[Ansteorra] Why aren't we doing this?

[Jeffrey]

The year I mentioned wasn't random, it was the year that the book the SCA uses for nearly all of its English country dance was published. ECD (1651), Hole in the Wall (1695), and much of the other music heard at events is post-1600 in style, but few complain about that.

If we can accept a composition that prost-dates our stated time frame by nearly 100 years, mutate it into a form that the composer would never have intended, and play it in a style that would not have been done in period; what is wrong with a cell phone or camera here and there?


-----Original Message-----
From: Casey Weed <seoseaweed at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 9:50 PM
To: Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc. <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Why aren't we doing this?

Tivar and Liam and others were talking cutoff dates...

1600 is such an arbitrary date.  As much as it might fly in the face of what
we do, I strongly believe the early and mid 1600s should be fair game; how
many of us joined the SCA chasing visions of our favorite films and how many
of those visions included Michael York, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay,
and Oliver Reed?  Our *entire* duelling culture in Ansteorra, contrary to
those who like to look smart these days by quoting early fencing masters, is
NOT anchored to George Silver but rather to Alexandre Dumas by way of George
MacDonald Frasier.  I ask you which is more fun to think about: Morozzo's
Progression of Defense or defending the honor of a chilly Raquel Welch in a
sheer shift?  Nuff said.

Okay, so you're a stick in the mud and you need an HISTORICAL reason for a
later date?

1603 Elizabeth dies... no more fun queeny; no more fun SCA.

1616  William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes die on the same day.
(how's that for a crap day for western literature?).  No more fun plays and
books; no more fun SCA.

1621  The ship Mayflower, carrying about 100 Pilgrims is headed for Virginia
but is blown off course and lands instead at Plymouth.  The beginning of the
end of fun for native americans...

1642  King Charles I, King of England, has some unpleasantness with the
Puritans.  No more bear baiting, plays, and cockfighting...

1648  the Thirty Years' War- arguably World War .5- ends at the Peace of
Westphalia.  No more fun old slaughter and siege...

I often have exciting and even bawdy dreams where I am trapped in the body
of a greasy Dutch cavalier pirate and tailor living- in his mind, at least-
in 1620.  I cannot- and will not- stop dreaming these wonderful visions of
swashbuckling, lies, and high adventure.  I'll go to confession, but I just
can't feel guilty about it.  If you can be a gaul from 200 B.C.... I can
have a tailor from out of a Rembrandt painting.

Ritter Dieterich
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