2012 MADISON CITY DRIVERS

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MADISON-CITY OF DRIVING DISASTERS

Madison is a city choking on the fumes of all the automobile drivers who have no choice but to be on its congested streets in order to do business and who find themselves:

·     Sitting at endless red lights

·     Having near misses with arrogant bicyclists and pedestrians,

·     Swerving to avoid the latest configuration the god of construction has put to trip them up

·     Taking back roads to avoid the latest in the calamity that is streets closed with no thought about quality of life for residents nor transport

The powers-that-be have erected:

·     Non-intuitive rotaries that go against the rules of the road

·     Speed bumps that make nothing safer, especially once the hapless late driver is able to finally speed up again, and whose road rage quotient can only get stronger as time goes on. 

·     Fewer parking garages so that people are forced to drive blocks from where they are going to park their cars, handicapped folks notwithstanding.

There are just so many reasons why we should NOT go the way of Europe considering her tanked economy and her lines of people waiting endlessly for what they need.  Wake up Madison, before it’s too late!

ZRAZY

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Zrazy is a musical group we discovered while we were living in Ireland.  We had just moved there, were looking for some jazz and found them playing at a bar called The George.  That afternoon we were treated to a wonderful jazz concert up close and personal with Carole Nelson on the piano and vocals, Maria Walsh on lead vocals and percussion, including the wonderful Irish drum called the Bodhran.  The group was completed with a bass player and drummer on traps.

It was the beginning of a great experience when Carole told me she taught saxophone lessons and I met with her at her studio.  She was very patient with me, because I was hungry for knowledge about music, chord theory, saxophone, composition, and anything else …and she was always willing to share whatever she knew on any of those topics, flitting easily from one subject to another.  I’m NOT an easy student to teach, because I’m like a kid in a candy shop…I get so excited, then I can’t shut up and have to be told to shut up and play, and I want all of the information NOW.  Being over 50 makes you know you don’t have all the time in the world to pick up the knowledge you want.  It’s gotta be now, and I was always in a hurry!

One of the most profound statements Carole made to me during our time together struck a note inside me.  I was going on about Maria’s singing and her beautiful voice, and her stage presence, and I couldn’t say enough about her.  Carole, in her usual quiet way, just said, “Well, Maria has dedicated her whole life to music.  That explained a lot, because it is pure joy to watch Zrazy perform, whether it’s jazz standards or their own compositions.  In fact, Carole could have been talking about herself, because she is such a prolific and wonderful songwriter, both lyrics and music, piano player and singer.  She is not without a great comic sense of timing either.

The point is, she fed me information that has stayed with me till I only realized the other day, that I took her little nugget of information to heart without realizing I was even doing it.  I have pursued the love, study, and pain of making music for the last eight years with a dedication and passion, unlike anything else before, except maybe, the upbringing of my two lovely daughters.

I have gone from playing alto sax, to tenor, and have begun lessons in harp and voice.  It’s been a wonderful journey, but I know that I’m driven by this same dedication that Carole talked about in the studio that day.  She said it all in a nutshell.  When you love something you should stalk it, feed it, cajole it, argue with it, fight for it, and let it soak into your bones until you have a DEDICATION for it!