With lots of originally penned music and Paradise City sounding, the Vulcans — both from The Village and westward– combined with the North Hudson ilk to be invigorated with all their senses before, during and after PepperFest (see more on various local festivities, such as North Division football, on this web site’s Notes From The Beat or Picks of the Week departments):
— I didn’t know I had a neighbor who wrote music until the annual neighborhood block party, where she told me she has penned about 100 original songs, and actually performed many of them, mostly in the folk and Christian variety. It might be apt to wonder if these musical tastes were shared by, or with, their guests of the fall-is-coming weekend in question. Then went up all the PepperFest tents for four nights in their yard, with many of the visitors including members of the Vulcans camp, as is also the case with a handful of other locals opening their front yards for that weekend. And those same people made a similar allegiance known for days after the festival grounds closed, by keeping their porch lights on all night long, in at least one case having one such bulb tinted purple and one yellow, to show Viking fan-ship — even though this is Wisconsin. Would this end up like a recent raunchy, late-night comedy where a pair of sisters throw an over-the-top wild party, with in this case louder music, and the guests decide to make Viking horns with their fingers and — sorry Minnesota fans — burn the boat.
— As for that prior Thursday evening, the party had already started, not so much in the local bars but in garages rimming PepperFest park. My neighbors man cave was hopping, near the beginning with the song Paradise City, which a couple of weeks earlier was touted on the sign of Kozy Korner as being written for the village of North Hudson. Some visitors put up strings of lights in the yards they had borrowed — or taken over? —Â that shown for days like the stars above a Vulcan mariner’s sky. But Kozy was also clairvoyant when remarking on its marquee that Whitney Houston wrote I Will Always Love You for the pizzaria and sports bar itself. It was only the next day that the news broke that another queen of soul, the original, had died. Kozy obviously was giving R-E-S-P-E-C-T to both Whitney and the late Aretha Franklin.
— Up in Star Prairie, for Ox Cart Days, there was a dearth of candidates for certain coronations. Miss Star Prairie had its one hopeful in 16-year-old Alixandria Einberger, and Little Miss Star Prairie its lone queen candidate in nine-year-old Lalia Torntore. Star Prairie is a little burg, so maybe they were the only 14 and nine years olds residing there at this moment! But the last crown category, Tiny Miss Star Prairie, had three kids. Maybe they are triplets!
— An Aerosmith-themed pinball machine that had been up at Dick’s Bar and Grill for months put a couple of the band members in harm’s way, as in missing their arms. Lead singer Steven Tyler is portrayed gripping a mic in his left hand, but where is his right? It is nowhere to be seen. Likewise, the drummer — unnamed because those doing percussion avoid the limelight, unlike Tyler — has a stick in his right hand but you can’t see any hint of his left, which I would think also holds a stick. But maybe that’s their schtick. Anyway, that pinball machine has been replaced by one with an Iron Maiden theme, to match the actual instrument on display at the other end of the venue, the restaurant part. The new electronic machine posts as an ad not “Powerslave” but “Legacy of the Beast,” after the classic Maiden song “Number of the Beast.” Has the metal band been around so long that we’re now using the word “legacy?”
— Now that its again time for Viking football, this thought. Is it the right time for Adrian Peterson to take the same path as Browns legend and lineman Joe Thomas, who is married to a Hudson woman and former Badger basketball player, and simply walk away from the game and retire while on top as far as his personal performance? Memo to Brett Favre. With that thought, another QB performance: New quarterback Cousins was the subject of media attention recently for the fact that he drives kind of a beater. Will the fact that in the preseason opener he went four-for-four for forty-plus yards and a TD mean he can upgrade to an SUV? (OK, its not that much of a beater). Word has it however, that Thomas might reconsider retirement now that its been announced that the Browns will give away a ton of free beer once they get that first win in a year. Or, that much-sought-after win might take so long to come that he will be regular-working-stiff retirement age before he can sip it while in his wheelchair!
— In the form of Jillian Gurnoe, a newcomer locally who is known for his vocals — before the prime time of the also vocal Packer fans — the Village Inn made a foray into the soon-to-close world of summer Sunday patio music as a pre-view to the pre-season of the NFL, when The Inn’s draw during these same hours is huge.
— The sign at Kozy said congratulations Kimmy and Jimmy, only one letter different and the letters in question come one right after and other in the alphabet. Can a Timmy be far behind?