I’ve always liked going to ren faires ever since I was introduced to them. Something about the way the world allows me to have fun.
A few weeks back, I introduce two new friends to the wonderful world of Ren Faires by taking them to the New York Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo, NY. To save a little on getting there, we decided to take a ZipCar and let me tell ya… that was a great idea. Although the traffic around the City may argue, I found it a wonderful experience to be able to take a car to the faire grounds at any time and leave at any time and to just have fun with friends in a clear comfy environment. Alright, I confess my drive through the city did mar the experience because I got caught in hours long traffic jams when the drive should’ve been only a couple hours.
Despite the timing, once we did arrive at the faire my friends went nuts photographing anyone in costume as they passed them all through the parking lot and ticket booths. We wandered the ways of faire and even took a tour by a native ‘Optimist’. She walked the entire pathway backwards.
After a rather exhausting (for me at least) we ended our day with a relaxing Dexter Tripp Thrill Show (“It’s like playing frisbee with a narcoleptic dog!”) where we laughed until our stomachs pained us.
They took photos and they both say they had an excellent time. I wish I could go out there one more time before the season ends, but I know that is a far away dream.
What is your favorite Ren Faire? What is your best memory? Do you perform at Faires? Comment with your link and I will post them once I find they are real links
Note: Once again it took me too long to post, so this post is going up as is… as if anyone cares anymore.
In my last NYAF post I went on and on about cosplay, costuming, the sales floor and halls. There is more to the festival than just costumes, sales and displays.
In the back of the hall, in the most open area of the festival, was a live performance stage dubbed the Apple Kissa Stage. On stage throughout the festival various acts vied for the attention of the self-entertaining folk of the fest. Unfortunately for me, I missed almost every performance due to scheduling, wandering and demos. However, I have seen nearly all the acts numerous times at various venues. The one act I did chance to have time to catch was the IchigoPantsu Dansu (IchiP) dancers Para Para dance class. The group of cosplay dancers arrived on stage and many fans of Para Para dancing ranked themselves around the stage and learned moves for a couple songs.
Para Para Dancing, for those of you who are wondering, is basically a Japanese dance club group dance similar to line dancing where each move is precise and everyone does the same movements. Watching it done with only a few people such as when the IchiP Dancers put on their performances, is a wonderful sight to see and it looks and feels energetic. Watching a whole group of people doing the same movements is simply astounding. I don’t have any pictures of this phenomenon, but they can be seen across the internet. Here is a video of IchiP on the Apple Kissa stage:
You can see more of IchiP’s dance moves on their YouTube channel: IchiPDansu
In addition to IchiP, there were also performances of ‘test cutting’ from the Byakokan Dojo, comedy by Uncle Ho, a skit elaborating on Vampire Knight by Alone Together NYC, dancing maids… a LOT of dancing maids, zombie survival class, a concert by AKB48 and a Neo-Victorian Fashion show.
I didn’t catch the shows, but I did happen to cross the stage area near the end of several of these events. Regretfully, I watched the endings or just watched the stage as I hurried past on my way to some other event or panel.
Posted by niaskywalk on Nov 20, 2009 in Events, Media
I attend a Japanese Language School run at Tenri Cultural Center in New York City. The center hosts a few different kinds of events, the most typical are art galleries and concerts. Even these simple statements cover a diverse amount of topics. In the art exhibit I have seen intricately cut paper making elusive designs, objects glued and sealed into sculpture and photography that blows the mind away or simple states something. The concerts have covered traditional, classical and indescribable. These aren’t all only Asian artist covering Asian topics, they are diverse and prolific.
While I have attended shakuhachi and shamisen concerts, last night I attended a chamber concert performed by some NYU students. While the concert was delightful and something I don’t regret attending at all, I am reminded how wonderful it is to attend student concerts. It provides a reference for just how much better professional musicians are in contrast. For many of the artists, I couldn’t fault their form or their playing.
However, it seemed that several groups never performed or practiced together much before the concert. There was a total of four piano/stringed instruments duet and a trio performance which lasted the longest. Of these, it seemed like three of the four duets didn’t practice together much and one seemed to never have performed together at all. The performance wasn’t bad. In fact it was the opposite. It just seemed as if each was playing their own instruments at the same time as the other person and both were using a slightly different tempo. It was merely distracting and didn’t effect the overall. One of the more distracting had the duet occasionally syncing up for segments while playing off-beat from each other at other times.
Perhaps I was tired while listening. Perhaps it was some kind of trick of the acoustics and I am willing to concede this point. However, the trio was fantastic. Violin, Cello and Piano played off each other as if they had practiced often and well. It was a joy listening to them play and I would not have minded hearing more from them. They didn’t sound professional by any stretch of the imagination, but I did get the feeling they were on the right track. I hope they continue performing and quash all those small telltales. I would love to find them performing sometime in the near future in a paid professional venue.
Despite the issues, it seemed like I could tell the ones who were doing music not for the love and intense need to study, but for credits. They weren’t as polished in their skills and seemed to not really care that they weren’t. It wasn’t something said or talked about, it was only their stage presence that felt that way. Some seemed to be almost frustrated to have to share the stage with the other and while their playing showed through, it had a bit of an uncomfortable annoyed air about it. Perhaps their normal duet partner couldn’t make it? Then there were the ones who are on the intense track to become well-known professionals. Simply wonderful and I will have to watch for those names to appear at Carnegie in a few years.
Get out there and listen to students. Go appreciate how far those professionals we hear in symphonies and soundtracks have come.
Do you play an instrument? Do you know what I am talking about? What concerts have you heard recently that my post reminds you of?
(This has been taking too long to post, so I will post what I have and get to the next topic later)
The New York Anime Festival (NYAF), run by Reed Exhibitions, ran at the Jacob Javits Center in midtown Manhattan from September 25–27, 2009.
This year, as in the other two years of its existance, it was a cosplay bonanza. Everything from well-known anime characters to less well-known video game characters to girls with cat ears. It was almost more than the eye could take in and gave a person a reason to pause and just look at everything in their own time. The costumes were elaborate or just thrown together, hand-made or bought off ebay or off the racks of the NYAF exhibit hall. The attendees for the NYAF Masquerade/Yume Cosplay Cup and the Cosplay Hall was as varied as the entrants.
If you don’t know what cosplay is, allow me to give you a short explanation. Cosplay is the Japanese term for people dressing up in costumes or other bits of fancy frillery. A person who is wearing otherwise normal clothes, but then also cat ears would be in cosplay. A person who is dressed like their favorite anime or video game character would also be considered a cosplayer. A person dressed like a Victorian Goth doll or Maid would also be cosplaying. The types of cosplayers range from the lazy (like me!) people who just add bits to their normal comfortable clothing, to the people who put thought and care into ever tiny detail. From finding professionally made bits for their costumes to handmaking every part. You can find more information about cosplay by visiting http://www.cosplay.com/ and other websites that cater to similar interests.
It’s entertaining to be amongst the crowds at the fest. You never know when atendees will turn into their characters and interact with other cosplayers. I was following someone cosplaying a warrior character as we were weaving between stalls in the exhibit hall, when suddenly he stopped his weaving and pulled his “special attack” on an unsuspecting, but fully participating cosplayer from the same story. Cameras clicked. Movement continued. This scenario repeated itself multiple times throughout the convention at any given time. Groups of people broke into dancing at random intervals. Stepping aside for power glomping was also an activity one could get used to. A glomp is when someone almost knocks over someone else by jumping to give them a hug.
The exhibit hall was a place I never wanted to leave. The stalls ranged from quiet unassuming gold mines to loud dance music booming visual attractions selling everything a cosplayer or otaku can dream. Swords of various types were sold next to the artists supplies, specific character costumes and merchandise being sold next to walls of manga, cosplay dancers and singers next to racks of games ranging from early 80s to the present. Everywhere the eye looked, something new caught its attention. To me, the most entertaining locations were where characters mixed. Such as a transformer or other robot holding up a pikachu in the pose of Rafiki (The Lion King) holding up a baby Simba. I imagine the metallic voice calling out “Pikachu! I’ve got you!” with the phrase “Gotta’ catch ‘em all!” running in the background.
Event: Japan Day NYC :: Official Website:http://www.japandaynyc.org/ Date: 31 May 2009 :: 8am 4-mile Run, 10am to 5pm Festival
I missed most of the event and I am very upset about it. However, I did get about two hours at the end. Watching the J-pop singers was very fun and it was entertaining to watch the crowd grow and shrink around the stage.
When I arrived at around 3pm, I expected to find things winding down as it was a hot and sunny day out. However, the East Meadow lawn was filled with hundreds of people in varying outfits. From everyday casual city clothing to kimonos to cosplayers and everything in between. I wanted to sample some of what the tents had to offer, but as I approached, I found that some lines were closed and others where the wait times were over 50 minutes long. As a result, I bypassed the many interesting things in favor of the J-pop that was occurring on the stage.
Instead of being lured to the Go, Shoji, or Hello Kitty tents, I found myself crowding the stage area to listen to Ai Kawashima and the Yaz Band. Instead of participating in the multiperson jump-roping area, I snapped a few pictures and returned to the stage. Ai Kawashima’s singing was great and the Yaz band had me wanting to buy CDs. During a short break where the band left the stage and the equipment was rearranged for Ai to do her solos, I explored some of the now closed tent lines. There was a Chopsticks game, and something about Yo-Yo Fishing. People were walking about with what looked like yo-yo water balloon, quite interesting. There was also a closed tea tent that looked as if it had been closed for quite a while, I suppose they sold out. It wasn’t long before I returned to stage to listen to Ai Kawashima again. After a while, I couldn’t stand the sun much, so I wandered into an area not too far away under the shade of a few trees.
Before long, I was too annoyed with all the chattering. There was a woman on a cell phone and some people conversing in either mandarin or korean, I couldn’t tell because I was too annoyed to check it out, so I stood up and began my wanders again.
On one side of the stage were closing lines of food. The lines were so long, I couldn’t check out what I was missing out. On the other side of the stage was a golden object with poles on a table under a tent and behind gates. I assumed it was from the earlier parade of fifty people. Yet another interesting thing that I missed.
Soon, it was time for Ai-san’s music to finish and she finished to a cheering audience. Along came the MCs and the stage crew set up for the following band. Orange Pekoe had an interesting style to them. I liked about half of what they did. In the middle of the starting song. It began to rain. I had to put my camera away for while. It never got much past a heavy drizzle and some wind, but the packed lawn and stage area was sparsely populated in minutes. I pulled out my camera again and snapped a few pix of the emptiness, before stowing it out of the rain again. Only a few fans remained to watch Orange Pekoe. When I say a few, I don’t mean like three here. There were plenty of people who had umbrellas. No, when I say a few I mean compared to what had been there previously. It was still impossible to get to the front of the stage. Just as the rain cleared up, the group went into a song I didn’t much care for, so I wandered again. This time I wasn’t worried about what I was missing, I was checking out the closed tents and being amused watching how long the line still was for the Kabuki facepainting booth.
When the band finished their set, I returned to the stage area for the finale. I was to be a large Karaoke type ending. The song was “On Top of the World”. I was afraid I would mess up because I didn’t know the song. However, my fears were for nothing. Turns out I knew the tune well enough because it was a 60s song by the Carpenters and all I needed were the words… which were being displayed. It was quite a wonderful ending in the sun. All the musicians returned to the stage and they did various forms of solos depending on their style. During this time, I discovered Taro Masuda. A violinist. I thought he did a fabulous job in his solo and it made me regret arriving too late to see his section. I made a note to discover his music when I returned to the internet. And I didn’t disappoint myself. The crowd was great too, singing along to the song. I would like to have seen a professional recording of it.
During that last song, I discovered the location of a classmate of mine. He is in Japanese language classes with me at TENRI Cultural Institute. How did I discover him? Quite interesting that…He was picked up during a solo bridge on a camera that was panning the audience. Amusing I would see him at the very end of the day. He informed me of some of the more interesting things I missed. Seems there was a fantastic karate performance, some wonderful classical guitar music and COBU Taiko drummers.
While the East Meadow was being cleaned up, my classmate and I wandered around looking for his companions who seemed to have disappeared while the rain fell. A mystery! Was it a vortex? We encounted children doing cartwheels down the slope, a huge group of cosplayers, and even Ai Kawashima! We hovered at the edges while Ai-san did here interviews and her voice recordings. My classmate wanted to get a photo with her. So when she was leaving, he called (a bit rudely) “Ai!” She jumped. Poor dear was frightened by his calling her. When he asked about a photo (not in Japanese, btw, he was too embarrassed… I think he woulda done fine), she nodded and allowed me to snap the photo of the two of them. I think she was very surprised. We thanked her for her time, and as they walked away, for whatever reason, her bodyguard said Thank You as well… was he thanking us for be being quick and not threatening? I don’t know, but our mission was accomplished.
We never did find his companions. We took a quick walk to get some water at some point in our search, when we ran across a Shamisen player, it was a quite entertaining street performance. After a while we headed our separate ways. The festival was over and the cosplayers had even broken out. I think I will have to volunteer next year in order to get myself there on time. But even if I don’t I will definitely have to do better next year.
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