Each Little World

August Raitt and rain

We were sitting outside across the street from the Overture Center enjoying an espresso before Wednesday night's Bonnie Raitt concert when it became obvious that a storm was headed in. Mark managed to snap this photo of the rapidly darkening sky before we went inside. Alas, when we checked the rain gauge this morning the amount of rain that fell on our garden was negligible. The concert, however, was not.

Bonnie Raitt has never put on anything but a great show every time she's come to town whether at the Stock Pavilion, Headliners or the old Civic Center. Another ticket stub to add to the memory box.

And end of the month rain stats to note for my garden records. Alas, they're worth recording for the lack of moisture they denote. These are the amounts of the rainfalls we had this August:  .12", 2.30", .24" and .28". Three inches wouldn't be a bad total but those piddly amounts never made it through the mulch. And over two inches of rain at one time is worrisome from the other direction. I'm trying to get late summer planting done this weekend but I think a fair amount of time will need to be spent hauling hoses around the garden.

For those of you who always read the small print, note the ticket prices on the Bonnie Raitt poster from the mid-1980s: $8 and $9.00. Those were not cheap seats no matter what it looks like in retrospect.

Another sisterly birthday

Two of my three sisters have birthdays in January; one being my "baby" sister, Pat. I'm the oldest and Pat's the youngest. We were born ten years apart so it's easy for me to always remember her age. I will be celebrating one of those landmark birthdays this Spring which means she's celebrating one today. This is a picture of the two of us at my high school graduation. 

There are a couple of things about this picture worth pointing out. First I am wearing gloves! Hard to believe what another world and time those days were. I am also wearing another dress my mother made. It's pale pink gingham inset with a piece of antique eyelet embroidered with pink thread. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can just make out the fabric insert. Pat's dress is also pink, though a more dusky tone than mine. I believe hers is a hand-me-down from another one of our sisters — Meg or Nan — or maybe both of them wore it!

Pat and I are standing outside of Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, NY, where both my high school and college graduations were held. This concert hall was "one of the first important American commissions on which Eliel Saarinen and his son Eero collaborated," according to my architecture guide to the city of Buffalo.  The guide goes on to say it was "one of the few such buildings erected during the Depression years," having been constructed 1938-1940.

Kleinhans Music Hall quickly gained fame for its excellent acoustics and became the inspiration and guide for many architects and acoustical engineers around the world. My book notes that many post-WWII concert halls showed its influcence, most notably Festival Hall in London, built in 1951. My father and his father both worked on the installation of the elevator that raised and lowed the orchestra pit.

Why Progressives are concerned . . .

A friend sent me this video yesterday. Until I watched it, I'd never heard of musician Radney Foster. Neither a name or a message I will forget again.

Those of us living in Wisconsin have experienced six years of all three branches of government being in the hands of one political party, Republicans in this case. We have seen our proud history of progressivism shredded so fast that I think it has many of us particularly fearful of what the results of the national election might bring.

We know how quickly and completely the world as one knows it can shift. Our state government seems to now function only to restrict our rights, denigrate and defund our great University, and sell off our public lands for profit rather than preserve them for the next generation.

This video is chilling, but what we've seen in our state has made me realize how fragile democracy is — and why thinking about the future this way may not be as paranoid as I once would have thought. 

 

Merry Christmas, babe!

Happy Birthday to my sister Meg who was born on this day. Yes, I do mean December 25.

During the heyday of New Wave and Punk she was in a well-known West Coast band, Los Microwaves. She's the female vocalist on the left in these monster blow-ups of the band (above). She also played bass guitar. 

She's the one in the pix on the far left and in the corner, though someone's head is hiding her face. The band did a reunion tour in 2014. Is she one cool sister or what?!!

Cathedral Square

Our first evening in Milwaukee we began the night on one side of Cathedral Square at the Whiskey Bar, had dinner at Louise's on the other side, and ended the night at the free "Jazz in the Park" concert that filled the Square with music and Milwaukeeans. Saturday morning we roamed Cathedral Square again to enjoy the sights and sounds of the farmers' market located there.

We brought home this dried gourd handpainted by artist/gardener/gourd geek Ramona Palzkill of Dodgeville. The design is a sunflower whose petals cascade down the sides of the gourd. The bottom has a piece of felt on it so it won't scratch your table and the dried seeds — which are still inside the gourd — rattle when you shake it.  

It may be Christmas . . .

but folks in Wisconsin don't take breaks from the serious business of getting our state back to its progressive roots. At noon today, almost 1,000 people defied Gov. Walker's unconstitutional attempt to stifle dissent and converged on the Capitol Rotunda to protest peacefully and sing holiday carols. You can read the details of today's event here in the Progressive Magazine. And you can get a glimpse of the action in the video below.

 

14 Senators

Our new Wisconsin anthem from local musician Ken Lonnquist!

 

January 1, 2011

We have two words for you on this first day of the new year: On Wisconsin!

Enjoy this lovely little polka put together by the UW Foundation. Then party down, whether you're in Madison, Pasadena or anywhere in between. Go Big Red!

  

For hardcore fans, you can play a slightly longer version with other great Wisconsin song choices and a few different images here. And you can't have the Badgers at the Rose Bowl without a rendition (below) of "Varsity," also courtesy of the UW Foundation.

 

Creating rituals

Christmas is all about ritual. That's what makes it so difficult when we leave home and prepare to celebrate the holiday on our own terms. What to keep, what to discard; what will our rituals be — from decor to dining to religious services. Often we don't even know we are creating new personal riturals until a few years down the road when we can look back and begin to discern a pattern.

    

 

When I was fresh out of college, my roommate and I put up a tree and decided to have a party. For that event, I bought a whimsical carved wooden gnome nutcracker which we set out with a big bowl of nuts in the shell. My mom had a specific red bowl — brought out for the holidays — that always held unshelled nuts, which is obviously where that idea came from. It's a rare year that I don't have that nutcracker out, sitting on top of a mound of nuts. That little guy says Christmas to me and helps me carry on a bit of family tradition. 

    

 

While my roommate and I were shopping for that same party lo those many years ago, I also bought two hot new albums that had just come out: Judy Collins' "Whales and Nightingales" and George Harrison's triple album, "All Things Must Pass." Because I got them at Christmas and played them incessantly, they became "Christmas music" for me. I always bring them out and play them now — and rarely listen to them any other time during the year. I have a feeling I'm not the only one who has a favorite Christmas album that has nothing to do with Christmas — and everything to do with memories!

    

Lifelong inspiration: Mary Allin Travers

It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's the song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land.

1936 — 2009