Death Valley and Sacramento
Oct. 30th, 2007 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seldearDeath Valley is apparently the lowest point on continental US, being some two-hundred and ninety-something feet below sea level. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sjhw_tolerance thought it would be an educational stop.
It was, actually. :)
The bad water that gave the basin its name.
The walkway out into the ex-lake. Those of you who know her will spotsjhw_tolerance!
Daniel on the sign.
The hillside.
A close-up of the hillside. You have to click on this picture to get the enlarged version and properly see the sign that indicates sea level. It's small and blue and visible about 3/4 of the way up the photo and 2/3 to the right. That's how far down below sea level we are!
Daniel and the Badwater Basin sign again. He's becoming a rather grubby-bottomed lemming, which is why I didn't put him down on the sand/salt of the lake bottom.
I didn't end up taking any shots of Vegas. I'm not sure why - perhaps because this part was really a 'vacation' time rather than a time to see the sights - and the pics of Vegas are always better when professionally done. Vegas through the camera of a rank amateur looks cheap.
Phantom was awesome! The setup was rather different to the one I saw in Melbourne ten years ago, but the voices were at least as good. It had been shortened to take out some of the 'useless' scenes: ones with minor characters (the guy who got hung the first time) and things that weren't necessary. I really enjoyed it, though!
We were right below the chandelier, though! Which falls halfway through the performance!
Still, awesome show!
After the decadence of Vegas, Sacramento was quiet.pandora_576 was welcoming. The cats were friendly. (Pics to come.) RenFaire was...interesting. What follows is a varied and various set of photos of persons I encountered while at the Folsom RenFaire.
Tobias The Adequate: magician and entertainer, who let his wife name his act. (A bad move, he said.)
Goose-girl. (The goose is not - I repeat not real!)
A trio of ladies who ran a kitchen-ish thing nearby. They didn't serve food, but you sure could smell it!
Sunday morning church service in the Queen's court. (In spite of the market taking place all around them in direct contravention of the period's view of work on the Sabbath...)
A printing press and the man who knew how to operate it. I got to make a print.
The print.
I wasn't sure if these were supposed to be highborn ladies, or ladies of questionable virtue. After all, they seemed rather painted and were sitting outside an alehouse...
There was a trio of people who had two hawks and an owl with them at the faire. They walked around for much of the weekend with the birds jessed and on their arm, but not always hooded. I kept on thinking of Hodgesaargh, but no eyes were lost at all!
A gentleman who picked out merry tunes just opposite the falconers' zone.
I think these were a German soldiery. They periodically marched around the faire to the beat of a drum and with a flag waver at their head. Very impressive flag-dancing/waving/whatevering. Mediaeval cheerleading.
A couple of fine ladies playing cards. There was this whole section of the faire that seemed to be a camping site, complete with old-fashioned fancy beds and rugs and furniture. Like a renaissance camp had been set up for the nobility in which to live. There were even people who seemed to be acting as servants.
...Okay, interlude here. I'm not sure if too many African-Americans are reading this - maybe a couple, but what are your thoughts on Renfaire and the historical depiction of such situations? Because the African-Americans I saw at Renfaire were dressed as servants. Granted, that would have been the traditional and expected role of non-white peoples of the time (and subsequent socio-political epochs), but we aren't in the Renaissance anymore.
If one is going to be a RenFaire purist (maybe I'm thinking of the SCA?), then non-whites and people who can't "pass" as white shouldn't be dressing up as royalty, nobility, or gentility. The only place for them is the commons or the servantry. So I'm wondering, do historical societies hold to that aspect of history? Or is it just that the African-Americans at this RenFaire happened to be dressed/behaving as servants to the white nobility?
A Sunday service given over in the "nobles quarter". (Where the camp was set up.)
Assorted photos of people dressed up for RenFaire. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get the half-naked pirate king with the bald head and the silver mask and the tattoos. You'll just have to make do with the Viking. (Who made some very inappropriate suggestions while I was taking his photo.)
Okay, this two deserve a mention. I was wandering around and said something, which alerted them to my accent - or lack thereof. We got into a nice long discussion about Australia and America and all kinds of things which I can't remember because my mind is like a sieve and quite a lot has happened since then.
This little girl is cute, but she's not the cutest of the kids wandering around in fancy dress. So cute!
And, just to finish the section on Sacramento, pics ofpandora_576's cats!
Two of Thor-kitty:
Two of Loki-kitty:
Two of Freya-kitty:
Philadelphia next. I hope to catch up with my photos by the time I leave the US. Maybe.
sjhw_tolerance thought it would be an educational stop.It was, actually. :)
The bad water that gave the basin its name.
The walkway out into the ex-lake. Those of you who know her will spot
sjhw_tolerance!
Daniel on the sign.
The hillside.
A close-up of the hillside. You have to click on this picture to get the enlarged version and properly see the sign that indicates sea level. It's small and blue and visible about 3/4 of the way up the photo and 2/3 to the right. That's how far down below sea level we are!
Daniel and the Badwater Basin sign again. He's becoming a rather grubby-bottomed lemming, which is why I didn't put him down on the sand/salt of the lake bottom.
I didn't end up taking any shots of Vegas. I'm not sure why - perhaps because this part was really a 'vacation' time rather than a time to see the sights - and the pics of Vegas are always better when professionally done. Vegas through the camera of a rank amateur looks cheap.
Phantom was awesome! The setup was rather different to the one I saw in Melbourne ten years ago, but the voices were at least as good. It had been shortened to take out some of the 'useless' scenes: ones with minor characters (the guy who got hung the first time) and things that weren't necessary. I really enjoyed it, though!
We were right below the chandelier, though! Which falls halfway through the performance!
Still, awesome show!
After the decadence of Vegas, Sacramento was quiet.
pandora_576 was welcoming. The cats were friendly. (Pics to come.) RenFaire was...interesting. What follows is a varied and various set of photos of persons I encountered while at the Folsom RenFaire.
Tobias The Adequate: magician and entertainer, who let his wife name his act. (A bad move, he said.)
Goose-girl. (The goose is not - I repeat not real!)
A trio of ladies who ran a kitchen-ish thing nearby. They didn't serve food, but you sure could smell it!
Sunday morning church service in the Queen's court. (In spite of the market taking place all around them in direct contravention of the period's view of work on the Sabbath...)
A printing press and the man who knew how to operate it. I got to make a print.
The print.
I wasn't sure if these were supposed to be highborn ladies, or ladies of questionable virtue. After all, they seemed rather painted and were sitting outside an alehouse...
There was a trio of people who had two hawks and an owl with them at the faire. They walked around for much of the weekend with the birds jessed and on their arm, but not always hooded. I kept on thinking of Hodgesaargh, but no eyes were lost at all!
A gentleman who picked out merry tunes just opposite the falconers' zone.
I think these were a German soldiery. They periodically marched around the faire to the beat of a drum and with a flag waver at their head. Very impressive flag-dancing/waving/whatevering. Mediaeval cheerleading.
A couple of fine ladies playing cards. There was this whole section of the faire that seemed to be a camping site, complete with old-fashioned fancy beds and rugs and furniture. Like a renaissance camp had been set up for the nobility in which to live. There were even people who seemed to be acting as servants.
...Okay, interlude here. I'm not sure if too many African-Americans are reading this - maybe a couple, but what are your thoughts on Renfaire and the historical depiction of such situations? Because the African-Americans I saw at Renfaire were dressed as servants. Granted, that would have been the traditional and expected role of non-white peoples of the time (and subsequent socio-political epochs), but we aren't in the Renaissance anymore.
If one is going to be a RenFaire purist (maybe I'm thinking of the SCA?), then non-whites and people who can't "pass" as white shouldn't be dressing up as royalty, nobility, or gentility. The only place for them is the commons or the servantry. So I'm wondering, do historical societies hold to that aspect of history? Or is it just that the African-Americans at this RenFaire happened to be dressed/behaving as servants to the white nobility?
A Sunday service given over in the "nobles quarter". (Where the camp was set up.)
Assorted photos of people dressed up for RenFaire. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get the half-naked pirate king with the bald head and the silver mask and the tattoos. You'll just have to make do with the Viking. (Who made some very inappropriate suggestions while I was taking his photo.)
Okay, this two deserve a mention. I was wandering around and said something, which alerted them to my accent - or lack thereof. We got into a nice long discussion about Australia and America and all kinds of things which I can't remember because my mind is like a sieve and quite a lot has happened since then.
This little girl is cute, but she's not the cutest of the kids wandering around in fancy dress. So cute!
And, just to finish the section on Sacramento, pics of
pandora_576's cats!Two of Thor-kitty:
Two of Loki-kitty:
Two of Freya-kitty:
Philadelphia next. I hope to catch up with my photos by the time I leave the US. Maybe.
