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The weekend
Jun. 18th, 2007 09:01 am...and a contrast to the previous weekend (having been Highland River Melees).
Last weekend, we did HRM. I plied the Princess with chopped liver. The suck factor was suitably low. We committed commerce from the offering side. Late in the day, several Power Shoppers arrived, took on their aspects, and wielded their attributes. The day went from "eh?" to "ZOMG" in about twenty minutes. It was the best single day of the year. There should have been at least one better (if not two) at Estrella, as well as at Birka.
This past weekend, we went to the "Medieval Fantasy Faire" at the WheatonArts center in Millville, NJ. It's their first attempt at such. The facilities were just fine. The site has great potential, being a village setting with museums and stuff. We were allocated a space that was completely shaded. There was enough breeze to make the weather better than merely tolerable. Unfortunately, it appears that their attempts to promote the event were a bit lacking, and the gate was lamentably small. Business didn't suck quite as bad as Merchants of Venice -- gross did cover expenses, barely -- but it still sucked, both officially and colloquially.
On the other hand, the director of the Down Jersey Folklife Center seemed quite taken with our stuff and having Megan and I sitting out front weaving or braiding. She asked if we would consider running some classes there to teach our crafts. We're going to explore that with some enthusiasm.
The director had a pronounced accent, and, having overheard her conversing with her husband, I discerned "slavic". Bulgarian is the more precise formulation. Two artists who have quite a bit on display in the Folklife Center visited with us for a piece as well. They are Ukranian; the teacher apparently spent five quality years as a guest of the Third Reich, if I heard her correctly. At one point in the conversation, the teacher was fumbling for the right words and had to resort to saying it in Ukranian to her student who could then give me the English. I can understand that dilemma.
The display in the Folklife Center is all about Ukranian stuff. I guess there is a significant community in way South Jersey. The student was pointing out the various woven bands, some of which were her work. There was a lot of wide warp-faced tabby bands -- too wide to weave on an inkle loom. She also pointed out a piece she had woven for a doll. I looked closely and pronounced it to be sprang. Eudoxia was not familiar with the word, but after some discussion of the physical technique, I could tell that it was sprang. I enlarged her vocabulary.
The event itself was dominated by the LARP community. It was billed as medieval and fantasy. The medieval was pretty weak. The performances that I witnessed were pretty amateurish, but they were enthusiastic and earnest, so I don't mean ill by the statement. I did behave myself and didn't "get all PerlMonks on them" (ok, so I'm doing cross-community metaphor mixing here. Deal with it!). We just sat about trying to be a good example.
The trip home was somewhat excruiating. First was waiting to get gas -- full-service only in New Jersey, remember -- at the Wawa for 2.699. The next hassle was waiting to pay the tolls at the Delaware Memorial Bridge, since the M-Tag transponder seems to have gone Tango Uniform. Then there was the slowdown on the approach to and merge with I-95. Something like six lanes have to get sorted out and merged down into four.
That's normal.
When they are setting up a construction zone and take out one more, it gets worse.
Then approaching the rest area, the left lanes jammed up almost a mile before (and the rest got jammed up with some promptness as well). That's always a Bad Sign. It's still several miles to the toll booths. We got into the rest area, but getting back out was jammed up just as badly. Fortunately, you can exit the rest area going the other way, so it was "back North one exit to 273". Just for the change, we didn't rejoin I-95 until after Maryland House, and the rest of the trip was uneventful, but it was 2345 when we got home, and my alarm went off at 0510.
We need to offer constructive comments to the event organizers about how they might better promote it next year. They'd really like to get 5,000 through the gate next time. I don't think they even threatened 1,000 this year.
Last weekend, we did HRM. I plied the Princess with chopped liver. The suck factor was suitably low. We committed commerce from the offering side. Late in the day, several Power Shoppers arrived, took on their aspects, and wielded their attributes. The day went from "eh?" to "ZOMG" in about twenty minutes. It was the best single day of the year. There should have been at least one better (if not two) at Estrella, as well as at Birka.
This past weekend, we went to the "Medieval Fantasy Faire" at the WheatonArts center in Millville, NJ. It's their first attempt at such. The facilities were just fine. The site has great potential, being a village setting with museums and stuff. We were allocated a space that was completely shaded. There was enough breeze to make the weather better than merely tolerable. Unfortunately, it appears that their attempts to promote the event were a bit lacking, and the gate was lamentably small. Business didn't suck quite as bad as Merchants of Venice -- gross did cover expenses, barely -- but it still sucked, both officially and colloquially.
On the other hand, the director of the Down Jersey Folklife Center seemed quite taken with our stuff and having Megan and I sitting out front weaving or braiding. She asked if we would consider running some classes there to teach our crafts. We're going to explore that with some enthusiasm.
The director had a pronounced accent, and, having overheard her conversing with her husband, I discerned "slavic". Bulgarian is the more precise formulation. Two artists who have quite a bit on display in the Folklife Center visited with us for a piece as well. They are Ukranian; the teacher apparently spent five quality years as a guest of the Third Reich, if I heard her correctly. At one point in the conversation, the teacher was fumbling for the right words and had to resort to saying it in Ukranian to her student who could then give me the English. I can understand that dilemma.
The display in the Folklife Center is all about Ukranian stuff. I guess there is a significant community in way South Jersey. The student was pointing out the various woven bands, some of which were her work. There was a lot of wide warp-faced tabby bands -- too wide to weave on an inkle loom. She also pointed out a piece she had woven for a doll. I looked closely and pronounced it to be sprang. Eudoxia was not familiar with the word, but after some discussion of the physical technique, I could tell that it was sprang. I enlarged her vocabulary.
The event itself was dominated by the LARP community. It was billed as medieval and fantasy. The medieval was pretty weak. The performances that I witnessed were pretty amateurish, but they were enthusiastic and earnest, so I don't mean ill by the statement. I did behave myself and didn't "get all PerlMonks on them" (ok, so I'm doing cross-community metaphor mixing here. Deal with it!). We just sat about trying to be a good example.
The trip home was somewhat excruiating. First was waiting to get gas -- full-service only in New Jersey, remember -- at the Wawa for 2.699. The next hassle was waiting to pay the tolls at the Delaware Memorial Bridge, since the M-Tag transponder seems to have gone Tango Uniform. Then there was the slowdown on the approach to and merge with I-95. Something like six lanes have to get sorted out and merged down into four.
That's normal.
When they are setting up a construction zone and take out one more, it gets worse.
Then approaching the rest area, the left lanes jammed up almost a mile before (and the rest got jammed up with some promptness as well). That's always a Bad Sign. It's still several miles to the toll booths. We got into the rest area, but getting back out was jammed up just as badly. Fortunately, you can exit the rest area going the other way, so it was "back North one exit to 273". Just for the change, we didn't rejoin I-95 until after Maryland House, and the rest of the trip was uneventful, but it was 2345 when we got home, and my alarm went off at 0510.
We need to offer constructive comments to the event organizers about how they might better promote it next year. They'd really like to get 5,000 through the gate next time. I don't think they even threatened 1,000 this year.
