Miscellaneous Thursday Jumble.

.....TBT, Rhys and I went to dinner last night with some friends to the new BBQ place in Silverdale. We were sitting there chatting when all of a sudden two hands place themselves over my eyes, a pair of lips gives me a kiss on the cheek and a sultry voices say, 'Hi Arontius'. I did a half turn and was surprised to see Ellainyia there. I was happy to see Ellainyia out and about and was saying my hellos when I turned back to TBT, who said something along the lines of 'Who is the strange woman who is kissing you in public?' *I*? am caught dumbfounded and immediately start stuttering and turning five hundred shades of red, until I noticed that I'm being teased unmercifully by TBT. Not fair! :-)

.....TBT is working on a new web-site for Ingasbo. She showed me some preliminary looks for the front page of it last night. OMG! It looks absolutely fantastic. Of course, we all know that TBT is a creative genius, but it is amazing the innovative and beautiful stuff she designs. I'm just in awe. Just as an example, she took my Ingasbo logo of the stylized Norse ship, changed its color, added some waves and text and now it just POPS out at you. Some realatively simple concepts that improved it a thousand fold.

.....And you should see the concepts for the rest of that first page! She's got this cool picture of a Norse ironing board that will expand to fit selections. It has the dual Norse beast heads on top. It's going to look fantastic when it is all done.

.....And, of course, I feel guilty. :-) She has her own workload, she should be stuck building my web-site. And I'm always wondering if there is an implication on my part in any way that she's obligated to do it because she is at home during the day and I go to work. I find that implication rather appalling. It also implies a sense of ownership as well. I find THAT concept absolutely abhorrent! Sigh! This angsty moment brought to you this day by the letter 'I'.

.....Damn! I'll admit it. I have OCD. I've been packing the van for J.C. for a handful of days now. I've been obsessing over what to bring and what I'm leaving behind. I'm actually glad that I'm carpooling with Ronan as it physically limits that amount of STUFF that I can put into the van. I've packed and re-packed a number of bins three or four times now because I keep finding myself throwing stuff in there that I KNOW I'll never use over the course of the weekend. Definitely learning lots that I hope I can apply to the 100-item challenge.

.....Bet you didn't know I was so high maintenance, did you? :-)

.....Ronan and I are planning on taking off tomorrow at 7AM. I want to be on site as soon as it opens. We did not make a camping reservation for the Barony until the last minute (last weekend). I was told by the autocrat (and RIGHTLY so) that it was too late to tetris us into her map. But she did tell me to be there early to claim some space. I threw the invite out to the Barony to gather measurements. Not a whole lot of people are going from Dragon's Laire though. I don't know if it is the gas issue? I, myself, am still recovering a little from the trauma of June Faire, so if that is part of the attitude, I can understand.

.....The plan is to go over Snoqualamie and south through Yakima. But someone told me that it might be faster to go south, then east to Kennewick. Anyone have thoughts on that?

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Opposing Renn. Faires.

.....Interesting post from the GigHarborRenFaire e-list...

----- Original Message -----
From: AmyFaire@aol.com
To: GigHarborRenFaire@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 11:26 AM
Subject: [GigHarborRenFaire] Avery Township Event

This morning, I received an e-mail from a gentleman named Gregg Paisely, who seems to be interested in hosting a Renaissance Faire on his property in Belfair. He invited people to a "planning weekend camp out", in order to speak about hosting a Faire this year, and in years to come.

Obviously, everyone involved with our Faire is free to participate in any event they wish to, but I do want to make known that I will not in any way be supporting this event, and that I find it to be destructive to plans for WRFF's future, and re-opening in 2009. While I am just as upset as everyone else at not having Faire this year, I do not believe that supporting an opposing event would be in WRFF's best interest, and have elected to not be involved, and not support such a venture. Mr. Paisely does specify that he is not trying to harm WRFF's business, but a Renaissance Faire operating in the summer, or directly after our Faire, in the same county is -very- harmful to our business. Below is the letter that was sent.

Cheers,
Amy Forsyth
Performing Arts Department Director
WRFF

(begin part 1 of 2)
—This weekend near Shelton, Mason County—
Go to _www.averytownship.com_ (http://www.averytownship.com/) for an overview of the proposed Faire site.
ANNOUNCING a private, invitation-only, weekend-long camping party to brainstorm the possibility of creating a large-scale, permanent, member-owned Renaissance Faire for 2008 and beyond.
Show up with your camping stuff anytime after Saturday 7/19 noon, depart by Monday noon. To get a ticket, address / directions, questions, etc., email _info@averytownship.com_ (mailto:info@averytownship.com)
The Washington Renaissance Faire has been officially canceled for 2008 by Mr. Ron Cleveland in a July 15, 2005 email to his community. There is no guarantee it will return for 2009 or beyond. This creates a void that needs to be filled. This weekend, come see for yourself one of the sites that was offered to the WRFF for this year's Faire before it was canceled. If we have good discussions, the venue owners are willing to quickly help put together a major 2008 event at Avery Township.
Invitations will be extended to:
1. WRFF volunteers-only and volunteers-only from other Faires. (no paid WRFF or other Faire employees, please, that could be misconstrued as an attempt to interfere or harm someone else's business, whereas what we are actually doing is possibly starting something new and separate.)
2. WRFF vendors and vendors from other Faires
3. WRFF sponsors and sponsors from other Faires
4. WRFF entertainers and entertainers from other Faires
4. Mason County business leaders, officials, and policy makers
5. Mason County fundraising and other non-profit organizations (This is NOT a forum for Faire visitors, supporters, opponents, etc., it is for potential direct stakeholders.)
We will be camping and meeting in the actual park-like area with towering maples and cedars where we would hold a Faire, so bring your RenFaire tents / garb / musical instruments, / etc. if you like. We have room for hundreds of tents, so space is not a problem.
Bring your own food and drink (no alcohol, please). We will provide ice, water, refrigeration and freezer storage for your food, commercial grills and microwaves to cook on, hand washing, and toilets (no showers, though running through the sprinklers is OK). So you don't starve if you forget food, we will have a snack shop, but we won't prepare food for you (too late to get a Health Dept permit for this weekend.) We also have tons of nice cots if you need one. If you don't have a tent, we can loan you one.
(end, part 1 of 2, continued next page)
(begin, part 2 of 2, continued from previous page: Letter from venue owner):
Dear Faire participants,
As I sat in the Commissioners chambers on Tuesday, I heard numerous supporters of the Faire remind me of why this event is too great to let die. I believe that from the Commissioners on down, nearly everyone in Mason County wants this type of high quality, economy-boosting tourist events to locate here.
I know I sure do.
The Commissioners' hands were tied with the DNR ruling –I am sure they want these sorts of events to come to Mason County more than anyone. They repeatedly offered Mr. Cleveland any and all assistance he required to move the event to an alternate site. My property was one of those mentioned as a possible location. Instead, for whatever reason, Mr. Cleveland, without ever visiting my site or discussing terms, decided to pass on available options and cancel the Faire.
That of course is his right, but I was disappointed to see so many participants, vendors, supporters, visitors, et al, left in the lurch --not just for this year's event, but there is no certainty about future years either.
I love hosting interesting events on my property, but I am not interested in operating a Faire. I make my money from venue rentals and concessions. I think a specialized, volunteer-driven event like a Ren Faire is best run as an independent, totally financially- and operationally-transparent entity with a participant-owned structure. That way everyone has a say and there is equity and give-and-take --win-win for all concerned.
Organizational structure aside, I have heard many interesting ideas today: "Build a permanent Medieval or period village" "give WRFF ticketholders who prepaid free or reduced admission" "get creative in vendor fees since many of them are in a jam due to the WRFF canceling." Etc., etc. All worth talking about.
So let's talk about this stuff over a campfire, Saturday night, July 19th, all night if you want. We'll either come away with an exciting and immediate plan of action to stage something in August or September of 2008 or we will have a nice party in the woods. Both outcomes are fine with me. But if we wrap up the weekend liking each other and wanting to work together, then Monday I go to the County and get things rolling.
Please email _info@averytownship.com_ (mailto:info@averytownship.com) with your particulars and I will send you back a ticket. Remember this is a private party. Please, invited guests only, there will be attendants at the gate.
The reason is simple: I want people to speak freely and talk about whatever they want and I don't want this to become a forum for Faire opponents.
Thanks,
Gregg
(end)