Happy Anniversary (Repeat x3)...

...to  

shalmestereand   hudebnik! 

 

Saturday In The Park After The 4th of July

Yesterday I finally made it to the Union Square Greenmarket.      It was hot and crowded  (I was outfitted for a show, maybe it wasn't all that hot and crowded...)     I missed the strawberries, but to my joy, black raspberries were everywhere.     One of the things I miss about the house I grew up in is the multiple patches of black raspberries.      I pounced.     Another booth had the miniature new potatoes shalmestere  talked about last month.    I just made it home in time to meet Mr. and Mrs. greenman73 for transport to their Love Nest Among The Eateries.    I packed masks and my good outdoor chair and sheet music for the Sunday demo. They made some very healthy meat sauce over veggies  for dinner  (I asked not to eat grains and they were very kind).      There was lots of music (including a 2000 Harpers' Retreat CD)  and I introduced them to cat macros, the favorites of which were    http://porchtalk.com/upload/files/12/proof.jpg   and http://a2.vox.com/6a00c2251d84868fdb00cdf3aad91acb8f-500pi  .

Demo report in separate post. 

Figment of the Artistic Imagination

Governor's Island, even with a steady sea breeze, was hot today.    The three of us were among the first ones there, and setup hummed along nicely.      There was a problem when we were told the field where they permitted us to set up did not in fact belong to NYC Parks or whoever but was Federal land, and so we moved and they helped.     Modern art was all over the place, including three life-size  metal rocking horses, and a wheeled sculpture with four manual scooters which played a piece of classical music when spun.    Art-festival denizens contain people whose interests overlap with many SCAdians (also Burning Man denizens), and the Chatelaine said it might be useful to look for other such festivals in the city.     There were fiber geeks and fencers and stone carvers and glass blowers / glasswork exhibitors (see below) and weapons collectors and "heavy" weapon fighters and mummers  ( *HI* ::::::waves::::::).    We were too close to the amplified music to make audible SCA - demo music.     We had a much larger crowd than the organizers expected (we were told that by the later hours, they were turning people away at the ferry because they were at maximum capacity for the return trips before 5 pm. (last ferry).   I had lots of customers to try on the masks, and (a first) lots of requests to take pictures of people wearing masks.    I got to see how several cameras worked but I behaved and returned them all afterwards.     My reputation as a low criminal entertainer-type is in tatters   8)
 
The other Big Problem of the day was that the glass blowers had been told they were permitted to practice said craft today, which necessitates a blowtorch flame.     Equipment was rented and hauled on-site.    Site management refused to permit flame of any kind -- not nowhere, not no how.   Glassblowing demo became finished - glasswork exhibit.    Cut to shot of frustrated glassblower stating, "If I'd known there was a problem, I could have done music."    Several serious discussions took place, hopefully all is improving.

The site is lovely, and the Feds who turfed us out wanted and received our contact info for future reference (apparently one of the rangers has been to Pennsic, or at least knows about it).    

Tear-down had to start at 3 pm, and we got packed in time for the 4 o'clock ferry.     Early supper followed.