NR - Bardic ribbons

[dssweet at okstate.edu]

This was posted to the Minstrel list and is reposted with permission. So if
anyone sees blue or blue and red ribbons displayed (or blue & green -
meaning period & peri-oid music - suggested by others), this is what they
just might be referring to. She says "use at Pennsic" but I think it would
work equally well at other events.

Estrill

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From: Vanessa Layne <dagoura at MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2000 17:42:14 -0500
Subject: minstrel: Bardic RFC 0001

I sent the following to the east-kingdom list yesterday to some modest
acclaim.  It was in a thread concerning promoting bardic arts.  Pass it on
if you like.

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I hereby unilaterally decree that a blue (blue being a color associated
with music in almost every major work of popular fantasy concerning music
in the 20th century :) ribbon or rope tied to a gate post or otherwise
prominently displayed at a camp entrance means "BARDS WELCOME HERE NOW (we
feed!)".

And furthermore, blue and red twined together and tied to a gate post or
otherwise prominently displayed at a camp entrance means "BARDS WELCOME
HERE NOW (we feed!) PERIOD MATERIAL ONLY".

Use this at Pennsic.  Be sure only to put out the ribbons when you actually
*do* want performers.  If a bard wanders into your camp for performance and
you're not there but left the ribbons up, they will be cranky.  If you
leave the ribbons up and late at night a bard wakes you up, you will be
cranky.  Corollary: ribbons should come down when you have a performer in
your camp performing, so one performer doesn't walk in on another.

Bards: Scour Pennsic looking for gates with blue or blue+red ribbons. When
you find one, take the ribbon down and enter; offer your services.  If they
say "What are you doing with our gate decorations?" say "Didn't you know?
A blue ribbon is a sign that you are welcoming bards into your camp and
offering them your hospitality in exchange for performance."  We can have
the Knowne World trained in no time. :)

Wouldn't it be *NEAT*?  There'd arise a whole tradition of itinerant
performers, going camp to camp, kind of like the historical wandering
minstrels, only in small and much better fed.  You'd have random bards
knocking on your gates asking if you want to be entertained -- but only
when convenient for you.  Baby bards wouldn't have to wait hours for single
slots at bardics, but could go out an earn a reputation and get lots of
performance shots.

I recommend color-fast ribbons. :) I also recommend the protocol that the
performer performs, *then* is paid as the patron sees fit. Otherwise crappy
or stingy performers (stingy== "I sang my song, where's my dinner?") will
be the death of the system.

- -- Tibicen
   tibicen at carolingia.org



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