Contemplations of a Closet Curmudgeon

Friday: Tent repair party at Dafydd and Brigit's after work: made a detour to the Milpitas Ranch 99 for groceries first, then had to unpack half of the back of the truck to get to where my canvas was stowed. I believe I mentioned the raffle and new fire-pit previously...

Robert (the four year old) was, as usual, stoked to see me, and a little disappointed when Mommy and Daddy explained that I was there to work on my tent and couldn't play. I did sit next to him at dinner (yummy veg lasagne, tabouleh, Italian bread and mango sorbet to finish). Spent most of the evening attempting to pick stitching out along the bottom of the tent to remove the old stake loops. Only it was machine sewn by a maniac at a zillion stitches per inch. I broke one seam ripper. Brigit was painting the edges of a strip of dagging for their new dining fly and Dave was working on a new center pole spoke for their pavilion. I got most of the loops out of one side of the tent after several hours of struggle, told Dave it would be OK if we just did the one side tonight and left the rest for after the end of tourney season - then he saw how tiny the original seam allowance the tentmaker had used, declared "Screw it!" and handed me a pair of shears to cut the rest off with. He had plenty of scrap canvas to sew a strip along the bottom edge of the tent and set new stake loops with d-rings into it, which will now probably outlast the rest of the pavilion. Anyway, mission accomplished and I got home only a little after midnight.

Saturday managed to get up early enough to do my monthly hair color. As I may have mentioned, I started touching up my rootage using a lighter shade of brown in what may be a lame attempt at dealing with an eventual transition to old-lady-gray hair. Headed over to BART and met James and Sylvia in SF at eleven to catch the 38 bus up to Japantown. First stop, Soko Hardware so James could get a sando-gasa hat. Sylvia pounced upon their one cup rice cooker and I succumbed to the lure of the sale table and bought a very nice little square tetsubin (iron tea pot), which will fit into the camp box a lot better than the flying saucer shaped blue one.  We had lunch at the little yoshoku curry joint on the bridge. My spaghetti plate contained fresh tomato, broccoli, eggplant, mushroom, chicken, nori strips and tobiko. Really good.

Swung through Kinokuniya and a couple other shops, then caught the bus back to Muni. They were going to meet Jeff and his girlfriend later. I got back to Fruitvale a bit after three and decided to finally check out Powderface as the idea of an iced coffee was appealing to me. Good coffee and an order of beignets fresh out of the fryer came home with me. This knowledge has the potential to be extremely dangerous.

Got a little down time at home before heading off to karisu_sama and didjiman's party. Always a fun time with people I don't get to see very often, plus some I hadn't met previously.

This  morning I went into Berkeley to (a) pick up some beads as I am now a Lady of Rank and it is a good and proper thing to have some sort of tokens to bestow upon people who Do Cool Things. Sadly, there were no monkey-themed charms, but I got some little cloissone yin-yang beads and some carved agate dragons, which will have to do. (b)I swung by Stone Mountain and picked up a half yard of something with the plan to make a pillow to go with the new futon cover. Ran into a co-worker looking for quilt fabric. Also met the lady who does the Decades of Style pattern line - there were finished garments on display and I may have to try some of these at some point, maybe adapt something for future tweed outings or something.

Came home and started work on a new basket lantern - the old ones are getting pretty beat up and I'm experimenting with a new design. Will post more if it works out. Glue is drying at the moment.

Also updated some class notes for the garb class I'm co-teaching with Ishida-dono and sent a copy off to him. Looking forward to hanging out with him this week.

Dye experiment on the upholstery jacquard I picked up for possible rapier armor was not worth the trouble - it didn't look that good and I can live with the yellow, particularly as I will probably tart it up with some big Heian medallion stencils.

Definitely a busy, interesting week. Tent lumber was dry enough to drill and set some pins in, sewed up the "futon cover" (see previous post), and taiko went OK - we've got the parade gig on Wednesday and will be going full tilt on "Shinkyoku." Which means I'm definitely going to want a shower before the drive up to War.

Yesterday we had the annual Employee Appreciation barbecue luncheon (Hawaiian themed, this year) and raffle. Usually I look at the prize table and think "Dear God, don't let me win," because it's usually stuff I don't need (ice cream maker), already have (my bike is more awesome anyway), or won't have room for in my apartment (lawn games). This year I won a portable fire pit - which has a case and will fit in the back of my truck with room for drums if the cooler rides in the front seat. Of course, I now need fire tools for the thing....

Looking forward to camping with JAF and his lady - they're nice folks, we all cook and it should be fun. (We've been IMing back and forth over who's bringing what. Must take some ahi for grilling!)

Went to the BART practice last night, got in some rapier work with Brogan and Staffan. We're going fairly slowly and they're both good, patient teachers. Brogan did poik me in the mask a good one last night and while it startled me, it didn't freak me out. Nobody's hit me hard enough to sting yet, but I don't think I'm going to be deterred by fear of getting hit now. I fought with one of Brogan's Zen Warrior beginner kit blades that he has for loaner gear. Comfortable weight and length - I took along a wooden dowel, marked it so I can cut it down to the same length and use it for targeting drills in the alley. Might even drill a screw and a couple washers into one end if the balance doesn't feel right.

I had some lucky Nook Laloosh "That was beautiful, what did I do?" moments, particularly with draw and push cuts against Staffan: I think I realized that if I missed on a thrust I should still try to make some sort of contact with the blade.  I'm starting to remember to use my off hand to move the other blade out of the way. And I sorta kinda remember to keep moving, though I have this stupid newbie tendency to attack and then stop.

James and Sylvia showed up and both gave it a try too. I ended up fighting the guy from Alaska whose name I can't remember and to whom I died repeatedly, and with Isolte who made me do all the attacking. (I'd almost prefer to do the same thing, myself, Gaius was all about the Way of The Potato, but I need to learn how to attack anyway). I died a lot, lost a hand and decided I might as well try fighting left handed. Felt awkward as hell, but when I went back to fighting Brogan I tried it again - and died again.  The hardest part was when it got dark - the sodium lights in the lot were better than nothing, but the mask makes it darker* - Brogan became a looming, dark blob and I had trouble seeing where his blade was at times. *The mesh is painted black - stainless may be better when I choose a mask of my own. Lots of information to process, and I'm nowhere near ready to rush out and buy my own kit, but I AM having fun.

I thought I had the weekend wide open except for karisu_sama and didjiman's party on Saturday. Then James and Sylvia wanted to do Japantown on Saturday and how can I not go to J-town, right?. Then Dafydd and Margaret invited me down Friday night to do tent repairs (which could probably mean Dafydd repairs my tent and I run interference with the children). And the rapier folks are doing a melee practice in Golden Gate Park (this one I'm probably not even going to try to make). And the Buddhist Temple float decorating thang is also Sunday - may or may not get over for that depending on how late I'm up Saturday, but I do need to do some pre-war prep!

Met up with the gang for "Brave" in Berkeley. Will not post spoilers, but I will say I enjoyed it almost as much as "How To Train Your Dragon." (Which I love!) It was followed by a late lunch of NY style pizza at Arinell's, and a stop at the Half Price Books outlet as Sylvia was looking for a specific title. Ended up hanging over at James & Sylvia's for a screening of Inagaki's "Samurai Banners" with Toshiro Mifune, purely for research purposes (yeah, right). Well, kind of, because there was a particular type of monkish hat that Mifune's character wears after taking vows. After scrutinizing it from various angles, I'm sure I could replicate it - it appears to be a rectangular length of fabric tied to the head with a strip of fabric, pouffed up over the crown in a mushroom like shape with the long tails of the recgangles hanging at either side. Just the thing for a shaven Buddhist monk to keep his head and neck from the hot sun. (And of course I can't find any stills showing it.)  I seem to recall having seen it in a period source somewhere, I just can't remember which one. Further searching is indicated. Also sat through a DVD of a performance called "Shaolin: Wheel of Life," which was at turns beautiful and disturbing.

Met Sylvia this afternoon (James had to work) to check out "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," Some of my readers may recall my reaction to the appallingly bad writing displayed in "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," requiring this writer to fling her copy in bullet-time-slow-motion across the living room in disgust. Sure, there were implausibilities aplenty, but it was entertaining. We repaired to Angeline's Louisiana Kitchen for late lunch: she did the buttermilk fried chicken plate, I tried the Voodoo Shrimp - simply shrimp done in a light, mild barbecue sauce over rice. We split an order of beignets, then walked several blocks up to Telegraph to see if Moe's had the book she was looking for. They didn't, but I picked up a used copy of Storm Front, as I keep hearing from people how good the Dresden Files series is. We headed back downhill towards Shattuck to pick up the BART back to her apartment, poked inside Pegasus Books along the way and I scored The Art of Japanese Calligraphy from the Heibonsha series, plus a copy of Topsy Turvy 1585, which I hadn't known about before. Damn, I wish I HAD, before A&S. It's a translation of a Jesuit report on hundreds of ways that the Japanese are different from Europeans. I am looking forward to reading this one.

.....or something equally auspicious.

I like Kingdom A&S, however, the site we use requires one to offload gear at the parking lot and portage it in from there, which means much schlepping - particularly when one has decided that taiko drums are part of one's cargo. However, there's a Ranch 99 Market one exit away, so last minute picnic shopping could happen to round out my planned menu.

Sadness - the spot I usually pitch my tent in was already filled with tentage: over the years others have decided to take advantage of the pond-side of the field by the time I arrived. I started dragging wagon loads of stuff to a spot further along the pond side and laid out my ground cloth. Unfortunately, the spot I'd picked out had to be rearranged - during my slogs back and forth with the wagon, the rope lines of the Von Schwetzingen "monster" went up right on top where I'd planned to stake my back wall. I dragged my ground cloth around and set up with one of the front ropes crossing the end of a picnic table bench - a little awkward, but I didn't want to move away from the trees into open space, not with the weather forecasted for Saturday. Also unfortunately, one of my uprights went over while I was trying to set up by myself. Petra saw me from across the way and came to help. The upright pole split around the pin when it went over and the pin got bent were bent. I managed to jury rig with copious amounts of strapping tape and it held for the weekend, but I'm going to have to skip Crown and cut myself a new set of tent poles next weekend.

Saturday was beastly hot most of the day. In fact, I don't think I even bothered with anything breakfast-like, just drank some water. Didn't even make tea.

Had three takers for my first period class on 16th c. contact between Japan and Western Europe, and I think they enjoyed it. My new-for-2012 timeline now includes tidbits from Food And Fantasy in Early Modern Japan, such as: "1569: Fr. Lois Frois visits the building site of Nijo Castle in Kyoto and presents Oda Nobunaga with a glass jar containing hard candy comfits (konpeito)." And attendees were treated to pieces of kasutera. (Folks like it, so I'll keep making it.)

James (AKA Fujimaki) and Sylvia arrived near the end of my class. I showed them where I was camped so they could stow their stuff in my tent, introduced Sylvia to Aasa so she could take Aasa's dance class, and then James and I went off to check out Aziz' class on building rapier "armor". Even if I don't end up fencing, I may have to make kit for James anyway. It was a good presentation, and Aziz has clearly tested a lot of fabrics for both puncture resistance and breathability.

Set out our picnic lunch under the awning and made some extra plain rice just in case. Gave my yojimbo a lesson in cutting up melon slices. Next time, he'll know to cut it in half, scoop out the seed guts first and then slice. The Prince of the Mists and one of his guard stopped by to partake, as did Daffydd, Bridget and their little ones. James, Sylvia and I pretty much blew off third period to lounge in the shade. Robert and I attempted a game of "I Spy" which is kind of interesting when you're playing with a child that's just learning what letters start what words. At one point he said, "I spy something that's blue and yellow and sleeping," (Fujimaki).

Had three takers for taiko, which I held under some accomodating, shady pines. The Princess of the Mists came along and gave it a try for a bit - and did reasonably well too.

I'd forgotten how attentive a retainer Fujimaki is. I'd ditched my kataginu to tie up my sleeves - I found it neatly folded and hanging on the wagon. He was there with my tea bowl any time I made to reach for it. I'd missed him for a lot of reasons and I'm delighted he and Sylvia are interested in getting involved with the local SCA. Reminds me, I need to go thorugh some of my European garb and see if she wants to try any of it on for size, as she doesn't have very much, just some old Ren Faire stuff. (I assured her she was fine as she was, but she has eyes and even with people dressed/undressed for the heat, she knew she was going to want something different.)

He had to work Sunday, so I went down the hill with them to the Black Bear to grab dinner before they headed home, figuring I'd miss court, but still make it back for the Laurel meeting at 7. Despite my making it back well BEFORE 7, they were already convened. I do not want to acquire a reputation as the Late Great Saionji no Hana, so I slunk in at the back. Just as well, I'm still very junior and don't feel like I have that much to contribute yet.

Visited Chateau Rose for a bit and traded some kasutera for Vyncent's namban wine. Stopped by Charles and Petra's fire for a bit (making a bit more kasutera go away!) then went back to get rid of the tin in my camp and detour to the privies. Ended up with Bridget and Robert hanging out on my "veranda" and talking quite late. The baby was only a few yards distant in their sun shade sound asleep in her play pen. Robert got a couple stories out me and his mother, then curled up on one of my cushions with one of my kosode thrown over him, before his father came to scoop him up and take the family home. I drifted off to sleep upon my new futon to the sound of bullfrogs calling to each other across the pond.

There were only a few morning classes scheduled for Sunday, but I'd brought a brush pen, some calligraphy paper and the cheat sheet didjiman had made me and sat in the Von Schwetzingen  pavilion while Elishka taught someone how to write her name in an early Romano-Irish hand. I filled a couple of sheets with badly calligraphed Sai's 西 and On's 園, but aside from a tendency to continue to slant upward (funny, when I write in English I slant downward), things started loosening up and I finally managed my complete signature all in one shot before putting away my supplies to attend court.
, There are mistakes, but it actually resembles calligraphy! Need more practice until I can do it without looking at the cheat sheet too, but I was pleased.

Morning court had one bit of very happy business: Muriel Von Schrecken is now my Laurel sister and I'm pleased for her. She's been doing some very cool things, including masterminding a 14th century "cloister" set up at the event, which I really didn't get out of my corner of camp to enjoy as much as I would've liked.

And on that note, I believe it is time to go to bed!


EDIT for my own note:
http://www.manythings.org/kanji/d/5712.htm Kanji for "garden" - didjiman says I'm missing a stroke and he's right.

Whoops, just realized I hadn't finished this. Bad gurdymonkey!

Wide-eyed. Not sure whether this is more random than "seltzer" or less. The obvious connotation is innocence. At my age, not so much anymore, and that's the inevitability of mileage. That said, nobody knows everything and there's always something new around the corner. That's certainly one of the reasons the whole "Japanese thing" is wonderful (and sometimes daunting): just 'cause they saw fit to hang a Laurel on me doesn't mean I don't keep running into things I didn't know about. I figure as long as I'm capable of discovering and trying new things with enthusiasm and delight, I'm not so old after all.

Culture. I can't help thinking of the living room of the ol' 1265 Club (as we sometimes referred to the house my father is now in the process of selling), waist deep in boxes of his books and mine, and the somewhat remorseless way Dad ripped through his collection of vinyl a couple weeks ago as I wailed, "Ravi Shankar? Are you SURE?" (No, it's not like I have anything to play any of it on even if I had decided to try to ship some of those albums out here, much less room to keep them.) I grew up in a home surrounded by books, filled with the sounds of music. My parents took us to museums and concerts and Shakespeare in the Park. It may not pay the electric bill, but it surely nourished the brain, heart and soul and still continues to do so.

We interrupt this journal to issue the following alert:

Ishida-dono does it again. I am looking forward to seeing him at West An Tir War and co-teaching on Japanese garb if we get any takers for that. Reminds me, I need to check and see if the heavy scenarios have been posted and figure out when to request an optimum time slot.....

The weather gods looked down upon San Francisco and said, "So, you think you're going to wear wool today? I think we stall our low pressure system out at sea so you silly mortals can sweat."

It's been decades since I've ridden a bike in a skirt. What was decorously modest when I measured and hemmed it to skim just above the knee was guaranteed to make me spend the festivities yanking it down countless times. Yes, I snagged this in the hallway before I left, because I knew I was not going to have enough hands to attempt to take pictures this trip.

On the way out of Alameda, I got an "I LOVE YOUR RIDE" from a young woman sitting in front of her house with one of those Spuds McKenzie red and white classic English Bull Terriers and shouted back "I LOVE YOUR DOG!"

There was clearly a Giants' game going on at AT&T park judging from the hats and tees on the train. It was my first time attempting a bike trip into the city. For reasons only known to the BART system and their designers, if you want to use the elevator to the street in the Embarcadero station, you have to go out the turnstile, then go back INSIDE through the turnstile to get to the elevator. Bad design, bad, BAD design. The only plus was that the station agent who helped me was extremely kind about it.

Wended my way around the corner to Justin Herman Plaza to meet up with the rest of the group. Final count was maybe a dozen people, but apparently lack of planning and last-minute announcements of rides is traditional. We stood around admiring each other's bikes/outfits (both all over the map ranging from vintage to cushy Dutch bikes, two bamboo bikes and a fixie. BTW, the hipster take on tweed is to throw a men's vest over your tee shirt, roll your pants to below your knees and go.)

Introductions over, the guy running things announced we'd head up Market to Geary, take a lap or two around Union Square ("People really get into it!" he said), then head over to the Mission District where they were doing Sunday Streets with several blocks closed to traffic. Those who know SF know that the Powell Street side of Union Square is uphill. Compounding matters were rough pavement, road construction barriers and oblivous pedestrians getting their Sunday morning tourism on. So picture me in a very, very short skirt, trying to stop, start and get up the Powell Street side of the square while debating whether it's even worth dealing with the gear shifters on a short block. If anyone was getting into it, I was too busy navigating to notice.

We made it unscathed across Market Street in a big, tweedy clump of bikes, then headed west on Mission Street for a bit. The planned stop for drinks/lunch turned out to be at a bar that was closed on Sundays, so we backtracked a few blocks to another place. I think it was called the Sycamore, doubt I'd ever find it again. I had a mimosa and three huge glasses of water for lunch - I'd made myself a good, big breakfast this morning and really wasn't hungry.

And then we hit the Sunday Streets and I was Not A Happy Biker.   See that? That's nowhere near what we hit on Valencia Street. I spent most of the rest of the route riding at slower-than-walking-speeds trying (a) not to lose the rest of the group and (b) trying not to run down the oblivious. Sorry, that's not fun. Particularly when I got rammed by a toddler on something with training wheels who shot into me at right angles out of nowhere. Wasn't going fast enough for it to be a problem, but it was a near thing. 

Total route was less than 5 miles one way and ended with Yet Another Divey Bar, so Gary and I rode back to the 24th and Mission BART together, he headed south to the Peninsula and I came back across the East Bay.

I did meet some nice enough folks, but I don't know if I'll do it again.

1. Found some awesome patterned hose in my size and big gold-tone button earrings at Macy's on my lunch hour. I usually loathe malls and department stores, but for certain things, they can be useful. With these and items already in my closet, I think I can put together something stylish for the tweed ride on Sunday.

2. StoneMountain and Daughter had black shantung silk for $12/yard. I was able to get trim for Raj's jinbaori as well. It's a little slubby, but has a nice, tight weave and I should be able to paint his mon in gold on it.

Finally. FINALLY, after months of nothin', SF Tweed announces a ride for this Sunday in San Francisco. On a weekend I'm actually going to be able to go! There's not really any information on the route other than it's going to take advantage of the Sunday Streets closures on Valencia in the Mission, but it's a tweed ride, not the Tour de France, so it should be at a fairly sedate pace, one should hope. NOAA's current forecast for Sunday San Francisco is sunny with a high in the mid 60s. Options for getting in and out of town include the ferry (4 mile ride from the house to the terminal by 10:25) or BART (1 1/2 mile ride to and from house to Fruitvale station).

Hmmmm, now what to wear.....

The A&S competitions for Estrella War have been announced and they have been oh so careful to specify "pre-17th century Western Europe" in each category. Naturally, this has discouraged a young lady on the Tousando who has returned to the SCA after a hiatus of some years and recently adopted a Japanese persona. You can follow the posts so far at the link below.

http://tousando.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=research&thread=4090&page=1

(So, does this also exclude Byzantium, Eastern Europe and every Muslim not of Al Andaluz? Especially regarding the "machines" category, given where a lot of scientific knowledge was being transmitted from.)

Now, the organizers of said competitions can choose competition categories any way they like. However, the move of Estrella War off the Presidents' Day holiday weekend this year and scheduling their non-competition A&S Display on Sunday meant that anyone who had to bug out and travel on Sunday (you know, like anyone who came any kind of distance to attend the war) could not possibly participate. I don't know what their numbers were like, but I'm willing to guess they were way down. (Though those two years I spent several hours chained to a table being All Japanese In Their Arts Display weren't exactly my idea of a fun time, especially dealing graciously with an ill mannered schmuck wearing a Laurel medallion who was funny only to himself, not to mention being unable to refill my water during the display.) While it's a year off and no schedules have been posted yet, I guarantee they're going to do the same thing this year because they've always had the artisan's display on Sunday - and they're going to continue to hemorrhage participants because people have to travel on Sunday.

You all know by now how I feel about pre-emptive cornflake peeing, naysayers and you-can't-do-that-in-my-SCA.

Obviously, it's a year away, but Something Needs To Be Done. It needs to be positive, educational, inclusive and timed/placed in such a way that the people who do A&S activities at the war will see/participate in it. I need to do some thinking about this. In the meantime, I just fired off an innocent note to the hosting kingdom's A&S minister to inquire if the artisan's display is going to be on Sunday of war. If they're smart, they'll put it on a different day. If they don't, I have some mischief to manage. thinking to do.

In the meantime:

Lash liked it so much I made HIM one:



And then Yagyu wanted one.