Event Report: Calf to Codex Project
Greetings unto Scolairi from your Chatelaine.
I hope you all stay warm and healthy this winter in spite of the flu going around. We have some good activities this month. If you know someone who would be interested in learning more about the SCA, please bring them along!
Catalin has been working with Thorfinn to set up an armored/rapier combat practice “Get Your Fight On” tentatively scheduled for Friday, February 22, 6:00-9:00pm at the YWCA gymnasium on Hershey. Contact Catalin to confirm the details.
The A&S meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 20th. The plan is to continue the intaglio printing Katriina started us on last month. Contact Heregyth for details on the time and location.
There are 2 scriptoria this month, Wednesday the 13th and 27th at Angelique’s from 7:00 to 9:00pm. We will need scribes and illuminators to help with award scrolls for our Awakening event coming up in April.
Many of you long-time members of Scolairi fondly recall Brother Bluebird and the marvellous stories he told. Tales of nobility and folly, tales to amuse, inspire and help us recall the reasons we band together in Baile na Scolairi. What brought Brother Bluebird and his story-telling legacy to mind you ask? Their Majesties have charged the populace of the Midrealm to bring forward and share their stories and histories of the Middle Kingdom. A dragon-lore web site has been established to preserve & share such tales. To read more about the “Keeper of the Dragon” visit the website: http://www.dragon-lore.net/dragon-lore-01-introduction.php
In honor of Brother Bluebird, I would also ask you to share your stories at upcoming Scolairi gatherings, activities, our April event, and here in the Scolairi Notes!
Thanks,
Ellen
Greetings to all,
Greetings Scolairi, since there was very little financial activity in the fourth quarter 2012, let me share details from the recently completed 2012 Domesday. In 2012 our total assets shrank from $6747.64 to $4228.07 while our liquid assets shrank from $6594.05 to $4228.07. The difference between total assets and liquid assets is depreciation (namely the shire pavilion) and inventory (namely the block of Known World Handbooks purchased for sale). The pavilion is now fully depreciated and I have chosen to move the final handbook from inventory to shire property, which shows up as a loss of $23.
Focusing now on liquid assets, the biggest chunk of the loss of $2365.98 is the transfer of $1252.18 to the Middle Kingdom General Fund. Awakenings was our only event of the year; it resulted in $1240.50 in income and roughly $1600 in expenses. General yearly expenses were roughly $1300, which was partially paid for by a State Farm donation of $500 and demo income of $175. Some other incidental expenses round out the loss. As always, any shire member is welcome to see all the gory details. My conclusion is that it was a rough year, but that is reasonable to hope that 2013 will be better. As far as budgeting is concerned, I wish to note that our bare-bones yearly operating expenses include $900 for the storage locker, $100 for the website, and $240 for the newsletter. To this should be added money for supplies and sites for fighter practice. It would make me quite a bit more comfortable if Awakenings could start making a profit; I'm hopeful that this year it will. In Service, Heinrich von StuttgartEvent Report: Calf to Codex Project
Greetings all!
This past month I was fortunate enough to attend the 40th Maidens and while I was there, I sat in on 2 hours of fun with Johannes von Narrenstein, who has been heading up the Calf to Codex project. For those that don't know, Calf to Codex is going to be a new SCA history book, made in a period style, using period raw materials. At this class attendees were able to see how vellum went from animal to parchment. He broke down his entire process, from the time skins were soaked in lyme, scraped of hair and flesh, and then stretch and then scraped with a moon shaped spade to thin it out. We saw goat, lamb, calf and deer parchment and the class had the opportunity to handle a 600 year old musical manuscript, as to see what period parchment is supposed to feel like. The second half of class was a pigment making class. Period methods of making pigment went from the toxic to the not so toxic. We learned how to make verdigris from copper, honey and vinegar and then ground up malachite nuggets to a fine dust, added gum arabic and water to create the paint. I was also able to inspect a period example of a paint brush. We then used a period source, for directons, to make ancanthus leaves using said paint. It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, with tons of great information. Makes me appreciate the hard work so many put into making our time in the SCA as authentic as possible. And it reminded me how spoiled we are to have the resources we have now. For those interested, email me and I will send you handouts from the class. (pammy4_73@hotmail.com) Katriina Vaarala MofY
Did you ever to go watch a movie just knowing that it was going to be good? Even though you didn’t know just how good it was going to be? Well, that’s what anticipating watching the movie for this month’s review was like. I knew it was going to be good. I just didn’t know how very good it was going to be. I mean, first off, it’s Shakespeare. Good, right? Second, it was a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Also good, right? The director was Trevor Nunn, he of the minimalist sets and great camera framing, who has done a number of Shakespeare productions in the past. And finally, it starred Ian McKellen, who is a great actor in anybody’s book. So you know that it’s going to be good, right? Really good. But ... wow! I really wasn’t quite prepared for just how good it was going to be. And I’d seen – and reviewed – productions of this play starring such luminaries as Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles. But so it is that this month, Da’ud Bob reviews for you what may be the very best production to date of Shakespeare’s Othello.
Starring Willard White in the title role, with Ian McKellen as Iago, Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona, Sean Baker as Cassio, Michael Grandage as Roderigo, Zoë Wanamaker as Emilia, Clive Swift (perhaps better known to many of you as Hyacinth Bucket’s [“That’s Boo-kay”] long-suffering husband, Richard) in a dual role as Brabantio and later in Cyprus as Gratiano, John Burgess in a dual role as the Duke of Venice and later as Lodovico, Philip Sully as Montano, and Marsha A. Hunt as Bianca, this production is basically a filmed version of a stage play. As a consequence, the sets and the action are limited, so it does not have the sweep of the Orson Welles or Kenneth Branagh productions of the same play, but what it lacks in scope it more than makes up for (1) in being a more complete version (at nearly 3½ hours!) of the play than heretofore done, allowing you to see in greater detail and with more understanding some of the motivations of the characters, and (2) in the acting. This is, without a doubt, probably the very best production of Othello I have seen. It is set rather vaguely sometime in the mid-1800's (as close as I could tell from the costuming), but nothing in the play was relying on that setting; it could have been any time. Good points: It’s all Shakespeare’s words. Othello has a great voice! (When Othello first appeared, somewhat in shadows, he sounded a lot like Michael Dorn, Star Trek’s Worf.) Iago as jester and poet, a side of him not seen in most other productions. The soldiers getting drunk scene. Othello’s boots. Othello’s kaftan. Comparing men to stomachs. Bad points: If I heard the words “honest” and “Iago” used in the same sentence one more time, I would probably have snapped. (“Methinks the lady doth protest too much.” It was used so often that you couldn’t help but disbelieve it.) At times, the action seemed a little slow. Zero breasts. ¼ gallon of blood. Four dead bodies. Sword fu. Dagger fu. Purloined handkerchief fu. Rodrigo rolls. Iago rolls. Desdemona rolls. Lightning flashes. Thunder booms. Gratuitous temper tantrum (literally lying on the floor and kicking). Gratuitous spiking the wine. Gratuitous “puddled spirit.” Academy Award nominations to Willard White for being one of the best Othello’s ever; to Ian McKellen for showing us a side of Iago that most other productions have not; to Imogen Stubbs for creating one of the most understandable and appealing of Desdemona’s; and to Zoë Wanamaker for being perhaps the best Emilia yet. A 54 on the Vomit Meter. 3½ Stars. Da’ud Bob says, “Check it out!”This is the on-line version of The Scolairi Notes. Scolairi Notes is the publication of the Shire of Baile na Scolairi, a branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. Scolairi Notes is available from Renee LeVeque, 711 E Taylor, Bloomington, IL 61701, at no cost. It is not a corporate publication of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., and does not delineate SCA policies. Opinions expressed herein are not those of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. Webbed version created by Rory mac Feidhlimidh.