Bad Kilts

[mddock58]

Sometimes I'd like to know what some people think is authentic!

You can almost always point to the fabrics most use as not authentic.(As well as much of what the vendors sell) So what's the point?

Ren Faires are ENTERTAINMENT! But some people try to take the fun out of everything.

[ronstew]

We are the people who go to great lengths for accuracy.

What do you think about and say to those who do it half-way?

[Nick]

What do you think about and say to those who do it half-way?

I don't expect eveyone to be like us and research the correct length of a liripipe hood for a certain period. And I agree with mddock, a faire is supposed to be fun. For us, a large part of the fun is finding out an accurate history, making the stuff, and wearing it. You certainly don't have to go to such lengths to have a good time. If people want advice, I'll offer it, but I'm not going to go up to anyone and tell them their impression is wrong. That'd just be rude.

The people I don't like are the ones that make a big deal about one person's anachronism when they themselves aren't portraying anything accurately.

[mddock58]

I admire those that go to great lengths to be accurate, and I have no problem with that. I also enjoy history, and the accuracy of dress etc. My son (15 1/2) loves to argue with what weaponry is authentic in movies.

I believe we should try to teach properly regarding the period, but there are many who have NO idea what period they are supposed to be in!

I think it is really bad when the vendors display a skewed reality.

Renn Faires are not really in the same league with "reenacting", they were not designed that way in the first place. They have been since they started, designed to be an "escape" from today, to the "fun" days we believe it may have been back then.

Reenacting takes lots of time and effort on the "actor's" part, and I truly admire CW reenactors, as well as those that do "Colonial" reenacting. ( I go to Williamsburg, VA at least once a year.)

[David Dalglish]

Its probablely the only time they ever wear a kilt

[Streetcar]

A friend of mine worked the MD Festival for a few years in the role of a German mercenary guard. A lady member of the "police" pointed out that his doublet was Italian and he was German. He told her he got it from an Italian while he was in Rome, because its former owner "didn't need it anymore."

I remember the last Ren Faire I attended. It was a Sunday afternoon, things were shutting down and you could tell many of the people working it were pretty tired.

We were at one of the food vendors, when I overheard some guy telling one of the girls working the stand, "Hey, there's ice in this drink. I thought they didn't have ice back then."

The girl - in an extremely bored, sarcastic voice answered: "Good my lord, This is brought down from the mountain top by the mystic dwarves - I know not the magic they use to make these tiny frozen cubes. Now do you want the Coke, or not?"

Completely cracked me up!

[davedove]

I remember the last Ren Faire I attended. It was a Sunday afternoon, things were shutting down and you could tell many of the people working it were pretty tired.

We were at one of the food vendors, when I overheard some guy telling one of the girls working the stand, "Hey, there's ice in this drink. I thought they didn't have ice back then."

The girl - in an extremely bored, sarcastic voice answered: "Good my lord, This is brought down from the mountain top by the mystic dwarves - I know not the magic they use to make these tiny frozen cubes. Now do you want the Coke, or not?"

Completely cracked me up!

I recall a similar incident at the PA Renn Faire.

The queen was making her entrance, so of course all the actors and many of the spectators were bowing at her approach. One of the peasant actors noticed a 20-something young man not bowing.

"Sir, you must bow. The queen is coming."

"I don't bow to any queen. I'm an American."

"A what sir?"

"An American."

"Oh, you're from the colonies." (Actually, that is anachronistic, as Virginia wasn't settled until 1607, after Elizabeth had died.)

Pulling out a dollar bill. "No, an American. See!"

"Ah, an English pound."

"No, it says right here, United States of America."

"I'm sorry, sir, but I cannot read."


That cracked me up.

[macwilkin]

Gents,

My last post was "out-of-line", and I wanted to apologize.

T.

[mddock58]

Gents,

My last post was "out-of-line", and I wanted to apologize.

Todd, I don't think you were out of line!

I think you're in the front line!

NP, I enjoy your input on these issues.

[auld argonian]

Let me preface this by saying that I hope to someday meet Todd face to face and buy him a beer for all of the most excellent give and take that he provides on the forum.

Now...being uncharacteristically serious...let me tell you about an experience that I had with a re-enactor that was overwhelmingly positive.

We had a Civil War re-enactment around here a while back and I loaded up the camera and went over there. I spent a lot of time hanging around with "General Grant"...and this guy was good: he had the ability to lay in some very serious historical stuff while still keeping in character and it just worked. After a while I was still around when the guy broke character and we shot the breeze for a while. That was when I really got an appreciation of just how dedicated and motivated he was...when we were talking about how he came to get into this whole thing and what kind of preparations he took and how his family felt about it...stuff like that.

So there's a kind of popular image of historical re-enactors as some kind of "history nerds" who might prefer to be play-acting at living in the past rather than face their lives in the present...stuff to make up a Saturday Night Live sketch...and, seriously, there probably ARE people like that...but then you get my buddy General Grant and his kind who really feel inspired to try to pass the kind of respect and appreciation that they feel on to other people by going to great lengths to let you spend one day in 1863 or whenever so that you can see how it felt.

However....resuming not-serious mode...let's all try to keep a sense of humor about this...ice, lice, machine woven cloth, kilts and turkey legs aside...we can certainly enjoy these things without being pedantic about them.

Best

AA