Pennsic is like nothing else: the closest description I've read was an SCA event meets a renaissance Faire meets Burning Man. And this was my thirteenth in a row ( Read more... )

My biggest projects right now are playing note-for-note transcriptions of period music on a modern dulcimer and playing my arrangements of period music that would be playable on a contemporary dulcimer. One benefit of 17th century music is that there's a large overlap between the two, music that can be played exactly as written on a 17th C dulcimer ( Read more... )

Wow, what a war.

I very much missed my old campmates at Harpwood Hall, but I understand and sympathize with the reasons it's no more; we had a glorious run and it's time to move on. I found it a little hard getting set up in a new place, especially with Michael Kelly playing Tim's music next door the first night, but House Wild Rose was an ( Read more... )

I did it right this Pennsic ( Read more... )

I really enjoy the SCA. This will earn me a lot of funny looks from my fellow Renaissance Faire performers because there's an odd culture of resentment between the two groups. Still, I enjoy both for what they have to offer ( Read more... )

Wow, what a war ( Read more... )

I've been remiss and haven't posted in awhile. To sum up, Pennsic was amazing. Because of the economy, I noticed early on that sales were a little weaker than they had been in the past. Perversely, this allowed me to give myself permission to play a little less. I'm finally maturing to the point where, instead of struggling and pushing myself ( Read more... )

It's almost time to leave, finally.  I'm no longer hypothetically gathering things together to weigh for baggage, but actually packing.  Part of this started long ago; before leaving for Seattle I set aside the shirts coming to Italy in order to avoid wearing them in hopes that doing so will give me more time before I tire of them.  During my last ( Read more... )

It was a fantastic time, and a great performing experience.  We had a few jam sessions that were really fun, and one which has already passed into legend.  I love hanging out with Tim and Truly, and our other campmates were fantastic.  Busking went quite well and I got to see a lot of old friends and I made a few new ones, which is always a great ( Read more... )

Last Wednesday I headed up to the Great White North (well, not really, climatically southern Ontario is almost identical to the northern Ohio area where I grew up, but it's still fun to say), my brand new Panther pavilion in stow.  I got a bit of a look from the border guard, coming in with eight foot long wooden tent poles protruding into the ( Read more... )