Despite a downpour Saturday evening that cut short the set by Lyrics Born, the 2014 Marquette Waterfront Festival was a thrilling success. Strong attendance both days was driven by excellent weather and deft booking by lead organizer Bob Queen who along with Nancy Kathman were honored Saturday “For bringing music to our neighborhood”.
See below for scenes from Sunday at the festival.
Poster by: David Miller
The Marquette Waterfront Festival (June 7-8) is twenty five years-old this year and while not the youngest neighborhood gathering it has the special role of heralding the beginning of summer. Just a day or two following the end of the school year for area children, it is the perfect weekend celebration for families which was the original intent of the event when it began in 1990.
The festival was born during an all-out effort to prevent the possible closing of Marquette Elementary school and other potential neighborhood elitism that was starting to bubble up on the east end of the Marquette neighborhood.
While much attention seems to be focused in the Willy Street area, our neighborhood does stretch all the way to Division street, encompassing sleepy and pleasant streets between Eastwood drive and Lake Monona. It was at Yahara Place Park, a quiet strip of land where people mostly just gaze at the lake, that parent Bob Queen and others plotted their neighborhood comeback.
Courtesy: Kia Karlen via Facebook
The Willy Street Blog followed live a recent performance of Yid Vicious and The Sockrates Sock Puppet Carnival of Morals and Logic read Letters to the Willy Street Co-op Reader at Mother Fool’s Coffeehouse on May 31, 2014. Here is what happened…
Mike Swain, a Madison Radicals defender and U.S. Army veteran ,appreciates his fandom.
While Madison tries hard to support its professional sports teams for as long as they exist; I believe, after attending my first American Ultimate Disc League game recently, that the Madison Radicals may be the truest form of social and sporting expression that this city can make.
For as long as I can remember, warm sunny days in any Madison park, but surely James Madison, have fostered the fertile natural and native talent of disc players, much like hockey seemingly grows from the soil of Minnesota. As amatuer teams still thrive in this city, its deep bench is also able to stack a strong group of “paid” players that almost won the professional league championship last year.
My first Radicals game two weeks ago (May 9) was at Breese Stevens Field, a glorious historic stadium that the City of Madison has steadfastly has committed to keeping active, mostly through soccer tournaments.
The cocktail lounge slated to open at 1380 Williamson now has a name, Imaginary Bar. One of its missions is to cater to dinner patrons waiting for tables next door at Grampa’s Pizzeria (background).
A unique event Sunday (May 18) at Osteria Papvero will celebrate the Italian ritual tradition of Aperitivo or pre-dinner, while debuting possible food and drink offerings planned for Imaginary Bar which will open later this year at 1380 Williamson Street.
Aperitivo emanates from the latin word meaning “to open” and for Italians means consuming light culinary fare such as nuts, olives, cheeses, and meats along with a dry vermouth, campari or other light liquor. This combination is meant to get your stomach rumbling and ready for a larger meal later on.
In a sense, Your Imaginary Papa: An Aperitivo Social plans to open the curtain a bit on the customer experience one might expect at Imaginary Bar, which is intended to be an apertivo-like experience for people waiting to dine next door at Grampa’s Pizzeria.
Players Sport Bar (left) and Burrito Drive were robbed recently through the same combination of guns and a chemical irritant sprayed on the victims.
Madison Police are saying they believe that two armed robberies in the last three days on the Near East Side are related. Late Sunday night (May 4) at 10:50 p.m. two men wearing masks and carrying handguns stole cash from Burrito Drive, a restaurant near the corner of Brearly and Williamson Streets.
Last night (May 6) at 12:40 a.m. two men (one was armed with a handgun) with a similar general description entered Players Sport Bar & Grill on Winnebago east of Schenk’s Corners, ordered all employees and patrons to floor and stole an undisclosed amount of money. The strongest tie between the two robberies aside from the number of assailants and weapons was the use of a chemical irritant which was sprayed on victims during the incident.
The makings of a public space, spurred on by the opening of Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream’s new Atwood Avenue location. Photo by: Marsha Rummel
By all accounts the opening weekend for Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream’s Atwood Avenue location was a great success. Lines of people were observed in front of the shop no doubt encouraged by a very clever social media post Friday (May 3): “We’re opening our walk up window and serving single cones and dishes at 2302 Atwood Avenue at 12pm today!! And just a hint, if you stop by before 9pm you may not need a wallet…”
By Sunday warm temperatures and sunshine brought out the bicycles and soon every piece of open grass around the store was occupied by ice cream fans. “It was fabulous,” said Josh Connelly, retail and marketing manager for Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream. “The neighborhood welcomed us with open arms to say the least.”
Connelly says that work will begin this week on construction and landscaping of the rear area of the property to transform it into an outdoor dining room with tables, chairs, lighting, and bike racks. For Sixth District Alder Marsha Rummel, the apparent initial success of this business on this corner will bolster her plans to temporarily shut down a section of Jackson Street, between Atwood and Saint Paul Avenue, as part of a national movement called “placemaking.”
Nearly three months ago, when organizers started planning the Help Blake Beat Burkitt’s fundraiser, they never thought they would nearly triple their even most ambitious monetary goal. But thats what happened when approximately 200 people packed the Atomic Koi in Fitchburg for four hours Sunday (April 27) and raised through a silent auction, raffle and donations $13,591 to help offset the cost of 4-year old Blake Rickert’s successful treatment of Burkitt’s Leukemia.
The star of the event was Blake himself who got permission to leave the hospital for a few hours to attend the fundraiser. Despite fighting an illness all week, he was all smiles as he connected with friends and family and was fascinated, as were all the kids in attendance, by the “Balloon Guy”, who fashioned balloon figurines. Other kid favorites included face painting by Blake’s Aunt Stacy Laufenberg Schmidt and temporary tattoos of the “SuperBlake” logo.
Examining their loot after the big, frantic hunt in Orton Park, April 20, 2014.
We could call this the first real day of spring when sunshine, temperatures, and firm soil all collaborated to provide great conditions for the 17th annual Marquette Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt.
Over 40 children and their families gathered mid-morning Sunday (April 20) to share food and race across the park to find plastic eggs filled with all the things kids like in an egg, various forms of candy. Organized this year by Meghan Blake-Horst and Lynn Lee, the gathering harkened back to earlier neighborhood events that were smaller and more organic.
Annette Hansen, one of the egg hunt originators adds a little history event a few weeks after this post was published:
“The Spring egg hunt was started by Karen Lentfer and myself years ago when our children were small, as a celebration of Spring. The kids would design fliers and hand them out to families living near the park and they in turn would share the event with friends. Older kids help the younger children – some years in sunshine, others in rain or snow. It evolved to include a potluck brunch allowing neighbors to get re-acquainted after a long winter. In more recent years, as Karen and my children got older, Georgia Corner’s children helped with drawing and distributing fliers. Now more families with younger children are carrying on what has become an expected tradition.”
This summer’s festivals are still a can’t-miss, but today’s event was just nice, uncomplicated, unamplified, chaotic fun. See the gallery below for images of the hunt.
The entire main floor of Cargo Coffee (seen here during its grand opening) was teeming with an estimated 150 Lapham four year-olds through first graders following a temporary evacuation of the nearby school on April 2, 2014. -File photo
Lapham Elementary School Staff noticed a natural gas smell in the building around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday (April 2) and a precautionary evacuation was ordered. With approximately 250 children in the school, the nearby Salvation Army building did not have enough space to accommodate the entire school population.
Enter Cargo Coffee East, which just opened in February. Co-owner Lynn Lee (with brother Lindsey) said he received a call from the school asking if they could take some of the overflow. Lee’s daughter Addison is a student at the school and he readily invited the students over. The coffee shop is a veritable educational refuge since the entire east wall of the shop features a large mural depicting a map of the world that was created by Lee who is also an artist.
Approximately 150 students and 25 staff (kindergarten, first grade and four year-olds) were sent to the shop and Lee said he had to “hurry over” to move existing customers to the balcony to accommodate the arrivals. The evacuation lasted half an hour, but Lapham Principal Tammy Thompson Kapp said to Lee in an email that the district is considering adding Cargo East to its evacuation plans. Lee says Cargo will have a written policy for employees to follow should the site be needed again.
