Happy 35th, Maryland Renaissance Festival!

Every autumn since I was about twelve, I've visited the Maryland Renaissance Faire. I try to make it every year. I see my favorite shows, visit my favorite vendors, and head home.

Not this time. This year, I took my roommate who, through some misalignment of planets, had never been to a renfaire. I assumed that I would walk through my usual routine, only with more narration. However, as we paid and stepped through the gate to the usual faux-English-accented "Allo milady and milord!" he caught me off guard.

"Where should we start?" I asked, mostly rhetorically, eyes glinting in the general direction of my usual first stop, the mask makers. (I won't say which one because I don't want to bias you. Each mask maker at faire is amazing at something: One does flawless greenmen and leaves, another does wonderful characters and deities, and the third does gorgeous butterflies). I was so focused on hopping into my usual series of stops that I almost didn't hear his reply.

"Why not start here? I want to see everything."

I stopped. He was dead serious. He was already perusing commemorative mugs at the first store. I started to go a little pale. "Everything?"

He continued, "How else can you show me everything that's here? Besides, if we go section by section, it shouldn't take too long."

After the second hour, I started drafting apologies to everyone I've ever shown around the faire. Because, although fun, the most memorable thing shouldn't be the food on a stick.

There is even steak on a stake. (via Brent Newhall)

Here's my usual whirlwind newb tour:

1. Here are masks. Ogle.
2. Obtain food on a stick. Talk about all the foods served on sticks.
3. Boots. Ogle.
4. Watch Shakespeare's Scum.
5. Swords. Ogle.
6. Watch Hack & Slash (who aren't there this year, but we've marked their upcoming show on the calendar).
7. Kilts. Ogle.
8. Obtain mead.
9. Go home exhausted because most of our time at the faire was taken up by, "Damn it! It was RIGHT HERE! You'd think after fifteen [grumble]... let me see the damn map."

Hitting every shop at a leisurely, sane pace took us about seven hours, with stops for two shows and food. I learned that I know next to nothing about faire.

For one thing, there's far more steampunk than I realized! I love me some steampunk. I was decked out in my top hat and goggles, but I didn't really expect to fit in. As I walked around, I had vendors singling me out in their crowded shops, going "Miss! I know what you're looking for!" as they walked me over to the special array of cog-covered wonders.

Jezzard Jewelry sells hairpins with bronze top hats, and steampunked flash drives, gears, and goggles. The staff at Tall Toad recognized my top hat and were happy to see that it had found a loving home. And a third shop had everything from goggles to a steampunk corset (my Google-fu is failing to find the name, please leave a comment if you know it).

But the most striking example is Iron Antler Forge. I had passed them by every year because, from the outside, it looks like they sell intimidating, heavy iron flower sconces. Inside? It's all dragons, clockworks, and steampunk. They have photos from their recently "excavated" wonders on their Facebook page. They have a ray gun. It's pretty amazing.

Steampunk aside, you should go because this year is the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Maryland Renaissance Festival. To celebrate, they decided not to have themed weekends this year, allowing visitors could focus on the "overall festival." This choice baffled not only me, but also a few dozen Facebook commenters. Now that I've been, I understand their logic. Regardless of what week you're able to attend, you'll get a great baseline experience that isn't flooded with pirates or faux Scotsmen doing their best James Doohan impersonations. It's the perfect year for newcomers.

A reason to make it this weekend: Barleyjuice will be there. So even if you missed Mediaeval Baebes, there are still plenty of amazing performers to check out. I'm hoping to stop by for a second weekend, so keep an eye out for a short woman in a black top hat and a Superman t-shirt. Not the traditional garb, I know, but you get all types at faire. Even Waldo shows up occasionally.

Found him! (via my camera phone)

Interview: Nate Lewis w/ Somaphony

Chilling in his own line, as always, with style via Somaphony

I had a chance to interview Nate Lewis, owner of Somaphony, a locally owned line of bizarre and interesting clothing. It's funny, after spending time talking to Nate I'd have to say that he's not a geek in the traditional sense. After meeting him and seeing his passion and the unique strangeness of the idea that is Somaphony... Well I couldn't resist.  So, take a seat.  Like he did.  Let's see what's in that mind of his. (We opted out of brain leeches and alien probing this time.  We decided to go with the ancient ways of mouth sounds, sometimes called talking)

Me: How did you come up with the idea of Somaphony?

Nate: I just started doing art about a year and a half ago.  I know that's bad, well not really.  I started in my orientation when I started working in ICU.  Actually about 2 years ago.  The only way I could stay awake was by doodling. Each doodle I started kept getting better and better.  Then after I stopped and didn't revisit it.  Then I started working at a different ICU a year and a half later.  So I was like, I gotta stay awake.  I started drawing and drawing and thought, "Wow, this is better than last year!" I showed it to my sister and she said, "Wow, that's pretty good, I'm impressed!" So I got some drawing supplies and the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." I went through every single exercise, by the end I could draw. So I continued to draw and get practice.  I drew a few portraits, they looked nice.  Then I went out and drew a river. It sucked.  I thought, "This blows."  I didn't want to draw landscape, it was horrible. I wondered what I wanted to draw, it was a mystery to me how people get started drawing, and find out what they like to draw.  A lot of artists have this style and I didn't know what mine would be. 


     The first thing I did was draw red blood cells. I wanted to get a necklace for my friend, ended up being a necklace made of red blood cells. The necklace was from Etsy and I thought, "Wow, how did she come up with making red blood cells into a necklace..." It was clusters of them, it looked really good. After that I drew red blood cells.. A friend was like, "How about it coming out of a pipe?"  I tried to imagine what was wrong with the patients I was seeing, visualize what was making them sick.  I ended up sitting with this guy who had some kind of lung disease, I tried drawing his diseased lungs and ended up drawing lungs coming out of a trumpet.  I listened to a lot of jazz. I pictured someone playing a trumpet so hard that their lungs came out.  Someone once told me, "Shouldn't the trumpet be in front of the lungs, blowing into it?" I thought, "Oh... yeah... but that's not how I pictured it..."


     I got really good feed back.  I was like, this is a good concept, something that I've never seen before.  I had friend who did t-shirt lines. I was always into fashion, and I was always into t-shirts. I wore a lot of t-shirts.  I was like, "Hey, I could make a t-shirt line. Let's start a t-shirt line."  My sister's an artist, I got a lot of inspiration from her. So I went at it the first round.  I was impatient, I just really wanted it.  I added a few more concepts, like a heart guitar and I went at it.  The first line was pretty much drawn and scanned into a computer quickly, then got them screen printed.  The company that first printed them didn't care about the quality, just took my money. I was like... ok this is not what I want.  I didn't release that to the general public, just some friends and people I worked with.  They loved it but I wasn't proud of it at all.  People really liked it.  Then I went at refining it for 4 or 5 months, just honed everything, then I had a brand imagine/style.  Kinda a whole look.


Me: What made you want to actually turn this into a company?

Nate: I've always been a set person, since I was in 3rd grade.  I was like, I'm gonna go to college, graduate, I'm gonna work in the ICU for a few years, and then go to anesthesia school, then BAM a graduate program.  But I kinda came to a point where I came to realize some things.  I wanted to not know what I was going to do in life. I had just been so set, I felt like I didn't give any space for... something else to happen.  For something else to have control of my life. So it was kinda like, instead of going to schcool, I'm gonna start this t-shirt line.  And I was like, I'm gonna be very serious about it.  Only because it was a new concept, music and anatomy, two amazing things, did I think it was gonna work, that people were gonna like it. It was cool, I didn't know where I was gonna be. I wanted to have that mystery in my life.


Me: Where do you want Somaphony to be in 2 years?

Nate: This is very rough... one step at a time... Really, I have no idea. It'd be cool if it was sold in stores. It'd be cool if it developed a following. A lot more concepts involving instruments and anatomy. For it to be a go to thing for musicians.  Have them say, "I really want to get my Somaphony shirt." I want to hear "He really flips music with anatomy.  He makes these amazing images that really show how deep the music is."

The Tri-Nate-Varate via Somaphony

Me: How did you come up with the name Somaphony?

Nate: I went back and forth on different names.  I kinda wanted it to have a Greek sounding name.  There was this store up in Boston called Salamagundi.  I liked the ring to it.  I wanted it to start with a S and have two parts to the name.  Then I went online and looked for things in Greek that have to do with medicine and music.  I found soma, which means body and phony, which is music.  It was really cool, it almost sounds like symphony.  The ecosystem, the sun and the moon, everything works in symphony.  It's Somaphony, it has a nice ring to it.  I like the ring to it.  I like the mystery about it.

Me: At what point would you say that you've really made it?  Like, the way people always say "Man, I've made it."

Nate: Man, there's different levels of you've made it. There's respect, and then there's being known, in the t-shirt world... in the music world, monetary, and in my own peace of mind.  Being, wow, this is awesome, and amazed I made it this far. That may not be at the point of "wow I've made so much money", but the impact that I've had on other people.  A huge part of this whole thing is for this to be a showcase so that my sister can really showcase her talents.  She's an amazing artist, my favorite artist. She's able to wrap her head around making anything, any medium, it amazes me how she does it. By getting this out there, she could really showcase her talent.


Me: How is your sister involved in Somaphony?

Nate: So far she's given me many suggestions in the images, "you might want to do this", " you might want to change this".  At first she collaborated on some of the images.  They were my concepts, but she did some of the art.  I'd like her to continue to do some of her own concepts, also another friend of mine to do some of hers. I'd like to continue the brand, with a couple of different artists. I want Somaphony to be more than just a t-shirt line, but a general thing.

 via Somaphony

Me: What things do you do that's nerdy / geeky?


Nate: My most nerdy thing is... drawing red blood cells. I played video games when I was younger, then when I went to college... I just studied.  I just didn't do anything while I was there.


Me: I think your type of style would hit it off with the geek crowd. I've seen a lot of nerds wearing... mini pieces of art on a t-shirt. What do you think?

Nate: I think a lot of different realms of people can appreciate it.  From little kids, to your high school student that just wants to wear something different, to a college student that might really like music, to scientists.  I've sold them to people I work with. People stop me and ask me about the shirt I'm wearing, about how much they love it.

Me: That's gotta be a good feeling, having people stop you and let you know how much they appreciate something you've worked on.

Nate:  That's the most encouragement that you can get, have someone you don't know buy this stuff and appreciate it so much.  I don't want to do anything unless people like it.  That's just how I am.  I have a realm of impatience and if I'm putting all of this time into this I want to know that other people are liking it.  Seeing people buying it is the most inspiration and encouragement that I could have.  Verification.

If they ever do an album, this needs to be the cover, via Somaphony

Nate/Somaphony is having a show this Thursday on 9/29/2011 at 8 PM up in The Dunes, in DC proper. Here's the info about it.  Why don't you stop by and check it out.  Say hi to him for me.  In case I'm a not able to make it.

This Week in Geek 2011/09/25

Space Shuttle Endeavor via Steve Jurvetson

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week. Mark your calendars.

Longer Term

• Art - NASA: 50 Years of Exploration - Washington, DC - Through 10/9
• From photography to paintings, drawings, and sculptures, this exhibition depicts not only the rockstar-like astronauts, but also "the anonymous scientists, engineers, technicians, managers, secretaries, and thousands of others who performed the myriad tasks required to operate a space program."
• Comedy - Hack and Slash: Shakespeare Massacre - Brooklyn Park, MD - 9/30, 10/1, 10/7, and 10/8 at 8:00 PM
• Disappointed that Hack and Slash weren't at renfaire this year? Here's your chance! The new theater show promises comedy, music, and sword fighting, all to the theme of "Why we hate that rotten bastard, William Shakespeare."
• Art - Round House Theater: Fahrenheit 451 - Bethesda, MD - Through 10/9
• A play by Ray Bradbury based on his book by the same name. The Round House Theater has posted some seriously trippy montages of the firemen and the mechanical hound.

"Is it true that a long time ago, firemen used to put out fires?" via Quinn Dombrowski

Tuesday

• General - Heavy Seas Beer Tasting on a Boat - Baltimore, MD - 6:30 PM
• Look down, back up. Where are you? You're on a boat, with Heavy Seas beer. If you didn't get enough pirates on Talk like a Pirate Day, here's your chance to get your fix.

Wednesday

• Holidays - Ask a Stupid Question Day
• Wikipedia tells us that the traditions of this holiday stretch back into the dark ages of the 1980's when people had to draw chalk horses on cave walls rather than search Google for things like "Were dinosaurs made up by the CIA?" Of course, if you're a geek working tech support, every day is Ask a Stupid Question Day.

Saturday

• Music - Deerhoof at the 9:30 Club - Washington, DC - 7:00 PM
• I first heard of Deerhoof a few years back when I started reading through the Questionable Content archives (comic #56 to be exact). And I still have no words with which to describe them other than "gleefully absurd."
• General - Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair - Washington, DC - 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
• Support indie crafters and artists by picking up some awesome handcrafted goods this weekend. The fair is free to attend and will also have entertainment, food, and prizes.

An exciting week! Get to it! Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours...). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

This Week in Geek 2011/09/19

Talk Like a Pirate Day via lsgcp

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week.  Mark your calendars.

Longer Term

• Festivals - National Book Festival - Washington, DC - Saturday to Sunday
• The Library of Congress's celebration of all things book related.  Well not all things, probably more literary focused.  If you're a book/lit nerd this will be your Comic Con. :)

Monday

• Holidays - Talk Like A Pirate Day
• ARRR! This is the day to use all of your bad pirate lingo.  ALL OF THE LINGO.  Do it now.  I mean.  ARRR! YOU BE SPEAKING ME LINGO THIS DAY.

Friday

• Geekish General - Stephen King at GMU - Fairfax, VA 
•  Super sold out.  But if you are lucky enough to have tickets to go you might be able to meet Stephen King.  Or at least bother him.  I don't recommend using this method.

Saturday

• Art - Art Carnage - Vienna, VA - 8:00 PM
• Crafters and makers at this month's Art Carnage.  Making stuff and stuff makers.  Really, I mean physical material types such as leather and cloth and such.  Yes. Yes.  That. Wait, what?
• Art - Tilted Torch: Kaledescope Kabaret -Washington, DC - 9:00 PM
• Multiple type variety show for Burlesque related activities.  Looks like some interesting hoop and belly dancing as well.

Sunday

• General - Movies On The Potomac: Inception - Oak Hill, MD - Dusk
• HOLY SHATNER.  I loved this movie.  And continue to love this movie.  I need that freakin' top.  Stat.

An exciting week! Get to it! Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours...). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

This Week in Geek 2011/09/12

Sailor Moon Party via Rob Speed

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week.  Mark your calendars.

Longer Term

• Conventions - Intervention 2011 - Rockville, MD - Friday to Sunday
•   A basic needs level nerd con.  Internet, geek talk, gaming, meme watching, and all sorts of related stuff.  Super Art Fight's showing up for this as well.

Monday

• Art - Clown Cabaret - Washington, DC - 8:00 PM
• Local clown comedy / performance piece.  Takes clowning to a serious level. :)

Tuesday

• General - Sailor Moon Party - Washington, DC - 5:00 PM
•  A celebration of the release of Sailor Moon.  Sailor Moon photo shoot and general gathering.  Sailor Moon has always had a presence at just about every nerd gathering I've been to or heard of.
• Music - Mediaeval Baebes - Alexandria, VA - 7:30 PM
• A musical performance by a group that normally comes out to play at the Maryland Reniassance Festival.  Doing their own solo performance.  Medieval styled music with a spash of comedy.
  

Saturday

• General - Run Geek Run! 8k - Washington, DC - 8:00 AM
• An attempt by a bunch of people to get geeks to exercise more often.  Sort of focused on those of that that work in office jobs and tend not to see the sun very often *cough*... I'm sure it's not that many people.  Themed run.
• General - Lolita Picnic -Washington, DC - 12:00 PM
• DC Anime club's second showing this week, for a Lolita themed picnic up in DC.  There are a couple of good talks and discussions on what Lolita is, but it has a very strong current in Anime, new and classic.
• Music - Devo Spice -  Rockville, MD - 12:00 PM
•  One of the musicians that are doing geek music I've been getting into more lately.  He's at Intervention 2011 for this.  I feel bad not listing a lot of other musicians there, but hey, he rarely seems to come out for non convention stuff. :(
  

An exciting week! Get to it! Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours...). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

This Week in Geek 2011/09/05

Reading is Oh So Sexy.  via Fey Ilyas

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week.  Mark your calendars.

Thursday

• General - Reading is Sexy Kindle Party - Vienna, VA - 7:00 PM
• Gathering to talk about what your reading on those E-Readers I see people carrying around all the time (I recently got one as well.  I'm heavily addicted already.  Stupid Codex Alera series).  So, discussions on what you're reading, some local writers will come out to talk about there works as well.

Saturday

• Gaming - Video Game Day Event - Washington, DC - 2:00 PM
• Video Gaming event covering a wide range of styles of video games.  Well a pretty wide range.  I doubt there will be much cooking mama. There should be more cooking mama.  ... And UmJammer Lammy.

Sunday

• Art - Movies on the Potomac: The Social Network - Oxon Hill, MD - Dusk
• Many of you will remember this as the movie about the founding of Facebook and the general popularization of social media today.  We're addicted.  Really badly.  Seriously.
• Festivals - Adams Morgan Day Festival - Washington, DC - 12:00 PM
• A... I'd say medium.. let's go with medium sized festival in Adams Morgan.  Lots of fun multi-cultural food, seems to be focused on Asian, European, and Central American themes.  Don't quote me on that one.

An exciting week! Get to it! Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours...). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

Reoccuring Roundup September 2011

MD Renaissance Festival via Jeff Kubina

This is a round up the weekly reoccurring events, so you all are aware of what's going on.  Give them a look if you're bored on the appropriate day.  These aren't covered in our TWIGs, because... well they would saturate the non regular events.  And because I don't hate myself for having to type the same thing a billion times. :) 

Longer Term

• General - Maryland Renaissance Festival - Washington, DC - Fridays and Saturday (and Labor Day)
• Dressing up like we live in an area were poo was everywhere.  And I mean everywhere. But we ignore that for now.  Thankfully.  I have yet to go to a Ren faire where it didn't rain during or just before.  I'm starting to think that's just ambiance. Lots of fun, eat things on a stick.  Good shows in general.
• Geekish General - Ghost Tours: DC's Most Haunted Houses - Washington, DC - Thursday, Friday, Saturday
• Tour of the most haunted houses in DC.  Considering the near obsession with ghosts and vampires and the like in modern sci/fi fantasy, checking this out and seeing where those stories are grounded should be an interesting experience.

Tuesday

• Gaming - Chantilly Miniatures Night - Chantilly, VA - 5:30 PM
• An interesting gaming group that gets together to play a variety of miniature games.  Usually games workshop games like Warhammer.

 Wednesday

• Gaming - Dead Man's Chess & Coffee - Vienna, VA - 7:00 PM
• Chess and coffee night at a local coffee house / art studio.

Thursday

•  General - Brains, Beers, & Battlestar Galatica - Washington, DC - 9:00 PM
• Trivia and drinking night.  Not actually about Battlestar, but a general nerd trivia night.
• General - The Jefllyvision Show: Live! - Vienna, VA - 7:00 PM
• Fantastic and fun.  Streamed over the intertubes as well as show live in Vienna.  Very nonsensical, light hearted and entertaining.  Very Bizarre.  We did a review of them already.  Check it out.

Friday

• General - Rock & Roll Spelling Buzz - Washington, DC - 6:00 PM
• Spelling Bee and drinking.  Yes, that will make the spelling part... or speaking part, slightly more difficult.  What, are you against a challenge?
• Gaming - NOVAG Game Night - Chantilly, VA - 7:00 PM
• Northern Virginia Gamers hosts a general gaming night where the games played change week by week. For the most part board games.
• Geekish General - Pirates of the Drunken Ferret - Silver Spring, MD - 7:30 PM
• The 'house band' for the Piratz Tavern performs every Friday night with pirate themed music, drinking shanties and all sorts of merriment.
• Art - Hirshorn After Hours - Washington, DC - 8:00 PM
• Sort of social drinking with art discussion / appreciation.  Think art nerd mingling scene.  Goes pretty late.
• Art - Belly Dancing with Rosie - Silver Spring, MD - 10:00 PM
• Piratz Tavern has a show with belly dancing by the wonderful Rosie every Friday after the Pirates of the Drunken Ferret are done performing.

Hellmouth Happy Hour.  Looks nothing like this.  (most certainly owned by Wheedon or the like)

Saturday

• General - Hellmouth Happy Hour - Washington, DC - 7:00 PM
• The watching of Whedonverse media combined with drink specials.  Really, who came up with this idea?  Evil.
• General - Rocky Horror Picture Show Shadowcast - Fairfax, VA - Midnight
• Ok, technically this is Sunday, but it doesn't count as Sunday until I sleep.  That's the rule.  A shadowcast performs Rocky live while we all enjoy it on the big screen.  Huge nerd tradition for ages.

More detailed information about these events and others on the DC Geeks Website. 

Do you know of awesome going on around the DC area?  Please let us know! Drop us a line here, or send an email to events at dc-geeks dot com with the scoop.  All of geekdom (nerdopolis?) will appreciate it and we'll all have even more awesome things to check out. :)