Pagan Spirit Gathering
PSG was truly delightful -- half a week (for me; more for most folks) with some marvelous people, great music-dancing-fireplay, wildness and intention.
The weather got a bit extreme, but nothing too bad. We had some lovely sunny days; some cool, cloudy ones; some torrential rains; some beastly hot-and-humid times and everything in between. No hail, no tornadoes. And the first downpour kindly waited until a minute after I got my tent up. Thank you, rain =) The rain did make it pretty muddy, and there was a bit of slipping and sliding, sometimes at inopportune times. Such is summer in Ohio.
We traveled to PSG chiefly because s00j/Skinny White Chick was performing there; I was there to help out as necessary, and also just to share and enjoy the festival. Sooj played a show at the mainstage on Wednesday, a few hours after I got in. The show was amazing, both musically and pyrokinetically. Lots of fire-spinning and other fireplay. We probably had 8 or 10 people playing with fire and about an equal number providing safety oversight; I was stage managing the whole shebang while Sooj and her fellow performers were knocking the socks of a few hundred folks. (Most of whom were already not wearing socks, but they put some socks on just to watch them keep getting knocked off. It was pretty cool.)
There was some great music by other folks too. Celia is an amazing cross between Tori Amos and Gilda Radner, which works out surprisingly well. She also sang backup for Sooj's show, which added a delicious and delightful texture. Turnabout being fair play, Sooj sang backup for her later in the week. (And really, if you're going to sing about monkeys, you should invite Sooj to sing backup pretty much on principle.)
The ever-talented and long-missed Lezlie Revelle was also on hand with her first solo album, which I'm really enjoying. Lezlie has a rich, warm voice and a deep, grounded sincerity that I find completely captivating. She was also one of Celia's backup monkeys ("Celia and The Monkey Medusas!"). If you ever get a chance to see any combination of Celia, Lezlie and Sooj playing together you MUST go. They are marvelously talented, energetic, and just plain hot.
In a totally different vein, Incus provided some great dance music -- a little trancy, a lot funky, with cellos and trumpets and oddments in. I suspect that celtic_elk would like to check them out.
The people at PSG were pretty much consistently wonderful. Lots of folks with big, open, friendly, generous hearts. Not a bunch of flakes, but people who are sufficiently self-possessed and well-intentioned to create a very friendly community. I have never come away from a festival with so many connections to people I'd like to see again. I finally got myself into the right place at the right time to learn some contact improv, which I've been wanting to learn about for years. Sadly, those particular connections aren't local ones, but I did connect with some local hula-hoop and poi-spinning folks, and I'd like to pursue that a bit. I also ran into my friend Cat (C______, not F______) from college. I'd not seen here in many years, and it was the first time either of us had been to PSG despite both having lived in Ohio for a pretty long time now. We got to spend some time together, went for a walk, a swim, and went out dancing one night -- she's one of those people I always wish I had gotten to know better, and it's nice to get to make these connections, even 10 or 12 years after we might have done.
I attended the main ritual on Saturday night, which was pretty good for a large group ritual -- better than most I've attended with that many people. They worked some fun geometry to create more intimacy than is manageable in a giant circle: they organized us in three circles arrayed around a central circle, all forming one giant circle as well. The main section of the ritual was conducted by a different pair of folks in the center of each of the three four populated rings (the center ring was set aside for other purposes.) The ritual was somewhat marred by a lack of strong chant-writing and musical leadership. If they'd had artemis112 on they're side, they might have been all set. Of course, that would have also meant that the festival would have been a confluence of no fewer than 4 Rivers, and I'm not sure we could have handled any more water...
I was a little less workshop-oriented this year than I have typically been at this sort of event in the past. There was no dearth of good workshops to choose from; I guess I was just more into connecting to folks in a less structured way. I did attend the workshop that I was teaching, of course: Dancing With Animal Spirits, which I originally developed with otterkin three years ago and is how I met s00j in the first place. Sooj came and drummed for us, and the workshop was reasonably well-attended -- big enough to feel like a workshop, small enough to be a bit intimate and to fit into the shady margin at the edge of the grass without having to bake in an excruciatingly hot afternoon. (Better the heat than last year's cold-and-wet in which Sooj drummed so faithfully despite the wretched conditions.) I got a lot of positive feedback on the workshop, and I had a good time myself. I danced with llama and swan and learned something along the way.
We ate well last week! The InkyGrrl and I worked up a pretty spiffy menu, including fajitas, chili, jambalaya, and an herbed-chicken-pasta-feta thing. I don't recall ever having made such sophisticated meals while camping before. Yum.
It was a week of much fun and silliness and some really peculiar quotes. Perhaps my favorite of the quotes was from Inky: "You'll be glad one day when I'm rich and famous and you're all over my body."
So much fun, and a lot of wonderful people -- I hope we'll be going again next year!
The weather got a bit extreme, but nothing too bad. We had some lovely sunny days; some cool, cloudy ones; some torrential rains; some beastly hot-and-humid times and everything in between. No hail, no tornadoes. And the first downpour kindly waited until a minute after I got my tent up. Thank you, rain =) The rain did make it pretty muddy, and there was a bit of slipping and sliding, sometimes at inopportune times. Such is summer in Ohio.
We traveled to PSG chiefly because s00j/Skinny White Chick was performing there; I was there to help out as necessary, and also just to share and enjoy the festival. Sooj played a show at the mainstage on Wednesday, a few hours after I got in. The show was amazing, both musically and pyrokinetically. Lots of fire-spinning and other fireplay. We probably had 8 or 10 people playing with fire and about an equal number providing safety oversight; I was stage managing the whole shebang while Sooj and her fellow performers were knocking the socks of a few hundred folks. (Most of whom were already not wearing socks, but they put some socks on just to watch them keep getting knocked off. It was pretty cool.)
There was some great music by other folks too. Celia is an amazing cross between Tori Amos and Gilda Radner, which works out surprisingly well. She also sang backup for Sooj's show, which added a delicious and delightful texture. Turnabout being fair play, Sooj sang backup for her later in the week. (And really, if you're going to sing about monkeys, you should invite Sooj to sing backup pretty much on principle.)
The ever-talented and long-missed Lezlie Revelle was also on hand with her first solo album, which I'm really enjoying. Lezlie has a rich, warm voice and a deep, grounded sincerity that I find completely captivating. She was also one of Celia's backup monkeys ("Celia and The Monkey Medusas!"). If you ever get a chance to see any combination of Celia, Lezlie and Sooj playing together you MUST go. They are marvelously talented, energetic, and just plain hot.
In a totally different vein, Incus provided some great dance music -- a little trancy, a lot funky, with cellos and trumpets and oddments in. I suspect that celtic_elk would like to check them out.
The people at PSG were pretty much consistently wonderful. Lots of folks with big, open, friendly, generous hearts. Not a bunch of flakes, but people who are sufficiently self-possessed and well-intentioned to create a very friendly community. I have never come away from a festival with so many connections to people I'd like to see again. I finally got myself into the right place at the right time to learn some contact improv, which I've been wanting to learn about for years. Sadly, those particular connections aren't local ones, but I did connect with some local hula-hoop and poi-spinning folks, and I'd like to pursue that a bit. I also ran into my friend Cat (C______, not F______) from college. I'd not seen here in many years, and it was the first time either of us had been to PSG despite both having lived in Ohio for a pretty long time now. We got to spend some time together, went for a walk, a swim, and went out dancing one night -- she's one of those people I always wish I had gotten to know better, and it's nice to get to make these connections, even 10 or 12 years after we might have done.
I attended the main ritual on Saturday night, which was pretty good for a large group ritual -- better than most I've attended with that many people. They worked some fun geometry to create more intimacy than is manageable in a giant circle: they organized us in three circles arrayed around a central circle, all forming one giant circle as well. The main section of the ritual was conducted by a different pair of folks in the center of each of the three four populated rings (the center ring was set aside for other purposes.) The ritual was somewhat marred by a lack of strong chant-writing and musical leadership. If they'd had artemis112 on they're side, they might have been all set. Of course, that would have also meant that the festival would have been a confluence of no fewer than 4 Rivers, and I'm not sure we could have handled any more water...
I was a little less workshop-oriented this year than I have typically been at this sort of event in the past. There was no dearth of good workshops to choose from; I guess I was just more into connecting to folks in a less structured way. I did attend the workshop that I was teaching, of course: Dancing With Animal Spirits, which I originally developed with otterkin three years ago and is how I met s00j in the first place. Sooj came and drummed for us, and the workshop was reasonably well-attended -- big enough to feel like a workshop, small enough to be a bit intimate and to fit into the shady margin at the edge of the grass without having to bake in an excruciatingly hot afternoon. (Better the heat than last year's cold-and-wet in which Sooj drummed so faithfully despite the wretched conditions.) I got a lot of positive feedback on the workshop, and I had a good time myself. I danced with llama and swan and learned something along the way.
We ate well last week! The InkyGrrl and I worked up a pretty spiffy menu, including fajitas, chili, jambalaya, and an herbed-chicken-pasta-feta thing. I don't recall ever having made such sophisticated meals while camping before. Yum.
It was a week of much fun and silliness and some really peculiar quotes. Perhaps my favorite of the quotes was from Inky: "You'll be glad one day when I'm rich and famous and you're all over my body."
So much fun, and a lot of wonderful people -- I hope we'll be going again next year!