Ren…

Yesterday myself, Zeze, Kalira, and Max which is the same crew from the previous entry, hit the Ren Faire here in Colorado.

It was an excellent day for the hike around the back woods of Larkspur.

So we left the crackerbox at about 8am, stopped by ‘Rosie’s’ for breakfast, and got to the faire grounds at 10am sharp… The south lot was already full and they were redirecting folks to the north lot so rumors of the Faire’s demise seem to be slightly exagerated.

That being said though the changes that have been wrought at the hands of the new management, which took over some span of years ago and since then I have not passed the front gate, are both wonderous and souless at the same time.

The grounds are now far more amusement-esque rather than ‘period’ with the inclusion of the moneytree ‘pirate’ ambiance across most of the grounds… Which is one thing I have to say for the new management, they know their audience and are very quick to capitalize on anything both ‘in the past’ and ‘in the vogue’ as it were. For example, there was a lot of what I would call ‘Cimmerian’ touches to the grounds and from overhearing a lot of the staff it was purely to capitalize on the recent release of ‘Age of Conan’.

Speaking of staff, the current crew seems to be missing most of the old-guard’s acting ability… I think about one out of five folks on staff even had a decent BFA and most were solidly in ‘street talk’ mode and it really blew what little ambiance there was. Additionally, it appears that anyone who can afford the space is allowed to sell wares as there were far more t-shirt vendors than I would expect in a ‘period’ production… There was even a ‘Mike’s Hard Lemonade’ vendor – yes, I remember reading about them from my studies of the middle ages…

But, all of this aside it *is* a business and businesses are there to make money, so I can understand where the change in focus has come from. The general populace isn’t intrigued enough by the period to really participate, but if you make it more of an amusement park, they stop viewing it as a ‘period production’ and look at it more of a ‘day trip to Elich’s’.

I think the biggest thing I noticed was how much either the rent at the Faire has gone up, or the dollar has diminished – or both – since the last time I was there. Pretty much everything purchasable was about 200% of what I would figure it was worth. And, remember, I used to work Faires and conventions, and I know which catalogs most of the booth-filler comes from, and therefore have a pretty good idea what was paid for those fancy dragons goblets and shiny silver unicorn pendants.

Post-Faire I took the crew up 105 and 85 back to Denver via Highland’s Ranch. It was decided upon leaving the Faire that everyone would like to see “Kungfu Panda”, so I figure the AMC there in H.R. would be an excellent place to see it.

Overall it was a very good movie; fun to watch with some really good ‘LOL’ moments. I rate it as ‘worth the money to see it’.

Today’s plans will take me to the North end of Denver to the Flea Market in Commerce City where I will most likely purchase a bicycle to commute to work with. I believe after that I will be at the theater yet again for the latest ‘Incredible Hulk’ movie.

Once that is done I’ll hole up here at home, log into WoW for a bit, and see who from the new guild is doing what and tag along for an hour or two.