Filed under: life, madison, music | Tags: concerts on the square, madison, Wisconsin
This past Wednesday I went to the last of the Concerts on the Square Series. Basically the Madison Chamber Orchestra offers free performances on Wednesday evenings during the summer from the steps of the Capitol building. People sit on blankets on the surrounding park eating food and drinking wine, listening to classical music and enjoying the weather. This week they featured some UW alumni sopranos, the week before it was a fiddling trio.
We brought grilled veggies, chicken, pasta salad, bread, cheese, chocolate chip cookies, cherries, and a Rosé.
I took this in Paris during the summer of 2006. I lost the full res image when my hard drive crashed… so all I have is this low res image.
Filed under: art, life, madison, myself | Tags: Farmer's Market, Fresco, Harvest, madison, MMoCA, Restaurant Week, TL Solien, Wisconsin
As a recently new member of the Madison, Wisconsin community, I’m just beginning to explore what the town has to offer.
Last Saturday I went to the Farmer’s Market and was able to get my vegetables. The market surrounds the capitol building’s square and offers anything from flowers, to venison, to cheese, to fresh basil. I picked up plenty of basil, red onions, garlic cheddar, spinach, basil, and sweet corn all at good prices and all organic. I also made sure to pick up a whole-wheat chocolate chip scone. In addition, this farmer’s market was packed with people including Obama campaigners on each corner and a religious groups singing on one. Women with giant tattoos ran a flower stand while amish men with large beards and black hats sold vegetables. It was diverse, it had free samples, and was wonderful.
The next stop was the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA). It’s just off of the square on State Street in beautiful glass-paneled building. The museum itself is very small, but offers interesting exhibitions and is free to the public. I’m personally excited to have a Contemporary Art Museum nearby, Milwaukee cannot claim this -the closest three are in Madison, Sheboygan, and Chicago. The featured exhibition was that of TL Solien, a Madison native, entitled “Myths and Monsters.” It was comprised of many very expressive paintings from the 1980s on of cartoonish characters melded into backgrounds, objects, and each other, often using specific styles of paper or mixed media. One series was based on the story of Moby Dick. One could group it into the Neo-Expressionist “movement” of the 1980s in that it is painting and holds visual similarities to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Julian Schnabel (both use paint and have an “expressive” style), but it clearly addresses different themes and appropriates very different images. It also appeared that they were conducting some sort of installation in a lower gallery that included long colored plastic strips. These also were in the stairwell as seen above.
The MMoCA’s rooftop houses the restaurant, Fresco, which I will be trying out later this week. This week is “restaurant week” in Madison, meaning that many fine places are offering set three-course menus for a $25 fixed price. Tonight I went to Harvest and had a grilled squid appetizer (okay), a skirt steak with patatas bravas and a salsa (really good), and a slice of chocolate cake (also very good). Needless to say, I’m enjoying the promotion for these restaurants ($25 is how much many of the entrées would normally cost). I’m interested in the pork loin with coconut risotto.
Filed under: music, travel | Tags: apples in stereo, bon iver, boris, caribou, chicago, fuck buttons, ghostface, music, occidental brothers dance band, pitchfork, pitchforkmedia, raekwon, spoon, the hold steady, times new viking, titus andronicus, vampire weekend
Pitchfork Festival ‘08
This past weekend I attended two of the three days of the Pitchfork Music Festival at Chicago’s Union Park. The festival was run by a Chicago-based review site, pitchforkmedia.com, and, overall, I was very satisfied. First, tickets were $50 for two days, unheard of these days when Lollapalooza is $80 per day. In addition, there was no price gouging in general: $4 beers, decently priced food, and a marketplace with original art posters for $20 to $40. Second, the sound quality was impressive, save a couple problems with kick drums and Boris’s set (see below). The echoes and effects during Spoon’s set proved especially rich -in particular “The Ghost of You Lingers”. Third, again, the beer was well done for a variety of reasons: it was Goose Island (instead of Bud Light), it was $4 (instead of $7), the IPA was very tasty, and the cups were supposedly 100% compostable. Fourth, the organizers shipped in many more urinals between Saturday and Sunday, showing real-time reaction to needs, rather than just watching lines pile up. Fifth, when then sun came out, they offered sunscreen for free. Finally, there was a solid and somewhat diverse lineup of bands. The music was high quality.
I had no major complaints in light of all the positive attributes listed above, but there were a few things that could be looked into. First, the drinking fountains were hard to find. I would prefer not to buy bottled water when I can fill up my own, especially on really hot days. My friend and I didn’t see them until the end of the festival, despite having looked. Maybe a couple signs here or there with arrows would solve that. Second, there weren’t enough recycling receptacles; thus, many compostable beer cups were on the ground. Finally, Boris didn’t have enough power for all of their equipment, ending their spectacular show after only 30min… that shouldn’t be a problem when you have Jumbotrons.
Now how about the bands? I wasn’t disappointed at all and was extremely impressed with a few. These are the one’s I saw (extra impressive ones are starred):
Saturday:
Titus Andronicus seemed drunk.
**Caribou’s dueling drums and harmonies channeled into an excellent and energetic show.
Pitchfork ‘08: Fuck Buttons by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
Fuck Buttons. Relatively uninteresting to watch, but that’s to be expected. Very rich sound and interesting noise, fuzz, screaming, and beats.
Pitchfork ‘08: Vampire Weekend by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
Vampire Weekend. Good, but nothing overly impressive. It’s as good as their short, melodic, pop could have been live.
Pitchfork ‘08: The Hold Steady by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
The Hold Steady. They loved being there and it really showed, though the heat seemed to be killing them.
Sunday:
Pitchfork ‘08: Times New Viking by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
Times New Viking.
Pitchfork ‘08: Boris by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
**Boris. Blew out the power with too much intensity, distortion, and (basically) sheer awesomeness.
The Apples in Stereo
Pitchfork ‘08: Occidental Bros by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
Occidental Brothers Dance Band.
Pitchfork ‘08: Ghostface + Raekwon by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
Ghostface and Raekwon.
Pitchfork ‘08: Bon Iver by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
**Bon Iver. Especially good when he got everyone singing along to “The Wolves.” It turns out the guitarist (the blonde guy on the left) was a year ahead of me at Lawrence University. Cool thing coming from such a small school.
Pitchfork ‘08: Spoon by Pat Jordan on Zooomr
Spoon (images didn’t turn out). Very energetic and on the mark show. The echoes and other effects sounded really good too. I’m a tad disappointed that they didn’t play “Black Like Me.”
Hopefully, I make it back next year.
(Videos are available at pitchfork.tv. You can see the top of my head in the Caribou and Times New Viking videos)
Filed under: music
Often, an iPod is really terrible for me to listen to music on. I have a ton of music, but I’m prone to skip through on random until I reach something I recognize… It’s a bad habit and I’m working on. I generally just play whole CDs in the car and now try to just listen to everything that shuffle throws at me. It has proven fruitful, as I suppose it should.
A recent find that I’ve really liked: “Here Is No Why” by the Smashing Pumpkins ( imeem stream)
Smashing Pumpkins? I should be well versed that having being born in the mid to late 80s and lived through the 90s, right? No. I didn’t really start listening to my own music until really 1997 when I was in the 6th grade…listening to the Backstreet Boys. The Smashing Pumpkins started really playing on the radio earlier, and I didn’t get into rock until late 7th grade when I started listening to Rage Against the Machine. I have listened to the Pumpkins, but haven’t really delved into them or been bombarded with them on the radio. I’ve generally just listened listened to singles: Today, Disarm, Zero, Tonight Tonight, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, 1979, and (non-single) Love.
The characteristic I like most about “Here is No Why” is its “mini-solos.” They are woven into the chorus and get the matter done without disrupting the song’s flow. It’s also catchy and Corgan’s unique voice plays well into it.
Enjoy, if you haven’t already.
I feel like I’m a minor coffee snob. I grind my beans right before I brew and (try to) keep my coffee make very clean. I drink the coffee within 10 min. of being brewed and use only a dollop of skim milk with out any sugar to cut it. In addition, I occasionally use a french press.
Anyway…I feel like Alterra serves some of the best brewed coffee on the face of the earth, it just happens to be in Milwaukee. They have multiple locations throughout the Milwaukee area and sell their coffee to cafes throughout Wisconsin.
Their locations, namely the Lake Location (in an old water pumping station just off of Lake Michigan) and their Prospect Ave. Warehouse are full of character. One can count piercings and tattoos on both the clientele and the service, along with all sorts of people that channel through. The Warehouses offer various blends of whole bean coffee ranging from Café Voltaire (a personal favorite) to George’s Burly Blend. In the cafés, people are friendly, the music is good and not too loud, and, late at night, bakery is 2 for 1. Unfortunately, unlike other coffee places, WiFi internet requires some sort of paid subscription. Finally, avoid Alterra’s 10am on Sunday mornings…lines can be quite good.
Overall, for a chain, it’s quite good, and it’s a local Milwaukee business.
Recommendations:
The brewed coffee
Mocha or Chai Shakes
Bullfrog (a mint mocha)
Latte (often they are quite skilled at foam designs)
Sport Tea
Honorable mention for Milwaukee area chain coffeehouse: Stone Creek Coffee. There are multiple locations and the brewed coffee is equivalent if not better than Alterra’s, just less variety. In addition, there tends to be a lack of atmosphere and earlier closing times at all locations
Recently, my friend told me about a web comic called Garfield Minus Garfield. What the author does is take the original Jim Davis cartoon and then photoshop Garfield and Odie out. It leaves a wonderful existential comic with…just Jon. Two of my favorites:
Iced Ketchup:
Faces on Pillows:
Tomorrow and Sunday I will be at the Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park in Downtown Chicago. $50 for two days of awesome, new, old, and diverse music is a stellar deal. There are various bands that I’m excited about and I’ll probably pick up some new ones. Pictures will follow soon.
What I’m excited about…
Saturday:
The Hold Steady, !!!, Vampire Weekend, Dizzee Rascal, Caribou, No Age, Titus Andronicus Fuck Buttons.
Sunday:
Spoon, Dinosaur Jr., Ghostface + Raekwon, Les Savy Fav, Boris, Times New Viking, Bon Iver
Smart Car in Downtown Sturgeon Bay, WI
This past weekend I saw a Smart Car parked in downtown Sturgeon Bay in Door County, Wisconsin [map]. I found this really peculiar. I realize that Smart cars have recently been introduced the US market to probably fill the demand for fuel efficient and smaller vehicles. They’re very ideal for urban settings: both parallel parking and U-Turns in downtown Chicago must be a relative breeze and they have been used in Europe for years, where the tiny roads nearly require them. Door County is hardly this kind of environment. There are lots of long, wide open 55mph+ roads, and plenty of space. Generally, one sees Ford F-150s or cars with 150+ horsepower. According to Autotrader.com the Smart has 70 horsepower with rear wheel drive and weighs about 1850lbs. While it’s not ideal for the setting, it’s nothing too bad and it’s fuel efficient… I just hope they don’t attempt to drive it up there in the snow.
This is one of those songs that is best played with headphones, surround, or in a car (at full quality, of course). It’s simply stunning.
