Ξ April 23rd, 2005 | → Comments Off | ∇ General |
Out in the garage, I was just divebombed by the biggest, blackest, hardest june bug I’ve ever seen.
I’ve been housesitting for Mark whilst he and Amanda enjoy their honeymoon in gay Paris. I’ve timed my raiding and pillaging such that I should have just eaten him out of house and home by the time he gets back.
(J/k.. I brought my own food for light meals / sandwiches, and the house will be minisculely neater when I leave. Otherwise, not a bit of silverware shall be out of place.)
Ξ April 22nd, 2005 | → Comments Off | ∇ General |
Well, Finding Neverland is out on DVD. So’re The Incredibles and The House of Flying Daggers. I have an appointment with Leo to watch the second one, and the other two will eventually happen.
How can a month and change go by with nothing to report? Well, that wraps it up for March. :)
I think the word for that month was “disgruntled”. April, OTOH, was a real treat.
Ξ April 22nd, 2005 | → Comments Off | ∇ General |
Went to Philadelphia for various reasons earlier this month. On a whim, swinging through the Museum of Art, I discovered that they have a terrific gallery of mostly 16th century armor. It was totally a kid-in-candy-store thing. Took 263 pictures, only ~30 of which were non-armor-related. All of *those* pics were taken of 12th to 16th century architecture (mostly French).
Considering how dark the galleries were, I think I took some decent pictures. Had to set my camera to 800 ISO, and I spent a lot of time braced against my knee or odd walls in order to stabilize the camera on 1/2″ shutter speeds. Only a dozen or so came out blurry, and only 3 of those were worthlessly so. Dealing with display case glare, OTOH, is a trick I have yet to master.
Had some excellent Greek food, including this tarama spread that consists of potatoes whipped with olive oil to the consistency of mayonnaise. Add in some caviar, garnish with an olive and sprig of parsley. There was a flounder with feta cheese and spinach that I wanted to try, but I opted for lamb instead.
Stayed in this little old place outside Wilmington, DE. Very cozy. For some reason, I fell asleep around 8:30, and ended up waking on my own around 4 or 5 a.m. So I scrounged some Special K and milk, and read for a while. I think maybe I ought to add a page with my personal bibliography or something. I may be no academic, but I think I’ve found some pretty fun or interesting books over the past few years. And that’s excluding the armoring stuff. :P
So around 6:30, it finally started getting light, and I admit that watching the sky turn a faint purple and blue, then sitting out on a deck chair watching sunrise burn through the mist to reveal intensely green, rolling hills with bare trees on.. Is a treat. The chilly (68 F?) morning was also kind of nice.
At the same time, though, driving through all those exclusive, Colonial-styled neighborhoods emphasized to me just how much I didn’t fit there. I never really felt comfortable when I lived in NoVA / DC. Really didn’t enjoy Philadelphia / New Jersey on my first visit 5 years ago. Give me Houston any day. Or the West Coast. It’s a little hard to pin down, but there you are.
On Saturday, drove down to MD, where my sister and I met up with Andrea. She gave me this totally nifty Firefly T-shirt with Serenity on the front. I put half a roast chicken in her fridge. Not a fair trade. But I removed the chicken later (she’s vegetarian).
We rode into DC on the Metro (ah, memories!), and hit the National Mall. Walked down to the river basin and strolled along the Potomac for a bit. It was godawful crowded, but the weather was cool, the sun was bright, and the trees were thick with cherry blossoms (we came down expressly to see the Cherry Blossom Festival). Got some nice shots.
Then we met up with a friend of Andrea’s and her BF (Andrea’s friend’s BF, that is — as if I ever need to clarify that Andrea or I are both unequivocally flying with no copilots other than what gods we ourselves fashion. I dunno, I notice we can both sound a little bitter or wistful or wishful or what have you.. But we know it’s a good place to be — and I for one don’t have to convince myself much at all, given what some of my friends are going through. Divorce after 10 years? Not right now, thanks. Anyone who scoffs and tells me otherwise is giving me a virus of the mind.).
We went to this place for Chinese food, though I got my monthly quota of sushi instead of hot and sour soup.
It was a good time. Among other things, we talked about Clerks and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.
That night, crashed at my old roommate’s, Phi’s, place. He and I went to pick up his fiancee from a party, and we three ended up talking to 2:30 in the morning. We had brunch the next morning, and he drove / escorted us to the airport. That struck me as uncommon effort, since most people give you Mapquest directions, and shake hands at the door. And yet, it doesn’t surprise me that he did it.
Ξ April 19th, 2005 | → Comments Off | ∇ Fitness / HEMA, General |
I recently watched The Twilight Samurai. It’s a beautiful (dare I use the word “poignant”?) story of life’s most fundamental joys, fate’s vicissitudes, making one’s own choices, and balancing those choices against obligations and others’ needs. Man, is that vague enough for you? The two excellent swordfights do much to recommend this film. Barring a few instances of cinematic license to heighten tension, they struck me as quite realistic in the build-up, action, and aftermath (with little editing to heighten the pace of the fight). For the non-connoisseur of swords, the movie also treats marriage proposals, family, and career ambition (or the lack thereof, more precisely) more elegantly than any words of mine can convey. It’s distinctly Japanese, so non-Japanese viewers will benefit from a moderately deep understanding of Japanese culture to understand many of the characters’ actions and decisions, big or small.
Ξ April 19th, 2005 | → Comments Off | ∇ Metalworking |
In the course of moving house, David bequeathed to me 2 large cardboard boxes containing over 10 years’ worth of files, photocopies of books, and etc. research on … (a small sampling of the partial contents of one box rummaged through to date)
*Swordhilt designs
*Wheelock guns
*Bombardier’s daggers
*Crossbows
*Historical reenactment rules for English Civil War reenactors (giving guidelines on proper speech, slang, and idiom; terminology and explanation of pike and gun drills; dress, conversion of appropriate modern boots to high riding boots)
*English castle construction
*Specific analysis of differences in construction and design of armor in various French workshops and schools of armorers (alas, in French — which doth straineth my limited command of that tongue.)
And on and on. My latest discovery is a book that gave me shivers — A.V.B. Norman’s 400-page history of the rapier and smallsword. This book (published 1980) is probably one of the first ones to set the modern (20th century) record straight on many common misconceptions. It’s like finding the book that first postulated dinosaurs were warm-blooded and active creatures with erect carriages (which the common layman couldn’t envision prior to the movie Jurassic Park). I know there’re people who know all about it, but no one ever brought up the author or the title in my hearing — just oblique references to his work.
The book lays out a typology of hilts on the outside of the hand and inside of the hand, briefly treats daggers (and references another book), and I’m in the middle of the chapter on swordbelts, hangers, and baldrics. Each entry in the typology cites numerous examples from arms collections, museum collections, or paintings from in period with caveats about specific unreliabilities for each resource where needed.
There’s even a citation and quote of a 1562 source that provides the proof of what I’ve been telling people for two years about Queen Elizabeth’s ban on all civilian rapiers over 45″ in length. I suspect it’s likely that I originally heard this from someone who had read this book, b/c this is simply not a large field of study (unless someone’s been independently reading official decrees, laws, and statutes for that time period, for fun and profit).
The last time I got such shivers was when I bought Alan Williams’ 950-page book that gave a page-by-page metallurgical examination of 600 suits or pieces of armor. :)
It occurs to me that both these books probably qualify for graduate level studies. Not sure what to make of it, other than: COOL!
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