Summertime Perambulations: On the Shoreline

Previous perambulation

Walking along the northern shore of the Yahara River means walking through people's backyards. One gentleman was doing some littoral lounging and flashed me the peace sign as I walked by. It doesn't get much more Madison than that. Reaching Lake Monona I came to Yahara Place Park, the home of the final Sid Boyum sculpture** that I see on my walk, "FuDog Lantern".



Does anyone know why lakes with a Native American name are "Lake " while those with English names are " Lake"? So, for instance, in the Madison area you have Lake Monona and Mud Lake. And why don't rivers have the same naming convention? It's the Yahara River and the Rock River, by way of comparison, not River Yahara. You sometimes hear "The River Thames" but never "The River Mississippi" or "The River Danube". The Brits just have to be different. I wonder if they have something similar wit, say, Welsh names for lakes.

Apparently "Yahara" is a corruption or bad translation of the Winnebago word for "catfish". While I'm at it, the origin of "Monona" is unknown but it is theorized that it may be a corruption of the name of a goddess of the Sauk-Fox people.

There was a nice breeze coming off the lake as I traversed the northern shore and I was quite pleased that it didn't reek of algae or decaying fish. I eventually made it onto Lakeland Avenue which is home to some Native American effigy mounds.





Here's a map of mounds present and past on one stretch of Lakeland Ave.



Robert Birmingham is the expert when it comes to the area's effigy mounds and his Spirits of Earth is, according to former co-workers at the Wisconsin Historical Society, the definitive work on the subject. However, here's a nice blog post about the mounds to tide over any inquiring minds until they buy the book.



Continuing I walked by the Corry Carriage House which is a city landmark built in 1911.



**I also spied a sculpture in someone's front yard which was of a horse or unicorn in faded blue that I thought was rather neat and Boyum-esque. Only later did I read that it was, in fact, "Fantasy Seahorse" by the man himself. Oops.

Before long I made it to Olbrich Park and found this bit of art near the shore.





A cursory exploration of Google turned up nothing about this installation. Still, I rather like it.

Nearby was a memorial for someone named Ernie who presumably is no longer with us.



Over where Starkweather Creek meets Lake Monona is "ACT" by William King.



This twenty-some-odd foot tall bit of aluminum statuary dates back to 1979 and its original home was behind the Civic Center, now the Overture Center. I am not sure when it was moved. Perhaps when the OC was built.

Strolling up the shore of the creek and onto Atwood Avenue, it wasn't long before I was back in my native Eastmorland neighborhood where there was more yet to be explored.

Onward to the journey's end

Summertime Perambulations: Sex and Chocolate

Previous perambulation

In our last exciting episode we left off as I was exiting Tangent after having had a spot of lunch and a most salutary gruit. It didn't take long for another ghost sign to come into view. All of ten feet or so.



The front of the building also has a ghost sign – "STORAGE" – but I neglected to take a photo.

Strolling down East Washington I couldn't help but be somewhat amazed at all the tall buildings. Well, tall for Madison. This despite riding a bus past the Constellation, the Galaxie, the Sparx, etc. every weekday to and from work. While I perceive them as normal parts of the streetscape, I suppose, these "skyscrapers" are still new to me having gotten used to a street without them for so long. They get 10 out of 10 points for ridding us of empty lots but minus several million for style.

At Paterson Street I find myself in front of the old Gardner's Bakery with some of a ghost sign visible from down below.



Just across Paterson in front of the still shiny new Hotel Indigo is another decorated utility box. I find this one much more pleasing than the faux fabric of the box at Winnebago Street and Riverside Drive.



On a building on the 1000 block of East Wash I spied some metallic star hoolies.



I had noticed similar things a couple blocks up on the Gisholt building during a previous walk.



Anyone care to take a guess as to what they were for? Mounting points for awnings or some such things, perhaps? I cannot find any historic photographs showing any awnings, however, nor anything hanging off the facade.

Across the street is a harbinger of things to come.



This nice little pocket of greenspace will soon be no more as an 11-storey mixed use building is soon to be erected. And behind it will be the Madison Youth Arts Center.

Continuing my trek, I walked by the city building where fire trucks are kept in working order.



But now that the city has a fleet services building on the way, I suppose this one will be sold and developed into yet another mixed-use affair.

By this point I needed chocolate. But before I would be able to fulfill that desire, I had to take a photo of some locally-sourced graffiti lovingly spray painted in honor of one of the best rock bands Madison has ever produced. This has sadly been painted over since.



Just listen to the glorious "King of Sex". Listen!

Crossing the river I came to my next destination: CocoVaa. The proprietor is my wife's cousin and she makes sinfully tasty chocolates.



Vata won some fancy schmancy award last year and she most certainly deserved it. Her chocolates not only taste magnificent they also look like works of art. Now if I could only get a steep family discount.

I threw the bonbons into my backpack but a pain au chocolat was quickly gobbled down as traveled the riverside east to Lake Monona.

To the shores of Monona Lake

Summertime Perambulations: Willy Street

Previous perambulation

Having ordered my CD it was off for some refreshment. My destination was Tangent where one could get a glass of cold gruit. Gruit refers to beer flavored with herbs, flowers, and spices that aren't hops. In this case I was looking at a sour ale made with mugwort, heather tips, and sweet, sweet gale. It is wonderful to see such a beer in a world where it seems that most craft beers are either so fruity as to be indistinguishable from Boone's Farm or have had all malt flavor drained from it in pursuit of tasting like a spirit and/or a pastry. But there was still walking to be done before I could take some libation.

Heading down Winnebago Street I stopped to look at all of the new apartments.



Most, if not all, of that space used to be vacant lots. But Madison keeps growing.

And here's the mural on Trinity Lutheran Church.



This is the front of the church.



Notice that it has that same material as St. Bernard did – that faux stacked shale or whatever you call it. After you notice it once, you see it a fair amount around town. Take a gander at the south side of University Avenue west of Farley Avenue and you'll see it – the well, Smoky's Club, and Century House, for example.

No one reading this series of blog posts should be at all surprised to learn that it didn't take me long to run into another Sid Boyum sculpture. In that greenspace bounded by First and Winnebago Streets and Eastwood Drive we find "Geometric With Round Window".



Across the street on Winnebago is a house whose front yard looks like this:



Nice and overgrown with a clutch of wreaths. But how do the occupants get mail delivered?

The sidewalk on Merry Street has a wonderfully enveloping canopy.



At the river, where Winnebago ends and Williamson Street begins, there is a utility box that has been artified.



I'm not sure when the practice began here in Madison but they're a common sight today.

Here's the mural on the side of Banzo Shük.



Presumably it was done by the same person that did the mural for Next Door Brewing.

On the east/south side there's a poem to be found in the sidewalk.



A bit farther down the street is a mural that has seen better days. I do not recall this one in its full glory.



Café Coda was rockin' when I passed by.



I honestly had no idea that CBD was popular enough to warrant a shop dedicated to it but that it certainly the case on Willy Street.



Indeed it is so popular that it apparently merits multiple stores dedicated to it as another one will be opening in the former Mad Cat space just down the street from Quality CBD.



A couple days later I was informed that there was already a second CBD joint open on Willy Street. Apparently, my focus on taking snaps of murals and ghost signs (and walking on the other side of the street) led me to miss it. So that makes three hemphouses dedicated to the stuff within a few blocks of one another and surely the Willy Street Co-op carries it as well. Uff da!

Here are most of the rest of the murals and ghost signs of Willy Street.



The Social Justice Center



It's nice to see something dedicated to Otis Redding beyond the plaque at the Terrace.



The latest in Mother Fools rotating series of murals.



Restored not too long ago, I think the sign dates back to the 1950s. Gardner's Bakery used to be just 2 or 3 blocks away.



Pig in a Fur Coat



Plan B's, er, sorry - Prism's mural has a couple rough patches. Perhaps the new owners will get that fixed.



This building is a city landmark. It's was Biederstaedt-Breitenbach Grocery and built in 1874.



Reaching Livingston Strasse it was time to leave Willy St. My gruit was almost within reach. While the isthmus' industrial past is fading, the power plant is sure to be there for some time to come.



Hey you, Appling
Ha, ha, charade you are
Julaine you're nearly a treat
But you're really a cry

Ramblin' past Madison's newest concert auditorium, The Sylvee, I was getting mighty thirsty.



Taking a seat at the Tangent bar, I was hot, a bit sweaty, and parched. A tap list was put in front of me but it wasn't needed. "Barkeep, one gruit, please!"



Malty sweet, a bit tart, and full of floral/herbal goodness without a cone of Citra hops in sight. That's a mighty fine beer. I'd read a review of Tangent's food which was not particularly flattering but, having worked up an appetite, I ordered some grub anyway. I can tell you that the chopped salad was quite tasty.

After my brief respite and with my journey halfway done, I moseyed out the front door and began trekking down East Washington.

The journey continues...

Summertime Perambulations: It's the Music That Matters

Previous perambulation

My stop at Sugar Shack resulted in no new music entering my collection. Sections of one of the CD racks have been empty for a while now and a notice at the counter informs us that they are not currently buying merchandise. I've never been intimately familiar with the vagaries of owning and running a record store and I'm sure things are much more difficult today than ever before with streaming services, YouTube, and downloads. Whatever may be happening at Sugar Shack, I hope they remain in business.

Traipsing by The Harmony I spied this:



What's the architectural term for that bas relief thingy up by the top of the wall? Is it a frieze? My ignorance of architecture aside, it's a nice little bit of ornamentation. Likewise that lunette. What a shame that most of the rest of the building is now covered in siding, likely vinyl, that is rather ugly, to my eyes, in contrast to the old brick and whatnot.

Across the street where the Capital City Trail intersects Atwood Aveneue are a couple more pieces by Sid Boyum which are probably the most well-known of the lot, "Smiling Mushroom" and "Blue Dragon Urn".



A block west on Atwood in that triangular grassy area bordered by Atwood, Eastwood Drive, and Division Street is another of his works, "Tree Limb Faces" or "Tree Spirits", depending if you go by the stone plaque at the base of the sculpture or the website of the Friends of Sid Boyum.



Across Division Street in that little wooded area that abuts Monty's Blue Plate Diner's parking lot are yet even more of Boyum's art. This is "Creature Abstract":



While this one is called "Blue Tripod":



Across the street is the historic and lovely Barrymore Theatre. Built in 1929 it has seen its share of movies (blue and otherwise), live performances, community events, etc. Some history can be found at the theatre's website. It'd be wonderful if the porticos make a return.



I saw my first concert in Madison there. Or at least my first concert off campus, anyway. It was Blues Traveler on 19 March 1991. A guy on my dorm floor had a spare ticket so we hoofed it there from campus stopping for a few pulls from a hip flask and to share a joint in that space between buildings on the south side of what is now Union Hair Parlor. That walkway is now gated and fenced off. Thinking about other shows I've attended at the Barrymore, I realize I have a habit of seeing Richard Thompson there in the wake of some upheaval in my life, e.g. – being dumped by a girlfriend or the death of a relative.

On the next block at 2044 Atwood is a building that used to house a Chinese restaurant but now appears vacant. Part of the roof is looking a little rough. I rather like this building and hope it gets a little love and a new tenant soon.



Eventually I walk into Mad City Music and find that the proprietor, Dave Zero, is there. I haven't seen him in some time. I peruse the used CDs before heading to the counter to order some tunes. Sadly, Adrian Belew's new album is only available via his website while 3 Feet High and Rising is out of print. Only A Rainbow in Curved Air can be had and it's an import at that. Not a total loss though I would not return home with any new music for my collection.

Ramblin' on to Willy Street