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Michigan Pirate Fest, August 2012 - Grand Haven, MI
Photo: Mission
M.A. d'Dogge taking advice from one of the Jack Sparrows
Epilogue: The last word(s) on the event from the surgeon, featuring A tip of the Patrick Hand Original Planter's Hat to the photographers and the leftover photographs that didn't quite fit elsewhere. There. Short and sweet.
This was a really curious sort of event for me. I had never been quite so involved in a Renaissance Festival style event. True, we were kind of off in our own little period correct world back in the corner, but it was rather fascinating look at the way the more pop-pirate focused folks do things.
I really liked the jumbled historical aspect of the event. It would have been fascinating to have a whole troop of Roman soldiers, a squad of American civil war reeneactors and horde of vikings on hand. Perhaps that's something the event can seek to do in the future. It was a lot of fun, although your surgeon tended to fade a bit into the background with all those colorfully-dressed pirates and Ren Faire folk running around. However, the people who sidled up to my table were interested, proving that if you can't get 'em with flash, you can sometimes get 'em with information.
As always, I must take a moment to thank the photographers who took the time to capture moments, post them where they could be seen and borrowed and gave me permission to use them.
Rootjack  Photo: Dolphin Danie |
Sos Boss  Photo: Sos Boss |
Dolphin Danie Photo: DB Couper |
Marci Kroska  Photo: Someone |
Sergio Mazzotta Photo: Rootjack |
Clint Beach  Photo: Mission |
Mission  Photo: Caribbean Pearl |
Trish Gallatin Photo: DB Couper |
Mark Gist  Photo: Mission |
Amanda MacDonald Photo: Someone |
And that brings us to the remnants - the litter of photos on the virtual cutting room floor of the Surgeon's Journal for the Michigan Pirate Festival. We're going to start off with some neat still life pictures. (Yeah, they're not as much fun as the people pictures, but indulge me. It's my Journal after all.)
 Photo: Sergio Mazzotta "Hooray! The rabbit kicked the bucket!" |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie "Doubloons. And Triploons. And, uh, Quadrooploons." |
 Photo: Mission "I'm a happy miser." |
Now we can move on to the photos of people - there were a lot of interesting photos of folks. Let's begin with the Forsaken crew.
 Photo: Sos Boss "The map said 21 paces..." |
 Photo: Mission "What? It's a weapon!" |
 Photo: Mission People used to chat over fences. |
 Photo: Sos Boss Wasn't this full when we started? |
Next we turn to the Mercury crew - Jennie Gist in particular. You never see as much of Jennie in these Journals as you should, so let's remedy that right now.
 Photo: Mission Jennie holding court with the pretty pirates. And Thomas. |
 Photo: Marci Kroska Jennie Gist at home base |
Photo: Sos Boss
Mission - unprepared and unawares.
Then there are the support staff of the Mercury - the surgeon in particular. You always see too much of him in these Journals for your own good, but there is no remedy for that because he writes them.
I believe I mentioned a story or two about Carla, my new 'go to' substitute for the surgeon's table. I should really not tell you these stories because after she reads them she may discover what a hotdog I am and decide not to be my 'go to' substitute. But the story always comes first, right?
Carla offered to fill in for me so I could go a-wandering and see what I could see of the rest of the event. She actually did this several times as I've noted, which was really most generous of her. I must have been
Photo: Sergio Mazzotta
gone too long on one of the trips because when I returned, I found Mark Gist working my table. "Where's Carla?" I asked. "She left," Mark explained. "Some people walked up and I started telling them about your bone saw and she wandered off." I asked Carla about this and she explained that Mark seemed to be able to handle it.
OK, just one more. Carla came over and offered to work the table so that I could go across to Shananigens and grab a bite to eat. She then got into a discussion with my neighbor, Jennie Gist. A group walked up to the surgeon's table, but she kept on talking to Jennie. Finally I called over to her and she put her index finger up and said, "Just a minute," and kept chatting with Jennie. So I called her again and she turned impatiently toward me and started to say something like, "I was just talking with... Oh, HI!" That last was, of course, directed at the people who were standing patiently at the table, staring at the instruments.
 Photo: Sos Boss The bright pink surgeon sitting at his table of instruments on Sunday. |
 Photo: Marci Kroska Surgeon Sub Carla of the Sos Boss collective |
Photo: Plundered
Thomas Alleman showed up on Saturday night, coming from another event somewhere in Michigan. If I recall correctly, it was a French & Indian War event and he was wearing F&I War clothing. Of course, since the theme of the event was 'Pirates Thru the Ages' he fit right in. In fact, he could have been wearing a Cleopatra outfit and fit right in. (Well, sort of.)
Not finding anyone in camp on Saturday night, I'm guessing that Thomas called someone to find out where everyone was. Either that or he just wandered into to town to see what was going on. (Imagine him doing that in a Cleopatra outfit. Better yet, don't.)
For some reason to which I am not privy, Thomas agreed to have his hair braided by Mary Diamond. Or maybe he actively sought to have it braided. What do I know? I wasn't there; I was sitting around a campfire with the Dufrense children when it happened. Whatever the chain of events that led to this, it would have fit the Cleopatra motif nicely. (I did notice he still had the remnants of the braids when the stockade photo below left was taken on Sunday afternoon...)
 Photo: Sergio Mazzotta Thomas in stocks. With a frowny face. And braids. |
 Photo: Clint Beach Thomas gets a makeover |
 Photo: Clint Beach Thomas Longstocking |
Next we turn to Gaston. Why Gaston? Why not Gaston? Gaston (aka Dennis Dufrense) has a tendency to pose for photos that project his crackling dry sense of humor - which your author finds amusing. Of course, you see none of those below because I want to be the one exhibiting the crackling dry sense of humor. Below left, we see how Gaston enters the library. He must check out an awful lot of books, what? Below center, Gaston is explaining the direction of the best restaurants in town to Hookah Joe. Below right, we find Gaston with Shaana Way. Alright, there's no really joke here, I just wanted an excuse to put that picture of Shaana Way in the Journal somewhere.
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Gaston with his chest |
 Photo: Mission "Go that way until your feet get wet. Then you've found the water." |
 Photo: Mission Gaston and Shaana Way |
These last couple of photos of the crew don't really have a theme, I just sort of liked them or thought they were funny. Either that or I mistakenly put them in the Epilogue photo folder when I meant to put them in the Unused Photos folder on my memory stick and tried so hard to think of the reason I put them there that I came up with some lame joke for them.
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Jaunty Dave discovers the treasure |
 Photo: Sergio Mazzotta Marci. Now THAT's a feather. |
 Photo: Mission Rats searches the grounds for... Shaana Way! |
 Photo: Dolphin Danie Rabbit Ear détente. |
 Photo: Sos Boss "...lizard eats paper. Paper disproves Spock..." |
 Photo: Sergio Mazzotta "And now... take a rumba!" |
Photo: Sergio Mazzotta
Colleen Murphy & parrot hat
Photo: Stolen
Granny & parrot hat
I spotted a lot of parrots at the Michigan Pirate Festival. Most of them were fake parrots which reminded me disturbingly of the prat at Pirates in Paradise in 2008. *shudder* I'm sorry, just give me a moment to collect myself... OK.
Fortunately, all these parrots in hats also remind me of the Sylvester and Tweety cartoon A Bird in a Bonnet. Just give me a moment to go watch it again... OK!
Now as cartooney as these things seem (especially after that last comment), sailors actually did bring parrots, monkeys and other exotic animals back to their home ports because they could get a fairly good price for them. Why pirates would want to have them around, getting seeds all over the place and leaving droppings is a bit of a mystery, but what can you do?
 Photo: Rootjack Parrot nuzzling his master. |
 Photo: Rootjack He's not pining for the fields! He's pushing up daisies! |
 Photo: Sergio Mazzotta Real parrot. On real belly dancer. Really |
There were some other curious animal goings-on at the event. Some events are animal intensive like Paynestown was. (You couldn't throw a stone without hitting a dog at that event. Not that I'm suggesting you throw stones. Except when you're at a trial lawyers convention, of course.) This event was not quite like that, but there were some interesting animal specimens out and about during the weekend.
 Photo: Mission Dragon on shoulder? |
 Photo: Rootjack "Say, someone left the lid on the cooler open just for me!" |
 Photo: Rootjack I'm not sure I want to guess what this is. |
Photo: Sergio Mazzotta
This is what's known as fighting fire with fire.
Photo: Pirated
The great Henry Gondorff
Of course, everywhere you went you were confronted by pirates, brigands, highwaymen and rogues. (It was a pirate festival after all.) As a result, you were always in danger of getting into a fight or being robbed, even when walking down the street in the broad daylight.
This may sound like the perfect pirate environment, but one must always remember the sage words of Henry Gondorff: "No sense being a grifter if its the same as bein' a citizen."
 Photo: Sergio Mazzotta Bill held up by the world's youngest highwayman. |
 Photo: Rootjack A gang of gunsels. Dandies with derringers. A passel of parsnips. (Wait...) |
Speaking of zombies, even though we haven't in several chapters, there was the whole episode of hanging Billie Beach. (Yes, yes, I know that I already talked about this. So sue me.) Since he was to be hung by the neck until dead -which it appears he was- and then he came back to life - which it appears he did- he must be a zombie. And I'm not just saying that because zombies are popular and putting that bit of text in here may help the Surgeon's Journal appear in more Google searches. (As far as you know, I'm not.)
 Photo: Sergio Mazzotta d'Dogge and Rats sanctimoniously hang Billie |
 Photo: Sergio Mazzotta But Billie comes back to life! Aiiieeeee! |
 Photo: Sergio Mazzotta Only to be beaten by a kid with a bone. |
Photo: Trish
Shannon eating an apple. ! !! !!!
Photo: Amanda MacDonald
"An apple? There can be no God..."
We close this Journal as we did the last one - with Shannon. Why? I have no idea.
It seems that during a break, Shannon sat down in the Shananigens' Lounge and ate... an apple!
Some of you may not understand the gravity of that last sentence. Shannon...apple...it's just not done. They're not used in the same sentence. Shannon can gulp a cup of coffee in one swig. He can eat red meat and processed foods all day long. But fruit? Never. And apples are fruit. So you must appreciate how incomprehensible the picture you see at left really is. It's like coming across a nude photo of the Rosanne Barr.