Romanian community for all things handmade

MedievArtFest 2008

It took me almost a week to recover from the exhaustion of the festivities, followed by the exhaustion of the flu. I guess I'm not the tough hearty lass I used to be, hehe. So here are, for your enjoyment, a few pics from this festival I've been talking about so much.

First, a week of preparations. Of course, most outdoor activities (building, delimitating spaces etc) had to be done in the rain,
...while the brains behind the whole thing were cosily chatting in front of the computer. But such are the attributes of medieval nobility, ain't it so? :>
Friday morning, and the craftsmen begin to appear, filling up the place with all kinds of pretty things. It was good being an organizer, I got loads of free stuff from them!
Friday afternoon it was time for the parade through town, which marked the beginning of the fun part of the festival. Nine knight orders, a band of bagpipers plus all the extras (witch, monks, painters, whores, troubadours, thieves, cripples) made for a pretty impressive convoy of noise and colour.
Flag jugglers in a bus stop; you've got to love the contrast :>A happy me as part of the parade, together with the armourer. Oh, btw, see the coat of arms on his chest? Guess who sewed it!The two main attractions of the parade: the witch and the city loon. He was awesome, he even went into shops to scare people, with his fluorecent contact lenses and plague-ridden complexion. The witch was no less awesome, staring into innocent bystanders' eyes and mumbling curses and spells, hehe. As soon as night fell, all heaven broke loose: dancing, tournaments, concerts, the delicious smell of beasts on a spit and a general feeling of brotherhood and safety. Never in my life have I seen such a huge gathering of people with such similar interests, beliefs and ways of life. It was a delight talking to any one of them. The average age of any given knight order would have to be in the early 20s, but the things they could do! I'll let the pics below speak, and I can only hope they'll convey at least a part of the amazement I felt at their talents.

Szekely whip cracking demonstration:
Dancing lessons, generously offered by the head of the band who had just finished playing on the stage behind us.A bit of knightly socialising ("can't really turn my head to face you, with this 16kg hood on, but here, have some of my beer")Guarding the weapons:The whore house, of course, proved to be the most filmed, photographed and discussed place in the citadel. The girls at work:
The hangman wasn't immune to their charms either:

Thieves were hung...

...the witch was tried...
...accused...
...and burnt...
...concerts were held... (check out Odyssey here and here)
...and enjoyed...
...and the thing I liked best out of the whole three days, the fire dance of the group called Cavalerii Cetatilor Barsei


Sunday night was a night of triumph and ...well, partying :>
Check out these little clips too:


And last but not least, a pic I like, of a medieval me with a not so medieval camera. Special thanks to Ozzy the Talented ;D

I am not dead!

Stay tuned, I'll post lots of pics and clips and thoughts from the festival. Just let me sleep a little more first and recover from both tiredness and the flu.

Dixit

Games for big kids

Ladies and gents, check out my new work place! Up in that bastion, there's a theatre. Up in a corner of the theatre, there's a little office with 2 computers and a horrendously untidy array of books, scripts, posters and food. In that office, there's me! I am as yet unsure as to the proper title of my position (somewhere in between secretary, personal asistant and PR person), but it's fun enough. Especially now that the theatre is preparing a huge medieval festival, due to start in 6 days, 136 hours and 8170 minutes. Everyone works like crazy: making phonecalls, sewing costumes, decorating banners, desperately seeking sponsors, combat training, rehearsing plays, and, when exhausted, taking turns sleeping on a manky old mattress on the stage. In the breaks between phoning bands and craftsmen and putting together the ever-shifting program of the festival, I help out with the sewing of the banners and coats of arms. I will post pictures of my oh-so-beautiful handiwork soon.

What could be more pleasant than spending 12 hours daily in an ancient, draughty, dusty, benevolently imposing building? Maybe sleeping for more than 5 hours in a row for a change!

If I made you curious, check out this site. If I have not made you curious, kindly ignore this post. :>

Till Fjalls

I finally managed to gather my friends from all over the country for a quiet relaxing (=drunk and disorderly) weekend at the cabin. I had been waiting for this since July.

So why don't we start chronologically, with Saturday morning's breakfast. Good host that I am, I served Marmite on bread to those who had not yet had the privilege of trying it. The sour faces were accompanied by comments like "why did you do this to me?", so my evil purpose was achieved once more.
Then it was time for a nice long exploratory walk on a randomly chosen mountain path...
...as well as for some equally random acts of playfulness, not all of which ended well. We had a burr fight, and some of the ones I threw ended up in other people's hair...bad idea, she was not impressed.
Playfulness aided by props found on the way:
Lunch in the making. I hadn't seen so much meat in so many different forms in a looong while.
Major victory in my backgammon playing career. Those who know how to play the game will be awed at what's on the board.

~blank space to account for the night in between~

End of the weekend: unbrushed hair, non made up face, headache and slight paleness. See how good I look? and the pic's not even airbrushed! haha
And, as promised before, a little Shitface at his post: guarding my friends' ancient car on the way back to the civilised world.

Update on the Shitface family

I thought you might be interested to know how my friends have been doing lately. Well, I must say they have slowly but surely invaded what little personal space I possess at the moment. The original family are living in a drawer, while the younger generation has taken over the cover of my sewing machine. And if this was not enough, the little buggers started breeding too! Look at all the little ones popping up all over the place.
The situation was threatening to turn into a serious dwelling crisis, so I had to take drastic measures and send some of the younger ones to foster homes. Below is Sparky, who now shares a bed with a little girl in my parents' building. There was also a red one with horns, who was born and left me so quickly that I neither got to name him, nor take a picture of him.
The little key ring ones have all gone to new owners; I will take pics of them at their new posts :>

...but they keep on coming!

Happy stuff

Here's an idea, Total Furniture! I wonder if this will increase sales. I bet all those moody farmers have been dreaming of owning something like that. It's a cool idea, though, don't you think? A lot more can be found here.