Willy Street Fair 2014

This year's Willy Street Parade had the usual components--the Bubble Mobile, the Wacky Wheeler, and stilt walkers--but not as many drummers. As I've done in the past, I tried to encourage some Chinese students to come along, but the ones I talked to had to get some homework done. The parade always starts at 11 am on the Sunday of the Willy Street Fair, a neighborhood festival held over a September weekend on Madison's Williamson Street. A September 1998 article in the Chicago Tribune, "Willy Street Fair a Hip Dose Of Madison," explains, although the article leaves out that the fair is also on Saturday.

 

The Bubble Mobile especially makes me feel as if I'm in a Dr. Seuss story. As thousands of small soap bubbles float up from the converted instruments, Jim Wildeman stands in the back turning out huge bubbles. The parade route was much more crowded than appears to be in my photos. I picked times and spots to get good views.

 

Here's the inside of the convertible at the end of the parade.

 

My other favorite is the Wacky Wheeler. Afterwards I talked with  "Melvin" as he was packing up. He got the idea from watching a performance that used a German wheel (see this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_gymnastics  ) and converted a wheel used to roll out cable for electric companies. Besides the Willy Street Parade, he takes part in about 70 parades in the US.

One of the reasons that I like to attend Madison's neighborhood fairs is to talk with people at the tables set up by organizations. This year's Willy Street Fair included Planned Parenthood, the Madison Blues Society, HI-Madison, WORT (the community radio station), Mothers Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the  John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and Friends of Aztalan State Park. Live music stages sat at a few spots next to the street, and many food and craft vendors lined its length.

Growing Chamomile

At my grandmother's I grew chamomile flowers along the edge of the garden, and I'd pick some of the flower heads every few days for tea. I prefer other kinds of teas, but I like the variety from drinking chamomile tea. In Madison I've grown just a little. In this photo the flowers grew in small open spaces within the strawberries.  Germination of the seeds at my grandmother's was very good, but I sometimes can't get chamomile to grow well in my community garden plot in Madison.

More from the Christmas ornament house

The owner of a house at the corner of Walton Place and Spaight Street, in Madison's Marquette Neighborhood, keeps Christmas ornaments year-long on a small tree in the front yard.  This is a clearer view of them in the tree. Whenever I attend the neighborhood's Waterfront Festival held every June, I make a point to walk by this home, whose owner usually holds a small yard sale. But I didn't go this year. Photo from June 8, 2013.

Madison Opera in the Park

Yesterday, I attended the free Opera in the Park by the Madison Opera. Every July it's held on the gentle slope of a hill in  Garner Park, which is about a 40-minute walk from my place. More than 10,000 usually attend to listen to preview selections from operas in the upcoming season and some Broadway songs. The atmosphere of this event is nice with the large numbers of families and couples relaxing on the lawn.

I'm sitting near the top of the hill.
This picture doesn't show well the thousands of people on the slope below.

Review of the show: http://host.madison.com/entertainment/arts_and_theatre/on-a-grand-night-for-singing-mezzo-wallis-giunta-steals/article_b3f3538b-f6a1-55c6-8f18-fefddf793a21.html