Wicked Faire 2015
Feb. 22nd, 2015 09:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroARR went to visit his grandparents this weekend so Jethrien and I could attend Wicked Faire, a kind of steampunk-fantasy-sci-fi-general geekery con run by the same folks who do the Steampunk World’s Fair.
I had a vague interest in Captain Zorikh the Time-Traveling Bard. I stopped in his show for a couple of minutes but was completely unimpressed by him—his songs seemed neither particularly musically strong nor particularly funny.
More impressive was stage magician Daniel Greenwolf, a man with a lot of presence and some genuinely good tricks. I recognized a few of the cheats he was using—I’m very good at spotting forces—but there were a bunch I couldn’t figure out and he had the showmanship to sell them all.
The Coveilance Dance Project was an underwhelming Bellydance troupe. One solo act was very good and a couple of the others were cute, but in general it felt like they were neither particularly technically proficient nor having much fun.
We then hit the Munchausen Society panel, which was okay. It made me want to see more of Katie Kat and less of Wyck, which I’m certain I’ll forget when choosing panels in the future.
One of the specific draws of this con was (at least for me) Sarah Donner, a geeky singer/songwriter who has done collaborations with The Oatmeal and has something like 60 songs about cats. She and I did theater together in college, including Beowulf: The Musical and her playing Ida in my production of See How They Run. We caught up after her show, I met her husband, we chatted about who we’ve kept up with, and I bought five of her CDs. (Fortunately, many of the songs are NOT about cats. One is specifically about Settlers of Catan.)
The last show we caught was the White Elephant Burlesque, a troupe I’m certain we’ve seen before. They opened with one of the dancers (who’d broken her foot on the ice the night before) singing a Cake song in Italian, then went into some very inventive and creative burlesque. The spurned bride and deal with the devil were noteworthy, but the best was the stripteasing Alien Queen. It says a lot about the crowds at these cons that a stage full of men and women who are not particularly conventionally attractive—I’d argue the guy had bodies on par with my own—got enthusiastic applause doing burlesque.
One of my specific goals for this con was to buy a new cane. Given my likely-to-repeat back problems, having a cane that looks snazzy but is actually suited to supporting my weight seemed wise. (The two canes I currently have are really better suited to being prop canes.) Fortunately, there was a vendor there specializing in nothing but canes, who talked me into buying a black antique cane with a silver-plated return that went very well with the tailcoat I was wearing. (I was also considering a dark-wood spiral cane with a brass handle, but the curved return was better suited to actually being a walking cane.)
Jethrien noted something interesting: There were lots of sword-canes on sale, but no mention of peacebonding or otherwise restricting them. Commentary on consent culture showed up a bunch of times in the written material and panels, though. Given the general lack of unaccompanied teenage/20-something boys and the lack of video games or anime tracks (the crowd skewed old and slightly more female), I think they were expecting certain kinds of trouble and not worrying about others.
Jethrien bought a new corset. Mithrigil had made her one on commission years ago, and she wore that thing into the ground. (Also, her body changed shape slightly post-pregnancy, and that sort of thing really matters for a corset.) The new one should integrate well into existing outfits, including the Madrigals dress she was wearing at the time, which she just swapped out the bodice for the new corset after she bought it.
The hotel dinner buffet was actually pretty decent, better than your average con food. I made a concentrated effort to eat vegetables, which I think my body was grateful for later. (I’m old. Have you noticed?)
We had plans to stay later, but we realized that it was snowing pretty heavily and left for home after the Burlesque. The hour drive took two and a half, as Route 1 was a disaster and I-95 was going 35 mph the whole way. We got home safe and sound, but Jethrien’s knuckles stayed white for some time afterwards.
Also, as a side note, I wore my tailcoat and carried the pocket watch Edgehopper had given me as a groomsman gift. One of the other attendees was kind enough to show me how to set it to tell proper time.
To sum up: Glad we didn’t bring ARR. Saw a mix of shows. Bought a bunch of things we wanted. Saw an old friend. Made it home safe. Would con again.
I had a vague interest in Captain Zorikh the Time-Traveling Bard. I stopped in his show for a couple of minutes but was completely unimpressed by him—his songs seemed neither particularly musically strong nor particularly funny.
More impressive was stage magician Daniel Greenwolf, a man with a lot of presence and some genuinely good tricks. I recognized a few of the cheats he was using—I’m very good at spotting forces—but there were a bunch I couldn’t figure out and he had the showmanship to sell them all.
The Coveilance Dance Project was an underwhelming Bellydance troupe. One solo act was very good and a couple of the others were cute, but in general it felt like they were neither particularly technically proficient nor having much fun.
We then hit the Munchausen Society panel, which was okay. It made me want to see more of Katie Kat and less of Wyck, which I’m certain I’ll forget when choosing panels in the future.
One of the specific draws of this con was (at least for me) Sarah Donner, a geeky singer/songwriter who has done collaborations with The Oatmeal and has something like 60 songs about cats. She and I did theater together in college, including Beowulf: The Musical and her playing Ida in my production of See How They Run. We caught up after her show, I met her husband, we chatted about who we’ve kept up with, and I bought five of her CDs. (Fortunately, many of the songs are NOT about cats. One is specifically about Settlers of Catan.)
The last show we caught was the White Elephant Burlesque, a troupe I’m certain we’ve seen before. They opened with one of the dancers (who’d broken her foot on the ice the night before) singing a Cake song in Italian, then went into some very inventive and creative burlesque. The spurned bride and deal with the devil were noteworthy, but the best was the stripteasing Alien Queen. It says a lot about the crowds at these cons that a stage full of men and women who are not particularly conventionally attractive—I’d argue the guy had bodies on par with my own—got enthusiastic applause doing burlesque.
One of my specific goals for this con was to buy a new cane. Given my likely-to-repeat back problems, having a cane that looks snazzy but is actually suited to supporting my weight seemed wise. (The two canes I currently have are really better suited to being prop canes.) Fortunately, there was a vendor there specializing in nothing but canes, who talked me into buying a black antique cane with a silver-plated return that went very well with the tailcoat I was wearing. (I was also considering a dark-wood spiral cane with a brass handle, but the curved return was better suited to actually being a walking cane.)
Jethrien noted something interesting: There were lots of sword-canes on sale, but no mention of peacebonding or otherwise restricting them. Commentary on consent culture showed up a bunch of times in the written material and panels, though. Given the general lack of unaccompanied teenage/20-something boys and the lack of video games or anime tracks (the crowd skewed old and slightly more female), I think they were expecting certain kinds of trouble and not worrying about others.
Jethrien bought a new corset. Mithrigil had made her one on commission years ago, and she wore that thing into the ground. (Also, her body changed shape slightly post-pregnancy, and that sort of thing really matters for a corset.) The new one should integrate well into existing outfits, including the Madrigals dress she was wearing at the time, which she just swapped out the bodice for the new corset after she bought it.
The hotel dinner buffet was actually pretty decent, better than your average con food. I made a concentrated effort to eat vegetables, which I think my body was grateful for later. (I’m old. Have you noticed?)
We had plans to stay later, but we realized that it was snowing pretty heavily and left for home after the Burlesque. The hour drive took two and a half, as Route 1 was a disaster and I-95 was going 35 mph the whole way. We got home safe and sound, but Jethrien’s knuckles stayed white for some time afterwards.
Also, as a side note, I wore my tailcoat and carried the pocket watch Edgehopper had given me as a groomsman gift. One of the other attendees was kind enough to show me how to set it to tell proper time.
To sum up: Glad we didn’t bring ARR. Saw a mix of shows. Bought a bunch of things we wanted. Saw an old friend. Made it home safe. Would con again.
