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Stacey and I went to the county fair Friday evening. Was fun. We hadn't been since we moved out of Santa Cruz in 2001. Say what you want but I like the fair. We don't ride rides or do the games. I'm actually so demented as to like to go and look at the displays of giant vegetables and the FFFA and 4H crafts exhibits and stuff.
Also, I go for stuff to draw. I find a lot of the carnival rides interesting to look at, plus the animals. This year, I mostly took a few photos for reference and decided to draw later. I was amused that they had an emu in the petting zoo area. HEY KIDS! Pet and emu!
Well, more like, "HEY KIDS! Give the emu some f***ing food or he'll peck you right in the soft spot of your skull and kill you, you little bastards!"
Regardless, watching the emu mug people for food amused me quite a bit.
This year we also used it as an opportunity to look at different breeds of chickens and discuss whether or not we might actually consider producing our own eggs in a few years. I'm generally in favor of guinea hens. They seem slightly less stupid than chickens and are definitely not as noisy or stinky BUT, realistically, guineas are kind of large and produce more eggs than we're ever likely to need. Stacey suggests bantams. They're small so we could keep enough of them to make them to make them feel like a 'flock' and keep them happy. Also, they will lay without a rooster so that would mean no annoying noise. I'm still pretty on the fence about it though and, realistically, we wouldn't even consider it until next year so, just stuff to think about.
Next we went and looked at the antique tractors, cars, and bicycles. My favorites were the Porshe Tractor (which you KNEW was a Porsche the moment you saw it. Streamlined, bright red, looking more like a race car. It was awesome) The Gear-Wheel tractors (which I may try to model in 3D from photographs) and the lights on some of the vehicles. (In particular, the headlamps on an early Mercedes and the headlamp on a 1900 bicycle. Instead of a candle or oil lamp, it was actually carbide. How cool is that? :)
Outside the tractors, I saw this, and felt I should get a photo for paka How often do you see a sheep with dredlocks afterall? :)
After that, we looked through the landscaping and flower arrangements. I think there's been some better competition in previous years. There was a lovely exhibit of bonsai though, including a juniper that has been maintained for 130 years. (The next oldest was a redwood bonsai at 83) I keep thinking about doing bonsai but... Maybe some year. :)
Finally of course, the arts and crafts exhibits. It was interesting. Most of the adult art I looked at it and even in the 'professional' section, I felt like "This isn't really outside what I can produce." The first and second place works were the only things that really felt 'better' than my work. Which I suppose makes sense. You get a lot of submissions from people who are reasonably competent and then a few that are excellent. Should have depressed me that didn't feel I was in the excellent group but... being the top end of average isn't so bad.
There was also some really good stuff in the children's work. That also surprisingly didn't depress me. Often I get sort of bitter that art was verboten for me as a child but.. I dunno. On the other hand, it was cool to see that some kids have awesome parents are are encouraged to do stuff.
In the poetry submissions, I only read the winning pieces (which was probably unfair, given that IMO the adult non-pro watercolor paintings subdivision was horribly mis-judged) Of them, I surprisingly liked one of the children's submissions best. More surprisingly it was about going to church. I'd started it with the cynical view of, "Yeah, using religion always gets extra points with judges." And that's true. I get so sick of the "Thank you Jesus" type credits in student films but it does seem to often get a slight bias. But.. This particular case, it seemed like it deserved the win. ... I must be going soft.
The photography category was somewhat disappointing. Really nothing new, nothing I hadn't seen before. Not really even anything with interesting angles or contrast or subject matter to really make me stop and think about it. Somewhat disappointing really. I'm wondering if digital photography and editing techniques have just made it easy and cheap enough to take good photos that what separates 'excellent' from merely 'really good' has shrank to near-zero so there's less shock factor in seeing an excellent photograph because the world is saturated with them now. I guess I'd have to make a more comprehensive study of modern photography to really get a better idea of that. Something I will keep an eye out for, I guess.
The homecrafts section seems to have gotten smaller in recent years. There were a couple of really attractive quilts and one idea that was new to me, and in clothes making, I was surprised to see one piece that was a bit post-modern and ravish made from recycled pieces. Kinda cool.
And finally, the most horrifying and human part of the fair... The collections. ... Oh god... The collections.... Why do people fill their life with such crap? Rodeo Belt Buckles, Beanie Babies, Care Bears, Justin Bieber photos, and... ( Quite literally... )
I felt we had to photo that for paka and prickvixen
On the way out, I took some photos of the midway and found five bucks. Not a bad evening. :)
Also, I go for stuff to draw. I find a lot of the carnival rides interesting to look at, plus the animals. This year, I mostly took a few photos for reference and decided to draw later. I was amused that they had an emu in the petting zoo area. HEY KIDS! Pet and emu!
Well, more like, "HEY KIDS! Give the emu some f***ing food or he'll peck you right in the soft spot of your skull and kill you, you little bastards!"
Regardless, watching the emu mug people for food amused me quite a bit.
This year we also used it as an opportunity to look at different breeds of chickens and discuss whether or not we might actually consider producing our own eggs in a few years. I'm generally in favor of guinea hens. They seem slightly less stupid than chickens and are definitely not as noisy or stinky BUT, realistically, guineas are kind of large and produce more eggs than we're ever likely to need. Stacey suggests bantams. They're small so we could keep enough of them to make them to make them feel like a 'flock' and keep them happy. Also, they will lay without a rooster so that would mean no annoying noise. I'm still pretty on the fence about it though and, realistically, we wouldn't even consider it until next year so, just stuff to think about.
Next we went and looked at the antique tractors, cars, and bicycles. My favorites were the Porshe Tractor (which you KNEW was a Porsche the moment you saw it. Streamlined, bright red, looking more like a race car. It was awesome) The Gear-Wheel tractors (which I may try to model in 3D from photographs) and the lights on some of the vehicles. (In particular, the headlamps on an early Mercedes and the headlamp on a 1900 bicycle. Instead of a candle or oil lamp, it was actually carbide. How cool is that? :)
After that, we looked through the landscaping and flower arrangements. I think there's been some better competition in previous years. There was a lovely exhibit of bonsai though, including a juniper that has been maintained for 130 years. (The next oldest was a redwood bonsai at 83) I keep thinking about doing bonsai but... Maybe some year. :)
Finally of course, the arts and crafts exhibits. It was interesting. Most of the adult art I looked at it and even in the 'professional' section, I felt like "This isn't really outside what I can produce." The first and second place works were the only things that really felt 'better' than my work. Which I suppose makes sense. You get a lot of submissions from people who are reasonably competent and then a few that are excellent. Should have depressed me that didn't feel I was in the excellent group but... being the top end of average isn't so bad.
There was also some really good stuff in the children's work. That also surprisingly didn't depress me. Often I get sort of bitter that art was verboten for me as a child but.. I dunno. On the other hand, it was cool to see that some kids have awesome parents are are encouraged to do stuff.
In the poetry submissions, I only read the winning pieces (which was probably unfair, given that IMO the adult non-pro watercolor paintings subdivision was horribly mis-judged) Of them, I surprisingly liked one of the children's submissions best. More surprisingly it was about going to church. I'd started it with the cynical view of, "Yeah, using religion always gets extra points with judges." And that's true. I get so sick of the "Thank you Jesus" type credits in student films but it does seem to often get a slight bias. But.. This particular case, it seemed like it deserved the win. ... I must be going soft.
The photography category was somewhat disappointing. Really nothing new, nothing I hadn't seen before. Not really even anything with interesting angles or contrast or subject matter to really make me stop and think about it. Somewhat disappointing really. I'm wondering if digital photography and editing techniques have just made it easy and cheap enough to take good photos that what separates 'excellent' from merely 'really good' has shrank to near-zero so there's less shock factor in seeing an excellent photograph because the world is saturated with them now. I guess I'd have to make a more comprehensive study of modern photography to really get a better idea of that. Something I will keep an eye out for, I guess.
The homecrafts section seems to have gotten smaller in recent years. There were a couple of really attractive quilts and one idea that was new to me, and in clothes making, I was surprised to see one piece that was a bit post-modern and ravish made from recycled pieces. Kinda cool.
And finally, the most horrifying and human part of the fair... The collections. ... Oh god... The collections.... Why do people fill their life with such crap? Rodeo Belt Buckles, Beanie Babies, Care Bears, Justin Bieber photos, and... ( Quite literally... )
I felt we had to photo that for paka and prickvixen
On the way out, I took some photos of the midway and found five bucks. Not a bad evening. :)
