Welcome to this Blog

Hey now!

This is a generic placeholder post that I link to when a site registration insists on a URL.

At some point I'll add links here to the best of my stuff and other good stuff, but for now this is all you get.

Explore! There's lots more stuff here. You shouldn't be able to read drafts, but please don't comment on them.

Anyone who cares to is welcome to correct grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and word choice in these posts, if s/he can do it with humor and will also post a rock-solid reference for any suggested corrections. I know a lot about our language and how to use it, but I do make mistakes.  Please don't mention any typos. I type with far fewer fingers post stroke and am self-conscious about it.

Thinking about my old Ren Faire Days

It's a long story.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1977 Renaissance Pleasure Faire Video

Posted by TheDarkGardener, this video shows the St. Audrey's Guild Opening procession.

Sadly, someone chose to dub a random bit of period music in place of the the Opening Song

OPENING

Awake, awake the day doth break,
Good craftsmen open your stall.
Come greet the light,
Shake off the night,
The Faire is open to all!

(If you are turning blue because you are unable to breathe while
singing this, try singing alternate verses with your neighbor.)

Fill in here with complete analysis of the two videos. Basically very poorly filmed scraps of the day. I would think this is what happens when a random per takes a camera to the faire and shoots whatever is in front of him. He records rather than create.

Only material of interest here is the people I could identify.

OH, this explains that:

Uploaded by TheDarkGardener on Jul 21, 2011


Here it is! Unearthed from the pits of the archives. Not only my first Renaissance Faire film but also my very first experience with the phenomenon of a Renaissance Faire itself.

I was part of a four man crew of young film students who shot this documentary at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Agoura, California in 1977. It features the (yet to be famous) Flying Karamazov Brothers juggling troupe.

Shot on 16mm film and edited on an upright Moviola (save your trims!).

30+ years later, I'm making Renaissance Faire films again. Huzzah!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St. Cuthbert Guild

 ST CUTHBERT'S GUILD HANDBOOK

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This stuff needs editing, just ideas:


Saint Cuthbert Guild




About





Sue Honor Guildmaster


The Guild of St. Cuthbert is a group of villagers who gather together to parade through the streets of Port Deptford as well as presenting pageants that celebrate the season. They are known for their midday feast where many of the Port Deptford notables are found dining in their Guild yard. Phoebe, the Merry Widow of Port Deptford always has food upon her table and a story to share with the locals.

Founded in the Fall of 1974, by Don Studebaker a.k.a. Jon Declese as a performing group of the Renaissance Pleasure Faires in Northern and Southern California. 

Our job is to provide people for the Faires’ main parades and major in-house stage shows as well as performing pageants to entertain the visitors. 

The Northern group was originally St. Cuthbert’s Guild, and the Southern group was St. Audrey’s Guild. “Don Jon” was the original Guildmaster of the group and created the structure which we still use today. The second Guildmaster was 

Rosanne Reynolds, who succeeded “Don Jon” after a faire or two. 

Sue Honor took over at the Southern Faire of 1978 and has been Guildmaster ever since.

We are still essentially doing the same job today as when we started. We have added an environmental area to give visitors to the Faires an idea of what life was like during the first Elizabeth’s reign. A lunchtime feast is our specialty, with handicrafts, dancing and singing keeping things entertaining throughout the day.

* A special thanks to Gar Travis, Joe Foley and Tim M. Workman for their generous picture donations. Please visit their websites by clicking on their names.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New St. Cuthbert Guild site



Not very much info yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

St. Cuthbert's Guild Handbook

                   ST CUTHBERT'S GUILD HANDBOOK
                             VER. 1.0
_______________________________________________________________

                             PREFACE

It is the wish of the current editors to stress that our guild's
primary reason for being is to provide entertainment, and, where
necessary, assistance to visitors to the Faire. 

If there were no customers, there would be no Faire.

The Faire is a large stage, and whether we are just wandering about,
participating in a parade, performing during a show, or relaxing in
the areas of the Guild yard visible to customers, we are portraying
citizens of Elizabeth's England at a spring or harvest fair. The
portion of the Handbook covering guild related matters covers this in
more detail. 

The reason for the character development section is intended to
provide a supplement to the workshops, and, as it evolves, future
versions should also provide specific examples to serve as models.

The workshops we attend provide us with instruction in acting
techniques, improvisation, country dance, meet and greet, BFA, songs
of the time, and other topics which are intended to provide us with
the tools needed to be performers at Faire. Hopefully, the character
development section will provide something you can use to provide a
framework tailored to you as an individual in which you can exercise
the tools the workshops teach you. 

Finally, the Handbook should not be viewed as something which is
complete. We encourage all of you to contribute, comment, or just
make suggestions by contacting either Roger Russell or Carl Heinz.
Dame Phoebe, of course, reserves the right to review anything we wish
to add.

No, I don't think I want your rewards card!

AmadorBooks  explains why.

---

THE CLUB CARD DOUBLE-PRICING SCAM An Essay by Zelda Gordon, No-Cards Shoppers Once upon a time, in the days before the proliferation of bar codes, most packaged merchandise was labeled with something called a "price tag." It was affixed to the product or printed on the packaging, and it told the price of the item in actual dollars and cents. This made raising the price of items already tagged and on the shelf rather labor intensive, as all the old tags had to be removed or marked out. If a product was brought to the register with two different prices, the merchant was required by law to charge the lower of the two. Today, merchandise is packaged with identifying bar codes which are scanned into a computerized register which reads the code and "rings up" the item at a price pre-programmed into the system. The retailer is spared the labor of putting a price tag on every item and replacing tags when prices change. A sign or shelf label tells the customer how much any given product will cost. The retailer is only required to insure that the posted price and the price in the computer agree. (Should the consumer not manage to remember or write down the posted prices on the fifteen or twenty items she now takes, tagless, to the checkout, and then be overcharged for one of them, that is her tough luck.) After bar codes for the products came bar codes for the customers. In our technological age, why not make it easy for the stores to "reward" their "loyal" customers with "lower" prices? Enter shopper club cards: Now selected items in your supermarket are posted with two prices -- a higher one for unregistered customers, and a lower one those who present the bar-coded ID card. When your bar code meets the product bar code, Voila! -- the computer charges you the lower price. Exactly how is this double-pricing/ID scheme dishonest, discriminatory and subject to abuse? Let me count the ways! * The FTC instructs merchants that in order for an item to be honestly advertised at a "sale" price, it must have been offered at a former non-sale price for a period of time. This is sometimes referred to as the "customary and average" price. Stores get around this rule by using a different vocabulary -- words like "special," "value" or "savings." Nonetheless, they are clearly touting the lower prices as representing discounts from the higher "regular" prices. The reality of the pricing, as every shopper knows, is that while there are some bargains to be found, more often the "special" price is close to the price we would expect to pay, while the regular price is exorbitant, representing not a "sale" to the card holder but a penalty to everyone else. As such, claims of "savings," from the cash register receipt ("you saved $...") to the freeway billboard, are blatant misrepresentations. (The truthful receipt should say, "You avoided a penalty of $...") Put simply, two-tiered pricing comes hand-in-hand with false advertising. * Perhaps you do feel you "save" when you shop with a card. Now, is that because the store beat another store's price or because they beat their own price? Used to be, stores competed with each other. They looked at prices charged by their competition and sought to woo customers with better prices, products and services. Now the competition is not between the stores but between the customers. Now a single store can inflate a price for one class of customer to make another class of customer feel "special." Now the merchant next door can look over his shoulder and see that Grocery A has one product marked with two prices; and if Grocery B can beat that inflated non-card-holder price, Grocery B can also claim that "you saved." In this way all stores are drawn into the price inflation and false advertising that comes with two-tiered pricing, even those that don't have card programs. Further, as small grocers are bought out by larger stores and as single corporations operate multiple chains under different names, you may find that Grocery A and Grocery B are one and the same. What looks like price competition is really price coordination. That's a monopolistic ploy, and we have anti-trust laws in this country to prevent just such unfair business practices. * Let's talk about "rewards" and "service." The stores claim that their card programs offer "rewards" to frequent customers and provide the tools they need to "serve you better." But who is really being rewarded and who is being served? Unlike a flat percentage discount (10% off) or a special offered with a volume buy (free turkey with $100 purchase), two-tiered item-by-item pricing provides retailers with a good deal more predictability regarding sales and inventory. They know exactly which items you buy. They know exactly what "specials" you fall for. They know where to take a loss on a product to get people into the store, and they know where to make up the difference in higher prices elsewhere. How do they know? We tell them every time we shop with a card! The two-tiered pricing system combined with the massive amounts of data being collected allow stores to manipulate our buying habits to insure their profits. Excuse me, but who did you say was being served?! * Another claim the stores make is that their card schemes are "fair and nondiscriminatory" because "the cards are free and available to all." Let's start with, "The cards are free." The cards are not free. We pay for them with our personal information and buying data. This data is a very valuable commodity, as we have seen. Not only do the stores use it to increase profits, but the marketing industry can and does sell such information by the data field, measuring the worth of our personal information in actual pennies per factoid. For the consumers, the price of this information is nothing less than our privacy and possibly even our liberty. How would you like to have records of your liquor purchases used against you in traffic court? Which brings me to a very basic, gut reaction I have when I'm told that "the cards are free": Yeah, and the Nazis gave away their armbands and tattoos for free too! Now we come to the second half of this formula: "The pricing is not discriminatory because the cards are available to all." Another version of this goes, "You don't have to have a card, you just won't get the discounts." It's hard to rebut logic like that, but let me try. Yes, the card is "available" to all, but not the lower tier of pricing. The "specials" are specifically denied to those who refuse to "sign up." But refusing to sign up is not the same thing as choosing to pay more! No one "chooses" to pay more. I avoid the cards because, per the above association, I have a deep loathing for such ID systems. Likewise, there are those who object to being "numbered" on religious grounds, and many who object for philosophical reasons unrelated to any religious identity or creed. In this country, how we think and what we believe is not just cause for unequal treatment. Charging some people more for food because they will not comply with a system that is morally or intellectually abhorrent to us is absolutely discrimination. Take a look into the future with me, if you feel I'm being over-sensitive. Today I must pay $1 more than my neighbor does for a gallon of milk because I refuse to have a store ID card. Perhaps I'm willing to accept that as a "privacy tax," for now. Meanwhile, other customers, unwilling to pay the tax, are falsifying information so they can get card prices without surrendering their personal information. In an effort to crack down and make sure that each customer is who his card says he is, the stores then require a fingerprint with the card. Since this is more intrusive, more customers reject the scheme and the store must raise the stakes -- now if you don't want to be fingerprinted, you can pay $10 more for milk. What's to stop them? "Everyone has a fingerprint," they say, "and the card is free." (And don't forget the classic, "There's no law against making a profit." Fingerprinting costs money, you know.) Pretty soon, we might be paying $100 for a gallon of milk -- unless we give up our DNA at a bio-bar-code station at the check-out counter. Think it can't happen? A precedent for just such a scenario is being set right now at your local grocery store. * Finally, let me address the "fairness" factor from a different perspective. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that we agree that the loyalty card system is nondiscriminatory in theory. It must also be nondiscriminatory in practice. In fact it is not. Here in Albuquerque we have seen that when pressure is applied by consumers, and a little negative publicity starts appearing in the media, stores soften on their card program implementation. A troublesome customer can get the lower prices without the card. The cashier or manager can override the system with a "cashier's card" -- this has been done for me. In this instance, who is being treated unfairly? All of those card-carrying customers who have surrendered information in exchange for a "discount" which I received "for free." (Not really free, though, if you count the stress factor of having these confrontations.) The point is, the more "the rules" are allowed to flex, the more arbitrary and unfair the system becomes. When a cashier can determine, off the cuff, who will be charged which prices, you have a system subject to all kinds of abuse. The greater the discrepancy between those two tiers of pricing, the greater the pressure on the customer to either comply with the rules or circumvent them; and the greater the pressure on the merchant to enforce the system, perhaps by imposing even more "conditions" on the "sale." In summary, we cannot expect to see an end to these privacy-invading "club card" schemes unless the stores are denied the prime incentive used to get people to "sign up" -- two-tiered pricing. There is a simple way to combat such systems -- reject them! When you are in a shopper card store, insist on receiving the lower prices without showing an ID card. State clearly that you do not accept the validity or the legality of the system. Walk away and leave your items on the conveyor belt if you do not get satisfaction. When employees are slowed down by having to return goods to the shelves, void sales, and quarrel with customers, and as lines lengthen at the check-out counters, management will realize that two-tiered pricing just isn't as profitable as it looks. Demand that your grocer earn your "loyalty" the old fashioned way -- with fair pricing, honest advertising and real customer service. ---Zelda Gordon, 10/99 Need a little help making your statement at the cash register? Present The No-Cards Shopper Card To NO CARDS! Table of Contents To Next Article

---

This No-Cards Shoppers site is produced by Studio Z and generously hosted by Amador Publishers, a labor of love dedicated to peace, equality and preservation of the Biosphere. Please visit before you go.

RHU Dumb-Ass Custy

October 06, 2011

DUMBASS THEATER CUSTYS INVADE SNACK BAR

Theater Writer back again with a short quip before I'm off to travel to The Big Easy for a conference. I'm presenting a paper! ^_^ Hurray, being an English grad. student!

This past weekend at BND, my movie theater, was excruciating! I'm fairly confident nearly every person that walked in was either on a pill that made them rude or stupid, sometimes both.

For example, I accidentally spilled some popcorn from this lady's bag and gave her some fresh stuff that was literally still popping out of the machine.

When I handed it back to her, she told me it was cold.

I dumped out the whole bag and gave her more popcorn that was still popping out of our machine.

Once again, she told me it was cold. "Ma'am," I said, "I LITERALLY just got that out of the popper. I can't make it any hotter."

Another lady asked for an extra bag. We don't have extra bags to give out anymore, I told her, but I could give her a tray.

"What about those bags with the popcorn in them?" she asked.

"We inventory those, so I can't give them out."

She said, incredulous, "So you have bags, but you just can't give them to me."

BITCH, WTF DID I JUST SAY TO YOU?! I have a goddamn degree in English- don't talk semantics with me.

And wonder of wonders, I get an email from my GM TODAY, the day before I go out of town, telling me that I need to meet up with him about our BND reward card sales. Another girl he also talked to about this subject said that he told her that she needs to step up her reward card sales over the next month or she'll be receiving disciplinary action that could include termination. She's been with the company for nearly three years and both of her sisters work for BND. I've been with the company for five years coming up this month. This program is not even six months old. I can't WAIT to hear what my GM has to say to me, one of his better/more reliable employees, about my reward card sales. Joy of joys. I wonder if he'll be pissed that I'm out of town for the next five days? I'll let everyone know what happens when I meet with him.

I hate this place.

-Theater Writer

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What part of: This is stock, we loose money if it disappears without popcorn inside it. Don't people understand?

That's like someone going to the shoe department and asking me for just a shoe box.

Posted by: Pagemaster | October 06, 2011 at 12:43 PM

"We don't have extra bags to give out". -_- Clearly stated that there are no bags you can give. So yes, bags that you have but can't give is an option. IT WAS STATED, LADY. FFS, I only learned your language from tv and high school and I can handle that subtlety. Don't understand why they can't.

Posted by: Michael Chandra | October 06, 2011 at 01:30 PM

Regarding the "cold popcorn" woman, reading that I can just picture you wanting to grab her head and shove it in the machine while screaming "Is this hot enough for you?"

Posted by: NC Tony | October 06, 2011 at 01:31 PM

Tony: That is a fairly accurate description of what I wanted to do.

After her, I told my boss I wanted to kill every single customer that walked through that door.

Posted by: Theater Writer | October 06, 2011 at 01:39 PM

My usual answer when someone challenges policy is "I'm sorry, I've been specifically instructed by my manager to/not to *insert action here*". Usually works.

Posted by: Grendus the Self Check Guy | October 06, 2011 at 06:08 PM

OOOOooOO Grandus! Nice suggestion.

Posted by: Nixxee | October 06, 2011 at 07:06 PM

it seems like reward cards are just a burden everywhere. you cannot handcuff your customers or pistol whip them into signing up for the things, and its unfair that hours (and in this case, even the security of your job) is based on it.

having gone through this situation at dick's, i feel horrible when i tell cashiers 'no,' i do not want a reward card :( but im in the same situation as a lot of other normal people... you either a) dont go there very often b) trying to save money as it is, not be tempted to spend more to get a measly reward every so often, c) you're carrying around enough shit as it is.

i wish managers would understand this. im sorry you are going through this too!!

Posted by: Minnow | October 06, 2011 at 10:57 PM

I'm an English grad student too! What's your paper on?

Posted by: Laughing Barista | October 07, 2011 at 08:37 PM

Excuse me, I think Theater Writer's theater needs more Samuel L Jackson. I HATE people like that.

@Minnow

I know what you mean, I know T*rget has policies about their credit card, or at least they used to, and that you could lose your job if you don't get enough credit sign ups, but man I do not want a credit card. I still feel bad saying no, though.

Posted by: Iceheart | October 07, 2011 at 11:10 PM

@ Laughing Barista:

I was basically talking about how the Female Gothic genre has changed over the years using the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris and the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. Obviously, I looked at the female protagonists and compared and contrast them to one another and figured that the Female Gothic no longer attempts to explain the supernatural so much as make it "the norm" and accept it. However, though the female characters seem like they're very independent in many ways, in reality they're the same as the old school Gothic women: they always need a man to rescue them.

Posted by: Theater Writer | October 08, 2011 at 09:26 

Scary RHU Post

December 23, 2011

MISBEHAVING NIKE SHOE SHOPPERS GET PEPPER SPRAYED IN SEATTLE

SEATTLE — The release of Nike's new Air Jordan basketball shoes caused a frenzy at stores across the nation early Friday, with police using pepper spray on a group of rowdy customers near Seattle and officers arresting some shoppers after a crowd broke down a door in suburban Atlanta.

A group of about 20 people were sprayed after getting into fights at the Westfield Southcenter mall in suburban Seattle, Tukwila Officer Mike Murphy said.

The crowd started gathering around midnight at four stores in the mall and had grown to more than 1,000 by 4 a.m., when the stores opened, Murphy said.

"Around 3 (a.m.) there started to be some fighting and pushing among the customers," he said. "Around 4, it started to get pretty unruly and officers sprayed pepper spray on a few people who were fighting, and that seemed to do the trick to break them up."

No injuries were reported, although some people suffered cuts or scrapes from fights, Murphy said. The crowd broke off a door.

One man was arrested for assault after authorities say he pushed an officer.

"He did not get his shoes; he went to jail," Murphy said.

About 25 officers from Tukwila, Renton, Kent, Seattle and King County responded. They smelled marijuana and found alcohol containers at the scene, he said.

Murphy said the crowd was on the verge of a riot and would have gotten even more out of hand if the police hadn't intervened.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

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Interesting move--considering the Seattle police department is supposed to be under strict surveillance/investigation because of common use of excessive force.

Posted by: Hellbound Alleee | December 23, 2011 at 10:09 AM

My friend went to the Portland release of these shoes. I still think he's fucking nuts.

Posted by: Fred's Photo Slut | December 23, 2011 at 10:29 AM

Those are some ugly shoes.

Posted by: Common Nonsense | December 23, 2011 at 11:47 AM

All this...for shoes...what the hell people what the freaking hell...

Posted by: IxenHeart | December 23, 2011 at 12:24 PM

What is this, 1998?

Posted by: Kiliana Nightwolf | December 23, 2011 at 12:43 PM

Who cares? Let them all kill each other. Who needs "people" like that in society?

Posted by: Dee | December 23, 2011 at 03:11 PM

The Mayans were right! It's the Nike 2012 edition that is going to destroy the world!

Posted by: Queer Geek | December 23, 2011 at 03:24 PM

*stares at shoes* I am not getting it. What is so wonderful about those shoes?

Posted by: Framer-Fatal | December 23, 2011 at 03:40 PM

Three letters: WTF......I'm sorry, we need to have a demographic study of that crowd for future reference so this does not happen again.

Posted by: maximusdumicus | December 23, 2011 at 04:58 PM

That's actually pretty restrained for the SPD.

Posted by: WMDKitty | December 23, 2011 at 05:56 PM

No really, be honest, they're crack aren't they. They have to be...

Posted by: TechDeath | December 23, 2011 at 09:51 PM

I saw the Indianapolis feed and my jaw dropped. I recognized the shopping mall right away. I used to go to Lafayette Square Mall often as it is on the west side of town. Well, for that matter, I used to go to Washington Square Mall when I visited the out-laws. You have to think that one "lady" was really special when she said " ...I jumped over them and kept runnin'!" when referring to the people that had been knocked over (including a young child) in the stampede. Wonder how she would have felt if it had been HER child?

Posted by: Humor_Me | December 24, 2011 at 07:12 AM

http://www.wthr.com/story/16383773/extra-police-called-for-shoe-launch#.TvUoZhklG68.facebook

Posted by: Humor_Me | December 24, 2011 at 07:13 AM

First world problems.

Posted by: NC Tony | December 24, 2011 at 08:13 AM

@Common Nonsense, completely agree...ew. I mean...if we're gonna riot over shoes, of all things, let's at least riot over cute ones on half-off-sales, amIright?

Posted by: ScanGunMonkey | December 24, 2011 at 03:00 PM