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.
I am going to enjoy some spooky music today and then head out of town for a concert so I won't be doling out treats tonight. Truth be known, I don't know if I would even get any.
I've decided to observe All Souls' Day and put together a little shrine to honor my brother. Ten years gone but I think about him everyday. He's with me all the time.
Today I am jammin' the Blue Öyster Cult in honor of this horrific day.
I know Mirrors very well but Cultösaurus Erectus is largely foreign to me. These albums get short shrift in the popular narrative about the band's career. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "Godzilla" and arguably the peak of their career came just before these albums while Fire of Unknown Origin and "Burnin' For You" are soon to come.
But we've got a couple songs written with Michael Moorcock, "The Great Sun Jester" and "Black Blade". And, I would argue, those laid back California vibes made for a nice change of pace on Mirrors. "In Thee" is a very beautiful song, for example. Plus, "A mirror is a negative space with a frame" is just a classic B.Ö.C. line.
Last autumn I described a venture that my Frau and I took out to Lapacek’s Orchard. With a back seat full of apples, doughnuts, et al we were cruising home down Highway 51 when I noticed one of those brown tourist/point of interest signs on the side of the road. It noted a wild life viewing area somewhere to the west. I made a mental note of this and vowed to check it out one day. Well, that day came earlier this month.
Early one morning I drove out there and followed the sign. It wasn't long before I found myself at the Lapinski-Kitze Prairie. I parked in the smallish clearing at the trailhead and was greeted by the above statue. Signs told the story of how the site had been farmed for decades with the crops having been processed at a cannery in the nearby town. A few years after the cannery closed, the Madison Audubon Society bought the property and began restoring its native prairie. It’s now a sanctuary for several kinds of birds and has trails for those who like to watch our feathered friends. I neglected to bring my binoculars and do not have a particularly long lens for my camera so I was going to be limited in my birdwatching activities. Still, I headed down the trail.
Walking along the edge of a corn field, I scared up what I think was a pheasant but it flew away quickly so I am not sure. Not only was the bird scared, I was too. It was so quiet and peaceful then suddenly it took off about 10 feet in front of me. Continuing up the path I became lost in thought once more as I enjoyed the calm and solitude. Then a squawk startled me back into the world of the mundane as a pair of turkeys, a tom and a hen, took off out of the tall grass and flew away. That primitive part of my brain simply saw big creatures emerge from hiding and I had that fight or flight response going for a second.
While I saw a variety of smaller birds, the only ones I could identify were the red-winged blackbirds which were everywhere.
There were 2 or 3 instances during my walk in which one of them would be perched on a tree or cattail and then fly towards me. It would hover for a few seconds above my head before returning to its perch. After a brief rest, it would repeat the maneuver. At one point there was a whole flock of them circling overhead and I felt a bit like Tippi Hedren in The Birds.
Although I made several attempts to catch one of these guys in flight, only a few of the photos were any good.
I really need to get a nicer telephoto lens because the birds love to congregate off in the fields amongst the flowers.
Next time I shall bring my binoculars to get a better view of all the avian activity that I missed.
I later learned that just south of the prairie is the Audubon’s Goose Pond Sanctuary – you’d have thought that driving on Goose Pond Road would have given that away. So I missed the big pond and the observation area which includes a telescope to check out the water fowl. It’s now on my to-do list.
It was still morning when I left the prairie so I had time for another venture. Over the winter I heard about a county park just a few miles east of town - McCarthy Youth & Conservation County Park. As the name implies, it is a place where kids come to learn about nature through various programs. There are also equestrian trails, hiking trails, and whatnot. As with the wildlife viewing area, I put a visit to the park on my to-do list and I was excited to be able to finally check it out.
I parked and started walking to the trailhead. The wildlife greeted me immediately as I noticed a ground squirrel not too far away that was looking around, perhaps assessing how dangerous this human intruder was.
The trail began on the east side of the park and ran alongside a farm for a stretch. A group of cows were out in the field relaxing under a tree as a pair of sandhill cranes looked on at a safe distance when not pecking on the ground for breakfast.
The park features gentle hills so my walk was a fairly easy one. The sun shone brightly from the cloudless sky and it got distinctly warmer but it never became terribly hot. It seemed like every time I found an interesting plant and went in for a closer look, there were insects doing, er, it.
At one point I was at a crossroads. I could either take the trail around the wooded area or go through the woods. “Shade sounds nice,” I thought to myself and so I entered the woods.
While it was indeed noticeably cooler, I barely made it out alive as the mosquitos were in full force. I can’t complain too much as this was the first time all year that I’d encountered a swarm of them instead of just 1 or 2 stray bloodsuckers.
I emerged from the woods a half pint of blood lighter but was back on an open, sunny, and mosquito-free path. At one point I ran into some wild grapes.
What a gem of a park! The hiking is easy-going and I didn’t have to dodge too much horse poop. Most of the park is far enough away from the road that you don’t hear any cars and an all-too small section runs along the Koshkonong Creek. There’s a nice picnic area up in the woods too. Well, nice if you have some deet. I look forward to returning.
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Despite having played Dungeons & Dragons for 30+ years now, I have never been a fan of fantasy literature. While I’ve tried at various time to find something in the genre that interested me, I have never succeeded. Granted, I did read Lord of the Rings earlier this year but it’s like a founding text for nerds so I was obligated to get that under my belt. Well, I went ahead and tried another fantasy novel recently: The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick.
I think I heard of it a few years ago in an article that described it as not being your typical fantasy novel and figured it might appeal to me. It definitely was not your typical fantasy novel.
It takes place in a fantastical version of the 1990s, it seems, and begins on a Dickensian note. We meet Jane, a girl stuck laboring within the dark, satanic walls of a mechanical dragon factory. Jane eventually escapes and she becomes a vaguely Holden Caulfield type of character who is a bit aloof and full of sardonic quips. She is alienated in various ways and is working through your typical teenage issues of angst, finding one’s place, and so on.
To be sure, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter is not your typical fantasy novel but I didn’t find it particularly engaging or interesting. Maybe I am just too old for stories chronicling the adventures of a sassy teenager.
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I’ve been to a few concerts lately. I attended my first show at the new Red Rooster on Madison’s southeast side, where The Cash Box Kings, a blues band with members from Chicago and Madison, were playing.
They play Chicago blues – think Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf – along with some old school rock’n’roll and R&B. The band is fronted by singer Oscar Wilson who hails from Chicago’s south side while singer/harmonica player Joe Nosek is a Madisonian. I appreciate how the music has that 1940s/50s feel yet the lyrics address contemporary issues. Wilson bemoans the illegal downloading of his music (and thusly depriving him of income) in “Download Blues”. “Gotta Move Out to the Suburbs” is a lament for his beloved south side neighborhoods that are being gentrified.
The Red Rooster is a nice live music bar that is tucked into an otherwise industrial area. It was formerly the Knuckledown Saloon but has been remodeled and features fine beer, food, and music.
A couple weeks after that I was off to Milwaukee with some friends to see Blue Öyster Cult at Summerfest.
They’ve been around since 1970 or thereabouts so we probably didn’t have many chances to see them perform if we missed this show and so off we went. One of my friends got us free admission and free parking which was bonus.
I thought the show was a blast and sang along to the entirety of “Godzilla”.
With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down
Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them
Both the band and the audience seemed to be having a good time with smiles all around.
Most recently I went down to the La Fête de Marquette here in Madison to see the North Mississippi Allstars. The band hails from Hernando, Mississippi and plays blues/blues rock. The festival is supposed to be a celebration of all things French, including the French diaspora, so I don’t understand why they performed but I cannot complain. Perhaps the focus of the festival has changed without me noticing.
Whatever the case may be, the show was rockin’ and I had a blast. They’re a bit like the Allman Brothers but with more boogie. This was my first time seeing them although I’ve been a fan for almost 20 years now.
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Bonus photo. Here’s one of Grabby in the cat tree giving the gimlet eye to the humans.
By the time the "More Cowbell" sketch aired on Saturday Night Live in April 2000, Blue Öyster Cult were long past their heyday. 1981's Fire of Unknown Origin marked their commercial peak and was a great album to boot. Line-up changes and a couple hit-or-miss albums followed. Imaginos, which was released in 1988, was intended to be a solo album from drummer Albert Bouchard but the record company balked at something that didn't involve the whole group. Some contributions from his fellow band members were slapped onto the recordings and we had a new BÖC album - in name, anyway.
Ten years later another less than stellar album was released, Heaven Forbid. With only 3 of the original members, the old magic was gone and most of the album seemed a pale imitation of the days when the band was at the height of its powers.
And then in 2001 Blue Öyster Cult loosed Curse of the Hidden Mirror. I recall its release and also ignoring it. Nineteen years later with Covid raging, I gave it a listen and discovered that the band had come up with a classic. It is full of wonderfully melodic hard rock that hearkens back to the glory days of Fire of Unknown Origin. The band are tight with Bobby Rondinelli's drumming propelling the songs ahead with muscular precision as Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma crank out catchy riffs.
I absolutely adore "The Old Gods Return" which Bloom and Buck Dharma co-wrote with sci-fi author John Shirley. It has a great, tense riff that perfectly evokes B-horror movie dramatics as Bloom screams that humanity is blessedly lost "forever and ever". The lyrics have a definite Lovecraftian bent that mention "a six eyed god whose wings beat/In a time so odd, so very odd".
This is classic Blue Öyster Cult that is as good as anything they did during their classic period.
