Well, I haven't been on LJ in quite a while. I'm not sure who is still around here, but I know that in the past, there were a number of you who were regular GenCon attendees. I've attended the past two years, mainly because I got a free pass to help promote the local ren faire ( Read more... )

Hello LJ friends ( Read more... )

So, fifty times around the sun. Although I resisted it at first, we had a party today. I invited musicians, mostly, and we played music for a few hours. Home now, tired, but it was good day.

We decided that tonight was a good time to go for an early birthday dinner, as the day of my birthday is going to be pretty busy. I was clueless as to where to pick for dinner, when my wife suggested a new Asian place that we knew was going in next to the Cajun place. Well, I'd been curious about the place, and knew little about it. Signs in the ( Read more... )

I've got a corned beef brisket cooking, with cabbage and potatoes, rice and black-eyed peas for Hoppin' John, and some green beans. The house is redolent with the smells.

I went to a seminar today on Filipino and Indonesian martial arts. An old guro of mine was teaching it. Turns out only two people attended. Good in some ways, because I got more time with the maha guro, bad in that because there were just two people to teach, he taught a lot of complicated stuff. A bigger crowd would have necessitated simpler ( Read more... )

This morning, as I do every Halloween, I played Tam Lin. It's the only trad song I know that mentions Halloween, plus it's pretty damn spooky. Now I admit that I play a strange version of it. I sing it and play banjo. Think Fairport Convention get really drunk at Dock Boggs' house (not unreasonable; I believe Dock Boogs was a bootlegger at one ( Read more... )

I just got home from one of the stranger gigs I've done. I played at a little kid's birthday party, in full fig Ren garb. They tracked me down via the local Ren Faire. At first, I thought it was an adult's birthday, and they just liked this sort of music. Then I found out it was for a kid. I don't do any children's music per se, although my act is ( Read more... )

I think it's a title waiting to be used; now I just have to figure out for what ( Read more... )

Friday night, I caught a performance by Canconier, as part of summer's Early Music series. The program was titled "Music From The Time of Vlad Dracula." How often do you get a chance to hear something like that? Early music, Balkan tunes, and a couple of dynamic readings by Tim Rayborn from some German guy's contemporary accounts of Vlad. ( Read more... )