The Orrin Evans Quartet took the stage of the Madison Jazz Festival on a beautiful evening at 7 pm. Audrey and I packed a picnic dinner, including fresh sugar peas from the morning farmer’s market. The terrace was packed with people, most with plastic pitchers of beer, in most various states of disattention to the music. Which was unfortunate as Evans led a blazing, innovative set with super talented musicians. ...
A hot tip led us to Madison’s Yahara River for the annual Fools’ Flotilla. This boat parade flowed down the river between Madison’s two lakes on a beautiful Sunday morning. The end destination was the Marquette Neighborhood Association’s Waterfront Festival. Good zany fun. Click any picture for bigger images
San Franciso-based Train rolled into Madison, Wisconsin—and Audrey and I enjoyed our fourth show from the 1990s pop-rock band. We’re temporarily based in Madison while Audrey works here on Voter Protection. The concert venue was just a 10 minute walk from our apartment—Madison is very walkable town. And we enjoyed a pre-concert gathering at the adjacent glass apartment tower, where Audrey’s new colleagues have a beautiful apartment. Their balcony looked over the concert venue and had a beautiful view across both of the lakes that surround the Madison isthmus. ...
In May 2024, our family converged in the mile-high city of Denver for a beautiful spring weekend. Mom, Paul, and Karen flew in from New Jersey; Audrey from California; and Jacob lives and teaches in Denver. I was already there for a business trip. First stop was Colorado College, Jacob’s alma mater, pictured above. Did you know Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, composed America the Beautiful here in 1882? We asked Mom to put her Wellesley degree to work composing an update. Alas the road to Pike’s Peak was snow-covered, and thus the next verse about “purple mountain majesty” would have to await another day. ...
We went out looking for life in Death Valley. We found long vistas of wide valleys and dry mountains;lakebeds that haven’t seen water in ages; and, ghost towns with tales to tell. We crossed the Tehachapi Pass and found some Golden State dreamscapes. Here’s our trip: Mojave Desert We first struck gold in the Mojave Desert, when we came across huge superblooms of “Desert Gold” flowers covering the sandy basin. The air was clear and the views were vast. Behind us, we could see the micro-burst storm clouds that had pelted our car with rain in the Tehachapi Pass. Ahead of us, an AirBnB awaited in sunny Ridgecrest, California. ...