Midsummer Madness

August is halfway gone and swept by in a whirl of wildflowers, Grassroots Shakespeare, cold neon conventions lights, and sultry summer nights.

I have many pictures to share this time. Some of them are more information than art...but you may choose just which is which. The first set is from my second walk up at Albion Meadow. There are different flowers blooming depending on which week you go. I'm hoping to make one more trip up there late in the month to see what else my hungry camera can devour.

The second set of pictures are from a performance of "Midsummer Night's Dream" by a company of players called Grassroots Shakespeare. My daughter, Tasha, performed with them in the park.

The third set of photos are from our annual Gen Con appearance in Indianapolis, Indiana. We've been going for 28 years! Are we crazy? Well, you may judge for yourself....

Utah Penstemon (Blue stalks)

Here is the aptly named Monk's Hood, and Indian Paintbrush is twining in coral complement.

Lewis' Monkey Flower
What I want to know is where is the monkey??????

OK, I confess I have no idea what this tiny moth is named,

but I think he looks like a silk bow-tie.

This splendid little chap posed for the camera quite sweetly.

The Grassroots Shakespeare Company gather for their eveing performance in the park
of Midsummer Night's Dream


Actors seem to have a second sense about where the camera is pointing. And yes, there is some sort of kinship with one of the pictures above.

Bottom rehearses

Titania Rehearses



Tahsa strikes a swash-buckling pose

TJ practices her Florentine technique

Tahsa as Helena in the evening performance




And now , Gen Con in Indianapolis:
Here is a typical building in Indianapolis. It just looked like an establishing shot for some old fortie's film to me. Well that, and I found the old clock irresistable.



Here is a cu of the clock. Whenever I was outside the convention center, I found myself focusing in on clocks wherever I was at. The convention is completely in it's own time(less) zone. I was always surprised by what time of day or night it was.

Costurmes are ubiquitus. Most are homemade. (I noted that there weren't any Klingons this year, but tons of vampires.)

Here is a very merry band just outside the convention center.


Steam-Punk was a huge theme this year.

Here is a shot of the crowd at our Killer Breakfast Event. Tracy does two hours of improv- role-playing with about 200 players and nearly 700 more on-lookers.

The audience do cheers with us and sing on demand. Here, Tracy bursts into song and the audience happily joins in.

This was a great moment. This young couple have just become engaged on stage. (Note the sure-grip she's got on both him and the ring-box.) The entire audience spontaneously leaped to their feet and cheered for them.

I had to get a picture of this group. Here are our ultimate KB players. They have come up with some pretty amazing set-ups over the years.

The Haase family had a great schtick this year. Many thanks to Candice Haase for the KB pictures of this and the proposal photo.


Here are two characters from Dragonlance who showed up at the booth. (Bupu and Raistlin)



In the booth.
On the left is Emily who helped Tracy earlier this year with Killer Breakfast at a convention in Ireland.


Here was my end-of-day treat on Saturday. Felicia Day, is a fan of Tracy's (and we are fans of hers!) she came to the booth because Tracy had mentioned to her I was stuck there. She is sooo nice! And gorgeous and very funny. Did I mention I'm a fan? ;)


Ahh, once again the time of day surprises me, but with a soothing evening-blue. I shot this from the balcony of our room. Which is a view of the old Indianapolis Union Railway Station.