Of wives and wooing

This weekend was special in a few ways. It marked the probably last weekend of Angela as the Baker's Wife and Rachel as the Queen. I'm not sure how to properly articulate my feelings on these matters as I was pleased with both of them in both roles and am sad and happy simultaneously to see the shift happening.

I look very much forward to finding my way back into the dynamic that Rachel and I had as I have gotten used to Angela and the way we ran together. I'm excited to see what a full faire day will be like with Rachel. I wonder if we'll end up naming cookies and giggling about the back story of the Bakers. I look forward to re-learning a marriage.

Someone this weekend pointed out that being cast like this was actually not unlike an arranged marriage. The parties have very little input into their chosen spouse so it is only through exploring the marriage itself you learn about each other. I feel very fortunate to have been married off to such wonderful women. I should be so lucky in real life.

Incidentally, as a side note, it was interesting to note that my own family contains Bakers. The name chosen for the Baker's wife is Johanna which is strikingly similar to JoAnn, my Grandmother. More surprising though is that my character got named Peter. My Great Grandfather was Pete. Anyway, I only noticed it this weekend so I thought I would share.

This weekend also marked my return to the T-walk. There was a T-walk the weekend before but in the morning and it was more of a "roguing" since it was less parade and more aimed. The photos looked amazing and I'm sure the lady of honour was tickled pink. Also, due to it's timing I didn't get to go. So I've decided it is my job to keep it alive. On Saturday I had one announced and we had a pretty good turnout. Good enough,in fact, that I plan to reprise the walk both days next week. With a group like this we can have a really crack squad by the end of the season. Jim Estrella, Arne Parrott, and Meredith formed the original quartet. By the way, having a lady on t-walk was great and Meredith is pretty much the perfect woman for the job. As we moved about though we picked up some fantastic additions. Best of all was running into Mary Kebabick. We kept snagging people to add to the line at that juncture including Willem, the Turnip Farmer (one of the inspirations for Bernard). It was very special to get to compliment Mary like that. I hope she enjoyed it as much as we did.

Aside from that Bernard was pretty low key this weekend. I need to work on making him a little more exciting because at this point he's pretty much just a hit and run character. This weeks homework, therefore, expand upon that. On the upside, Bernard is much better for playing with others than Frobisher was. Frobisher didn't work well with other characters in many contexts. Bernard, on the other hand, is open, giving and based almost entirely on the needs or reactions of others. Frobie was big and funny but Bernard is genuine.

In other news, I made an appointment to get contacts on Wednesday. I'm interested to find out what a faire day actually looks like. I haven't seen one since my first year.In other news

Now, in a more generally interesting vein I've been doing some reading of late and I thought I'd share my thoughts.

Magic Kingdom: Sold by Terry Brooks.
What started off as a cute novel turned out to be a very clever and thoughtful approach to the responsibilities of royalty and the universality of fantasy kingdoms. The main character gives up his normal life as a rich lawyer to become king of a fantasy kingdom. What he does not know going into the transaction is that all is not as magical as it might have been advertised. The people of the kingdom no longer recognize the rule of their king even though they are magically tied to the office. the story lays out his quest to synergise the return of their allegiance with the removal of his biggest problems: among them a witch, a dragon and the loss of the king's traditional (enchanted) protector. His lawyer skills allow him to asses the situation and of course, bring out a happy ending.

What makes it particularly interesting are the parts of the books where the reader is presented with the psychology of the character. He is dealing with the loss of his wife and his trepidation in jumping into this kingdom feet first. The conflict of the requirements of his new position and the desires he had coming in is well written nd compelling. It also makes the character all the more sympathetic. Without this element the book might have been just another sword and sorcery, Conneticut Yankee in King Artur's Court, style book. Instead it became a compelling look into the mental faculties of the character and what it takes to be what one must be to fulfill a promise.

I reccomend it.

I'm currently in the middle of The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro and The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. I'll keep you all updated on them as I finish them. They've all been very good so far.

"Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" was fantastic. Joss Whedon did his magic once again and created a touching story in an otherwise comedic scenario. In the world of superheroes and villains Dr. Horrible starts as an amateur. Through the progression of the brief story we learn that he got into the racket in an attempt to affect social change. He sees corruption in the system and pain in humanity and wants to rule the world so he can change that. He also wants to find love with the girl of his dreams, whom he met in the laundromat. The story is sweet but I'm uncertain how much I liked the third act. Acts one and two did a brilliant job of establishing the characters and the conflict between them as well as making Dr. Horrible a compelling and sympathetic character. In Act three though I feel like Whedon dropped the ball. It was good and a satisfying ending, just not up to the level of acts one and two.