Feast. My last Feast?
Feast, baby.
I went, skipping Friday and just going for the meaty Saturday. Some things I said before going included 1) I’ve won everything except Battle of the Log, so I still have something to strive for, and 2) the kids are going to be lost and confused if ALL the oldbies bail at once.
I didn’t have a bad time. The game had this totally original plot where there were 4 rival houses and before the day was over they had to elect one person to be king. I abstained from the swordfighting, since I won it last year, but I brutally heckled the whelps as they flailed at each other, unleashing my most vitriolic scorn on the kid who insisted on holding his sword Anime-style, along his arm and pointed AWAY from his opponent (out in the first round, natch). Then came the log; I walked over the first couple rounds (noobs) and then fought Brian, boyfriend of Cassie. Now, I’ve been working for years to develop techniques to knock down people 50 pounds heavier than I. Men my own size or smaller, I generally whomp. But Brian - he’s skinny with long lustrous brown hair and pretty easy to mistake for a girl from behind - he and I had one of those matches where it was “Gallery? TIE!” again and again. I mean, this kid took it to me. On one occasion he countered the Frank Ivan football tackle (which I’ve been using for years) with a knee to my face, right at the point where it hit my nose, upper lip, and front teeth. My lip is still fat and my nose is still not 100% attached to my face properly. I also had a swollen knee and a trickle of blood on my back where the log tried to take off one of my moles, err, beauty marks. Brian took his girlfriend to the hospital (someone fucked her up too) and they both came back on crutches with torn ligaments. Also I kneed him in the groin, quite by accident. I’m amazed this guy of maybe 145 pounds had that much fight in him; he wrestled and did karate apparently. Anyway we beat each other up pretty good and next year - if I go back and we meet on the log- we’re just going to go Rock, Scissors, Paper. I ended up winning the match against Brian, only to be unlogged by blonde mastodon arashinomoui Anyway, the fact that I was limping after the BoL and every sip of liquor stung my busted lip that night reduced my overall funtimes.
The feast was impressive; I just mean tasty. Jeslyn didn’t cook anything outrageous but what she cooked was good. Everybody on the Feast court was actually a JMU student, if I’m not mistaken. Nobody over 25, at any rate. I never thought I’d see that happen. Not that I’m opposed to it. I joke about “nobody under 30 on the Court” but I didn’t take any steps to stop it; I didn’t compete in anything but Log (it’s obnoxious to sit on the court two years in a row IMHO).
Evening came, and the fire. I played six or seven songs for the six or seven people who wanted to hear some guitar, but the kids wanted to socialize. It wasn’t a problem for me. I like to play and I like to please people who want to hear me play, but I really don’t have an ego need to have everybody listen to me. There was no organized storytelling or anything like that, just chatting and drinking. It was emblematic of something - they don’t need the old traditions. It’s not a good thing or a bad thing, it’s their thing, their Feast. If you asked me right now if I’d go next year, I’d probably say no. But then again I still am feeling my log injuries and also have a cold.
I like a lot of the younguns, not the very youngest (I don’t dislike them; I don’t have a relationship with them), but some who are still students. Katie S. was freaking hilarious in her quest to pee on everything (I like women who can pee outdoors). But they never have been who I went to Feast to be with. If we oldbies are not doing Feast anymore, we need to nurture our own community and replace Feast with our own camping weekend next year. Replacing Feast with a new, fun tradition that is an homage to all that we have loved about Feast would be cool. Ceasing attending Feast and doing nothing, just being separate and sedentary, is lame in my opinion. I don’t have a plan for the alternate oldbie camping trip, but I feel strongly that it should be done, and that it shouldn’t conflict with Feast so that we’re not giving the finger to our little nieces and nephews so that intermediate aged people, and those nostalgic for the official Feast, would HAVE to choose Them or Us. A person should be able to do both, if so inclined.
Oldbie alternate Feast (The Feast of the Ancients?) should not have Battle of the Log. Three people (not me) needed crutches this year.
I went, skipping Friday and just going for the meaty Saturday. Some things I said before going included 1) I’ve won everything except Battle of the Log, so I still have something to strive for, and 2) the kids are going to be lost and confused if ALL the oldbies bail at once.
I didn’t have a bad time. The game had this totally original plot where there were 4 rival houses and before the day was over they had to elect one person to be king. I abstained from the swordfighting, since I won it last year, but I brutally heckled the whelps as they flailed at each other, unleashing my most vitriolic scorn on the kid who insisted on holding his sword Anime-style, along his arm and pointed AWAY from his opponent (out in the first round, natch). Then came the log; I walked over the first couple rounds (noobs) and then fought Brian, boyfriend of Cassie. Now, I’ve been working for years to develop techniques to knock down people 50 pounds heavier than I. Men my own size or smaller, I generally whomp. But Brian - he’s skinny with long lustrous brown hair and pretty easy to mistake for a girl from behind - he and I had one of those matches where it was “Gallery? TIE!” again and again. I mean, this kid took it to me. On one occasion he countered the Frank Ivan football tackle (which I’ve been using for years) with a knee to my face, right at the point where it hit my nose, upper lip, and front teeth. My lip is still fat and my nose is still not 100% attached to my face properly. I also had a swollen knee and a trickle of blood on my back where the log tried to take off one of my moles, err, beauty marks. Brian took his girlfriend to the hospital (someone fucked her up too) and they both came back on crutches with torn ligaments. Also I kneed him in the groin, quite by accident. I’m amazed this guy of maybe 145 pounds had that much fight in him; he wrestled and did karate apparently. Anyway we beat each other up pretty good and next year - if I go back and we meet on the log- we’re just going to go Rock, Scissors, Paper. I ended up winning the match against Brian, only to be unlogged by blonde mastodon arashinomoui Anyway, the fact that I was limping after the BoL and every sip of liquor stung my busted lip that night reduced my overall funtimes.
The feast was impressive; I just mean tasty. Jeslyn didn’t cook anything outrageous but what she cooked was good. Everybody on the Feast court was actually a JMU student, if I’m not mistaken. Nobody over 25, at any rate. I never thought I’d see that happen. Not that I’m opposed to it. I joke about “nobody under 30 on the Court” but I didn’t take any steps to stop it; I didn’t compete in anything but Log (it’s obnoxious to sit on the court two years in a row IMHO).
Evening came, and the fire. I played six or seven songs for the six or seven people who wanted to hear some guitar, but the kids wanted to socialize. It wasn’t a problem for me. I like to play and I like to please people who want to hear me play, but I really don’t have an ego need to have everybody listen to me. There was no organized storytelling or anything like that, just chatting and drinking. It was emblematic of something - they don’t need the old traditions. It’s not a good thing or a bad thing, it’s their thing, their Feast. If you asked me right now if I’d go next year, I’d probably say no. But then again I still am feeling my log injuries and also have a cold.
I like a lot of the younguns, not the very youngest (I don’t dislike them; I don’t have a relationship with them), but some who are still students. Katie S. was freaking hilarious in her quest to pee on everything (I like women who can pee outdoors). But they never have been who I went to Feast to be with. If we oldbies are not doing Feast anymore, we need to nurture our own community and replace Feast with our own camping weekend next year. Replacing Feast with a new, fun tradition that is an homage to all that we have loved about Feast would be cool. Ceasing attending Feast and doing nothing, just being separate and sedentary, is lame in my opinion. I don’t have a plan for the alternate oldbie camping trip, but I feel strongly that it should be done, and that it shouldn’t conflict with Feast so that we’re not giving the finger to our little nieces and nephews so that intermediate aged people, and those nostalgic for the official Feast, would HAVE to choose Them or Us. A person should be able to do both, if so inclined.
Oldbie alternate Feast (The Feast of the Ancients?) should not have Battle of the Log. Three people (not me) needed crutches this year.