minstrel: Bardic Madness South IV

[Cerian Cantwr]

Apologies to those of you on multiple lists who will be seeing this more
than once.

							Cerian

The event takes place in the Canton of Vanspring (mundanely Lansing
Michigan) on November 23rd, 2002.

For more event information, see the website at
http://12.100.136.197/bms4/  Additional information will be posted there
as it becomes available.

For questions about the days bardic activities (challenges, teaching a
class, participating in the concert, or serving as a patron),
please contact the provost:
    Cerian Cantwr
    630-887-8514
    cerian at minstrel.com

For questions about the site and logistics, please contact the autocrat:
    Lady Ramona
    517-339-2938
    majel at scanlonleader.org



            The Challenges for Bardic Madness South IV:
                     The Feast of St Clement

Greetings and welcome are bid to all Bards, Troubadours, Trouveres,
Minstrels, Minnesingers, Jongleurs, Singers, Storytellers, Poets, Scops,
Skalds, Fillids, Olaves, Griots, Wordsmiths, and Friends of these arts.

Today, November 23rd, is the feast of St Clement.  Clement lived toward
the end of the first century and was one of the early successors to St
Peter as Bishop of Rome. About his life, next to nothing is known. But
fear not, the bards of 300 years later created myths about him that many
today believe to be history, rather than legend.

The purpose of today's challenges is to encourage the participants'
creativity and artistic growth.  They are not meant to be competitions -
everyone who takes part can consider themselves a winner.

Your response to the various challenges may be in many different forms.
Song or story are the most obvious choices; however juggling, magic,
instrumental, or dance can also express an idea or tell a tale.  All of
these could be used to answer a given challenge (though perhaps not all
at the same time :-) .  Our desire here is to be inclusive rather than
exclusive.  If you have something to share that doesn't quite fit or
that stretches the definitions a little, then fire away.

It is our wish to create a "bardic safe zone" - a friendly place where
you may feel free to experiment and try new things.  If you've never
performed before, now's your chance.  You'll be hard pressed to find a
friendlier and more supportive audience.  We would be delighted to see
lots of first time performers.

Please remember, in order to make sure as many gentles get a chance to
perform as possible, we ask that you limit your performances so that
they run less than five minutes.


Fyt the First:

Quod Libet - Pull three topics and two tunes out of a hat. Using one
              tune and at least two of the topics, compose two verses and
              a chorus.

Your Device - Take your device's blazon and cast it into verse or song -
and What's    unless of course, you cant. If you don't yet have a
Sonnet        device, use that of a friend, group, or household. If you
               can, bring a picture as well.

Anchors - Clement was allegedly drowned at sea with an anchor.
Aweigh    Tell us of any struggle against a great weight or heavy
           burden. Show how the hero succeeds or succumbs. Perhaps
           someone could dance the story while another tells/sings it.


Fyt the Second:

Stir Fry - Given a list of words, do something artistic with them.

Roman   - Clement must have spent a fair amount of time in the
Holiday   city of Rome. Take us on an imaginary walk through it.
           Describe the people you might meet or the sights you
           might see while roaming around... err well, Rome
           actually :-)

Apocryphal - As you may have gathered, the various stories about
of Scry      St Clement don't have a whole lot of proof to them. Surely,
              there's a tale or two yet untold. Go forth to search the
              "authoritative record" and see if you can find one.


Fyt the Third:

Mazacroca - Given several texts to choose from in foreign languages,
             "translate" one of them and explain what it "really" means.

Holy Disorders - Did you know confusion and contradiction was period :-)
                  Clement was either the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd successor to
                  Peter - depending on your source. Mix us a muddle of
                  murkiness. Base it on this or any similar snafu; real
                  or imaginary, period or in the current middle ages.

Lost Your - Clement is the patron saint of marble workers (also
Marbles     boatmen, mariners, sailors, sick children,
             stonecutters, and watermen). Sculpt us a song or
             story that involves marble in some way. Hmmm... I
             can hear the jugglers thinking now.


Fyt the Fourth:

Bard Scribe - Given a subject in the morning, compose, calligraph, and
Illuminator   illuminate a text on that subject. This may be done
               individually or as a team.

Hector's Rainbow - Based on an idea by Master Hector (he's from
                    Ealdormere) of the Black Height. In song or verse, no
                    prose on this one please, refer to every color of the
                    rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo,
                    violet) plus black and white. Use those nine words or
                    make nine references, so long as the references are
                    clear; not necessarily unambiguous, just clear.
                    Punning is encouraged and extra groans will be
                    awarded for the creative use of plaid :-)

Period Piece - Perform a documentably period piece of music, story, or
                song (poetry, prose, and so forth are good too). Dig out
                those reference books, blow off the dust (try not to
                sneeze), and see what wonderful and magical treasures you
                can find in them. There is a staggering amount of
                fantastic material out there. Find something, be it silly
                or sublime, and amaze us with it.


Challenge general rules:

* Challenges are not contests. You win by entering and striving to do
   the best you can.
* Challenges are designed to encourage you to try your hand at something
   new, to stretch yourself, to enjoy and to celebrate the creative
   spirit.
* Read the guidelines for the challenges carefully, like most exercises,
   they are designed to help you develop in specific areas. Try to follow
   them as closely as you can.
* Individuals are welcome and encouraged to give recognition to those
   performers whom they especially enjoy.
* In order to allow the largest number of people to participate,
   challenge entries shall be limited to five minutes or less. Each
   person may enter a maximum of one piece in each challenge and a
   maximum of 10 challenges.