Hanging out with Captain Jack Sparrow... -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, September 30, 2007 12:33AM
In case anyone is curious, I'm out at Walt Disney World this week for Epcot's 25th anniversary. We got to meet and greet their Jack Sparrow (one of) lookalikes and he wasn't bad. I'll have photos of that on my other site.

If you want to see my latest photo experiment, drop by http://disneyfans.com and look at the news posts about the GPS tracking. I have a gadget that tracks where I am so when I take photos, I can place them on a map. I did a test run at the Kansas City Ren Fest but haven't had time to process them yet. But I am posting logs of my day at Disney -- you can follow a line on Google Maps and see where I wandered all over the park.

I'll be writing some custom scripts to make the photo galleries have normal photos, then links to a map where you can see the location of the photos in thumbnail. At least, that's the plan... [more...]

Iowa's Joust Evolution at Great Plains Ren Fest (newspaper) -- posted by JohnPaul on Friday, September 28, 2007 5:39AM
Article about Joustevolution...

http://www.kansas.com/entertainment/story/186628.html

Even more DMRF photos? -- posted by JohnPaul on Monday, September 24, 2007 11:08PM
Wouldn't you know it, I found a bunch of HD photos from Des Moines Ren Faire I never sorted in to the gallery, so those will be appearing soon. Most notably are a batch of Joust Evolution and Predators of the Sea photos.

KCRF in four hours? -- posted by JohnPaul on Monday, September 24, 2007 1:06AM
Today was my last chance to visit KCRF (too busy) so we managed a trip down there and arrived around 3pm. This gave us four hours to explore. I got to visit with Rosaland the mead wench and her cohort Buttercup (yes, right?) and they STILL had those $2 bills I'd given them years ago. I saw Hobgoblin Adornments, saw Marla's Curse and Compliment booth, Bridgette's feathered fairy wing booth, the smelling rock guy, Brother William with a flying machine designed by DaVinci himself, Evil, Gunnar (sp?) the Barbarian, the Bardic store guy, and so many others in a brief amount of time. Ran in to some familiar faces I didn't know had shops there, and enjoyed mead, cider, coffee, potato skins and water. It was an amazingly full day for just four hours -- we even saw most of Bob the Incredible Juggler's show (wow, great show -- and first time I've seen any of it in years going). So, fuller report later, and over 900 photos to add (plus some for my DisneyFans.com site of the new T-Rex themed restaurant just down the road).

More later. Time to crash.

Final batch of Des Moines Ren Faire photos posted. -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, September 23, 2007 10:02AM
The final batch of photos from this year's Des Moines Renaissance Faire has been added to the gallery. Some more sorting may still occur, but I wanted to at least get the rest posted before snow starts falling here in Iowa.

Jess Linder! -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, September 22, 2007 12:02AM
(From Jesse's mailing list...)

Join Jesse Linder when he performs as Jock Stewart at the Stronghold Olde English Faire.

The frolic takes place on Saturday and Sunday, October 6 and 7, with gates open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the Faire will stay open until the last Castle tour is completed. It costs a mere $8 donation for adults and $4 for children under 13 (kids under five are free).

Part of the Oregon IL Autumn on Parade festival, the Stronghold Olde English Faire is held on the grounds of a real castle on Route 2, just north of downtown Oregon, IL. There you’ll find knights and ladies, sword fighters, pirates, jugglers, magicians, and wandering players of all types, as well as fine crafters selling their wares.

And as always, Stronghold Castle will be open for guided tours throughout the Faire. Stronghold's International Gift Shop will offer treasures from around the world, and hot food and drink will be available.

Music will be provided by Jock Stewart, Molly & the Tinker, Merry Measure, fiddler T.J. Hull, and others. There will be stage areas set up for music and other entertainment, and we will all have our CDs (and cassettes) available for sale.

Jesse has appeared at this event for many years, with Separated at Birth, CrossRogues, Tippler’s Way, and as Jock Stewart. As in the past two years, Jock Stewart will be performing solo, but I may have some friends join me on stage. Additionally, with Tinker MacLea and T.J. there, there may be some impromptu appearances by Cappamore.

For more information, contact Stronghold at (815) 732-6111 or check out their Web site, www.strongholdcenter.org/englishfaire.html.

Kansas City Ren Fest this weekend... -- posted by JohnPaul on Friday, September 21, 2007 12:14AM
If we can, we'll be making a day trip down to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival this Sunday to spend a few hours. I'm so out of the loop I didn't even get myself on the will-call list this year so if anyone wants to drop a few tickets my way, I'd be thankful :-)

Des Moines Ren Faire's "Castle of Blood" -- posted by JohnPaul on Thursday, September 20, 2007 12:41AM
New haunted house located inside the Marick Castle:

Talk Like a Pirate Day -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 1:26AM
Robert of Orckes & Trolles sends out the reminder that today, September 19th, is international Talk Like a Pirate Day. Have fun!


TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!!!

For real!

Check out http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html for more info.

"The Dread Pirate" Robert

Need something? Anything? Just "Ask For It." -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:56PM
If an artisan makes it, these guys can probably get it. Just Ask For It:

http://www.patchworkmerchantmercenaries.com

Check out their site. They rep renfest type merchants, sci-fi merchants, Hollywood prop makers, etc.

Happy Birthday, Warren of Orckes & Trolles -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:54PM
Warren, the tall member of the Iowa madrigal group Orckes & Trolles, celebrated a birthday today at the Des Moines Renaissance Faire. There was even cake.

Happy Birthday, Warren! (And I'm sad I'm still one of the oldest members of my peers; I have you beat by about a month...)

http://members.aol.com/Orckes/
[more...]

After the dust settles at the DMRF... -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, September 16, 2007 11:11PM
...I'll know more about how things turned out, but here are the initials:

Attendance was up from last year, but only slightly. (And still a fraction of what the attendance at Salisbury Faire was the last year it happened; that killer event drew 25,000-29,000 over one weekend, depending on who you ask, which included a student day on Friday.)

Rumors of moving to four weekends (no, too soon) seemed to be floating aroung. I hope they don't do that. I've gone "on record" before about a 3-weekend event somewhere else that moved to four before it was ready. You can do it, sure, but why bother? If you aren't reaching capacity, why expand capacity?

Many of the temporary visiting merchants on Main Street (er, "High Street") are now at the end of their two year allowance. The idea is they get to come in, pay through the nose, and try things out. Several returned for a second try this year and have expressed interest in returning next year. But will they be allowed to, or will it be time to let another group of temporary merchants in? We'll see what happens, but I've heard two of the vendors want to buy in to the shops on main street and become permanent. Maybe main street as a temporary spot may not be the case in a few years?

And in personal news, remember what I said about yesterday being better than the previous weekend's Saturday as far as tips go for the Pirate Comedy Show? Forget I said that. Today - a SUNDAY - went past THAT. I'm not sure we've EVER performed and done better on a Sunday than a Saturday, so I'll write this off to a fluke.

I got to see some excellent young jugglers - Kids with Fire - both in, I think, high school (about 17 in age). They were freakin' awesome! But, new to this (though you couldn't tell from their banter and act, which was polished and sharp). Their "garb" was makeshift, the best they could do -- and, alas, they wore sneakers. I know they could easily get bigger crowds if they would simply rename to "Pirate Jugglers" or something (Pirates with Fire?) ;-) Gotta talk to them. My point, I guess, is that if you need a fun good juggling duo in the Iowa area, let me know and I'll get you in touch with Mark and Forrest - great guys!

More to come. Time to download today's photos and snooze.

Revenge of the DMRF -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, September 15, 2007 10:42PM
Remember the thing I said about last weekend being, possibly, the highest single day of tipping my Pirate Comedy Show has ever had at any festival? Well, today we did $20 more than that, so nevermind. Today was the highest, I think, this time for sure. (Though I have to go back and check daily historical tipping statistics; I may be completely wrong, but I know if we had two days like this in a row, it certainly would be.) Go DMRF! Even with such small crowds, it seems it may finally surpass the Iowa Renaissance Festival! Wow.

I, uh, got some attention for one of the photos I posted to this site. I didn't mean to cause any problems or get anyone in trouble. I just take pics. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, and I post them. I explained I wasn't out to get anyone (or get anyone into trouble) and it seems they get that. However, two of my pics have caused some kind of minor "reminder" (*cough* driving on property during event *cough*) about rules ;-) I told them as long as I don't make a "Bad Show" folder in the DMRF gallery here, they're still okay.

Something interesting... THEY COVERED THE TRASH BARRELS this weekend! It looks like burlap or something -- but they covered the suckers up. COuld it be due to some patron feedback over the last weekend specifically mentioning how tacky blue plastic trash cans look in "Old England?" Either way, kudos to Sleepy Hollow. There's still more to do, but these incremental updates and features are a great direction.

Exciting photo of covered trash barrel.

I had to leave my store closed alot during the day ('bad show') while I was performing or roaming to take more photos. I got to see Wrapsody and... SHATTOCK SCHOOLE OF DEFENCE! I haven't seen them much in years (though usually they are in Amana) and it was cool seeing them. One friend of mine who'd never seen them watched a whole show and thought they were great.

The Shattock folks were some of the original Iowa area performers I watched when I first started doing these things here ten years ago. And they're still going strong, with a few of the same members left from when I first saw them.

And man, we've gotten so much older since then! So, that's worth going to see if no other reason -- and they're on the main castle stage making great use of "exit stage left" and stage right. Go Shattock!

More to come. Nite time.

DMRF weekend 2 -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 10:42PM
Photos from the second weekend of this year's Des Moines Renaissance Faire have been added to the gallery. Only about 490, though.

Tavern Wenches of Canterbury and Joust Evolution -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 8:58PM
Here is some raw footage of the Tavern Wenches of Canterbury's new water wench act they performed for the first time at this year's Des Moines Renaissance Faire. I posted it to YouTube to see how long it would take to appear on their MySpace page. It's already there :-)

And just for fun, Joust Evolution... So far, not linked to their MySpace page...

And this is why I hate Faeries... -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 8:40PM
Because of this... [more...]

Renaissance Faire in York, NE this weekend. -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 7:30AM
I just received this in one of my mailboxes this morning:

Please join us at The Camelot Inn on Saturday, September 15, 2007 from noon until 4pm for the first annual Renaissance Faire in York. The flier for the event is at the bottom of this email. We have quite a bit of information about this exciting weekend and encourage you to read the attached press release to learn more about the festivities.

The Lounge (formerly the Red Fox Lounge) will have a grand opening celebration starting Friday, September 14th, with two days of festivities, specials and prizes. Find out more about the penny beer in the attached press release.

The Camelot Inn has returned to York after years of changed names and with many improvements to impress you, we are proud to invite you to visit us for the grand reopening celebration. You can also get a room on Saturday and stay to celebrate a Huskers home game victory (fingers crossed) and relax in The Lounge..

If you have any questions about the events happening this weekend, please feel free to email us. Please join us! Please also feel free to forward this email to all your friends, family and business associates if you feel they would be interested. Please print the flier and share it with others. We are proud to be a part of the growing and wonderful York community.

Sincerely,
Jeff Chase and Christopher Spencer
The Camelot Inn

If you are having difficulty opening the attachments, please feel free to click the links below:

For the press release:
http://chasemarketing.com/camelotinn/ren_faire_release.pdf

For the flier:
http://chasemarketing.com/camelotinn/ren_flier_750.jpg

(Note: on further inspection of my other mailboxes, it looks like I received this message at four different boxes so perhaps everyone else has received it multiple times as well.)

Picking Dragon Boogers... -- posted by JohnPaul on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 6:07PM
You know, it seems like I still see things I haven't seen before at renaissance festivals. This past weekend, I was walking somewhere in a rush, as usual, and someone called out for me. Two ladies with dragons on their arms were the ones, I think. I walked over and looked at them and gazed down at their pet dragons and suddenly remembered that I'd seem them before. The dragon puppets were getting attention of a child, who got to pet the dragon. Then, in one of those "well, now I've seen it all" moments, they asked if he wanted to pick out a dragon booger. Literally ;-) Indeed, the nostrils of these pet dragons were filled with those pretty "dragon tears" gems so, thanks to them, someone could literally...

Pick a dragon booger!

Only at a renaissance festival :-) I thought they must be with the festival, or working for someone there, but apparently they were just platrons! Someone needs to find them and let them know we need to figure out how to hire them for this gig or work out some way to have them join us at all the various festivals in the region.

Of course, this is only because the little boy in me thinks it's so cool. The little girls in others out there may find it gross :-)

St. Louis Pirate Festival -- posted by JohnPaul on Monday, September 10, 2007 9:35PM
Here's the website for those interested:

http://www.stlpiratefest.com/

Finally, a place where the rennies can't gripe about pirates hanging around ;-) [more...]

Why pay full price? -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, September 9, 2007 11:18PM
Oh, an amusing thing... In Des Moines, Hy-Vee grocery stores are selling tickets to the Des Moines Renaissance Faire at a discount. I think it saves $2 or something like that. I heard today that the Pleasant Hill Hy-Vee had run out of tickets, and had to be restocked on Saturday. Pleasant Hill is right down the road from the festival. I think folks have figured out they can easily save a few bucks just by swinging in to a Hy-Vee on their way to the festival. I've done this every year I've attended the Renaissance Faire of the Midlands (gate price is $14 there) since it's so easy just to pop in to a Burger King and get the tickets cheaper.

I'm glad folks are figuring this out. So, for anyone who paid full price, just know there's usually a way to save money. Greater St. Louis, for instance, had discount coupons on their website the last time I went. Midlands, two years back, had a buy one get one free type promotion ($7!).

So for next weekend... stop by Hy-Vee this week to get your tickets. You can then use the money you save to tip a performer.

DMRF Weekend 2, Pirate stuff in St. Louis -- posted by JohnPaul on Sunday, September 9, 2007 10:30PM
Weekend two of the Des Moines Renaissance Faire has included. I haven't heard numbers yet, but it sure seemed like more people. Alas, I have no real way to compare Saturday and Sunday since my tipping metric won't work. Our first show only had about 8 people there, so we just did some songs instead -- if I had known 40 or 50 more people were going to show up, we could have done a full show. We didn't even pass the hat at the end, instead telling folks to go spend their money at the tavern.

Scarlett wasn't feeling well and had to go home, so we weren't able to do our "show" for the rest of the day. Instead, Malcom (AAA Awards/History of Names guy) stood in and sang with me as we filled time with endlessly silly Pirate Comedy Show songs. No surprise, but we sold more CDs today than yesterday. Nothing great though, but still better than what I've seen at certain other events I've performed at and no longer want to due to low tipping at them ;-)

A few light sprinkles of rain feel around 5pm, but other than that the weather was nice, cool, and dry. It was overcast most of the day.

I have no idea what else went on. Other than a loop around the village in the morning, then once again in late afternoon, I spent my time at my shop or at the pirate stage. I'm not enjoying missing the entire festival due to having to be stuck somewhere. I didn't get any pictures of Wrapsody performing, for instance. They were doing some large aerial acrobatic show or something, in front of the castle. I have no idea what they did, but I did see them walking around on tall stilts several times during the weekend.

3 Pints Gone was back, and is now getting ready to head to Greater St. Louis for the start of their three weekend PIRATE FESTIVAL. Mark your calendars -- it's now, so get ready if you want to check it out. I think this is their second year for this new event. I'd like to drop down and see it, but I've got two other events I'm supposed to attend then a trip to Florida for something called a "vacation." Never enough time...

Not much else to report. I brought home a bottle of Summerset Winery "dry" mead, so I better go check on it...

DMRF 2007 - best tipping ever? -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, September 8, 2007 8:23PM
Well, once the dust settles next week I will know if I can back this up, but our little Pirate Comedy Show did three shows today and even with the first show only being $12 in tips, we still ended up totaling more than what we've made entire weekends at other events. There's only a handful of events since we started in 2003 that did more than what we did today -- and that was comparing the full weekend to this one day. If we do what we did today, tomorrow, it's easily the best tipping event ever.

And this income came pretty much all from tips -- we didn't even have our CDs or buttons at all the shows -- I think 2 CDs were sold ($5 each) and $14 in buttons. Just amazing.

Des Moines may have very well moved past the Iowa Renaissance Festival in the Amana Colonies as our best tipping event. For years, it's always been IRF first, followed by Des Moines, then everything else we've personally attended behind that (sometimes FAR behind). It's amazing seeing how we keep doing better and better with the same old tired show we've done since 2003.

We have a new show almost written, but I'm scared to do it. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" keeps coming to mind.

Anyway, I didn't see much else this weekend -- I was either at the stage, or at my new shop. I bet I didn't take more than 50 photos today (five zero; the least I've taken at any event ever in a day, methinks). I didn't have much fun, but ... well, sometimes you just have to sell out and give up fun for money, I guess.

I don't know what the crowd count was -- higher than last weekend? It sure felt like it. I hope to have some numbers for this weekend after the dust settles. The newsletter said only 4000 showed up for opening weekend, which is a pity. That's a fraction of the amount you'd really want to see. (Well, unless you adjust for ticket price costs; if this were Salisbury Faire, that would generate the same gate income that 10,000 tickets sold there would do, I think. That's assuming every ticket sold was a full price adult admission, and $15 for DMRF versus the fund raiser $6 for Salisbury Faire.)

Fun with numbers.

Dory's new artsy shop down at the end is themed to the hilt -- and is one of the most amazingly themed shops I've seen at ANY festival -- furniture, decorations, a bear rug (real?) on the wall and tons of decorations -- but I have no clue what she's actually selling. It looks pretty though. Photos of that coming sometime this next week.

Nite. I have to get to an after hours dinner.

Glastonbury Revelers article -- posted by JohnPaul on Thursday, September 6, 2007 8:27PM
Check out this article on the Glastonbury Revelers madrigal group:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709060357


[more...]

Videos of the Des Moines Ren Faire from the DM Juice newspaper. -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 10:23PM
General festival, featuring the lovely Queen Catherine, Vikings, and Faery Pirates:

http://dmjuice.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/JUICE09/309040004&SearchID=73292480155609

The Tavern Wenches:

http://www.dmjuice.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070905/JUICE09/309050005/1115/juice

And the SCA:

http://dmjuice.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070904/JUICE09/309050002&SearchID=73292480155609

Truck Jousting... -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 6:42PM
Here is the photo of the pickup truck that thought it was a fine idea to drive behind the joust, during the joust, twice, at last weekend's Des Moines Renaissance Faire. I say they take a lance to it's tires if it tries it again. Bad show.

And in other news, the photo gallery has been tweaked a bit further, sorting some out of place images I missed during my first pass through. Saboo is spelled correctly now, I think, and the Scurvvy Dawgs get their own folder, like they should have originally.

Over 38,000 photos...and growing. -- posted by JohnPaul on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 12:19AM
Even with the pics I lost earlier this year, it looks like AtTheFaire's gallery is currently at 38,731 photos.

Des Moines Ren Faire pics from opening weekend. -- posted by JohnPaul on Tuesday, September 4, 2007 9:56PM
Some photos from opening weekend of the Des Moines Renaissance Faire can be found here:

http://www.atthefaire.com/photos/Iowa/DesMoinesRenFaire2007/

Of course, those on our Yahoo! mailing list already knew about that ;-) [more...]

SABOO!!! Thoughts on Des Moines Ren Faire 2007 (and some "bad show" moments). -- posted by JohnPaul on Monday, September 3, 2007 7:44PM
Saboo the War Troll made a legendary return to festivals in Iowa. He's been cracking the whip and doing something troll-ish since 1989 and it was great to see him back. He's aged well.

I didn't perform this weekend, so I can't comment on tips or anything. It does appear that folks don't tip at the tavern here like they do in other places (where I've always found it customary to drop a buck for every drink I buy, when I can). I know in some other more expensive events tips are much higher at the bars, but that may just be due to attracting a clientele that has more money to spend.

That said, I did some casual research, asking various merchants how they did this year compared to last year's opening weekend. Some were up, some were down, a few were "way, way up" and one even thinks they did better this weekend than they did all three last weekend. So I don't know what to say. It never felt really busy or packed at all. During the 2nd and 3rd joust, the lane around the food court would nearly completely empty out. On the plus side, there were no opportunities for regatta boat races.

Main Street (which is actually called "High Street") had the vendor spots subdivided as much as possible to pack them in, so it seems there were more vendors this year than last year, not counting the new spots at the end of the village (which had candles, honey, some kind of art stuff, wooden books, and bloomers and such).

Jeremiah of J&L Trading Company was even there, since the event he had planned to attend this weekend was cancelled due to rain. There were a few others that joined for similar reason.

Many new things this year, including the apple "slingshot" thing down in the woods (which was done for the Pumpkin Fest last year). A buck gets you four apples to launch across the river to hit targets on the other side. Best value in the village.

Also new was the Wanton Wenches kissing booth. A penny gets something that is technically (maybe) a kiss, and a buck gets you an honest-to-goodness kiss from a kissing wench, and for ten bucks... the wenches kiss each other. Yes, they have a sign that says that ;-) so it must be true.

Three booths charge for "just looking" (two food, one clothing).

In a case of incredible bad show, someone drove a pickup truck down the back access road that runs the length of the jousting field... DURING THE JOUST. With people there watching in that specific direction. Since that wasn't quite bad enough, they then drove it back the other direction also still during the joust. Now, if there was some medical situation or similar emergency, then so be it, but I can't think of any reason why someone would think this was appropriate. (It was headed towards a shop that I know had someone working that that was recovering from some medical work, so maybe it was something serious; if not, then on the bad list you go.) Photo to be posted.

MEAD was there this year -- and two types! Huzzah.

Imports (beer) now cost more than domestic. That makes sense, and it was still two bucks cheaper than at the Iowa State Fair (though I always think restaurants, bars and renaissance festivals charge too much for alcohol).

The jousting team was having issues with their horses, but the ground fighting was as good as anything I've seen, including former Hanlon-Lee and New Riders jouster, Kevin Coble, standing on the back of his horse and jumping off on the other night. Always fun.

Faeries battled the pirates and decorated the pirate ship stage with sparklies. Very odd.

SCA seige battle stole the show, shutting down acts on the main stage and nearby tavern when they were there. Good deal for them! We'll know not to schedule things on those stages next time there's something hyper exciting going on in the arena (which will be vikings next weekend).

More to say, but I'll save that for later. I go to sort photos and post them tonight...

Two more weekends to go.

DMRF Day 1 post report. -- posted by JohnPaul on Saturday, September 1, 2007 11:36PM
Well, day one of the Des Moines Renaissance Faire is done. No rain. No clouds. No regatta boat races.

I started my day with a 9:25am-ish appearance on WHO TV 13 for a 2 minute interview about the faire. I headed out to the festival site and, in typical festival tradition, changed clothes in the parking lot. For the first time, though, I was changing OUT of garb before going in. I'm "working" this week, with an on-call pager and cell phone. If it goes off, I have 15 minutes to respond. I can do this from home, but that's too far away, so my option is to head downtown to the office, and I don't really want to be wandering the skywalks dressed as a pirate.

Amazingly, in spite of a busy week of being paged almost every evening, my beeper was beepless and I got to spend pretty much all day wandering the site as a tourist.

No one knew where entertainment schedules were, so for the first half hour, no one had them. I was amused at the problem this would have caused. No one would know what shows were going on. Of course, no performers would know when they were supposed to perform, either, so maybe that would have balanced itself out.

Attendance was certainly higher than last year -- last year, apparently we didn't get to have a closing gate show due to it starting to rain. The usual "we ran out" problems happened, with the tavern constantly being out of items (there was no rum early in the morning. Why is the rum always gone?). One of the drink shops says they thought they sold more today than they did all three weekends combined last year (and another lamented being stuck in the back all day and not getting to see anything, due to being too busy). I'll talk with others this weekend and see how they are faring.

I did find out that many of the "pro" merchants don't do day-by-day analysis, and only look at things after the event weekend is over.

The two story children's "tree house" did get done overnight, and it was all nicely decorated (but I'm told it will be much nicer-ly decorated as the event progresses). The dungeon torture tour thing isn't ready yet, and two of the new merchants shops weren't open yet. One is still being worked on, and the other -- The Secrets of Queen Victoria "lingerie" shop -- was being set up and should open tomorrow.

There is a kissing booth. Too young? A Hershey's kiss. Too cheap? A hand stamp in the shape of lips. Got a buck? You can get a real kiss. And, for $10, you can have the wenches kiss each other.

Can anyone spare a ten?

The new joust team did three shows, but I didn't get to see any of them. Only two members of the Scurvvy Dawgs were there, but they brought more fire. The new Horsemen mud show debuted, as did a new laundry washer well wench show. I saw neither. If you did, let me know what you thought.

SCA encampment was nice. Concentio Agnorum mebmers, Billie and James Jones, were there and playing some music with the SCA. Members of Danza Mystique, including the guy with the #1 most viewed YouTube video about Des Moines, were seen wandering around. Tons of other folks too. Details on that later.

So, there we go. I hope to dress up and play on Monday after I pass my pager off to a coworker.

Did anyone bother checking the "live" photo blog? If so, and it worked, I'll try to post much more to it. If not, then I probably won't :-)

Photos later.