Madison has a new Director of Transportation

 

When I read that Christof Spieler was appointed as our Director of Transportation, I did a double take. The Christof Spieler?

While I am not sure if there is anyone who can rightly be called a superstar in the realm of public transit and urban planning but, if there is, Spieler is one of a very small group. I know him for various articles/interviews on the interwebs and his book, Trains, Buses, People: An Opinionated Atlas of US Transit. As a denizen of Houston, I believe he was involved with various land use projects and their bus network redesign several years back.

I look forward to seeing what he accomplishes. To the best of my knowledge, Houston isn't hated by the Texas state government the way Madison is by the Republicans of this state. While I don't know anything about Houston's budgetary matters, Madison doesn't seem to have a lot of money or, at least, not an increasing amount, to turn master plans into reality.

Well, we shall see how it goes starting in July.

Critters, 29 May 2025

A couple opossums wandered in this morning. I think they left after finding that the space under the deck was already occupied by either lumber or rabbits.

A well-groomed rabbit. 

Every squirrel in the neighborhood broke their fasts underneath our bird feeder.

Mr. Cardinal stuck around long enough for me to get a decent photo. 

One white duck on your roof

Mallards continue to perch on my roof's peak.

A distant performance

As a boy, I was entranced by György Ligeti's music that was featured in the films of Stanley Kubrick. I got the itch to hear any and all of these pieces performed live. Back in 2004 I jumped at the chance to hear the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra perform Atmospheres which was featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was glorious!

It took nearly 21 years but I finally saw that another of Ligeti's pieces, Lontano, was going to be performed by the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Again, I jumped at the chance and bought a ticket.

I swung into town a little before showtime and took the opportunity to wander the Fox River shore. The performance was to take place at the Hemmens Cultural Center so I strolled around a bit north of where I did the same last year.

There is an island that has been all gussied up for some lovely scenery on your stroll.

You can get right up to the water and there were several people, including a couple families, taking advantage of the opportunity to take in the scenery or do some fishing.

Canada geese were everywhere. This family were not impressed by the human and I ended up with a photo of all of their butts.

Showtime neared and so I headed to the hall where the great and the good of Kane County and beyond were filing in.

The performance was the ESO's season finale and was sold out.

The Music Director, Chad Goodman, is a young fellow and he introduced the pieces with exuberance and humor.

Lontano was sublime. It's eerie shimmering entranced me and would have been perfect for the soundtrack of Annihilation. I closed my eyes and let the music wash over me and take me somewhere else.

Mozart's "Paris" symphony, which followed, was a total 180 with its allegro movements standing in stark contrast to the ethereal moodiness of Lontano. Holst's The Planets closed out the program. I'd never heard it performed live so it was a real treat. "Mars, the Bringer of War" was just spectacular! The way it builds with such force was just fantastic to behold in-person.

Now onto finding performances of Lux Aeterna, Aventures, and Requiem for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, Two Mixed Choirs and Orchestra.

Coming soon - 17 May 2025

Seen before Blade Runner: The Final Cut at Flix. They were mercifully few.

Drinking Tiger Mountain by Zymurgy

Somebody help me out here with a more clever Brian Eno pun.

What is the fate of the Weimar Replublic?

Last month my Frau and I went down to Chicago to see the play Berlin. It was at the Court Theatre in Hyde Park on the University of Chicago campus. I don't know that I had ever been on the U. of C. campus before. It was a lovely day and the campus was in bloom.

The play was a world premiere and is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Jason Lutes that was published between 2000 and 2018. It takes place in the German capital in the late 1920s through the early 1930s as the Weimar Republic unravels while Hitler and the Nazis are ascending to power.

I read the novel in the weeks before attending the play and was eager to see how it had been adapted for the stage.

The set was dark and foreboding with tables sitting before a row of imposing arches. On the tables were microphones that characters used for introductory remarks, exposition, and interior monologues.

The novel features a big ensemble of characters and, while it's been trimmed down a bit here, the play still has several protagonists with various cast members assuming multiple roles. Hitler is seen only very briefly in the novel but here Elizabeth Laidlaw, who portrays him, is given a much greater presence. She dons the infamous mustache and black leather uniform leaving a trail of fear behind her wherever she wanders onstage. Menace hung thick in the air even when Laidlaw simply stood silently behind the arches.

A journalist named Kurt Severing stands in for the masses. Throughout most of play he brushes off the notion that Hitler and his brown-shirted followers could amount to anything more than a nuisance. By the end, however, he has become our conscience with a monologue declaring, essentially, that evil triumphs if good men do nothing.

With Donald Trump turning this country upside down by executive fiat, Berlin is a play for our times.

Critters, May '25

With the hawks having moved on - to the north side, according to a friend - our critter quotient has greatly increased. The other day a trio of rabbits were relaxing out on the terrace.

A curious squirrel joined them at one point.

One morning I walked into the dining room and saw that every critter in the neighborhood was at our smorgasbord having breakfast.

After gorging themselves, they dispersed and a grackle popped its head up from the long grass, seed in beak.

Eventually everyone went their own way.

How to recognise different types of plants from quite close up

Last week I took a couple of short walks. The first was at that retaining pond across the street from Orlando Bell Park.

On the east end of the pond there was a turtle about 10' from shore that seemed to be having fun. It would allow the top of its shell to breach the surface and then it would sink a bit. Repeat. At one point, I would swear it was spinning in place just below the surface as the ripples went from circles emanating outwards to swirls. Sadly, I did not have my camera with me, only my phone, so I wasn't able to capture this.

Next I went over to Heritage Sanctuary to see the trillia.

The birds are always nice and plentiful here and a blue jay decided to stick around and check out the human near the entrance.

Not long after this, a chipmunk ran into the center of the path. It must have been hungry because it was in no hurry to retreat from the human.

The trillia were in full bloom.

I recognized these as mayapples having learned about them on my recent trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden.

I shall have to make a return trip soon as I think they have bloomed by now or shall anon.

You know when you feel déjà vu: Tailwagger Amber Ale by New Glarus Brewing

When I first heard that New Glarus had a new beer out called Tailwagger, I felt a strong sense of déjà vu. Wasn't that the name given to their barleywine back in 2006 or thereabouts? Indeed it was. In fact, the puppy that appeared on the label nearly 20 years ago has returned seemingly having not aged a day to grace the one for the Tailwagger nouveau. Like Dorian Gray, but different.

When I learned that the 21st century Tailwagger was an amber ale, I got another flash of déjà vu. It felt like I had been transported back to the mid-1990's when Fat Tire was still in its infancy but steadily gaining in popularity and Pete's Wicked Ale was everywhere good (American) beer was sold as was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Here in Madison, Capital's Special Pilsner, Sprecher Amber, and New Glarus Edel Pils represented the home team. (I don't recall much Lakefront around at that time though I am sure Riverwest Stein was to be had.) It's a shame that New Glarus didn't release Fat Squirrel contemporaneously with Tailwagger for a real 90s throwback extravaganza.

Unlike in the mid-90s, I don't drink much amber ale these days but I am always up for tasting what Dan Carey and the rest of the brewing crew at New Glarus have come up with. Well, almost always. I have yet to take the plunge into their Splash malt beverages, for instance.

It's nice to be have more daylight these days as I really enjoy taking a brew outside. They look better in sunlight too. As you can more or less see above, Tailwagger is - quelle surprise - amber. And clear as can be. A smattering of bubbles made their way up to a lovely light tan head. As I was outside in close proximity to lilac bushes and freshly laid cedar mulch, I tried my best to separate the smells of the yard from the smells of the beer. To wit: the aroma was caramel, grass, and a hint of biscuit. Things were off to a fine start.

My first sip revealed a smooth, medium-light body accompanied by some very nice fizz. While I tasted caramel, it wasn't particularly sweet. There was also a slight roastiness and bit of stone fruit. The hops tasted grassy-herbal to me. Not a lot but rather just enough. When I swallowed, there were some lingering caramel and biscuit flavors that were quickly joined by grassy hops. Bitterness and dryness were both on the mild side.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tailwagger: The Next Generation. My notes say "Excellent!", in fact. Aristotle would have appreciated this brew as there just seemed to be the right amounts of everything with nothing in excess except general tastiness. It simply has that amber ale arete. I greatly appreciated the restraint in sweetness and how the caramel taste was complemented by biscuity malt. The light body made it go down easy.

Junk food pairing: Pair the new Tailwagger with a bag of Guinness Rich Chili crisps.

Brew Freunde: Bräu Buddies by Lakefront Brewery and Hofbräu München

I am trying to recall how I heard about Bräu Buddies. Either I read about it in Lakefront's newsletter or I stumbled upon it on one of my periodic strolls through their website checking on what the year-round pale lager is these days. East Side Dark and Riverwest Stein have stood the test of time, I suppose, while the pale lager spot seems to change every year or 2. (Probably less frequently, truth be told.) Klisch Pilsner, a Czech-style pilsner, which was, I believe, one of the brewery's first brews, went the way of the dodo. I think it was replaced by Lakefront Pils, a German-style pilsner. From there it gets murky.

Did Bierzeit, a wonderful Kölsch that seemed to be in the Lakefront line-up all-too briefly, come next? What a shame. I felt a bit spoiled for choice for a little while there between it and Kid Kölsch.

Did Lakefront Lager come next? A "Premium Lager", I avoided it because I associate those words with Miller/Bud clone type brews. The pale lager annual spot is now taken by Dive Beer which appears to be another Miller/Bud type American lager. Oof.

Looking at the list of beers no longer made at the Lakefront site, I feel sad that Cherry Lager and Holiday Spice are long gone. Wisconsinite was tasty; why did it have to die? Boo!

Oh well.

So somehow I stumbled upon the existence of Bräu Buddies, a collaboration between Lakefront and Hofbräu München. Described as a "rustic, German-style lager" and having been brewed with Melanoidin malts, I just had to try it. And so I snagged a six-pack.

Similar to my procrastination in taking notes for that hibiscus kombucha, I went through at least a six-pack before I ever busted out a pad of paper and pen. I was just too busy slaking my thirst. But eventually I did take some notes and took a photo or two.

The brew was light yellow to gold, depending on which part of the glass I was looking at. Clear as day and topped by a white head that lasted an average amount of time, I spied a few bubbles inside. It looked mighty purdy. A Helles? A Landbier? I dunno but I do know that the aroma was marvelous with a luscious breadiness no doubt from that Melanoidin malt while the hops gave a grassy scent.

Taking a sip, I was entranced the beer's medium-light body which held untold depths of toasty-bready-biscuity malt goodness. Not particularly sweet, the Maillard-inflected flavor was joined by grassy/herbal tasting hops. Not too strong but a bit more than enough to balance the malts. There are Saphir hops in here but I never caught anything fruity. Maybe something a little something floral in the aroma but I never tasted the tangerine that websites assure me are part of the Saphir flavor arsenal.

The breadiness lingered on the finish a bit while the hops, having taken on a more spicy note, gently faded in to add moderate bitterness and slightly less dryness.

This, this should be Lakefront's year-round pale lager. With its high melanoidin payload, Bräu Buddies hits the spot with a rich malt taste that I couldn't get enough of which explains why I've purchased multiple six-packs of it. I am feeling spoiled for choice again as this beer is a fine complement to New Glarus' Two Women, another rustic/country pale lager full of mouthwatering Maillard temptation.

Alas, I suspect Bräu Buddies' days are numbered and it will be consigned to the Lakefront Beer Graveyard before summer. What a bummer.

Junk food pairing: Bräu Buddies' label features a pretzel and this is a fine idea to accompany a can of the stuff. I suggest a bag of Rold Gold Selects Flamin’ Hot® Honey Mustard twists.

Pretty in pink: Organic Hibiscus Berry Kombucha by Forage

It has taken a while to make this review a reality. I bought and drank several cans of this stuff before actually taking tasting notes during consummation. Thirst would overtake me so I would pop open a can and dispense with my thirst without pen & paper figuring I'd buy another one on my next visit to the grocery store and that I'd review that one. Eventually I put paid to this vicious circle.

The Forage website no longer lists this hibiscus berry stuff. Did tariffs make the acquisition of tropical hibiscus financially untenable? Or perhaps this brew is available only during the colder months? Maybe the brewer just wanted to try their hand at different flavors.

Even if you don't care for the taste of hibiscus, you've got to admit that the reddish pink hue it gives to drinks is sure pretty. The color is provided by a chemical called anthocyanin which, if related to cyanide, is hopefully a benign cousin. This stuff was hazy with the trademark reddish pink. My pour did not produce any head so I figured this would be a fizz-light experience.

The aroma was fruity and floral. I hate to be generic but I am not able to distinguish the floral scents of hibiscus from those of rosehip, another ingredient. As for the fruitiness, it was berry-like but currants and apples come before elderberries and natural blueberry flavor on the ingredients list which also boasts essential orange oil and natural mango flavor further down. On one sniff I thought I caught the blueberry and orange but that may have been purely psychological and merely the result of reading the ingredient list.

Kombucha is tea and so has a light body. Fizziness was mild as expected. The taste was fruity and floral, if you can believe it. There are various fruits and fruit flavorings at play here so there was a fruit punch thing to be had. I think the orange came through as the kombucha warmed. I thoroughly enjoyed the floral flavor and the tartness that hibiscus and rosehip bring as it helped balance the sweetness which was perhaps a bit more than I prefer. It wasn't cloying, mind you.

I really enjoyed this stuff and it reminded me just how tasty hibiscus is. The earliest instance I can recall tasting it goes back to 2011 when Robyn Klinge devised and brewed (or co-brewed) a hibiscus saison that was quite novel to me and very tasty to boot. More recently, my Frau and I were in Milwaukee and we made a stop at Anodyne Coffee where Colombia Rodrigo Sánchez was on tap. The tasting notes mentioned hibiscus - a first in coffee, for me - and it did indeed have a hibiscusy taste.

This brew should satisfy your heartiest cravings for floral tea goodness.

The Cruet Remains the Same: Good & Gather Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Vinegar Potato Chips

I was finished fumbling my way through the men's clothing section at Target last week when I wandered over to the grocery area and made a detour through the junk food aisle. There, much to my delight, I found some Good & Gather salt & vinegar potato chips. Good & Gather is apparently the new house brand, presumably having supplanted Market Pantry. New name, new color scheme. The salt has escaped its dish but the vinegar is still in a cruet and at a less spilly angle. These tariffed times call for some marketing ingenuity, I guess.

And so, instead of walking out to my car with a new shirt or two for work (they had nothing in burgundy), I found myself clutching a can of gumbo since Rue Bourre was no more and the above bag of potato chips. New brands of salt & vinegar chips are few and far between these days so I considered my shopping venture a success despite the failure on the haberdashery front.

Sticking my nose into the bag and taking a whiff, I caught nearly equal parts of oil and earthy potato goodness with a hint of vinegar. These kettle chips are real lookers. Browned edges surrounded the bubbled surfaces which were dark yellow with patches of gold and brown. They seemed to be thicker than your normal chip.

Being kettle chips, they had a big crunch. Salt had been administered in slightly elevated doses. After a couple servings, I found that the vinegar had been applied unevenly. Some chips seemed to have had the tangy goodness applied with a light touch while others got the heavy hand treatment. Taken in concert, I'd say these chips had a wonderfully firm vinegar taste. My tongue felt it when I chowed down 2 or 3 full-strength ones. Plus they had a very nice earthy potato flavor that was less sweet than most chips, to my taste. But that could have been acetic acid numbness.

These were some very fine chips.

Once upon a Dalek

Sixie came upon Mother Goose
The settlers turned her loose
She was exterminating

Somehow Julian Richards did something new with Daleks. Or, at least, new to me.

The latest compendium of the Sixth Doctor's adventures is The Cosmos and Mrs Clarke and the first tale therein is called "The Story Demon". It concerns a village that settlers constructed from the wrecks of spaceships, including, much to the Doctor's chagrin, a Dalek war saucer or whatever they're called. Even more harrowing is that children's story hour is done by a Dalek - the titular Story Demon. Well, the case of one.

But the betentacled devil that normally occupies the case is still around and terrorizing the settlers unbeknownst to them.

It was a clever twist that did something new with a Dalek. But what really sealed the deal for me was the scene when one of the settlers, Wyatt, who has been driven to despair, ends up inside the Dalek. He is thoroughly distraught and cries out for help as his boyfriend, Hoekstra, looks on powerless. In this story we learn that the Dalek casing is operated by the emotions of its inhabitant. Apparently imbued with a very truculent AI, the Dalek armor takes Wyatt's tearful pledge of love for Hoekstra and, after a pregnant pause, perverts it into a cry of "EXTERMINATE!" before striking him down.

This was a genuinely disturbing scene. Its gloomy intensity reminded me of another great Sixie story, Project: Twilight.

Great stuff. Now onto the rest of the set.

The numbers are in...

...and Madison now has an estimated 285,300 residents as of 1 July 2024, up from 281,162 on that date in 2023.

Milwaukee also gained people - just under 500 - a small bump up to 563,531. Good news but the Cream City is still has about 14,000 fewer Milwaukeeans than it did in 2020.

It's weird to see that Madison now has half the population of Milwaukee. (Dane County has about 63% of the population of Milwaukee County.) While there may be a small town somewhere in Wisconsin that had a greater percentage gain, it sure looks like Madison's addition of 4,138 folks is the largest in number in the state.

We're going to have a festival!

The summer festival season kicks off this weekend with WORTstock.

In about the month the festivities continue with the Marquette Waterfront Festival.

I discovered a few days ago that the Sessions at McPike Park have morphed into Sessions at Garver Feed Mill.

What happened? Garver is closer to home so it has at least one advantage. But all the sessions got squeezed into a few days in June as opposed to being spread out across the summer.

Still we get Iris DeMent, Cash Box Kings, The Waco Brothers, and many more. 

ADDENDUM:

I see that the line-up for Fête de Marquette has been announced.

Some fine music to be had. I discovered Southern Avenue a couple months ago while down a Youtube rabbit hole so it's neat that they'll be here.

15 May

The day began all bucolic.

 And then came the storms. It got Biblical there for a minute or two with all that hail.

R.I.P. Rue Bourre

I was thinking earlier this morning that today would be a good day to grab lunch at Rue Bourre. There's just something about hot weather that makes me hunger for gumbo. And so I was saddened to see that it is no more.

To quote Darth Vader, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

But their gumbo was just so tasty! Not fair!

Well, all the best to Ms. Nethken-Ulrich and her family.

Still life with still life of cat and cat

Sam Adams takes me to Funkytown

I recently sampled this brew:

1984 Pale Lager is a collaboration between the venerable Sam Adams, founded in 1984, and Funkytown Brewing, founded in 2021, the latter of which was wholly unfamiliar to me until I investigated on the interwebs.

Funkytown is a black-owned brewery in Chicago and this beer appears to be available only in Chicagoland.

The can notes that it was brewed with steam beer yeast along with a combo of Motueka and Tettnang hops. Motueka is a variety from New Zealand and they gave a citrus flavor to the brew that was lemon-lime, to my taste.

I thought it was good. The fruity flavors weren't overpowering and the result was a very refreshing brew on a hot spring day.

Since I'd never heard of Funkytown, I checked out their website. I was happy to see some nods to the brewery's hometown in beer names - Summertime Chi and Gym Shoe Weather. How about Dibs Doppelbock for a late winter seasonal? Bungalow Brown Ale?

The loneliest street drain in Madison

Since I've started using the bus stop at Sheboygan and Eau Claire Avenues, I walk by this section of curb.

At first I figured that it was leftover from when the new Hill Farms state office building and its parking ramp were constructed but I see it in Google street views from prior to this. Presumably it was left there when the American Red Cross building was erected. But why leave this section? Would removing the street drain have caused problems that were best avoided by just leaving it in place?