New Toys (& Other Birka Notes)
Feb. 1st, 2004 04:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jducoeurHaving spent yesterday at Birka, the day was of course spent primarily on the two main activities of that event: shopping and court. A few random observations:
Shoppingses: As could probably be predicted, we mainly spent money on books and other media. The takings from the Merchant's Quarter were:
-- European Cooking from Rome to the Renaissance: 2002 Conference Proceedings, in CD-ROM form. These proceedings turn out to be really an excellent presentation, with a lot of useful and fun articles. The main focus seems to be coloring and candying -- Elise Fleming and Cindy Renfrow did essentially an entire track on these subjects -- but there's a bunch of other cool stuff, including what amounts to an extended advertisement for the all-period restaurant that Jaelle has opened in Estonia. (Something to remember the next time I'm in Central Europe.)
-- Flavours of Byzantium, an interesting overview of Byzantine cooking, including translations of several short period sources on nutrition.
-- The Elizabethan Underworld, a hardcover book from 1930 (apparently a discard from Newton Free Library!), collecting all of the major sources on crime and gambling. I have editions of a number of these thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alexx_kay, but several of them are new to me, like The Highway to the Spital-House and The Black Dog of Newgate. The book is in mediocre condition, but still very neat.
-- Reunion, Li Kung Lo's long-awaited album. After hearing about the production of this for the past couple of years, I'm very curious to see how it came out. (I've been hearing some of these songs since they were composed, so it'll be interesting to see what they sound like when fully produced.)
-- A pen from Godith's table. I always want more of her cool beads, but since I don't wear necklaces all that much, I don't have that many excuses for them. But I can always use a pen.
-- Finally, a pair of socks. Hey, it isn't that easy to get decent socks for those short pants.
Court was a bit of a butt-buster, as is usual for Birka. Mostly not people we knew, since it was out-Barony, but it was worth it to seeoutlander and laurion get their AoAs, as well as Anne of Felding. I wound up getting called into court to accept an AoA for someone who wasn't present (since Jehan was a bit ill, and needed to leave court early). Having remembered to bring our kneeling cushions for a change, there actually weren't all that many Big Fancy Awards that I had to be in court for.
After court, a gang of us went out for sushi at Jay House, a very nice little asian restaurant a bit south of Manchester that has becomemsmemory's and my susherie of choice lately. We sort of overwhelmed the restaurant -- 11 people is right up at the limit of how many people they can cope with -- but we had a fun time noshing away and teaching ladysprite and others a bit about sushi.
It turned out that far more people stayed overnight last night than I expected -- Birka is now held at a Holiday Inn and Convention Center, so the hotel is literally in the middle of the event. As a result, Curia this morning reportedly had about 60 people (and no business to speak of), and it looks like a couple hundred stayed over. According to Olaf, they are tentatively planning on formally making Birka into a 2-day event next year. Bit by bit, it's turning into SCACon East: it's already 2000+ people (easily the largest event in the Kingdom), and as it gets longer and bigger, it looks more and more like a curious hybrid between an event and an SF con. I'm given to understand that West Kingdom 12th Night works like this, and I have to say that it has potential.
(However, it does have one major problem: the hotel has a dozen floors, only three elevators, and they're slow. Anyone with Con-going experience knows the hassles this can cause.)
I did feel a little sorry for my old friend Cecelia, who was running Security, though -- this event has gotten big enough that Security is a big issue. They apparently have had to start really cracking down on the mundanes who are treating it as a Renfaire: way too many people are attending off the street, with no interest in the SCA and no willingness to play the game. I suspect it'll take a couple of years to get that really settled down, having been rather too casual about it over the past few years.
Overall, a fun event, and relatively laid-back to attend...
Shoppingses: As could probably be predicted, we mainly spent money on books and other media. The takings from the Merchant's Quarter were:
-- European Cooking from Rome to the Renaissance: 2002 Conference Proceedings, in CD-ROM form. These proceedings turn out to be really an excellent presentation, with a lot of useful and fun articles. The main focus seems to be coloring and candying -- Elise Fleming and Cindy Renfrow did essentially an entire track on these subjects -- but there's a bunch of other cool stuff, including what amounts to an extended advertisement for the all-period restaurant that Jaelle has opened in Estonia. (Something to remember the next time I'm in Central Europe.)
-- Flavours of Byzantium, an interesting overview of Byzantine cooking, including translations of several short period sources on nutrition.
-- The Elizabethan Underworld, a hardcover book from 1930 (apparently a discard from Newton Free Library!), collecting all of the major sources on crime and gambling. I have editions of a number of these thanks to
alexx_kay, but several of them are new to me, like The Highway to the Spital-House and The Black Dog of Newgate. The book is in mediocre condition, but still very neat.-- Reunion, Li Kung Lo's long-awaited album. After hearing about the production of this for the past couple of years, I'm very curious to see how it came out. (I've been hearing some of these songs since they were composed, so it'll be interesting to see what they sound like when fully produced.)
-- A pen from Godith's table. I always want more of her cool beads, but since I don't wear necklaces all that much, I don't have that many excuses for them. But I can always use a pen.
-- Finally, a pair of socks. Hey, it isn't that easy to get decent socks for those short pants.
Court was a bit of a butt-buster, as is usual for Birka. Mostly not people we knew, since it was out-Barony, but it was worth it to see
outlander and laurion get their AoAs, as well as Anne of Felding. I wound up getting called into court to accept an AoA for someone who wasn't present (since Jehan was a bit ill, and needed to leave court early). Having remembered to bring our kneeling cushions for a change, there actually weren't all that many Big Fancy Awards that I had to be in court for.After court, a gang of us went out for sushi at Jay House, a very nice little asian restaurant a bit south of Manchester that has become
msmemory's and my susherie of choice lately. We sort of overwhelmed the restaurant -- 11 people is right up at the limit of how many people they can cope with -- but we had a fun time noshing away and teaching ladysprite and others a bit about sushi.It turned out that far more people stayed overnight last night than I expected -- Birka is now held at a Holiday Inn and Convention Center, so the hotel is literally in the middle of the event. As a result, Curia this morning reportedly had about 60 people (and no business to speak of), and it looks like a couple hundred stayed over. According to Olaf, they are tentatively planning on formally making Birka into a 2-day event next year. Bit by bit, it's turning into SCACon East: it's already 2000+ people (easily the largest event in the Kingdom), and as it gets longer and bigger, it looks more and more like a curious hybrid between an event and an SF con. I'm given to understand that West Kingdom 12th Night works like this, and I have to say that it has potential.
(However, it does have one major problem: the hotel has a dozen floors, only three elevators, and they're slow. Anyone with Con-going experience knows the hassles this can cause.)
I did feel a little sorry for my old friend Cecelia, who was running Security, though -- this event has gotten big enough that Security is a big issue. They apparently have had to start really cracking down on the mundanes who are treating it as a Renfaire: way too many people are attending off the street, with no interest in the SCA and no willingness to play the game. I suspect it'll take a couple of years to get that really settled down, having been rather too casual about it over the past few years.
Overall, a fun event, and relatively laid-back to attend...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-01 01:45 pm (UTC)I can see three ways to deal with the problem of the mundanes, and it's a philosophy question for Stonemarche. They can treat Birka like a recruiting demo; they can chase them away; or they can set up a garb merchant at the door with a portion of the proceeds going to the barony (fundraiser). For some of the mundanes, I'd guess that $20 (or whatever) for admission and $30 to buy a tunic is still cheap. We don't tend to think of it as cheap, but others might -- you know, the folks who'll spend $80 on a theatre ticket or $100 on seats at a football game or whatever.
What I saw of what they did this year
Date: 2004-02-01 01:59 pm (UTC)The problem I had was.... the focus ended up being on "you have to look like us" not on "this is who we are and what we are about"
So.... instead of being a '"normal" Ren Faire' this was 'a Ren Faire where you had to dress up to get in' :/
I know there's only so much one group of people can do.... but.... it just didn't feel like the best approach to me.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-01 08:31 pm (UTC)*shrug*
Date: 2004-02-01 01:51 pm (UTC)I'd like to think there would be a way to entice a tourist's mind rather than merely throw clothes over his or her body....
Yes, there are people attending who don't want to "play the game." Take a close look at the larger merchant room of Birka, because _we're_ not doing it there, either.
Yeah, we're wearing "funny" clothes, but that's not all it's about, surely? (the drumming/dancing exhibit in the corner was nice.... other catchy educational stuff would be nice, too)
Let's face it, the larger and more con-like Birka gets, the more and more parts of it are going to be more demo than event. It might be more effective to recognize that and treat those parts that way.
Eh, my two dinar....
Re: *shrug*
Date: 2004-02-01 08:38 pm (UTC)I can see that, but it's a slippery slope, and I think they're right to be trying to stop sliding down it. Birka has gotten so much publicity in recent years that it's become very well-known, but the result is that a lot of misconceptions have grown up around it. Starting to steer things in the right direction this year sounds appropriate to me.
It's really not all that different from Pennsic seven or eight years ago. Things had started to run off the rails there, too, although in a different way, with the LARP crowd starting to dilute the SCA event too much. They spent a few years making a bit clearer where the lines were, and I think that's helped a lot.
And as with Pennsic, Birka still isn't exactly a model of period perfection. Big events pretty much never are: if I want a more period experience, I usually seek out a smaller event. This one is more about the SCA as a community, and still fun and useful in that capacity.
No, simply putting people into garb isn't fully indoctrinating them in the SCA. But it's the thin end of the wedge, giving them that key notion from the start that this club is more participatory than a Faire. If a newbie takes nothing but that away from their first event, I still think they've learned the most important thing about the Society...
Re: *shrug*
Date: 2004-02-01 08:45 pm (UTC)Site tokens
Date: 2004-02-01 05:14 pm (UTC)All over the SCA, people put in hundreds of hours on "site tokens" which are never checked. I think it's foolish. But Birka actually looks at them. Clearly, it's needed, considering how large it is. But I'm glad the volunteer labor isn't wasted. I wish other events wouldn't bother if they're not going to be used.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-01 05:51 pm (UTC)I would say there's at least one other majot problem, and that's the venue for court.
The acoustics are awful and a lot of people stand in the back and make it worse. Add the merchants still open (and they have that right because the merchants in the main hall are still open), and it makes it very hard to hear).
I was not there this year, but I talked to enough people who were. And I was there last year.
Liam
Re:
Date: 2004-02-01 08:44 pm (UTC)Ah. Okay, the 2000+ was expected, rather than an official tally. Still enormous by any standard.
The acoustics are awful and a lot of people stand in the back and make it worse.
It's true, although I have to point out that, much as the current court hall sucks, it's still *vastly* better than the racetrack where the event was held before the current site. (I don't actually know many large sites that *don't* suck for court, except for real theaters.) I do think that letting the merchants remain open in the back of the hall was a bad idea; they should shut them down during court next year. Things didn't seem nearly so bad when the people in the back of the room quieted down.
Of course, we dealt with the problem in our usual way: we got there early and colonized the first couple of rows. Court is always better when you can actually hear what the heck is going on...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-01 05:51 pm (UTC)I would say there's at least one other majot problem, and that's the venue for court.
The acoustics are awful and a lot of people stand in the back and make it worse. Add the merchants still open (and they have that right because the merchants in the main hall are still open), and it makes it very hard to hear).
I was not there this year, but I talked to enough people who were. And I was there last year.
Liam
In Security
Date: 2004-02-01 08:25 pm (UTC)I felt bad for her because she had
Given the size and complexity of the event, the organizers did a huge job. I was impressed with the skill Stonemarche showed.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-02 05:07 am (UTC)I too was slightly put off by the gothy-fetishy sorts and the "I think they're trying to be period, but I can't tell because they really didn't have hot pink lame' back then...". Even people otherwise totally period succumbed to trappings like furry gear and buttons with witty sayings. Although, in another way, it was nice to have things be a bit laid back considering the chaoticness of something that size and with the main activity being shopping. I keep trying to put myself into the "if they come to look, maybe they'll stay to buy" mentality and resist the urge to grumble curmudgeonly. It's not like I've never attended parts of events in jeans and a t-shirt before.