Centreville, VA-

I had the extreme pleasure of working with Kate Guntermann (aka Sensoriel, aka “The Kate”) for the City of Roanoke’s Dickens of a Christmas Street Fair, held annually the first three Fridays in December in the historical district. Kate’s work with fire is astonishingly beautiful and her grace of movement stops people in the streets, a good quality when working amid said streets.

We worked in High Victorian attire, complete with straight skirts, high collars and yours truly in a corset. We looked marvelous together and decided to work the square in tandem, the advantages to this arrangement being twofold: One performer to watch the other’s props and one performer to watch the other’s back and maintain working space amid the crowds. We did twenty minute sets switching off every minute-thirty or so and then cleared the square for the remaining ten in the half-hour to allow the traffic to move among the vendors and other variety acts further along the way. This also kept us from having people stand still in the cold for more than fifteen to twenty minutes at a stretch, an important consideration given the high number of children in attendance.
(more…)

4 Acts Onstage »
Filed under: Comrades in Arms, Shows

Centreville, VA~

It has been a wonderful few days back home thus far.

Thanksgiving was warm and yummy and full of fellowship with friends and family. Alex made a mock apple pie and Celt’s daughter made her signature hummus with her signature kitchen tools. It was a wonderful day and evening. Very mellow, very relaxed, stress-free the way all holidays have the potential to be, really.

The days following the holiday found us catching us with others. Friends, co-workers, performers, all wonderful people we hadn’t seen in quite some time. We made it to the Palace and also to Clyde’s where we met with Shortstaxx and Bambi Galore to first talk business and then eat oysters. Ladies, it is always a pleasure. More oysters and chattiness down the line? I hope so!

Brian, the bartender that evening, would visit my bar at the Palace on his off nights and I began going to Clyde’s to see him on mine earlier in the year. It was great to catch up. He joined us again two nights hence, along with James and Sprocket, to try out Dr. Granville Moore’s, the new Belgian place on H Street. Turns out the chef is a great friend of his and he called ahead for us all. We not only had a delicious meal spread out for us but some brilliantly prepared snails which were served to us with the chef’s compliments.

I managed to run into James Marlowe in our travels and I stopped in to meet with him this past Friday at the tattoo shop he runs with Anna. For those interested I will be tattooing at Marlowe Ink on December 5th, 6th, 7th, 12th and 13th from 1pm until 9pm each day. Looks as though I may have found a safe tattooing haven for the times I’m off the road and back at home. Thank you James and Anna for being awesome in all the ways that you are and for giving me the opportunity to return to other sorts of work that I love.

Met a friend’s outrageously beautiful baby daughter in the process of meeting with him about UNIX applications and other geeky things, as well as picking up a significant pile of some of the several hundred pounds of chocolate his wife quite cleverly bargained for from the local Lindt outlet earlier in the season.

Yes. You read that right. Several HUNDRED pounds. I took home maybe five of those pounds and am sharing the wealth accordingly.

There are press kits and marketing materials spread out all over the upstairs right now. Celt is being very patient, navigating through it all on crutches (thank you!). I completed enough training in iMovie and iDVD to produce a trailer of our show and it is being sent out to potential clients even as I type. I am glad of other things to occupy my time because I must tell you that iDVD is FUN. I could lose days, weeks to this insidiously charming little program.

Speaking of occupying time, it is back to work with me. Kits need to be assembled, sewing needs to be done and websites need attention. SERIOUS attention.

Of course somewhere amid all of this I will find time to do some baking … It is the holiday season after all.

Cheers!

3 Acts Onstage »
Filed under: Food & Drink, Swordswallowers In General

Mobile, AL -

Great shows. Enthusiastic audiences. Good footage for promotional use. Great dinner with friends (thanks Mike & Lisa!).

And after all is said and done, an amazing ultra-smooth martini courtesy of Alex, who very sweetly praised my four-show energy level even as I was suffering from a wrenched muscle in my lower back.

All in a day’s work.

1 Act Onstage »
Filed under: Food & Drink, On The Road

Mobile, AL -

We’re hooked up here at the Fairgrounds in Mobile, AL. The Mobile Renaissance Faire is being set up around us and the fence is decorated with flags and shields, the universal sign for “there is a Ren Fair being held here”.

There is also a Dog Show being held here. We drove in past several enormous rigs already parked and hooked up, all with makeshift pens binder-clipped together just outside their front doors. There were dogs of all shapes and sizes in the pens, each pen containing a single breed. With the exception of livestock in fields, it is quite surreal seeing many many animals of the same shape and size all in the same space, their coloring being the only obvious difference between them all. The breeds represented included Chihuahuas, Dalmatians, Fox Terriers, Papillons and, last but not least, Boxers.

The Boxers were right outside our back window. All night. It was a little loud at dinner time and again at breakfast time, but for the most part they slept through the night. This morning they packed up and moved inside the fairground to where the other dog show folks are camped. We’ll not miss them per se, but we were quite interested to get a peek into what another kind of life on the road must be like. It made us more grateful than ever for the comparative simplicity and minimalism of this one.

Yesterday the sunset was amazing. Today we go to the beach. I’m on the prowl for a good oyster bar.

Edit: Found one! You get to make your own cocktail sauce right there at the table. Fantastic.

2 Acts Onstage »
Filed under: On The Road, Shows

Wetumpka, AL -

Today I saw a magician insult a volunteer on the stage.

Then I saw the volunteer haul off and hit the magician in a manner that clearly indicated she wasn’t amused. You could hear the impact from where I was seated nearly ten yards away.

I can die happy now.

2 Acts Onstage »
Filed under: On The Road