A Day at the Faire

Today, we went to the Southern California Renaissance Faire. To my knowledge, this is the original Faire, and we’ve been going to it since the days it was in Agoura (well, truth to be told, we went its last few years in Agora, stopped for a spell, and then started back up when we met ellipticcurve, and we’ve been going ever since). Today’s party was ussens and ellipticcurve.

Over the years, the faire has changed, and I’ve learned a lot more about Faire. When I first knew Faire, it was this thing that other folks in the UCLA Computer Club (such as Mike Urban, Steve Altman, Matt Silberstein, and Sheldon Linker) spend lots of time at, but I never got into. Since we’ve met Nicole, we’ve gotten more into Faire: we now have garb, and each Faire add to our garb to make it look better and better. So, those of you in the Davis Faire groups, you can see how your positive influence is spreading :-). I’ve also seen how the SoCal Faire has gone downhill: I remember the idyllic hills of Agoura, and everyone in garb and into the roles. As I noted last night, there seem to be more and more outside influences creeping in: pirates, and fairies, and barbarians, and who knows what. More on that later.

Today was a good day weather-wise for Faire. A bit cloudy, a bit breezy, but not too hot. It also wasn’t super-crowded, being only the second week of faire. We did a fair amount of shopping: We got a nice leather pouch for me, a belt for nsshere, and some bodice lacing at Oberon; a bodice for nsshere and an overskirt for gf_guruilla at Hearts Delight; some B’nai Mitzvah gifts; a necklace for nsshere; and some edible goodies (vinegar and chutneys). This now pretty much completes our garb; you can see a picture of nsshere in garb to your right. We also picked up some pottery at Schulps–I’ve been using mugs from them since Agoura days (they are the source of my Gigantic Mug O Tea™). We didn’t see that many shows, catching only the Bold and Stupid Men. We didn’t see too many Puritans this year; we figure they were all hiding in the back drinking and fornicating. They also seem to have changed the layout; the positioning of the Washerwomen’s Well was particularly bad.

One of the things we enjoy doing at Faire is determining the bad costume award. This was made harder this year, because (on the good side) there didn’t seem to be as many stupendously bad costumes (such as last year’s 70-year old grandmother in a chain-mail bikini), and on the bad side because the organizers seem to have planted their own “WTFs” in the crowd, such as Vivi and Morgana, the Fairie Godmothers or the Troll. Still we do have a few entrants I was able to capture:

Woman #1	Woman #2	Woman #3
Man #1	Man#2	&nbsp

So who’s the winner? You decide: