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Rent-a-don report
Well, I'm back from Rent-a-don, and I have to say it was a delightful
experience, from my albiet biased perspective. I got there at about 6:30 pm on
Thursday, and Jessyka has already told you more than I possibly could about the
Tin Angel show. I will say that the bartender at the Tin Angel made a *very*
tasty amaretto sour. Also, when Jessyka and I wandering into a sandwich dive
during the start of the second set, looking for a bite to eat, we saw a news
report that an armored car had dropped its entire load of thousands and
thousands of dollars out the back. (What's the point of having an armored car
and then forgetting to lock the back door?) But all the money was collected:
nobody tried to steal any. Sometimes your faith in human nature needs a bit of
a boost, y'know? Anyway, the guys at the diner were very funny and clearly
rather bored at working alone at 10 pm.
Friday, after sleeping in late (a recurring theme for rent-a-don weekend, you
will note), David drove me into town, where we met a friend of mine for lunch.
Where's peace and veggies David, anyway? He seems to have dropped off the face
of the earth. Did he go to the Lancaster show? Did he make it home from
Philly all right? How was the Lancaster show, anyway?
But I digress... after a fun meal of "Mad Mex" (the waiters' shirts admonished
their patrons to "Have safe mex"), David and I wandered over to meet with Ysobelle
at the house of a friend of hers, whom neither of us knew from Eve. Said
friend was a very gracious hostess, and we hung out there until Ysobelle arrived.
Then we went shopping to get all the ingredients we would need for the
rent-a-don meals. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to really explore the
"Italian Market", which was an outdoor street market with lots and lots of
great produce. The big discovery, though, was "The Spice Store", which was
just what its name said: just about every spice you could ever want, sold
by the ounce at *ridiculously* low prices. Oh, my, goodness, I wish I had
one of those near me. Sigh.
Then, after some delays and various attempts to figure out directions, we were
off to Liesel's house. Jessyka was already there, so I didn't get to witness
the infamous meeting of Liesel & Jessyka. ;-) I had hoped to get dinner on the
table at 7:30, but that's about when we got there, so I had to shift into
high-gear to get dinner done. Luckily, people were willing to pitch in and
slice pears, grate carrots and chop kale, or it would have taken a *lot*
longer. As it was, we sat down to a wonderfully presented meal at 8:30.
Liesel has a charming little three-story house that's only about 20 feet wide.
The meal was in an atrium/back porch kind of space. Candle light, white wine,
lots of plants, friendly people... it was just delightful. Present were Liesel,
Ysobelle, Jessyka, David, and myself. Afterwards we lounged in the living room
and talked until the wee hours.
Saturday, after sleeping late, Liesel dropped me off at Ysobelle's and headed
back home to get some work done. Jessyka, Ysobelle, and I headed into town and
wandered around South St. a bit before stopping to get a classic philly
cheesesteak sandwich. There we people-watched through the windows until Ken
and Anita found us. South street is a trip and a half, let me tell you.
Everything from jocks to punks. Probably the most mind-blowing was Gold Lamee
Man. I'm not kidding; this guy was dressed head-to-toe in bright gold lamee,
with a bronze lamee jacket. Truly staggering. And he walked by twice, so I
know I wasn't hallucinating. The shops are colorful and varied, from the
new-agey crystal store to "Erogenous Zone", along with your usual complement of
restaurants, flower shops and record stores. I think "Digital Ferret" is a
great name for a store. We also spent some time in the fetish shop, which was
hysterical. The lengths some people will go to... well, it's just impressive.
What do you do with a chain mail garter belt? Never mind, I'm not sure I want
to know. :-) Anyway, it was fun to see Anita and Ken again.
One theme that came up several times over the weekend is the perception of the
OtR list as a "clique". Maybe it's just cause I was there when it started, but
I've never felt it that way. Also, all the people I've met from the list have
been very open, welcoming, and hospitable people; I usually associate arrogant,
exclusionary, and persecutional behavior with cliques. I mean, the whole
reason I rejoined the list last year was that I met such nice people in person
that I wanted to keep talking to them. It makes me a little sad that people
feel like they can't participate in the conversation. Of course, Liesel tells
me I didn't help matters by ripping her first post to shreds, but she assures
me it wasn't mean, just thorough. Still, mea culpa, I suppose. Not sure what
we could do differently to be more welcoming, but I still don't think there's
any *real* boundary on this clique; just a willingness to jump in.
We got back to Ysobelle's house a bit late, and I started cooking dinner. This
affair was a bit more slap-dash than the formal presenation of the night
before, as we had too many people to organize an actual sit-down, set-the-table,
serve-the-food-type meal. So there were some dishes on the table, some still
on the stove, and people served themselves. There were people there from various
circles of Ysobelle's life, and although there wasn't a *whole* lot of mixing
going on, there was some. There was a guy named Matt who was very nice, and
very funny. We put on this mix CD of MP3 songs from the 80s, which is always
fun, because you see people's reactions range from delighted to horrified to
nostalgic (or embarrased about being nostalgic). There were a few songs from
the Muppet Movie soundtrack mixed in (which, admittedly, is pre-80s, but who
cares), and those were really fun to sing along to.
Unfortunately, just as things were winding down, Ysobelle got very ill, and the
weather took a stunning turn for the worse. The rain was really intense,
although it seemed to come in bursts rather than for long, sustained periods.
Sunday, since Ysobelle wasn't feeling well, we slept in late, she introduced me
to the first couple episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I love the movie, but
I had never seen the TV show), and then we went downtown to see the historical
sights. The weather was *much* colder than the balmy afternoon of the day
before, but we took the tour of the building where the constitution was written
and the declaration of independence signed. It was pretty sad, really, because
of all the security. You had to go through a metal detector on your way in,
which in itself wasn't so bad, but there was a guard on the other side with his
hand *on* his gun that made it feel rather more oppressive than perhaps it
needed to. Perhaps not. I'm not sure I want to second-guess what they felt
was necessary, but it really made me think about the balance between freedom
and security. Especially since all the rhetoric of the tour was about freedom
and democracy -- and here we were under armed guard. It made me ponder.
Anyway, I had a wonderful, wonderful weekend. Cooking was fun, and I had
delightful hosts. I don't know if there will ever be a rent-a-don part II,
electric boogaloo, but the experience was definitely worth it. And since the
idea was born here, I thought I should send in a report.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled banter...
--
Don Smith Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu http://xte.mit.edu/~dasmith/
"Those willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserve
neither security nor liberty." - Benjamin Franklin
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