Magecraft in the News!

Our friend Ik the Troll has left the Georgia Renaissance Festival to join the goodlies over at the Tennessee Renaissance Festival! He has been, despite his gruffness, a dear and noble friend, and occasionally he's been as silly as yours truly! And not only does the Ikster's MySpace presence endure, so too does his YouTube channel, along with his residency at Atlanta's Dragon*Con. The Ikster is also, I might add, a great organizer --- for a Troll, anyway. Case in point: AirTime, a once-in-a-lifetime kite-flying spectacular, at Swift Cantrell Park in Kennesaw, Georgia. There was the Ikster, collecting donations for Bert's Big Adventure, the event's primary charity, which provides families a very special visit to the Disney Florida Parks. Fabulous news, dearest Ik! As ever, don't forget to brush your fangs!

FaireNews.com wants you to meet your Dragonmaster's favorite lute-strummer, Master Craig!

The power is back on! That would be Sesame Workshop's The Electric Company, and if you're ready for recharging, I advise you Mortals to get in on the fun, right now --- only on PBS Kids!

Happy 20th Birthday, Ojai Renaissance & Pirate Faire! And what a joy it is to know that Elizabeth I (alias Patricia Armstrong of St. Elizabeth's Guild) looks after ye quite merrily, thou wondrous Kingdom!

The Maryland Renaissance Festival continues its Quest for a brand-new home! Despite a successful 32nd Season, Vice-President/General Manager Jules Smith recently told BaltimoreSun.com that he's been seeking out a way to expand to a larger location from the Festival's usual home at Crownsville. His team didst explore over 30 sites, seven of them seriously, in Anne Arundel, Calvert, Prince George's, Frederick and Howard Counties. The Festival organizers doth seek out some 80 to 90 acres of cleared land, along with approximately 25 acres of mature woodland territory. We'll let you know if in the end the Quest proves successful.

And whilst the folks in Crownsville seek out their new home, the Washington Renaissance Fantasy Faire has its own new home: the Maris Farmlands, near the village of Buckley, where the Faire itself will be held during the first three weeks in August. Moreover, San Francisco-based Bill Wattters now is the Faire's Master of the Dominion; Ron Cleveland, the Faire's Founder, meanwhile, assumes the duties of Operations Manager

Huzzah! to our friends at Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament! His Majesty, King Phillippe, along with his son and heir, His Royal Highness Prince Tristan, and the lovely Princess Leonore invite you to join them and their Royal Court at their incredible Kingdoms, at these very magical Realms: Kissimmee, Florida (1983); Buena Park, California (1986); Lyndhurst, New Jersey (1990); Schaumburg, Illinois (1991); Dallas, Texas (1992); Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1993); Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (1995); Hanover, Maryland (2004) and Lawrenceville, Georgia (2006)!

Huzzah! and hurrah! to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire, too, whose 11th Season will see new and unexpected adventures for King Arthur and Queen Guinevere! They and the Knights of the Table Round, to say nothing of the whole cast from Camelot will again greet, among others, the Brigands, Smee & Blogg, the Singing Executioners, the Bawdy Buccaneers, harpist Guy Todd, Jeffrey the Wand'ring Minstrel, l'Ensemble Cercamon, the Royal Madrigals, Myschyffe Managed, the Sweet Amaryllis Trio, Zoltan the Adequate, Tim & Vicki, the Tribal de Luna Gypsy Dancers ---- and so many more of their good and humble friends!

The 4th Annual British Columbia Renaissance Faire @ Aldergrove Park kicks off July 17th! Journey to the website now for a look back at Season III! Huzzah!

The goodlies of 3alarmcarnival.com have produced a delicious original documentary, Renaissance Men: The True Story of the Hanlon-Lees Action Theatre! The David Baker Entertainment production of a Kevin Leeser film follows the Knights of Hanlon-Lees to the Arizona Renaissance Festival, to see just how modern-day Knights rock and roll!

I trust that there are those among you who just love to wield a sword. Fortunately, Galatia Films' Reclaiming the Blade, hosted by John Rhys-Davies, should result in a considerable amount of drooling from ye! With appearances by King Aragorn himself, Viggo Mortensen, film swordmaster Bob Andersen, actor and classic butt-kicker Karl Urban, conceptual artist John Howe and and Weta Workshop's own Richard Taylor, this first-of-its-kind documentary covers the entire history of swordplay in the performing and other arts. It hits theatres in limited release this summer. Also from Galatia Films is the epic drama Glastonbury: Isle of Light, in which we follow the adventures of Joseph of Arimathea shortly after the Crucifixion of Christ.

These Dark Chambers are proud to have been able to support our hosts at Yahoo! and cyber-artist Jonathan Harris in a unique undertaking, one in which over 40,000 contributors have taken part. Well, the Yahoo! Time Capsule is now closed until March 2nd, 2020: Yahoo!, Inc.'s 25th Anniversary! At that time, as was the case prior, for every contribution made to the Time Capsule, Yahoo! Inc. will donate at least $100,000 and spread that amount amongst these seven charities: The World Wildlife Fund, the International Rescue Committee, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Grameen Foundation, UNICEF, One.org, the International Children's Art Foundation and the Seeds of Peace! Cool, huh?

Well, I've already spoken of Ik, who, besides the information cited above, created this website's awesome logo! Per the ol' Ikster's usual tradition regarding his DragonCon adventures, most of the photos featuring him were taken by his dear sweet Mumsey. Cleverly disguised as the Mortal Bryan Thompson, the King of all Trolldom also has the duties of Entertainment Coordinator at the Georgia Independence Day Festival, and frequently shows his Trollish mug over at the North Carolina Renaissance Faire. And in case you still don't know who Ik the Troll really is, click ye hither for your Dragonmaster's special tribute to --- and exclusive, one-on-one interview with --- me fave fangy fellow!

Think the Second New York City Beard & Moustache Championships was something? Boy, was it ever: the hairy heroes of ye Byg Appyl didst return to Brooklyn's Public Assembly on North 6th Street for a night of food, fun, frolic, loud rock and, ....well, BEARDS! Providing some of the said loud rock: The New Familiars; Curtis Eller and his American Circus; the Beards of Comedy; and ZZ Top parodists Cheap Sunglassezz. 86 big, tough guys competed in seven categories: Full Beard Natural (mighty Jack Passion); Full Beard Freestyle (Burke Kenny, who also nabbed the People's Choice Grand Championship, and $500 to go with it, too!); Goatee (Steve Kline); Moustache (Ben Davidson); Sideburns (Leon Lutz); plus two lesser categories, Patchy Beard (Kevin Byrne) and Recession Beard (Nate Stahura). And in case the ladies felt left out, they were given their own category, Ladies Artificial; Jessica Joy Karcz took the top honors there. And what, you may ask, was at stake? Not much, my dears, save bragging rights, the chance to join Beard Team USA as they take part in the World Championships at Anchorage, and giving some of your big hair to LocksofLove.org!

The Beardians, led as ever by Phil Olsen's BeardTeam USA, did Brighton, England's Brighton Centre for the 2007 World Beard & Mustache Championships, hosted by Brighton's venerable Handlebar Club (which marked its 60th Birthday as well), with proceeds to support the efforts of the children's hospital charity the Rocking Horse Appeal.

Ultimately, the aforemention'd Jack Passion didst triumph in the Full Natural Beard category, with his flowing orange fuzz. Phil's Beard Teamers took four additional trophies home: Burke Kenny (whom we've also spoken of earlier), Natural Full Beard with Styled Moustache; Marty Gerhinger, Natural Goatee; Alexander Antebi, Imperial Moustache; and Jones Gandhi, Moustache Freestyle. And, as you might expect, Germany's Elmar Weisser was, as he was at the last Beard Bash in Berlin, the life of the party --- transforming his whiskers into a literal representation of London's Tower Bridge! Elmar defended his Championship in the Full Beard Freestyle category, and his fellow Deutschlanders easily dominated in English (Georg Lutz), Dali (Max Pankor), Hungarian (Gunther Rosin), Imperial (Karl-Heinz Hille), Sideburns Freestyle (our old pal Jurgen Burkhardt), Partial Beard Freestyle (Germany's all-time beard legend, Willi Chevalier), Verdi Style (Durmus Sensoy) and Garibaldi Style (Franz-Peter Pill) --- nine first-placers in all! Of the winners from the host country, only two stood out: Paul Lewis in Natural Moustache; and Ted Sedman in Chinese Style Moustache. Also, artist Nick Morley shares his adventures with these wacky bearded dudes, in Nick Morley's Amazing World of Beards, which just finished up a nice, strange run at Brighton's Permanent Gallery!

Before that, though, there was the 3rd Annual High Sierra Beard & Moustache Championships to be dealt with; that beard battle has wrapped up in the Village at Squaw Valley, California. Toot Joslin, America's previous Beard King, will have all the details for you, if you'll kindly e-mail him at toot@highsierrabeardandmoustache.com. (Why, there's even a quartet of mustache-lovin' superheroes: the FanTachestic 4!)

As we sort of noted, 'twill be May 23rd when the Championships return to the U.S. --- specifically, Anchorage, Alaska's Dena'ina Civic & Convention Center! Your host organizations for all the hairy happenings are the South Central Alaska Beard & Moustache Club, the City of Anchorage Area Lions Club and the Tall Tales Taxidermy! The Australians have brought along not only their own cheering squad, the Australian Bush Rangers --- why, they've even got their very own rock band, the Beards (duh! Collectively, they are Johann Beardraven, lead vocals, lead guitar and saxophone; Johnny Beardman, vocals, drums and percussion; Nathaniel Beard, vocals and bass; and Facey McStublington, vocals and rhythm guitars! And of course, they're also here)! There's more to learn at anchorage.net/worldbeard!

Thank you, everyone who came out and made our 24th Annual Fort Tryon Park Medieval Festival such a delicious party! Your humble Dragonmaster, and my colleagues Brother Dementus the Mad Monk; Clan Calm; Don Tomas and Lady Anne of Sussex; Captain Alphonse Petard; Count Rodrigo and Countess Alessa, I Guillari di Piazza; the Mystic Minstrels; the Broad Street Troubadours, the Machaut Men, the New York Scottish Pipes, Drums and Dancers, and our Sterling Forest, New York Caledonian Club and SCA Eastern Kingdom friends --- specifically, those representing the Crown Province of Ostgardr and the Four Great Cantons (Brokenbridge, Lions' End, Northpass and Whyt Whey) --- why, we all had a great time sharing our wisdom, music, silliness and assorted other medieval stuff with you good Mortals!

I would especially like to thank Their Eastern Majesties, King Darius IV and Queen Alethea, for extending, if only for a day, the reign of their predecessors, Konrad and Brenwen, so that one of of my longtime wishes could at last be fulfilled: that of greeting the King and Queen of the East in person! Oh, what wonderful stories the three of us had to tell each other; I can't even begin to describe what a happy occasion it was! (But visit my Blog at RenSpace.com if you really must know!) Let me extend a further special Huzzah! to Their Majesties, King Tiberius and Queen Sybella of Jerusalem, who did your humble Dragonmaster much kindness, and posed with me for many photos! What a joy that experience was, too! See ye all again Sunday afternoon, October 4th, for our big 25th Anniversary Bash! Pray, be ye thither!

Yeah, we love Oz, too. NETworks Presentations brings you the Royal Shakespeare Company's Production of The Wizard of Oz on Tour, based on the 1939 MGM Motion Picture! Cassie Okenka, Noah Aberlin, Chris Kind and Jason Simon (with Snickers and Princess sharing the role of Toto, too) are all aboard the Yellow Brick Road thing, with the Arlen and Harburg score totally intact.

I am quite anxious to have you Mortals explore Sybil Kane's Insect Wonderland! This unusual alphabet book was conceived over 50 years ago; and was rediscovered, revised and nurtured into children's book status by the goodlies of Prescott, Arizona's One World Press. The three who made it all happen: Parry Morton, Sybil's niece, Carol Kane Simerly, and Carol's daughter Marguerite Young! Please join your Dragonmaster in cheering on their noble efforts! Huzzah!

Mystic Realms' Fantasy & Folklore Festival returns soon to Wheaton Arts in Wheaton, New Jersey! Photos, previews and recaps from the event to be posted soon!

O, dear, sweet Debbie D! She and your humble Dragonmaster didst team up again for the 26th Annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade! As Dick Zigun did find himself in a sort of grumble over what the Thor Equities people effectively did to his baby, he chose Reverend Billy, Founding Minister of the Church of Stop Shopping, as this year's King Neptune; with Billy's partner Savitra D as Queen Mermaid! (No doubt they were there to plug their documentary, What Would Jesus Buy?)

The Brown-hair'd Mermaid and I, along with Debbie Dutch, who was nice enough to journey here all the way from L.A., also had a wonderful time hanging out at our most recent edition of Gary Lyons' Gotham Nostalgia Show, at the Holiday Inn on West 57th Street, between 9th & 10th Avenues! My thanks again to you who had the chance to say hello to us, as the event pretty much gave your humble Dragonmaster an excuse to get off me Wizardly butt, let alone to get me outta my boring ol' house!

In case I haven't talked as yet concerning the 2005 Mermaid Parade, know that I was 13th in ye line of march --- and I got to witness an actual, honest-to-Merlin Pirate wedding! Huzzah! and Hurrah! Check out these photos from the 2004 Mermaid Parade, as taken by the Corporate MoFo himself, Ken Mondschein! And yes, I'm in one of them! (There are lots more photos from the Parade on the Coney Island USA Message Board, too!) And click ye hither for Debbie and her Sea Princess pal Serena, posing with Thor the Barbarian and me! Huzzah!