Today, gf_guruilla, ellipticcurve, S&F, and myself went to opening day of the Southern California Ren Faire. It appeared I screwed up on the advance tickets; for our 2nd visit, I’ll need to purchase more (if ellipticcurve or gf_guruilla are coming along) [I though I was purchasing enough with the “Buy 2-Get 1 Free” plus kids tickets to get two days for the four of us, but I miscalculated with the block and tackle]. In any case, we hit the faire a little after noon, and were there until 5ish.
So what did I think of the new location? It has its pluses and its minus. The pluses are that (a) it’s closer to our house; (b) I like the lake. The minuses are (a) how they laid it out [which was poor, in my opinion: the food and drinks should have been better spread out, and there should have been more loops than a surpentine “S”]; (b) they didn’t take advantage of the lake. Of course, the real decision is the traffic: does attendance go up or down. Talking to the vendors, at least one thought it was better, the other thought it was worse.
I think we all had fun. I, being a guy, got to indulge one of my favorite hobbies: watching the walking scenery, which is always nice on a hot day at RenFaire :-). I’m sure the ladies with me got their fill of equivalent scenery. We got to see a few shows, and do a little shopping to start building our costumes. I’m enjoying getting back into going to RenFaire: this was my 2nd year in a row; the time before that was when it was in Agoura, and folks from the UCLA Computer Club were still active in it.
After we got home, we watched Reefer Madness (The Musical) on Showtime. A very subversive movie, which made me think of Fahrenheit 911 in its parallels to our propaganda today. If you get a chance, watch it. For those not familiar with the movie, it was based on a stage musical inspired by the notorious 1936 anti-marijuana propaganda film. It is a musical about clean-cut kids who fall into a twisted, hilarious downward spiral of reefer, sex and mayhem. You can find a synopsis of the story here.
Tomorrow? Laundry, perhaps seeing a house or two, and then S&F, gf_guruilla, and GFG’s mother are off to the Sisterhood Women’s Seder at Temple.
