Living while reading the news

By which I mean here I am living relatively comfortably, but each new headline is another horror. Trump just says this shit and people believe him. Yesterday I kept seeing pictures of the east wing of the Whitehouse being torn down for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago style ball room. Where were the preservationists? I heard a couple interviewed on NPR talking about the need for standards & plans to preserve historic structures like the Whitehouse, but the wing is already torn down. Not to mention the Rose Garden paved over. And that’s just buildings, what happening to people in Chicago is far worse.

In my own comfortable life, we’re trying to get caught up to about 10 or 11 days ago, two weekends ago, when I was trying to feel more optimistic. I’ve had a bunch of extra time with Jasper (who’s sleeping now on Wednesday when I was wriitng this; it’s Thursday now) because Emma’s older brother had a destination wedding in France. I had him two days week before last, Thursday as well as my normal Wednesday, so Emma’s parents could pack, and then three days last week while they were all at the wedding, a full day Monday and then I picked him up at nursery school on Tuesday & Thursday. And then Friday was another Chicago trip.

So let’s see – while I was taking care of Jasper so Steve & Linda could pack, Jeff was having his 76th birthday. He came to Chicago to visit John & Megan, and they went to the Packers game Sunday.

 

On Monday, Jasper and I biked to the library and Westmorland Park.

That afternoon there was a memorial for Dave Benton, that was a fittingly lovely event for a lovely person. A local photographer, Keith Wessel, took a lot of pictures. I gave a little speech.

Intro self. Dave Benton was a mensch. That’s a really good guy and upstanding member of the community in Jewish. I used to be more part of Dave’s circle of friends way back in the 1980s when I was married to Jeff Lusis, who owned Slatewood records & managed Rose records. Most of Spooner and the Waterdogs and Andy Ewen played at our wedding. Jeff is something of a mensch too.

But we moved to Chicago for a better job with Rose for Jeff and more library jobs for me and after about 5 years we got divorced and Jeff moved to California and I moved back Madison. And I became a Dave Benton groupie. I tried to go to all the shows of the bands Dave played in like the Rousers and the ghost particles. I’d run down front and listen for what I recently found out Butch & Doug & Joel call the essential Dave Benton – those guitar parts he played that filled up all the spaces and fit in so perfectly and made the whole thing better, and watch for that Dave Benton smile that meant things were going well.

Also way back in the ‘80s I hosted one of the Rock & Rhythm shows on WORT and I have always thought Dave helped me get my show. I started on WORT as Chris Kammer’s phone answerer and Chris let me put together sets of music for his show. For the first one looking for that jangly guitar, twelve string Rickenbacker, essential Dave Benton sound I put together a set that started with Byrds and ended with Spooner. And after hearing that when I applied to be a programmer I’m sure that made music director Danny Kahn give me a show.

After I’d been on the air about six months Dave came on to do Byrds special. I don’t have any recordings of my show and if I did they’d probably be on cassette tapes I’m not sure I could play. But I have all my playlists in a black binder at the back of my closet and I started going through them wondering if I’d been smart enough to write Byrds special with Dave Benton on the top of the sheet. And sure enough I did. We played about an hour of Byrds songs, some by the Byrds and some covers and one of the last songs we played was a Gene Clark song off the Byrds first album, Here Without You. And that’s how we’re all feeling about Dave today. Thanks for the music Dave.

On Tuesday morning I went to yoga class, then left during the final resting meditation so that I could get home in time to leave the car and walk over and get Jasper with the stroller. I think that was the day we both got really hot walking back after playing in the park after nursery school. It was a little rainy, but still warm after nap so we played with the bubble gun and saw turkeys.

On Wednesday it was that unusual Wednesday where I did not have Jasper so I went to the library to prepare for the upcoming book sale. I can’t remember what I made for dinner, but I made this plum galette that was a real Instagram fave, lotsa comments. But it kinda hung around the kitchen, Mark wouldn’t eat it, although I kept sneaking slivers, until we finally polished it off Sunday night after Elvis Costello, and after I removed a small spot of mold from it. And I got my last apple CSA delivery of the season. This week my fall vegetable share starts. Since Tipi has gone to a four week spring season, I decided to try a four week fall delivery from another farm, Lovefood. They say the last box will be similar to Tipi’s dearly departed winter storage share, the Thanksgiving box, with lots of fall vegetables like squash and onions and potatoes and carrots and garlic, always something green like broccoli or kale, sometimes leeks, to get you through Thanksgiving and the winter. Anyways Lovefood’s first box contents sound good**, so we shall see. Pictures of dishes made with their produce may appear soon. Watch this space.

Thursday I drove out to Monona and picked up a book donation for the Libraries. Then went and bought bananas at Whole Foods and picked up Jasper in the car. We put gas in the car because Mark and I were going to Chicago the next day, and then we went through the car wash, the one where you stay in the car. I thought he might get scared but after we went though once he said lets do it again. Then I thought we might go to a park, but he wasn’t so interested so we just hung out, had lunch. Read books. I found a copy of an old Little Golden Book that I used to read to John & Al, The Tawny Scrawny Lion, and brought it home, and Jasper liked it. I think he took a much shorter nap because I didn’t run him around outside enough. But he played with his phidey dino and we watched some TV and overall it was an OK day. Somehow I dropped my UW ID outside the library in the morning after I dropped off the book donation, so after Jasper left I quick biked to the UWPD and got it back. It was funny, as I was walking up the stairs to leave the library I dropped the little wallet I keep my ID in and thought, “I’ll have to be careful with that” but I guess I wasn’t careful enough.

Friday was another trip to Chicago, this time for an evening concert. We took a slightly later train, didn’t have to leave the house until 8:30. When we got into Chicago we went directly to Cafe Yaya, a place I’d wanted to go to since Molly Yeh recommended it. I guess she ate there with her family (her dad plays in the Chicago Symphony) while on book tour, last spring. BTW I bought her newest book, Sweet Farm, and didn’t like it as much as her first, Molly on the Range. I will probably donate Sweet Farm to the UW Libraries book sale. Cafe Yaya is one of those places that seem to be getting more common, a little sister or brother, more casual restaurant, related to another restaurant that’s fancier. These siblings are Cafe Yaya and Galit. We got there a little too late to have much selection of pastries, 1:00 on a busy Friday.

After lunch we took the L to the south loop and checked in at the hotel and dumped our stuff. We had a corner room with two big windows, one facing west and one facing south. Next, Art Institute to see the Symbolist show, prints and drawings, mostly from their permanent collection. Odilon Redon featured prominently, and Edvard Munch.

The symphony was our second time seeing the new conductor, Klaus Makela, and it was very good. Better than the prior CSO where the program seemed a little cobbled together, and way better than the Madison symphony that we saw on Saturday when we got home. Two Berlioz pieces, with a guest soloist on viola, who played very first viola made by Antonio Stradivarius in 1672, one of the few violas Stradivarius made. It was also fun to be there on a Friday night when the symphony hall was quite full with a more varied age range crowd than the old people who we go to the Friday matinees with. 

We stopped and bought a pint of gelato in two flavors, hazelnut chocolate and stracciatella, and took it back to the hotel to eat in front of TV.

We got bagels at Gotham and then went home to march. Or I did, Mark went for a walk on his own. And I didn’t really march, we got back too late for me to get to the start of the march, so I biked to the Capitol and waited for the marchers to arrive. And listened to a few speakers. The newspaper said there was 19,000 – I think there were more.

Like I said, Saturday night we went to the Madison symphony. The place was pretty empty, especially the more expensive seats on the main floor – it was fuller around us in the cheaper seats. We almost didn’t get there on time, due to football game and protest and general Saturday night traffic. And we had to park in a farther away parking lot because the closer ones were full. It was the first official symphony of the season so of course they started with the Star Spangled Banner. Then there were two very short pieces, the second one with guest soloist Christopher Taylor who played well, but indulged in an extremely long encore. Then they gave us a short 15-minute intermission, and after that played the entire 80 minutes of Mahler’s Symphony #2. We couldn’t help but compare to Chicago, where I’m pretty sure of they wanted to do something that long, they would have just done that piece and said the concert was going to be 80-90 minutes with no intermission.

 [From the MSO website] This concert opens with a fresh take on the story of resurrection with lush layers of colorful sound evoking a cinematic feel. Resurrexit by Mason Bates will take you on a mystical pilgrimage with shimmering exotic tonalities that give way to contemplation and dramatic stirrings of rebirth. César Franck’s Symphonic Variations is a masterpiece of collaboration between piano and orchestra celebrating the interplay of poetic musical voices. Christopher Taylor’s virtuosic artistry is a perfect fit for this intimate and lyrical work. Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 is one of the most profound and transformative works ever. Written over six years, it journeys from a somber funeral march to a luminous vision of resurrection and renewal. Mahler once described this symphony as “my whole life in one work.” Themes of struggle, hope, and transcendence will bring us to a glorious reassurance of light in our lives.

Sunday morning I mixed and shaped a batch of cranberry almond scones, and left them chilling while Mark & I went for a walk. Like my Jasper-less Wednesday, this was a Susan-less Sunday, she was traveling so instead of Susan and I going to the gym at the Y, Mark and I walked. We also stopped in at the Monroe St. Farmers Market and found more vegetables then we expected for such a late season market, and also other times we’d gone it’d seemed like prepared food vendors, like bagels and tacos, outnumbered the vegetables. There was even Indian food there last Sunday. We bought salad greens and some cilantro and tomatoes to go with a couple of jalapeños I already had in the fridge, to make pico de gallo for our huevos rancheros. Sadly the scones looked good but were doughy in the middles – under-baked. The huevos were good, though.

Sunday night was Elvis Costello, on tour playing old songs with most of the Imposters and Charlie Sexton on guitar. Who played a Rickenbacker on What’s so funny ’bout peace love and understanding. It was a good show, two and almost a half hours, and instead of an encore, Elvis introduced the band, and asked everyone to stand up for the drummer, then they played the last four tunes with everyone on their feet, then danced offstage to Nellie the Elephant on the PA, probably a song from Elvis’ childhood in the UK. They came on to Heaven 17, We don’t need this fascist groove thing, which made sense to me, since it’s also a ’70s song. 

I think I’m going to stop now since it’s already Saturday a whole week later, and I keep not getting to the to-dos I’ve stuck in my calendar. This past week was the UW Libraries book sale, so that added a lot of my schedule. I have another Jasper day to tell you about and a few cooking successes, but I think that will be the next post.  

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**Here’s the list of what I got in my first fall box from Lovefood:

• Purple Cauliflower!!!! – Look, I know it tastes just like white cauliflower but IT’S PURPLE!!!!  Word to the wise, cauliflower can develop some black spots after harvest.  It’s a thing from the field that does well in cold and wet environments like the cooler.  We didn’t wash the cauliflower this week to avoid giving it the perfect environment to appear so you will want to wash before using.  If any black spots develop, you can just trim them off.
• Hakurei Turnips – the hakureis are as perfect as they come right now.  They are amazing raw just sliced up or eaten like an apple!  If you want to cook, go light and roast or sautee.  Check out the recipes section and please sautee those turnip greens – they are immaculate!
• Rainbow Beans – 1/2 LB – a combination of purple, gold and green beans.  Be advised, the purple beans do turn green when boiled.  We ran a little short on purple beans – so sorry.  The green and gold beans will be henceforth known as… “Packer Beans”
• Carrots – Freshly harvested from our fall planting.  These are sweet with a crisp and almost buttery texture.  Some people use the greens for pestos and such and some people curse them for taking up too much space in the fridge.  If you plan to store your carrots for a while, be sure to take the greens off first because they will reduce their shelf life.
• Sweet Peppers – Some red and purple bells.  The purple bells taste like green bells but again, they’re purple!!!
• Shishito Peppers – These are thin walled frying peppers that can also just be sliced up for sandwiches, salads, stir fries or perchance a frittata?  1 in 10 have a little heat but there’s no way to tell who is who soooooo enjoy!
• Spinach – Beautiful fall spinach – basic but perfect
• Cucumber – we did one last planting of slicing cucumbers in the high tunnel and they are doing GREAT!  The flavor is excellent, hope you enjoy.