The Takoma Park Jazz Festival, Takoma Park, Maryland
June 10, 2006

(Originally written on June 11, 2006)

Well I attempted to sell my customized dolls and polymer clay necklaces at yet another outdoor festival yesterday. I thought that the jazz music theme of this festival would be a nice change of pace from the Green Man and fairies theme of the last two festivals I worked at and I hoped that jazz fans would be more inclined to buy stuff than the nature lovers and neo-pagans that the other two festivals attracted. I was hopeful when I saw on the festival's vendor booth application the notation "1,000-plus expected". Since this was the 11th annual festival, I thought that the organizers knew what they were saying when they made that claim.

Well I was wrong on most counts. The jazz fans were even tighter with their money than the nature lovers and neo-pagans. (I sold only two dolls at this festival compared with the four dolls that I sold at the Greenbelt Green Man Festival and the six dolls I sold at the Maryland Faerie Festival.) Since vendor slots were $50, I lost money on this festival, which sucks.

When I first arrived at the festival, I found that I couldn't even display my Red Hot Fantasy doll for sale because, for some reason, a tiny area of paint on her face had started to become sticky and it started to run a little bit. I had sealed the paint with varnish but, with the recent heat and humidity, there was a tiny part of the painted area that I somehow had missed while I was applying varnish to seal it. (Another one of my Asian 1/6 dolls had the same problem the previous week, which I solved by thoroughly covering the entire painted areas with several layers of varnish.) So I had to put her back in the suitcase while I made a mental note to fix her face when I got home.

On top of that, this festival was plagued with the same problem that the other two festivals had--WIND!!! Once again I had a problem with setting up my area only to have wind gusts knock some stuff down again.

Like the Maryland Faerie Festival, I decided to work with my friend who makes fused glass jewelry, dishes, earrings, coasters, and other glass items. She graciously lent me one of her tables to use for the whole day and we would watch each other's booths whenever either one of us needed to go to the bathroom (which consisted of this really disgusting port-a-john that smelled like it hadn't been cleaned in months). The only difference was that we opted to get two separate vendor booths instead of sharing just one vendor booth (like we did at the Maryland Faerie Festival) but we managed to get two adjoining spaces so we could socialize with each other whenever we both didn't have potential customers visiting.

My friend did a little better in her sales than I did but she admitted that she had done better at other festivals. At one point I went around to other vendors and asked them how business went and they all said that business was very slow for them with little or no sales.

It didn't help that I originally assumed that the festival would be held in a park that was located close to the town's commercial area (Carroll Avenue) only to discover that once I got there, the park in question was held a few miles away from Carroll Avenue off on a side street, which I thought sucked. Compared with the Maryland Faerie Festival, this one was very small. There was one stage where the jazz musicians played their tunes but there weren't much else in terms of entertainment.

On top of that, 2006 is the year of Maryland's mid-term election (where voters get to choose candidates running for a number of local political offices ranging from sherifs to local judges to town mayor to city councilmember to county councilmember to state delegate to state governor) so there were even a few political campaigns that had tables there as well. Volunteers from various campaigns were not only leaving their tables to leaflet festival-goers but they were leafletting the vendor booths as well, which sucked because those people were too involved with their own agendas to even consider buying anything from me or the other vendors. (Although my friend lucked out and got one of the local campaign volunteers interested in her glass stuff and she got a sale out of that one.) On top of that, with the exception of the campaign tables for the re-election campaign of Governor Robert Erlich and one of his Democratic rivals--Doug Duncan--the campaigns were for local politicians who were representing Takoma Park and other nearby areas that I didn't live in so I can't even vote for them in November even if I wanted to.

In any case, I managed to take a few photos of the festival--click on any of the photos to see a larger version open in a new window.

Thanks to the wind, I had to modify my booth set-up significantly. Once again I had to leave my Dollfie Dream off her doll stand because the wind gusts would knock her down whenever I attempted to stand her upright at all. Once again I had to leave my small signs lying flat on the table because the wind gusts would knock them over. I even had to lean the cork board where I displayed my necklaces at an angle that would leave it less vulnerable to getting knocked over by the wind and I had to put my suitcase in front of the board in order to ensure that the wind wouldn't knock the board over.

Here is a close-up of the dolls. This festival marked the first time I had my Dollfie Dream wear her new outfit in public that I made just for this event. It's based on a 1920's flapper outfit, which I thought it was appropriate since jazz reached its greatest popularity during the same time as the flappers' heyday.

Here is a close-up of some of the polymer clay necklaces I had for sale. Thanks to the wind, I had to put the board at an angle with my suitcase blocking it from the bottom so I wasn't able to put as many necklaces on the board as I wanted. I did place some necklaces on the end of the table next to my Dollfie Dream, which helped a bit. But the wind really put a dent in how I wanted to display my wares.

Here is a close-up of my Dollfie Dream wearing her flapper outfit and some of the polymer clay necklaces that I had to display on the table due to the issue of arranging the board and the necklaces around the wind gusts.

More close-ups of the dolls and polymer clay necklaces I had for sale.

I took photos of the dolls from my own vantage point while I was working. Yes, I spent much of the day seeing the backs of the dolls' heads. But with the recent dye job I gave to some of the thrift store Barbies, their heads made for a very colorful display.

Here's my Dollfie Dream in her new flapper outfit as taken from behind. I really liked the results of my latest sewing efforts.

The majority of the entertainment took place on one stage. While I was on my way to use the disgusting port-a-john (because I really had no other choice and I really needed to go to the bathroom), I came across this guy who was playing a pipe organ off to the side. He drew a decent size crowd and he even took requests for songs like God Bless America, Meet Me in St. Louis, and other old-fashioned songs from yesteryear.

One of the campaign tables was located across from where I was selling. This table was rooting for the re-election of Ida G. Ruben to the State Senate but there weren't a lot of people who were visiting. At one point the volunteers brought this cute kid-sized car that was shaped like a Cadillac Escalade EXT...

...that was quickly defaced with an Ida G. Ruben bumpersticker

At one point there was a guy that set up shop in an area behind my vendor area. I began to hear strange alien-like sounds. I investigated and I found this guy who was working this box where if he waved his hands over the box in such a way, it would make these alien sounds. The still photos make him look like some Christian faithhealer who is trying to perform some kind of miracle over a box in order to convert the masses. The man said that he was the inventor of this device called the Honeytone that uses radio waves to make these sounds. I think the Honeytone would be most useful to a composer who needs to churn out a soundtrack to a science fiction film that features aliens in outer space.

Like I wrote earlier, I managed to sell only two Barbies. I had one guy who was really interested in my polymer clay necklaces and he began to finger it and talked about how he loved it. I began to anticipate another sale and I began to reach for my cash box. But then, after fondling the necklace for a minute or two, the guy abruptly said that he wanted to see the rest of the tables first before deciding whether to buy my necklace and he walked quickly away.

At the end of the day, I was plagued by these two girls who were between the ages of 9 and 11 whom I'll call Thing 1 and Thing 2 (after the troublemakers in Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat book). Thing 1 and Thing 2 began to gush over my Barbies and they admired the hair color I had given to some of them. They asked me how much the Barbies were and I told them they were $10 each. Thing 1 and Thing 2 began to whine about how they wanted to buy my Barbies but they didn't have enough money. I asked them if they had any parents whom they could ask for money. Thing 1 said that she couldn't borrow any more money from her folks because she already owed her father $5 while Thing 2 said that her father was with her but he was broke. Then Thing 2 told Thing 1 that she'll go and ask her father for some money and both girls left my table.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 returned a few minutes later where they whined that they couldn't afford to buy any of my dolls and they weren't able to get any money from Thing 2's father. I told them that my price was $10 and there was nothing else I could do about it. Then Thing 1 and Thing 2 began to beg me to lower the prices of at least one of my dolls to $5 because one of them only had a $5 bill and they talked about how they would have to share this one doll since they were so broke. They kept on begging and pleading with me to lower the price.

Well, anyway, it was towards the end of the day, I had only sold two Barbies and I figured that it wouldn't hurt me to sell one of them at half price since the whole festival was a financial bust for me anyway and I would have one less Barbie that I would worry about hauling home. I picked one of the Barbies that had a one-piece swimsuit with fairy wings glued on since this doll was less fancy than some of the other Barbie fairy dolls and she tended to be overlooked by browsers in general. But when I offered to sell this doll for $5, Thing 1 and Thing 2 suddenly said that they had to use that $5 to buy drinks and snacks and if they bought that doll for $5, that meant they wouldn't afford to buy anything else.

The girls then took off and I was relieved that they were gone. A few minutes later, I decided to pack up around 5 p.m. since my sales were so lackluster that I decided to leave before the festival ended at 7 p.m.

As I started to slowly pack my polymer clay necklaces back in the suitcase, Thing 1 and Thing 2 returned. They began to beg me for a Barbie doll, this time they made this preposterous offer where I would give them a Barbie on credit and they would pay me back later at an unspecified date. I refused since I don't even know those girls and I would have no way of tracking them down so I could collect the money that they owed me. Then they began to whine and plead with me to let them take a Barbie on credit in exchange for helping me work the booth. Since I was in the process of closing down for the day, it was way too late for them to help me. I grew tired of their whining and I told them that if they really wanted a doll from me that badly, they should either beg their parents for money or beg other adults for money.

Well, Thing 1 and Thing 2 promptly went to my friend's booth next to me and began to beg her for money so they could afford to buy one of my Barbies, which I thought was totally outrageous. I couldn't believe they expected my friend, whom they have never met before, to just give them money out of the blue like that, especially since she doesn't even know those girls. My friend refused to give them money so Thing 1 and Thing 2 walked over to my table and began to ask me if I would be at the festival the next day. I told them that it was a one-day festival so I wouldn't be back. Then they asked me if I would be at this festival next year and they kept on begging and pleading that I would be there. I finally said "yes" just so I could get rid of those brats. I even made a promise to them that I would be there next year and they were so happy with my promise that they finally left my table.

It's a promise that I don't intend to keep because that festival was too much of a money-loser for me. The only silver lining is that it was a one-day festival so I don't have to worry about working on Sunday.

(Originally written on June 12, 2006)

I was doing an inventory of the dolls that I had leftover from the Takoma Park Jazz Festival when I made this discovery. One of my Barbie Fairy dolls was stolen during the festival. I brought 20 Barbie dolls to the festival. I remember selling these two dolls:

I brought 20 dolls to the festival and I sold two of them. I should have brought 18 dolls back with me. However, when I counted up all the Barbies I had left, I discovered that I only had 17 dolls. After I did all sorts of photo comparisons with the remaining dolls, I was able to figure out that one of my dolls got stolen during the festival. Here is the doll that was stolen:

I was at my table for most of the time. There were a few times when I had to leave it because I needed to use the disgusting and smelly port-a-john. I did leave it briefly two times for other reasons--once to buy myself an ice cream cone and the other time was to check out the guy who was playing this device that he invented called the Honeytone (see previous entry for details and photos) and he had set his stuff up in the area behind my table. I did ask my friend who worked the table next to me to watch my stuff while I was gone but she had to tend to her own customers so it's possible that the theft could've happened during my brief absences.

However, my gut instinct tells me that those two obnoxious girls that I wrote about in my last entry--Thing 1 and Thing 2--were probably behind the theft. First of all, they wouldn't stop begging me to give them a Barbie for less than $5. When I offered to sell them this Barbie (Purple Fairy 4) for $5, they turned me down:

They kept on eyeing the Barbie that was ultimately stolen and there were times when they picked that doll up and stroked her hair. The only reason why I was even willing to sell the other Barbie for $5 because that Barbie was wearing a one-piece swimsuit with fairy wings glued on and I noticed that she was ignored in favor of the other Barbies that wore the longer dresses. I did dye that Barbie's hair but she was still ignored. But those brats had turned down what I thought was a generous offer because they were a pair of spoiled, self-centered, greedy brats and they didn't appreciate the kind gesture that I was making towards them.

Ironically, the Barbie they had turned down had her hair dyed purple just like the Barbie they eyed that ultimately got stolen.

These girls also seemed to have this entitlement mentality like they should get this doll because they had the right to get it. They showed no shame in begging me for this doll and they were extremely brazen when they went to my friend and start begging her for money just so they could buy a doll from me. (That's right, they totally begged someone whom they never had met before for money.)

During my encounters with those girls, they were not accompanied by their parents or any other adults. If there had been such an adult around during those incidents, I've definitely would've informed them about those girls' atrocious behavior.

I don't have any hard evidence that Thing 1 and Thing 2 were behind the theft but I wouldn't put it past them to have done this. They did have an opportunity to swipe the doll during the time when they were begging me to give them a doll on credit while I was focused on packing my polymer clay necklaces in the suitcase (I was in the process of shutting down my vendor table for the day) so my eyes weren't totally on the dolls.

When I was talking to a friend at church about those girls yesterday, she asked me if they were impoverished. Well, the girls looked well-dressed and Takoma Park is a middle-class to upper-class suburban town. After they turned down my offer to sell them the Purple Fairy 4 Barbie for $5, they returned to my table with these giant cups of this icy red drink in their hands. (They looked like Slurpees or Icees.) No, I don't think they were poor at all. They just have this entitlement mentality and a lack of morals, values, and ethics.

Unfortunately I have no way of tracking those girls down in an effort to recover either the doll or the money. I don't know their names and I don't know where they live. I have never met them before and it's unlikely I'll ever run into them again since I don't live in Takoma Park. I still kick myself for not taking photos of them (I had my camera with me that day) while they were hitting my friend up for money because I could've at least sent photos around to people I know who live in Takoma Park to see if they recognize those girls.

In short, those girls probably stole that doll and they got away with it, which totally sucks.

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