Friend a Day – David Wick
I’ve known David all of his life but I don’t really feel like I got to know him until we spend a summer together in Europe in 1985.
As we traveled around the country that year, I was getting ready to go to college and he was getting ready to spend a year studying in France. We’d spent our lives in the same home and suddenly we were both branching out on our own. We’d spent years hanging out with our own friends and suddenly we had to spend a month with just each other.
David is, like most members of my family, someone who finds ways to fill just about all of his time. He’s passionate about his career in the study abroad field. He has grown to take a leadership role in his professional organization. He worked a full-time job while getting his PhD to advance his career.
While he doesn’t have time for it any longer, David is a great dancer. I’ve always been in awe of his grace simply because I have none. In college, his senior project was a tribute to our dad and it is still one of the most powerful pieces of dance I’ve ever seen. Sure, it was personal and I was the perfect audience but it was still a terrific work by a very talented dancer/choreographer.
We only see each other about once a year these days and that’s a shame because there is always so much to talk about. He is one of the most genuinely charming people I know. If you know David, you probably like him. I have no idea how you couldn’t.
He’s had his share of challenges but he always maintains a positive outlook on everything. I have tried to learn that from him over the years.
I always tell people I’m a big fan of my family. They are good people and I’m pleased to know them not just as family but as friends. David is family, but he’s also a great friend.
Friend a Day – Jena Young
I’ve known Jena for something close to all of her life. She’s been at the festival almost as long as I have. Maybe longer.
Jena is working on something all of the time. She has a remarkably eclectic skill set that makes her valuable in almost any situation. I don’t know of a time I’ve thought “this is something Jena can’t do.”
When something comes up at the last minute, she is not one to back away from the challenge. Given just a couple of weeks to prepare, she wrote and performed a solo show at the Minnesota Fringe last year. On the Rarig Proscenium.
If you’ve ever been inside the Rarig Proscenium, you should know that performing a solo show on that stage is something only a crazy person would want to do.
Jena is not crazy. She is driven and she is willing to take chances that may or may not pay off because she knows that she will get something valuable out of the experience either way.
We’ve been recording A Reel Education together for about a year now and that has been a lot of fun. She brings that fresh perspective to every movie and it is a lot of fun. The biggest challenge, though, is fitting podcast recordings into her schedule that is filled with rehearsals.
You have to respect someone who is working in theater all the time. She is always finding projects that are interesting and different.
Somehow, she manages to do all of this while also being a single mom. I don’t usually talk about parenting in my Friend a Day posts but the thing is, Jena is very present as a parent and as someone trying to strike that theater/kid balance, I admire and respect her efforts in that regard. I’m fortunate to have a partner to share that load. She doesn’t have that.
Jena is hard working and dedicated and I think that work pays off in all sorts of ways. Time with Jena is always time well spent.
Friend a Day – Eddie Jeff Cahill
I’ve known Eddie Jeff since 1996 when we sang “Wild Rover” together. Mutual friend Terry Foy was looking for someone to play the song and he asked a big group if anyone knew the song. Both of us knew the song so we performed it together.
Two days later, we got sent out on a promotional event as a music act. We barely knew each other but we sounded pretty good together. Good enough to fool our audience, anyway. He knew a lot more songs than I did but I could play along and I’m pretty fast at figuring out the lyrics to a chorus.
Because he’d been around Renaissance Festivals all his life, I assumed he knew “Ramblin’ Rover” so I asked him if he wanted to sing it. “Sure,” he said.
So I started singing the song and he would cheerfully sing the last syllable of every verse. Finally I stopped and looked at him and said “you don’t know this song at all, do you?”
“Not a lick,” he replied.
The audience loved it.
We’ve played music together, off an on, ever since.
Eddie Jeff is an absolutely great guitar player and he has a fantastic singing voice. He spends most of his life on the road, travelling from gig to gig. It’s a tough life but one that, I think, makes him happy most of the time.
He’s got the unique ability to be able to work with just about anyone. If you can carry a tune, he’ll be able to carry it with you.
The most talented people I know are also the most generous with their talent. Eddie Jeff is the embodiment of that. He is so remarkably good and yet he will share the stage with anyone.
I don’t spend nearly enough time around him these days because he goes where he can make the most money and that is not, unfortunately, the Minnesota Festival.
Any time I can be around him, though, is a treat. He’s a great talent and a great person.
Friend a Day – Nan Miller
I don’t know how long I’ve known Nan. We’ve both been with the Renaissance Festival for a long time now.
Nan is the director of the Court Revelers at the festival and the amount of work she must put into that job is amazing. They are a large ensemble and their cast changes every year. Just the idea of needing to train in new members every single season gives me nightmares.
That the revelers have been able to maintain a very high standard with that turnover is a credit to all of them but especially the leadership Nan provides. She has very high standards but it still looks like they are having fun when they perform.
She also does many of the arrangements of their music, which impresses me because I don’t read music and because of that, it seems like it must be incredibly difficult. I’m pretty sure it actually is incredibly difficult.
She’s got a commitment to performing that, I think, echoes my own. We both believe that we are out at the festival to entertain and that means we are on stage when the cannon goes off in the morning and we are still there when it goes off in the evening. That is the deal and it is a deal she keeps that deal each day of the season.
Nan has been one of my regular Sunday night dinner companions for the last several seasons. We get together and laugh at the stories from the weekend while ignoring how tired and sore we all look and feel.
Every one of the people who take part in that ritual are special. The weekend doesn’t feel over until we all recap it over dinner. There is a lot more laughter than anything else.
The Renaissance Festival has shaped most of my friendships for the last thirty years. I’m pleased that Nan is one of those friendships.
Friend a Day – John Newstrom
Photo by Garner Moffat
I met John through work when he took over for my old boss. He’s since left the company but we’ve continued to work together as collaborators on Fringe shows.
When he came to work in the office, we hit it off right away. I think we have fairly similar personalities. Our senses of humor were perfectly matched and we both liked most of the same things. He made work a lot of fun and while it made sense for him to move on when he did, I still miss seeing him every day.
John is the person most responsible for pushing me into writing more. He suggested “Highlander: The Musical” as a show title and I said I would write the music for him if it got into the fringe. It was a crazy thing to say since I’d never written a musical before. That has led to a lot of writing projects that I never would have considered.
When John gets excited about something, you can’t help but be excited as well. He gets a wild look of determination in his eyes and it’s hard to say anything but yes, let’s give it a try.
I do possess a certain level of awe for people like John, who actually enjoy directing. I’m happy to write things and have someone else figure out how to make those things look on stage. John is one of those people and I’m extraordinarily lucky to have found someone who works well with me and has an understanding of what I’m trying to do with my writing.
His marketing skills are something I wish I possessed. When there needs to be artwork produced for a show, he puts it together in what seems like seconds and it is always considerably better than anything I would have created.
Random chance is a funny thing. John and I started working together without any knowledge of each other’s theatre background. We hit it off and the result has been an artistic partnership far more fruitful than what either of us expected.
I’m very pleased random chance brought the two of us together. I look forward to many more collaborations.
Friend a Day – Kae Caston
I’ve known Kae for years because she has been a patron at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. She’s the patron everyone loves because she loves everyone.
Kae finally got a digital camera a few years ago but before then, she would take hundreds of pictures of cast members every year. Over the first few weekends of the new season, she would hand out huge bundles of pictures to each of us. It was one of the most selfless and thoughtful acts that anyone had ever done and she did it because she wanted to give something back.
She attends the Feast of Fantasy several times a year but my schedule is such that I rarely see her there. When I do, I always say hello.
The thing about Kae is she always has a smile on her face. She loves watching us perform and she couldn’t hide it even if she wanted to.
When we put in all that time at the festival every year, it is people like Kae who make that time worthwhile. You look at her smile and you know that you are doing something good. You change at least that life every year.
The reasons for Kae’s love of the festival are a little sad but what is important is that she has turned that sadness into something that gives happiness to so many, including herself. I don’t think it is really a new season until I’ve seen Kae. She is one of the signs of fall.
I’ve got piles of pictures from Kae. I don’t look at them very often. I really should because they are a great reminder that for all the years I’ve been doing the festival, I’ve been doing it for people like Kae. I’ve been doing it for those people who come to our show, rain or shine, and find joy in what we create.
There will always be audience members like Kae and I will always be grateful for them.
Friend a Day – Jerry Wick
Picture drawn by an Eight-year-old me and made into needlepoint by my Dad.
This is a tough one but I wrote about my mom for Mother’s Day so I decided to write about my dad for Father’s day.
Dad died in 1986. Father’s day has been hard for me ever since because it reminds me of something that I lost. Even though I have my own kids now, my emotions around Father’s day are a little bittersweet.
When writing about him, I worry that my memories of him aren’t really who he was but rather the faint memories of someone who is so far in my past, I will never really know who he was. But I’m going to write some of the good things I remember and that will have to do.
In college, my friends would talk about the difficult relationship they had with their parents and I felt almost guilty because I got along with my parents very well. They were both smart, supportive, and funny.
Dad taught computer programming for Control Data in those days. I didn’t know a lot about his job but I know that he would regularly go out of town to teach his courses and the places he went sounded amazing. He went to San Francisco a lot. He went to Europe a lot. He went to Israel. He died while on a business trip in Austria.
What I remember from those trips was how he always seemed to find time to experience the place he was visiting. Yes, he was there to do a job and he did it very well. But he wasn’t going to let the job spoil the opportunity to check out a new and interesting place.
He loved to walk. He played a lot of golf and I think at least part of his enjoyment of the game was the opportunity to spend the morning walking in a beautiful place. He went to see the opera the night he died and the people he was with offered him a ride back to his hotel. He said no because he wanted to walk back.
There was a silly side to him that I remember finding a little bit embarrassing when I was a teenager. I remember one time I was listening to the soundtrack from “Cats” because I was obsessed with that musical after seeing it in London. The song Macavity came on and Dad began to sing it to me. He had this look on his face that I always remember. It was bright and energetic and a little bit mischievous.
My grandfather often told of a time that he and Dad were on a train trip and they played 99 games of cribbage. Dad won every game. In fact, dad won almost every game of everything. He was just that much better than others when it came to such things. He’d play bridge almost every week in a dining room filled with smoke. I tried learning the game a few times but it never captured my imagination.
Dad made up stories about a lot of things. Once, we asked him why Chelwood Elementary School was named that way and he made up a story about Chelwood the chapion Tic-Tac-Toe playing cat and the King of New Mexico. Years later we would have a cat named Chelwood because of that story.
I could tell a lot more stories about Dad that would explain more about why I liked and loved him so much. He was a great role model.
When I think about him, it makes me wish I believed in an afterlife just so I would have a chance to see him again. The memories are good, though, and while they aren’t enough, they will have to do.
Father’s day is a good time to remember the dads we still have and the dads we’ve lost. Whatever category you fall in, I hope you take a moment to remember the good things about your dad.
Happy Father’s Day dad. I miss you.
Friend a Day – Alex and Devon Wick
It’s Father’s Day Weekend so I get to write about my kids.
I’ve known Alex and Devon for literally their entire lives. They are great kids and I’m proud that I’m their dad.
Alex loves school. He’s great at math and science and he reads just about any book we put in front of him. He’s got a very cheerful disposition that helps get him through tough times.
He loves to watch videos on Youtube and play on his 3DS. He is starting to learn how to do laundry and cook. He’s a huge fan of tabletop games and is up for trying just about anything of any complexity level.
About two years ago, he was having some bully problems in school. The kids were calling him gay and even though he was upset, he had the presence of mind to tell them that there was nothing wrong with being gay. I was so proud of him specifically because he was in the middle of an emotional moment but managed to defend a group of people who deserved a defense.
Devon is amazingly creative. I think The Lego Movie struck home for me because I finally realized that I need to stop freaking out when he takes his Lego X-Wing apart to make something else. They are his Legos, after all. He should be able to do whatever he wants with them.
He’s always building something new and is always excited to tell me all about it. As a dad, I need to do a better job of listening.
Earlier this spring, Devon decided that he wanted to learn how to ride a bike. He didn’t tell anyone. He just got a bike out of the garage and started riding it up and down the alley. By the end of the evening, he was nearly an expert.
Devon does things like that. He decides that he needs to figure out how to do something and he does it.
Both of them are great kids. Father’s day is a good time to take a moment to look at your kids and realize that they are wonderful little people. So thanks to Alex and Devon for making me a dad!
Friend a Day – Jody Wurl
I’ve known Jody from my earliest days at the Renaissance Festival. She started – I think – two years after me.
Jody has such a wealth of knowledge about books especially. I think at least half of the speculative fiction books in my home are here based on her recommendation. When we were younger, I’d read any book she put in front of me because she always made good suggestions.
She has always struck me as someone who is searching for joy in her life, even when there is sorrow. She strives to find the best in life and even when she stumbles, she finds a way to return to that place of happiness.
I’ve watched her do so many things well over the years, it is staggering. She is a great dancer, a great librarian, a great street performer, and now she is working on improv and I’m sure she is going to be great at that. She probably already is – I just haven’t had a chance to watch her.
Family has always been so important to her. She is always talking about her sisters and her nieces and always making time for them. I can tell how much it means to her that her family is part of her life.
When it comes to details, she is so much better than I am. When I talk about her wealth of knowledge, I can’t even believe how much information she just remembers. The two of us work in the same department for CONvergence and thank goodness for that because if it was only me, none of the information would be retained.
She’s told me some hard truths over the years. They weren’t always easy to hear. I didn’t always react to them well. But the sign of a good friend is someone who tells you hard truths. They tell them to you because they care about you and they want to help you grow.
Jody has always been a friend who helped me grow. I’m lucky that we have remained friends for so long.
Friend a Day – Bill Stiteler
Photo by Peter Verrant
Bill is another connection made through CONvergence. I feel like I should have known him sooner than that since we both know most of the same people.
Almost every time we see each other, Bill tells me about some horrible movie that I need to watch. I end up watching far fewer of his suggestions than I should which is too bad because they are all worth the time. Too many movies, too little time, I guess.
When it comes to obscure trivia about all manner of 80’s popular culture, Bill is probably the best source I’ve ever met. He knows more obscure facts about just about any 80’s television show than I know about all of them. It is truly amazing.
He takes all this knowledge and can turn it into some of the funniest writing I’ve seen. That he is able to mix obscure pop culture references with comedy that will appeal to everyone is something I admire because it is something I try to do in my own writing.
Bill (along with Melissa Kaercher) also produces one of my favorite shows in the Twin Cities, Powerpoint Karaoke. I’ve never been disappointed when I’ve gone to a show because he can get such a diverse array of talented people and because the slides he and Melissa produce are so inventive and silly.
He has a sarcastic wit that is always active and always sharp. It surprises me how quickly he can come up with the best angle on just about anything. I don’t think it is ever in an attempt to impress anyone with his cleverness. Rather I think it is because he is simply that clever.
I like spending time with Bill because I know that I’ll always end up laughing and I’ll also probably end up learning something. He is a wealth of information and he is always willing to share.
I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to work with Bill over the years and I always look forward to what he will do next.
Grail Diary 