OK, today's Thursday which means it's time to regain sanity after the weekend. 'Course, I've barely caught up on my sleep up, but whatever. Here's my report on the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival's opening weekend. (Well, Saturday, not the whole weekend.)

Anyways, I went there with Erin and several of her friends whom I hadn't really met before--Brian, Chad, & Beth-Ann. (Is her name hyphenated? I don't know! Sorry!) As the festival started at 10:30 AM, we had to leave my place at 8:00AM (figure it takes 90 minutes travel time, but we also wanted to find a Wendy's for brunch and BOGO coupons for admission). Due to space considerations, we had to take my van instead of a car... Not quite as comfy, and no A/C, but we got there OK.

I suppose I should mention that I wore a kilt and some weird shirt, Erin wore several pieces of clothing whose names escape me (chemise, skirt, bodice... I may be missing some pieces) and had dyed her hair an interesting shade of red-purple. Beth-Ann had a nice green dress that was based off of ancient styles, and everyone else was in denim-and-Tshirt casual. Whatever; I'm just glad I finally had an excuse to get a kilt.

We did get lost on the way there trying to find the Wendy's at Belle Vernon (or even a bathroom!), and once we found it (thanks for the GPS-ing, Brian!), turns out they don't serve not-breakfast until 10AM. Brian enjoyed getting [breakfast food at a Wendy's], but the rest of us waited ten minutes until they switched to the 'normal' menu. So after eating and using the restroom, we didn't get to the fairgrounds until near 11:00. We did meet another guy who was dressed up for the fair; got to wave 'hello' at him a couple times once we got there, which was cool.

And also I realized I'd left all my cash on my dresser. That sucked.

After getting tickets (turns out they had plenty of BOGO coupons at the place, even though the literature we had implied those coupons were only available @ Wendy's)--well, we had six since we needed five and they gave us the BOGO on the third one we bought, so Brian gave it to some random chick who hadn't gotten tickets yet.
But after that, and getting programs (or whatever the map + "who will be where when" thing is called), we wandered around a little bit and looked at some of the shops until the next set of shows were ready to start, at 11:30. which means we missed the first jousting event. Aw.
A few other minor events of note also happened during this time: some lady was running around trying to find men in kilts to tie little blue ribbons onto. something like that. No idea why, but when it was over I had a little blue ribbon on my belt. Unfortunately, it vanished before we left. v.v We were also approached by someone who appears to have been the Village Lunatic; I can't decide if she was trying to stalk us or just walk with our group, but then she asked where we were going ("To the Rose Theatre"), said she was going there too, and then shortly after declaimed,"They're after me!" and ran off.
I like crazy people. ^_^ She was trying to sell shade later, but I would have liked to have seen her more often. Ah well. Erin says that at the end, she was at the exit, asking people why they were all leaving. And I missed it. Again, sad. v.v
And also we passed the German Brothers promoting their show, which I shall speak more of shortly.

So we get to the Rose Theatre for Charming & Dashing's... something. I forget what it was called. "Charming" is, well, Prince Charming, and "Dashing" is a Scot. They borrowed two audience members (a hero and a damsel) to demonstrate proper heroic poses and how to call for help, that sort of thing. The hero-in-training they dubbed "Strapping". ^_^ And after going through the explanations, they made the hero & damsel switch roles. Heehee. Twas entertaining. (Have I mentioned that I like creative censorship? At one point, they told a story in rhyme, and cut each other off at important times, but you know what they were going to say.)
After that, we stayed there for the next show--again, I forget what it was supposed to be called, but it was supposed to be a "German Rap Show" from two German brothers. They told a couple stories about how they began their career and how they'd gotten to where they are now, using audience members as supporting cast. (And also dubbing certain audience members "Weiner Man", "Dumpling Lady", and "Bald Bigot".) Entertaining, again, although rated PG (maybe PG-13) for sexual innuendo. More than I'd prefer, I suppose, but not bad enough to really annoy me or keep me from going back. Also, Beth-Ann said that the one that Erin tipped was hitting on [Erin]. I'm not quite sure I agree with Beth-Ann, but only as a matter of degree. :: shrug ::

And that should make the time noon-thirty. Didn't have anything immediate to do, so we looked at a couple more shops and Erin bought a hat (plus free plume!). Rather nice one. Not exactly sure how to describe the style, mebbe "somewhat like a mushroom"? Alternated colors by quadrants; blue-black-blue-black. And we found a plume that almost exactly matched Erin's hair color. :: thumbs up ::

At one, everyone else went to the "Naughty Bawdy Babes" show while I went to see a storyteller. I got there after he had started, which was a bit of a shame, but I really really liked it. He was a slightly-older black man (50s, maybe late 40s), and he told a fairy-tale that I wasn't entirely familiar with. Those are always good :) Plus it had sometihng of an African feel to it, which is *very* nice. I don't get enough exposure to Amerind or African stories.
Unfortunately he also stopped a little early; maybe his clock was just out of sync with the other half of the place. :/ So then I went to find everyone else and had to sit around for a couple minutes while their show finished up. I was far enough away I couldn't hear what was going on, but I could see a little of the stage, and one of the women reminded me of Adrianne. (And Erin made a similar comment later on.)

So then it was 1:30. After a short break to acquire a bit of food and some water, we went back uphill to see the hypnotist at 1:30 (which lasted an hour so we missed the second jousting event, which displeased Erin). Then Erin & I watched Cast in Bronze while the others stayed at the hypnotist's location for some other entertainer. Juggling and miming, something like that. Anyways, Cast In Bronze (www.castinbronze.com, also myspace.com/castinbronzeofficialsite) is a carillon [aka: a piano with large bells instead of strings] that adds a backing tape of synth/drums/vocals. Sounds very good, you should all check him out. Only it is very loud so try not to sit very close. I kept losing the music because it was just so *loud*. :s Erin bought two CDs and got them autographed; I intend to borrow those and have my mom listen to them, I'm considering getting those for her for her birthday. [Christmas present to my parents is an updated bird-identification-guide, and also I'm getting my mom a clothes hamper, as usual ^_^ ]

After Cast in Bronze, we bought more water and Erin got her picture taken with someone dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow, and I must say he did a rather excellent job with his costume. Then we went back uphill, collected the rest of our party, sat around waiting for the bellydancer "gypsies" to hurry up and finish. Half of our party got lost again and didn't find us again for at least an hour.

While they were missing, we saw a fire manipulator. I enjoyed it; he was very energetic while simultaneously very frank about what would happen if he messed up any of his stunts. He transferred flames with his hand, with his tongue, held a flame in his mouth for nearly three seconds, blew several fireballs, and a couple other stunts. Erin took several photos and some video.

After that was "The Foolery" which borrowed elements from "Who's Line is It Anyway?" and "The Mud Show". (Which, unfortunately, was no longer at the festival. I'd liked the Mud Show the last time I went.) It seemed a touch amateurish to me, but the audience was also quite sparsh, which seems to enhance that appearance. :: sigh :: It was still enjoyable, especially... after getting his assistant to figure out what object he was holding by only giving hints, the final object he *told* her flat-out what it was, several times, and she kept refusing to guess properly. ^_^ And also when the guy was supposedly reciting "Jabberwocky" in German (which he "could speak fluently but couldn't understand at all"), he borrowed lyrics from Raamstein for one stanza. That was also quite lovely, as was his assistant's "translation" which was something about taking [a bunch of pictures, and also fire,] out of her closet and then hate and desctruction. Heheheh.

Then it was 5:00 and time for the Joust proper. I actually liked it better than I'd liked the one last time I went, although sitting on a hillside in a kilt was a bit of a novel experience. :s
At least one [of the character's] microphone was subject to static, which detracted from the experience, but the good guy won, and either the choreographing was decent or I was just too tired to really care ;) But there *was* a large spurt of blood when the guy 'died', which I did appreciate.

After that, we took some more pictures (and Erin got some of the German Brothers) and wandered through a couple of the shops before leaving again. There is also a vendor with some rather nice fans for exorbitant prices. I have half a mind to buy Erin one as I don't think I got her a Christmas present (or maybe save it for this next Christmas?) but I don't have $40 to spend on the /nice/ one and I haven't yet gotten a good look at the cheaper ones to see if they would be worth $10-or-so.
Besides, there was a place selling leather pouches (again for exorbitant amounts of money) that would be an excellent replacement for my dice bag. Still have no idea where that went to, but since I'd just picked it up off of my driveway in the first place, I can't really complain :) Only thing I really miss from it is the 30-sider that Brad got me one year for Christmas, but I'm getting off-topic now ;)

Oh, and also there was a lady with a large plush duck strapped to her head, a basket, and a sign that said "Will work 4 ducks". Unfortunately I never got a chance to find out what she meant by that. Maybe next time, when I shall have to remember to bring some sort of duck for her.

Then we left around 6:00 or 6:30 PM, and the van was annoyingly hot and everyone was tired. (I mean, they all had to come up from New Martinsville and be in Shadyside by 8AM, so that's not surprising at all.) We stopped for dinner at Applebee's in Washington PA, and finally got back to my place around 9PM. I think, at least; it might've been later, all I know is I was exhausted and Brian drove Erin's car back down to New Martinsville.

The end.

Epilogue: Erin's trying to determine who (if anyone) is able to go again next week, and we are also scheduled to go the 20-something-th of September for Celtic weekend.