mapsedge | Festival musings

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Festival musings

Feeling a little sick myself, now, but it's the usual sinus tightness and minor sore throat; no biggie.

I'm not really in a position to criticize kcrf in general since I am in a position to profit by its success, but I'm not beyond a little maudlin remembrances myself. The Jester Rejects stopped working faire far sooner than I did and for many of the same reasons I quit. There used to be a musician out at faire, first name Lee can't remember the last name; I have a very brown picture in my head for him: brown hat, brown pants, brown vest, muslin shirt, mustache, flute. He used to say that there are three reasons to do any activity: for the money, for fun, or the love of it. If you can't lay your hands on those anymore, it's time to stop.

Well, we certainly can't support our families doing this; the fun's been scripted and scheduled out of it; and how many relationships have we ended because love was just too much of an effort?

I can't say what I'd be doing if circumstances were different. After all, I have two children under the age of five, and two months worth of weekends every year is more time than I want to spend away from them. My father did that to me as I was growing up, and while I've worked my way out of whatever damage it might have done, I still resent the business pursuits that put me in a more or less fatherless household for a solid ten years out of the eighteen I'd reached by the time he died.

I miss the festival experience still, though. Some of my best and worst memories are there, and in many ways I still define myself in its terms. I miss the cold mornings, dragging ass home at the end of a day, pre- and post-morning-meeting, I miss the crowds, and most of all I miss my fellow performers. I still get my fix by working from time to time for D.Reardon at the Astral Sea cart, and in that way I can capture the fun and the love and, indeed, make enough to pay for the weekend and come out even by Sunday night.

That said, it saddens me as, year after year, the scenario gets stranger, the veterans become more cynical, and the quality of the rest of the performance drops. I can walk to width and length of the faire and never be spoken to by someone in a costume whom I don't know. Is it any wonder that small start-up Who-ish faires keep drifting by, their small voices crying out "WE'RE HERE WE'RE HERE WE'RE HERE!"

And we pick that dandelion and carry that speck.

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Glad to see you here, and I like your thoughts on the Whole Matter.

What a revelation it was when I figured out the person behind the handle. Nice to be here, thank you.

For me it is still fun.

I measure everything against my day to day experience "in faire" and generally shine on the rest of the crap. I have militantly refused to become a scripted commodity and I do all I can to minimize the negatives of the experience.

I miss all of the performers who have made the choice you have made for all the right reasons. I can understand exactly why they have made the choices they have.

Cynical, yeah, but I'm a cynical bitch about most everything. But out of the majority of people I've watched go by, I somehow still manage to keep my eye on the ball of what's meaningful in that environment.

The moment you touch a patron's mind/heart/soul...or in my case, his ass...and have that direct interaction change their worldview to something fun, magical and outside the daily norm of our existence.

So long as I can still say I'm enjoying the actual performance. I'll be there (assuming my body will let me)...all the rest of it is nothing other than bullshit...that's some years deeper than others...

I've seen a tremendous amount of ebb and flow of that over the long haul.

D.

Your direct interaction has certainly changed my worldview, on more than one occasion.

I wish I had your talent for riding above it all, but when I find myself in a current I can't help but dunking my head under so all of me's wet. For example, that's largely how I came to direct the Renegade show, pushed them into becoming Ren. Sword Theatre, and why I became so frustrated when the laziest and most complacent of the group (about half that cast) refused to put any work into the show. I want the sandbox to have good sand, bright red pails, nice yellow shovels, and I can't abide cat shit.

That's the reason I loved being the gravedigger. I had my graveyard, my hovel, my tombstones. I did my scheduled bit three or four times a day, and the rest of the time I could do what I loved doing: find the empty spaces and fill them with something.

Babe, there are very, very specific reasons why I am the one who chooses who I play with at faire (I cast my whores, Jim does not)...I am a much pickier bitch than most people can imagine.

sablessam regularly tells people I'm the hardest person to work for at the faire, because of what I demand of my women.

For that reason, my sandbox, the place where I play, is populated with quality performers who do their fucking job or they don't get to come back to play.

D.

I once went to lunch with JS, a couple of years after he became ED. I was chafing under some of the new regulations that were being put in place, and was (in retrospect) whining about it, although I think I wasn't too far from justified. I don't remember the specifics, but to offer an analogy the bulk of the changes amounted to, "Some people need to be scheduled, therefore we shall put everyone on a schedule." I questioned, "What about those people who have performed for years, and do their best job without the schedule?" His answer, "Well, that wouldn't be fair."

My attitude has always been "it isn't about fair, it's about doing the job." Quotas can get you into medical school so that you have a fair chance, but if you suck at being a doctor you don't get to be one. Is that fair? Maybe not. Is it right? You betcha.

Okay, I'll admit to hyperbole to make the point, sure. It just a topic that gets me going, and in trouble sometimes. Remind me sometime to tell you about the Jacomo Chorale Madrigal Dinner.

"It's MY show, William." "Yes, Becky, and it sucks."

I'd love to hear the story, whenever you feel the urge to tell it, my dear.

I too have always felt that the "schedule everyone because some need it is" is complete crap. Try "hire actual adults who do their job and fire them if the don't actually do their job" would work much better.

The ebb and flow does work naturally, people do work their way around the entire faire on their own (otherwise you get bored being in one place all the time)...different characters work better in some places over others...

Argh.

Age old arguments.

D.

I too love/hate the changes that surround and invade the Faire experience year by year. I can not remember the last time I was spoken to by a "street performer" I did not know.

Even with the struggles that the entire experience goes through I still attend at least once to see the folks I adore...although last year it was only once and that sadden me.

Even the quality of some of the merchandise seemed to have changed for the worse...or at least lost it's luster.

Love the Reardon's...Astral Sea does keep me coming each year. See you there perhaps?

I'd like to, schedule permitting. It's possible. Their schedule is usually such that the cart is amply staffed, so I'm not usually needed; I'm also making tights right up to October, typically, so my weekends are spent slaving over the machines.

You are such a slave machine ;)!!

I know I'll go for the Scottish Games weekend and if you're not there we'll move from acquaintences to friends through LJ.

PS. Susi Matthews introduced us years ago and all we've done is say hi to each other once or twice a year or less, since...it's OK if you aren't sure who I am.

*chuckle* Well, that's good then, because I'm not sure. For a variety of reasons, my memory is lacking in a great many areas (I remember very little of my teen years, for instance). I'm like a human Dory (remember Finding Nemo?), but I'm not quite as funny as Ellen Degeneres.

Neither, as it happens, am I blue with fins. Which is usually not a problem.

Scottish Games weekend is a possibility. Cammie and John like to have me around for MC purposes. I had to cancel last year because M's pregnancy was fraught with problems (for about twenty weeks, we weren't entirely certain that M or the baby would survive to 38 weeks). Obviously, with a healthy baby boy and (generally speaking) wife, I might just make it this year.

So, in the meantime please, refresh my memory!

I know John and Cammie too. I have done the Sedalis Faire with them the first year...which was a blast!

So glad that the difficultis of the pregnancy worked out so well. you'll have to post pics of the family.

I've know Susi for 30+ years. As we were in college together in the dark ages!! I am not much on the Ren Fest circuit but I was co-director of a madrigal group with her one year out at Faire and that got me acquainted with so many people who have now become dear, dear friends.

She raves about your tights and one year when my now ex-husband needed tights you were the first person we thought of to solve that problem. I can't remember if he ever got them from you...hmm.

Anyway, we are far from acquainted but seem to be on the periphery of intersecting social circles. So, it's good to begin to make an acquaintance!

I am a massage therapist btw, and now must run to get the place in shape for my first of three clients today...

Star

Family pictures is easy. Go to my user info and click the word "daddy".

I did two seasons as a "Theme Weekend Performer".

I walked away from it because I realized that a large part of what I have always enjoyed about the festival were things that were completely separate from what I was supposed to be doing when I worked there.

Last fall, the best "day" I had at KCRF was the Saturday of the closing weekend. We showed up on site in civvies at about 4:30pm. Yes, that is correct. We found comp tickets to get us in (no way were we going to pay for that little bit of time), and we saw several friends and made dinner plans. No dehydration or exhaustion from having been on site since the cannon fired in the morning, and no pressure. If we wanted to wander for the short time we were there, we could.

We've been watching the festival change since we first went in September, 1992. Some of the changes were for the better; many have not been. I'd like the festival management to acknowledge that not everything should be "family friendly", for one thing. Or rather, to make those things that should be kid-appropriate actually kid appropriate and let those things which have no business being kid-appropriate go to the adults to enjoy. And have enough taste and sense to recognize that certain things have no business anywhere (see: nauseating excuse for a gravedigger from last year). If they could recognize that a festival isn't an extension of a Disney movie, there might be some hope.

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Festival musings

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