Tag: ren-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:

I’ve begun my 2^nd quarter event planning. It looks like gf_guruilla, nsshere, ellipticcurve and I will be going to the So Cal Ren Faire on Saturday, April 28^th. If any of our LJ friends would like to meet us there, please feel free to let us know.

Update: Strike the date. My calendar at work was wrong, and nsshere has a Bar Mitzvah to attend that day. I”ll post an updated date later (link is friends-only).

Update 2: The updated date is April 14^th.

I just received mail from MooNiE that he has an independent film at the Now Casting Film Festival. The movie (called “Sideshow Attraction”) is about a knife thrower who accidentally kills his wife; he plays the knifethrower.

I tried to watch it, but our DSL connection kept buffering and making it unwatchable to me. But I figured I would point it out to folks that know him from Faire.

Today, we (ussens and ellipticcurve) went to the Ren Faire (after stopping first at the rummage sale at AndyCharles, an Estate Sale, and the Farmers Market in LaCanada-Flintridge). It was a lovely day to go the faire, cloudy in the morning, partial sun in the afternoon. We got there around 11am, did some shopping, and met up with dieppe and usqueba around noon. We had lunch (prices have gone up; sausage, cheese, and bread is now $7!). We did some more shopping: NSS&F got a lovely magenta faire dress; and I got a pair of brown cotton pants and a pouch. dieppe and usqueba went off to see a belly-dancing show, while our group went to go see Moonie (always a fun show). After the show, we wandered the rest of the faire, and did more shopping (mostly windows). At 5pm, we caught the combined Moonie and Broon show, which was great. We’re back home now… tired.

My garb is coming together; I even got a discount for being in garb this year when I bought my pouch. Who would have thought; I could have gotten involved with Faire so much earlier, as it was a real big thing when I was in the UCLA Computer Club (and the faire was still in Agoura). We had lots of folks active in faire: MPU, SMA, DSR, Matt, JSK, and more).

As always, a large part of the day was watching the people. I, of course, enjoyed the typical visual delights. I know my wife enjoyed some of the equivalent. More fun, however, was had watching the people in the really bad costumes; in fact, we tried to pick who had the worst costume today at faire. ellipticcurve will be writing up the results.

Now, to go collapse. Tomorrow: laundry, cleaning the house, and packing for a business trip.