Weekend update part one: Ren Faire
Mar. 11th, 2008 | 08:37 am
Dialogue of the weekend:
Person wearing skull on head: "Wait, the girl that puts her breasts on fire is your cousin?"
Me: "Well, one of them is."
Person with skull on head: "That's so awesome." Pause. "Well. Of course. This is coming from someone with a skull on his head."
In related news, I am commanded to pass along various and sundry friendly greetings to all members of Phoenix Swords, which would be even cooler if I remembered who had commanded me to do so.
********************
So as some of you might have gathered from the above, I returned to the Florida Renaissance Festival for the first time in, um, awhile, heading there with![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
athenakt, her husband, and about four people from FIU who are not getting named here since they chose the uncoolness of Myspace accounts who wended their way north so that they could argue about leather hats. Well, that and take pictures of me stroking and caressing an entirely different skull than the one above, a skull attached to a limb of a green demon. Green demons are not precisely technically part of the glamourous court of Henry VIII, but I'm always up for stroking skulls when need be, and I figured that a few demons had danced their way into Henry's masquerades here and there, so all good. Pictures were also taken by swntcute2, who was so surprised to see me there that she felt it was necessary to take actual pictures of me to prove that I was really there. I felt I had to have a few cups of mead and several handfuls of kettle corn to prove I was really there.
(As a recovering historian I am well aware that kettle corn did not form a large part of the dietary staples of any Renaissance court, but this was the same Ren Faire selling arepas and funnel cakes, so, as traditional food goes, it lacked something.)
I have to say that I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would, and it was good to run into certain people again and reconnect with old friends and people I barely remembered from Alabama. But likewolfblade noted a few years back, I felt an odd disconnect with the Faire; I could hardly believe I'd been part of it once, perhaps especially when I chatted with old friends from the time. (Realizing I'd seen pretty much all the acts, though, at one Faire or another, was a helpful reminder.) The Faire seemed somewhat more organized than it's been in times past, although perhaps that's only because I spent limited time there, and the day was cool enough to draw in crowds – but it didn't quite feel overcrowded. (wolfblade -- the only street performers I saw were the above mentioned demons and some tumblers on stilts promoting their own show. ) This Faire doesn't have a permanent site, unlike others, and has pretty much given up all pretense to authenticity – but it does have glassblowing and gorgeous metal worked objects, including a bronzed rose water garden that immediately made me think of norda.
We snuck out just before the pub sing, to avoid the traffic. Oddly, I thought I'd miss that – pub sing was always my favorite part of the Faire – but I found that I didn't feel like persuading my group to stay. I did feel like indulging in more kettle corn.
Sunday's tale coming up.
Person wearing skull on head: "Wait, the girl that puts her breasts on fire is your cousin?"
Me: "Well, one of them is."
Person with skull on head: "That's so awesome." Pause. "Well. Of course. This is coming from someone with a skull on his head."
In related news, I am commanded to pass along various and sundry friendly greetings to all members of Phoenix Swords, which would be even cooler if I remembered who had commanded me to do so.
********************
So as some of you might have gathered from the above, I returned to the Florida Renaissance Festival for the first time in, um, awhile, heading there with
athenakt, her husband, and about four people from FIU who are not getting named here since they chose the uncoolness of Myspace accounts who wended their way north so that they could argue about leather hats. Well, that and take pictures of me stroking and caressing an entirely different skull than the one above, a skull attached to a limb of a green demon. Green demons are not precisely technically part of the glamourous court of Henry VIII, but I'm always up for stroking skulls when need be, and I figured that a few demons had danced their way into Henry's masquerades here and there, so all good. Pictures were also taken by swntcute2, who was so surprised to see me there that she felt it was necessary to take actual pictures of me to prove that I was really there. I felt I had to have a few cups of mead and several handfuls of kettle corn to prove I was really there.(As a recovering historian I am well aware that kettle corn did not form a large part of the dietary staples of any Renaissance court, but this was the same Ren Faire selling arepas and funnel cakes, so, as traditional food goes, it lacked something.)
I have to say that I enjoyed myself more than I thought I would, and it was good to run into certain people again and reconnect with old friends and people I barely remembered from Alabama. But like
wolfblade noted a few years back, I felt an odd disconnect with the Faire; I could hardly believe I'd been part of it once, perhaps especially when I chatted with old friends from the time. (Realizing I'd seen pretty much all the acts, though, at one Faire or another, was a helpful reminder.) The Faire seemed somewhat more organized than it's been in times past, although perhaps that's only because I spent limited time there, and the day was cool enough to draw in crowds – but it didn't quite feel overcrowded. (wolfblade -- the only street performers I saw were the above mentioned demons and some tumblers on stilts promoting their own show. ) This Faire doesn't have a permanent site, unlike others, and has pretty much given up all pretense to authenticity – but it does have glassblowing and gorgeous metal worked objects, including a bronzed rose water garden that immediately made me think of norda.We snuck out just before the pub sing, to avoid the traffic. Oddly, I thought I'd miss that – pub sing was always my favorite part of the Faire – but I found that I didn't feel like persuading my group to stay. I did feel like indulging in more kettle corn.
Sunday's tale coming up.