My wife’s bicentennial

[fbhjr]

When we did the symposium on sword fighting last week out at the UMass Ren Center, I saw they had a faire scheduled for today. I went up to the director and said “you know, we perform at faires...” He said “Great! One of our acts just canceled.”
So, today we were performing as Phoenix Swords at the UMass Ren Center. (Up until now it had been members doing presentations at the symposium, not an actual troupe gig.)

On top of all that, it was my wife’s 200th performance with Phoenix Swords! So, yay to my wife for all those shows. She’s only the second person to crack 200 and the next is perrin_o_ravnos at 165, Tom at 142, morgan_lafaye at 136 and blue_micha at 129.

So, congratulations to my wife for 200 shows! Especially as she has been a driving force behind so many of them. And that doesn’t count her shows for Higgins, the old sword group, or the MIT group she works with now.

Anyhow, we all got out there for the show.


I like the ren center a lot. It’s a very nice spot, with a good historical collection and a lot of books.


As we were a last minute fill in act we didn’t have a very firm schedule, and just did sword fights when anyone was watching.


Some people seemed to want a firmer schedule.


The picture below is a historical sword fighting joke. I’m not sure anyone would get it, but we think it is really funny. Go ahead and guess. I’ll let you know if anyone is right.


We did have a Dr. Seuss moment with “Old tights, new tights, red tights, blue tights”.



There was a lot of discussion about when we would be able to leave for dinner. I’m not saying anyone was upset, but weapons were pointed...


But, chucking a spear at people can calm them down, right?

(It is the yellow line over the audience member’s head. Trust me, it’s going from right to left. 800 speed cameras make it look more like a limbo bar, but that’s not my fault.)

Lots of folks took one for the team.



My wife thinks this photo looks like something out of a Japanese print.


We had one audience member who seemed very into the show. At one point he leaned away from some sword action and his whole chair collapsed.

I’m saying that’s a good thing. But, it wasn’t my chair.

There was more spear chucking and wrestling.


And, I lost my bec-de-corbin.


The folks watching seemed very excited when we did the sickle fight.

Maybe it was because I told them it was translated for us by their assistant curator?

My wife seemed to enjoy her 200th show even if it was beastly hot. But, soon it was over and we headed back to the cars.


I did ask my wife how it felt to have done 200 shows. Her answer was non-verbal:


But, afterwards we went out for chicken wings at a hard to find place that had good food and the fastest service I’ve ever had in a college town. So, a good day all in all.

Comments

[saeble.livejournal.com]

what is 'hot' in degrees centigrade for you.

I feel like a giggle. :D

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

It was be teen 30 and 32C depending on which thermometer you trust.

[saeble.livejournal.com]

+chuckles+

you would be puddles in our idea of hot day :)

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Anything over 20c I think is hot.
But in China I had to deal with 40+. I did come close to melting...

[perrin-o-ravnos.livejournal.com]

Turned out to be like mid 80's out. Which might have been nice had I not picked a padded gambeson to wear over my long sleeve shirt...

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

yeah. 30 pounds of metal as Roman in Kennebunk Maine in 80's and blazing sun, and then parading on hot pavement...Then today on Lower Green in Newbury in the same 80's and 80% humidity in all wool 1630's clothing. It was a "hot" weekend, but a lot of fun. Glad things went well out there. I hope I could make it for next year.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, wanted to ask - what eatery did you hit in the area?

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

We wanted "Wings over Amherst". But, that turns out to be "The Hanger".

I think your new(?) outfit looks very good

[evrgreen.livejournal.com]

even though I don't know what the proper word is for that beige & red/maroon item.

You're manly men in tights, though.

200 shows is a major achievement !

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

Congrats to the wife on her big 2-0-0! That's exciting!