Mixed Media: A mustard lover’s game
Two Madison-connected bands too friendly to battle
Many Get Cut of Mustard Game
Ask Barry Levenson, founder and curator of the Mustard Museum in Middleton, why he designed the board game Please Pass the Mustard and he, ahem, relishes the question.
“Because everyone loves board games,” he says. “Board games remain popular despite the surge of computers.”
A whole family of mustard lovers helped make the game – designed for two to six players ages 8 and older – possible. Some 100 individuals and businesses each gave $50 toward the project – and they received a game in return.
Pictured on the playing cards are a dozen specific mustard brands (sponsors of the game) — mustards that players must pair with certain foods to win. Watch out for the ketchup cards, though, because they will ruin a player’s dish. (Find out how local chefs feel about the two condiments on page 70.)
Proceeds from game sales go to the nonprofit Mustard Museum for new acquisitions and other expenses, including rent, Levenson says, acknowledging that the enterprise hasn’t been on the surest financial footing in recent years.
If the game proves profitable, then his museum is Gulden. (Sorry, we had to.)
Madison-connected Bands Too Friendly to Battle
The Mascot Theory vs. Future Stuff
Makeup:
TMT: A folk-rock band fronted by singer and guitarist Erik Kjelland
FS: A pop-folk-blues duo, composed of Madisonian Gabe Burdulis and Althea Grace, based in Nashville
New Album:
TMT: “Dawn and What Comes After,” released in August, is the band’s fourth full-length album.
FS: “For the Time Being,” released in July, was produced by Doyle Bramhall II of Los Lobos.
Collaborations:
TMT: In a Nashville studio in early 2015, Kjelland and Gabe Burdulis co-wrote two songs — “Louder” and “Cold Sweet Tea” — that wound up on Burdulis’ 2015 solo record “Youth City.” “I play in the Gabe Burdulis Band when he is in town, and he joins me in The Mascot Theory when he is able to,” Kjelland says.
FS: Burdulis sang on a song written by Erik Kjelland and Corey Mathew Hart, of TMT and Lost Lakes. Called “Get Up,” the song was released under the band name Tundra Blood on the Wisconsin Vinyl Collective charity album Kjelland created with producer Butch Vig. Burdulis played electric guitar on the Kerosene Kites 2017 album “Float Away.” Kerosene Kites is the duo formed by Kjelland and Madison singer-songwriter Beth Kille.
Mutual Admiration:
TMT: “My kids adore their uncle Gabe and always ask when he is next coming to Madison,” says Kjelland.
FS: “Erik is one of my best buds in the world,” says Burdulis. “Erik is a big brother to me, and I’m also a big fan!”
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