A questing we will go!

Just in case I don't get around to a proper post here are the bullets.

+ Discovered the joys of celery roots.
+ Ate well on veggies.
+ Took out a goat again, this time with Rachel.
- Goat was a giant pain in the butt. Word to the wise, full grown goats are get heavy after a while.
+ The mighty Rachel bashed a hole through our frying pan. A child still thought I won the fight.
+ After the narrator says "she ran naked through the streets" a child responded "that's inppropriate."
- No T-walk this week.
+ Married Bess and Little John once again.
+ Wooing lessons all the time.
+ Discovering Bernard's close affiliation with Winifred Humpleberry, and Big Bess Little.
- Flat tire in Gurnee trapped at Shell station.
+ Night in hotel room across the street and subsequent hanging out with Derrick and Shane.
+ Ride back to Chicago with Dietrich and Casey with stops for Toys-R-Us and Steak and Shake.
+ Decided to drive back to Gurnee to retrieve the car with Jake's spare.
- Spare did not fit.
+ Ended up getting AAA to tow the car back to Chicago and drove back home.

Today, work was fine but uneventful. Erin and Megan both showed up to stay here in the apartment for a while. We then drove to Evanston to get Shannon, Erin's Cousin, to Erin's sister's house. Adventures are fun.

So eventful I couldn't tell you about it.

Bless me readers for I have sinned. It has been two weeks since my last posting. I have committed a number of sins in the intervening time but I don't really have time to go into it in satisfying detail. Instead I have been forced into brevity and concision.

suck.

Weekend of Faire
+ T Walk
+ Getting out into the street more often.
+ I'm sure I did other stuff. Anyone?
Tuesday Night Movie- Blues Brothers, you haven't seen this film until you've seen it with a mob of Chicagoans.
Wednesday Game- I am a nerd, this makes it better because there are other nerds there.
Thursday- I'm sure I did something. Did I go out with Kel? Was this the night I went to Karaoke with Josh? Did I kill a hobo?

Weekend of Faire
+ T Walks.
+ Country Wedding.
+ Improv Night at the Pig and Whistle as an honorary "Don".
+ Frobie's visit went really well. Thank you Mary for saving me from the mistakes of poor planning.
Tuesday of room mate bonding
+ Hellboy II actually really a lot of fun.
+ Lunch at El Pollo Loco.
+ Tuesday Movie- The Day the Earth Stood Still, which is a legend for a reason.
Wednesday Game
- I Wish more of my players could make it consistantly.
+ That said I'm happy to have Carrie in the game now.
Thursday
+ Trip to Shaumburg with Shane and Derrick to see Carrie.
+ Dinner at Samurai Sam's .
+ Dark Knight- just as good the second time.
- Should have been doing Laundry.
-/+ Hung out with Jake while doing laundry until 2:00 am.

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.

Faire, non-faire and the in between.

So, I only have a little time to write up the entry that should have gone up on Monday. Forgive any lacking that you may, therefore, perceive. I encourage you to supplement my account with your own additions.

The weekend was a cavalcade of awesome. That is, if you except the rain related injuries which marred the whole weekend. Amie from the fight cast and Jeremy from KK both managed to damage themselves in the early hours of Saturday. Jeremy slipped on the KK stage and managed to hurt a tendon in his lag which is bad. Compared to Amie though he got off easy. There are a few things that one tries to avoid in the average life. leaping unsupported from a great height without some kind of mat below is one of those actions. Unfortunately, due to the rain, the ropes used for the rope stunts were very wet so when stunt call began and Amie leaped from the balcony of the Cheshire Chase her descent was unexpectedly quick. Usually the friction of the rope would slow her descent and allow her to gracefully arrive on the stage. instead she simply fell holding onto a useless rope and arrived on the stage with no way for the spotters to save her.

Therefore, what was otherwise a great weekend was a bit darkened by concern for damaged friends.

The show has gotten tighter and tighter with every run. What was once a 23 minute production is now about 15 minutes long. The fight scenes are really sticking and the flow of the lines has been corrected now that I've picked up my, usually languorous, pace. I cannot say enough how much I love working with Angela and Char on this production. There was also a wonderful experience for both Angela and myself last weekend as children redeemed themselves by being both adorable and complimentary. A little boy told me how much he enjoyed the performance and then went on to tell me how I must be a great baker. After the final show of the weekend Angela was called back onto the stage where an adoring mass waited for her with flowers from the verge of the stage and compliments. The best among them being "you're pretty". I don't like kids, but I'm coming to the conclusion I like entertaining them.

Bernard had a great weekend as well. Though I need to work on getting out on the street more I did get to have a bunch of fun with Bernard. Among the usual Bernardisms (prostration upon the street, looking for goats and telling women they are pretty) were a slow motion chase with Molly O'Reilly, a run in with a drunk patron woman's bum and, to top it all off, he found Geraldine. I managed to borrow a goat from the petting zoo (surprisingly easy, actually) and for about an hour and a half in the late hours of Sunday I had a Geraldine to carry about and present to the Queen. Geraldine, as it happens, is a young goat of a few months, still nursing and, despite my descriptions up to now, black and white. She is also the cutest thing on four legs. Her real name is Nala and she was the perfect accent to Bernard's character. I got to walk around being pleased about my goat and everyone flocked around to see her and pet her. Good times.

As for non-faire activities; yesterday I held the first session of my D&D game which went well and tonight I'm going to watch the final performance of Neil Arsenty's show at second city, "Big City, Small World".

I also recently had the pleasure of viewing "Death at a Funeral" which was a riot. Absolutely amazing performances all around and unpredictably outlandish at all points. The compounding series of events is cringeworthy and awkward but also fully hilarious.

The tip top of the non faire activities has to be my recent excursion to Medieval Times with Shane and Derrick to see Carrie who is a wench there. I refuse to comment on the lack of historical accuracy which rode rampant over the joust pitch. History was not the point. It was a fun show to watch full of well done fights and dramatic music. I've never seen so many sword sparks in one evening, what's more the actually very talented combatants seem to have performed tirelessly throughout the night. Kudos to them. I did enjoy that there is no silverware at Medieval Times, there is, however, Pepsi. This was followed by one of the most amusing car rides I have ever taken part in. Thank you Carrie. We did not die but we definitely should have.

Today's Gem of the internet- Watch it before it goes away. Here is Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Acts one and two are out now. Three comes out this weekend and they all disappear on Sunday. so you have a narrow window to catch them.

http://drhorrible.com/

you can also buy them on iTunes. Like I did. Sigh. That's right. Mr. Whedon finally forced my hand. I had to have it and the only way to get it was to incline my head slightly to the evil of Apple. You win this round Mr. Jobs. I'll just put it on my...iPod.

I'm disappointed in me. Apple is creeping in on me. Next I'll have a Macbook Air and an iPhone. items I hate with all of my self.