Snapshots
A few pictures from the weekend, for your amusement.

I wore a ton of makeup while playing the role of Katlin, Iron Wolf's ward. It was stage makeup, effective both in bringing out my facial features so they could be seen from a distance and in making me seem... slutty. I haven't worn that much makeup in my entire life. Not since maybe a halloween ten years ago. Not even to prom, thank God, even though I know girls who did. Despite my gripes with face paint and the bad habit I have of constantly wearing just a bit, I was pleased and surprised that it didn't feel nearly as nasty as I expected it to. And I also had a bit of fun with the effect. Do I make a good trollop? I'm only looking perturbed in this picture because the sun is in my eyes.

Kathy, who played my "nurse" had to cake on the face paint to age herself. She's not really that old... the silver hair is a wig. I do pity her wearing the shawl, though.

Jester, the hyena-man, has a bit more than makeup to put on, though he wears that, too. Before gluing on his mask, he puts in red contacts-- he would have been wearing full-eye black lenses had he not torn one-- and paints black around his eyes, nose, mouth and any other area visible from outside his costume. The effect afterwards is really remarkable. Because of the size of the head you can't see the face underneath the mask at all. The mouth of the mask even moves when he talks. It's put on in two pieces. First, the jaw, which straps to the back of the head and enables the "talking" effect, and then the face which is glued via spirit gum to Dave's own face. MMMM. Spirit gum. He's not hiding his face to be cute in this picture; he's pressing the mask onto the glue on his skin. You should hear it when it pulls off. Like one huge motherfucking band-aid.

Justin doesn't have to worry about make-up (though he might look cute if he did), he'd sweat it all off anyway. He just has to be able to act and fight. He works with the Blue faction, a shiny, money-grubbing group. He's shown in this photo with Anne, his adopted stage sister. They have practically the same armor so they play it off like they're twins.

Finally, I leave you with Man-Killer, the horse who fell on Lee. That's his wife petting the horse before the show. I wonder if they had a spat and she hexed it... maybe it had something to do with a certain little redheaded stepchild? Nevermind. Actually, the horse's name is Crescendo, called "Cres" for short, but we're thinking we'll opt for "Crush" from now on. Poor horse is really quite sweet and VERY fast, it's just that he's "green" and hasn't ever done a faire before. The Greenwood jousting field is notoriously noisy with the drums from the bellydancing group only 20 feet away and with nearly hourly gunfire and cannon shots from all about the camp. I don't blame Cres for freaking out. Still, I'm becoming more and more convinced that horses are some of the stupidest animals ever. Why the hell does a freak-out merit rearing up and flipping over onto your rider? Armored rider or no, you think the horse might have their own welfare in mind.

Well, what the fuck, nothing ever makes sense at Faire. That's why it's so much fun to step into the surreal all weekend. I can't wait for the next one... Hood River, Oregon on the 19th of this month. And in the interrum, Country Faire in Eugene!!! Huzzah!