The RESCU Foundation

October 4, 2005 7:44 PM

The RESCU Foundation is a non-profit organization established to promote financial relief and comfort to renaissance festival participants and their families who have experienced medical disruptions and subsequent extreme difficulties. Renaissance festivals have existed for over 30 years. Helping people has been around longer. The thousands of participants who have worked shows know that the value of a community is dependent upon its level of caring. The few that have finally brought RESCU into existence have done so because so many have voiced the need for such an organization.
posted by jcterminal (54 comments total)

Is this an ad?
posted by a3matrix at 7:50 PM on October 4, 2005

There is something vaguely time cube-ish about the explanation of the organization's purpose.
posted by troybob at 8:00 PM on October 4, 2005

Come now, come now. We all know perfectly well that there is no such thing as the "RESCU Foundation". We all know perfectly well that ill RenFaire participants are dealt with at the end of every Faire day by the nice fellow who wheels out his trundle cart crying "Bring out your dead!" And that you don't even have to be quite dead to take advantage of the service!
posted by Creosote at 8:00 PM on October 4, 2005

Huzzah!
posted by Jon-o at 8:05 PM on October 4, 2005

I fervently hope that people who participate in Ren Faires have medical disruptions and subsequent extreme difficulties.

And then die.

And their famlies, too, for the cime of spawning them and inflicting them upon the rest of us.
posted by solid-one-love at 8:13 PM on October 4, 2005

*Families*. *crime*. Sigh.
posted by solid-one-love at 8:13 PM on October 4, 2005

My Eerie RenFaire Memory

Being a native Southern Californian just turned 50, as a kid I attended a couple of the very first Renaissance Pleasure Faires put on in the 1960s by the Pattersons, the ur-Faires that generated them all.

My little brother and I (aged around 10 and 8, respectively) were wandering about through one of those fairs when we came upon the following scene. This is honest gospel truth, my agnostic hand upon the collected writings of Thomas Jefferson:

Two little costumed boys about our age were sitting on a straw bale behind one or another of the stages or vendor booths. They were both eating some sort of porridge out of wooden bowls with wooden spoons, and were coughing and hacking as if in distress as they ate.

My brother and I exchanged horrified glances and got the heck out of there.

(Now that I think about it, I imagine you can see this sort of thing pretty much any time at an SCA event where the hapless kiddies have been dragged along... but at the time I was young and innocent and had never been exposed to the peculiar madness of historical reconstructors.)
posted by Creosote at 8:29 PM on October 4, 2005

Ren Fest stories.. back in in High School. A friend and I dressed up as workers and casually barrel-rolled a full keg of wine out the front gate into the parking lot and away. The keg lasted all summer and was the bomb of many a party. We never could drink it all before it went bad, it was a lot of wine (Burgandy), homeless people liked us.
posted by stbalbach at 8:45 PM on October 4, 2005

I think that the provision of this sort of assistance would be anachronistic to the period being so otherwise meticulously recreated.

Debtor's prison or flogging or, at best, vigorous bleeding and cupping would seem to be more appropriate.
posted by the sobsister at 9:01 PM on October 4, 2005

The good news is that they won't need referrals to see a specialist. They can all just line up to see the one-stop barber.
posted by Jon-o at 9:09 PM on October 4, 2005

Oh come on.

This can't be real.
posted by Ynoxas at 9:41 PM on October 4, 2005

I fervently hope that people who participate in Ren Faires have medical disruptions and subsequent extreme difficulties.

And then die.

Friends of mine work the Ren Fest circuit. They're, you know, people.

Asshat.
posted by eustacescrubb at 9:55 PM on October 4, 2005

They're, you know, people.

No, they aren't. And you can take your self-righteousness and lack of humour and shove then up your amazingly tight bunghole.
posted by solid-one-love at 10:19 PM on October 4, 2005

If the carnies and these Ren Festers want to start some big nerd support system, fine...just leave us alone about it.

Hey jc, would it have killed you to find a few supporting links to make this boring post more interesting; say, something like this.
posted by j.p. Hung at 10:28 PM on October 4, 2005

"My father's buying me the Socialist Workers' Party for my birthday!"
posted by trondant at 10:49 PM on October 4, 2005

I hit the local Ren Fest every couple of years just to see my namesake Dead Bob

And, he doesn't need any help from RESCU, way past that!
posted by HuronBob at 2:16 AM on October 5, 2005

Nothing funnier than when two nerdverses collide. It is like snails racing. Even if you win you are not fast.
posted by srboisvert at 3:33 AM on October 5, 2005

It's definitely for real, though I don't know much more about it than is on the site.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 8:44 AM on October 5, 2005

Can someone explain the contempt that some have for Ren Faire/SCA type organizations/events/people?

I've only been to very small events, though I have friends who are heavily involved in the SCA, and they seem harmless enough. (Or maybe they're the more well-adjusted ones. I've also been invited to join, and have always declined due to time constraints. Maybe I'm missing the sinister, evil side of the SCA...)

Thanks.
posted by spinifex23 at 8:51 AM on October 5, 2005

Can someone explain the contempt that some have for Ren Faire/SCA type organizations/events/people?

They're just kind of corny, is all. Nerdsville, dig?
posted by scratch at 9:05 AM on October 5, 2005

Can someone explain the contempt that some have for Ren Faire/SCA type organizations/events/people?

It's just traditional, like making fun of morris dancers.
posted by Creosote at 9:25 AM on October 5, 2005

It's funny, several guys who used to deal drugs, carry guns, etc. back in high school grew up into the biggest nerds, getting together for role-playing multiple nights a week, and spending an inordinant amount of time making costumes and safety swords.
posted by sonofsamiam at 9:33 AM on October 5, 2005

Can someone explain the contempt that some have for Ren Faire/SCA type organizations/events/people?

Because they're social misfits of nearly the lowest order. Furries and people who dress up like vampires or Klingons are worse, but not by much.

Five minutes talking with any pasty, bearded, morbidly obese guy who likes to dress up in costumes and hit people like himself with wicker swords is enough to make almost anyone wish that he'd fall on a real sword.

And despite their mission, they make very little attempt to be historically accurate, which is why American Civil War re-enactors are slightly above SCAers on the loser scale.

It's fantasy dress-up for overweight dorks. It's cliquey playing at being kings and queens. It's a cottage industry for unwashed longhairs with a tenuous grasp of reality. It's a waste.

Like any repellent hobby, it has outliers, the occasional person who could survive in the real world. But, y'know, it's just not worth trying to keep them alive when we can arclight the university green and get 'em all at once.

I'm a geek, okay? I've been a nerd. I worked in a goddamn comic book store. It's not like my hobbies involve putting on a hockey jersey and rooting for the Canucks, golfing on the weekends or doing the gardening. I like geeks and nerds. I empathize with the socially challenged.

But the Ren Faire dorks and, IMO, the insular aspects of our society that encourage the socially maladroit to get involved in this kind of masturbatory fandom, need to be wiped out utterly. The SCA, the Klingon language clubs, the furries: they are the unhealthy fringe. Society can learn nothing from these people, even potentially. Their members are a danger to themselves and others by the mere virtue of belonging, and believing that this sense of belonging is healthy. It is not.

To the social retard, this kind of belonging may be fulfilling, but it is not useful, nor will it help to pull their introverted asses into the real world in any way. They will continue to work at Kinko's and Burger Shack and will drag other unfortunates with them.

I would sooner spit at an SCA'er than talk to her. They are harmful to themselves and others.
posted by solid-one-love at 10:39 AM on October 5, 2005

Renfairs exist for one reason, and one reason only. So that you can walk around and feast your eyes:

posted by nlindstrom at 11:13 AM on October 5, 2005

Well. I suppose it would be helpful...you know, if one were to be struck by a LIGHTNING BOLT!!!
posted by weirdoactor at 11:32 AM on October 5, 2005

She's awfully skinny to be doing the SCA thing, though, nlindstrom.
posted by solid-one-love at 12:00 PM on October 5, 2005

To the social retard, this kind of belonging may be fulfilling, but it is not useful, nor will it help to pull their introverted asses into the real world in any way. They will continue to work at Kinko's and Burger Shack and will drag other unfortunates with them.

Yeah, but what if they're HAPPY that way? I would never go to a ren faire, and it's a litmus test of sorts for new friends (anyone who suggests we go is immediately crossed off), but hey--if it makes them happy, fine. Let them gather and prance around like idiots. Live and let live, eh?
posted by scratch at 12:18 PM on October 5, 2005

Yeah, but what if they're HAPPY that way?

I have addressed this.
posted by solid-one-love at 12:27 PM on October 5, 2005

Solid one love, you're pretty confused on the differences between the SCA and ren fairs, and further confused on the differences between people who work the fair circuit (which is what this RESCU group is about) and a small subset of fair customers, some of which fit your description.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 12:27 PM on October 5, 2005

I would sooner spit at an SCA'er than talk to her. They are harmful to themselves and others.

I dunno, sounds to me like solid-one-love got shot down by a Ren Faire chick 10 years ago and hasn't gotten over it yet.

That said, we're taking the kids to a Ren Faire in KC this weekend, because you know what? They're fun. And funny. Anachronistic, fat, pale, basement-dwelling, kilt-wearing RenDorks notwithstanding.

Jeez. People who like Ren Faires get "crossed off" your list for friendship right away? Color me oh-so-disappointed. Ferchrissakes, lighten up. It doesn't have to be a way of life, it can just be a good way to kill a few hours. You know, while discreetly giggling at the people who do take it seriously.

Goddamn.

~grumbles about the never-ending holier-than-thou feel of this place~
posted by jennaratrix at 12:32 PM on October 5, 2005

Tim, it's the same shit in a different pile. drawing a line of demarcation between the two is like saying that the folks who dress up like Klingons in shopping malls aren't like the ones who do it at sci-fi conventions.

No, Jenna, I get shot down by much better class of chick.
posted by solid-one-love at 12:41 PM on October 5, 2005

Tell yourself that.
posted by sonofsamiam at 12:44 PM on October 5, 2005

No, it's widely different, especially the difference between workers and some of those attending. (A fair is really a more or less mainstream entertainment event with a few hardcore followers. If you are ever at one, count the relative numbers of people in costume and out.)

This specific example is somewhat like calling the girl at Disneyworld in the Mickey Mouse suit a furry.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 12:52 PM on October 5, 2005

Y'know, one of the coolest guys I used to know (until he moved off to Texas) was someone who went from doing SCA stuff to choreographing swordfights for movies and television. That might be mitigated somewhat by the fact that he worked on the Highlander TV show (with some guy who looks like Lorenzo Lamas but wasn't) and had a collection of decorative swords, but he had great taste in movies, music, women and drugs.
Many folks at Renfests are degenerate losers, but writing 'em all off is unfair. It's not like they're LARPers.
posted by klangklangston at 12:59 PM on October 5, 2005

The difference between professional dorks and amateur dorks is pretty slight, I think. And the girl at Disneyworld doesn't have an artificially carpeted pudenda; I wouldn't call that being part of the same sport.

Sam: they're the ones that I shoot down. Ask your mom.
posted by solid-one-love at 1:04 PM on October 5, 2005

Fuck it, I give up. Go on being incorrect.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 1:08 PM on October 5, 2005

Klang: like I said, there are outliers.

I was careful not to mention LARPers in specific. Condemn their cultish movement and they'll stalk you forever. With two posts in this thread mentioning the word "LARP", we risk attracting them like mother bears to a threatening hiker.

Tiny, toothless, ineffectual bears, but bears nonetheless.
posted by solid-one-love at 1:10 PM on October 5, 2005

Fuck it, I give up.

I bet your dad wishes that he had.
posted by solid-one-love at 1:11 PM on October 5, 2005

Classy, buddy. You're clearly the non-"social retard" and well-adjusted citizen that hobbyists should emulate.
posted by sonofsamiam at 1:14 PM on October 5, 2005

I didn't throw the first punch, asshole. If you can't suck it up, move on out.
posted by solid-one-love at 1:15 PM on October 5, 2005

Woah! Didn't mean to touch a sore nerve.
posted by sonofsamiam at 1:17 PM on October 5, 2005

Of course you did. You didn't hit a sore nerve, but you cleearly intended to touch one:

Tell yourself that.

A personal attack. The first punch thrown. Should I infer that you think it's not OK for me to sling some shit back? If so, why? If not, why do you keep coming back with more, for more?

See, being a self-realized person and knowing how to socialize, I understand calling for discrimination or harm against a non-protected class does not warrant a personal attack, but that a personal attack does warrant a rejoinder in kind.

Vis:

A: "I think all dentists should be killed."
B: "I disagree, and here's why."
A: "I see. You're wrong for the following reasons."
B: "No, you have failed to understand."

In the above case, both conversants have behaved appropritely.

A: "I think all dentists should be killed."
B: "Clearly you're fucked in the head and must have been dumped by a dentist."
A: "The best part of you ran down your mommy's leg."
B: "Classy."

In the above case, A has acted appropriately. B is a tool.

If you can't take it, don't shovel it out.
posted by solid-one-love at 1:25 PM on October 5, 2005

> I fervently hope that people who participate in Ren Faires have medical disruptions and subsequent extreme difficulties.

And then die.

And their famlies, too, for the cime of spawning them and inflicting them upon the rest of us.

That wasn't the first punch? What a tiresome little weasel you are.
posted by dhartung at 1:36 PM on October 5, 2005

Well, if we're going to do this, then I feel the need to point out that *I* was the one who inferred that your irrational hatred of Ren Fairers and/or SCA'ers (their differences being irrelevent to my current point) was the result of a personal slight suffered at some point in your past. So your over-the-top suggestion that someone's daddy should have pulled out or what have you should have been directed my way, not anyone else's.

Having said that - dude, what is your fucking problem? It can't possibly be that you think that Ren Fairers present a threat to the greater good, or whatever your supposed point was. The vitriol of your attack suggests something much more personal, which was the point I was getting at with my comment. Then to follow it up with even more defensive posturing - I just don't get it. This was a post about a group that attends to the health of people who work at Ren Faires, and you came in here wishing death upon them. You couldn't possibly have expected that no one would take offense to that.

On preview: what dhartung said.
posted by jennaratrix at 1:38 PM on October 5, 2005

That wasn't the first punch?

No, it wasn't, and I think I explained why. What a disingenuous little weasel you are.

I will further explain below.

Jenna, every person who made a personal attack on me threw a first punch. I attacked nobody here personally, and even if there's a RenFaire enthusiast who doesn't like that I'm calling for his or her death, that's tough. They aren't part of a protected class. This isn't like calling for the deaths of Jews or blacks or gays. You don't have to like that I'm calling for the deaths of SCAers or dentists or scuba divers. You can take offense to it. But y'know what? That doesn't give you the right to make a personal attack against me for it. And you don't have to like that, either, but that's the way it is.

I let it slide with you. I'm a reasonable guy. First shot is usually free. Second shot, regardless of who it's from, isn't.

I'm not the one with a "fucking problem." This is not about me. I didn't make it about me. So cut the shit, all of you. Either debate the point, or take a hike.
posted by solid-one-love at 2:13 PM on October 5, 2005

BTW, is there any kind of MeFi award available for "thread that generated the most comments from a totally unpromising first post"? Because I think we'd have a contender here...
posted by Creosote at 2:40 PM on October 5, 2005

I think it was more my question that caused this clusterfuck to erupt, and no the original post.

I saw it as:
- Pro-Ren Faire link/blurb/FPP is posted.
- Some use it to decry the lameness of said Ren Faires.
- Others think it's a joke.
- Still others sigh wistfully as they fondly reminisce of Ren Faires of Yore.
- I ask why people seem to hate these events/people/organizations, including the SCA, as I had no clue they were indeed separate things, as I also have had no experience (thus no bias), against these events.
- Clusterfuck ensues. I believe I was the evil vector in this pandemic of argument.

(PS - I like Klingons).
posted by spinifex23 at 3:26 PM on October 5, 2005

I'm kind of not really wanting to get into this, but I'm truly interested. Call it a morbid interest if you must. So here goes.

1. Wishing death upon people is personal. You may not have directed it specifically at one person in this forum (i.e., "Jenna, I wish you would die") but making a broad, sweeping generalization about all people who work at/attend/volunteer for/sympathize with Ren Faires or people who like them, and wishing those people dead? Um, yeah, personal attack on those people, some of whom may be here reading. Like it or lump it. Leave semantics out of it, that argument isn't working for you.

2. Your profile specifically addresses this issue - that you never initiate personal attacks, but you are constantly attacked yourself and therefore you must retaliate. Sounds like a persecution complex. You may not make what you yourself define as a "personal" attack, but you come awfully close, and it prompts a response you can then see as personal. It looks to me like you do it on purpose to generate just such a response. Then you come back with some uncalled-for trash-talking, and tell us to suck it, that you didn't throw the first punch, you didn't make it about you, blah blah blah asshatcakes. Well, but here's the thing - you can choose not to come back with a comment 10 times as offensive as what was said to you, then throw your hands up all "She started it!" I don't take that shitty excuse from my 7 year old, I'm sure not listening to it from an (allegedly) grown man (assumption made based on getting shot down by chicks by your own admission, please excuse if not the case and let's NOT make a federal case out of it, kay, thanks). And besides, you did start it, with your very first comment. I'm not going to argue whether or not it was "personal", see above, because it was clearly meant to be offensive, generate a response, and give you a handy excuse to tote out all your "clever" "insults."

So what I want to know is the same question I asked in the first place - what is your fucking problem? No, really, I'm asking. This is your signature style. You come in, shit all over a thread, generating anger toward you which is expressed in snippy comments, turn it into an off-topic bitchfest all about you, then claim no responsibility. Why do you do that?
posted by jennaratrix at 4:22 PM on October 5, 2005

You are comedy gold.
posted by klangklangston at 4:49 PM on October 5, 2005

[much boring pseudo-logic elided]
If you can't take it, don't shovel it out.

I don't know why you keep saying "if you can't take it, etc." My feelings aren't hurt. Are yours?

I gotta wonder about a guy named "one love" who can muster so much vitriol for a bunch of admittedly nerdy folks who have never done him any harm.

Annnnd... I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but between you and the unsocialized nerds I know, it's pretty obvious who is going to be more fun to go drinking with.
posted by sonofsamiam at 5:54 PM on October 5, 2005

solid-one-love writes "but it is not useful"

Is selling comic books useful? Being a nerd? Posting on metafilter, for f**k's sake?

Geez, at least the people are going someplace and meeting other people. It's better than getting all lonely and then going on a killing rampage like the dude in se7en. Maybe he just needed a renfair.

That aside...um, does a social welfare organization geared exclusively to renfair participants seem fair or sensible? It might make more sense to look into, say, joining with an existing welfare organization and raising contributions through the fairs.
posted by Deathalicious at 8:01 PM on October 5, 2005

On a side note, I can't believe this thread has gone on this long without anyone picking up on my (nerdy) MST3K reference.
posted by Jon-o at 9:23 PM on October 5, 2005

On a side note, I can't believe this thread has gone on this long without anyone picking up on my (nerdy) MST3K reference.

What, "Huzzah"? But the horror is that people at RenFests actually say this... whence the MST3K ref.
posted by Creosote at 2:20 PM on October 6, 2005

I don't remember the name, but the premise of the spoofed film is that these weird aliens land (that look kind of like Alf. One of the younger aliens winds up in the care of some young, annoying boy). One of the first people to spot them is a hairy dude with a crossbow. Crow says, "This guy's got Renaissance Fair written all over him!" Then, in unison, they all say, "Huzzah!"
posted by Jon-o at 6:05 PM on October 6, 2005