Pennsic XLI, Thursday, War Week
Thu Aug 9 08:30:08 EDT 2012
Woke at 06:11; woke again at 07:44 and got up. You can see I'm getting to bed later and later, so I'm getting less sleep. The KWC recording is this afternoon, and the concert is tonight. There's also a lot of partying tonight, and the Viking longboat ceremony. Tomorrow is the last day of classes. Nothing much going on Saturday. I haven't decided yet whether to return to mundania on Saturday or Sunday.
I really need to make more tunics. They are the fastest way to get dressed, the fast way in and out of the "necessaries", and quite comfortable. Maybe that's what I'll do Saturday. It would be a shame to have brought all that cloth and thread (taking up space in the car) and not do anything with it. (It would have been even better to have new garb to wear this year.)
Thursday 16:11
I figured out how to identify the brown-sugar and strawberry Pop-Tarts, still in their identical foil packages: you can feel the sprinkles in the icing on the strawberry tarts. Most mornings I've been grabbing a package of each to take to early classes.
Only a couple of classes today, with the KWC rehearsal/recording session and the concert tonight.
The first class was an "Introduction to Commedia Dell' Arte". I'd been to one of these plays once before (probably here at a Pennsic), but I had no idea what was going on. It's very formulaic, with stock characters and plot elements, so the audience is assumed to know the backgrounds and motivations of most of the characters. There were only 2 of us attending this morning, and the other one had to leave mid-way through (it was a 2-hour class) to go fight in a battle. So I had another private class.
The other class was Beginning Bead Weaving on a rigid heddle loom. I'd done some bead weaving years ago, connected with scouting. (And I should still have the loom for that somewhere. That weaving was single warp (the lengthwise threads) and double weft (the cross threads which go through each bead). A heddle loom is double warp single weft. The loom itself is more involved, but there's only one thread through the beads, so the tedious part goes much faster. We didn't have time to get much done. The others moved to another tent at the end of our two hours, but I had to leave for the KWC recording session. So I have a ridiculous little piece that's only 6 rows of 10 beads. But that was enough to see how to start and end a piece and finish the ends. I already knew the basics of counting beads to match a pattern and stringing them on a needle. Not much to show, but I can figure out how to build a loom (took pictures) and set it up.
I accidentally disrupted a class when I was walking to the 2nd class. Someone who was in a class with me yesterday waved at me to say "Hello", distracting this instructor, who is in the Chorulus Pennsicus, and 2 of whose courses I've been to this week. So after all that I just popped on in to say "Hello" to all of them (and there were other familiar musician faces in the tent). I saw the waving woman again on my way back to camp, and I'm trying to convince her she should join the KWC next year. (I heard her sing in the class we had together yesterday, choral conducting.)
The recording session went well. The concert is going to be good.
I decided not to try to squeeze in any classes between 15:00 and the 17:30 call for the concert. So I went shopping. I found some dichroic glass pendants going 2/$20, and I bought 4. I think anniemal will like 2 of them, and she might like the other two. (I certainly like them.) One needs the hanging loop glued back on. Super Glue should work for that.
Then I found the shop Annie has bought glass from in the past; they've moved. They may have stuff Annie would like better than what I picked, but good luck for me trying to pick it out. And I think I found the best price. But I did go back to Moll Sotherden's shop, and I picked out a piece there that I think Annie will like. I really wanted to give Moll some business because she's been so nice.
[2016: I can't recall seeing Annie wearing any of the things I've bought her over the years. Maybe I should stop.]
Thursday 16:31
Tonight is Caer Edgemere's rescheduled Thanksgiving dinner. We're having problems with the battery/inverter again required for our (propane) gas oven. They've just borrowed my battery to keep things going. This is bad timing for me, since this laptop says it's got 15 minutes of power left (I was going to recharge it this evening), and my cell phone will need charging too soon. The camera battery is also low, but there's 2 more of those charged.
Thursday 21:30
The concert was good. My big mistake was not recording it. There was a lot of music that was not part of the CD-recording session - the Children's Choir, the Debatable Consort (although I recorded those pieces Monday night, and they were better then), and a madrigal trio (quartet on last piece). I didn't notice any major problems, although, honestly, the kids were not very good. A few of them could carry a tune and hold an independent part (i.e. sing rounds). They didn't use music, which means they were singing foreign languages from memory - pretty impressive (Dona Nobis Pacem and L'homme Arme). I think some of the audience found the new (plastic) tent uncomfortably hot/stuffy.
There was an approaching storm threatening through the concert. The festivities at Calontir court (to which the KWC were invited) were cancelled, and the storm got really nasty just as I was getting back to Caer Edegemere - wind, rain, eventually hail. It didn't last that long.
Caer Edgemere were just sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner as I arrived - roast turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, yams, corn, sauerkraut, cranberry sauce. My storage battery was run down to the inverter's cutoff threshold to keep the stupid oven working. I'm writing this on paper because we don't have any batteries in the camp that can recharge my laptop. (At least 4 large batteries depleted.) I'm hoping to be able to charge it during the day tomorrow when the solar panel can get some sun.
I think the Viking Longboat remembrances of the dead is usually done tonight, but I'm assuming the rain (off and on - on again right now @ 21:51) is going to postpone it. It is potentially a stunning photo op.
I've been told I snore. I think I was sleeping on my back last night - very unusual for me - and that's probably the cause. Then again, my very-overweight brother snores, so there may be something biological/genetic.
[Comments on LJ.]
[This entry was originally posted as http://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/539803.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
Woke at 06:11; woke again at 07:44 and got up. You can see I'm getting to bed later and later, so I'm getting less sleep. The KWC recording is this afternoon, and the concert is tonight. There's also a lot of partying tonight, and the Viking longboat ceremony. Tomorrow is the last day of classes. Nothing much going on Saturday. I haven't decided yet whether to return to mundania on Saturday or Sunday.
I really need to make more tunics. They are the fastest way to get dressed, the fast way in and out of the "necessaries", and quite comfortable. Maybe that's what I'll do Saturday. It would be a shame to have brought all that cloth and thread (taking up space in the car) and not do anything with it. (It would have been even better to have new garb to wear this year.)
Thursday 16:11
I figured out how to identify the brown-sugar and strawberry Pop-Tarts, still in their identical foil packages: you can feel the sprinkles in the icing on the strawberry tarts. Most mornings I've been grabbing a package of each to take to early classes.
Only a couple of classes today, with the KWC rehearsal/recording session and the concert tonight.
The first class was an "Introduction to Commedia Dell' Arte". I'd been to one of these plays once before (probably here at a Pennsic), but I had no idea what was going on. It's very formulaic, with stock characters and plot elements, so the audience is assumed to know the backgrounds and motivations of most of the characters. There were only 2 of us attending this morning, and the other one had to leave mid-way through (it was a 2-hour class) to go fight in a battle. So I had another private class.
The other class was Beginning Bead Weaving on a rigid heddle loom. I'd done some bead weaving years ago, connected with scouting. (And I should still have the loom for that somewhere. That weaving was single warp (the lengthwise threads) and double weft (the cross threads which go through each bead). A heddle loom is double warp single weft. The loom itself is more involved, but there's only one thread through the beads, so the tedious part goes much faster. We didn't have time to get much done. The others moved to another tent at the end of our two hours, but I had to leave for the KWC recording session. So I have a ridiculous little piece that's only 6 rows of 10 beads. But that was enough to see how to start and end a piece and finish the ends. I already knew the basics of counting beads to match a pattern and stringing them on a needle. Not much to show, but I can figure out how to build a loom (took pictures) and set it up.
I accidentally disrupted a class when I was walking to the 2nd class. Someone who was in a class with me yesterday waved at me to say "Hello", distracting this instructor, who is in the Chorulus Pennsicus, and 2 of whose courses I've been to this week. So after all that I just popped on in to say "Hello" to all of them (and there were other familiar musician faces in the tent). I saw the waving woman again on my way back to camp, and I'm trying to convince her she should join the KWC next year. (I heard her sing in the class we had together yesterday, choral conducting.)
The recording session went well. The concert is going to be good.
I decided not to try to squeeze in any classes between 15:00 and the 17:30 call for the concert. So I went shopping. I found some dichroic glass pendants going 2/$20, and I bought 4. I think anniemal will like 2 of them, and she might like the other two. (I certainly like them.) One needs the hanging loop glued back on. Super Glue should work for that.
Then I found the shop Annie has bought glass from in the past; they've moved. They may have stuff Annie would like better than what I picked, but good luck for me trying to pick it out. And I think I found the best price. But I did go back to Moll Sotherden's shop, and I picked out a piece there that I think Annie will like. I really wanted to give Moll some business because she's been so nice.
[2016: I can't recall seeing Annie wearing any of the things I've bought her over the years. Maybe I should stop.]
Thursday 16:31
Tonight is Caer Edgemere's rescheduled Thanksgiving dinner. We're having problems with the battery/inverter again required for our (propane) gas oven. They've just borrowed my battery to keep things going. This is bad timing for me, since this laptop says it's got 15 minutes of power left (I was going to recharge it this evening), and my cell phone will need charging too soon. The camera battery is also low, but there's 2 more of those charged.
Thursday 21:30
The concert was good. My big mistake was not recording it. There was a lot of music that was not part of the CD-recording session - the Children's Choir, the Debatable Consort (although I recorded those pieces Monday night, and they were better then), and a madrigal trio (quartet on last piece). I didn't notice any major problems, although, honestly, the kids were not very good. A few of them could carry a tune and hold an independent part (i.e. sing rounds). They didn't use music, which means they were singing foreign languages from memory - pretty impressive (Dona Nobis Pacem and L'homme Arme). I think some of the audience found the new (plastic) tent uncomfortably hot/stuffy.
There was an approaching storm threatening through the concert. The festivities at Calontir court (to which the KWC were invited) were cancelled, and the storm got really nasty just as I was getting back to Caer Edegemere - wind, rain, eventually hail. It didn't last that long.
Caer Edgemere were just sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner as I arrived - roast turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, yams, corn, sauerkraut, cranberry sauce. My storage battery was run down to the inverter's cutoff threshold to keep the stupid oven working. I'm writing this on paper because we don't have any batteries in the camp that can recharge my laptop. (At least 4 large batteries depleted.) I'm hoping to be able to charge it during the day tomorrow when the solar panel can get some sun.
I think the Viking Longboat remembrances of the dead is usually done tonight, but I'm assuming the rain (off and on - on again right now @ 21:51) is going to postpone it. It is potentially a stunning photo op.
I've been told I snore. I think I was sleeping on my back last night - very unusual for me - and that's probably the cause. Then again, my very-overweight brother snores, so there may be something biological/genetic.
[Comments on LJ.]
[This entry was originally posted as http://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/539803.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]