The fringie wank

[gurdymonkey]

"Waaah, nobody ever comes out to our camps and takes pictures."

Does none of you own a camera and have a Flickr/Smugmug/Photobucket album?  You too can upload dozens and dozens of photos  documenting your weekend and share them with the kingdom simply by posting the link publicly. Oh, I see, you want moriven or shutt3rg33k  or Esmeralda - people who take good pictures - to do it. Why not  try crawling out of the Nylon Fortress of Solitude* on the Back 40, seek them out personally and ask? Nicely? 


"Waaah, I'm sick of hiking out to East Fringehold and being abused at for doing my job!" 

Whining is unseemly when you're the voice of the Crown. Finish your shout if you can, explain politely that you are just doing your job and trying to provide a service to the neighborhood and move along. If you encounter anything more than mild hecking, report it to the herald in charge and discuss whether to bring back-up to the next duty shout in that area, in the form of constabulary, Chivalry or even Royalty.

"You know, I thought about doing Japanese once, but it's so fringie!" (Someone actually said this to me once.)

Gee, thanks. Fringie is as fringie does. Do it reasonably decently and do it "downtown" and it's not fringie any more. (Same goes for pirates, Rom and the cultures of the near East.) Didn't think about that part, did you?

*I am not snarking modern tentage. It's what some folks have, it gets the job done. That's fine. Picking one's "ideal" event campsite is a highly personal choice, as is what once chooses to do at an event. That's fine too. However, if your choice is physically and socially remote to central event activities, it was your choice.

Comments

[aureellia.livejournal.com]

Do you really think I haven't done that? Talk to folks? Report serious heckling? Come out with us some time. Walk in our shoes before you criticize. Train a baby herald and have people who should know better give her a lecture on how to do it right.

Do it. It isn't just a little heckling.

[sasha-khan.livejournal.com]

We had a similar problem at one of the Potrero wars here in Calafia many years ago.

Several of the fellows from the Abbey of Leng (Narth and Tunoc - names OOOOLLLLLD-time Westies should recognize) volunteered to make the morning cry.

Mind you, these are very large, power-lifting biker types (Jehan - imagine me with an extra 100 pounds of dense muscle and LESS tolerance for bozos...).

Since one of the rude, troublesome camps was nearby, I got to hear the following:

"Oyez! Oyez!"
"Hey! You pansy herald - why don't you shut the f--- up? Nobody wants to hear you! A--hole!" (young male voice)

There was a beat... and then the response (from Tunoc)

"Look, bubba - I'm working as the f---ing voice of the f---ing KING, dirtbag. They got US because you diaper-stains have been hassling the nice little people trying to do this job. How would YOU like it if we came to YOUR place of work and told YOU how to give a lap dance, Princess?

Now, sit yer happy ass down, shut the f--- up, and don't make me come over there.

Do we have an understanding?"

A VERY chastened voice replied "yessir" meekly, the cry continued and several dozens of people gave the stunt herald a standing ovation, and that camp of imbeciles was VERY well-behaved for the rest of the event...

Tunoc was also 'tipped' with breakfast beer by every camp within earshot. Good times.

Tunoc has since returned to finish the teaching degree he started in his 20s, and is a teacher at a high school for at-risk kids (the last stop before the juvenile justice facility).

[aureellia.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That is a great story.

Seriously though, people are really ripping into duty heralds and I think the populace has no idea how bad it is getting. At Beltane, my baby herald went to do a shout as we left site. I followed to see her progress as a duty herald over the last year.

At her first duty shout, at Betane last, she was called a bitch in one camp. She was screamed over in another camp. (By that time we had Sven helping to educate folks.) In the last camp, they called her a C***. It was reported to everyone and the offenders were tracked down and spoken to by folks. This year, one year later, she was again called names. Former royals shouted over her after she made her o-yeah so they did not have to interrupt their conversation. The merchant row thanked her for her shout, but at least one fringe group was nasty to her.

The heralds aren't whining. There is a problem and people are being very snotty about ignoring it.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I was around for the diss-a-herald-break-a-leg incident that Wilhelm von Homburg was involved in. I repeat, take back-up to the neighborhood.

[aureellia.livejournal.com]

It makes me sad that two isn't enough back up.