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. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called StefanÕs 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 seperate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the orignator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: Lord Stefan li Rous RSVE60@email.sps.mot.com stefan@texas.net ************************************************************************ From: gt42+@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@gs67.sp.cs.cmu.edu | / Lord Andrei Grigorievich Topolev, Seneschal, College(s) of Cour d'Or\ Newsgroups: rec.org.sca From: cat@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@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@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@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 Edited by Mark S. Harris P23-reviews-msg 6