I know it's been a hard year for a lot of people, but personally it's treated me fairly well even as I mourn for various people and events. I'd like to thank everyone who made this year so good for my music and travels; it's been a very full year for me, and I can't believe so much has happened in a mere twelve months ( Read more... )

I was recently approached by someone who wanted the story of how I got into renaissance festivals, since they are compiling such stories into a book. My imagination was fired by the idea, until I realized they were just asking for a detailed questionnaire. I'll still do that, but I wanted to share the details of how I got into this crazy business ( Read more... )

Identity is a tricky beast. One of the most fun topics I studied in grad school was the development of group identities, and it's still one of my favourite concepts to read up on. And, of course, there's no purer expression of the conundrum of identity than a name ( Read more... )

It's been awhile since I posted anything; I've been busy on other platforms. I get occasional ribbing for my loyalty to Livejournal, but I'm not a fan of WordPress and all my archives are here. I can see a time coming when I might port or mirror my blog on Tumblr, but I'm not quite there yet ( Read more... )

It started with a simple question among friends: do you consider yourself a SCAdian ( Read more... )

I'm back on the road tomorrow. Last week I spent two days in NYC, then four days in Montreal followed by two days outside Boston. It was a mix of social and business, and yet another reminder of how much I enjoy playing medieval dress up in the SCA ( Read more... )

Yesterday I went to an SCA event and I had a wonderful time among people I didn't know very well, with three exceptions, but who were very kind to me. I came home inspired and desiring to do more in the SCA, until I looked at the calendar and realized I'm already doing everything my schedule allows ( Read more... )

I've been extraordinarily productive today! I sent out a lot of performance inquiries to potential Cleveland-area venues for the winter, I've been doing a lot of academic reading for an SCA research project, and I'm well on my way to memorizing the second half of Bach's Allemande in Em. This evening I'll do some more work on my medieval dulcimer ( Read more... )

My goals for the fall are almost halfway to completion! I have three new pieces performance-ready for Twelfth Night SCA events, with another two transcribed to be learned and a sixth in the queue. With my existing repertoire for authentic period dulcimer, I should have a full hour of material by January ( Read more... )

My goal for the week was to transcribe five 14th-century pieces that are appropriate for the 14th century dulcimer, and I have succeeded in four of those: the fifth turned out not to be playable on the instrument in question (but I may be able to fudge it). Still, those four are an excellent start, and I look to start working on the material itself ( Read more... )