Ask a simple question...
Dec. 12th, 2006 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So at the party Friday night, one of the random hotel guys asked if this was the only gig the band plays. I said yes, this is the only thing we do together... some of the guys have other things they do, but this is the only thing we do as a group.
So I started thinking... right now, this is the only thing I'm doing. Which is ridiculous, once I start thinking about it. It's an insane amount of effort and stress, for the meager output of 1 hour of live music per year.
So... I don't know what I want to do, other than that I want to do SOMETHING. I want to play with other people, maybe even in front of other people, more often. I want to visit my musical Happy Place more than once annually.
Hence the social engineering question. If you found yourself in a strange place, knowing almost nobody, and wanted to play rock or blues music with like-minded people, where would you start looking for them?
I'm repeating the question 'cause I *know* I must know SOMEBODY who's better at meeting people than I am, besides just
gvdub (who has made a number of helpful suggestions).
So I started thinking... right now, this is the only thing I'm doing. Which is ridiculous, once I start thinking about it. It's an insane amount of effort and stress, for the meager output of 1 hour of live music per year.
So... I don't know what I want to do, other than that I want to do SOMETHING. I want to play with other people, maybe even in front of other people, more often. I want to visit my musical Happy Place more than once annually.
Hence the social engineering question. If you found yourself in a strange place, knowing almost nobody, and wanted to play rock or blues music with like-minded people, where would you start looking for them?
I'm repeating the question 'cause I *know* I must know SOMEBODY who's better at meeting people than I am, besides just
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 10:50 pm (UTC)I guess if playing the bass or WoW is the only thing ya do... then I got nothin'. :) Well you go to cons, right? What about doing a gig at one?
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Date: 2006-12-12 11:03 pm (UTC)However, for some reason, here in LA I find myself inordinately terrified of the locals. Which is ridiculous, if you and
It is certainly true that getting back into the SCA would be a good way to meet people, and participate a bit more in this "life" thing I've heard so much about. I must ponder that some more.
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Date: 2006-12-12 11:11 pm (UTC)Also, the archers tend to be pretty friendly and that's mostly who we hang out with. I'm planning on going to archery early tonight (hope to be there by 6pm) and I'm taking my accordion and another archer will be there with his guitar. It might get chilly but I hope not. (It's at Rancho Park at Motor and Pico.)
Of course I have to say I'd be terrified to jam with you, since I'm pretty amateur player and just starting to play with others. From what I've read you're an expert of some sort and actually PLAY in front of people! Oy!
The SCA encourages active participation and of course performance arts. I still get a little queasy thinking of performing in front of more than single digits of groups of people who don't also have instruments in their hands. *shiver*
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Date: 2006-12-12 11:14 pm (UTC)Hee hee! You just made my day. (-:
Ahh, perspective...
*wanders off to peruse SCA web pages & find out what the local activities are*
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Date: 2006-12-12 11:32 pm (UTC)So until they kick me out (which could come any day now I'm sure since some of them know my LJ account heh) I'm at least enjoying having a nice group of people to hang out with.
The most consistent local activities are Tue/Thursday nights from 7-9 archery at Rancho Park archery range at Pico/Motor. (Might be close for you.) But if you're not into bows & arrows. Well, some people do clothing things or embroidery. The music thing, there's people who sing and usually monthly there's a bardic thing. http://www.lyondemere.org is one of the local baronies for you. The Barony of Angels might be close for you too.
(http://www.sca-caid.org is a good place to look as well.)
Not really anything major going on until 12th Knight down in Orange County on January 6th though. (Well, except archery practice. Also we usually go out and grab a bite to eat afterwards. So it's like music before, shooting in the middle, and food afterwards. :)
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Date: 2006-12-12 11:50 pm (UTC)I tend to be terrified of folks in general, as a rule. Local SCA is worse because (a) the SCA was invented here, so I'm afraid of "doing it wrong"; also I've just come from a place (Scotland) that has Actual History, SCA events in real castles etc, so I'm afraid I'll be disappointed with events here. However, that doesn't begin to cover the extent of my avoidance.
It turns out I've been having (um) social issues lately. For embarrassingly large values of "lately". I'll post more about these once I actually discuss them with my husband.
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Date: 2006-12-13 12:26 am (UTC)If you played in Scotland, hellsbells, you've GOT to have quite a few legs up on me as far as clothing goes! Sure there are people in the Greater Los Angeles Area who are professional costumers and who have very nice clothes, but...
But... I suspect it's not just about the clothes, huh? Camping events are camping events no matter where ya go, I suspect.. even if you hasn't a castle in the background.
So.... good luck with your, uhm, social issues. Are you going to the New Years Day party in the Valley by any chance?
Hey, did you see the SCA table at LosCon? Hey, were you even at LosCon? I don't think I saw ya there anywhere.
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Date: 2006-12-13 12:48 am (UTC)Not sure if we'll be at the New Year's gaming party this time. It's a hell of a drive, and the husband didn't have a brilliant time last year. I am now considering going without him. :-P
We didn't make it to LosCon at all. We were pre-registered and everything, but we were both a bit sick and had had too much turkey, so lameness won. (I am starting to think I might be living with a hermit enabler. I wonder if he's reading these comments?)
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Date: 2006-12-13 12:52 am (UTC)This year I'd like to get there early, bring a few games I never get a chance to play because we don't have enough smart people to play with (like Munchkin), and just have a good time.
Is WoW a hermit enabler? ;)
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Date: 2006-12-13 01:02 am (UTC)OMG yes. It sucks away hours of your time, you feel like you're actually accomplishing something, and you can pretend you're hanging out with real people. It's like all the TV series you've ever been hooked on, times about a bajillion.
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Date: 2006-12-13 01:24 am (UTC)For the record, I was actually talking about my husband. Stupid short attention span!
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Date: 2006-12-13 06:24 pm (UTC)And tisk, here I am telling you about the SCA. I suspect you probably could tell me more about the SCA than I've ever learned.
So get the husband outta the house sometime! :)
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Date: 2006-12-13 07:05 pm (UTC)Also, apparently I've been using the husband as Yet Another Excuse to hide in the house and not do anything. I raised the topics of general socialness, and the New Year's party, last night, and he was quite enthused about both. Oops.
(It turns out, by the way, that I've been in somewhat of a snit for a while and have been refusing to participate in this whole LA thing. Which pretty much amounts to not participating in life, except on the extremely rare occasions when life has grabbed me and dragged me along in spite of myself. D'oh. Gonna see what I can do about that one now.)
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Date: 2006-12-13 11:21 pm (UTC)And using the husband as YAE? We'll be going to the NYE thing if we're not out of town so... maybe we'll see you both there? :)
And the whole LA thing? Which part would that be?
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Date: 2006-12-14 02:59 am (UTC)I was going to say it's a long story and probably worthy of its own post; but it's BS and it's really not worth even having in my head any more, much less immortalizing in LJ.
I can tell you all about it in person if you're still interested, the next time I run into you. (It really does require hand-waving and ironic expressions. If I wrote it in LJ, god help me, someone might actually take it seriously.)