[Ansteorra] Cut-off Dates (was RE: Why aren't we doing this?)

Sir Lyonel sirlyonel at hotmail.com
Sat Nov 6 20:29:08 PDT 2010


Salut cozyns,

My point was not that we need to limit ourselves to a single century  
(far too late for that, now) but rather that, since the magical  
transportation to an earlier era is essentially impossible anyway, who  
cares if a few folks want to play cavalier, muskeeteer, Jacobean fop,  
or Flemish tailor? It's not like anyone's getting thrown off site for  
dressing à la 1620, 1632, or 1648.

But, please, no Roundheads. We have to have SOME standards.

En Lyonel

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 5, 2010, at 12:01 PM, James Crouchet <james at crouchet.com> wrote:

> I want to add to my earlier comments that I do understand the magic of
> everyone having a common focus. When an event has a particular theme  
> or
> focus I think it is courteous to either attempt that theme or at least
> remain unobtrusive. Showing up to the Viking event in your most OH- 
> MY-GOD
> cavalier is a bit tacky IMO.
>
> One of the things I enjoy most about Bryn Gwlad are our themed  
> events. They
> provide those magic moments, they let different people have the  
> spotlight
> for their time period and they give us an excuse for extending  
> ourselves and
> trying some things  we might not otherwise try. We have done High  
> Middle
> Ages, Viking/Saxon, The Crusades, Renaissance, Elizabethan and more.  
> We have
> held peasant revels and high court events. We have focused on the  
> arts, we
> have focused on the fighting and we have focused on equestrian. All  
> of these
> events were great fun, had wonderful moments that could not be found  
> at a
> generic SCA event and forced me to stuff my closet full of costumes  
> from a
> dozen different times and cultures.
>
> The key to making this sort of event work is to come together as a  
> barony
> with the understanding that, if you are willing to make an effort to  
> play in
> someone else's time period or culture, when your turn comes they  
> will make
> an effort to play in your time or culture.
>
> Christian Doré
>
> On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 9:33 AM, Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace <
> sirlyonel at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Salut mes fras,
>>
>> Personally, I'd love to see the SCA go back to the beginning and  
>> pick a
>> single century and stick with it.
>>
>> It would be so much easier to create the magic moments of which  
>> Master
>> Robin speaks so fondly. The dream. Sorry, but I've never  
>> experienced it.
>> Never. The closest I came was at my knighting, and even there a few
>> disruptions prevented falling into that dream of actually being  
>> transported
>> into the Middle Ages. It wasn't the flash photography that got in  
>> my way. I
>> didn't even notice the flash photography. Nor did I notice the  
>> occasional
>> sound of rushing traffic from the nearby freeway. It was the  
>> anachronisms
>> all around me that ruined the moment. My king, my knight, my  
>> spouse, and I
>> were all garbed in 15th century finery. I was dressed in a white  
>> outfit (but
>> without the flames on the skirt) of the squire, Ardent Desire in  
>> King Rene's
>> Book of Love. There I was kneeling before my king, holding my new  
>> gold chain
>> and the hilt of the Sword of State, saying my vows, and I was almost
>> gone--almost transported. The queen stepped forward and took the  
>> ewer (I was
>> looking down), and poured
>> a small amount of water upon my head--I was so close. I could  
>> ignore the
>> modern English (15th Century is post vowel-shift, right?). I wasn't  
>> noticing
>> the flashes that must have been going off (friends later returned  
>> so many
>> pictures). Sunlight coming in through the window of the stone walls  
>> of the
>> Old Mill (it's a Loch Salann thing--if you'd ever been, you'd know  
>> what I
>> mean) sparkled in the corner of my eye. Almost there. I looked up,  
>> and--
>>
>> Lost it.
>>
>> There before me, beside her king, stood the queen of Atenveldt in  
>> all her
>> finery. Her 16th Century Elizabethan finery. Beautiful, but a  
>> hundred years
>> too late. Beside her, my friend, Viscount Sikman the Stout, all  
>> dressed to
>> go a-viking, Futharkan Runes bedecking his tunic. Tenth Century.  
>> Beside him,
>> another knight, rectangular dags on his long cotehardie screaming  
>> 14th
>> Century. Und so weiter. Beautiful work, all, but so improbable. I  
>> couldn't
>> be in the 15th Century,the 16th Century, the 10th, and the 14th all  
>> at once.
>>
>> I've seen a few events that have tried to overcome this overwhelming
>> anachronism, but the SCA is never exclusive beyond the pre-17th  
>> Century
>> mandate, so we always allow everyone in, no matter what they're  
>> wearing.
>>
>> I understand the good Ritter's dilemma. I'd like to travel around a  
>> bit,
>> too. We had an event in Artemisia, once, back in the early 90s.  
>> Most of us
>> tried to show up in 17th Century garb. The entire Tarragon  
>> household showed
>> up in 1640s sky-blue and white cavalier garb. I have a picture  
>> somewhere. We
>> looked sharp. The viking Jarl on the far right is almost out of  
>> frame, so
>> you could probably crop him out. Still. No dream.
>>
>> Sorry, kids. It's been fun, but the dream never quite happened for  
>> this old
>> knight.
>>
>> Anyway, since it never works, anyway, who cares if the fencers want  
>> to show
>> up in lace collars and lace atop their boots, with sidearms, and big,
>> feathery cavalier hats? Not I. I'm a 14th Century knight of  
>> Provencal, with
>> a 16th Century name, and who temporarily was a young herald in the  
>> court of
>> Baldwin IV, the Leper King of Hierosalem, Outremer.
>>
>> So, screw the limits. If we can have all these Roman Equites  
>> running around
>> in our Middle Ages and Viking raiders and 16th Century samurais in  
>> our
>> Italian Renaissance, I'm not going to be bothered by a little  
>> gunsmoke and
>> greasy lace.
>>
>> En Lyonel
>> _________________________________
>> Impedimentum via est (The obstacle is the path)
>>
>>
>>
>>> Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 21:50:26 -0500
>>> From: seoseaweed at gmail.com
>>> To: 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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>>
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