Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages

webmaster — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:37:26 +0000

I received a press release about an interesting new book that is coming out in July

Here is the release:

“I’ll be honest, I see a lot of people join because their real life sucks. You can come here and be anybody.”

–Lord Duncan the Monster

Whether they’re bored office stiffs, housewives, or disgruntled war vets, the armor-clad members of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) like to get beat up the old-fashioned way. Boasting more than 30,000 members worldwide, and over 16 “Kingdoms” in the United States alone, the eclectic eccentrics of the SCA participate in a variety of rigorous medieval battle simulations. Suburban Knights is a series of portraits of these 21st-century warriors, in costume and in character as their knightly alter egos.

From 2003 to 2005, internationally renowned photographer E. F. Kitchen photographed and interviewed the fighters of the SCA on location at their battles. Kitchen’s unique approach dispensed with technologically sophisticated cameras, and she instead used a tripod-mounted, 8×10 bellows camera with exclusively handmade and antique lenses. The results are appropriately hoary, sepia-tone images of these fierce warriors lost in time.

Suburban knights willfully escape from the 21st-century and into the realm of the SCA, where one can come face to face with the formidable armor and lance of a knight calling himself “Nissan Maxima.” Warriors are icons for an idealistic code of behavior extolling power and virtue. The men and women of the SCA capture a bit of this past glory for themselves, and while a majority of the portraits obscure the faces of these knights, under their thick armor, their features couldn’t be made clearer.

E.F. Kitchen’s photographs are included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art among others. Her work has been published in books including The Greatest Alum Covers That Never Were (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, 2003), and Flora Photographica (Simon & Schuster, 1991), as well as periodicals such as the Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Angeles Magazine, and View Camera. She is based in Venice, CA.

Leo Braudy is a professor, and the author of From Chivalry to Terrorism (Vintage, 2005), and The Frenzy of Renown (Vintage, 1997), among other books. He is also the coeditor of the Film Theory and Criticism anthology. His most recent book is On the Waterfront (British Film Institute, 2008) in the BFI Film Classics series, and he is currently working on a book about the intertwined history of Hollywood and the Hollywood sign

This book is available for pre-order on Amazon.com: Suburban Knights: A Return to the Middle Ages (Powerhouse Books)

A Meadmaker has to have bees right?

webmaster — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:31:32 +0000

You probably know that I am a mead maker Well, if you are a mead maker you probably often think about bees just like I do. Beehives and Mead go hand in hand of course. Well, this weekend I opened up the hives to start out the new season. This is a start out the new year right kind of thing. I inspected them and fed them a good dose of sugar water.

The bees started out the day kind of sluggish but after a while they really got irritated and were pretty angry. I had taken their hives pretty much apart. They calmed down after a while.

It is a fun and interesting pursuit and I will keep you posted as to how the season goes and how much honey I get. The more honey I get the more mead I make - YAY!

I have some pictures of the hives and some videos too. You can check out the pictures on my website here: Checking out the Beehives. The videos will be coming soon. The picture above shows my two hives and the picture below shows one of the honeycomb frames.

The Upcoming Renaissance Convention (RenCon 2010)

webmaster — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:58:28 +0000

Ever want to really have a renaissance and medieval experience? You might want to check out RenCon 2010 (Renaissance Convention). It is called “The Gathering of Guilds” and I really love this stuff. I just might go. I have some other trips planned for early this year but I might squeeze in a trip to this rencon.

It is a weekend event and here is how they describe it:

The RenCon weekend will include two magical nights of music and masquerades,
as well as three days of fascinating and informative themed panels, presentations and demonstrations by our special guests, and shopping in the Guild Hall for fine apparel, jewelry, accessories, crafts and art. RenCon Guests will also have the opportunity to
learn new skills at our RenCon Guild workshops

The event runs from Friday April 9th through Sunday April 11th and includes crafts and exhibits, a Medieval Masque Ball Ball on friday night and the Dark Carnevale on Saturday Night. Here is some information on the events that I have taken from their website:

The Medieval Masque: Tonight, we evoke a dramatic world lit only by fire, a realm of extreme polarities: darkness and light, life and death, honor and revenge, high thoughts
and bawdy humor. Come as lord or lady, knight or serf, wizard or commoner and raise a glass and dance to the music of the internationally acclaimed German medieval band, Estampie, in a very rare performance in the US.

The Dark Carnevale: Fog lifts from mythic canals, footsteps echo in ancient alleys, intoxicating music moves on the night air. Tonight, mystery and intrigue reign, elaborate masks obscure identities, monsters and magicians roam, fantastic costumes cloak forms and no one is whom they appear to be. Through the doorway rings the sensual music of
the German gothic band, Qntal, transporting you to ecstatic heights as you dance with
your mysterious partner into the midnight hour.

Where and more information

To learn more you can visit their website at: Renconvention.com

Date: April 9th - 11th, 2010
Venue: Baltimore Marriott Hunt Valley Inn
Location: Hunt Valley, MD

Maybe I will see you there

Been having a lot of fun updating some of my other medieval sites

webmaster — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:24:54 +0000

I spent a lot of time creating content, articles, videos and all kinds of interesting stuff. i often don’t schedule myself time to take care of the products on my websites. Although this can be rather fun because it allows me to check on what new stuff that is out. Anyway, I have spent the last couple of days updating a lot of the products on my various medieval sites. Here is a look at some of the things I have found.

Medieval Swords

My medieval swords website has been updated with a lot of new stuff. This is a quite popular little site that gets good ranking in the search engines and gets a good amount of traffic. You can see some of the swords that I own and read about them. You can also see some of the interesting sword topics like swords that are in video games (Which you can actually buy replicas of) and swords from the movies. One nice discovery I made is that the Assassin’s Creed Sword is available as a replica. Assassin’s creed is a terrific game that stays very true to the Italian Renaissance and this includes the reproduction of weapons. I have a very interesting review of the architecture and design of this game here: About Assassin’s Creed

Medieval Toys and Games

I have also updated the section on Medieval Toys and games. These are the types of modern games that are available, not actually the games they played in the middle ages. The theme is on medieval and the section includes board games like Carcassonne. I am currently working on a section of one of my websites that is all about the types of games they played in the Middle Ages. I will update you when it is complete. That will be an interesting thing to take a look at.

And Chess Sets of Course

When it comes to medieval toys and games Chess is a bit of a timeless anachronism. It is something they played in the Middle Ages and it is still very popular today. There is a tremedous variety of beautiful chess sets themed as medieval, king arthur, and Renaissance. You can see a selection of them here: Medieval Chess sets

Mysterious Medieval statues. Can you identify these

webmaster — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:29:28 +0000

I received this picture of a pair of medieval statues (Grave monuments) from a web visitor (Brad) who is a fan of all kinds of medieval things. He needs help identifying the figures in the picture. I am not sure who these figures are and I could make a few guesses but I want to be sure. Maybe you recognize these statues. The architecture and stained glass in the background, not to mention the dress of the figures gives us some great clues as to the country and time period.

Anyway, If you recognize these figures just send me an email! And thanks for your help!