Day Tripping: Wherein Your Humble Narrator Makes a Trek to Chicago To See a White Hen...er...see White Rooster

Having successfully inveigled someone to accompany me to Chicago to see a play, we headed out on a chilly Madison morning. I had no desire to try to find/pay for parking near the Magnificent Mile so we parked (for free) out in the exurbs and took the train into the city. A day pass for Metra and another for the CTA was less than $10, much cheaper than parking downtown would be. Plus the commute would be less stressful and more fun since we could just relax and watch the scenery go by. Or read. Or do a crossword puzzle.

We boarded at a terminus so the car was fairly empty.

However, at the first stop oodles of baseball fans boarded as the Cubs were playing the Mets that afternoon. When we disembarked at Union Station, the platform was full of people who were no doubt headed to the nearest Red Line L station where they'd catch a train that would deposit them just outside Wrigley Field.

This reminded me of something I heard several years ago when I inquired as to why Madison Metro Transit does not advertise its services as a way to get to Badger games. (This may have changed since then.) If you go to the Cubs' website you'll see directions for using public transportation for gameday. The CTA advertises itself as a cheap and convenient way to get to Wrigley Field.

On the other hand, the UW Badgers site avoid all mention of public transportation as far as I can see. What I heard several years ago was that Madison Metro is contractually obligated not to advertise their service as a way of getting to Badger games in order to lessen competition with for-profit shuttles. True? Still the case?

While there are bus stops on a couple maps at the Madison Foward FC site, their guide tells you how to get to Madison from O'Hare but nothing about using public transit to get to Breese Stevens Field from within Madison. Lame. Very lame.

Kudos to the Mallards for mentioning how to get to their games via the bus and for actually putting more - a lot more - than just "You can get to us via the bus - see Madison Metro's website for any and all info." They list the routes servicing Warner Park, the closest stops for each, etc.

While it was a bit cloudy out, it was much warmer than the last time we were crossing the Chicago River on Adams.

Our first stop was to be Elephant & Castle where my companion could indulge their love of meat pies with a flight of them just like last time. On the way there we again walked by The Rookery. It's a lovely building that was finished in 1888 and had its lobby redone by Frank Lloyd Wright 17 years later. I am told that my grandfather worked there.

Sometimes I get lost in thought as I walk around The Loop thinking about all of my family members that are no longer around who used to work and play and shop there. I can almost see my grandfather and great uncles walking down the streets clad in suit and tie wearing hats, taking puffs from cigarettes as they strolled along. I can recall many fond memories of my mother taking me to Marshall Fields at Christmastime when I was a boy, of my aunt taking me to the symphony as an adult, etc.

There is just so much great architecture in Chicago - downtown and elsewhere. We also saw the Chicago Board of Trade building with that statue of Ceres on top on our way to the restaurant. 

For lunch I had - quelle surprise - French onion soup.

When exactly I became enamored of this stuff has been lost in time but my love of it continues unabated here in 2026. Elephant & Castle has this faux English pub thing going on and regardless of the paucity of English beers on the menu it does seem to always have football on its TVs. That day all of the screens were showing a match between Manchester City and Arsenal. To one side of our table was a group of 20-something Americans enjoying themselves. Behind my companion was a table of two women from Aberdeen, Scotland who were very vocal about the game and let the TVs know what they thought of various calls by the referees. I am not a fan of soccer/football but it was made all the more tolerable with these two ladies and their loud, irate brogues nearby. And, I must admit that I kept thinking the crowd was going to start singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" at any moment for the entire time we were there.

Also, I got some big Dolph Lundgren vibes from Manchester City's resident Norwegian player, Erling Haaland. Tell me I'm wrong.

When we were finished eating, we headed to the nearest Red Line L stop and caught a train to the ultima thule of the Magnificent Mile. Lookingglass Theatre is in the Chicago Water Tower Water Works building which means we got to walk by the Chicago Water Tower which survived the Great Chicago Fire. It had been decades since I had seen it in-person.

The north end of Michigan Avenue was well-populated with folks clutching many a bag from a Magnificent Mile retailer. While I don't know if the street's stores and restaurants have fully bounced back from their Covid lockdown nadirs, the street looked quite a bit more populated than other sections of it did a few years back. The pavements teemed with intense energy, one might say.

The Water Works building seemed to still be operational.

It also housed what I presume is the tiniest branch of the Chicago Public Library which consisted of just a few shelves and was smaller than my living room.

The play we had come to see was White Rooster.

When I read about its mix of Chinese folklore, the Western genre, and Americana along with a puppet thrown in for good measure, I was sold.

It takes place in an old mining town where the golden veins have dried up and ghosts quite literally share it with the living. After an introductory song, the play began properly with a sheet dividing the stage in half with a young lady named Min on one side and another woman who proves to be a ghost living in the attic of Min's family's home on the other. Backlighting throws their shadows onto the sheet to an effective and mildly unnerving, er, effect.

Min falls for a young man named Pong who dies in a mining accident along with Min's father, John. Pong's grandparents convince Min to marry Pong's spirit which is in the guise of the titular bird. This bit about marrying a white rooster which is inhabited by a dead lover's soul is apparently a bit of Chinese folklore.

Hilarity ensues.

While there were many darkly comic aspects here there were also some really dramatic scenes too. The one where Min's mother Maria tells a ghost story was quite intense with its use of shadow puppetry, changing light colors, and backlighting which projected action onto sheets. I mean it was seriously good. It drew me into the dark tale with its visual splendor and its rhythmic dialogue in a frenzied manner similar to the juke joint dance scene in Sinners.

If a rooster puppet appearing at the end of act 1 wasn't enough, a rooster-man chimera is introduced in act 2. Is he Pong? Or another man from a couple centuries ago whose actions still hang over the town?

Just as the mines are tapped out, so too are the townsfolk. They are ragged and weary and it felt like the youthful Min was the only sign of life in a dead town where the past will not let go.

White Rooster was simply wonderful. "Amazing!" declared my fellow theater goer. I've gotta keep an eye on this Lookingglass Theatre Company.

After the show we grabbed dinner at a little hole in the wall Thai joint, Silver Spoon, over on Rush Street near Superior. It was a really nice little place in the basement of a building that had a sushi joint on the first floor making for a pan-Asian experience on the 700 block of N. Rush.

I loved the cucumber salad as it was not overly sweet.

My main course was Nam Tok Salad which proved to be much the same thing as the Crying Dragon at Thai Boat Noodle in Sun Prairie, though the beef was cut differently. It too had cucumber in the mix and, all told, I think I ate about 4 cucumbers at that meal. But I am not complaining.

Since we had plenty of time before our train left, we walked back to Union Station and took in the sights.

"I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" popped into my head as we walked by Marina Towers.

Walking west on Adams we were bathed in the warming rays of the sun but blinded too.

Water taxi!

The drive back to Madison was uneventful. My companion and I chatted about the play and how we both adored it. And now I am contemplating my next trip to Chicago.

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.

Public transit flashback

My R bus didn't show yesterday morning so I instead endeavored to catch an A or F. Standing on the bus platform as cars zipped past gave me flashbacks to my youth in Chicago when I waited for trains on El platforms as traffic on the expressway roared past me and the biting winds tore through my coat and bit the tender, unwrinkled skin of my face.

At least the traffic on University Avenue is quieter than the Kennedy.

New bus service to the burbs

Madison Metro Transit (or should that be Madison's Metro Transit?) recently announced new bus service to Monona and Verona.

The service to Monona sees routes G and L losing their no stop zones along Monona Drive and Broadway while an hourly route 38 will go through the town's Civic Campus before heading to its eastern terminus, the Dutch Mill Park & Ride. Along the way it will pass by the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Edna Taylor Conversation Park. Hopefully some folks can take advantage of the new service and go do some hiking and those lovely parks. Unfortunately, the 38 only run during the week so, if I want to take a hike at either of them, I'll still be biking or driving.

On the other hand, I can now take a bus to Viet Hoa to get my tom yum soup paste or grab an ice cream in Paradise or a loaf of Pan de Muerto at Monona Bakery and Eatery.

The new service to Verona is also, sadly, weekday only. The D2 route will continue on to Verona instead of terminating on McKee Road at Maple Grove. The article I have read, which seems to be an edited version of the Wisconsin State Journal one, which is paywalled, says: "Route D2, which currently provides peak hour service in the early morning and late afternoon, will expand to regular daytime service."

But this is not true - just look at the D2 schedule. It runs every 30 minutes all day, not just at peak hours. It would be nice to be able to take the bus to downtown Verona on the weekends but this extension of the D2 is for Epic employees, in the main.

A couple other Madison public transit items.

First, Steven Vance of Streetsblog Chicago took a ride on our BRT and wrote about it: "Taking a ride on Madison’s new (and quick) bus rapid transit line". Overall, he gained a positive view of our BRT system.

Finally, the city has released ridership data showing that it has increased over numbers from late 2023.

Madison Metro Transit Adventures

On a bus ride home some night last week, I stepped aboard and found that the driver had decided on mood lighting.

After a short time, he turned the lights on and I was able to get some reading in. They remained so until towards the end of my ride when they curiously went dark again. Luckily it seemed that the passengers were young and had eyes that could work well enough in the Stygian gloom.

On another ride last week, a C bus broke down at University and Lake. Patiently we waited for a replacement. It eventually came but, instead of picking up where he had left off, the driver sped up E. Johnson. We passengers looked at one another in confusion. The driver turned down Ingersoll and took us to the bus barn at E. Washington where we waited even longer.

Although our patience was strained, we sat there quietly. For my part, I got some more reading done. After too long what we thought was an eastbound bus finally departed. But it only went a few blocks and dropped us off at Jenifer & Ingersoll and then went west. An eastbound C came after about 10 minutes and we were all on our way. But we were absolutely flummoxed as to why the eastbound bus had abandoned its route.

The lesson here is to catch a D bus, if possible, when your C bus is crippled.

Madison Metro Transit has mercy

Our BRT platforms have misericords! Monks would feel right at home.

As the late Glenn Frey once noted

...the heat is on. Our fancy new BRT bus platforms have heaters and they are now running with the cooler autumnal weather.

Train a comin' goin' clack, clack, clack

Some good news for Wisconsin. Wisconsin has received $73 million to improve passenger rail.

From Urban Milwaukee:

The funding will pay to construct a two-track mainline through the Muskego Yard, the large railyard in the Menomonee Valley. Currently, many freight trains avoid the yard and run through the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to avoid various height, speed and operational constraints in the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railyard. But in doing so, the freight trains reduce capacity at the state’s premier passenger train facility.

This project would likely bring an 8th daily Hiawatha trip to fruition.

The article also notes that the new Borealis route, which goes from Chicago to St. Paul, has serviced its 100,000th passenger ahead of schedule.

The new line, which launched in May, between Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul saw its 100,000 ride last week.

“Reaching 100,000 passengers in less than six months is a testament to the good things that can happen when we provide a service that is needed,” said Minnesota Transportation Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger. “We are very excited to reach this milestone and look forward to strengthening our partnerships with communities, as well as federal, state and local governments, and Amtrak to continue providing a safe, reliable, and sustainable transportation option.”

An engineering plan associated with the project previously estimated that 124,000 trips would be taken on the line in the first year.

Now if we could only get a Hiawatha stop here in Madison. Or Empire Builder. Or Borealis.

The Corona Diaries Vol. 115: I need a new kringle pusher

(Listen to the sound track.)

(late October 2023)

With my adventures up north done for the year, I settled in to enjoy the autumn close to home. The two maple trees down the street regaled me with their gorgeous colors on my walks to and from the bus stop.

Speaking of bus stops, reconstruction of an arterial street near us was finally finished and, in addition to a fancy, new bike path and pleasantly smooth pavement, I got a new bus shelter.

I feel like an aristocrat when I’m inside it on dark, rainy mornings, which are becoming increasingly common, as it has a light. An amenity! A minor one, I grant you, but it’s just weird to me after having spent years and years of chilly, wet autumn dawns waiting for the bus in dark, spartan shelters.

This new public transit Xanadu was situated slightly farther away from the corner than the old one and, as Fate (or a devious streets planner with a wicked sense of humor) would have it, right next to a walnut tree. There was a recent dry morning when I was standing there and one of the fruits fell, coming within an inch of my head. Lesson learned, though I suppose it would have been a good excuse to call in sick had I taken a walnut on the noggin.

"Sorry, Boss, but I cannot work today as a walnut fell on my head and I think I have a concussion."

No doubt my boss would have suffered damage to her eyes from rolling them so much.

Walking out from our driveway one day, I noticed this suggestive mushroom sprouting from the mulch on the north side of our house.

Of course my inner 12 year-old giggled maniacally. I believe this is commonly known as a stinkhorn mushroom and some mycologist endowed it with the highly appropriate botanical name of phallus impudicus which translates as "shameless phallus".

On a recent bike ride I ran across these skeleton flamingos.

Despite being well out of flamingo habitat range, Madison has a thing for them. Well, the yard decorations, anyway. Back in September 1979, some UW students decided to pull a prank and put 1,000+ plastic pink flamingos on Bascom Hill.

The incident became a part of local lore and the plastic pink flamingo became an icon, of sorts, of Madison. And so you occasionally see a yard full of them, there’s a flamingo mural on the side of laundromat in the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood, and the bird features in the annual holiday lights display at Olin Park, amongst other appearances.

********

In my spare time, I prepped for Gamehole Con, Madison’s premiere gaming convention as I was to run a few sessions of the Call of Cthulhu role playing game.

One scenario takes place in the 1950’s and begins with the players driving down a county road in a torrential downpour. They seek shelter at an isolated rural diner/gas station and take comfort in its endless supply of cheap coffee but, unbeknownst to them, there’s a nasty alien entity lurking in the woods. Although just a ball of light, it is a mindless, unfeeling devourer of the vital energies that animate living beings. There are some locals at the diner, some of whom are harboring dark secrets.

I tried to make a spooky atmosphere with people sometimes catching a light zipping through the trees from the corners of their eyes. The players eventually run into this refulgent killing machine and hilarity ensues.

The other scenario took place in the small town of Blackwater Creek, MA in 1926. A recent archeological dig had uncovered the resting place of a small fragment of the evil god Shub-Niggurath. This hideous remnant of malevolence infects one of the townsfolk who retreats to a nearby cave. She transmogrifies into a horrific creature from whose body flows enough Shub-Niggurath amniotic fluid to fill a creek. Hilarity ensues.

A couple years ago I started my own tradition of serving kringle to my players. The kringle is a Danish pastry shaped in a ring of sweet-filled dough. Early one morning I walked over to Lane’s Bakery to pick up my order. This involved traversing the lesser used parts of the convention center grounds until you get to an ill-lit gravel street. From there things get brighter but it’s a bit of a spooky walk in the antelucan hours.

It was clear and chilly out but at least this afforded me a good glimpse of Orion. You know it's autumn when you see the hunter in the southern sky.

I bought a highly seasonal pumpkin kringle, no frosting. While I love sweets, I find that, as I've gotten older, I want to taste the dough more, I want my tongue to revel in the delicious results of those Maillard reactions instead of being subjected to a mindless blast of sugar. Frosting only serves to obscure the grainy goodness.

The kringle was wonderful but the trip to Lane’s was bittersweet as the bakery was to close in December after 69 years. It was genuinely sad to hear the news of the impending loss of a Madison institution and this now leaves me without a source of fresh kringle within walking distance of the convention center. The only place I can think of in the area that makes the ringed goodness is a bakery in Stoughton, about 10-12 miles south of Madison.

It's easy enough to find kringle in grocery stores as the Racine Danish Kringles brand is ubiquitous. However, I taste margarine or imitation butter flavoring in their dough. Perhaps I ought to check out some grocery stores I don't usually shop at to see what's on offer. There are surely other brands on supermarket shelves around town.

In addition to running games, I played them as well. A highlight was the Blade Runner role playing game. The movie is an all-time favorite of mine and I was really looking forward to trying it out. I was not disappointed.

I played the role of the chain smoking, grizzled veteran cop. My fellow players and I investigated the “retirement”, a.k.a. – murder, of a replicant, i.e. – a synthetic person. Our sleuthing led us around to various locations in the Los Angeles of the future where we met a slew of suspicious replicants and various human members of the criminal underground.

The game was really well done with nice, high quality supplements.

The dice were funky too with one side having an eye, a recurring motif in the movie, and an origami unicorn, something made by Gaff, one of the cops in the film.

The game had an intriguing storyline, well fleshed out characters, and some genuinely thought-provoking thematic material. Really fun.

In the dealers room someone was selling appropriately themed coffee and I bought a bag of Kraken. Who doesn’t like tentacled sea monsters?

When I wasn't gaming, I was to be found spending time hanging out with friends and BSing. One night someone in my cohort told us that there was a group of well-heeled gamers from (present day) Los Angeles at the con. Apparently they like to game in style as they had brought a butler with them who had catered a particular gaming session with a portable build your own taco bar. A butler at a gaming convention filled with unwashed masses of gamer dorks is as incongruous a pairing as anchovies and ice cream. Plus there was just something intuitively wrong about a group of rich white guys bringing a black butler to the con. The whole idea just had bad 19th century vibes.

When I heard this tale, I realized that I had run into the guy in an elevator. Anyone not clad in a black t-shirt or in costume at a gaming convention sticks out like a priest at a brothel. He must have had a good haberdasher back in L.A. because he was dressed to the nines making me look like a serf in contrast. I had greeted him as I stepped into the elevator and he seemed in good spirits as he flashed a smile. Recalling the encounter, that old TV show Soap popped into my head about that rich white family who employed a wise-cracking black butler.

I hope his employer treats him well and that he was generously compensated as being a non-gamer at a gaming convention is surely like being trapped in one of the circles of Hell.

During another late night BS session, a friend revealed that he was contemplating running the epic Call of Cthulhu scenario Beyond the Mountains of Madness.

It's a sequel to the H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness which chronicles a 1920s Antarctic expedition that, like everything in Lovecraft's tales, goes horribly wrong. In Beyond, players are sent on another expedition to the icy wastes to try and discover what happened to the first one. No doubt it is a tale of great woe and I fully expect my character to go insane and/or die.

Beyond is a massive scenario that takes days and days to go through but my friend would like to try to condense it into 3-4 long sessions at next year's Gamehole Con. He asked if I and another friend of ours would be anchor players who would commit to all of the lengthy sessions and help out other players as needed to keep the game moving forward.

We did.

And so, if this plan comes to fruition, it will be an epic, chilling adventure next year. Plus it has the added bonus of delaying having to find a bakery near the convention center for a couple years.

I had a blast at Gamehole. Many characters died heinous deaths in the games I ran and the games I played were great fun. Plus I got to hang out with friends deep into a few alcohol-soaked nights where we BSed and those of us who knew my late brother indulged in some warm reminiscing.

********

A week or so after the convention I was off to West Chicago to meetup with a couple friends who were to accompany me to the lovely Arcada Theater in nearby St. Charles to see a concert by Martin Barre.

Barre was the guitarist in the progressive rock band Jethro Tull for 40+ years before being unceremoniously booted by band leader Ian Anderson back in 2011 or thereabouts. Since then he has assembled his own group, recorded 5 albums, and performed many a concert. He is currently on the "A Brief History of Tull" tour.

It was a great show! Despite being in his 70’s, Barre had a lively stage presence. Although I couldn't play a guitar if my life depended on it, I regard him as one of the best guitarists ever to come out of the rock world. He always seems to play the right notes, to play what a song needs instead of demanding to be heard strictly as a virtuoso. As a jack of all trades kind of player, he can do big, heavy riffs like "Aqualung" or judiciously add color to an otherwise acoustic song like "Velvet Green".

We got a good overview of Jethro Tull’s catalog with “My God” being a highlight. It opens quietly with some gentle acoustic guitar adorned by piano. But when those big slashing electric guitar chords came thundering in, well, they sent a chill up my spine. The flute solo in the middle was replaced by some of Palladio, a contemporary classical piece by composer Karl Jenkins and it fit seamlessly.

The band's playing was tight, energetic, and everyone seemed to be having fun and this is what live music is all about.

********

Before heading back to Madison the next day, I bid my friends farewell and went to see Anatomy of a Fall which was playing at the cinema in St. Charles. I hadn’t seen anything to indicate it was going to open back home so I jumped at the chance to see this French film by Justine Triet that had won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year.

Sandra is a novelist who lives with her husband Samuel in a chalet up in the French Alps along with their son Daniel and his dog, Snoop. As the movie opens, a woman has come to their home to interview Sandra. But while they are chatting, Samuel cranks up some music upstairs where he is remodeling the top floor. Sandra and her interlocutor agree to reschedule the interview for a quieter time.

Daniel and Snoop go for a walk and, upon their return, find Samuel's body lying on the snow in front of the house. Daniel screams prompting Sandra to come out of the house where she sees her husband’s body.

Samuel is pronounced dead at the scene and Sandra is accused of having pushed him out of a window. She hires a lawyer who is also a friend and goes about defending herself as she consoles her traumatized son.

One of the great things about this movie is that it sends you down dead ends and leaves you wondering. It’s a murder mystery, but only just. We don’t see things from the point of view of a detective but rather watch as life continues for Sandra and Daniel. As a courtroom drama unfolds, we learn about Samuel and Sandra’s marriage troubles. The movie left me alternately convinced of Sandra’s innocence and thinking that she may have done it through scenes of her in the throes of grief and ones where she is cold, almost emotionless.

And those courtroom scenes were interesting. I don’t know how true they were to the real French judicial system but they mirrored the scenes in Saint Omer, another French film about a woman put on trial for murder, that I saw back in January.

Prosecutors are apparently given free rein to hector the accused and their witnesses are allowed to be openly hostile to them. And here no one stops Sandra when she answers a question only to go off on tangent filled monologues for minutes at a time. French trials seem to be able to change into free form routines.

I was fed revelations about Sandra and Samuel’s marriage in small bites almost throughout, which was addictive, and pushed me towards thinking she was guilty only to have the movie offer me something else to get me going in the other direction. 

The truth about everything here was elusive whether it be how Samuel died or how strong or weak his marriage to Sandra was. I found myself questioning everything. I loved how the movie, largely through Sandra’s lengthy discourses on the stand, talked about the intricate complexities of marriage as well as those of self-assessment. Samuel’s death gives Sandra cause to reassess her relationship to him as well to reflect on her own feelings, thought, and behaviors.

I adored Anatomy of a Fall. I loved the way it weaved an intense look at a failing marriage into a murder mystery that did its best not to give much in the way of definitive answers.

 

********

In preparation for Halloween, my Frau got her costume together. It was of the creepy dead girl in the Japanese horror movie Ring.

Speaking of Halloween, a friend sent me this photo which he swears was taken in Chicago.

********

Bonus photo. This is a statue of Dred and Harriet Scott that I saw on a visit to St. Louis several years back. Their bid for freedom began at the Old Courthouse there in 1846, though I suppose it was quite new back then.

However you say it, this beer is OK by me: O-Katz by Urban Chestnut Brewing

I may be a bit late with this review but, if breweries are going to release their Oktoberfest beers during those days when Sirius follows the sun, then I can review one in the bowels of winter.

And I do mean bowels. Jebus, it's cold out! Considering all the bitching about Madison Metro's new bus network and all of the problems riders are encountering, I am thankful that everything went smoothly yesterday. It was about -10°F in the morning when I trekked out to the bus stop. My C bus was on-time and the driver greeted me with his usual warm demeanor and welcoming bonhomie. I look forward to the temperature being above 0° the next time I am waiting for the bus.

For once I did not go to Chicago (or St. Louis, for that matter) to enjoy some Urban Chestnut beer. Instead a friend of mine got a hold of a cache via a friend of his who had apparently ventured south and I ended up being the beneficiary of this kindly stranger's travels and refined taste in beer. My friend gifted me a 4-pack of UC's O-Katz Oktoberfest just before Jesus' birthday (observed).

O-Katz is short for Oachkatzlschwoaf which means "tail of a squirrel". I do not understand this cultural reference but UC's Bavarian-born brewmaster, Florian Kuplent, does and that's what counts. It wasn't that long ago that I was enjoying some of his Dunkel in more temperate weather. The stuff was quite tasty and I expected no less here with his Oktoberfest.

I will note here that, since I took this slightly out of focus photograph, I have gotten a new phone whose auto focus seems to be a bit better on these close-up snaps. Methinks the auto white balance it still lacking but that's a gripe for another time.

My O-Katz poured a hazy gold. I assumed it was a protein haze or whatever you call it because I have a hard time thinking that a Bavarian brewmaster wouldn't centrifuge or filter an Oktoberfest to perfect burnished aureal clarity. A palpable sense of relief washed over me after seeing the beer's color. I felt bad because I know I shouldn't have; I knew the brewmaster is Deutsch. But I've been exposed to American Oktoberfests for so long that I am just accustomed to them looking and tasting like someone melted a bunch of Werther's candy and added booze.

Of course a Bavarian would take the more "authentic" route and go pale.

My pour had a lovely off-white head that lasted an average amount of time and I spied a fair number of bubbles inside.

I knew I was in for a real treat when I took a whiff and smelled bread and grass. The kids can keep their aromatic melanges of tropical fruits most of them have never eaten or even seen in their lives and I'll take the Brot und Gras. Smelling that heavenly combo sets my Teutonic blood flowing with extra vigor.

My tongue was greeted by the golden elixir like it was a conquering hero as wave after wave of Maillard triumph washed over it. That bready taste was simply marvelous! There was some honeyed sweetness, but just a bit. Spicy hops lurked underneath all of the malty goodness and kept things balanced.

On the swallow, the bready taste gently fades as peppery/grassy hops come in to cleanse the palate with a medium dose of bitterness which led to a satisfyingly dry finish.

As Milhouse Van Houten is wont to say, that's good squishy!

O-Katz is on a very short list of American Oktoberfests that obviate the need to buy Paulaner Wiesn in September. Alas, it is not available here in Wisconsin. Too bad because this beer is just great. Plenty of bready goodness wrapped in a perfect mix of spicy and grassy hops inside a luscious light-medium bodied brew with just the right amount of fizz.

Junk food pairing: For the full Gateway to the West experience, pair your Oachkatzlschwoaf with a bag of Old Vienna (of St. Louis) Southern Style Sweet & Spicy BBQ potato chips.

Monona may get Madison Metro bus service

This was nice to see: Monona plans to join Madison Metro bus system. There's a lot of work and negotiation and money to change hands before buses start serving Monona but it'd be nice to be able to take the bus to various places on and near Monona Drive such as Viet Hoa, the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, et al.

We may get an Amtrak stop yet

I was happy to read that the Federal Railroad Administration has bestowed $2.5 million on the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to investigate the expansion of passenger rail in the state. It sounds like $500,000 of it will be used to plan for extending Amtrak's Hiawatha line to Madison from Milwaukee.

As of now, Amtrak projects the initial trip times from Madison to Milwaukee will take one hour and 48 minutes, while the ride from Madison to Chicago will take three hours and 18 minutes.

The article notes that the city has selected 6 sites as possible locations for a train station:

The city is considering six potential areas: near the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus, downtown near Monona Terrace, on First Street and East Washington Avenue, on the near east side to the west of Fair Oaks Avenue, the site of the former Oscar Mayer plant, and lastly, near the Dane County Regional Airport.

I don't know what conventional wisdom says about locating your intercity train station. I'd bet most people using the train to come to Madison would be heading downtown or to campus. They may catch a cab or shuttle to the Epic campus in Verona, but they'll likely not want to get dropped off on the north side. Just a guess.

Should the station be in close proximity to other transit? Should it go to the airport? I can't see many people taking the train just to get to the airport. The new intercity bus depot, if there is going to be one, looks like it's to be built at the development taking over the Lake Street Ramp. No rails near that place. I'm thinking that the station should be downtown or near campus in close proximity to the forthcoming BRT lines.

Personally, I'd like the station to be downtown - in the DOA building as was planned back in 2010 or whenever it was. I have a friend who lives in downtown Chicago about a 15 minute walk from Union Station. I'd love to be able to jump on a C bus, get dropped off outside the train station, take the Hiawatha to Chicago, get my ass kicked at a war game of miniatures where I lose the Battle of Stalingrad despite cheating and having the atomic bomb, and then take the train home.

With the Republicans at the statehouse hostile to Madison getting passenger rail and a tight budget, I won't hold my breath for Madison to get an Amtrak stop in my lifetime. But hope springs eternal.

The Grand Redesign - Second Thoughts

A brief follow-up on my previous entries (here and here) about the new Madison Metro bus network.

In one of those posts, I noted that we now have automated announcements letting passengers know of connection opportunities. A good idea but I felt the execution was a bit ham-fisted. I noticed this week that these announcements have been changed.

They used to be like:

"Possible connection opportunities: 

route A

route B

route C

route L

route 28"

and so on with "route" being pronounced as "root".

Now the announcements go something like:

"Nearby connections:

routes A, B, C, L, 28"

and so on with "route" being pronounced like "rout".

It's now a more concise announcement and, in my opinion, clearer because the word "route" isn't repeated. I hope it's helping. As for the pronunciation, I find that change to be really odd. I wonder what precipitated that.

Yesterday I stayed a little later at work than I normally do and missed my usual A bus. I've gotta say that it was really nice to have to wait only about 15 minutes for the next one instead of 30 or so minutes as I would have had to before the network redesign.

I mainly take the A and C buses and I feel like I did when I lived in Chicago. I can just show up at a stop (most of the time) and know that a bus will be along in fairly short order instead of worrying that I've got a 30-60 minute wait.

Frequency is freedom.

Lastly, I want to say that I am disappointed in the media coverage of the bus network changes. Prior to the implementation of the changes last month, articles seemed even-handed. Some will benefit, others won't. But now the articles I've read really focus on the latter group. I guess if an industry's motto is "If it bleeds, it leads", then I shouldn't be surprised that the squeaky wheels will get the column space.

The articles I've read have a token happy rider but give prominence to people who complain and go into their situations much more deeply. People do have legitimate complaints, to be sure, and they deserve to be heard. But it seems like the press will note, "Fred likes the changes, but Cheryl hates them and so let's go in-depth into the new burden she must bear with the new bus system." But I never hear about the great burden that was lifted off of Fred's shoulders.

My other gripe is that I don't see a lot being written about the groups whose transit travails were ostensibly the impetus for the new network. When it was being designed, I heard a lot about working class blacks and Hispanics on the south side who had 90 minute commutes with multiple transfers. Has the new system helped them? Their collective plight was the equity component to the redesign, to my recollection, but I never hear their reactions. Instead, I hear about UW Hospital workers who commute from points west.

I see that some minor tweaks are coming next month. It doesn't sound like the changes will take care of my biggest gripe, namely, that the westbound D bus doesn't get to North and E. Wash in more synchronized fashion with the A bus on weekdays. What would be really convenient and handy is denied me and the A doesn't start 15-minute headways until 7 o'clock while the D gets there just as the A would be leaving.

For my part, most of the routes I've used have to traverse a lot of road construction so I am waiting to find out how things go after construction season is over. BRT next year will surely change things again for me.

Madison gets Federal transportation funding

Good news for Madison Metro. It is set to receive almost $38 million for public transit.

Madison's Metro Transit will get just over $37.9 million to purchase electric buses and install charging equipment and solar panels to upgrade its current maintenance facility. Some of Madison's funds will also go toward the development of a workforce training program, according to federal officials.

 

A pair of Wisconsin cities have been chosen to receive millions in funding to make upgrades to their public bus systems, federal transportation officials announced Monday. https://t.co/ZV9VVzremc

— News 3 Now / Channel 3000 (@WISCTV_News3) June 26, 2023

BRT in Milwaukee doing well

It's good to hear that Milwaukee's new BRT route is doing well when most of the public transit news there is doom and gloom, it seems.

New BRT line averaging 2,800 rides a dayhttps://t.co/JP9n3Ow7oq

— Urban Milwaukee (@UrbanMilwaukee) June 21, 2023

The Grand Redesign - First Thoughts, Part 2

Earlier this week I wrote about my first trips on the shiny, new Madison Metro bus network. Those Monday trips were in the midst of abbreviated service owing to the Juneteenth holiday. Today I rode the fully armed and operational bus system in all of its weekday commuter glory.

(Still lots of signs to be replaced.)

I started my day at the same time as I did under the old system and got home about 10 minutes earlier.

My walk to the A.M. stop seems to be about a minute shorter than it was previously. Not a big deal but this may work to my advantage on days when I zip out the door and realize that it's garbage day. I'm not sure which view I like better - the lake/park or the Voit field. I suspect I will miss seeing those turkeys that roam the field in the spring as the toms embiggen their tails. C bus was more or less on time. It has the Atwood Avenue construction to contend with but it was timely nonetheless. I stepped aboard to about half as many people as yesterday but it was running twice as frequently.

My transfer time to an A bus down on campus wasn't too long and the bus itself had fewer folks than Monday's standing room only affair. In the end, I got to my destination somewhere in the 7-10 minute range later than pre-redesign. I put this down to the transfer wait and the fact that the C goes down side streets whereas my previous route used more arterials.

(This stop will have a less confusing/cluttered sign soon.)

On my rides home, the A was a couple minutes early, methinks, and this led to a very short wait for a C bus down on campus. Maybe 3 minutes. I'm not sure if the C was early as well. Will these very short waits for a transfer continue or will I endure near misses?

I got home about 10 minutes earlier than before though this was partially because of a detour.

More or less the same total commute time. Less time to read, though, and I may have to start my journeys earlier if the new design continues to get me to work late. Things will continue to change as detours end and students return.

Random thoughts/observations:

-- a guy got on the bus this morning wearing a (Utili?)kilt. Neato!

-- while standing at the stop on campus this morning with 3-4 students, I noticed they all stared at their phones while I was engrossed in my surroundings. Generational difference, I guess.

-- I miss the woman who usually drove my morning bus. Always said, "Have a good one" when I alighted. She laughed a lot when chatting with this one cat who got on at the Square. Plus she was a very pretty lady.

The Grand Redesign - First Thoughts

I took my first trip on the newly redesigned Madison Metro bus system yesterday. Although it was a weekday, it was also Juneteenth and so buses were running on a Saturday schedule. Not sure why this would be considering that the holiday is not observed by the state nor the UW. Epic Systems apparently doesn't either because the routes serving their campus down in Verona were not offering abbreviated service. Juneteenth should be observed by all. But, until that day comes, bus service shouldn't be downgraded.

This being the case, my work commute yesterday will not reflect my journeys going forward. My old commute involved taking one bus that I boarded on Milwaukee Street that dropped me off near my place of employment out on the west side. With that route now history, I have to take 2 buses. It is the A bus that goes by my office so I need to get on one of those as soon as possible.

Ideally I could catch a D bus on Milwaukee and get off at North & E. Washington. I'd then walk across the street and enjoy perusing lingerie in the windows of Red Letter News for a short spell before my A bus arrives. Unfortunately, the D is scheduled to get me there at either the same time the A is scheduled to arrive or a minute before which is not enough time for a reliable transfer.

So I took the C.

Instead of walking to Milwaukee Strasse, I now go to Atwood Avenue. The walk is about the same length but I get a nice bus shelter on Atwood instead of being at the mercy of the elements at my previous stop. I alighted the C down on campus yesterday and then had 25ish minute wait for an A.

Again, this was a Saturday schedule so I shall not have to deal with this situation again until next Juneteenth. But it illustrated how routes that Metro touted as being frequent with 15 minute headways only are so at certain times whereas the promotional materials I saw gave the impression that they'd run at that frequency outside of traditional 9-5ish work hours Monday through Friday. The earliest A buses run every 30 minutes on both weekdays and weekends and start their much-touted frequent service only after I needed to catch one yesterday. Similarly, the C bus runs every half hour on weekends and holidays so the truly good service is reserved for typical weekday commuters.

Despite all of the talk about catering more to people who don't have a 9-5 Monday through Friday job, the new network has only taken baby steps to accommodate these people, in my opinion. Better than no steps at all, though.

It will have to wait until next week to see how my work commute has truly been affected. It appears that I'll be taking a C to campus and catching an A as I did yesterday but I'll benefit from 15 minute headways. Going by the schedule, it appears my commute will be a few minutes longer than it was previously. I suspect that when the A becomes BRT next year, it will shorten. I don't really mind having to transfer, especially with an expected wait of less than 10 minutes, but I think I will miss a nice solid 35 or so minutes of uninterrupted reading time.

It's early days but I hope that schedules get tweaked for shorter waits to transfer which was one of the benefits Metro touted in favor of the redesign.

A few observations:

--both the C and A buses I took yesterday were well-populated. The A was packed. While the C wasn't, it still had quite a few folks aboard, most of whom seemed be headed to UW Hospital. The A had several people going west beyond my stop which wasn't the case with my old route.

--in addition to calling out the stops, the disembodied bus voice now also gives transfer opportunities. Very long lists, in some cases too. Can they be shortened? Perhaps not say "route" each time. Say it once and then list the letters and numbers. Maybe a landmark or 2 as well. Also, the guy pronounces "route" as "root" instead of "rout". No a problem, just an observation. What parts of the country use which pronunciation?

--with a new bike path on Walter Street, I wonder if it will be plowed on a timely basis. Walking down Walter to Milwaukee in the winter to catch a bus has often times involved tackling sections of icy wastes where people didn't shovel before the temperature dipped. It'd be nice if I don't have to deal with that so much.

Again, it's early days. Drivers and passengers both will get used to things. It will be interesting to see how things go in the fall when the students return. And then next year we get a BRT route so more change is on the horizon. Plus, I hope to start using the new system to get to places other than work.