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.
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.
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.
I wish so much we could have come to your seminar, Doc!! We were looking forward to it and had tickets, but illness forced us to spend a boring night recouping at the B&B rather than hearing wonderful medieval food talk.
ReplyDeleteThe book binding sounds fascinating as well--I've been curious about binding and restoration since reading a book on it ages ago. It was a wonderful, meditative documentation of a woman's interaction with very old texts--repairing and rebinding them. I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, and it's been bugging me for years.
I too wish I could have attended your seminar. Do you have notes or handouts that you could post? I'd love to get my hands on them.
ReplyDeleteI will be attending Pennsic this year (40) for the first time. As a fine-dining chef, the big draw for me will be the cooking. Will you be possibly attending and if so, will you be doing a seminar at pennsic university? If you are attending, but not doing a class, I would love to at least meet up with you and pick your brain for a few minutes on the subject, if at all possible.
ReplyDelete