aren't you supposed to be in it too?" and the reminder on my calendar never went off, and I'd thought my meeting was at one, so imagine my surprise when I got back to my desk and saw the meeting was in progress. Why didn't my colleague say anything?? What happened to my reminder?? Last time it was at one, so that's where I got that idea. Later yet another colleague came down to my office because I have the power of FAX, and he needed to fax something, so we chatted awhile. Then a grad student chatted with me, and then I was showing a coworker the woodrow when my sorta-boss came by. I was wearing the outfit I'd worn to the Burns dinner, and with a little string instrument, I must have been quite a sight. Here's the woodrow:

Travalon sent me yet another flag that one of the kids drew. This is apparently for the Republic of Leip:

Is that Coventry on the flag? It's a winged dragon. But it doesn't have a star on its head.

Famous Hat