P23-reviews-msg - 3/6/00
Reviews of Pennsic 23, August 1994.
NOTE: See also the files: BP-Thingie-msg, P23-fire-rpt, Pennsic-ideas-msg,
P-stories-msg, P-tale-MWIFO-art.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that
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messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan’s Florilegium.
These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: Lord Stefan li Rous
RSVE60 at email.sps.mot.com stefan at texas.net
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From: gt42+ at cs.cmu.edu (Greg Tapolow)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Pennsic Final Count
Date: 21 Aug 1994 06:32:01 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
It is hard to believe, but the troll closed Saturday the 20th at noon with a
count of 9221 gentles registered on site. I had predicted 9130. Battlewise it
was a shutout for the east. Summaries will follow from those with more
details. Personally, I'm gonna grab a hot shower and a soft bed ;)
In Service to the Society,
Ld. Andrei Grigorievich Topolev
Seneschal, Colleges of Cour d'Or.
--
| Greg A. Tapolow | gt42 at gs67.sp.cs.cmu.edu |
/ Lord Andrei Grigorievich Topolev, Seneschal, College(s) of Cour d'Or\
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: cat at system9.unisys.com (Cat Okita)
Subject: Pennsic Final Count
Organization: Unisys GIS (Toronto)
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 1994 20:00:57 GMT
the final count at pennsic this year was 9221, for those
that are interested...
cheers!
cat
============================================================================
Cat Okita | I swear I left her by the river
Junior Systems Administrator | I swear I left her safe and sound
G.I.S. Unisys, Canada | I need to make it to the river
From: dickeney at access.digex.net (Dick Eney)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Pennsic report (long)
Date: 22 Aug 1994 19:10:07 -0400
A brief account by Mandarin Vuong Manh, of Storvik in Atlantia.
So you say you couldn't make it to Pennsic? Mundane problems,
expenses and stuff like that? Well, let me tell you some of the
Good Stuff you missed.
No Press Release, there we were...
Overall the War went pretty well, despite the efforts of the
Weather Spirits to make trouble for Baron Bran Trefonnen of Sacred
Stone, the first War Autocrat to come from some place other than
the East or Middle. (Atlantia, in his case.) For about ten days,
starting the week before official opening time, there was rain
almost every day, often heavy and accompanied by freaky strong
winds. This is something that has happened before, not often but
enough to leave us with a cadre of people who know What To Do:
namely, arrange shelter and hot soup for those whose camps get
flattened. (The hot soup is to fight hypothermia, not hunger.)
(1) Battles: Well, first things first, you know. In the Friendship
battle -- the East and Middle against the rest of the world -- the
host kingdoms were somewhat outnumbered and got beaten. This was
the first Pennsic contest in which combat archery was allowed but
results were disappointing; confusing information was all anyone
had, so few archers turned out. ++ The Field Battle made great use
of combat groups but the Midrealm's hadn't been drilled enough --
except for Calontir (Atlantia's favorite enemies) they lost
cohesion after a short period of struggle, the Eastrealm's did not,
and despite much individual gallantry scattered Midrealmers were
slaughtered and the disciplined Calontiri borne down by numbers. ++
This year there were so many specially arranged fights that
somebody developed a generic term for them: restricted front
battles. But the East and its allies were uniformly successful in
these, too. ++ This year the chirurgeons -- I know not who in
particular -- tried to put a mark on the helms of those who were
allergic to stings, though coverage seems to have been incomplete.
At least the Woods Battle lasted long enough for some generalship
to be evident. Michael of Bedford showed himself an able commander
for the East as well as a formidable battle captain. Duke Talymar,
the Midrealm commander, was clearly outnumbered and apparently
tried to keep the stronger Eastern army off balance by throwing
small groups of fighters in at unexpected locations. The East had
two of the banners when the Midrealm banner guard was committed for
such a spoiling attack just before the banner itself was located by
a couple of pickup units. (Fighters of both armies, as well as I
can tell, were automatically rallying on their senior officers when
they left the resurrection point rather than trying to act as
single individuals.) These were Prince Gregor of the East and
Prince Thorbrandr of Atlantia, with 35 men between them, who
arrived just after the Midrealm banner guard had gone off, leaving
but a token force of weary fighters and a few scouts; this force
was quickly slain or dispersed and the last banner taken just
before the closing gun. ++ With the rule that all holds were
general holds, much of the fighting in the open went very slowly,
but the beseiged group in the Town Battle that sent out for pizza
during a hold was thought to have been somewhat frivolous.
(2) Festivities: Of course there was dancing every night, including
some ingenious fund-raising I'll tell you about later. The most
striking presentation, however, was that of the Known World Pennsic
Choir, a group which had not only prepared a wonderful concert of
sacred music but also arranged construction of what appeared to be
a part of Chartres Cathedral, except that some of the stained-glass
windows showed the arms of the Kingdoms of the Known World. And
yes, they included the famous labyrinth of Chartres (accurately
done, so Kay the Minstrel tells me). The architects were Count
Arlof and Countess Hilary of Aranmore, assisted by the Architects'
Guild. ++ Wonderful to relate, Great Court was done in just over
two hours. Except for Calontir, which did multiple awards -- that
to the Chief Engineer of Pennsic Public Works was surely one that
deserved to be awarded before the entire Known World -- all the
allied Kingdoms were content with one token award or even with a
"Hi, we're having a great time, thanks a lot, people." This
sentiment they phrased in words more befitting the dignity of their
crowns. The Midrealm had two double Peerings: Aaron Swiftrunner
and Brustand de Bearsul, both of whom got simultaneous Laurels and
Pelicans.
(3) Pleas for funds: This is becoming a feature of Pennsic as well.
There were quite a lot of raffles for distressed SCAdians, offering
some worthwhile items, but I doubt they made much simply because
they were so numerous. The Chirurgeons did pretty well, with a
number of collection points and a variety of cunning methods for
separating us from our money -- including the one I mentioned
earlier, a _pair_ of contribution containers at a dance; one for
those who wanted another repetition of Hole in the Wall and one for
those who didn't. Repetitions, I heard, won by 69 to 65. The
other group who had enough support to be using multiple collection
points was the Reformation group, formally the Committee to Save
Our Society (and informally the Rebel Alliance), which had at least
a dozen merchants inviting donations to help defray the cost of the
suit they brought to make the BoD obey its own rules; they also did
a Silent Auction and were selling a book of Bertram of Bearington's
songs.
(4) Noteworthy attractions: As ever, the fairest sight of all was
to see how brave a show our gentle friends make in their finery.
This is far from easy merely at a camping event; to see them
looking elegant in this wet and mud only proves again that the
loveliest feature of a pretty woman's dress is the part in the
middle. ++ Of course there was the regrettable percentage of those
who shouldn't have gone in for chain mail bikinis and bunny skins -
- not out of prudery, but out of discretion. But there was a good
deal of what Lord Timofei called Eye Candy among this Less Dressed
group, as well. I remember a damsel working down by the Post
Office who adorned an Eastern dancer's garb of some shimmery green
fabric that -- come now, Vuong Manh, married men aren't supposed to
notice these scenic attractions.
(5) Other items worth a glance: Veleda of Isenfir has a new booklet
in the Lady Tudor Glitz series, with a cover drawn straight from
one of the steamier romance novels. ++ The trend toward semi-
permanent architecture continues to expand. This time John the
Artificer put up a half-scale model of an actual Norse stavekirch
as the most impressive single building, but there were more regular
fortifications than ever. House Ainisesstor, with whom Tamar and
I were staying, was not far from the Ironwolf encampment, which had
not only a perimeter palisade but a front gate with a fortified
tower mounting a heavy arbalest. This also, alas, served as a
bugler's platform, which in turn stimulated the neighbors to think
what could be done to abate this degree of realism next year. Next
time they sound Reveille a good light ballista and a few M-80s
might do wonders to raise their consciousness. ++ Not only were
there two Full Moon Circles, but a gathering of the Asatruar as
well. ++ Food merchants were more enterprising than ever, too.
There was a coffee house and a couple of food stalls that were open
24 hours and even some that stayed open Sunday morning. Mighty
good food, too, at some of them.
(6) Assorted hassles: Of course the mud was the worst thing -- it
was everywhere (and one would have to be stone snoof not to realize
that this used to be a cow pasture), especially in the parking lot
and the road leading up to it. You remember the several thirty-
degree slopes in the parking lot, don't you? Well, imagine what
they were like after (a) traffic had worn them down to bare dirt
and then (b) they had been rained on for a week or so. The last
rainstorm came Saturday night and stayed for four or five hours,
and at at least one point the following morning the jam on the road
was too thick to allow a tow truck to get up the hill. ++ There was
also a flap which I hope worked out well. Don Roderigo de Montoya
provided certain talismans against a very dire plague, being little
tubes of some elastic stuff closed at one end, and distributed them
free. (Some were fain to contribute to the expense of this, but
Don Roderigo courteously naysaid them and bore the whole cost
himself. May Heaven send him prosperity!) Then -- so the first
account went -- the War Chirurgeon, Mistress Amaryllis Coleman, saw
one basket of them displayed by a merchant and protested against
it. Later, though, it appeared that what she was protesting was
leaving them in the sun -- for both heat and sunlight damage these
talismans -- and also leaving them where small folk might find them
and take them to be balloons. (Strange as it sounds, I have myself
seen such a thing happen in lands beyond sea.) A many good folk
were much disturbed at the idea of the Chirurgeons interfering with
Don Roderigo's campaign, but meseems Mistress Amaryllis had no such
purpose, but only sought to have certain safety precautions
observed -- the Chirurgeons themselves distribute like talismans to
those who deem themselves in need of such, and unless my
observations do me much wrong prudery is but little valued among
any medical workers, far less our own Chirurgeons.
(7) Odds and ends: Leslie Fish didn't make it to Pennsic after all
-- she had been trying to schedule some medical procedure and the
one date open for it conflicted with the War. (Lady Anna, her
friend, assured us it was not a life-threatening problem, but very
properly kept confidentiality otherwise.) There was at least one
mass good-wishes card made up for her. (I signed it with a note
that we were betting the scalpel had to try twice before it could
make an incision.) ++ There weren't any of the small armorial pins
that have been available in the past. ++ Not only one but two
newspapers were in operation, the Pennsic Independent (run by
Baroness Hannah's pupils) and the Pennsic Chronicle, the latter a
tabloid something like the Pre-Dawn Leftist in tone if my gossip
Dame Rumor be a woman of her word. ++ The chocolate milk from no-
chemical cows continued the biggest single hit of Cooper's Store.
They were selling 600 quarts a day during the official week of the
From: gendy at panix.com (E. F. Morrill)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Pennsic: Odd Thoughts & Questions>reply re: land
Date: 23 Aug 1994 21:09:01 -0400
Organization: Fast Eddy's Bar at the end of the Street.
00mjstum at bsuvc.bsu.EDU writes:
{deleted stuff about battles}
>* What was the scoop on the "forest fire"? I was there, uh, enjoying the
>dark seclusion around the lake with a friend when we noticed the smoke and
>then the roaring fire through the trees at a distance of what seemed only a
>few hundred yards. (It was a BIG fire!) We were told at the time it was a
>gasoline fire in some sort of quarry, but I never did catch a follow-up
>story.
The PENN-DOT (Penns. department of Transport), junk pile, next to the
Cooper Property caught fire (It happens a lot). It was quickly put out
and no harm was done to the Pennsic Site.
>* I was camped at the top of Abandon Hope... which is an entirely
>appropriate name since I was about to abandon all hope of finding a singles
>camping spot in the woods on the Sunday of Land Grab weekend! I was given
>the impression there would be plenty of space. I don't know how Land Grab
>could be improved upon, but surely something can be done. I was told by at
>least two encampments that they purposefully inflated their reservation
>numbers to get more square footage and that one of them was planning on
>inflating it even more next year! (We're talking about 20-50% inflation
>here folks... and by mid- to large-size encampments.) (BTW, lest I sound
>too negative, my camping spot _did_ turn out to be quite nice and I even
>got a couple of compliments, much to my surprise. Will my luck hold next
>year?)
1) - THere were indeed PLENTY of single camping spaces in the Woods. I
guess that I did not direct you well enough. Sorry.
2) - Please tell me the names of these groups, so that I might pass the
names along to next years LAND-O-CRAT.
Or don't you remember their names?
If this is true, (I plan to check all groups anyway, based upon actual
attendence), They will be dealt with. It is this type of action, if true,
that makes doing land so hard.
YOurs,
EDWARD Z, Land-guy for Pennsic 23
--
E. F. Morrill Icon God of the Theatre World
Husband of Elizabeth McMahon, High Fashion Designer
aka Viscount Edward Zifran of Gendy, KSCA, OL, OP, ETC
Husband of Mistress Elizabeth Talbot, OL
<the end>