The first four or so years of Phoenix Swords we were working at a summer camp with no heat and no potty.  So we finally agreed to pay for a full-time space in Clinton, MA

Check it out! And if you click on things, a pop-up message will happen!

Look For:

• The rubber dragon head
• What do the posters say
• Why do we have a sign on the table?

Be sure to scroll right to get the whole thing

www.phoenixswords.com/temperlj/panorama....

-Holly

I *really* need to start keeping up with this but with the blog, facebook and all it can be tough to be interesting ALL the time (and I am not Perez Hilton)

International Village

Apparently everyone knew about these guys but me. I liked the group Tuung and Afro Celt Sound System but just found this Super group: Imagined Village who redo old English songs on well, things like Zithers and Djembes. And they are made up of a number of groups-including the ones mentioned above! Check them out!

Al Cantara

A group that mixes the Middle East and Medieval Europe. Spritely and in live performances feature dancers.  They *swear* an album this year and I can't wait!

Another of my favorites: Diabolis in Musica also swears to have an album coming out but I'll believe it when I have a CD in my hands!

I admit to a fondness for percussion and believe or not I'm drumming publicly these days!

Or at least my butt was...

www.weartv.com/newsroom/t...

Know I haven’t written in a while but we’ve been enjoying fall in New England. Usually the troupe is so busy we can’t see straight but I felt we needed more down time in my favorite season and honestly, we hadn’t worked on our promotional materials in some time. This Fall we have new business cards, added a new performance package, have three new performance-ready acts and finally, after three years and countless personnel changes, it was time for a new demo DVD.

Some friend of ours in New Hampshire graciously allowed the troupe to come down and do some taping and picture taking. The view is gorgeous, the day was temperate and although the colors hadn’t reached peak, it was still gorgeous. Our friends own two golden retrievers that think people running around with big, shiny sticks is the best thing ever and we caught some of that on video.

Here is a view of the lake we used as a backdrop

We set Up

and the other members watched from the top of the hill

It’s funny to see the contrast in body language with “on tape” and “is it done yet?”

And we took a TON of photos in three different sets of costuming for members (Me, I had two costumes. Others we had to limit to “just three”) And I told members to chose their favorites. It was illuminating to hear what I thought was a great photo but they were “meh” about it. It was a challenge in some locations because of nearby houses and in some pics I’ll just photoshop modern items right out with a ‘clone’ tool

I included some one picture that sounded like a good idea but wasn’t like I pictured (Wright)

and another I thought was lovely but the subject thought she looked “goofy”

Either way, in upcoming weeks I’ll be posting new photos (even of me *eyeroll*) and we’ll be applying for new faires.

We have three upcoming events; A private college “medieval day,” The ISD renaissance Faire and the Mobile Renaissance Faire.

The troupe did a second weekend at SCRF and we broke a tip record which made me happy.  We did some variation on the fire routine (no pics yet) and burned a rabbit effigy. It went over better than we hoped.  It was very nice that danielgreenwolf came and drummed for us –especially as we are ah, not musical.

Daniel tightening the drumhead with Monica heating it because of humidity (more on this later)

It’s a continuous issue-we have three really good drummers available but because they ARE so good, they are generally already booked.  I’ve been trying to avoid the bullet for two years but I gave in and am learning to drum.  I don’t have the free time to join drum circles or hang out so Eric Peterson is showing me (for pay :)  how to drum.  I have a djembe (shown above) but it is an instrument that takes a lot of physical “oomph” to pull nice sound out of it. Eric had me try a synthetic tabla and it was a lot easier to “reach” and sit with.  My main problem is that once I picked up speed, my reach started creeping across the drum head because I’m used to working the bigger one.

Don’t get me wrong- I *STINK* and have no natural musical ability. People have tried to teach me but only Eric seems to have hit on a method that works.  We had the practice space to ourselves (we decided not to have rehearsal) so we could make plenty of noise :)

It was also nice to be out of the humidity. New England is beautiful but sometimes we get the worst of all weather conditions-this is a view of the reservoir at 2:00 pm, it was amazingly hazy. 

For the fire shows it adds an additional element of danger. When there is precipitation in the air it makes the props burn hotter and longer.  (Essentially we are steaming the air) The most impressive fire show happens under these conditions. But when it comes time for these to go out –it changes everything.  I had a set of fans burn so hot I ended up throwing them down and lost all the hair on the back of my hands. Valkyrie turned to me and asked

“So, do I still have eyelashes?”

The photographer snapped a picture of the flame *licking* up the front of her from the orb-it was quite breathtaking. But man, the safety people have to be on their toes!  But seeing some of the early pictures (we won’t see the refinished ones for two weeks) it looks like they are good enough for packets and demos.

I’ll try to remember that over the smell of burning hair…maybe that’s the real reason I want to learn to drum *laugh*