minstrel: Brendan O catches up

[Corrie Bergeron]

I've been otherwise occupied for the past several days, just catching up to
the discussions.

Definition of "bard" etc.

        Many thanks to all those who provided dictionary definitions.
        So in period, to be a 'bard' was to risk having one's ears 
        pinned back and being run out of town, eh? Yipes.

        Ld. Owen Alun (btuck at minstrel.com) uses the definition 
        "using words to create and shape an audience."  I like it.

Appropriate material
        Consider the audience.  Friday night setting up camp, when folk 
        are arriving in t-shirts at all hours, is fine for filk.  Save
        Moose and Cookies for audiences that request them.  Saturday nights
        I try to stay APAP.  For one-day, non-camping events, move Friday
        night material to the post-revel.  Of course, some posts can be a 
        wonderful continuation of the day's Dream(tm).

Performing at feast
        A hall that is either impossibly live (the sound gets bounced around 
        off all the hard flat surfaces, making conversation nearly impossible)
        or is completely dead (so much acoustic insulation that a rowdy group-
        sing at one end of the hall cannot be heard at the other), with a
hundred
        or so people eating, clinking tableware, and chatting with their
neighbors,
        plus a herald shouting SHUT UP THIS IS ENTERTAINMENT!?!  Please, must we
        continue to inflict this on ourselves?

Olde Anklush
        For a chuckle, check out:
        http://www.solon.com/~corrie/ENGLISH.HTM
        Ld. Owen and I somehow missed discissing y and e, 
        but then again we tried to cover the beginnings of 
        the language rather than its transition to its modern form.       

Performing drunk and sober
        There is a recording of me forgetting ALL the words, then falling off
        my stool...sober as a judge.  There is another recording of me *deep* in
        my cups, clear as a bell.  I don't think it affects performance too
much, 
        so long as you remember how to perform.

        There was one time I told my audience, "Excuse me, I'm too drunk 
        to sing," which for me was saying quite a lot. (It turned out that what
        I had thought was rum-laced punch, and was drinking as though it was, 
        was actually Everclear that had had fruit soaking in it.)
        I calmly put down my instrument and in a dignified manner 
        walked into the woods and heaved till I could heave no more.
        A fine performance, indeed.  I don't remember it.  The next day
really hurt.

        Contrary to popular belief, it _is_ possible to sing all night long
        without drinking.  Though in some camps, it's hard to find a beverage
        that isn't alcoholic!

Yaacov's sonnets
        Nicely penned, sir!

----------------------
--Brendan O Corraidhe, who is going to bed now.
--wisdom from Dad:
"If I'm alive, it's a good day.  If I'm vertical, it's a great day!"
"What else can I do as long I'm down here?" (spoken while getting something
off the bottom shelf)
"So how's that ASPCA..uh, SCA?  Sorry about that.  Had a senior moment."
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