Gen Con and Pennsic

I'm still trying to recover from my week of Pennsic followed by 4 days of Gen Con (talk about culture shock), but I think I'm finally up to writing a bit here about how it all went.

Pennsic
For those who haven't heard of Pennsic, I've been describing it to my co-workers as a cross between Woodstock, A Renaissance faire, and a conference of academic historians.

This year was pretty good. The weather was reasonably cool and dry (soggy start and hot finish notwithstanding), and I didn't get sick at all this year. I spent lots of time taking classes and just hanging around with cool, geeky people.

The big focus for me this year was on book binding. I've been wanting to try making books for years, so I was thrilled to take classes on the subject and to talk with people who do it.

Best of all, I got to bring home some equipment for binding books! I suspect a new project will be coming along shortly.

Gen Con
As I have for the past few years, I sat on some of the Writers' Symposium panels, and I gave a two-hour seminar on medieval European cuisine.

The seminar was to a surprisingly large audience - they moved me from one room because we'd gone over the 100 person capacity. The audience was agreeable, interested, and in a good mood. They seemed to enjoy it, and I received a few compliments here and there, so as far as I can tell it went really well. I'll have to come up with a good topic for next year.

The Writers' Symposium panels were lots of fun, though surprisingly I did feel a bit out of my element on the panel about dragons.

Again, I spent a lot of my time hanging out with geeky people and learning cool (to me) stuff. I didn't buy as much stuff this year as I have in previous years - that's a good thing.

The Sounds of Pennsic

Pennsic is now over and I'm safely home. While I did little cooking, a bit of partying, a good amount of shopping, and an awful lot of schmoozing, what really seemed to capture my attention this year was music.

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The Whiskey Bards

While their songs are from a wide range of styles (barbershop, folk, etc.) and the lyrics can get very bawdy, the quality of their performance is stunning. In spite of bad acoustics, interruptions, the pervasive smoke of campfires and torches, and being handed the occasional drink, they still managed to keep the close harmonies clean and clear.

Their music is available from Amazon.com, iTunes, and from their website.

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Vince Conaway

Vince is a fantastic musician who plays the hammered dulcimer with amazing skill. I've known him for years and have always been impressed with not only his musical talents, but his knowledge of the history of music as well. If you ever have a chance to watch him perform (he's usually playing at renaissance festivals and the like), go ahead and ask him a geeky question. Odds are that he'll have an answer - and that he'll keep playing while he talks (a difficult trick).

Vince Conaway's music is available from Amazon.com, iTunes, and from his website.

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Wolgemut

These guys are an absolute trip. Most of their songs (at least the ones I've heard) are upbeat numbers driven by a powerful drum line. They look like they stepped out of the Codex Manesse and have a sound that instantly takes you to some rollicking medieval tavern. In short, they really kick medieval butt!

Wolgemut's music is available from Amazon.com (in limited amounts), iTunes, and from their website.

Last Minute Preparations

This week is typically the most hectic of the year for me. Pennsic War (the SCA's huge "medieval" camping event) is next week, and GenCon is the week after. These two events have recently been held at about the same time, and every year I experience a strange kind of culture shock going from one to the other. Anyways, if you've sent me an email recently and it doesn't involve something very time-critical, then I probably won't get back to you until after August 17th.

Pennsic War

Pennsic is an odd combination of people, some with strong interests in accurately re-enacting medieval life, and others just there to have a good time. With over 10,000 people attending and camping for one to two weeks, there's all sorts of stuff going on and plenty to hold the interest of just about anyone. I tend to look at it as sort of a modern version of the medieval market fair. I spend my time shopping for things I can't easily get other places (like re-creations of medieval cooking knives and linens), socializing with people that I otherwise talk to only through email, take classes on extremely geeky subjects (e.g. Saints and Relics), and kick back and relax in general.

the sort of thing I like to see at Pennsic
click on the image to see more of the photographer's work

There are aspects of Pennsic that I could do without (there were infestations of elves and goths in past years, but they've pretty much cleared out), but you take the good with the bad and on the whole it's worthwhile.

GenCon

GenCon is a convention devoted to games of all sorts, and has an annual attendance of over 25,000. For the past few years I've been giving seminars there on medieval cooking (to help provide game designers and writers with some background information for their work), and of recent participating in the Writers Symposium track of seminars (a fun and eclectic bunch). I also spend a lot of time working/hanging out with the folks at the Miniature Hobby Events (which is kind of funny since my miniature painting skills are quite bad).

I'm nowhere near ready for either of these, much less both, but time and tide wait for no one. Excuse me while I panic.