Diary Entry

[jducoeur]

Right -- I do mean to keep this thing as a bit of a diary, as well as a blog. So:

Saturday: Went to the Greenwood Isle picnic, which was a smidgeon small but fun. As usual, there was far too much food, since most people brought enough for three. I was a lazy slug and just did store-bought (albeit expensive store-bought): a hazelnut-fig spread that was quite well-received, mixed olives and an intensely peppered goat cheese.

We hung out and chatted for a couple of hours. Eventually, my inner Laurel got annoyed at me about how much time I was spending talking about TV and computers, so I pulled out the Astronomical Tables board and dragooned folks into a game. I had fun teaching several folks how to play the game; we didn't finish, but I was doing pretty well when we decided to call time. (Note for the future: asdr83 takes her games very seriously: she and new_man were having way too much fun alternately pretending to ally and then ripping each other apart.) We shut down a few minutes early, in the interest of getting to the T before the Red Sox / Yankees game next door let out.

Sunday: The Epic Masked Ball at Fenmere. This didn't start until afternoon, bless them, so I was able to sleep in a little. I decided to take Lakshmi's class on the symbolism of Gods in Indian Dance. I taught English Country; Mara taught Everything Else (mostly Italian). Pity I had to miss the other class tracks, though -- gyzki's class on Norse Mythology sounded like particular fun, as did Christian's class on Gods in Poetry. The Ball itself was good dancing, although I'm a bit distressed about how small it was: unlike the relatively impromptu Ball at Christmas, this one was decently well-publicized. We need to get more people dancing.

Anyway, I bought a new mask for the Ball, a long-nosed interpretation of Feste. (I seem to have developed an odd fondness for long-nosed masks -- no idea why.) There were many fine costumes, although my personal favorite was Lakshmi as an Elizabethan woman doing an Indian costume. Delightfully accurate inaccuracy: a multi-layered joke done well.

Afterwards, I went over to Wadsworth for the post-revel there; msmemory had to turn in early, but since I had Patriots' Day off for once, I figured I'd go party. The post-revel was exceptionally raucous -- richenza nearly caused a riot when she got back from the market with munchies. It was good to see El show up for the post-revel: he seems to be in better health and spirits than I've seen him in years. (When asked what he wanted to drink, he said to bring him half a glass of ice and experiment with the rest -- he learned to drink with Marines, and isn't scared of anything.)

Monday: Tired. No, more tired than that. My insomnia is acting up to begin with, and eating too much at the party didn't help. Had to get up early to meet the guy setting traps for the raccoon in our attic. (Which still haven't turned anything up -- I may have managed to scare the critter off beforehand.) Had lunch with Aaron, talking about all kinds of stuff. He introduced me to the taqueria off Moody Street that I'd been hearing about for a while: not fancy, but good cheap Mexican food. I'll have to keep it in mind for future reference. Spent the rest of the day pretty lazily, since I was dog-tired -- my most notable accomplishment was finally unlocking one of the bonus tracks on the Normal level of Amplitude. (I cruised right through the Mellow level, but Normal is actually a challenge for my mediocre hand-eye coordination.)

Tuesday: Back to work. Still tired. Evening was Accademia della Danza, mainly focused on working partway through Furioso, at Aaron's request. Fun little dance, although we're a bit hung up on trying to get the choreography of the sciolta to match the music.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

[I seem to have developed an odd fondness for long-nosed masks -- no idea why.

(Sound of cv pummeling Dr. Freud into silence.) Ahem.

I should have asked around about a post revel, since it was a free night. I am *so* out of the habit of doing Eastern-style SCA! Must get to dance practice, too, more often. I had fun but had to fake a lot of it.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

It's possible that you were away when post revels in Carolingia underwent a few major phase-shiftings. After events got (usually) too big for any one house to hold a post-revel, they went away completely for a while. They gradually crept back into existence, usually as private, by-invitation post-revels, though sometimes still open-and-advertised.

I didn't hear about the post-revel myself, which mildly irritates me. I suppose my own hermit-like nature is at least partially to blame, but I have been trying to be more social of late. Sigh...

Must get to dance practice, too, more often.

I'm in favor of that! It's even vaguely possible that you could productively bring the twins...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

It's even vaguely possible that you could productively bring the twins...

No. Ira and Bess can manage it because they're on an entirely different time zone than we are. The kids have lights-out at 7:30 and are asleep by 8pm; they wake in the 5:30-6am range. Bess told me Ira wakes in the 9am range.

Some of kid schedule is habit, and some is just what their bodies do. I wish I could get them to sleep later; after all, the books say they should be getting a lot more sleep than they do, but up they get at that hour no matter what.

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

I didn't hear about the post-revel myself, which mildly irritates me.

That's because this one was off-the-cuff. Talking to J and L over dinner we said "hey, are you going to have a post revel?" and they said they'd been sort of thinking about it. So we told a bunch of people, but it was very last-minute.

[jducoeur]

Ah -- that explains why most of the word of mouth seemed to be coming from tpau, instead of from the nominal hosts...

[jducoeur]

They gradually crept back into existence, usually as private, by-invitation post-revels, though sometimes still open-and-advertised.

Actually, the tendency lately has been a sort of middle ground: semi-open, but unadvertised. No one wants to hold *the* post-revel (since that can get kind of out of hand), but often someone holds *a* postrevel.

It's even vaguely possible that you could productively bring the twins...

Hmm; true, although they might cramp her style a bit. Babies at dance practice have been downright common in the past few years, but the parents do still have to spend a lot of time looking after them. (Especially if it's both of them: one she might simply dance with, but both would be tricky at best.)

Babies/Toddlers at dance practice

[bess.livejournal.com]

I'd definitely recommend having more than one person available for baby care -- especially once their as big as the twins are. At this point, I really can't carry Ira through any but the shortest dances, which means either he does the dance along next to me under his own power, or I don't dance when it's my turn to watch him. With Jon and I both at practice most weeks, and the fact that Jesse and now Chris are often willing to play with him as well, I can still get a reasonable amount of dancing in, but the week recently when Jon wasn't able to make it, I don't think I did more than one dance.

At some point I suspect Ira will have to stop coming, no matter how much he loves it, especially after he starts school.

[jducoeur]

I should have asked around about a post revel, since it was a free night.

Yaas. They're not as consistent as they used to be, but they've been coming back to life in recent years (mostly at Wadsworth House).

Must get to dance practice, too, more often.

Yep -- it would be great to see you...

[asdr83.livejournal.com]

asdr83 takes her games very seriously hmmm, maybe that's why laurion does not often share his love of gaming with me...perhaps I'm scary?

[ladyariadne.livejournal.com]

There would have been people come down from Stonemarche until the also well advertised NO TEACH...

I know it strikes a knife into the heart of Carolingians,,, but most people in the world just DONT know the dances like the backs of their hands, and would like to go, if there was at least a QUICK run thought to remind them.

Just a hint....

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Teaching throughout the day doesn't count?

Well...

[ladyariadne.livejournal.com]

If they had put it in the event announement... I am looking at it right now. It says the classes are on masks and costuming themed or that is what it implies. A whole group of people up here, and I can understand why, took what was said was that only experianced dancers were encouraged to go. In fact when I spoke to Cristovau, he implied the same thing.

The event announcment says: copied straight from Pikestaff:

All good gentles young and old are invited to attend a masked ball on the evening of Sunday, the 18th of April. The theme of the ball is Gods and Goddesses in Ancient Mythologies. Costumes and masks are highly encouraged but not required. Baron Jehan will be judging costumes and prizes will be awarded.

During the late afternoon there will be various classes exploring this theme. Please see the website for the schedule, which will be frequently updated. After the classes conclude there will be a pot luck dinner in the ballroom, followed by the ball, which will be "no-teach".

Gate is in Levin Ballroom Lobby. Please report here before attending any classes. There is currently no site fee except for possible supply fees which will be handled at pertaining classes. A $1 donation may be suggested if there are costs to be defrayed.

There will be no merchants unless someone is interested in selling completed period masks. Please contact the autocrat if you wish to do this.

Now... you might have said go to your website and there were some dance classes listed there... but a lot of people go by the event announcemnt and dont go to the baronial websites...especially since it isnt our own. I mean how many of the Carolingians ever visit the Stonemarche website? ;-)

It would have helped to imply that there were classes on dances and not just costuming and masks in the announcment itself. Now most Carolingians might have known because they are in the circles. People outside the circles would not.


Justin was curious as to why it was emptier and I was giving him a reason that I personally knew about.

[jducoeur]

Ah -- there clearly was a miscommunication. There was no teaching *at the Ball*. But there were a couple of hours of dance classes in the afternoon, covering a good chunk of the playlist. (Specifically the stuff that was easy enough to learn that day, but not so easy that you could be pushed through it.)

In general, dance newbies coming to the Ball were able to do about 1/2 - 2/3 of it. That's about as good as can be hoped, since many of the rest of the dances are too complex to pick up quite that quickly anyway. That's pretty common for formal Balls down here. (Indeed, it's exactly the same way that Black Rose runs, for the same reasons -- teaching separately allows the Ball to be a lot more pleasant...)

Having a Ball

[cristovau.livejournal.com]

I think that several complete dance newbies were there and trying stuff out. I danced Larro with someone I do not know (not necessarily a newbie) who said she had learned the dance that afternoon. She did about as well as I did (and I like Larro)

With the limited activities, beautiful day and Sunday slot I wasn't surprised it was a small event. By the way, I was impressed by the nose on your mask. You clearly out-nosed me by an inch or two. We'll see next time. I wonder if I can dance with a yardstick pointing off my face.

Yep, I agree

[ladyariadne.livejournal.com]

Yes there was...

The event announcement was very unclear on it. The implied classes were mask making and costuming. As stated in another reply to someone else here...

Now I am only telling you this because you questioned why, and I figured I knew of this one.

There had been a whole group wanting to go down for the classes and then the ball, but the discussion of the No TEACH came up, and they read the announcement and saw nothing about earlier dancing to refresh the mind and it was decided that this was only a ball for those who knew.

ANd they didint want to go down just for the classes on maskmasking and costuming and then not be able to do hardly a single dance.

So they decided not to go...

So, yes it seemed to have been a bit of miscommunication.

Re: Yep, I agree

[jducoeur]

Well, the moral of the story is: when in doubt, ask the locals. Event announcements (especially printed ones in Pikestaff, which have to be ready months in advance) are often incomplete, or even downright inaccurate. For example, I suspect that the Pikestaff announcement for May Day says that there will be dancing in the evening, which is no longer true.

You're right that the dance classes should have been mentioned in Pikestaff, but I think they were just kind of assumed by the autocrat. Truly no-teach balls that don't have teaching in the afternoon are quite rare, even here. Usually you have teaching either in advance or during some of it...

Re: Yep, I agree

[ladyariadne.livejournal.com]

I DID! I asked Chris, and he was under the assumption at the time that there also was no classes in dancing.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I forgot to say that I liked your mask.