What we've lost

Will McLean, who I knew primarily as a medieval re-enactor, recently died, all too young.To give you some idea of his humane intelligence, and what we have lost in his death,  I offer this post from his blog, A Commonplace Book:sUNDAY, JANUARY 06, 2013"Nobody ever suggested that Picasso should spend fewer hours painting per picture in order to boost his wealth or improve the...

A spooky Halloween sky from Astronomy Picture of the Day

Unfortunately, the APOD post doesn't give a location for this remarkable hou...

Remembering the music of the 60s

iframe 0.8="" 11px="" 13px="" 187="" 28="" arial="" background-color:="" color:="" font-family:="" font-size:="" height="360" helvetica="" line-height:="" rgb="" rgba="" roboto="" sans-serif="" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Cin0QzuEss?list=PLMN7YIfHBuSUq0LkXEjrh2fag9KI0giZa" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>A few days ago a friend posted to Facebook a poster for the late-1960s...

Back to the Source -- A documentary on Historical European Martial Arts

Whatever you think of the subject matter -- the re-creation of late medieval and early modern martial arts starting with the surviving treatises from the period -- Back to the Source is quite an amazingly good documentary.I have enough experience of the earliest SCA and its later evolution to recognize the attractive glow around people who are inventing something from early exemplars...

The national anthem of steampunk

I am a great fan of the era of explosive growth that is the 1850s -- a period which might be called the original and real steampunk era.   A friend of mine, Tim Moran, a recent PhD in American history, cited in his dissertation an actual poem (advertised as a folk song) from...

Welsh Soldiers in the Later Middle Ages 1282-1422, by Adam Chapman

Adam Chapman talks about his new book and makes it sound absolutely fascinati...