I made you a hat!
Okay, so I didn't make it. I didn't buy it either...
(See lfgcomic.com to get the joke.)
But it's a hat. It looks like... two beautiful green-blue beetle carapices stuck together with a medallion. It's very Labyrinth, which was the point; I'm hoping to go to the Labyrinth ball in July in this and my wedding gown. (What better place to wear it again?)
Faire has ended, whee. I'm happy and sad. I'll miss our crew and playing Munchkin or D&D after hours in the tent. There's a strong rumor that we may have camping next year, which would make everything much much better...
A lot of people are grumbling about the moving away from Historical authenticity and I can't blame them. Having been a member of the Living History Centre and having seen how the Faire changes, I have to side with them -- despite the fact Andrew E is a friend. There's a big gap between those who do entertainment and those who do history. There's a few groups that bridge it well (not the Puritans, sorry) but the management seems to want to lean more towards entertaining the plebes than educating them. I guess that's what happens when you go from the Living History Centre to Renaissance Pleasure Faires Inc/Renaissance Entertainment Corp.
You can't have education when you have too much fantasy being shoved down ones throats. I was able to deal with the Fantastikals because we dealt with them like the Elizabethans would. You put things out to placate them or you didn't believe in them. I never see them when they wander by.
I think the entertainment Directors don't get the history aspect of our Faire that made it what it is and was. I really don't. They do things like 'Damn that was funny' as opposed to 'Damn, that was clever' or 'Damn, that made me learn something.'
This year the Faire did a few things that bugged me... Pirate Weekend. PIRATES ARE NOT PERIOD. Sorry. Pirates are about 150 years later. Yes, there was piracy. I'm not ignorant. I'm referring to the classic image of pirates that everyone embraces, and have embraced long before Johnny Depp put mascara on and walked funny in a dredlock wig. They had a massive 'treasure hunt' of going from booth to booth and stamping off a paper. I asked children to name a pirate other than 'Jack Sparrow' and most of them couldn't. Sad...
They also had 2 Fairy Godmothers. WTF. It's bad enough we had that big freaking dragon a few years ago. Now it's Fairy Godmothers in pretty petal pastel gowns with magic wands, hosting a tea party. WE ARE NOT DISNEYLAND.
Also there's a ton of wasted space. Whomever lays the place out needs to get it right. There's a whole stretch near Court/FoF/Food Court that's just empty dusty road. Not even banners or cute stick your head thru and take a picture cutouts. There's a lot of unused land up by the Lake too. I like keeping it open for scenic views, but it feels weird.
The opening at the bottom of food court is wacky. It gives a bad feel to the flow of the Faire and it ends up making the games/sword dealers lack business.
Things that are good:
Putting the Boggards, Wives, and Belles on different stages so they have to switch their song sets. Can't do all dirty songs if you're out in the middle of the street. (I love the Boggard's 5pm request show).
Having Magog back! (Giant!)
The Sea Dogs. Yay.
Queens Court hosting the queen for Lunch and the Guard putting on pageants and other silliness for her.
Lots of different music groups. Bagpipe players, singers, aztec drum dancers...
Black Hart's Feast. OMG the tri-tip.
Court's new glade
The HT Crew.
Things that Sucked:
Dust.
Oberon Leather cutting back inventory
Pendragon's inventory
Mosquitoes
Being sick for a whole month
Pirate weekends. (Jack-Off!)
Fantasy elements getting more and more important. (The marketing campaign was terrible in my opinion.)
Shoving a Ren-Co into Saint Ives (they need more space!!)
The Layout
The fact the Town Freakin' Cryers weren't going through Faire announcing Faire was closed. St Blaize just blows these days...
The Puritans get more and more cartoony every time I see them. In their defense, I never see them in major gigs... And the one I -did- see was a circle jerk.
Things that they need to fix:
Fantasy elements running rampant. Kill the Fairy Godmothers. We can deal with the Fantastikals. No more marketing the Faire under 'Live the Fantasy!' Bring back more historically oriented things like the Green Man Inn and St. Albans and the mystery plays.
The street layout. Give Ives more room, move the Renco back, fill the empty dust-bins with something...
Camping - Not Andrew's Fault. He's trying and I know that.
The signs. Would it kill them to have someone paint signs instead of using those hideous yellow plastic things?
There you go. Faire 2007.
I've been doing Faire since we moved out of Agoura. I think I'm entitled to be a bit cranky and old fashioned. :P
(See lfgcomic.com to get the joke.)
But it's a hat. It looks like... two beautiful green-blue beetle carapices stuck together with a medallion. It's very Labyrinth, which was the point; I'm hoping to go to the Labyrinth ball in July in this and my wedding gown. (What better place to wear it again?)
Faire has ended, whee. I'm happy and sad. I'll miss our crew and playing Munchkin or D&D after hours in the tent. There's a strong rumor that we may have camping next year, which would make everything much much better...
A lot of people are grumbling about the moving away from Historical authenticity and I can't blame them. Having been a member of the Living History Centre and having seen how the Faire changes, I have to side with them -- despite the fact Andrew E is a friend. There's a big gap between those who do entertainment and those who do history. There's a few groups that bridge it well (not the Puritans, sorry) but the management seems to want to lean more towards entertaining the plebes than educating them. I guess that's what happens when you go from the Living History Centre to Renaissance Pleasure Faires Inc/Renaissance Entertainment Corp.
You can't have education when you have too much fantasy being shoved down ones throats. I was able to deal with the Fantastikals because we dealt with them like the Elizabethans would. You put things out to placate them or you didn't believe in them. I never see them when they wander by.
I think the entertainment Directors don't get the history aspect of our Faire that made it what it is and was. I really don't. They do things like 'Damn that was funny' as opposed to 'Damn, that was clever' or 'Damn, that made me learn something.'
This year the Faire did a few things that bugged me... Pirate Weekend. PIRATES ARE NOT PERIOD. Sorry. Pirates are about 150 years later. Yes, there was piracy. I'm not ignorant. I'm referring to the classic image of pirates that everyone embraces, and have embraced long before Johnny Depp put mascara on and walked funny in a dredlock wig. They had a massive 'treasure hunt' of going from booth to booth and stamping off a paper. I asked children to name a pirate other than 'Jack Sparrow' and most of them couldn't. Sad...
They also had 2 Fairy Godmothers. WTF. It's bad enough we had that big freaking dragon a few years ago. Now it's Fairy Godmothers in pretty petal pastel gowns with magic wands, hosting a tea party. WE ARE NOT DISNEYLAND.
Also there's a ton of wasted space. Whomever lays the place out needs to get it right. There's a whole stretch near Court/FoF/Food Court that's just empty dusty road. Not even banners or cute stick your head thru and take a picture cutouts. There's a lot of unused land up by the Lake too. I like keeping it open for scenic views, but it feels weird.
The opening at the bottom of food court is wacky. It gives a bad feel to the flow of the Faire and it ends up making the games/sword dealers lack business.
Things that are good:
Putting the Boggards, Wives, and Belles on different stages so they have to switch their song sets. Can't do all dirty songs if you're out in the middle of the street. (I love the Boggard's 5pm request show).
Having Magog back! (Giant!)
The Sea Dogs. Yay.
Queens Court hosting the queen for Lunch and the Guard putting on pageants and other silliness for her.
Lots of different music groups. Bagpipe players, singers, aztec drum dancers...
Black Hart's Feast. OMG the tri-tip.
Court's new glade
The HT Crew.
Things that Sucked:
Dust.
Oberon Leather cutting back inventory
Pendragon's inventory
Mosquitoes
Being sick for a whole month
Pirate weekends. (Jack-Off!)
Fantasy elements getting more and more important. (The marketing campaign was terrible in my opinion.)
Shoving a Ren-Co into Saint Ives (they need more space!!)
The Layout
The fact the Town Freakin' Cryers weren't going through Faire announcing Faire was closed. St Blaize just blows these days...
The Puritans get more and more cartoony every time I see them. In their defense, I never see them in major gigs... And the one I -did- see was a circle jerk.
Things that they need to fix:
Fantasy elements running rampant. Kill the Fairy Godmothers. We can deal with the Fantastikals. No more marketing the Faire under 'Live the Fantasy!' Bring back more historically oriented things like the Green Man Inn and St. Albans and the mystery plays.
The street layout. Give Ives more room, move the Renco back, fill the empty dust-bins with something...
Camping - Not Andrew's Fault. He's trying and I know that.
The signs. Would it kill them to have someone paint signs instead of using those hideous yellow plastic things?
There you go. Faire 2007.
I've been doing Faire since we moved out of Agoura. I think I'm entitled to be a bit cranky and old fashioned. :P