Adventures at Scarborough Faire
Time for my own musings on the events of the weekend--our annual pilgrimage to the erstwhile Scarborough Faire (word on the street has it that the owners are renaming it Scarborough Renaissance Festival next year, because a Festival sounds like a bigger and grander thing than a little Faire). Always a great delight to go back to Scarb; I have a great number of old friends that perform or vend there. I said so many times how much I miss the Rennie life--the 1997 spring, summer and autumn are one of the best adventures I've ever lived. If I didn't still have this thrice-weekly gig at Mother's Cafe, I'd be more inclined to go out there again, but this gig has too many advantages--it's all year-round, I drive eight miles to get there, and I play indoors for three hours at a time. No question--that's too sweet to trade for the much-less-cushy life of a Faire performer. That's not to say that I'm not tempted every time I go to any Faire!
Three new acts I must write about, for the word must go out about them...
One of the first acts we saw after Cantiga did their opening set was a young girl named Sarah Mullen, who was playing Irish harp. She's from North Carolina, and is still fairly new to the circuit. She plays a bit too fast for my taste, but she's very precise and skilled in her technique. I always enjoy talking to other harp players, because it's such a rarity to find other ones. Her album was produced by Blind Dog Productions, which is run by Doug Kondziolka and Jose Granados, more popularly known as Don Juan and Miguel. They have quite a network of friends and resources in the Rennie community to get musicians published. With those connections, I think Ms. Mullen will do well on the circuit in years to come.
Jeremiah Wiggins, human ambassador to the Faerie realm--Wow! what a storyteller! He had several stories to tell from the Irish mythological tradition--Midhir and Etain, Cuchulain and Fand, Oisin and St. Patrick. He was brilliant and evocative, a fluidly expressive face--bright blue eyes in a brown weathered face--and has a considerable background in professional clown training and in academic folklore and storytelling. He seems to be part of a larger Faerie community that puts on such things as Faerieworlds, a Faerie weekend festival at a winery near Eugene, OR (are you reading, sollite?), and a Jareth Masquerade Ball (yep, the one from "Labyrinth"!) in Los Angeles. A marvelously talented performer Master Wiggins is, either on stage or roving about with his "toadstool" for him to sit on when he does more "guerrilla" storytelling in the lanes. I may have to drop him an e-mail sometime soon.
Sholo the Nubian! He's the huge imposing ebony-skinned warrior in chainmail that poses formidably while women swoon. I've almost never heard him open his mouth. But he has his own shows now, and he does the most stirring Shakespearean recitals--the one I found most memorable and identifiable was the "St. Crispin's Day" speech from "Henry V". He makes the recitals fierce and proud, in the way an explosive-natured warrior in a pub would be expected to boast and discourse. The second half of the show he used his wit, his words and his passion to woo, to seduce, nay, almost to assault the senses of four women he picked from the audience to recite poetry either passionate or bawdy, according to their choice. The women seemed to find him most, ehm, entertaining...
So of course the fun was in the grand and creative performances, but they are best enjoyed in company. Lawmann, wickedambiguity, endora, aronal and godorion all came to drink, laugh, and strut about in our most showy finery. A delighted and delightful company, and I am so pleased that we got to adventure together. They have their accounts of the Faire as well, their own impressions and memories. So many tales there were to remember--the Green Rose, the cornfields, the Starship Pegasus, the Gargoyle, Johnny-Jump-Up (never, never, never AGAINNNNNN!), Freebird, the working girl in her pink cowgirl outfit, the lightweights at Bataan, the HUGE parade, and the fun we could have with Lawmann's bald head, wickedambiguity's braid, and a bit of spirit gum. Thanks, my friends and my love, for a magnificent weekend, and more stories to tell. It is truly said that "An scéal giorraim an bóthar"--a story shortens the road.
Three new acts I must write about, for the word must go out about them...
One of the first acts we saw after Cantiga did their opening set was a young girl named Sarah Mullen, who was playing Irish harp. She's from North Carolina, and is still fairly new to the circuit. She plays a bit too fast for my taste, but she's very precise and skilled in her technique. I always enjoy talking to other harp players, because it's such a rarity to find other ones. Her album was produced by Blind Dog Productions, which is run by Doug Kondziolka and Jose Granados, more popularly known as Don Juan and Miguel. They have quite a network of friends and resources in the Rennie community to get musicians published. With those connections, I think Ms. Mullen will do well on the circuit in years to come.
Jeremiah Wiggins, human ambassador to the Faerie realm--Wow! what a storyteller! He had several stories to tell from the Irish mythological tradition--Midhir and Etain, Cuchulain and Fand, Oisin and St. Patrick. He was brilliant and evocative, a fluidly expressive face--bright blue eyes in a brown weathered face--and has a considerable background in professional clown training and in academic folklore and storytelling. He seems to be part of a larger Faerie community that puts on such things as Faerieworlds, a Faerie weekend festival at a winery near Eugene, OR (are you reading, sollite?), and a Jareth Masquerade Ball (yep, the one from "Labyrinth"!) in Los Angeles. A marvelously talented performer Master Wiggins is, either on stage or roving about with his "toadstool" for him to sit on when he does more "guerrilla" storytelling in the lanes. I may have to drop him an e-mail sometime soon.
Sholo the Nubian! He's the huge imposing ebony-skinned warrior in chainmail that poses formidably while women swoon. I've almost never heard him open his mouth. But he has his own shows now, and he does the most stirring Shakespearean recitals--the one I found most memorable and identifiable was the "St. Crispin's Day" speech from "Henry V". He makes the recitals fierce and proud, in the way an explosive-natured warrior in a pub would be expected to boast and discourse. The second half of the show he used his wit, his words and his passion to woo, to seduce, nay, almost to assault the senses of four women he picked from the audience to recite poetry either passionate or bawdy, according to their choice. The women seemed to find him most, ehm, entertaining...
So of course the fun was in the grand and creative performances, but they are best enjoyed in company. Lawmann, wickedambiguity, endora, aronal and godorion all came to drink, laugh, and strut about in our most showy finery. A delighted and delightful company, and I am so pleased that we got to adventure together. They have their accounts of the Faire as well, their own impressions and memories. So many tales there were to remember--the Green Rose, the cornfields, the Starship Pegasus, the Gargoyle, Johnny-Jump-Up (never, never, never AGAINNNNNN!), Freebird, the working girl in her pink cowgirl outfit, the lightweights at Bataan, the HUGE parade, and the fun we could have with Lawmann's bald head, wickedambiguity's braid, and a bit of spirit gum. Thanks, my friends and my love, for a magnificent weekend, and more stories to tell. It is truly said that "An scéal giorraim an bóthar"--a story shortens the road.