Posts from — February 2009

What a weekend! Full of masks, traffic jams only consisting of pedestrians and of course the magic of Venice. Sunday morning we went to the “Flight of the Angel” at St. Marcus Square - with the whole group of 31 costumes! People actually thought we were the official parade and we were filmed be the “Deutsche Welle” (watch it here in English, starting at 0:00:50 time stamp).

After this we escaped from the too-well-known and far-too-packed square to another one nearby where this picture of me and my boyfriend was taken (guess who is who!!). We had enough space to present our costumes, here you find more pictures at Carnevale di Venezia Bonn.

Later in the evening my friend and I decided to go back to St. Marcus Square, this time I was wearing the costume of my aunt. We made a great show with kissing and cuddling, so a Japanese tourist was quite enchanted by us; she just kept staring at us with a little smile on her face while the others of her party didn’t stop taking pictures. It is wonderful to see people captivated by these wonderful costumes and I hope we will be back in Venice next year…

you turn me
into the person
I always
wanted to be
but never
dared to

no matter
how big
or small
the steps are
I take them
with you

and maybe
you become
the person
you always wanted to be
through me
© Julia Nickel

And no, I don’t mean any obscure bed room scenes, tsk, tsk!

In January I was once again away in the countryside for a week full of role playing - this is a bit like we played as children or like theater without audience… As I was a bar maid I thought playing a gypsy would be fun. So I had everything: the red skirt, the red headscarf, the golden earrings and of course some obscure Italian-like accent. And besides it all being fun to play such a character (she said things I would never dare to say!) it also was a good exercise for writing. Why? Because I had to completely become the character! Of course the first hour or so was difficult, I often found myself thinking what I should do or say. But then I really got into it! I turned into that character and was able to see the world I was in with her eyes and answer in her language.

I don’t think I will use this character ever in a book, but the experience is really worth it. If you have chance to attend a Live Role Play, go for it!! Yes, it costs quite an effort to act silly, but it frees your mind and creativity!
Here at wikipedia you can read more about it!

Oh, and of course I played the harp there, not as a gypsy but as my usual harp player. Here are pics: http://www.dragon-harp.de/wp-content/gallery/2008-larp-die-akademie/08_akad_1.jpg and

http://www.dragon-harp.de/wp-content/gallery/2008-larp-die-akademie/08_akad_2.jpg