[Bards] Contributing problems

[Cisco Cividanes]

I whole heartedly agree that we need to work to improve out current station. 

And to augment a previous statement by another, the year Master Ulf Gunarson became Kingdom bard was decided by a double elimination turney, and that was only five or six years ago if memory serves me, maybe a LITTLE more, but not much. 

However, I would like to say something that I feel needs saying.

If anyone takes offense to this, I'll apologies now. But I feel that this is true, and have seen examples where it has really been a problem. 

There are bad bards out there,  I'm not talking about people who occasionally forget a line, or who don't put enough emotion into the poetry, or don't do totally period pieces. These are all part and parcel with bardic. But there are people out there who's stage presence is bad enough that people get up and leave, and out of politeness, we don't tell them that they stink. 

Now don't go and skin me alive! I'm not saying we need to have entrance exams to become a bard. I'm just saying that I have seen some competitions have low audience attendance in part (large or small is for God alone to know at this point) because people don't want to sit through all of the pieces that are way too long/way too boring/being poorly performed...

I wish there were a less ugly way of saying this, and I don't claim to have the answers. But while we're all trying to build up bardic, keep in mind that just like bards of the past, our craft depends on an audience, and the audience had to want to be there. 

Ivo Blackhawk
Bard of Wiesenfeuer