A deluge of summer fun engulfs Madison for a second consecutive weekend with Maxwell Street Days, the Dane County Fair, the MadFork Musid Fest, the Madison Early Music Festival, the Green & Gold Training Camp, Paddle & Portage, and Greek Fest. Looking for more? The calendar also includes productions of The Yeomen of the Guard and Riot Acts; a book reading by Michael Schuler; a live broadcast by Ed Schultz; Crustacean Records birthday parties, and more live music from Framing Hanley, Hivemind, SR-71, Ott, and Gaelic Storm.
Friday 7.17
NOTEWORTHY: Disneyland opens, 1955.
BIRTHDAYS: Rapper M.I.A., 1977.
State Street, 8 am-6 pm. Also Saturday (8 am-6 pm) & Sunday (10 am-5 pm), July 18 & 19
Downtown merchants revive the spirit of Chicago's old Maxwell Street market by piling the sidewalks with their wares. The people-watching is primo, the bargains can't be beat, and there's music all weekend on the Folk & Songwriters Stage at Peace Park (452 State St.). Saturday's entertainment includes the weekly Folk on State series with guests Carrie Elkin (1 pm) and John Statz (2 pm).
Alliant Energy Center, through July 19
The summer staple rolls on through the weekend with more animal judging, including cats (Friday), swine (Saturday) and hunt ponies (Sunday). There's also live music, a carnival and, on Sunday, the taco eating contest.
UW Memorial Union Terrace, 6 pm
The Terrace is hosting a miniature Pitchfork Fest of sorts, bringing the trippy sounds and video art of Yeasayer and Ponytail's noisy sugar rush of art rock to town for a free show the day before these bands hit Chicago. Fellow Pitchfork-goers the Dutchess & the Duke, Cymbals Eat Guitars and the Antlers open (see Tour Stop).
Concerts at Mills Hall in the UW Humanities Building, 7:30 pm
The annual confab of medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music winds down with a performance by the Venere Lute Quartet (Friday) and the all-festival concert (Saturday). 6:30 lectures precede each performance.
UW Music Hall, 7:30 pm. Also Saturday (7:30 pm) & Sunday (3 pm), July 18 & 19
It just wouldn't be summer in the city without a production by Madison Savoyards, the plucky troupe that has been staging Gilbert and Sullivan operettas for 46 years. In this relatively serious one, a colonel schemes to thwart the plot that has him sentenced to die.
Riot Acts: A Celebration of Stonewall
Bartell Theatre, 8 pm. Also Thursday (7:30 pm) & Saturday (2 & 8 pm), July 16 & 18
StageQ, Proud Theater and Perfect Harmony Men Chorus present an original production, with songs, about the Stonewall riots of June 1969. The riots galvanized the gay rights movement, and there's nothing the gays can't turn into a musical (see Theater).
Saturday 7.18
NOTEWORTHY: 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci notches first perfect 10 in Olympic history at Montreal, 1976.
BIRTHDAYS: Rock & Roll Hall-of-Famer Dion DiMucci, 1939; actress Elizabeth McGovern, 1961.
Vilas Zoo, 10 am
Think your first-grader has what it takes to compete in the National Football League? Take a step toward finding out at this camp, where Green Bay Packers receiver Donald Driver and running backs coach Edgar Bennett will put tots age 5-12 through the paces of NFL-style workouts. Kids as young as 2 can come; registration at Paddle & Portage
James Madison Park, 10 am (registration begins at 8 am)
If you can paddle a canoe or kayak real fast, and also run real fast while carrying that canoe or kayak, you're a contender for this race. It starts in Lake Mendota, proceeds on foot across the isthmus to Lake Monona, and winds up at Olin Park.
Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, 4-9 pm. Also Sunday, July 19, 11:30 am-7 pm
They gave us Homer, the Olympics and galaktoboureko. So celebrate the good people of Greece at this festival, which features music, tours of the church, fun for the kids and, of course, food, food, food.
Scatz, 6 pm
The Nashville quintet saw some chart action last year with "Lollipop," their rockin' remake of Lil Wayne's smash hit. Made us chuckle. With Vintage Burning, Circle of Fifths.
Good Style Shop, 6 pm
Florida's Hivemind takes on topics like physical decay and spiritual renewal with thrashy barbs that cut straight to your emotional core. Also playing: Birth Refusal, Uneven Universe, Evenings.
Inferno, 9 pm
Chicago DJ Samone (Samantha) Roberts, a.k.a. SamOne and Pretty And Popular, adopts the moniker SR-71 -- the name of a famous type of spy plane -- when she busts out the nu-disco beats and the spirit of old-school electro. With OCD Automatic, DJ Foundation.
High Noon Saloon, 10 pm
Killer riffs and hilarious, pissed-off vocals are the hallmarks of the punk band named for Wisconsin's north woods, not the hippie jam band with ties to the same area code. Crustacean Records bands Things Fall Apart, the Skintones and Birthday Suits will provide a proper introduction with myriad improprieties. It's part of a weekend-long series of concerts celebrating Crustacean's 15th anniversary; see Music) for info.
Orpheum Theatre's Stage Door, 10:30 pm
King Tubby and Kraftwerk -- plus a multitude of other electronic artists -- ricochet off one another in the English musician's dubby, abstract compositions.
Sunday 7.19
NOTEWORTHY: Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 14,000 points for the first time, 2007.
BIRTHDAYS: Filmmaker Atom Egoyan, 1960.
A Room of One's Own, 2 pm
The author -- parish minister at First Unitarian Society of Madison -- discusses his book Making the Good Life Last: Four Keys to Sustainable Living, about how rampant consumer culture is making everyone's soul hurt.
Barrymore Theatre, 7 pm
The progressive radio host stages a live broadcast. Topic: health-care reform. It all goes down on Madison's east side. Where else?
Majestic Theatre, 8 pm
Since breaking out with their appearance in Titanic, the fun-loving Gaelic Storm have skipped from funked-up Celtic grooves to boisterous fiddle tunes to raucous contemporary material. They're anything but strict traditionalists, which probably explains their enduring popularity.
