THE SAINT ALBAN'S GUILD OFFICIAL WEB PAGE
Welcome to the web site! Here you'll find updates of guild activities and plans for the future.
MOTHER BOMBEY MAKES A STATEMENT
It is now, unbelievably, January of 2003. And I'm only now updating the site ... well, it's been a busy couple of years, my dears, and a lot of beer has gone under the bridge. With the addition of young and able Guildmembers able to work on the site with me, and hit me with a big stick when I balk, this will now be kept up on more regular basis.
In the meantime, there is now a Yahoo list for the Guild, called greenmaninn: look for it and join, and be regaled with more daily silliness in your mail than you could ever hope for. Photo albums are included, and the one on this site is being updated as well. Thanks to Neassa Skjold for these marvellous additions to our communication!
So, what have we been doing? We have the honor to be among the founding participants at the As You Like It productions of marvellous mid-size Renaissance Faires in Santa Barbara and now at Stafford Lake in Novato. We're back under the oaks! The Green Man rises proud, tall and beery in both beautiful venues, happily dispensing food, drink and stage space to all our participant brethren. We continue to perform our plays in the street on the venerable Pageant Wagon. This year at Stafford Lake, we branched out into actually singing on a real, stationary stage, and the ladies of the Inn were a warbling success.
We have also joined the new/old/back from the past Dickens Christmas Fair. This was our third year in the Cow Palace in San Francisco, and the event was an oustanding artistic success. St. Albans is still running the Green Man even there, but now we are the Green Man Public House - clinging to respectability with both hands, and once again frequented by every social class that can think of an excuse to come in and have a pint. Mrs. Bombay (yes, like the gin) and her numerous daughter and dependents preside over a charming parlour and an even more charming full-service bar, and Extreme Christmas is celebrated with all our might and main. Make plans, Dear Readers, to come see us next Yuletide. We are open to participants and patrons both, so the mix of entertainment, conversation and jolly times is unparalleled.
OUR 2003 PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Our schedule this year calls for a long spring hiatus - since the Santa Barbara Faire will be postponed to Spring of 2004 - and then a 5-week run at the Stafford Lake Heart of the Forest Faire in Novato this July and August. If you, Dear Readers, did not attend our maiden run last year - come on down! It's a grand site and a wonderful Faire, and you can come celebrate under the Novato oaks once again.
We will then recover and change gears, and return to the Dickens Christmas Fair in November and December. Once again the Cow Palace will be transformed into Victorian London, and the holiday-inclined can gather and carol to their heart's content. It's a wonder and a privilege that Albans's can thus spend its Christmas-es together and extend our family widely throughout the holidays.
The long rest in the Spring will be a much-needed rest: three back-to-back events in 2002 have left everyone a little frazzled. Our homes are covered in fabric scraps from three Faires and as many centuries, and our children are never sure if they are wearing jeans or wool or satin on the weekends. Some of us will continue to attend some small Faires, just to keep their hands in, and we older members will probably sleep until May. Either way, we will be rested and ready to leap back into the deeper stream by July.
WHAT'S TO COME ON THIS SITE?
Our long sleep is over. St. Albans is now well-established on its own, and happily engaged in several events a year. We have found a new way of life - migratory, gourmet Faires that go up in two weeks, come down in one and then roll on happily to the next venue. Brigadoon lives in our storage units and flourishes under any oaks we find. The Road goes ever on and on, we are Dancing in the Street, and a Splendid Time Is Guaranteed for All!
Updates and new features will continue here - watch for the goodies. Sometime this week there will be a brief review of the Renaissance Symposium this weekend past, for example. In the meantime, Kage Baker's original, wonderful Village and Dragon story is still here, I am about to add a weekly Bully Pulpit feature, we have a new Guild chat site, photo albums are proliferating, and all is well. The language guide Kage and I wrote so many years ago will soon be posted for download, as well as references and a bibliography for my interminable Women's Lifestyles lectures. So, come and check us out!
This website is still very much a work in progress, but it'll be our flagship and our fort as we strike
out into the future. Take a look at our History Page, and find out more than you ever wanted to know
about St. Albans. Guildmembers past and present, look for your name in our stream-of-consciousness
roster at the end - if you don't see it, (or at least not all of it) drop me an E-mail an we'll rectify
it at once.
Comments, questions, and just plain greetings are all welcome at all times.
The Green Man rises with the moon ...
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