Of no real interest ...

[hrj]

... to anyone not in the SCA in the West kingdom.

Ya know, I think I'm just going to skip October Crown. Too much assorted hoo-hah going on and I'd probably spend most of the weekend either dodging it or being bored silly by other people obsessing over it.

On the whole A&S champion/Golden Poppy front, I can neither acquiesce in "Winning the Golden Poppy is just too gosh darn hard so we'll take the A&S champion's title away from the Poppy and come up with some silly, easy contests to pick a champion" nor can I get all worked up by "Ohmighod! It's the end of the world! The Golden Poppies are being dissed!" Royalty have the right to do all manner of silly and wrong-headed things and they have the right to be held responsible for the silly and wrong-headed things they did down the years to come. Actions. Consequences. Deal. If I let myself get torqued by silly and wrong-headed things in the SCA, I'd have quit a long time ago.

The A&S championship should be damned hard to win! I did it twice (actually probably three times, but that's another story) and I wouldn't be nearly as proud of that if the competition had been dumbed down for fear no one would win it. I find it hard to believe that lowering the bar on the championship and marginalizing the role of the Golden Poppy will result in increased interest in the arts ... but hey, I could be wrong. (I have this silly notion that the way to increase interest in the arts is to Do Art -- and to do it to as high a standard as you know how.) All of which together also makes me uninterested in supporting the watered-down championship by helping judge all the added-at-the-last-minute competitions. (Although I suppose it's naked egotism to assume that I'd be asked.)

And then all sorts of people have been poking sticks in the 4th peerage order ant-hill and watching it boil over.

And if I cared about such things, there's the bit about the results of crown tourney being a foregone conclusion.

Maybe I'll just schedule another mundane camping trip for that weekend. The last one was really fun and it's time for another. Maybe something with a little hiking this time.

Comments

Minor Nitpick

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't consider HitW an easy "entry option," myself, unless one is comparing it to something like Goddesses or Hyde Park. At the risk of comparing apples to oranges, I can think of Italian dances that are as easy as HitW--and more fun :-) (Anello, Belfiore, Petit Riens...).

Re: Minor Nitpick

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Petit Riens is easy to learn the basics for... but at least in those areas that go to Pennsic and Gulf Wars, one also has to learn defensive tactics, which are not so easy. ;->

20 years ago in the middle of Atlantia, HitW was considered one of the basic five dances that everyone seemed to be taught early on. The other four were Belle Qui/Carolingian Pavane, Black Alman, Maltese Bransle (SCA traditional version), and Black Nag. (No idea why that was picked as the intro ECD.)

I got talked into teaching an introductory Italian dance class at a newcomers schola this spring -- I decided on Petit Riens and Amoroso. (Most of the folks were familiar with ECDs, so the only step I had to teach was the piva.)

InterKingdom Anthro, Dance Ed.

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

Hmmm....When I started (Midrealm, 1980) the basic five would have been Mannschaft Pavane, Entre-Courante, Horses' Bransle (to the wrong music), Montarde (ditto), and SCA Maltese (ditto--except that it wasn't Arbeau's Bransle de Malte, either). (HitW and happy-clappy Russian stuff (Korobushka and Troika) were right up there, tho.)