Party like it’s 1599...

[fbhjr]

Last night, my wife and I went to a party at the house of Amy and Carl. We met them at the Higgins Armory Sword Guild back when we were very involved.
A lot of folks at the party from the guild that I hadn’t seen in a while.
It was nice visiting with them. They are a good bunch of people. (Or, the ones Amy invited back to her house are nice. I don’t go anymore, so I can’t say what the general state is.)

I have to admit, I miss the sword guild. I miss doing shows at the museum. You’d get folks at the museum who were far more interested in what you’re doing then we get at our Phoenix Shows.
That’s not in any way knocking Phoenix, it’s shows, or our customers.
But, when you’re doing sword demos at a museum of Arms and Armor, you get people who are very into it at the show.
I was talking with one of the people about how at one demo there we had some monks show up from a monastery a ways away. One of the historical forms we demo (and still do in Phoenix) was written for monks and priests. They were very interested in it, the source for it, and spent a lot of time looking at the books we got it from.
I can’t picture them going to a ren faire. But, who knows, they might.
And, it is very useful to be trying to recreate the actions when the person who did the translating is there with the original material. (Well, copy of it.) So, if you say “does that really mean left?” they can look back and tell you what it says in the old German, or whatever.
And, they’re an interesting bunch of people.

But, they also reminded me why I stopped.
I stopped for three reasons:
I thought how it was decided who did demos and how was unfair to certain people.
I thought that there were uneven expectations of what went into a demo and some of our demos were unprofessional.
I thought that some of the demos were unsafe.

I took my three page list of examples of those things to the person in charge of demos and told him I felt they needed to be improved.
He told me that what we had was how it was going to be.
So, I left.
(I still consider that person a friend. He’s even done one of our Phoenix jobs in Mobile with us since then. And said, if we really, really need him, he might do it again. So, it isn’t a personal thing with him.)

Some of the stories I heard last night about folks not ready for the performance, demos that were “scary” to watch, and the museum politics behind it reminded me of my three reasons.
And, I’m not saying I don’t mess up those things with Phoenix. I try to be fair, professional and safe. But, sometimes I probably blow it. Hopefully not often. And, I hope folks will tell me if I do.

It was good seeing folks again. I’m glad we went. Despite the two cats we even stayed longer then I expected.
But, much as I miss it, I don’t see myself going back.

Comments

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

It was really a surprise to see you both there, and I was really happy you came. It was really good to have members of the 'old guard' coming and socializing and brining cookies.

the WTF-Higgins conversations after you left were incredibly telling and...wow...

Have you considered approaching this person and saying you want to do demos again but on your own set of standards? You could still do demos and represent Guild, but, you would not be under the direction of this person, sort of like a sub-contract relationship notunlike you do with PS? I hope I'm making sense. You show up to do a specific demo at a specific time, but that you're not adhering to his specific standards, but to your own?

I'm still doing my Roman stuff there - but the museum really has no say in how I present my program (since it's one I developed) - Meanwhile they have their own Roman program on the schedule on days/times when I'm not there or weekends my group isn't there ~ but both mine and the museum's programs are totally different and done by 2 different people.

Same as with the medieval group - the museum has no real say in what the group does, even though other people at the museum do their own medieval program

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Well, when he was saying "we have to do a lot more demos" I said "we do sub-contract".
But, you know my other rules.
"Not for free"...