Review: Golden Gate Renaissance Faire 2008

Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA - This was our first excursion to this “small” faire. The first thing that struck me was twofold when we arrived around noon on Saturday: the first was that it was actually good English weather (ok, so one of our compatriots is from the East Bay and was commenting within about 30 minutes that they were quite certain that their ability to have children in the future was in danger due to the temperature being below 80 degrees), the second was that the terms of “big” and “small” faires have rather fallen by the wayside somewhere along the lines and they really should be just referred to the differences which really identifies them and that is “long run” and “short run” events.

Read more

Review: Northern Faire, 2008 (Opening Sunday)

Ed’s Note: This is Mary Miller’s first review posting, and we’ll looking forward to getting many more as time goes by.

Casa de Fruta, Hollister, CA - So we arrived late in the morning to this annual six week faire held about 6 miles outside of Hollister (though the event is more often associated with Gilroy, since that’s where you turn off the main freeway to get there), and found that it was far warmer than the high 80s that had been predicted for San Jose at that same time of day. So much so that you might say that it was flipping hot for muggles and performers alike. Within 20 yards of entering the faire, however, we’d been told repeatedly about how stupid hot it’d been the day before (the stories ranged from 102-110 with almost no breeze to speak of on Saturday) - and no matter the actual temperature, once you pass 100, it gets into that stupid hot range.

Read more

Sad News during the holidays

To Friends and Faire Family of Clan Iain Abrach MacIain;

It is my sad duty to let you all know that the matron of our
guild Joan Wiepert has passed away. She left this world peacefully in
her sleep around 9pm on Christmas Eve.

Services will be held for her at the Masonic Temple in Napa at
4pm on Sunday December, 30th. The address for the Masonic Temple is
4125 Solano Avenue, Napa, CA 94558. There will be a potluck reception
immediately following so please feel free to bring a food item if you
so choose.

EVERYONE that knew Joan is invited to attend and speak if you
would like. If you know of anyone that doesn’t have access to email
please feel free to pass on this information.

Also Ken will be unable to attend these services as he is also
currently in the hospital. The family has asked to restrict visitors
at this time so he can get well. I will post more information as it
becomes available. Messages for Ken can be sent to Tim Jesus at
tjconsult@aol.com and will be delivered on a regular basis.

Flowers for the services can be sent to her granddaughter
Marisa’s home and will be brought to the services.

Services:
Masonic Temple Napa
4125 Solano Avenue
Napa, CA 94558

Flowers:
Joan Wiepert
Care of Marisa
2016 west pueblo Ave
Napa, CA 94558

Thank You All,

Tim Jesus
Guildmaster
Clan Iain Abrach MacIain

Remember the International Jousting Championships

Coming up on September 22nd and 23rd in Angels Camp, CA. The website is at www.joustingchampionships.com.

A word to the wise

How fun is this?

So the halls are still a bit quiet, but the ball is starting to gain speed as it rolls downhill. We now have a number of new writers signing up, so the winter magazine will be full of great stuff. It’ll now fall to those of us who are coming in to start the editiorial guts for the Burlap.

I’ll be posting every few days with commentary on the state of being a regular rennie: more than a newbie, but keeping my head down well below the bustle of the management hullabaloo. A former member of St. Andrews, and later of St. Giles, and then largely independant since school took me away from being able to attend regularly, I still try to keep an ear to the ground and enjoy those times that I make it out to the faires.

My first real post will come after Golden Gate, and then we’ll get down to it.