Collegium Rocked!
Apr. 28th, 2009 08:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callistotoniAnd so did my balance (more below).
Most of you Westerners have read other accounts of Collegium --![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vittoriosa's was especially good. For those of you that don't know, the Kingdom, through a big mistake on someone's part, was contractually obligated to have an event at this hotel, and it was decided that Spring Collegium was the best fit. So for the first time we (the West) had an overnight Collegium. And it was fabulous! The Kingdom paid for meals, so for our $15 site fee we got Saturday breakfast, lunch, snack, appetisers, and dinner. Sunday we got a continental breakfast and a full lunch. Honestly, I couldn't resist Free Food so I overate. *And* the hotel chef did his best to provide period food for dinner. Way cool. Even without the free food the event would have been wonderful because it provided lots of geeking-out time which is just not possible at typical Collegiums (which are often held in schools for a day).
Edited to add: The weekend started with a very fun exercise/pole dancing et al class with a bunch of us girls. My dizziness problem (more below) started, because I just could not balance on the "uncomfortable shoes" I borrowed from Certain Individuals. ;-) So I wore your basic 3 inch pumps. OMG, I thought I had Thighs of Steel from riding, but I was wrong. I was feeling this class in my quads all weekend. The class was Super Fun, especially the pole part. I'd definately do it again, but I don't think I could fit a regualar class into my already booked schedual. You have to admit, we Western Women are a fun crowd. ;-)
The classes I took were all "theoretical" since I love to talk about culture and theory and I rarely get to. The first class was HH Seyele's Princesses Guard presenting thier read of Maurice Keane's "Chivalry". I gather they each got a chapter and had to present that chapter.
My next class wasdave_orphal and etaine_pommier's Lull class (part 2, part one being held at last Collegium). This turned into a roundtable on people's thoughts on Lull. Of course, there was an emphasis in the discussion on how Lull's concept of Chivalry applied to SCA/Western peers. I wound up having a discussion with Connel (sp? -- a knight and a pelican and the SO of Erzabeta), who'd I've never met before. The gist of this discussion was his opinion that SCA peers should show Franchise, and this means they should display themselves as a noble. For example, in the past, we in the West would probably give a laurel to someone who was a fantastic, historically knowledgeable brewer who was a great person, who taught, yadda yadda, but who dressed in a T-tunic and jeans. Connal argured that because that person did not present themselves a noble they should not be elevated. I brought up the fact that as people get more historically accurate they tend to go more middle class. He seemed to have less problem with that; I gather that if they *could* or sometimes presented themselves as a noble he was more OK with that. I'm still processing this discussion, but I do think it may be worth a broader discussion as we in the SCA/West continually define what the game that we're playing is.
Next was lunch, and this is where things got weird for me. Standing in line for lunch I suddenly felt so dizzy that I felt like I was going to fall down. Really, I started to have to hold on to things. Later in the day my ear started pounding, so, to make a long story short, I was pretty sure I had an ear infection. After lunch I retreated to my room and crashed for a couple of hours. Felt a bit better, but to date I'm still dizzy. I went to my doctor first thing Monday morning and he thinks it's an inner ear viral infection. He's trying to get me in for an MRI of my brain just to make sure it's not something else. The reason for this precaution is that I've been feeling a little dizzy for the last month, and I've had to hang on to something when I close my eyes in the shower. Now, I've been thinking that it's just been the wacky barometric air pressure changes we've been having messing with me. Anyway, the whole dizzy thing put a damper on the rest of my weekend. :-(
I missedbarone_antonio's Humanism class, and I'm very sorry about that. :-( Any time you get a chance for an Baron Antonio Goes Blah class you should take it. :-)
Felt OK enough that I decided to hazard going to the last 2 classes. The first of these washrj's class on clothing research in scantily documened cultures. This was mostly potential data sources and issues with those sources. The last class was a panel discussion of costume compromises with hrj, etaine_pommier, and mad_duchess. At this point I started to lose it because I was still dizzy *and* I started to get a killer headache (which I'm still dealing with, I'm sorry to say :-( ).
The last class I took was, again, given byhrj. This class, titled something like "Mapping mental spaces: the Persona dilemma", presented a methodological tool that she had studied in her Cognitive Languages program. This tool could then be used to understand the arguments about what belongs/doesn't belong in the SCA ("that's not period" vs "I like that and it gives me the experiance I want"). One then could use this tool to examine objected and subjective experiance. For example, a singer could stand up and sing a 12th C Provencal song in court. If you were in Elenor of Aquitaine's court you might have a heart-felt (subjective) reaction to the beauty and truth of that song. In the SCA you probably are going to have the objective experiance of "oh, that's period song", but it probably won't engage you as emotionally as a song in english about recent events that you care about. This latter might be a filk of a modern song, so that objectivly it's not period but subjectively it gives you the same experiance as the listener in Elenor's court. Anyway, a very cool way of thinking about this stuff. :-)
I have to wonder: is it just us Westerners that do these Theory classes?
So, that was Collegium. Very cool event, very poopy health issues. Congrats to all the autocrates and teachers and helpers for making a bunch of lemons into very tasty lemonade. Thank you to Etaine and Janos and Sarah for sharing a room with me to keep the cost as low as possible -- you're all great roomies and I'd share with you anytime. :-) And a special shout out to all of you that helped me not fall down. :-)
Most of you Westerners have read other accounts of Collegium --
vittoriosa's was especially good. For those of you that don't know, the Kingdom, through a big mistake on someone's part, was contractually obligated to have an event at this hotel, and it was decided that Spring Collegium was the best fit. So for the first time we (the West) had an overnight Collegium. And it was fabulous! The Kingdom paid for meals, so for our $15 site fee we got Saturday breakfast, lunch, snack, appetisers, and dinner. Sunday we got a continental breakfast and a full lunch. Honestly, I couldn't resist Free Food so I overate. *And* the hotel chef did his best to provide period food for dinner. Way cool. Even without the free food the event would have been wonderful because it provided lots of geeking-out time which is just not possible at typical Collegiums (which are often held in schools for a day).Edited to add: The weekend started with a very fun exercise/pole dancing et al class with a bunch of us girls. My dizziness problem (more below) started, because I just could not balance on the "uncomfortable shoes" I borrowed from Certain Individuals. ;-) So I wore your basic 3 inch pumps. OMG, I thought I had Thighs of Steel from riding, but I was wrong. I was feeling this class in my quads all weekend. The class was Super Fun, especially the pole part. I'd definately do it again, but I don't think I could fit a regualar class into my already booked schedual. You have to admit, we Western Women are a fun crowd. ;-)
The classes I took were all "theoretical" since I love to talk about culture and theory and I rarely get to. The first class was HH Seyele's Princesses Guard presenting thier read of Maurice Keane's "Chivalry". I gather they each got a chapter and had to present that chapter.
My next class was
dave_orphal and etaine_pommier's Lull class (part 2, part one being held at last Collegium). This turned into a roundtable on people's thoughts on Lull. Of course, there was an emphasis in the discussion on how Lull's concept of Chivalry applied to SCA/Western peers. I wound up having a discussion with Connel (sp? -- a knight and a pelican and the SO of Erzabeta), who'd I've never met before. The gist of this discussion was his opinion that SCA peers should show Franchise, and this means they should display themselves as a noble. For example, in the past, we in the West would probably give a laurel to someone who was a fantastic, historically knowledgeable brewer who was a great person, who taught, yadda yadda, but who dressed in a T-tunic and jeans. Connal argured that because that person did not present themselves a noble they should not be elevated. I brought up the fact that as people get more historically accurate they tend to go more middle class. He seemed to have less problem with that; I gather that if they *could* or sometimes presented themselves as a noble he was more OK with that. I'm still processing this discussion, but I do think it may be worth a broader discussion as we in the SCA/West continually define what the game that we're playing is.Next was lunch, and this is where things got weird for me. Standing in line for lunch I suddenly felt so dizzy that I felt like I was going to fall down. Really, I started to have to hold on to things. Later in the day my ear started pounding, so, to make a long story short, I was pretty sure I had an ear infection. After lunch I retreated to my room and crashed for a couple of hours. Felt a bit better, but to date I'm still dizzy. I went to my doctor first thing Monday morning and he thinks it's an inner ear viral infection. He's trying to get me in for an MRI of my brain just to make sure it's not something else. The reason for this precaution is that I've been feeling a little dizzy for the last month, and I've had to hang on to something when I close my eyes in the shower. Now, I've been thinking that it's just been the wacky barometric air pressure changes we've been having messing with me. Anyway, the whole dizzy thing put a damper on the rest of my weekend. :-(
I missed
barone_antonio's Humanism class, and I'm very sorry about that. :-( Any time you get a chance for an Baron Antonio Goes Blah class you should take it. :-)Felt OK enough that I decided to hazard going to the last 2 classes. The first of these was
hrj's class on clothing research in scantily documened cultures. This was mostly potential data sources and issues with those sources. The last class was a panel discussion of costume compromises with hrj, etaine_pommier, and mad_duchess. At this point I started to lose it because I was still dizzy *and* I started to get a killer headache (which I'm still dealing with, I'm sorry to say :-( ).The last class I took was, again, given by
hrj. This class, titled something like "Mapping mental spaces: the Persona dilemma", presented a methodological tool that she had studied in her Cognitive Languages program. This tool could then be used to understand the arguments about what belongs/doesn't belong in the SCA ("that's not period" vs "I like that and it gives me the experiance I want"). One then could use this tool to examine objected and subjective experiance. For example, a singer could stand up and sing a 12th C Provencal song in court. If you were in Elenor of Aquitaine's court you might have a heart-felt (subjective) reaction to the beauty and truth of that song. In the SCA you probably are going to have the objective experiance of "oh, that's period song", but it probably won't engage you as emotionally as a song in english about recent events that you care about. This latter might be a filk of a modern song, so that objectivly it's not period but subjectively it gives you the same experiance as the listener in Elenor's court. Anyway, a very cool way of thinking about this stuff. :-)I have to wonder: is it just us Westerners that do these Theory classes?
So, that was Collegium. Very cool event, very poopy health issues. Congrats to all the autocrates and teachers and helpers for making a bunch of lemons into very tasty lemonade. Thank you to Etaine and Janos and Sarah for sharing a room with me to keep the cost as low as possible -- you're all great roomies and I'd share with you anytime. :-) And a special shout out to all of you that helped me not fall down. :-)
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 04:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 04:22 pm (UTC)re: pole dancing...one of my friends does it and says its awesome for core strength. its not so much a sexy sexy me thing as a girl empowerment thang....there's several workshops/studios in the seattle area and i bet there are in your area too!
the idea of cultural relevancy coloring our appreciation of the period aesthetic is a really cool one. now I have something to ponder as I sip my morning latte :)
thanks!!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 04:59 pm (UTC)Just one correection, the Llull class was organized by Etain and myself. ;-)
Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 05:00 pm (UTC)How period is the concept of Middle Class?
How many grey areas if any were there between the have's and the have nots?
Some periods and locales diffentately had Wealthy non-Nobles, escpecially in urban areas. But would "middle class dress" have been more appropriate for "minor nobility" in the country?
What the medium wealthy folks wear in New York today is very different than what the Filthy Rich folks wear in Gustine...even when the Folks in Gustine have a greater net worth.
While I suspect Class Consciousness was regimented in most places in most of period, I wonder if dress was more flexible in some areas than others.
Re: Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 05:37 pm (UTC)For expediency's sake I use the term Middle Class when describing my non-noble German clothes even though I know it isn't right.
Re: Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 05:48 pm (UTC)I suspect the Italian City states may have had something approaching a middle class. London seemed to get something like a middle class much sooner than any of the rest of England... I wonder in part if there were two levels of "merchant class" in these areas. Those who had gained alittle money but were still mostly lower class and those who had all the wealthy and trappings of the nobility, but lacked a title until they bought or married one.
Definately has possibilities as a class topic/round table discussion.
Re: Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 06:15 pm (UTC)Re: Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 06:20 pm (UTC)Re: Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 06:31 pm (UTC)I confess I'm more interested in the latter topic, but the first topic definately relates to it because of the issues bring up (i.e. is can we distinguish between middle class and noble dress).
I'd sign on to be a moderator of such a discussion. I suppose it could even be presented as a debate.
Re: Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 07:08 pm (UTC)Maybe we could do a dry run at the M-C War Salon?
Re: Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 07:35 pm (UTC)Re: Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 07:52 pm (UTC)Re: Dressing Middle Class
Date: 2009-04-28 09:47 pm (UTC)I second a dry run at MC War.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 05:40 pm (UTC)I hope you feel better soon. Messed up inner ears are no fun at all.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 07:05 pm (UTC)XOXO
no subject
Date: 2009-04-28 07:22 pm (UTC)Wow, if J/S can rock your world from another state... woohoo! ;-)
no subject
Date: 2009-04-29 12:47 am (UTC)My classes were all great too: I learned about making coifs and French hoods, and some basic chemistry for dyes and pigments. All very interesting. This was the most useful (to me) collegium I've attended. I'd love to see more Collegium over-nights!
I'm sending good vibes for your good health!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-30 09:50 pm (UTC)