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.