Voices in a hail storm
Click the link to listen to the attached sound…. I am sure you guys know what it is, but doesn’t it sound like a hail or really heavy rain storm with a few voices mixed in?
Comment if you know what it really is.
New friends from Pittsburgh…
And speaking of the Gem City Feis, I met another nice family yesterday. I mentioned in another post that I find it very refreshing to see dancers who excel, but don’t get all ‘diva’ even though they are kicking butt, because I have seen quite a lot of that in the past. Met another such dancer and family.
First saw this dancer in Pittsburgh last week and got a chance to meet the Mom and Dad yesterday. Because of the uniqueness of the dancers name, I won’t mention it, but if they find this blog, I think they will know who they are.
So a big WTF shout out to the parents from Pitt. See you guys and ‘* the big meanie’ at Oireachtas. And ‘big meanie’, CONGRATS again on getting the 1st you needed to advance!
* Before anyone gets all, ‘you shouldn’t call the girl names’, I called the dancer a big meanie after she beat my darling daughter. I didn’t mean it, and the smile I got after I called her that showed me she knew I was kidding.
Gem City Feis Review
The Gem City Feis was held on October 13th, 2012 at the Dayton Airport Expo Center in Vandalia, OH. What is it with these airport feises lately?
Venue – The Expo Center was great as a feis venue. Lots of room, plenty of space, plenty of area for camping. It was not ‘posh’, but the temperature was good and there was lots of room. They probably could have taped off a bigger area for camping then they actually did, since the camping filled up and became difficult to navigate in and out of, but the annoyance was minor.
There were five stages, well separated and all very good size. They had sufficient chairs for viewers but the campers were being their old inconsiderate selves… but I digress.
Parking was good, not all ‘close,’ but plentiful.
Venue Score: 8.5
Judges – Like last weekend, the girl child had four dances and was judged by three different judges, a good judging rotation.
Judge Score: 9
Music – All stages had their own musicians and there was good separation between the stages so there was no music bleed over. Our musician did not seem to take a pee break, so no complaints.
Musician Score: 9
Food – Burgers, grilled chicken, pretzels, pizza, salad, sandwiches, drinks and breakfast items. I thought the prices were a little high for drinks, and was a little surprised by the $5 burger, but it was huge, so I take that back and will say the prices were reasonable. Oh, and they had beer, only a couple brands, but they had it for sale.
Food Score: 8.5
Vendors – The shoe booth (yeah George was back), and feis t-shirts which were preprinted, not customized like in most feises I have been to. Wigs, as always, and another Irish tshirt guy, and other smaller booths. The Zuca guy was there too, a staple in Irish Dance (the Zucas, not the guy).You can see all the vendors at the the feis site under Layout and Concessions.
Vendor Score: 8
Results – Good work on the results, and they were out within about 15 – 30 minutes or so after each dance. No apparent Twitter or Facebook posts, which I would love to see from all feises, so not perfect, but pretty darn good.
Results Score: 9.5
Feis Flow – I thought the feis flow was good. I am becoming a fan of grouping age comp dances because it seems to help get through the dances quicker, but GC did not group. They went through all the ages in each dance and then moved to the next dance. That being said, we were still through all 4 dances around 2pm after starting after 10am.
Feis Flow Score: 7
And the WTF Rating – a WTF Rating is 8.5 which ties for 2nd highest feis review score from WTF. Good Job Gem City!.
Pittsburgh Halloween Feis Review
NOTE: When you are done reading, please see the comments for a follow up by the Feis Chair.
The Pittsburgh Halloween Feis was held on October 6, 2012 at Hyatt Regency Hotel at the Pittsburgh Airport in Pittsburgh, PA.
Venue – The Hyatt wasn’t terrible as a feis venue, but I did have some ‘issues’ with it.
From the syllabus I see there were five stages but I really only saw three of them. They were good size and although they were all in the same room, there was adequate room to move between them. They also had sufficient chairs for viewers.
OBSERVATION: I did not see any ‘campers’ in the seats around the stage, not saying it did not happen, but it was not rampant as it is in many feises. A nice, less aggravating seating plan 🙂
Camping spots were available in the halls and other meeting rooms around the ballroom and seemed adequate.
A venue ‘issue’ was the concession set up. They set up serving tables in one of the halls which happened to be the main hall between the dance areas and the results area, and the lunch rush was just a huge traffic jam of people trying to get from one area to the other. They could have used one of the meeting rooms which would have helped the congestion.
Vendors were also set up in the halls which constricted flow a little, but it was not terrible.
Parking was bad and due to construction at the airport was extra bad. We ended up in extended stay parking the first attempt, and the nice man in the exit booth routed us to the right parking. Hotel parking (aka Long Term) was very full so there was a bit of a walk to the hotel, not good for some attendants. The feis did pay for parking, and they provided us with tickets to pay, but it was not obvious on how they were to be used. I saw some ‘aggravation’ with people trying to leave who were unsure what to do.
Venue Score: 6.5
Judges – My daughter danced four dances and was judged by three different judges, pretty darn good.
Judge Score: 9
Music – Each stage had their own musicians, always good. Our stage musician took several breaks, one seemed a bit ‘extended’, so much so that it was obvious. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary.
Musician Score: 8
REALIZATION: I think I may be getting burned out on feising…. I feel like I was not quite as observant at this feis.
Food – Hot dog, pretzels, pizza, salad, drinks and sundries… all reasonably priced. A negative, a quarter pound hot dog was $3 and a salad was $5, which kind of put the kabash on healthy eating decisions. Not bad, but could have used a little more variety since it was catered by the hotel.
Food Score: 6
Vendors – A feis tshirt guy, and a shoe booth (not George)… always there. Nice jewelry and knit goods, the wig ladies, need I go on?
Vendor Score: 7.5
Results – This was a huge negative. My daughter danced her first dance between 11 and 1130, they broke for lunch, and then continued dancing. She finished her 4th dance at nearly 2 and the results for the first dance had not been posted when we checked before her fourth dance started. It was out shortly after, and the last three results came out by 3 so it seemed to speed up some, but in the meantime, there was a LOT of grumbling from dancers and parents.
Results Score: 3
Feis Flow – I thought the feis flow was pretty good. Age group dances were kept together with only a few dances between, always help the flow. During the lunch break I saw one of the feis staff go around announcing break was over, and got everything going again about 30 minutes after break started. I thought that was good and had not seen that much effort put into keeping the flow. (I did find out there was a wedding reception planned for later that day in the same room since the hotel double booked, which may explain the extra effort).
Feis Flow Score: 8
And the WTF Rating – a WTF Rating is 6.86.