Sunday in the (Eken) Park

When I moved into Eken Park last fall I fully intended to take a stroll around my new neighborhood to get the lay of the land, see what there was to see, and get some photographs of the fall colors. Eken Park the Park™ was resplendent in its autumnal yellows and oranges. My plans were foiled by weather, travel, time taken to get my apartment together, and laziness/procrastination. They kept getting pushed off for another day and then the next thing I know the day that all the leaves had fallen somehow arrived. 

On Sunday temperatures climbed into very springlike 50s and I had intended to enjoy the nice weather by walking to a friend's house to drop off some pelmeni but we had trouble communicating so I grabbed my camera and headed out to do some wandering. On my travels I managed to get photos of the many Trachte buildings in Eken Park, which I've posted already, but also of the scenery and things that simply caught my eye.

Eken Park is named after brothers Thomas and Ole Eken who were Norwegian immigrants. A large chunk of the neighborhood was formerly the Eken family farm with the rest of it belonging to the Stang and McCormick families who now have streets named after them. It looks like the western part of the neighborhood along North Street, which had a streetcar line, was built up in the 1920s while the area further east was developed in the 1940s with smaller, often prefab, homes for the working class employees of the nearby Oscar Mayer plant as well as returning G.I.s.

Overall it has a similar look and timeline to Eastmorland, the neighborhood that I moved from. 

The Madison Airport was north of Coolidge Street where Highway 30 and the Bridges golf course are today. The airport hosted the Ringling Brothers Circus for many years.

With the isthmus filling up with luxury apartments and home prices that are egregiously expensive, Eken Park has become at least moderately trendy and home to many younger folks who cannot afford something closer to downtown. My guess is that the neighborhood is still home to a fair number of working class people but that population is declining. However, the apartments along Oak and Pawling streets, along with others, will no doubt continue to give the area a working class tint for some time to come.

Eken Park is not a particularly large neighborhood but there is a noticeable contrast between the patrons of Ogden's North Street Diner and those that I see going in and out of the apartments on Oak Street.

Onto my stroll. 

This house managed to winterize some Halloween decorations and combine them with some greenery.

While I am sad that the Oscar Mayer plant no longer processes meat and provides employment for thousands, I am also glad that, since I now live in Eken Park, I do not have to inhale of the aroma of hot dogs being made which was like a pungent delight but the exact opposite.

One of my neighbors is an Alice in Wonderland fan, it seems.

Ogden's looked to be doing brisk business as I walked by with a trio of women outside waiting for a table. A couple houses down I heard the cadence of wood being hit. At first I thought it was someone taking advantage of the weather to do some home maintenance. Then, after really listening, I realized the sound emanated from above and had to be a woodpecker. Indeed it was.  I think it was a downy. 

Despite being in plain sight, I struggled to find it in my camera's viewfinder and so my photography was half-assed, at best, here.

I like this picture on the door of a garage which is Trachte-shaped but sided so as to obscure its origins.

Those are some badass fish and fowl. The second instance of a non-human animal smoking seen on my walk.

I presume this building was an office and/or some kind of switching station for Ma Bell back in the day. No idea what is there today.

While Eken Park the Park™ lacked foliage, it still looked quite pleasant with families at the west end with kids enjoying the playground.

Someone's front yard had been transformed into a metallic sculpture garden. Look there! Formerly encased in a block of ice...Holy sh*t! It's Godzilla!

 

 

When I was ambling right in the bowels of the neighborhood - down Maywood and Stang south of Commerical Avenue and on Fairfield Place, I got this feeling of being somewhere new, as if I was no longer just a few blocks from home. Perhaps not even in Madison. These streets are very beautiful with mature trees, a smattering of pre-war homes along with ones from the 40s that don't look pre-fab/cookie cutter. A very nice area.

 

A lovely stroll through my new neighborhood. I am looking forward to doing it again when the scenery is more verdant and more colorful with flowers in bloom. 

Uff da!

Sky

The sky was beautiful when I got home yesterday evening.

The Piper's Progress

Piper will be 13 in just a couple months and I plan to celebrate. Last week she went into the vet for a blood draw to check on her hyperthyroidism.

"Hooman! Why am I in a cage again?!"

The vet came back with good news.: "Piper's blood work looks excellent. All liver values, kidney values, blood proteins, glucose, electrolytes, and cell counts are unremarkable. Her thyroid level is right where we want it in the lower half of the normal range which is great news...I also saw that Piper was recently in for her annual evaluation with MVS and her eyes seems quite stable which is great..."

She has taken to squatting on my chest at meal times, something she did occasionally in the past but it's been a common occurrence the past week or two.

"It is time for chow, hooman!" 

The Trachte buildings of Eken Park (And one from Sherman too)

Eken Park has several Trachte buildings.

There are at least two on Coolidge Street. 

This one is on Coolidge as well but I am not sure that it's a Trachte.

The most well-known ones in Eken Park are on Commercial Avenue. R.I.P. Resale Records.

And here's one from the Sherman Neighborhood. It's sneakily camouflaged.

Outside my windows

The sunrise was very pretty this morning.

It is really nice to have several trees outside my office windows. There was a squirrel outside my window for a long time this afternoon. Perhaps it was enjoying the slightly warmer weather or at least the sun which has been in short supply this month. 

At some point it appeared to have gotten sleepy and was taking a nap - with one eye open.

Supporting local artists

The call went out to find a good home for the C.J. Chenier ticket that I couldn't use and someone bit. Now I just had to get the ticket to him. A rendezvous point was chosen: Rogue's Gallery. They were having a little soiree last Friday called "The Heart Show".

It wasn't long after I arrived and that I found the gentleman who was going to get to see C.J. Chenier and handed over the ticket. He was standing near a woman who is (was?) a friend of my wife's whom I knew a little. We exchanged hello's and she promptly walked over to another group of people. I hoped that she hadn't been taken in by my wife's recent malicious tales which were either confabulations or slander. Hopefully the former. Later, as I was walking by her, she made a friendly comment.

I didn't and still don't know what to make of our encounters. While I do not know this woman well, I have always liked her and feel like we have gotten along over the years. Hopefully this was just a bout of social awkwardness compelled by my divorce and that there is no malice involved. Certainly not from me. This woman is a very interesting lady.

It's possible that she is no longer friends with my wife, which would be very sad. I spoke with another woman over the winter who told me that she is now an ex-friend of my Frau's and that she, my noch-Frau, has cut off ties with many of her now former friends.

Ach!

Divorce sucks. I am looking forward to these awkward first encounters since the divorce to be over.

One encounter which was not awkward that night was with Erika Koivunen, metal artist extraordinaire. She does some fine work with scrap metal and an arc welder or whatever device she uses. It was lovely to make eye contact with her and to be greeted by name with a smile.

Erika showed me her area in the workshop. Piles of rusty bicycle gears and sad looking flatware sat next to finished pieces such as this one which is part of a series.

Baba Yaga is one of her latest themes. Erika showed me some metallic mushrooms to go with these pieces. I think I am going to buy one once I have space for it in my living room.

Ere long Erika had to go mingle some more and I bid her adieu. It was wonderful to see her and trash talk her brother behind his back as we hadn't done so in a while.

I didn't linger at the soiree too long. But, wanting to support the local arts, I did buy a couple prints by Leah MacLeod.

This one is called Cantica of Deep Time. 

I love the shades of blue used here. Plus pretty ladies are always nice. And it's a neat surreal scene of handless clocks floating like buoys in the open water. I am unsure what the whales up top above the arch are meant to represent or make the viewer contemplate.

You know I had to get the one with the cat.

It's called Indigo Sky and I again love the shades of blue. And there's a cat. Did I mention that yet? I envision this feline as being the familiar of a witchy lady who perhaps directs her orisons to the moon. Or bathes in the power of the moon to devise cantrips that would make the cat less naughty.

It was a fairly brief night out but fun nonetheless. I was happy that I kept the prints from getting bent on the bus ride home and they now look mighty nice on my refrigerator door.

Preparing for Fat Tuesday Zydeco style

The run up to Lent is for many a time of drinking, overeating, partying, and some low-level mayhem. For me, it had until recently consisted of eating pączki and lamenting that none of them had prune filling. But last week I went to The Bur Oak to see Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas. I didn't recall ever hearing them before the concert but it's Zydeco - what more do you need?

It turned out to be the loudest show I've ever heard at The Bur Oak and it was great! As expected, there was lots of accordion-led booty-shakin' goodness with an occasional slower bluesy number.

I sat in front of the guitarist and he was a hoot, hoppin' around, making faces, and simply putting on a good show as he played some mean rhythms and soloed his heart out. 

Nathan, who reminded us that he was from the land where the crawfish have soul and the gators have the blues, came down into the audience a couple times.

Not only did he play a mean squeeze box but the guy put on a show.

His band seemed to be having fun with smiles all around and they played their hearts out. The guy on washboard was rockin'! 

While I snagged a ticket for C.J. Chenier's show at the Atwood Music Hall earlier this week, I was unable to keep the Zydeco ball rolling as I had another engagement that I had to attend. At least I was able to find someone to take my ticket. It was depressing because Chenier was here a couple years back to play at La Fete de Marquette but he got rained out so I was excited to finally see him play.

Here's some video I shot that night at The Bur Oak:

Close encounter with a woodpecker. Now with video!

Last fall I had a close encounter with a woodpecker. I posted a photo then but have finally gotten around to putting a short video clip up at Youtube.

Gifted

I was recently given this fine, capacious D&D themed mug by a friend of mine. I have yet to use it but suspect it will be overflowing with tasty beer ere long.

Why yes there is a 20-sided die embedded in it. 

Piper's peepers

Piper had to have her eyes examined last week and she was, as usual when she is ripped from the safety of her home, scared.

Thankfully her peepers were in good working order. Her eye exams are now going to be annual instead of bi-annual.

Coming soon, 8 February 2026

Seen before a screening of Dracula.

I thought Dracula was fun. Not a classic but not terrible. A divergence from the novel, I am told since I've never read it. Dracula was sympathetic and driven by his love for his lady. Christoph Waltz is a priest in the X-Files division of the Vatican. Some of his dialogue felt stilted at times but I liked his character because he was driven to do what needed to be done.

Like I said, good fun but not a great movie.

Marcus showed about 33% fewer trailers than AMC generally does. 

I was appalled to find out that there is a He-Man movie on the horizon. Is this a lure for nostalgic GenXers?

I think that trailers filled with laudatory quotes portend a lousy movie. I feel ambivalent about this one as I suspect I'd appreciate the creepiness but there were too many jump scares (and quotes).

Red band! 

I got Dibs

Back in December I was in Chicago where I went to the Christkindlmarkt downtown. While there I ate at Goddess and the Baker where I bought some coffee - Dibs. "Dibs" is the practice of putting chairs, orange cones, or whatever it takes to reserve a parking spot out on the street and it is also Goddess and the Baker's special winter blend.

It looks like a blend of medium and dark roast beans.

My cup here had an oily sheen. Dirty cup? Or the from the lighter roasted beans? My understanding is that the more you roast coffee, the more the oils are leeched out. 

It was tasty stuff. Roasty, a bit earthy, and with a nice level of bitterness.

Piper had a dirty nose yesterday

So that's what they were for

As a fan of The Young Ones I've always assumed that the flashes of found footage was a send up of the notion of subliminal messaging or just goofy gag.

That's from "Bambi", a.k.a. - the University Challenge episode.

Now I learn that these images were part of a running gag that was meant to have a payoff at the end of the show but that it was nixed by bureaucrats.

So the flash frames were never intended to be just a random piece of nonsense. They were meant as a running gag throughout the six episodes, which cumulated in a punchline...All of which meant that when “Summer Holiday” was broadcast on the 19th June 1984, it was shorn of its intended flash frame, and the punchline to the whole joke. 

Seen

 

Coming soon, 4 February 2026

I think JoAnne Pow!ers has been at every screening I've been at this year. It is not clear if this says anything about me or her.

These were the trailers at a screening of The Testament of Ann Lee which was excellent. I loved both kinds of musical numbers - the ones that gave exposition and the ones that were liturgical. The latter were quite effective in creating an ecstatic atmosphere and giving a sense of the characters' religious fervor. There were a couple scenes where I felt it would have been neat if the movie had let worshiping continue longer and more had been done with Mother Ann's visions. It would have been nice to have had a bit more that takes place outside the normal, workaday world.

While watching the credits I was pleasantly surprised to see that Amanda Seyfried did her own singing or most of it, anyway. The music was wonderful and I am curious to know how much of it was authentic Shaker music or at least based upon such songs.

An excellent flick.

The evening began with a commercial for the Metropolitan Opera. The show is Cinderella and it noted that it had a running time of 90 minutes and was in English so you don't have to be a sophisto to watch it.

Next was another commercial for Winter Olympics coverage at the cinema.

We then got a trailer for Dreams but it was not banded presumably because it had not been reviewed by the MPAA. Jessica Chastain has is a cougar here - a long way from Mrs. O'Brien. 

Jessica Chastain & Neve Campbell flicks? Are middle-aged women having a moment at the cinema?

I am hoping to see The Odyssey on film in Indianapolis while I'm at Gencon.

The second trailer that begins in the desert. I am getting them confused.

 

More older Fraus.

Red band once again. Perhaps there is no green band version of this one.

Coming soon, 27 January 2026

Seen before a screening of No Other Choice.

This was a commercial and not a proper trailer.

 A commercial for the Winter Olympics coverage followed.

 

This was a red band trailer.

 

Coming soon, 26 January 2026

Seen at a screening of Hamnet.

A commercial for the Olympic games followed.

Coming soon, 15 January 2026

Seen at a screening of Father Mother Sister Brother.

 

 

 

 

New tunes

Jay Farrar continues channeling Woody Guthrie in a new song called "These Days Have No Shame". Also, Son Volt will be on tour later this year.

Tomeka Reid has a new album out on the 13th called dance! skip! hop!. The 2nd single from it, "oo long", is previewed on Youtube and can be found in full on her Bandcamp page. Both it and the title track are available there and they both are fantastic. Hopefully she and her band will return to Madison this year.

Songs of the day, 4 February

 

A brace of bocks and sayonara snakes

When I went to the liquor store last weekend I noticed that Lakefront is not messing around when it comes to helles bocks. They had a couple on offer.

Have they brewed the honey bock before? I cannot recall. It was just nice to see a brace of bocks to push back against the 8 gillion IPAs.

I see that they have also resurrected Snake Chaser. 

 

 

When did this go away? Was it around last year? Not sure when this came back. Regardless, it's good to have it back for a little St. Patrick's Day cheer.

In the cards

I recently received a couple handmade cards. Aren't they lovely?

 

They're from my eldest stepson and his fiancée. Last summer they moved to Albuquerque but have been having a hard go of things. And so I worry about them.

Soon, well, soonish, I'll be heading to New Mexico to visit them. It will be wonderful to see them again and to check out the Southwest, taste Albuquerquean beer, sample hot sauces, and just see what there is to see. 

Look at my new hat!

My youngest stepson knitted it for me. He is a very talented fellow.

But he too is having problems that make me worry about him.

I will do what it is in my powers to do.