Andrew Graham-Dixon, the former Harpers & Queen art critic and biographer of Caravaggio.
Stuff Version Might Like
Andrew Graham-Dixon, the former Harpers & Queen art critic and biographer of Caravaggio.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
I wasn't sure if version would like those pictures I just wanted to post them somewhere and this felt like a good venue
Hollow, despondent.
william_kent
Well-known member
my dad used to make us that, he called it "french toast"
line b
Well-known member
can we see your gear?
Murphy
cat malogen
On munch break getting spammed by a colleague with Orange march vids, eg
The banners (reminiscent of trade unions), troop bands, drummers, clown clothes and colour schemes. Make up of sash sectors, sash lasses, drunk audience participants and ages. The spectacle and noise drumming up hate, utterly repellent, funny, tragic, likeable
The banners (reminiscent of trade unions), troop bands, drummers, clown clothes and colour schemes. Make up of sash sectors, sash lasses, drunk audience participants and ages. The spectacle and noise drumming up hate, utterly repellent, funny, tragic, likeable
IdleRich
IdleRich
Is it fun? Or in fact, what's it like in general? Do you get hurt? Do you hurt people etc etc
I wouldn't mind trying fencing like they do in the Olympics... no idea where on earth to do it here though.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
It's fun. It's reasonably safe, although you're basically practicing hitting each other with long bits of metal or hardened plastic, which has obvious risks. For sparring or full speed / unpredictable training people mitigate that by wearing a load of protective gear, whereas for drilling and stuff you tend to have less gear (basically a fencing mask and gloves for us) and just rely on your partner pulling their strikes a bit and not hitting you with any force in places that aren't protected. Obviously this stuff can go wrong (protective gear isn't perfect, training partners can get carried away), but I've not had anything worse than the odd bruise so far. And I haven't really sparred yet apart from playing around with foam sabres occasionally, which is fun.
Groups seem to vary a lot too, afaict - sometimes it's literally just a bunch of people trying to understand some obscure medieval Italian fencing treatise and translate the rather cryptic descriptions into actual techniques that have a chance of working, sometimes it's like a normal martial arts class where the instructor has worked out a system based on their interpretation of the sources and just tells people what to do. We're kind of in the middle in that the instructor has their interpretation worked out, but does tie it back quite closely to the original source as he teaches.
Sport fencing seems kind of fun too. Quite closely related to the more recent forms of historic fencing (ie smallsword and military sabre), AIUI, except that they've spent the last hundred years or so tweaking the rule set to make it a more interesting sport rather than trying to replicate an actual fight as closely as possible.
