2006-08-21 - 10:57 a.m.
Burning Mantle
Even though I am still pissed about my writing being taken and distributed with neither my permission nor my name upon it, I managed to put that aside long enough to enjoy Pennsic and all its varied delights. So varied, in fact, that I have come to the definite conclusion that Pennsic is the Burning Man Festival for the SCA. No, think about it. They're exactly the same in many ways - people with varying levels of artistic skill and committment come together for a week during a ridiculously hot part of the year to create and witness the creations of others in primitve and strangely tribal ways. At least ours isn't held in the middle of the Nevada Desert. There's also slightly less neon (but only slightly - glow-necklaces were all the rage this year at Pennsic). We have many of the same things - we have artists who create magnificent sculptures just like them, we make astonishingly beautiful things in celebration of the Middle Ages and they make astonishingly beautiful things in celebration of Art. Just like Burning Man, we have fantastic performances, gorgeously attired people, and... naked people (well, nearly naked; ours is a PG-13 celebration). Both festivals also experience floods of hangers-on and people who are there to consume the experience rather than be part of the creative process (and both festivals charge a fee to attend, though Pennsic has always had a fee, and Burning Man only started charging after the State of Nevada insisted that they were big enough to require amenities that had to be paid for, such as toilets). Despite the enormous number of people who attend Pennsic without really trying to live the period, it's still an enormously fun thing to attend if you have friends. I had a great time. I even have a new phrase: "I am impressed by your interpretation of the Middle Ages". It works for *everything*, trust me. Even the knitted dresses and the glow-necklaces. I had a fab time.
Dorsal - Ventral
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