On June 9th, the lake’s swells overtopped County Highway A along the northeastern section of Lake Delton after a weekend of heavy storms. I watched as it was happening, staring at the television in my second-story apartment in Madison, with just fifty miles between me and the breach. The houses dangled and then tipped into the water as the earth beneath them gave way. Newscasters in polo shirts and fishing waders pointed out to middle the temporary river as a home took off downstream headed toward the Wisconsin. Less than four hours later, Lake Delton was gone.

Here's Day 3 in photos of the Madison to Bonnaroo experience. Highlights include Iron & Wine's performance, crowd scenes, Sigur Ros's set, and Kanye West's glow-in-the-dark suck-at-sunrise debacle.

Following up on my post of Day 1 photos of the Madison to Bonnaroo experience, here's Day 2, including highlights from the morning press conference, some crowd scenes, performances from !!!, M.I.A., SuperJam, and the Silent Disco.

As previously noted, captions don't really line up with their photos here. As long as you're more sober than we were at Bonnaroo, you should be able to figure it out. If you're a Firefox ninja, just view this post without styles (View > Page Style > No Style), otherwise just relax and enjoy the pretty pictures :-)

Dane 101 followed a sizable contingent of Madisonians down to Tennessee last week for the Bonnaroo Music Festival. A pre-festival intro is posted here, and an interview with a perennial Bonnaroo attendee is posted here; raw note dumps from the trip are available here, here, here, here, and here.

With a new laptop in tow, I didn't really have an image workflow dialed in yet, so while I was able to post text updates from the field, photos had to wait 'til now. Here's the road down and Day 1 from Bonnaroo, in photos:

Shawn, Mark, Shane, Kevin, Phil (me), Ethan, and Wyndham pose for a "before" picture in the Woodman's parking lot.

The Quad Squad emerged victorious after a vicious bout, besting their longtime rivals the Reservoir Dolls. A more in-depth writeup of the bout should follow soon. Scores at the Mad Rollin' Dolls blog.

Photos by Chris Norris. More details at the Mad Rollin Dolls Blog. Click images for larger versions.

I hung out with Hanson today. Well, I walked with them and a few hundred other people from the Barrymore to Yahara Place Park and back. I met and conversed with Hanson fans, who are... well, nuts. Nuts about Hanson. And the fact that they have such dedicated fans makes what they're doing lately, raising awareness about poverty and AIDS in Africa, more amazing. There are a ton of people out there that will actually listen to what they say, and hopefully do something about it.

The guys in the band seemed very nice and were very cordial with the huge crowd of adoring fans. I've never seen a band do something like this: actually go out, before a show, and hang out, walk, and talk with their fans. And Zac actually walked barefoot, as you can see below.

Phil Ejercito provides these photos of Russ Feingold speaking to students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For a full write up of his appearance check out the Daily Cardinal. (Click on the images to view them larger)

Midwest Diva Leslie Hall came to Madison last Thursday to entertain her fans with her dazzling outfits, dance moves, and some damn good music. Leslie inducted a few sweaters (or is it inducting the owner/creators?) in the Junior Gem Alliance and thrilled the hell out of a very packed High Noon Saloon. Her fans come dressed up in some of the finest bedazzled sweaters you will ever see. If you haven't heard her music, check it out.

Openers Screamin Cyn Cyn and the Pons started the show off with some glam and some fast, frenetic rock music. Lead singer Shane O'Neil continues to impress me with the moves he can pull off in platform heels. And he shows a lot of skin, which is rarely a bad idea.

This morning hundreds of hopeful models gathered at the University Book Store on Library Mall for an America's Next Top Model casting call. By 1pm they had signed up nearly 160 girls and more seemed to be on the way.

The Mad Rollin' Dolls season is underway and this second bout brought in another sell-out crowd. This month's bouts were the Reservoir Dolls vs the Quad Squad and the Unholy Rollers vs the Vaudeville Vixens. Dane101 photographer Chris Norris (that's me) was there. I believe a full writeup will be coming soon.


Bella Donna (42) pulls forward jammer Thunder Kitten (11)

With all of the negativity toward the cold and snow I have embarked on a mission to embrace the positive. First off, it is a record setting winter. As noted by The Capital Times we tied a 135-year-old chill record last night when it reached 15 below. Why not stick it out until we break the record. We are also so close to breaking triple digits in terms of the snow record, so we might as well as go all the way. Right? Second, the icicles forming around Madison are simply amazing. Mark Sadowski at Pixelated Imagination has the right idea in his most recent photo gallery. Here are some random photos I recently took of a frozen Madison. Feel free to let us know where we can view your images of "frozen Madison" in the comments section below (click on the images to view larger).

Images by The Chris Project. Click to view larger.

Knowing the roller derby bouts usually start later than planned, I arrived around 7:15 p.m. bypassing the line that was still growing outside. I immediately saw a few friends and played catch up with them before the beginning of the bout, which finally started at 7:35 p.m. And man, did it start with a bang.

The first game was The Vaudeville Vixens vs. The Reservoir Dolls. Now, anyone that has attended a few bouts knows that The Reservoir Dolls is the team to beat. They have the flashy star players like Mouse and Crackerjack. They win all the time. They showboat. They expect glory. The Dolls are kind of like the Dallas Cowboys in the 90's or the New York Yankees anytime in their existence, and that is why I must always root against them. In fact, if this bout was covered by ESPN, sports analysts would insipidly describe this match-up as a showdown between "David and Goliath" or "Walmart and the local mom and pop store" or "Knight Rider and Herbie" or "insert big mean thing vs small innocent thing here".

A little bit of Hollywood came to Madison on Sunday as Universal Studios sought vintage cars for the Michael Mann film Public Enemies likely shooting in the state come March. I snapped a picture of this sign outside of the Overture Center this morning as I headed to work.

UPDATE: While digging through Craigslist I came across a call for female extras to take part in a "major motion picture being shot in Madison." Is it related? At $250 the stipend being offered is not small potatoes. The deadline is February 1, more details and link to the ad below:

Words by Jesse Russell and photos by Chris Norris

It all started with a feud between Mad Rollin Doll announcers Bob Noxious and Baam Baam. Both have been on the sidelines reporting the action and have gone on to train announcers around the globe, but which of the two would be the better derby coach? In order to bring peace back to the rink the Holiday bout was turned over to the voices of the Mad Rollin Dolls. They drafted the two teams from a pool of 45 dolls and had three weeks of practice and prep. Bob put together the Ice Queens and Baam put together the Candy Canes. It was a hard fought battle with the two teams neck-and-neck for much of the first two rounds. It was the third round when Baam miscalculated. He had been saving up Mouse, who would typically be an ace-in-the-hole during any derby match-up, for a third round assault. However, Bob told dane101 that a great deal of the Ice Queen's training was specifically spent on how to shut down Mouse who is easily one of the Dolls top jammers. The plan worked and the Queens sat on the Canes like marshmallows on top of cocoa pulling off a victory in the third.