Coffee Break Short Takes

[callistotoni]

-- Another 12th Night come and gone. Good art displays, *fantastic* play, working court was fun, and I always love getting to talk to people. Kinda stressful vibe for me personally, though.

-- Avenue Q was fabulous! If you get a chance to see this show you should do it. Favorite part = The Bad Idea Bears ;-)

-- Operation Move J/S South continues apace. We ordered a Pod instead of renting a U-Haul because it was the better deal on several levels. The Pod will arrive to get his stuff on Feb 2, I'll fly up Feb 4, the pod will be picked up Feb. 5, J/S and I (with J/S' poor about-to-be-traumitized kitty) will drive south on the 6-7th, and the Pod will arrive in Livermore on Feb 10. It will be good to have a couple of days to work on the house/garage before the pod arrives.
I was up there this last weekend in we made a dent in packing his stuff -- mostly SCA stuff and books. But, oh man I have *so* much work I have to do in Livermore to get ready for this. :-0
And moving is expensive :-( .
But, truely, J/S and I know at a cellular level that this is the right thing to do. We're better people together than we are apart. And being with him this weekend, well, I was just overwhelmed with the sense of us being together is The Right Thing.

-- Saw the "Sherlock Holmes" movie with J/S. Enjoyable enough if one just thinks of it as a steampunk action movie, rather than a movie based on the late 19th C and/or Doyle's character. One thing I found super irritating was the repeat of an action sequence *after* you'd already been through it in slo-mo as the R. Downey Jr. thought through it. And can there be a bad guy in a movie anymore without a black leather trench coat? Do they kick you out of the Bad Guy Union if you don't have one? (Hey, Guy Ritchie, haven't you ever heard of the Evil League of Evil? Keep up with the times, dude! ;-) )

-- Got some fabric from J/S's ex-s fabric stash, including some stuff I can make a gambason out of for J/S (copying his archeologically old one that he's been using). A new gambason is now do-able.

-- Money continues to be crazy tight. Having to take several days as no-pay because of being sick and travel over the last month and a bit was a blow.

-- Life (TM) has to take precedent these days, and the move and Brandee and work is filling up my time. But the SCA is a fun place for me and J/S, and I've got some SCA responsibilities. Finding a balance I think will be a daily exercise during 2010.

-- A Final "And now for something completely different"-Inter-Kingdom Anthropology moment:
J/S and I have these discussions about the SCA, the West, and An Tir, and I continue to find them personally eye-opening. In conversation he found out that in the West, the Principality Princes and Princes (as opposed to the Crown Heirs) do not attend peerage order meetings unless, of course, they are a member of those orders. They do in An Tir, which makes perfect sense given how spread out An Tir is. I told him that we don't do that in the West because we have no need to, because most of the West is so centralized that we don't need the Mists and Cynaguan P&P's at meetings because the Crown sees the same pool of people (not worded well -- sorry). But J/S thought that seemed kinda disrespectful -- the P&P are royalty, after all, and they have a responsibility to foster Arts and Service and Chivalry in Their Principalities, so why aren't they represented in the meetings. The fact that peers are offered the opportunity to swear fealty to the P&P re-inforces this, I dunno, sponsor/patron/lord relationship as well. So now I'm wondering, other than "That's not what we do in the West" is there a logical, systematic reason why the Pricipality royalty don't attend meetings? Just wondering, really; I trust we can all play nice while discussing this question. :-)

Back to work. Stay well, folks.

Comments

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

(I)s there a logical, systematic reason why the Pricipality royalty don't attend meetings?
(As a peer) Because peerage meetings are at Kingdom events, and if the P&P attended we might have to have meetings at *both* Kingdom and Principality level events.
Or (from the P&P's POV) because the P&P would be required to attend Kingdom level events, something they are not currently required to do.

Not sure if this passes a logic test, but it's my gut reaction. I've certainly heard people joke about how principality reigns are longer, but Kingdom reigns seems longer because of the greater number of meetings.

[freewaydiva.livejournal.com]

Our P&Ps are not required to attend Kingdom events, although they generally do.

They *do* have Peerage meetings in the Principalities - oddly enough, the P&P are not always invited to attend them (because they're really a glorified regional meeting) although they usually are.

The way I understand it (not being a Peer of any stripe but having lived in two of our Principalities), it is a courtesy offered to the sitting Coronets, as well as a chance for them to speak to candidates in councils at which there may be no other Principality representation. It is, I believe, a choice largely driven by the sheer size of our Kingdom, and a way to ensure that information is getting both in and out of the councils appropriately.

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

Hi Freewaydiva, may I ask what kingdom/principality you live in? I'm Crystal of the Westermark and I live in the West/Mists.

[freewaydiva.livejournal.com]

Hi! Sorry - I should have self-identified. :)

I'm Tomyris, and I'm in An Tir. I've lived in both Avacal and the Summits, although I'm currently smack in the middle of our Kingdom Core, these days.

[khalja.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. I think in An Tir, it's a function of our size. Our principalities are in the least populated regions of the kingdom and often the principality coronets are the only people from the principality at the kingdom meeting. I've even seen candidate presentations in a kingdom meeting given by principality coronets on behalf of the regional council.

Representation is important and you take what you can get when the kingdom is 30-mumblemumble some hours across.

[hunrvogt.livejournal.com]

First some intra-kingdom anthropology. In Oertha the P and P do attend meetings and in Cynagua the Peers do not swear fealty to the coronet.

As far as why, I wonder if the Kingdom vs Regional meetings were an original reason and now I wonder how much ties back to the slim likelihood of either the Mists or Cynagua ever going Kingdom.

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

I knew that about Oertha (again, an it's an obvious way to deal with the isolation of that principality from the rest of the Kingdom), but I didn't know that the peers aren't offered the opportunity to swear fealty in Cynagua. Jeeze, I should *really* get to more Cynaguan events and not be so provincial :-/ .

[hunrvogt.livejournal.com]

I don't know that it's a provincial thing. Honestly IKve been to Mists Investitures and hardly noticed the difference in the Ceremony.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I did notice it the first time I went to a Cynaguan Investiture. I kept waiting for the peers to be called up. And waiting.

[mistressarafina.livejournal.com]

My guess would be that the principality royals don't attend because they don't have a say in the matter. Our crown heirs attend (but not all the time), I assume, because one day the decision will be theirs and it's helpful (especially for new royals) to see how it all works without having to worry about running it.

My $0.02 (Middle Kingdom)

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

In Oertha the P&P often sit the peerage meetings. But that falls into the same situation as the Principalities of An Tir. I think seriously it's just a case of "what's the point?" at the Mists/Cynagua level. In the distant Principalities having the Principality royals sit in on the meetings does make sense. For the Mists/Cynagua there are (usually) plenty of peers from each of the Principalities there to help represent the people from their part of the Kingdom ...

[ermine-rat.livejournal.com]

The 'Evil League of Evil' was replaced by the 'League Of Super Evil'...

[kareina.livejournal.com]

Honestly, one of the things I liked best about being 2nd Princess of Oertha was that I got to attend Kinght's council (and the others, too, but I was pretty certain that while the other two orders were ones where it was *possible* I might one day join, I was pretty certain I'd never get a chance to wear the chain & belt, so that one was extra special to me).


(ok, I still can't attend Pel council, and I'm ok with that...)

[red6count.livejournal.com]

Several things. First, Oertha uses a barely modified version of the Mists original Investiture Ceremony. When Kylson was down in the Mists one winter he saw a Mists Investiture Ceremony and stol.. used it as a template for Oertha's. Second the Cynagua Investiture Ceremony is a way to say the fewest possible word to transfer the hats from one head to another. Maybe I am being goldilocks here, but I thing the Mists Ceremony is "just right" :-).
As for the P&P of the Mists and Cynagua being included in peerage meetings, I can certainly see it for Oertha and the AnTir Principalities, as necessary, but not so much for the Central West, many of the P&Ps of both Mists and Cynagua have been unbelted that at least for the Chivalry it would seem to be allowing the candidates in before they are elevated. I do not think however if the K&Q did invite the P&Ps to sit in counsels that you'd increase the number of peerage meetings, you'd just add four more people.

Two things...

[cathyn.livejournal.com]

Primus:
"And being with him this weekend, well, I was just overwhelmed with the sense of us being together is The Right Thing."

I feel this every day. People often say love or relationships are work, every day, or something like that. lifeofglamour and I have realized that when you actually find the right one, it's not work at all, but just like this.

Secundus:
I am very curious about this myself, as I can easily see what seems like both sides, e.g. They're Royalty vs. They have no direct bearing on the meeting. Courtesy vs. practicality, if you will. We invite foreign Royalty and Peers out of courtesy, and they certainly have no say, why not our own P&Ps? I'm sure there is a long-term veteran out there with the answer to how/why this came about, and I would love to hear it.