Blurry

More light rain again this morning. No need to get up. Sleep... I am
awakened by someone in out camp pounding on an anvil, literally. No
more sleep. It's late. I stumble to the shower but the water Is
lukewarm at best. Grim and Kayra waylay me with banana bread, juice
and eggs. We chat. I should be up on merchants row trying to sell. But
my energy level has been so low. Some of the time I just don't hive a
crap. I don't want to deal with people. I think to myself "I'm done".
I think that working Pennsic, an event that has always been a
vacation, was a bad idea. But more than that is the fact that my own
camp has changed so much. People I don't know whom I dont have much of
a shared history with. Mundane conversations at the campfire. I feel
slightly out of place.

The crappy weather and poor sales haven't helped things, but it really
isn't about money. Am I still having fun? Is there still magic here?
We have six days left. I'll let you know what I find.

Sent from my iPhone

Pennsic night

Late. Very late. I wander into camp just as the women folk are getting ready for a night out.
I sit with the men folk and have a cider. A pipe is
passed and I find myself wandering over to Vlads for the slave auction. I finally get to say hi to Ariana who got to attend Pennsic thanks to her father (whom she hates) dying, thus getting her out of Qatar. The butler in me takes over and I help serve some great pomegranite mead and canapé. It's hot, a light rain Patters on against the roof of be tent. I stumble back to camp where Wine and Alchemy are playing. I visit Darter who is busy cooking up sausages at one am. We eat. Tasty. It feels more like Pennsic now. Eyes are heavy. Feet so tied. Only a so-so day. Another long solo day tomorrow. The heat saps my energy. I need sleep.

I am not a number.. I am a free man!

It was many years ago that I first heard the original BBC show 'The Prisoner'. I say heard, not saw. My brother recorded them and played them for me when he visited. (No VCR, No tivo in those ancient times) It was a trippy show. Even more so when I actually got to see it. And the ending? Pure madness.

Now it's being redone. But from what I can see, it looks and FEELS just as whacked out (if not more so) than the original. Behold.

Joy

This upcoming Pennsic will mark my 10 year anniversary. I enjoyed my own wedding. I enjoyed having my family come and play with us a little while. I enjoyed creating my own service, not going into debt or having to rent a church/hall/limo, I loved having chicken wings and having Pennsic as our reception.

Weddings can be a source of joy, and I am all for anything that brings joy into the world. So with that in mind here is a great wedding procession/dance number.

Preparing to sprint

The lineup: Great Lakes, then Pennsic, then Gen-Con and then opening Michigan. It's gonna be fun, especially since our van has decided it needs yet another expensive repair. Sweet!

Right now I am working on a new system to get swiped credit card transactions to work out at Great Lakes. It involves a laptop, a usb card reader, a printer, and Lindseys' new Verizon phone used as a modem by tethering it. All I have to do is get all of these items to work seamlessly together and I'm in business. Piece of cake.

Rossana got the results of her tests back and she seems to be doing okay. Apparently she had an ulcer at one point, but it healed up. She's taking some previcid and trying to keep her stress levels down. Thanks the Gods she got the go ahead to eat some of her favorite foods again. if this woman doesn't get some chocolate soon she will flip out.

I try to respect other beliefs, but sometimes I think its important to listen to some of the faithfuls actual words. So here they are:

Playing hookey

I looked out at the deck. It sat there, mocking me in its ugliness.

"You'll never get rid of me" it said. "There will always be more pressing projects."

"But I hate you." I said to the wood and brick monstrosity.

"I know, but it's too late to do anything this summer anyway. You open Great Lakes in a weeeeeeeek" it hissed at me.

And then I got the crowbar and screw gun.

In a couple of hours the railing was gone and I was working on the flooring. But the weather kept threatening rain. Also, tearing out the deck turned out to be...you know...work.

"We need to get out of here!" I said.

"Are you talking to me or the deck this time?" my wife asked.

"What? You, of course. Pack a bag. We're leaving."

And so we did. We grabbed our passports, some money and a change of clothes and took off for Niagara Falls. It's been many years since my last visit and I've never done a lot of the touristy things there. That was about to change. We took the more western Peace bridge and sailed through customs. Then we drove along the lovely Niagara Parkway. Once we hit the town we parked and set off for adventure. We rode the Maid of the Mist, which was awesome. In the morning we drove North into wine country. We visited a butterfly conservatory, a printing museum, bought some fresh cherries and indulged a dream of mine, a helicopter trip.

You know how I've blabbed that I wouldn't have a problem sitting next to a 'brown person' on an airplane because fear mongering in stupid? Well, I got the chance to put my money where my mouth was.

It seems a nice Muslim family wanted to take a helicopter ride. Ok. Cool. But then the men didn't want to go along. Just the wives (wearing burkas) and kids. Ooookay. Then the fuss started. You see, any time you go to an attraction at Niagara Falls, someone will snap your picture for the inevitable souvenir photo at the end. I knew this wasn't going to go well. The dutifull young woman tried to take shots of all of us and the women kept trying to tell her that they DID NOT want their picture taken. It was, in a word, awkward. Once the copter arrived we piled in. Strangely, they put one of the mothers in the front next to the pilot, and me, Rossana, the other mom and the two kids in the back. Why not keep that group together? Why not put the one male adult in the front? I don't know and there was no chance to debate when there are whiling blades of death above you.

Off we go, and it was AWESOME. I took some video with the new phone which I'll post soon. It was a trip flying high above the Falls. The helicopter was buffeted a little by the winds which gave it that slight roller coaster feeling. I can't tell of the ladies enjoyed the trip, and the one little boy sitting across from me spent most of the trip eyeballing ME as if I might do something crazy.

We crossed over to the American side and parked on Goat Island. I wanted to visit the cave of the winds (where you walk right up to the bottom of the waterfall and can also go behind it. But the wait was between 2-3 hours. Fail.

We strolled to the Amercian and Horseshoe edges before deciding to head home (with a quick stop to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo for some take out wings, of course).

I'm glad we took the trip, it's our last chance before the season starts and it's all work.

Update! Pics are Here.

Nothing happened today..

I was keen to see what was happening in Iran over the weekend, but I couldn't. Apparently the death of Michael Jackson was the ONLY goddamn thing worth covering for four days straight.

But I don't want to be disrespectful of the dead, so here a small bird moonwalking.

Post-Party.....

Wow.

That was a good party. If you missed it, well...what can I say that will make you feel better? Nothing. That's what. If you missed it I feel very sorry for you. Your life is poorer for it and I hope you can join us next year.


I had a blast. We launched our newest boat onto the pond and not only did my repairs work we had ship to ship water battles. That helped us keep much cooler. Bison Burgers? Tasty. Lots of Frisbee hacking. Some friends dropping by who I haven't seen in literally years.

My friends Joe and Christine from Monolith Graphics put together a VERY cool scavenger hunt over the entire property with a sweet map and prizes. I've wanted to do that for years but never had the time and focus. It was a blast.

Ed brought some amazing ribs and let me take his 911 for a spin at VERY LEGAL AND REASONABLE SPEEDS WHILE OBEYING ALL TRAFFIC LAWS.

So much food and drink...

Showed off some new corsets materials and the scarves from Turkey.

And fireworks? The theme this year was "Hard times". We did a short and fairly lame routine to a polite applause, then brought out round two. More boom, a couple of mini mortars. More applause and the crowd assumed that was it. Tthen we brought out the big stuff. Lots of bangs, big finale. Looked great. And all while sticking to a much smaller budget this year.

Drums were produces and two musicians played guitar and fiddle. I took a few people for candle lit rides in the darkened pond.

Clean up this morning wasn't too bad. Items left behind include some flip flops, a car key,a silver wrist bracelet and two people we found sleeping on a futon in the back of their car.

I can't thank everyone enough who came out to our remote little Hobbit Hole. I hope you had as good a time as I did. If you took pictures please send me a disk or post them to flickr and send me a link.

Father-Son moment

Last week my Dad drove down from Boston, on his motorcycle again, at 72, despite having broken his neck a little over a year ago.

This act of sheer ballsiness shamed me into getting my own bike up and running again. It wasn't a huge project. I needed to actually order the new battery I'd put off and go get an oil filter. I didn't expect much. The bike hasn't run for quite a while. But with an oil change and some elbow grease, she fired right up. I spent a few hours cleaning her up and helping my Dad change the oil on his Honda Pacific Coast.

The experience was very strange for me. My parents were divorced when I was quite young, my brother went to life with my Dad while I was raised by my Mom and her second husband (who had his own son). But they eventually divorced when I entered Jr. High. As such, I never really had any of those father/son moments as I hit my teen years. My Mom, bless her heart, was amazingly cool with my strange hobbies and friends and did a great job as a single parent. And I learned to travel and to appreciate history and many other subjects from Jack Ellis, my Big Brother (Mentoring program). But he was more of a kindly Uncle or Grandfather figure. I just seemed to miss out on that special kind of cool bonding that some kids get with their Dad. And to tell the truth I'm sorry I did now.

I have never looked back at my childhood and regretted much of anything. I had a roof over my head, clothes, an allowance. I wasn't abused. Things were, for me, pretty good. But some of these kinds of moments would have been pretty nice too. I'm glad I had the chance to share one, even if it did take a while to happen.



So when we sat in the shop talking and working on our bikes it took me a while to even recognize we were having one of those special moments.

I am a huuuuug dork.

Of this there can be doubt. The proof? Check out 8 things you didn't know about the Enterprise. But this is not enough. Have an article on the Smithsonian restoration of the original 11 foot prop. Need more? Here are detailed pics of another restoration (there have been three)

Please stop being stoooooooopid.

There are certain advantages to being a self employed member of the Merchant Class. I tend to awaken late (if at all), my off season schedule allows me to travel to strange and exotic lands and showing my "Member of the Merchant Class" ID card allows me to get out of some very sticky situations involving the disposal of dead hookers.

But one thing that we are at the mercy of is Other Peoples Stupidity. This year, it was looking like the last weekend of the Great Lakes Fair would overlap with both the opening of the Michigan faire and GenCon. This is what we in "the business" call "teh suck" as it means I either split my stock 3 ways (with too little stock at all three shows)or split it two ways and leave my minion Jesse with at Great lakes to sell pictures of corsets from and empty booth. But wait! A ray of sunshine. A fellow merchant tells me Michigan moved back its opening one weekend. Sweet! This means I don't have to pack up Pennsic frantically, unpack, repack for two events, leave Ohio, drive up to Michigan, set up a booth, leave stock, and then drive to Minneapolis. Horay for sleep!

But wait! The contract for the Michigan fair arrived today, with a prominent sticker declaring the earlier starting date. The contract within also confirms the earlier, more sucky date. This begins a small flurry of mental activity, as we will once again have to make the grand tour of middle America AND rob one of my booths to satisfy the hunger of two big shows. There's nothing for it, we just have to bend over and take it.

By sheer chance I called the Michigan Ren offices to let them know that their website was incorrect and that they might want to fix that. 'No, No' I am told "the dates on the site are correct'.

"But by contract says otherwise, and my contract trumps a pimply 17 year old part timer on the phone."

"No, the Craft coordinator didn't have the correct dates and is now working to correct the mistake."

Now I know the craft coordinator has a lot on her plate. But really. The one thing you should really have a farking grip on is the dates of your event. Some merchants are on the road constantly, getting mail very infrequently. And contradicting info will surely mean that at least ONE merchant is going to be VERY pissed when he opens his booth on Sat Aug 15 and NO ONE IS F@CKING THERE. It will happen, of this I am sure. Some of these guys leave one show and roll in the night before the next show opens, working all night to prep their booth and set up stock.

I'm glad I won;t be one of them.

Awesome

The Coolest House in the Neighborhood (And Maybe the Galaxy) -- powered by Cracked.com

At long last...

Last season they did a lot of location filming at the Michigan Ren Faire for the movie "All's Faire in Love". It looks like the trailer is out and it's getting a distributor.

It's weird seeing a place you know in movies. Some of the humor is pretty stupid. The lead actor also annoys the hell out of me. I mean really, I just want to punch him in the face. Take a look...

Memorial Day

Last weekend we did MarCon in Columbus. Set up just behind us was a merchant I have known for a number of years. I would not call him more that an acquaintance. To say that we are on different ends of the political spectrum would be an understatement.

There are some who look askance at him for showing off pictures of his 12 year old daughter brandishing a pink AR-15 rifle. I do not. From what I can tell he has taught her a great deal about gun safety and handling. His sense of humor is a bit quirky. Not only does he sell shirts that say 'Infidel' it's also spelled out in Arabic.

But on Sunday morning even I did a double take when I saw his t-shirt which read "I'd rather be waterboarding".

Wow. I know there are far more offensive shirts over at places like t-shirt hell. But for me that once packed a bit of a punch. But unlike so many fat armchair quarterbacks and fighting keyboardists, this guy has actually served. So has his wife. Both have done multiple tours in 'The Sandbox'. So I'll give him some leeway. He's one of the people fighting for his country, for his family and for what he believes is right.

even if he is a bit of a dick...