Ren Fest 2008

Well, following a tradition started last year, we accompanied Vickie and Jason (and Nathan this time) to the Rennaisance Festival on School Day. This is SO fun-a huge place with shops and shows and just old-timey stuff. But, the best is going on School Days where there's no questionable characters, no beer sold, no promiscuous outfits! just total fun. We did NOT ride the elephant this year like last, it was too scary for L. Even the petting zoo was a little intense. But, the BEST part was watching this guy play the carillon!! It is SO incredibly impressive! It's so beautiful (and incredibly loud). Here's a video of him playing a song he wrote without backup music and then another video of a hopefully familiar song! Again, so incredibly cool. AND, he said, if I remember right, this is the only place in the world (at least in the USA) where you can see a live carrilon show b/c most are in bell towers and stuff! So, a once-in-a-lifetime experience!! check it out!

"A carillon (/kaʁijɔ̃/, /ˈkærɪljɒn/ or /kəˈrɪljən/) is a musical instrument consisting of at least 23 cast bronze cup-shaped bells which are played one after the other (to play a melody) or sounded together (to play a chord). A carillon is played by striking a keyboard (called a "baton") with the fists and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet. The keys mechanically activate levers and wires that connect to the metal clappers that strike the bells, allowing the performer (known as a "carillonneur") to vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key.
Carillon bells are usually housed in the bell towers of church towers, belfries, or in municipal buildings. The carillon is the heaviest of all musical instruments; the total weight of bells alone can be 100 tons in the largest instruments."