Item:
”
Thousands of people lined the streets of Gilroy on Sunday in
tribute to fallen Marine Jeramy Ailes, who was killed fighting in
Iraq earlier this month.
”
It was cold out there. Looking east on First from Westwood, it
seemed as though half of Gilroy must be waiting on the sidewalks,
chatting quietly with friends, corralling small children before
they darted into the street, teaching bigger ones not to let their
flags touch the ground.
Item: “Thousands of people lined the streets of Gilroy on Sunday in tribute to fallen Marine Jeramy Ailes, who was killed fighting in Iraq earlier this month.”
It was cold out there. Looking east on First from Westwood, it seemed as though half of Gilroy must be waiting on the sidewalks, chatting quietly with friends, corralling small children before they darted into the street, teaching bigger ones not to let their flags touch the ground.
Just as the sun touched the peaks of the Coast Range, the police cruisers rounded the corner from Santa Teresa and the procession began to pass. And it passed, and passed, and passed, until it seemed that the other half of Gilroy must be in those cars. I wept and shivered. Chacho and Jennifer Mariscal loaned me a blanket. What a great town.
Item: “The tribe of Miwok Indians hoping to build a casino in San Benito County has hired a private company to perform an economic impact report.”
How interesting! I thought there were only four Miwoks in this tribe, and that they were poverty stricken. Who exactly hired the private company to write the EIR? How much did they pay? Or is the company to be paid on contingency, only if the proposal is approved? When did it become politically correct to refer to Native Americans as Indians? And why are these Miwoks insisting on building in San Benito County rather than on their ancestral land between Stockton and Yosemite?
Item: Governor Schwarzenegger’s DMV appointee Joan Borucki advocates putting a transponder into every car in California to report distance driven, so that we can be taxed by the mile. She says she will no longer tax us on the gas we burn. Promises, promises.
Questions: Would this not be a gross invasion of privacy? Why should we drive little fuel efficient cars if we have to pay by the mile? Will not the transponder raise the price of cars sold in California? And if they really need money for roads, why do they not use all the gas tax revenues for roads instead of diverting it into the General Fund year after year?
Item: Northern California Renaissance Faire will return to Casa de Fruta next fall, despite the low attendance of the season past, which was probably exacerbated by foul weather. If attendance does not improve next year, Play Faire may have to give up.
I love the Ren Faire. I love the costumes, the swords, the crafts, the food, the plays and wandering entertainers. I especially love the actors, from Queen Elizabeth down to the pair of scallywags who implored my husband and me to hire them as servants. (We refused; their references were terrible.)
Next year I hope we have perfectly fair Faire weather, and huge crowds, that all the vendors make scads of money, and the Faire’s future is secured.
One way to increase Faire awareness, income, and possibly attendance would be to resurrect the Workshops in the Woods. These were held in former years on weekdays for school groups. South Valley Homeschoolers Association attended one, nigh on 10 years ago, driving up to the North Bay for the day. We watched a joust, learned to make baskets and acted in a play, Pyramis and Thisbe, among other delights.
Another idea might be to stage an actual Shakespeare play – and I do not mean the Shakespeare-lite Faire fare, as when Katherine in “Taming of the Shrew” speaks in the same breath of suitors and hooters.
True, most Faire patrons will not want to sit through a three and a half hour play. But Shakespeare buffs will drive to Ashland to see a good play. They might be delighted to drive to Casa de Fruta and get a whole Faire and a beer along with their fix.
My last suggestion would be more historical authenticity as regards religion and sex. Elizabethan England was Church of England, with Catholicism tolerated and Separatists persecuted, not neo-pagan. Modesty was a virtue. Polyamorism is an anachronism, and, in strictly economic terms, it is debatable whether it boosts attendance or depresses it.
