neotoma | Weekend Jaunt

This weekend I meet up with

tricksterquinn and her boyfriend

saibatsu. We went to see The Wicker Man at the AFI theater in Silver Spring.

Why did no one tell me the movie was utter utter crack-fic?

Yes, I mainly was there to see Christopher Lee in a younger, non-Dracula role. I'd heard he sang in the film, so I was rather looking forward to it.

Even knowing the general premise of the film, I was surprised at how much I liked it, how unscary it was, and how much folk magic was worked into it. The way the entire village conspired to gaslight Sgt. Howie was enormously satisfying, and if you paid attention, you could see all the clues -- the way everyone on the island eats canned fruits and vegetables is very important, in retrospect.

tricksterquinn and I spent a large part of the movie squeeing and clutching each other's hands. Mostly when Christopher Lee was on screen -- he was magnificent fun, bad 70's hair, horrible sneakers, and all. My eyes popped out when I realized he was actually going to *wear* that monstrous purple and yellow dress -- as part of a May Day rite, admittedly, but he was wearing it.

The semi-gratuitous female nudity was horribly dated, but worked well into the plot and lead to some killer lines. The best was Lee's retort as Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie's horror at the 'divinty lessons': "Well, naturally. It's much too dangerous to jump through fire with their clothes on."

The only part where I would have tweaked the script was at the end, when Sgt. Howie is trying to stop the ritual, and tells Summerisle that he'll be the one sacrificed next year, if the harvest fails again. Lord Summerisle, who has been a terrifying true-believer through the entire film, should not have denied that the sacrifice might fail; he should have said that if it did fail, he'd walk willing into the fire. Because he *would*.

On Sunday, I went up with my friend A to the Renaissance Festival -- wearing my gown. I'd gotten it during Witching Hour (ETA: it was delivered then. I'd ordered it at the MD Sheep and Wool festival. I didn't buy it in Salem), and wore part of it, but this time I wore the full thing, including the ruffs and my period shoes. It's not a farthingale, which I am really glad of. It's much more comfy, and was fairly unique.

I actually got to hear a lot of music this time round, watched a bit of jousting and archery, and saw the first half of Macbeth before I decided it was too cold in the stage even though I was wearing two layers of velveteen.

The guest artists this week was The Chiseler's Art, who had carved moose antlers, knives with carved antler hilts, and a sword with a basket hilt that was carved out of antler that a thing of amazing beauty. Unfortunately, I could afford none of their products, though I drooled over a lot of them.

I did find some very pretty, well-balanced wooden swords at Hollow Earth Swordworks that I might buy if

twistedchick does teach me Tai Chi swordwork as she's been threatening. They were made out of bubinga wood, and all of a piece.

tricksterquinn and I spent much too much time looking at the wares at Dancing Pig Pottery and wound up buying so much stuff together that we got a 20% discount for volume. Quinn's fallen in love with the Newgrange style, and I got the good news that my favorite colorway -- golden ash drizzle and dark blue -- is being reformulated and will be made again as it no longer melts off and glues the pots to the kiln shelves.

We also got the disturbing news that the Privateer Feast tends to sell out three days after the tickets go on sale. So if any of you locals want to come with A,

tricksterquinn and me to the party, tell me and I'll try to get us all tickets.

Tags: