The Corona Diaries Vol. 55: A Tale of Two Campuses

(late May 2022)

(Watch this entry's prelude.)

While it is a bit chilly outside, the signs of spring are undeniable. Our neighbors' chickens are no doubt grateful that winter is over and they can now roam the yard and peck away at something other than snow and not fall ass over teakettle when they find themselves mistakenly scratching on ice.

The lilac bushes in our yard are in bloom and smelling lovely. One is right outside of our bedroom window and every year I look forward to that ephemeral treat of having its scent waft in on a cool breeze.

A pair of peregrine falcons have made some nook or cranny of the power station downtown their home and the power company has kindly put a webcam up at the nest for the voyeuristic types among us. The falcons recently became parents as their eggs hatched for the world to see.

The "food forest" down a couple blocks from us has begun to bloom. It had been a large patch of grass at a corner but was made into a community garden a couple of years back. Presumably the summer will bring a series of farmers/makers markets at this spot just like last year. My crafty neighbors will hawk their wares while those with green thumbs will have the fruits of their gardens for sale. At least one of those gardens is rather large and outside of the city.

 

Somehow I managed to get a decent photograph of a bird. Sheer luck. Here's a grackle hanging out on the nearby railroad bridge with a rather stern look.

 

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Several entries ago I noted that a local artist had folks donate their Christmas trees to create a labyrinth down the street on the shores of Lake Monona. It turns out that Madison has quite a few labyrinths, most of which seem to be at some kind of religious institution. I discovered one at the front of a church on a recent bike ride.

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Meanwhile, back in Iowa…

It didn't take long to get to Iowa City from Cedar Rapids. Our hotel was just a block away from the theatre where Valerie June was playing that night. It was also about 2 blocks from the University of Iowa campus. I didn't realize until a few days beforehand that Iowa City was home to the Hawkeyes, my alma mater's sports rivals. Having been in Minneapolis a couple weeks previously, it seemed that we were unconsciously making a tour of Big Ten cities.

The hotel was decorated in an Iowa/Hawkeye motif with our room having a baseball theme which included a photo from Field of Dreams. The wallpaper in the hallway was corny (ahem) but appropriate. I suspect that most non-Iowans are like me in that they associate the state with corn. But a lot of meat processing happens here as well. (See, for example, the book Postville.)

The Frau opted for a little nap so I took the opportunity to wander around for a spell.

As is my wont, I began looking for ghost signs and found a few. Here's one for the Hotel Jefferson which the internet says opened in 1913. A couple more storeys were added in the 1920s which explains the multiple cornices or whatever you call those horizontal thingies. The hotel closed in 1967 and I think it's now offices.

There were plenty of murals to be had. Being a film buff, I especially appreciated this one.

Our hotel was right on a pedestrian mall that ran a block north-south on Dubuque Street and a couple blocks east-west on East College Street.

It was a nice, cozy area populated by bars, restaurants, and shops with space to sit outside. Although it had a similar feel to State Street here in Madison, this was a no motor vehicle affair. Judging by the specials listed in the tavern windows, it would no doubt see bands of roaming college kids come nightfall. (E.g. - 21 birthday pitchers of Busch Light at one place were to be had for a mere $25.) There was also a storefront theatre called the Riverside (it is 4-5 blocks from the Iowa River).

Across the street from it was a non-profit art house cinema called Film Scene. 

I was more than a little jealous as Madison has neither. In fact, our downtown has 0 dedicated cinemas these days. There are multi-purpose spaces, such as at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, that feature movies but do so only periodically. To make matters worse for cinephiles, our last remaining 2nd run movie theatre closed in 2021, and we are looking at another cinema shuttering its doors later this year as the mall it is located in remodels and the surrounding area gets redeveloped. While not an art house per se, it does show arty, independent, and foreign films. Plus, it is the last remaining commercial cinema on a bus route and not in a purely suburban area on the outskirts of town accessible by car alone.

I made my way to what seemed to be the oldest part of campus. There was this, the Old Capitol Museum.

It was surrounded by university buildings which gave the area a look that was familiar to me.

Iowa City:

Madison:

(Photo found here.)

This part of the U of I campus had its charms but the buildings, as evidenced by the photo above, were almost uniformly grey. It was a bit dreary walking amongst them. 

Around the back of the museum was a hill, just as we have here.

Iowa City:

Madison:

(Photo found here.)

While I am certainly biased, there can be little doubt to even the most objective observer that Madison wins this one.

Evening approached so it was back to the hotel to freshen up for the concert.

The Englert Theatre was built in 1912 as a vaudeville joint but it's now a multi-use space and is a lovely old spot for a show. Not knowing much about Valerie June, I was curious to see how many of us there would be in attendance. As it happened, most of the seats got filled and I was pleased to see a lot of people wearing masks as well.

 

One Chastity Brown began the night with a spirited set. She was thrilled as pie to be performing in front of people again. With no band to back her, she accompanied herself alternately on electric piano and guitar with the odd electronic beat. I really liked her new song, "Like the Sun".

(Photo found here.)

I first encountered Valerie June 2 or 3 years ago when I was looking for a particular version of the song "Tribulations" by Estil C. Ball as recorded by Alan Lomax and instead found June's lovely rendition. Before long I discovered that, in addition to folk, her music incorporates R&B, bluegrass, soul, pop – just about any American music you can name.

While I was largely unfamiliar with June's set, I did recognize a few of the songs. In the middle of the proceedings, she donned a cape that had rainbow-colored lights in it which made for quite a sight. At the end of her version of Nick Drake's "Pink Moon", she did a little dance as her band played on with the cape enshrouding her body before flowing over her head making for an enchanting luminous spectacle.

Like Chastity Brown, June was excited to be out performing in front of people after a Covid-induced hiatus. She and her band were surrounded by flowers that were beautiful and gave a spring vibe. Her tone was relentlessly upbeat, offering ebullient invitations to forget about those Covid blues and instead lose ourselves in the music. I cannot recall a concert where there was so much smiling to be seen onstage. 
 

It was a wonderful night with some great performances leaving me with a lot of music to investigate. And the Englert was just a lovely place to boot.

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Bonus photo. I saw this on a bike ride. Is it a tympanum? I wonder what business was there that was symbolized by swords and a helm.

 

(Continue to the postlude...)

The Corona Diaries Vol. 54: In Which Your Humble Narrator Finally Reads The Lord of the Rings and Learns the Ways of Eru Ilúvatar

(late May 2022)

(Watch this entry's prelude.)

One thing on my to-do list for 2022 was to finally read The Lord of the Rings. I'd read The Hobbit back in 7th grade and had attempted Tolkien's magnum opus about 20 years ago when Peter Jackson's movies were all the rage. At about halfway through The Two Towers I realized that I just couldn't take it anymore.

Considering I've been playing medieval fantasy role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons for most of my life, you'd think I'd be an aficionado of fantasy literature but I can't stand the stuff, generally speaking. Honestly, when I think back, I just cannot recall what it was that caused me to put down The Two Towers.

One day last fall I was role playing with the usual gaming suspects and the topic turned to the forthcoming TV series on Amazon which takes place in Tolkien's world of Middle Earth. I don't think this series is based on any specific book by Tolkien but rather takes bits and pieces from his various works and throws them together. Well, everyone but me had read The Lord of the Rings and thusly I was pretty lost in that conversation and had little to contribute beyond the simplistic questions of a novice nerd. Vowing to never be in such a position again, I resolved to get it under my belt once and for all come the new year.

Well, the new year came and I put paid to my resolution. I think being older and having read more medieval works made it easier. The books were fine and it was interesting to compare and contrast them to the films. I did have a lot of questions about various characters and events and some were answered in a car ride with a friend of mine who took about 25 miles to explain some things to me. (Roughly just east of Lake Mills to about Oconomowoc.) However, some of my questions were left unanswered and I was told to read The Silmarillion, another book by Tolkien in which he lays out his world in more detail including its creation by a godhead named Eru Ilúvatar and his minions which seem to roughly correspond to the hierarchy of angels in Catholic lore. (Seraphim, cherubim, archangels, etc.)

The Silmarillion is a lengthy tome and it's my understanding that some of it has that Book of Genesis feel with a bunch of so-and-so begat so-and-so kind of lists which does not make for the most exciting reading for me. Maybe next year.

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Back in late April or early May the botanist types at Olbrich Botanical Gardens here in Madison anxiously announced that one of their amorphophallus titanium specimens was preparing to bloom. Also known as the corpse flower, its impending blossoming was all over the news as it does so only once every 10-12 years and it lasts for a mere 24-48 hours. While in bloom, it releases an odor redolent of rotting flesh, hence the name.

I readily admit that I kept an eye on the news for notice of the flower having opened after initial reports came through saying that it was immanent. Olbrich Gardens is just a short bike ride from home and, while smelling the aroma of a corpse flower wasn't exactly on my bucket list, it is something of a rarity and I don't have that many blooms left in my lifetime.

***Peter Gabriel voice***

He came home to Madison
And made a present of the amorphophallus
To the botanical gardens at Olbrich

And then one day the word came down that Thunderbirds were go. I took half a day off from work and biked down to the gardens where I found my place in line - along with a couple hundred other people who were keen on getting a noseful of the putrescence.

After 45 minutes or so a gentleman who was walking by approached the lovely young women in front of me and admonished them that it took him about 3 hours from the time he got in line to the time he saw the flower.

Uff da!

Perhaps this was his way of hitting on them. "Hey babes, is standing in line boring you? Why don't you come with, me. I've got air conditioning back at my place."

Although it didn't rain, it was quite hot out. I had neglected to bring my headphones so I couldn't listen to the radio or a story on my phone. Instead I was treated to the whining of little children who were bored out of their skulls and incessantly petitioning their parents to go get ice cream instead. Oh, and I watched the birds and rabbits that call the grounds home or, at least, the ones that had stopped in that day for a visit.

Roughly two and a half hours later I found myself inside the conservatory. I crossed the bridge where my Frau and I exchanged our wedding vows and could see the flower in the distance as the odd quail wandered the mini-tropical forest off to one side. Then it was my turn to get up close to the flower.

Did I lean in and take a big whiff? You bet I did. What did it smell like? To me, it had the smell of a dead mouse that you found too late and so it sat rotting away in a box that you just opened. It wasn't very pungent but I suppose it was plenty to attract pollinators.

When I left, the line outside was significantly longer than when I got there. The Gardens extended their hours and people waited up to 4 hours to get a sniff.

********

When mid-May rolled around it had been nearly a week and a half since I'd attended a concert so my Frau and I jumped into my new (i.e. – gently used) car and we went west as Horace Greeley exhorted. We got as far as Iowa.

Our destination was Iowa City and the Englert Theatre where we were to see a performance by Valerie June. But first we stopped in Cedar Rapids.

The city is home to the African American Museum of Iowa which lies on the shore of the Cedar River. Neither of us had ever been to Cedar Rapids so it was nice to be somewhere completely new to us.

It was a really neat place with a series of permanent exhibits and one rotating exhibit that changed annually.

Things started with Africa before moving onto the Middle Passage and slavery in the United States.

Being a museum about African-Americans in Iowa, the emphasis on was black Iowans but there was plenty of general info.

I had no idea that there were sit-ins in Iowa. I suppose they were staged all over the country but when I think of a lunch counter sit-in, I think of the one at Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C. in February 1960. However, sit-ins were staged at the Katz Drug Store in Des Moines in 1948-49 and the museum had a mockup of the lunch counter there.

The rotating exhibit was all about redlining and was quite extensive. It did a really nice job of explaining housing discrimination through the years and would illustrate national trends with specific examples from the Hawkeye State.

In addition to doing a great job of integrating Iowa-specific history with the larger narrative of African-Americans in the United States, the museum also mixed portrayals of injustice with success stories and did so well. For every display of the horrors visited upon black people in this country, there was another celebrating their resilience and triumphs.

A most interesting and informative beginning to our weekend.

We then headed across the river to:

I had no idea that Cedar Rapids was home to an ethnic enclave of Czechs. Czech Village is a nice, cozy neighborhood full of shops and restaurants. There were plenty of people wandering in and out of the stores and filling the seats at restaurants and taverns.

The familiar heraldic lion was a common sight.

We were hungry and thirsty so we stopped in at Lion Bridge Brewing Company to slake our thirst and satisfy our hunger. There were several beers on offer that sounded appealing so we got a flight to sample them all.

I was happy to see that, in addition to trendier beer styles, they paid tribute to the neighborhood with a couple of Czech-style beers including a pilsner which was very, very tasty. The helles brewed with smoked malt was wonderful and full of smoky goodness. Another brew I found to be tasty was a coffee-laced Kölsch with its light body and luscious coffee roastiness.

The food was good too. My Frau and I enjoyed our hamburgers smeared with jalapeno beer cheese.

After lunch we walked down the street and discovered Sykora Bakery. I was not familiar with Czech pastries but was unsurprised to find a lot of poppy seed fillings and a variety of kolaches.

Those things on top were called "Bohemian Burgers" and featured a generous dose of poppy seed between two halves of a light, fluffy bun. Luckily I didn't have to pass a drug test in the near future.

With our hands full of bags and boxes, we headed to the car. The afternoon had passed swiftly and we still had to make our way to Iowa City.

********

Bonus photo. I used a similar picture with flares in a previous entry. But Piper looks very cute here so I had to throw it in.

(Go to this entry's postlude.)

It's a Boat, Silly: Muddy Tugger by 7 Hills Brewing Company

The Frau and I recently heeded Horace Greeley's exhortation to go west and made a trek to lovely Dubuque, Iowa. When we arrived, it was roughly high noon and our stomachs were indicating that it wouldn't be a bad idea for us to fill them. We made our way to the heart of the city's Millwork District and stopped in at 7 Hills Brewing Company. Apparently Dubuque thinks it's Rome as "7 Hills" is one of the city's nicknames.

Being in the Millwork District, the building 7 Hills calls home has a manufacturing past -  it was a lumber warehouse in its previous life. And so it should come as no surprise that the brewpub has that repurposed industrial vibe with vaulted ceilings and exposed structural elements cozying up to finished walls and bar/restaurant accoutrement. The brewpub opened in the summer of 2017 and, from what I gather, it was an early adopter in an area that continues its transformation into a place where you can get a craft beer and a fancy meal instead of one where you'd get a new door or set of cabinets.

We ordered a 4 beer flight. Town Clock is an American pilsner made with corn. I was in Iowa. I had to get the beer with the corn in it – when in Rome, right? It was exactly as I expected and a sample glass proved plenty but it was crisp and refreshing in the 90 degree heat. It Gose Lick Swallow Suck is a margarita Gose which was fine in the heat but, again, a few ounces was plenty. Remedy, a cherry wheat ale, was more to my liking with a lovely fruity tartness. Lastly, there was Green Teatotaler, a cream ale brewed with green tea. The Frau really liked this beer and I agreed with her. Its herbal dryness was tasty and, like the earlier beers, just hit the spot on a very hot day.

The food was good and the restrooms had hoppy signs.

On the way out, I picked up a mixed 6 pack so that we could bring some Green Teatotaler home and try some of their other brews including Muddy Tugger.

"Muddy Tugger" sounded like a mildly kinky name until I looked at the label closer and figured out that it referred to the boats that aid and abet shipping on the Mississippi River. It is a nut brown ale made with oats and buckwheat honey, neither of which are, to my knowledge, used much in the brewing of brown ale these days but I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn either or both were common ingredients back in the day.

The brown ale originated in England and has referred to various styles of beer through the ages and so the brown ales of today likely bear only a modest resemblance to the nut brown bowl belonging to little Sir John in the old folk song "John Barleycorn". While American brewing heritage owes no small debt to English traditions, no doubt brewers here usually brew something similar but not totally the same as what their cousins across the ocean do. I think of a brown ale as having some sweetness along with caramel flavor, a bit of roastiness, and some hops struggling to keep up.

Muddy Tugger filled my glass with a lovely mahogany liquid with a short but attractive tan head that stuck around long enough for me to get a photograph which does not do the beer justice. The beer smelled mainly of malty sweetness but also some honey, a bit of grainy roastiness, and a tad of spicy hops.

My tongue noted a nice firm fizz followed by roasted grain and malty sweetness with a some spicy/grassy hop flavors underneath. I didn't catch any tastes that I could discern as being from honey until the beer warmed up a bit at which point I think I did, but only just. I am unsure if I was simply unable to discern the honey flavor or whether it was genuinely buried in the mix by the generous malts like Steve Hackett's guitar on Seconds Out. Buckwheat honey has a distinctive grainy/malty taste which endows mead made from it with a flavor that stands in stark contrast to that made from other varieties. My guess is that it can easily get lost in a beer. At the finish, that malty sweetness faded to a spicy hop bitterness giving it a rather prominent dryness.

Despite not tasting much honey, this was a good little beer. It had a medium body which was fairly smooth owing to those oats, but it wasn't too sweet as that fizz helped steer it away from a syrupy overload. The dry finish was unexpected but welcome as it made for a nice contrast to the malty sweetness.

Junk food pairing: Since one traditionally pairs beer with cheese, grab a bag of some kind of Keto-friendly cheddar cheese crisps like Whisps. Their cheesy goodness will limit your carbohydrate intake and give you a healthy dose of protein while a delectable savory-salty combo will help cut through the beer's big malty flavor.