Harrumph, harrumph, and a bah humbug for good measure

One rickroll and three cute-animal vids from YouTube on my f-list: was it that slow a day in LJ land?

I've been living in the Bay Area for a few years now, but had never attended Dickens Fair. For one thing, I often had other things going on during their annual run, for another, it didn't strike me as the sort of thing I'd want to do alone. So when ladycelia  expressed the desire to go, I invited myself along. That she planned to do so without dressing up appealed in particular.

For those of my gentle readers who are not aware, my Beloved Father is a professor of English Literature, with an emphasis on the Victorians. I think I was about nine or so when I went to him on a rainy day in search of something to do and he handed off a copy of Oliver Twist for me to gnaw on. He has been participating in UC Santa Cruz' Dickens Universe since its inception in the early '80s - and I've come down a few times for some of their Friday evening programs in the cause of getting face-time with Dad. Yes, even without the Nine Billion Adaptations For Television of  A Christmas Carol, I have a nodding familiarity with this particular 'verse.

Take a Ren Faire. Set it on Christmas Eve c. 1850 or thereabouts, populate with characters from A Christmas Carol and other Dickens novels. You get the idea.

That sounds cynical, but it's not meant to be. Despite the crowds, the noise and the lines for the loo, this is a fun way to spend a day, as long as you understand the mark-up on refreshments, games and merchandise for sale is what it's going to be. If you arrive as we did at opening, buy your ticket, proceed to one of the stages and sit at that one stage for the entire day, you will be entertained nonstop. If you want to dance, head to Fezziwig's Christmas party. If you want edification, there are lectures at the Adventurer's club. Troll the docks for sea chanties. We checked out the music hall revue at Mad Sal's - opportunities to shout along with such classics as "Knees Up Mother Brown" abound - and did the naughty French Postcards show towards the end of the day.

One of my companion's favorite pastimes is Scrooge-baiting in the form of wishing the poor man a Happy Christmas at every opportunity -as if she does not know that We Curmudgeons thrive on reasons to curmudge ever onward!  Bloody interfering ghosts!

Lunch turned out to be remarkably good at Tadich's: ladycelia  had duck a l'orange (I got a taste and agree it was excellent) and I had a portobello mushroom stuffed with croutons, cheese and red peppers, both accompanied with steamed vegetables and fluffy rice pilaf. So good we went back for pumpkin pie later.  I actually won a candy cane by catapulting a ragdoll chimney sweep into a chimney pot. My companion threw shoes at alley cats, a game which must be played from a prone position on a bed, with said cats peering in the window. 

While I am not a fan of mid 19th century women's fashions, it did not stop us from a great deal of trying on of silly hats. Given that I look silly in most hats to begin with, we did determine that I can pull off a men's short topper.

Lots of opportunities for people watching. They've embraced the steampunk movement with the Legion Fantastique's headquarters, and there was a costume contest which we waited around for because ladycelia had something to pass to a friend she knew would be attending. Some of these kids really need to go beyond the goggles though. (Like I don't need more projects, the idea of a Meiji-era Japanese steampunk costume is germinating in my head. You just know the gizmos and gadgets would be done in black lacquer.....)

Ran into, or at least spotted from a distance, any number of people we both knew. learnteach , bless his big basso profundo heart, partnered me for the Congress of Vienna waltz at Fezziwig's. I do not recommend this while wearing a pair of Clark's slip on sneakers - it's like waltzing through ankle deep mud. On the other hand, the dance floor was packed and my formidable partner offered a stable surface to cling to when the friction co-efficient of my footwear was uncooperative.

There was the traditional mangling of the Hallelujah Chorus and additional Carols to signal the end of the fair.

Lords of the Samurai 7/12–9/20/09, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA

Coming this summer to San Francisco's Asian Art Museum:
http://www.asianart.org/Samurai.htm

"More than just warriors, Japanese samurai of the highest rank were visionaries, writers, and artists as well. The Hosokawa clan, powerful military nobles with a 600-year-old lineage, embodied this duality of fierce warrior and refined gentleman. This exhibition features more than 150 works from the Hosokawa family collection housed in the Eisei-Bunko Museum in Tokyo, the Kumamoto Castle, and the Kumamoto Municipal Museum in Kyushu. Objects on view will include suits of armor, armaments (including swords and guns), formal attire, calligraphy, paintings, teaware, lacquerware, masks, and musical instruments."

Untitled

Is that rain I hear
Muttering on the shingles
Like a neighbor's voice?
Dead leaves float upon puddles
And birds huddle in their nests.

(And that, O My Readers, is the most productive thing I've done all day.....)

EDIT: And continued to be.

Just because I haven't been to a single SCA event since mid October does not mean I have not been on the run, particularly with the steady stream of social activities and out-of-town visitors. In fact, it's kind of been a relief not to go to small indoor winter events where I am likely to have to endure the stink-eye from a certain person or put up with the awkwardness of trying to say hello to people I regard as friends who are also hers. I have let it go. She has not and that is her problem.

So while I could have sawn and painted drum shells today, I didn't. I could've finished those hakama. Didn't do that either. Didn't get the sudden urge to make Something New For Twelfth Night. I was thinking I would've liked to do karaginu mo, but I'm day tripping.

Big mugs of tea and cable movies are not a bad way to spend a rainy Sunday.