UnRavel(ry)ing at Rhinebeck OR The Grand Duchess' Grand Faire

Last week, I promised an update with pictures and witticisms about the Rhinebeck, NY Duchess County Sheep and Wool Festival.

Well, I'm coming through with the goods.

DAY 1:

The Duchess County Sheep and Wool Festival (known by most simply as "Rhinebeck") takes place every fall in the town (sorry, "Village") of Rhinebeck, NY, located in South-eastern New York.

The state, not the city.
There IS a whole state, you know.

We'd had a lovely, but long drive out on Friday to get into New York (again, the state). So we'd stopped, and drove the last couple hours the first morning of the show, arriving a few hours after gates opened.

Which is good because people starting lining up an hour early. Fortunately the lines were gone by the time we got there, but that just shows you how many people were there and how much they really wanted to experience the whole show.

Speaking of which, let me show you what the show consisted of:

Le Map Offiçialle!
(Not even close to actual French.)

"Oh," I hear you softly, disappointedly exclaim, "That doesn't look so big."

And you're right! That map doesn't look so big out of context. But start to consider how many little arrows there are.

Also, see those little A, B, C, D buildings?

Each one of those was one of these:

This is A.
About 200 hundred feet of wooly vendors.

The shear (Hah! Get it?) number of vendors and amount of wool blew my mind. Just walking through one building with 4 rows of about 20 vendors each was more yarn, spinning and wool suppliers than I'd ever seen in my life.

And there were four of these buildings. Do the math, yo. It says there's a whole lotta vendors. Also, it evidently says (A whole lotta) ≈ 320.

Some with much more dramatic ceilings,
but just as many vendors!

And that was just those four buildings. Outside there was a whole bunch of food vendors, including local apple merchants and everything that can possibly be wonderfully autumnal (love that word).

Git yer wooly things and apples here!

And while there were a lot of people there, it wasn't so crowded you couldn't enjoy the space of being in rural New York on a gorgeous fall day.

Picturesque!
Also: More apples for sale.

But aside from the number of yarny, wooly vendors, there was another great reason to go: Yarny, wooly people.

My wife got me knitting recently, and while it's really quite enjoyable, it is not the most popular thing to do. Tell random people you knit, and they often tackily point out that it's, well, strange. (Because you don't need manners for people who knit!)

...Though it is nice when you can immediately point to the hat on your head and go, "Yeah, but I made this."

Anyway, a surprisingly large (surprisingly for non-knitters) online society has sprung up on a site called Ravelry, where over two million (yes, that's 2,000,000) people gather to do all sorts of things knitting, crocheting, and generally wool/yarn related.

Rhinebeck is a wonderful retreat and opportunity for these incredibly wonderful (and yes, slightly strange) people who knit to get together.

The Green before...

A meet up was scheduled at the above green on the first day. I thought there'd be a good amount of people, but was not expecting this:

...And after.
Release the Ravelrers!

There were hundreds of people there, most wearing buttons with their online name on them so you knew who everyone was. (I still have mine!)

It was awesome. And for the rest of the weekend, we would see people wearing buttons, or people would stop to read our buttons to see if they knew us...

...But even those hundreds of people were only 10-25% of the people there.

There were so many people they filled several fields outside.
And these cars are of the visitors still inside AFTER the fair had "closed!"

All right, all right, you probably get it by now: Big wool fest had a lot more people and was a lot bigger  than you thought it was going to be. Which made it awesome.

But to sum up, here was my one of my favorite pictures of the day, that I thought really embodied Rhinebeck:

A fashionable woman, eating a candy apple...
...and carrying a whole sheep fleece. That's right: Whole.

And just because they were there, and really cool...

...Random animals.

"Whhaaaattt....???"

"Oh sooolo miiiooo......."

The tortoise wins again because the hare is sleeping.
...or licking its crotch. Not sure which.

Hope you enjoyed this! I'll be back next week with Part 2: The Sheepening.

Autumnal Musings OR Falling for Fall!

I have a confession to make:
I just arrived home after a ten hour drive at the tail end of an incredible trip to Rhinebeck, NY.
I will, of course, blog about the whole experience.

Today, however, I am exhausted, so we'll get an abbreviated post today.

But that does not make it an unimportant one, as I'm sure everyone moving to a place with actual seasons will attest.

Today's post is about Fall.

You see, back in LA, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall were only determined by the clothes people wore.

For example, here is Spring:

At least, I think it's Spring.

And here is Fall:

Okay, it's the exact same picture.
But you get the idea.

But when we moved to Indiana, and then drove across several states to New York, we got to witness the amazing season that most of the country gets called Autumn.

Trees that are ORANGE?!? Madness!

Seriously, some of the vista we got of forests of trees were so beautiful we forgot to take pictures.

This was the best we got: More sky than trees...
...but those hills and mountains? All colorful trees.

But let me tell you: I love autumn for many reasons.

1)Sweaters and heavier clothing. I love the chill surrounding you while you're toasty and stylish.

Especially in the sweater my gorgeous wife
designed and knit just for me!

2)The COLORS! I know it goes without saying, but come on:

Gorgeous!

Still gorgeous!

And what about this, you ask?
Of course it's gorgeous!

3) The word Autumnal. Go ahead. Say it a few times. You won't regret it.

As in: "My, what an Autumnal picture this is!"

There are many more reasons, and I'll show many more pictures from the Rhinebeck show later, but I did want to express my complete love for this season, short as it may be before Winter sets in.

Now: Rich, colorful forests and grass.
In one month: Dead trees and mud.

But it's okay, I still love you, Autumn.

And I'm glad you're here.

The Other Nashville OR Embracin' the Country.

Ask anyone in the US about Nashville. Most will immediately assume you're talking about Nashville, Tennessee.

But a small section of the populace will think of a different Nashville. One nestled in the hills of Brown Country, Indiana.

This one:

Or rather, "This 'un."

Nashville is part artists retreat, part folksy small town, part tourist destination. Craft and curio shoppes line the main drag, not to mention the block off of the main drag.

One you get past that block, you've got maybe two blocks of houses before forested hills kick in.

Sometimes the forest doesn't even wait the two blocks.

But let us take a brief, not-at-all-thorough tour of the town. (I've said it once, I'll say it again: You want thorough? Get a travel guide.)

We'll begin with the crafts and folksy shoppes.

Sometimes both in one!

They are everywhere.

Count 'em: Nine shoppes just here. That's more than most Historic Downtowns.

And lest you think that's a huge area... It's pretty literally an alley:

Big cities have alleys between buildings.
Nashville has alleys between large trees and large stuffed animals.

Some establishments went for the more polished style of old-school charm:

I do declare...

While others embraced the rough and ready:

Those are, in order, a crystal/jewelry shoppe, fudge shoppe,
coffee shoppe, and candle/soap shoppe.

But honestly, whether charmin' or chahming, the whole reason to come here is for the old-fashioned style. And like all good merchants and respectable shoppe owners, the people here know that.

"Should we get some sort of unified design aesthetic?"
"Nah. Random IS our design aesthetic."

For these awesome shoppe owners, it's not enough to have a player piano in your ice cream shoppe entry hallway. No, it must be fully stocked in the Nashville/Muppet style:

And if you asked,
"Why would they have a player piano in a ice cream shoppe?"
then you probably don't belong in Nashville.

But let's take a second to step outside the ice cream shoppe. (Preferably with a very tasty banana shake like I did.)

First floor, ice cream, candy, and fudge.
Second floor... Why would anyone leave the first floor?

Astute students of architecture would probably notice a few things about this picture. Not being one, I have no idea what those would be.

But being one who vaguely pays attention to architecture and also someone with a fondness for history, I can tell they probably didn't build buildings like that back when this was being settled in the early 1800s. Probably.

I believe Informative Plaque tells me
they built rough wooden public houses in 1867.
Thank you, Informative Plaque.

Brick buildings like the above seem more late 1800s. Much like this sort of wood building:

The stoplight? Probably not an original fixture.
Probably.

Or the Brown County Court House.

Sshh! If no one can find the court, all us judges get to go home early!

Buildings like these imply that for a brief period, Nashville, like every other small town at the time, was moving forward into the future, embracing the new, boldly striding forth into the twentieth century kicking and screaming while dragging a big stick and talking softly.

Or something like that.

But somewhere along the way, they realized that wasn't really who they are. Sure it's a part of them, and they gladly accept it, but they learned to really embrace themselves.

Like the cheerleader who gets to college and suddenly remembers she likes "Icky Math."

Or in this case, old wooden buildings.

Because that one right up there? That's a modern building. Built in the old style.

With a Modern Alley.
(Punkish Hipster Joe not included.)

There are many who come to Nashville and talk about the rich art culture, the galleries, the crafts, the theaters (they're small, but there!), the restaurants, the junk food country food...

...but what I like about it is its sense of identity. Which, to be fair, is quite possibly, "I'm not sure what I am, but I'm damn proud to be it! An' if'n yeh don't like it, yeh can git out!"

And darn-tootin', sometimes a little countrifyin' is good fer waht ails ya'!

The Fair Town of Fairmount's Fair OR Run, James Dean, Run!

Cool aficionados, that is to say, aficionados of cool, not aficionados who are also cool, are already familiar with Fairmount, Indiana.

For those of us who aren't as cool, Fairmount is the birthplace of James Dean.

Which means, of course, that the Hoosiers will have an annual fair.

Because Hoosiers will take any excuse for an annual fair.

Now, I am pretty familiar with fairs, usually of the art variety. For years my mother has had booths at various Art & Wine Festivals across the west.

Let me tell you something:

This weren't no art n' wine festival.

The first thing we noticed was the parking. Fairmount gets an enormous influx of people for this festival, and their street planning is clearly not ready for it.

I see someone's lawn. Others see a parking lot.

Fortunately, however, the Fair Citizens of Fairmount are ready for it.

I see an empty lot next to their house.
They see an opportunity.

And this wasn't limited to parking. Lawns with strategic locations between the main street fair and the incredibly large car show (don't worry, I'll get there) are clearly aware of their "plight."

Plight: Noun. An annoyance one can turn into an opportunity
to sell crafts to passersby.

As for the fair itself, well, let me start with the first thing I saw:

I giggled at the irony of naming an auto part
after someone who died in a car crash.

Followed by the second thing I saw:

Yup. This was, in fact, part of their parade.
And it wasn't the only one.

The fair was down-home country style all over:

Ah, good. I was worried they'd only have a large tenderloin.

What is a spiral spud?Well, take an enormous potato,
spiral cut it so oil can really get everywhere, and fry it.
Oh, and more giant tenderloins.

Excellent! A "healthy" alternative!

This juxtaposition, however, entertained me the most:

An enormous Avon tent, bringing perfumey smells to the whole block...

Manly man, sculpting logs with a chainsaw.
Bringing sawdusty smells to the whole block...

Normally, I would think these would be at different ends of the fair.

Nope.

Side note: I also saw this tucked away to one side. It made me wonder what this place was like when it wasn't fair time...

This here? It's called foreshadowing for a sequel.
As unsubtly as possible.

But I know why you're reading this post. Particularly you, Dad.

You want to see the cars.

Fine.

I would give this one first place in the whole show.
Seriously.

But honestly, there were a LOT of classic cars, each one more lovingly restored than the last. Which is saying something among ACRES of classic cars.

Let's chronicle my thoughts:

Nice!

Impressive... Good work, here...

Oh, that's neat! They have the matching trailer thing!

Sweet! Something relating to James Dean!
(Note: This is a replica of the car he in which he died.)

Another James Dean... Reference...
....I guess...?

Wow, there are a LOT of cars here....

Oh my god, they just don't end!

Bahahaa! Lookit the tiny neat sportsy thing!

About there was where I may have snapped. I mean, I can admire cars as much as the next guy (well, maybe not JUST as much), but the people behind these have taken it to an art form.

And it really is impressive.

I have much more admiration for people who restore a classic car to the condition these were, then use it as an excuse to get out there, meet new people, and display like the work of art it is.

Because while there were GOBS of these cars, each one, truthfully, was a work of art.

After all, the Louvre is pretty much wallpapered with incredible works of art.

And they're still pretty cool, right?

Before I piss off anymore art lovers by comparing Renaissance masterpieces to restored '57 Cadillacs, I will leave you with a clear sign of my mental state leaving the car show.

For some reason, this entertained me enough to grab a picture of it:

What ARE 'chu gonna do, bad boys, when dey come for you...?
....on their police-issue ATVs?

And yes, he WAS going by at high speed (for an ATV) with full sirens and lights on his way to an emergency.

I guess, in its own way, Fairmount does still breed cool.