June 21, 2007
Obligatory naughtiness
I totally forgot to tell you about catching some dude in a quasi-kilt shaking his ass like he was mixing paint while standing on the back of a truck in front of the alestand on last weekend of Faire. He wasn't worth woofing at, but it isn't often that I get to see any useful kilted action. He didn't come over so I could slip a dollar in his little red thong - which, to be honest, kind of killed the urge to slip a dollar in there anyway. Didn't this guy read the kilt wearer's manual?
So - memo for next year: woofier guys in kilts shakin' that azz, no red thongs. A jockstrap is acceptable. (Barely.)
Filed under "Faire warning" by damyano at 06:40 AM | Comments (0)
April 30, 2007
Grimy and weary
Well if that wasn't just a seriously involved bit of faire weekend for only being there one of the two days. Of course I did go out on Friday for kids day, which was nowhere near the nightmare we always dread and I even fattened up the fundage. So that was the first real bit of work I've done at faire so far. Normally I'm all warmed up by now and ready to go get em by Saturday again. This year though I'm all achey and tired and ready to hop in the shower and sluice this evil sunblock-infused layer of dust off of me. I believe tomorrow will be the customary recovery day.
Filed under "Faire warning" by damyano at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2007
Temporarily out of service
That's what it said on the little cardboard squares scattered around the pump at the gas station - in black on one side and red on the other. I picked one up as I came out of the mini mart with my breakfast this morning on our way out to Faire in Exile. I mean Irwindale. It was just me and the girls today, because Wolf wanted to sleep all day.
It alternated between sunny and nippy, with a little bit of the spitting. Didn't seem to be a big day. As I was not on the schedule, I decided it would be best to take a hang out day. I was in costume (well mostly, still had to put on the suck shoes), so I could practice standing around and talking at people. It's getting all differenty, and we fear change. Despite all the nonsense though it was still a nice day. Had a good time catching up with people again, walking around and stretching my legs, seeing what places have moved to where - pretty busy for a free day.
I think I've managed to put on the costume well. I was surprised that I could manage some basic juggling, not having practiced since just a brief stint during my cameo at Northern. Thanks to Lazlo I now have a pistol to tuck under my belt (and hopefully not lose), only now I gotta figure out how to use it as an effective prop. You know, without accidentally putting someone's eye out.
So next weekend, maybe only Sunday since the Saturday thing is in the maybe zone, I should actually be doing the carny bark for reals. Ahh, springtime.
Filed under "Faire warning" by damyano at 01:45 AM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2007
Done and done
Passage has been booked. I will be arriving in Cali on the 31st of March. There are other details to be worked out, but right now it's a bit nebulous.
Filed under "Faire warning" by damyano at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2007
Discount my ass
Well kiddos it's that time of year for me to start looking for travelage out towards Californication. And wouldn't ya know it, going through the various advertised websites to find cheap airfare turns out once again to still be more expensive than to just book it directly through Southwest.com. I mean, what a waste! I actually used up several precious minutes of my time, and an unspecified amount of bandwidth to realize that I'm going to do the same damn thing I do every year.
This is assuming, of course that I can't manage some sort of zippy road trip alternative. I don't see it happening, of course, but ya never know. It would be nice if some sort of non-cargo rail action was available around here, because I would be entirely pleased to choo-choo my way out nice and cheaplike instead of dealing with the hell that is flying. I'm weary of flying, to be honest. I don't care for it at all.
So I'm getting things sort of organized and I haven't yet decided the actual dates that I plan to plot into the departure/arrival grid. When I do, dear readers, you will be among the first to know.
Filed under "Faire warning" by damyano at 02:48 AM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2006
Casa de Fruta
You have no idea how annoying it would be to hear how nice the site up North is and how great it is, or even the whole "it's just not as good as the last place it was" discussion that always happens around faire folk. Because I had never been there. Never.
Well, I done been there.
It was kind of bittersweet to get to actually see the place, but only for the last weekend of the season. It's gorgeous up there, lots of trees and hills and all that good stuff. Although really, if you don't look past the walls surrounding the site it's quite a bit like being at the old Devore site. I know, that's sort of a sad comparison, but really faire is pretty much the same when you have to keep tearing it down every year.
I spent most of the week in the Winnie with Shygirl and Laz, doing the camp out thing and just sort of wandering around faire site during the day and soaking in the atmosphere. I imagine I creeped a few people out while I was doing my quiet wander thing - I know I can give off that stalker vibe. (Especially when I'm stalking, but we won't talk about that.) I popped into the office a couple times to watch them work, but that's kind of a snooze in the long run, and I needed to get my circuits in. It's amazing how much more I'll walk when I have something to look at when I'm doing it. Get this - they put juggling school on a hill, is that fuctup or what?
Had a weird moment there too - I was on the phone with the hubby, but it was the home line not his cell because there is this weird law about cell phones not ever working in one's own home. Anyway, his brother kept calling the cell, but it was a futile gesture, so when I got off the phone with the hubby I called the bro-in-law to tell him to call the land line. He called me back after the two of them talked, and it turned out that he had literally just driven past Casa de Fruta only a couple minutes before. Go figure.
The actual faire event was fun too. I tried to hawk some at axes, but I was a bit weary that first day (hippy weed and space cakes will do that to you) and it usually takes me a couple weekends to get up to speed. I finally gave up on that and just enjoyed being in costume and on site. In fact, I had more fun helping Laz deliver grub to his crew - walking with a big tray of food, the cowbell clanging and us shouting at people to get the hell out of the way. It's all about the piratey goodness, I tells ya.
And then there's the nightlife. I almost forgot how much I missed it. They opened up the alestand so we could buy beer at reasonable prices, there were a couple parties playing disco music (but I was far beyond dancing by then), and for some reason there were a bunch of guys running around in their underwear. Torture man, torture. I didn't stay up to a ridiculous hour, but I suppose I could have if I really wanted to. It was just great to be able to wander around site, walk out to camp and hang out, and just posse up drunk and loud. The Irwindale exile really chopped out the best part of the faire experience for me.
Waking up Monday was the sad part. It was like watching a fever dream disintegrate in the sun as they started to tear it all apart. Quite a lot of mixed emotions trying to pack an entire faire experience into one weekend. It wasn't all sad sack though - they had a golf cart race that day too, complete with girls flashing boobies at the drivers before they got buckets of water thrown into their faces (the drivers, not the booby-girls) or fire extinguishers set off on them. Pretty much like watching an episode of Jackass, actually.
So now I'm thinking I may be willing to change my annual trek out to Cali to do Northern instead of Southern. I can always train down to the IE so I can visit the friends and fam, and I can still get to do faire the way it was meant to be. I'm not solid on this, of course, but it's definitely something to put on simmer. If nothing else, I will certainly try to make it up there for the occasional weekend because it is so worth it.
Filed under "Faire warning" by damyano at 02:05 AM | Comments (0)