Tiger Through the Trees

Last Saturday morning, Veronica and I headed to Madison’s free Vilas Zoo. We met our friends Yi Hong and Steve there shortly after opening time, hoping to beat the crowds. Little did we know that the Green and Gold Training Camp was going on that morning, and hundreds of little Packers fans and their parents had descended on the zoo. Luckily, the crowd mostly stayed occupied with things other than looking at the animals.

Iguana

Although we’d been to the zoo a couple of times before, we’d missed out on a few animals and areas. This was the first time we saw the tiger in its enclosure; previously, there had just been signs up saying “Exhibit Closed.” We also ventured into the herpetarium, in which you can get pretty close to some of the snakes and reptiles (see left). A new Children’s Zoo with a playground and carousel opened a year or so ago, but we hadn’t realized that the area actually houses more animals — a red pandas, a pair of meerkats, some white cockatoos and a huge African porcupine.

Click the photos above for larger versions, or check out the whole gallery here.

The Contents of Our Third Box

This morning, we picked up our third CSA box of the summer. This box was the biggest yet — 3/4 bushel, whereas our previous boxes were only 5/9 bushel. Plus, this time our farm offered basil as an ‘option’ crop, meaning that they left a huge box full of it at our pickup location and said “take as much as you want.” Since I neglected to bring a bag, I literally stuffed my pockets full of basil. Tomorrow, we’ll make a big batch of pesto and freeze it in single-meal portions with the help of a couple of ice cube trays. Our goal is to make enough while basil is in season to make it through the winter (we eat lots of pasta).

While we have no doubt what to do with the basil, we’re not so sure about some of the other items. What, if anything, can you do with pickling cucumbers other than pickle them? Can the two of us possibly make it through four regular cucumbers before they go bad? What should we do with beets? Can we find a way to prepare our cauliflower that we’ll actually like? What’s special about Cippolini onions? But, we’ve done pretty well with unfamiliar veggies so far, so I’m sure we’ll have some interesting culinary adventures this week!

Click each pic for a larger version

Our First Box

This summer, Veronica and I decided to purchase a join a CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm. CSA farms sell shares of their harvest each year, and members typically receive a box full of fresh, locally-grown, often organic produce each week. Some farms also offer meat, cheese, eggs, honey, etc. Madison, in addition to hosting the largest producers-only farmer’s market in the country, boasts the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC), which acts as an advocate for 35 area CSA farms.

The Box Opened

We attended MACSAC’s annual Open House in late March, where we had the opportunity to check out most of the participating farms. One thing we were looking for in a farm was the availability of half-shares — we doubted that the two of us could go through a huge box of veggies every week without waste. There were a number of enticing options, and we ended up going with a farm called Drifless Organics. We liked their crop list, which includes cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, and various herbs in addition to a plethora of vegetables. We also like the fact that we could select a pick-up location that can be seen from our apartment. We get an assortment of produces every two weeks — a little more than half a bushel each time.

A Bounty of Veggies

Our first box of the season arrived today. As with all CSAs, the selection changes from week to week (or fortnight to fortnight is our case), and you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get each time. That’s half the fun: trying to figure out what the heck to do with a vegetable you with which you have little to no experience. I knew it was going to be a lot of food, but I was still astounded when I opened our box and spread its contents out on the kitchen counter. We got arugula, broccoli, butterhead lettuce, green onions, green garlic, kohlrabi, radishes, russet potatoes, and spinach. Aren’t they gorgeous?

A share in a CSA farm is truly a share — if something goes wrong with the crops, all the members eat (or rather, don’t eat) the losses. This is where the “community-supported” bit really comes in. If there’s a bad year, CSA farms are protected from going under by their membership. Last year, there was extensive flooding in Wisconsin, which was detrimental to many farmers. Here’s hoping that severe weather won’t be an issue this summer, and that our boxes will continue to be bountiful!

The photo was even taken during one of my solos! There wasn’t a story attached, and the pic doesn’t seem to be online anywhere. But, The Cardinal publishes a PDF version of their paper. I grabbed today’s copy (since there doesn’t seem to be an archive) — you can find it here.

P.S. — I hope to have audio from this concert as well as our last one posted soon.

Just another example of the cool and bizarre sorts of things that happen in Madison: for a couple of weeks now, it’s appeared as though the top of the Statue of Liberty is emerging from the frozen surface of Lake Mendota. The installation was carried out by the UW Hoofers outdoor club, and commemorates a similar (but more finely crafted, in my opinion) statue that was placed on the lake 30 years ago. For the full story of the original statue, see this article (a bigger picture of the original can be seen here). The head and torch sit on the ice right outside UW’s Memorial Union, so you can sit in the Rathskellar, sip a beer, and gaze out them. At the moment, the Union’s webcam is pointing right at the statue. Check there for a live view (until the ice starts to melt), or check out my small gallery of pics here.

Hello Dave — Rob Chappell, Overture Center spokesman here. You’re obviously not the only one disappointed by the way the FotC ticket sale went, so I’d like to try to shed some light on some of the concerns that you raise.

The simple fact is that this show sold out very quickly, as popular acts often do. We did have some website and phone system issues, however, which we regret.

One reason the show sold out so quickly was that Flight of the Conchords management required us to make a presale available to FotC Fan Club members beginning on Monday, February 2, five days ahead of the general public on-sale. We were asked to make 70% of the available tickets, or about 1,360 tickets, available for this presale. In addition, we made a small pre-sale available to our own email list and the promoter ran a presale with one of the media partners, radio station WMMM. Only 250 tickets were allotted to each of those two pre-sales, which were made available the day before the general public on-sale.

You also wanted to know how to get onto those presale lists. The best way is to sign up for our e-list at http://paciolan.myprefs.com/?@overture&p2p=Signup. Joining fan clubs of bands or radio stations you like can also help get you on preferential lists for pre-sales.

Anyway, when 11:00 Saturday morning rolled around, we felt that we had to set aside enough tickets to accommodate at least those who were standing in line at 11. Our phone system was overwhelmed and crashed, a fact that we regret. In the end, only 371 were available to sell through the Internet on Saturday, which didn’t take more than a few minutes, as you can imagine.

Unfortunately, ticket resellers were able to purchase a number of tickets and have subsequently made them available at much-inflated prices, as you note. We do have measures in place to curb this as much as we can. For example, we’re holding tickets in the first 15 rows at the box office and will only give them to the person who bought them (and only if that person has valid ID). Still, this reselling practice pervades the live performance and concert industry. It is disappointing to venue managers like us, to performers, and, most importantly, to fans. Unfortunately, at this time, the measures we have in place can only go so far to stop these outfits from buying tickets and reselling them.

We are truly sorry that you and many others were disappointed not to get tickets.

Anybody with questions can contact me at rchappell at overturecenter dot com.

So, as I suspected, the pre-sales weren’t all the Overture Center’s doing — they had contractual obligations to fulfill. I still think that if pre-sales are going to eat up a majority of the seats for a given show, there should be some sort of general warning to that effect alongside the notice of when tickets officially go on sale. I have joined the e-mail list that Mr. Chappell mentioned, and I suppose I’ll try to join fan club mailing lists for groups that I want to see in the future. Also, it seems that I would have scored tickets if I’d actually gone to the Overture Center to stand in line. So, I guess I’ll do it the old fashioned way next time, rather than relying on any technological means to make my purchase.

I understand the promotional value of making a small number of tickets for an event available to a select group of people. However, allowing an event to sell out before the stated beginning of ticket sales is absurd and inexcusable. The Overture Center’s web site does not contain a single mention of (or warning about) pre-sales. Furthermore, at the time I attempted to make my purchase, there was no indication that the Flight of the Conchords show was already sold out. Had this information been available, I might still be without tickets, but at least I wouldn’t have rearranged my Saturday plans around the supposed beginning of ticket sales or wasted half an hour frantically trying to make a purchase.

I don’t pretend to know the intricacies of contracts between performers, promoters, and venue, so I hesitate to lay the blame for this situation entirely at the feet of the Overture Center’s staff. However, I do fault them for failing to keep their customers informed. If pre-sales are outside the Center’s control, they can at least make the general public aware that pre-sales are occurring. They can also certainly update their web site more quickly to reflect when a performance has been sold out.

My only option now seems to be purchasing tickets that members of the ‘select group’ of pre-sale participants have made available on Craigslist. But at a minimum markup of 200%, they are now well outside my graduate student budget.

I’ve sent a much-shortened version of this (on my own site, I don’t have to abide by any 200-word limits, ha!) to a number of local news outlets as a letter to the editor. If anything comes of it, I’ll update this post.

Click for a larger version

This past Saturday was UW-Madison’s annual Double Reed Day. We had two guest artists: Carol Cope Lowe (bassoon) and Anna Hendrickson (oboe), who in addition to currently teaching at SUNY-Potsdam are both UW-Madison alumnae. Most members of the UW double reed studios were there, and we had another 25 or so middle school, high, school, and community players as well. I arrived a little early so I could play some of the bassoons and bocals that Midwest Musical Imports had sent along. One instrument they sent was the twin of my Püchner 5000C. I was happy to find that it was both my favorite instrument out of the bunch, and roughly equivalent to my own. Also, its price tag was substantially higher than what I paid two years ago — woohoo!

The day officially started with a concert — all we UW students played an ensemble piece, then each professor (the two visitors, plus our own Marc Vallon and Marc Fink) performed a solo work. Following the concert, we split off into oboe and bassoon masterclasses. We all came back together for a big double reed ensemble (pictured above) to play Marc Vallon’s arrangements of “The Washington Post,” Hungarian Dance No. 5, and “Sabre Dance,” as well as the first movement of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks.

I only managed to take a few pictures, as I was busy playing contrabassoon much of the time. I’ve posted them here.

Swimming Bear

A little over a month ago, Veronica participated in the Zoo Run, a charity 5K/10K run/walk benefiting Madison’s Henry Vilas Zoo. I tagged along to provide moral support and to hang out at the zoo while she ran. We arrived at the zoo fairly early, so we had some time to walk around and look at the animals. Most of them were just waking up themselves, and weren’t very active. A notable exception to this was one of the polar bears. He (I’m making an assumption based on size) was passing time by swimming laps in a small pool within his enclosure. A small waterfall pours into the pool, and he seemed to like swimming under that on his back. Upon reaching the other end, he’d swim back underwater and repeat the process. Only once did we see him get out, and the only briefly. He shook off some water, walked around a bit, then did a belly slide back into the pool for some more laps. I’d like to think that the bear looked happy as he was gliding through the water, but I can’t imagine that such obsessive behavior is a sign of good mental health.

Standing Flamingos

I watched the beginning of the race, then went back to wander the zoo. By this time, the animals were becoming a little more active. I walked by the polar bears again, and the big one was still swimming. I also stopped by the giraffes, penguins, flamingos, and a few others. The lions were asleep in a secluded part of their enclosure, and none of the other big cats were on display. I didn’t have a whole lot of time, so I didn’t venture into the aviary, the reptile house, or any of the other enclosed exhibits.

Running Librarian

I thought that I’d timed my meanderings so that I’d arrive at the finish line a few minutes before Veronica (the race route formed a loop, so I had far less distance to travel than did she). But, she beat her goal time by so much that I missed her! I managed to snap a few pictures close to the start of the race, but unfortunately none at the end. After the race, we went home for some from-scratch blueberry pancakes, which she’d certainly earned (and which I certainly hadn’t). Click any of the pictures above to see the whole gallery.