October 13, 1993
Dear Everyone:
Today is my only day in the office until a week from Friday.
Busy, busy, busy.
Working on the principle that I've been working too much lately (to be
filed under the heading, Get a Life!), I decided to accompany “Jeannie”
and her friend, “Brodie”, to the annual
Renaissance
Pleasure Faire in
Novato
last Saturday. They wanted to
know how long it had been since the last time I'd been to the Faire.
As I recall, “Frankie” was with
us that time and I was wearing a
Bicentennial T-shirt that wasn't more than a few years old.
We're talking late ‘70’s.
I got the impression that the Faire had moved to new quarters in the
ensuing years. It now consists of
a very large dirt parking lot and a long path leading to the Entrance.
The path is festooned with
placards bearing appalling poetry advertising the joys within (once you
pay $16.50 to enter), such as "Jousting at twelve, two and four of the
clock".
Once inside, there are many booths made up to look like small village
buildings. The whole place is
referred to as "The Shire". There
are some trees around and, where there aren't, they set up poles with
canvas tenting stretched between them for shade.
This is important because, in
early autumn, Novato is very warm. Beyond the main
entrance, "The Shire" branches off into small valleys that lead up into
the hills. So you can wander up
one lane filled with jewelry booths, then wander up another to have your
palm (or any other part of your anatomy) read by one of the dozen
fortune tellers.
There are also several stages set up for performing artists, complete
with politically correct
Sign Language
translators for the hearing impaired. This
is
Marin,
after all. Lots of people
spouting what they fondly believed to be
Elizabethan
English (they're wrong).
And one character, looking like the
Ancient Mariner’s second cousin, extolling the virtues of his booth
which sold hot crossed buns. He
was a little short on material. Every
time we passed him, we heard, "you haven't lived it to you squeezed
my buns!"
On the other hand, the fact that
we kept passing him suggests that he'd found an ideal location.
We didn't spend much money on food. Having
seen the price as last year, “Jeannie” brought a picnic lunch and we had
a sort of "tailgate" party in the parking lot before returning to the
Faire. The weather was very nice,
overcast and not too hot, which was good because many women (“Jeannie”
included) had voluminous skirts that can hold in the heat.
I'd say about every fifth person we saw was wearing some sort of
costume. There were two rental
shops on-site. But the thought of
wearing sweaty, hot clothes that someone else had worn the week before
didn't appeal to me. Besides, I'm
not really sure what one does with those voluminous skirts inside a
Porta-Potty.
“Jeannie” and “Brodie”, of course, made their own costumes.
And there were many other, quite
creative outfits, some only slightly related to the period at hand.
Technically, the
Renaissance began
in Italy in the 14th
Century and spread through the rest of Europe over the next 300 years or
so. Nevertheless, we saw some
Visigoths
(definitely pre-Renaissance). I
am still unclear as to why “Brodie” always referred to the Visigoths as
"Stud Muffins". (I think we may
even have gotten a picture of “Jeannie” with one of the Stud Muffins;
watch for it this Christmas.)
There were a few Robin
Hood types. Again,
pre-Renaissance, but why quibble. Of course, you don't usually expect to
see one of Robin’s Merry Man decked out
entirely in neon pink; but,
after all, this is California
and to each his own.
We did get to see "Queen
Elizabeth", resplendent in royal purple and someone purporting to be
William
Shakespeare.
And “Jeannie” insisted that we ride the
May Pole.
This consisted of a tall, sturdy
pole set in the ground, with colorful "streamers" descending from the
top. The streamers attached to
the corners of a hexagonal "bench", built around the pole, where the
riders sit. The bench is slanted
backwards, to keep people from falling out and, as an added precaution,
cloth-covered chains are fastened across each bench ("the very
latest in
medieval safety
technology," I was told).
Once the benches are filled with daring riders, the "operators" simply
pushed the bench so that it turns around the pole.
As it does, the streamers wrap
around the pole until the bench is just overhead and then the operators
simply let go and step back. After
that, inertia takes over. The
streamers unwind, and the bench spins around the pole, down toward the
ground, then the streamers start to wind back up the pole until you
can't go any higher. Then they
unwind in the other direction, etc. it's very colorful…from about twenty feet
away.
At this point, “Jeannie” started to remember what spinning around in
opposing circles does to her equilibrium.
Or, as she put it: "the first six or seven times were kind of
fun…" After that, we decided to
go home (past the man with the hot crossed buns).
We had fun and “Jeannie” and “Brodie” are already making plans for next
year.
In other news…
"Quickie" Movie Review: Malice.
Thriller.
Gem of a performance by
Anne Bancroft
in a small, but pivotal role. Lots
of twists and turns which, you realize later, are full of holes.
“Jeannie” did a complete
postmortem during the 20 minute ride home: implausible; impossible;
highly unlikely; legally unsupportable. Worth
the matinee price if the popcorn is good.
Love, as always,
Pete
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