Wow, have I been busy lately. I have a few minutes now so I'm writing a longer than usual blog entry.
Irwindale Renaissance faire
The faire this year was ... interesting. When I first read about the changes that were being made to the format, storyline and time period, I was cautiously optimistic. Now that this season is over, I can say it was a good move. I liked the election (in spite of the historical inaccuracy of such an event), the new queen, the slightly earlier time period and so on. Most of the changes added to the event, and the fact I liked most was the election actually drew patrons into playing more than before.
All of the pictures, with the exception of one gallery, are now posted on my site. This year I topped 34,000 pictures! Wow, that's a lot of pictures for 6 weekends (I missed two days of the faire because of other events).
I decided to split the albums up instead of posting thousands of pictures by date. They are still seperated by date, but also seperated further by subject. I received dozens of positive comments about this - now you don't have to wade past hundreds of bellydance of Merry Wives of Windsor pictures as they are in their own albums.
You'll find the pictures here:
http://www.renaissancefaire.net/santa-fe-dam.htm
You'll also see I've started posting videos that I've taken during the faire. These are usually small clips using the movie function of my camera. This is still a work in progress (there are over 100 more to go) but please do take a look at what I've posted so far.
http://www.renaissancefaire.net/2008-Irwindale-Video/index.htm
I also reworked the 2007 video album:
http://www.renaissancefaire.net/2007-Irwindale-Video/index.htm
YouTube
Speaking of videos, I really really really hate YouTube. Oh, it's a great place to share videos, but the advertisements drive me nuts and the quality of the video once they convert it to their internal format is incredibly bad. If you look at my video albums (above) you'll see that I am using SmugMug's new video feature. Let me know what you think of the quality. It does take a bit longer to load, but there are no ads (because I pay for the service) and the quality is very high.
Tribal Caravan
One of the events that I went to in the last couple of months was Tribal Caravan. What an incredible event! They had two stages, and indoor and an outdoors stage. I spent virtually the entire day planted at the front row in the center seat, watching one excellent show after another.
I met a new friend, Vorona, and she's very nice. She's an incredible dancer, friendly, and covered in some very interesting tattoos. I must have talked her ear off, wanting to know the story behind each and every picture (at least those I could see).
I've got the albums for Tribal Caravan posted up on my site.
http://www.renaissancefaire.net/Tribal-Caravan.htm
The evening show was awesome. I got smart and purchased one of the front row seats with a table, and boy was I glad that I did. I had the perfect spot to see one of the best shows of the year.
Froggy's
Spekaing of Tribal Caravan, the pre-show at Froggy's was fantastic. I love the location, which is a fish restaurant on Topanga Blvd called Froggy's Fish Market. It's a bit of a drive, but the food is fantastic and the show was great.
For pictures see:
http://www.renaissancefaire.net/20080425-Froggies/index.htm
Bellydance Kaleidoscope
The premier of my new showcase called Bellydance Kaleidoscope went very well. We had live music (four drummers), two tribal troupes (Alamkara and She'enedra), and a number of solo acts (Edenia, Inara, Sayyadina, Suzette and Desdemona). Everyone performed exceptionally well and the show was great.
I confronted something I've never done before - I was Master of Ceremonies for the event. Yep, believe it or not, except for a few times in speech class when I was in high school, I've never spoken in front of a group. It was tough, and yes I didn't speak loud enough, but I did it.
The pictures from the event are here:
http://www.renaissancefaire.net/Bellydance-Kaleidoscope.htm
And there is a tribe you can join if you want to keep up with the news.
http://tribes.tribe.net/bellydancekaleidoscope
The next Bellydance Kaleidoscope is on June 22nd (Sunday). Doors open at 6pm and the show starts at 7pm, with a $10 cover charge.
We've got a great lineup:
daNGerpAntz
Etoile
Nasila
Tamara
Jenna
Alexiis
And I hope to see some of you there!
Y Circus
My friend Frances (Etoile) suggested that I see something called the Y Circus. This is a yearly event put on by the YMCA in Redlands. What a fun event! It consisted of hundreds of children of all ages (and quite a few adults) doing gymnastics and other tricks and such for three hours or so.
Here's the pictures that I took:
http://www.renaissancefaire.net/Y-Circus.htm
New camera
My old Sony Cybershot DSC-H9 finally bit the dust, right in the middle of Irwindale faire. I have taken over 100,000 pictures with that trusty little camera ... obviously I got my money's worth.
Since I've had great luck with that line of camera, I decided to get the new model that came out the same day as my old one passed away (what a coincidence).
It's called the Sony Cybershot DSC-H50 and it's a very nice, high-end point and shoot. I used it during the last weekend of faire, and I really like the pictures. Best of all, because the buttons and controls are more-or-less the same as the old camera, there was no learning curve.
Joshua Tree photo shoot
I took a day and went to Joshua tree national park with my friends Frances and Nancy. We drove from the northern entrance to the southern entrance, stopping every once in a while to snap some pictures. By the time we were finished, I'd taken over a thousand photos. The ladies are still reviewing these pictures, but when they are done I'll post a link to the album.
What's coming up:
I've got a lot of events planned for the summer:
Sat, May 23 - LA Exposition park (museums) in morning
Sat, May 23 - if weather permits, a photo shoot on Laguna beach (any bellydancers who are interested may show up).
Sun, May 24 - I might go to Koroneberg faire. It's been a few years since I've gone, so maybe I'll check it out.
May 28 - Village Mandela Drum Circle
May 29 - Smooth's showcase
May 31 and June 1 - Spending the weekend at Valhalla faire in South Lake Tahoe. I have a great hotel room within a short distance of the faire.
June 3 - WWE in Staples center
June 6 - TaXim
June 7 and June 8 - I am one of the official photographers for MECDA Carnaval. I'll be seated in the front row of the outdoor stage for two full days.
June 7 - Oasis showcase
June 10 - Moun of Tunis Showcase
June 14 and June 15 - Vallejo pirate faire
June 19 - Mythos showcase
June 20 - Exotic Blend showcase
June 21 - Big Bear Pirate fare
June 21 - Mediterranean Kaboob (if I can get down in time)
June 22 - Bellydance Kaleidoscope
June 25 - Village Mandela Drum Circle
June 27 and June 28 - Fly up to San Joe for my sisters daughters wedding
June 29 - Punk Raqs
July 4 - Kaboom! fireworks and monster trucks
July 5 and July 6 - Colorado Renaissance faire
July 8 - Moun of Tunis showcase
July 11 and July 12 - Labyrinth of Jerreth Fantasy Masquade ball and pre-show (both days)
July 16 - Ringling Brothers circus at staples center
July 17 - Mythos showcase
July 18 - Exotic Blend
July 19 - San Luis Obispo Renaissance faire
July 20 - Pomona tattoo show (yeah yeah, I know I've been saying I'll get one for a while now, but during this show I'm planning on really checking them out).
July 20 - Bellydance Kaleidoscope
July 23 - Village Mandela Drum Circle
July 26 - Tribal Randezvous
July 27 - SAMEDA Faire in San Diego
August 2 and August 3 - San Diego Faire
August 5 Dar Maghreb showcase
August 8 - Ojai bellydance festival
August 9 and August 10 - Big Bear Faire
August 12 - Moun of Tunis showcase
August 15 - Exotic blend showcase
August 16 and August 17 - Golden Gate faire
August 24 - Bellydance Kaleidoscope
August 30 and August 31 - Bristol faire in Wisconson
Sept 6 and Sept 7 - Northern Cal faire
Sept 14 - Bellydance Kaleidoscope
Sept 19 - Sept 22 - Arabian Knights Bellydance Cruise (going with Jannah)
Sept 27 and sept 28 - Gold coast pirate faire
Wow! Is that a series of fun plans for summer or what?
