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(COOLLIST) Ren (and Stimpy) Faire
Do the subject lines have too many parenthesis? Does it remind you of
LISP?
Anyway, yesterday I went, with a trio of coworkers, to the Scarboro
Faire, a renaissance fair about 40 miles south of Dallas. To those of
who unacquainted with the concept of a ren fair, these are festivals
where people set up booths selling items like crystals, swords,
medieval clothing, hand-made stamps, and the sort; where you can feast
on turkey legs and pints of ale; where you see shows like the Mud
Games, Merlin, and the Flaming Idiots; and where you can dress up like
your favorite knight, lady, fairie, and elf and not feel
uncomfortable. It's just a big creative anachronism.
This show featured jousting (pretty neat) and the Highland Games
(people throwing big logs) in its competition pit. The size was very
similar to the Georgia Renaissance Festival south of Atlanta... it
take you about an hour just to walk around the perimeter and see all
the booths. The shows were generally funny. Daniel, the Duke of
Danger, did all sorts of stunts involving holding himself in perfect
balance on top of slippery metal cylinders about twenty feet over the
stage. The Flaming Idiots, the follow-up act, were a trio of jugglers
(Gyro, Pyro, and Walter) who did juggling stuff fairly well. We also
got to see a mud pit rendition of Beowulf where I was quite glad not
to be in the first row. There was glassblowing demonstrations, lots
of neat wind-chimes, and an exhibit with suits of armor from the
1300's to the present.
These fests, while fun, always teach me a few things. First, I now
have a much greater appreciation of good acting. This is due to being
exposed to a tremendous amount of bad acting. Second, they remind me
that not everyone out there is trendy and hip... sometimes it is just
fun to dress up like a wizard and walk around in the hot sun.
The Georgia fest should be up and running again this fall. There is
also supposed to be another of these in Texas in a few months. If you
get a chance, go and see it. Bring friends, and of course, watch out
for pickle ladies!
--
Benjamin L. Combee (combee@techwood.org) <URL:http://www.yak.net/combee/>
that public-access-TV-making, video-game-collecting, cryptography-pushing,
World-Wide-Web-explaining, fem-music-loving, bad-pun-creating guy in Austin
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