Some photos from Clallam Bay! More are on my Flickr photostream, as usual. Plus, they’re larger, which is really good with some of the panoramas.

Come enjoy a ferry ride! Kingston-Edmonds, of course. I like Kingston quite a bit. Edmonds, too. The downtown is a lot like White Rock, even if I can’t entirely say why. Reminds me of a BC town. Which is fitting, given that it used to have a Vancouver ferry.

Small towns on the peninsula are still kind of a lot of 1959. I present you with The Bay TV Phones Motel. I’m told it used to be the Bay Free HBO Motel back in the 80s; I like the current name better, it flows nicely. But honestly, I edited out reflections of other modern cars, but otherwise? Welcome to 1959:

Fireworks was the first order of the show. I didn’t take pics of those, but here’s Shanti of Leannan Sidhe and … Linden, I think? From Project Wonderful, hanging out with pretty much the rest of town for three hours of legal and not-entirely-legal fireworks.

I didn’t take any photos during the actual convention, mostly because I was too busy! But I did get in a nice beach hike, so you’ll get photos of these. There are several more good ones on my Flickr photostream, as before, but here are some highlights.

Let’s Go Beachcombing!

Acres of Not Clams
Shanti told me what they are called but I keep forgetting. I’m bad at nouns.

Panorama of Not Clams

I’ve tried to get out to the site of the old lighthouse every year, but I’ve never made it. To get there without at least wading, you have to be there at very low tide. This year, the timing worked out perfectly.

The Abandoned Approach
(Again, lots more ruins photography on Flickr.)

Standing on the Foundation Pilings

Tide had already started to turn, and there’s no way back without swimming once tide rises much, so we headed back right away. As the sun started to set, the clouds moved in just so to make the sunset look like a binary star system.

All those pointy bits that look like rain are the not-clams you can see in the acres of not clams photos above. Tide wasn’t taking its time.

We found a bunch of really cool random things on the beach. I only posted pictures of a couple (some didn’t come out). While I didn’t keep it – I don’t tend to be much for keeping objects – I loved the deep blue of this shell:

Oh So Blue

Next year’s Comicon has already been announced, with an official convention hotel and everything. Looks like people want to make this thing succeed. I hope it works out, it’s a lovely place to spend a hot summer weekend – even if the Clallam Bay Inn no longer serves the most excellent waffle fries. (They went to wedges! They’re still good, but not that kind of good.) But I still got my cooked-fish fix, the bay is still gorgeous, and the fireworks are still insane. The important things endure. ^_^

Another year, another Clallam Bay Comicon! Donna Barr has a write-up here, with several photos. More programming this year than the previous two; Project Wonderful came in and did an interesting presentation about how they work. I’m going to follow up on that.

Next year’s con has already been announced. It’s funny – it’s not so much that the con (still very much a party hosted by Donna) hit critical mass this year. It’s more that it hit that pre-critical mass of people going, “You know, we could turn this into a real and bigger thing.” So next year, there will be a multi-person concom, there’s an official convention hotel, and multiple-room function space, and possibly some SCA tie-ins… yeah, it’s still very DIY, but more people are going to be involved in the doing.

Assuming everybody does what they’re saying they plan to do, of course. XD

Personally, I had my best year there yet. Bringing Leannan Sidhe along was awesome and both our shows went over pretty big. We had people coming back from last year who remembered the songs I did again, we had new people, some of the folks from town came over, and overall we just had a good old time. And sold CDs, which doesn’t hurt anything either.

There may be some video. I haven’t checked it yet. Fingers crossed.

I’ll post a picture-spam post from the hike we did of the continuing-to-be-gorgeous bay. For now, have a picture of a pretty moth I took, while setting up for the concert. Gorgeous wings, don’t you think?

It’s Clallam Bay Comicon again, the third, which is pretty good for what basically started as a hangout at Donna’s house. They’ve expanded again – there’s more function space, though I don’t yet know how the layout is supposed to work. But that’s okay. It’s also going into Monday this year, in an experiment of scheduling; I’ve no idea how that works either!

But if you’re on the peninsula, I’m doing the Kitting Out Cheap panel again at 4pm – on how to build a recording studio good enough for home use when you have about $1.50 in your budget – and Leannan Sidhe and Crime and the Forces of Evil are doing a split set at noon Monday.

And even if you’re not on the peninsula now, there’s no reason not to be this weekend. Particularly not with the heat wave coming in. Hmmmmmm? Always cooler in the west, I’m just saying…

Thanks again to GAMCON for having me at their event last weekend! It was The Bremerton Gaming, Anime, and Music Convention’s very first year, and the staff was all sorts of anxious to make sure attending professionals had a good time. I felt very well tended. They had their share of first-year problems, but mostly, it looked like only their fair share – except, maybe, for running out of badge holders and lanyards. They only bought like 110, and those were gone in minutes. I’m told they got more later.

I rode over on the ferry – I think it’s the first time I’ve gone to Bremerton as a passenger, so it was fun to get on and off the boat via the passenger terminal. Much cheaper, too, of course; bus to boat to CONVENTION! to boat to bus to home. And the convention facility was literally right next to the ferry terminal building, so it’s extremely practical.

GAMCON’s dealer room had some size for a first-year, with a couple of more exposition-like booths, and a pretty good range of dealers. I talked with a maker group for a while, with a couple of educational groups, with some people who build entertainment systems, some artists – they had a lot of artists in the dealer room, lacking an art show – and I bought a Mockingjay pocket watch. I have a convention watch again! It’s been a while.

But the best dealer had to be Team Rocket selling Pokébathballs, which are not at all stolen and are most certainly not boobytrapped in any way.

Not in any way.

Larger at Flickr

Other function space consisted of two primary function areas: an outdoor courtyard (concerts, original plan for cosplay competition, things like that) and the Fountain Room. Both spaces were pretty large, though the Fountain Room was a bit across-and-far from the rest of the event. Despite that, people found it. There was also what looked like a small tabletop area near registration, and a gaming trailer outside. I watched some Black Ops being played for a while, via the external display screen on the side of the trailer.

There are fountains outside, but you can’t see them in this photo.

The cosplay event had to be moved inside because of light rain, so I’m not sure the outdoor part of that was the best idea. They had a lot of entrants – I arrived late and didn’t get photos of everyone, but I still saw over 20 entrants.

The format wasn’t like anything I’d seen before – no stage, more of a walkthrough on the same level as the audience, with classes of “beginner,” “experienced,” and “master,” and at least some awards given by popular vote. No sound support, and I’m not sure if their classes are supposed to correlate to the Guild tiers or not. But they did have a photo area, at the end of the hallway runway.

There were a lot of hall costumers just wandering around – for such a small con, it sure had a lot of cosplay.

I’m not posting all of the costume photos here, but I took a bunch – they’re on my flickr page. But I’m posting this one, because…

…now that is a goddamn scythe.

But flags make the best props. Even accidental exposures look awesome.

It felt right to one-day it; I really, really needed a day off, so I just kicked back Sunday and did pretty much nothing. But I’d go again next year, if they do it again, and were I in Bremerton or out on the peninsula in general I’d certainly give it a good look.

Next weekend: Clallam Bay Comicon! It’s a weird one, on Sunday and Monday rather than Saturday and Sunday, because of Clallam Bay Comicon. Will it work? No idea. Let’s find out!

I’ll post about GAMCON tomorrow – it was a lot of fun, thanks for everyone who came! – but today, it’s the photos from the trip back from Greenland. Large versions on Flickr, as usual.

If we did a live album of these shows, or, for that matter, of all this whole tour? This would be the album cover. Totally the cover.

Taking the High Road

Yep, it’s a desert – all these were taken from the car on the way north and west.

Westward, Ho!

I took a lot of mountain pictures, but they were all from windows and only a couple came out. But they aren’t bad:

Desert Range

Desert Range 2

Getting a decent lens flare on a phone camera isn’t easy! I didn’t even do it on purpose, it just worked out that way. I thought it was worth posting for that alone:

Arc of a Driver

I wasn’t sure whether to I took a few of these as the sun set; the colours at the edges were really interesting:

Approaching Wormhole – Confirm Destination Vector

We saw a lot of these little white plumes along fences – it wasn’t smoke, it was just some sort of vapour rise at sunset. But that’s not poetic, so I called it…

Ghosts Dancing

Yes, I was taking panoramas from a moving car. The amazing thing is that some of them actually worked!

High Tension in the Distance

I brought up the lows a bit in this shot, because it was too dark, but it’s still just dark enough to call it…

The Dark of Sunset

The sharp edges of the mountains here are so stark. I imagine trying to climb them.

The Range and Road Go On and On

But then the rendering engine decided it couldn’t keep up. Clearly I need to upgrade reality’s graphics card. Or maybe I just need a new driver. I haven’t had time to be sure.

Texture Glitch

These came out really well for being shot through a bug-splattered windshield.

Down to the River (1)

Down to the River (2)

And finally, before darkness set too far in to shoot.

Moonrise over the Desert Sunset

If you’re here, you’re probably looking for the Kitting Out Cheap downloadable handout. Well, here you go. Thanks for coming to the panel!

You might also be looking for the Free Music Set, and that’s right here, one song a year from the last five. I’ll probably add a new song later this year, too, so check back.

How was GAMCON for you? I’m queueing this post up in advance, so I can point you to it during the panel. So I have no idea yet. SPEAK TO ME, PEOPLE OF THE FUTURE! Give to me your wisdom! And your death rays. I need them, you see. For reasons. Business reasons.

I don’t actually know much about renfaires, and I don’t typically go to or play them, unless I’m playing with Leannan Sidhe, in which case, HI RENFAIRE TIEMS!

We had a great set of shows, thanks to everybody who came to them, some of whom came to all of them, which was pretty neat.

I am very sleepy and it is very late and I’m behind on too many things, so this is mostly a photo post. As always, larger versions – particularly important for the panoramas – are on my Flickr page.

This was not at all a part of the renfaire, but check out this Space Hotel with its Space Antenna. I have no idea what that antenna is supposed to do. I don’t think it does anything. There is an arrow that points wind direction, so that’s something, I guess, but honestly, what is this even supposed to be?

 

Besides totally awesome, of course.

Here are a couple of views of Camp Sidhe. The campground is right next to the Faire, and really, honestly, one of the more pleasant camping sites. It’s strange, camping in what amounts to a city park. The weather was nearly perfect this year, too – much cooler than last year.

 

Camp Sidhe Tree

Jeri Lynn, the Leannan Sidhe touring cellist (and who is also on the album), and in the second photo, Shanti and Matthew, Our Roadie.

 

This is the view from our campsite.

 

The River Wide and Long

I saw Homestucks and all kinds of randomness in attendance. I didn’t have time to get photos, tho’ – mostly I was busy doing four shows a day. Crowds were very good, we were standing room only a few times. We also had some of the regulars out doing their thing:

Brave Sir Robin
 

Yep, Them’s Fins

Inexplicably, the Americans showed up, from the Future. Presumably. They had a paddleboat:

Here, have a bunch of stage and backstage shots – the first one looks from off-stage right down Horseman’s Path all the way to Zinger’s Magic Pavilion. Mostly he’s moving to smaller setups, but he still brings out the big tent for this show. He lets us store our instruments in his backstage, which is really nice.

Stage to Stage
 

The intersection of Queen’s and Horseman’s
 

Backstage, Three-Headed Giant Not Included
 

Performers have a more-or-less green room with refreshments and places to sit; it’s called the Plague Pit.
 

What a dapper doggie!

So, yeah! I normally can’t do these sorts of shows, but since this one is in a park forest, I can make an exception and it’s all just fine. I got some really nice landscape photos on the way back – particularly given that they were taken from a moving car XD – and I’ll post this tomorrow or Friday, depending on time. Shout out to Tamra from coming all the way up to Richland to see us on Sunday, and everyone else who hung out and chatted too!

Packing up to head east to the Dry Side! See you in Richland, excuse me, Greenwood, maybe?

I know I haven’t been posting much, it’s because of all the rental cleanup/repair/restoration insanity I’ve been dealing with over the last week and a half. It’s not done, either; as soon as I get back, it’ll be time to sand cabinets. Yay.

This floor, we were going to have abated but we’re going to cover it with a new subfloor instead. It’s lower than the other floors in the apartment anyway. Why? Who even knows.

When we put down the new subfloor I’m going to leave a note saying DO NOT PULL THIS UP WHATEVER YOU WANT TO DO IT IS NOT WORTH IT and then underneath the subfloor I will leave a note saying YOU PULLED IT UP! YOU PULLED IT UP, YOU GOD DAMNED MANIACS, YOU PULLED IT UP! possibly with an asbestos warning and possibly just with a photo of Charlton Heston.

Next week I can get back to the album. Sometime. I’m not exactly sure when. But next week. We may have slipped to end of July, but goddammit, this thing is coming out this summer!

eta: I did the thing.

HI CASCADIA I HAVE SHOWS

I’m also swamped to the gills with Day Jobbe work. I worked all weekend, I’ll be working all week, it’s going to be insane. THAT SAID: I HAVE SHOWS.

• June 28-29, 2014: Guest appearance with Leannan Sidhe, Greenwood Renfaire, Richland, Washington.
• July 5, 2014: GAMCON 2014, The Kitsap Convention Centre, Bremerton, Washington.
• July 13-14, 2014: Clallam Bay Comicon, Clallam Bay, Washington. Double-bill with Leannan Sidhe.

The difference between Greenwood and Clallam Bay is that in Greenwood, I’m playing as part of the Leannan Sidhe touring band; at Comicon, Shanti will be part of my band. And also then I’ll be part of her band for her set. lol transforming bands. XD

Yesterday, I took down the “forced hiatus due to eye surgery” notice on the shows page, and added a couple of events.

It’s been a while, I have to say. Feels good tho’, even if I still have another round of eye surgery yet to come. Hopefully that hiatus will be shorter.

So! Six shows in two days and what do I have for it, photographically? Very little! Because I was too busy playing my zouk. But I have a few.

I bought a new vest at the fair. I love this vest. It is what Utena would wear in this situation. It is utterly unlike what Utena actually wears but is exactly what she would wear. That is my story and I am sticking to it. 😀

The vendor who sold it… I felt kind of bad for them. They’d arrived in the heavy rain and set up way off from the main event, one of the few places they could get a cement floor and cover. It was off by the performer’s lunchroom and next to nothing else. I hope this wasn’t the only thing they sold, because they had some nice clothing.

The new piper. I did not retain his name, which is criminal, because he was not just good, he was incredibly knowledgable. You don’t even want to know how old those pipes are he’s carrying around, either. Lots of fun to listen to.

Another one that’s best viewed larger at the Flickr page; this is the view from the… south stage? Facing away from the fair. An interesting backdrop to be sure, but very difficult to shoot photos as a result. SO BRIGHT.

Saturday Evening Dinner at Mo’s, presumably not related to Moe’s, except actually I suspect actively related to Moe’s. That’s Shanti, Zinger, Tabitha, Darlissa (Shanti’s mom), and me.

The Pearwood Players! Doing a randomly-reassigned-roles version of Robin Hood lore. Pretty funny, for real.

Doctor Who Wait and What Now? I suppose he makes more sense than the Captain America who showed up, though.

Harbour sea lions, in Newport! And they are big animals up close. They’d been reasonably quiet until Shanti and I set them off by accident, walking down Bay Boulevard singing General Taylor at the top of our lungs. We weren’t even drunk! But that didn’t stop us. We watched them barking and make an incredible racket for a good half an hour before calming down for the night.

As I said, I don’t have any proper photos of performance, but I do have an audience photo – this was from a video shot by ShantiMom, and is a frame grab. It’s a little j-peggy (is that a word? It should be) but not bad otherwise:

And that’s what I’ve got. Small festival, only the second year, hopefully it’ll pick up a bit over time. We did pretty well; I was happy and enjoyed myself, even if I was Squinty McSquintyeyes half the time. Next up… I dunno! We’ll see. Check the show schedule page. There’ll be something soon.