My wife went to Smith college with sword in hand

[fbhjr]

This morning started off cold and clear. I took the car over for a quick oil change and walked around some wishing I had brought my hat.


As soon as the car was done, we drove out to Smith college so my wife could do her sword demo at the science fiction convention they were having.
Smith college is a woman’s college that has been there for quite a long while. Some of their buildings are so old they have to keep them wrapped up as antiques.


We got there early. So, what did we do? Come on, if you’re been reading these for any length of time you know there are only a few things I’ll do with spare time given the chance.
That’s right! We found a museum!

The art museum at Smith College isn’t huge, but it has a very nice collection of paintings and other pieces of art.
I like that on things like small carved items, they included a way for you to really appreciate it.


This guy seemed very happy to be there. I liked this a lot because usually people in statues are very serious and severe, but this guy seemed happy.



I tried to find something on the last supper to see if Jesus over ate at his last meal as mariness had been talking about yesterday. But, all I could find was this.


My theory is that this was waiting to be brought in to them. So, it shows they didn’t eat too much. That’s not a lot of fruit for 12 people.

Much as paintings of fruit can be very technically challenging, I like paintings like this much better.


We didn’t have a huge amount of time there as my wife needed to work on her sword work before the show. But, we did have a good time there. I think we’ll be making a trip back at some point to get a better look at it.


I do wonder at life in Western Massachusetts if they need such large TV antenna to get reception.

(It being outside of an art museum proves nothing. Artists watch TV too...)

We got back to the ready room for the shows and found some costume confusion going on.

Paul was doing armored demos and pirate demos. So, he was going for an average costume look. But, we told him of the dangers of three cornered hats and he relented.


The others from the museum did the pole arm demo while my wife and I took pictures.



After that, I went to lunch. I wondered about this sign outside of the building.


After the 3 people get towed, can anyone park there?
There was only 1 car there at the time. So, I didn’t risk moving our car closer in case that was only car 1, 2 or 3...

Then, it was time for my wife’s demo.


I was video recording it, so no pictures unless I get stills off it some time later. But, it went well. The folks watching liked it. They actually “ooo”ed when my wife took her partner’s sword away from her in one maneuver.
Even Mark and John who were big in the interpretation of the manual seemed happy with it.*


Even Jedi on vacation seemed impressed with the demo.


My wife had been promised small sword lessons before being roped into sword and buckler. There was some small sword work, but she didn’t get to do it.


We didn’t wait for that demo and only saw the warm up. As soon as their show was over, my wife and Amy dumped the costumes.

Amy ditched her husband (the one on the left with the small sword) and one of her kids to take us to a good BBQ place.

We didn’t seem to be the only one in a hurry to get out of there. On the way to dinner, we saw people jumping out of perfectly good airplanes to get out of there.


The BBQ place was a bit of a drive as it is near U-Mass, but it was a pretty good place.


They are the only place I know of up north that has alligator on the menu.


Each table had a set of Trivial Pursuit cards on them. I hate that game. Anyone who eats there later and finds any Phoenix Swords cards mixed in with them know that I disavow all knowledge of how they got there.


We had a good time, but headed home before the 8PM Jedi demo. Sad as I had discussed with the vacationing Jedi what techniques he’d use.



* Yes, I did tell Mark his costume was wrong for an early 21’s century con goer. He tried to take my camera away when he saw me taking pictures to support that. But, I maintain the white socks were totally wrong for SF fans on a college campus circa 2010...

Comments

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Cool beans.

If/When you guys head out to Smith, let me know, i'd love to go along, and maybe see if JulieC would be able to come too, as we'd been meaning to scope out Smith's museum. Also would like to check out Mount Holyoke's art museum too.