Calling all Languish historical re-enactors!

[Barrister]

2. Glasses.  My current specs are black plastic and not remotely appropriate.  But my old glasses were mangled (thus the need for new glasses) and I can't see without them.  Can I get away with wearing them (since surely I'm not the only one with this problem), or is there some other cheap solution I'm not thinking of?



And more generally - anyone else ever done any historical re-enacting?  How'd it go?  What did you think of it - share your story!

I had this problem, when I went to a 19th-century-themed costume party many years ago.

What I did, was find an old pair of glasses that were still more-or-less my prescription and made them into a lorgnette, by adding a fancy handle to one side:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorgnette

Looks very "period" (if you are going as a foppish type!  ).

That... could just work!  It's the arms on my old glasses that are mangled, not the lenses.

[Malthus]

That... could just work!  It's the arms on my old glasses that are mangled, not the lenses.

The downside is having to carry the damn thing around and peer through it when you want to see anything.

The upside is that it is awesomely period.

[derspiess]

Could we merge this with the gay thread plz thnx

[alfred russel]

So there won't be regular dice rolls to determine whether your actions are successful?

That could be interesting when role-playing a social event from a novel with romance as a theme.

"The dice role comes up with a 4. Nancy, that means my pass at you is successful, and we are to retire to the pantry and have sexual intercourse. Just another part of realism of the role playing of course."

[The Brain]

Could we merge this with the gay thread plz thnx

This.

[garbon]

It's been a while, but weren't the military characters in Austen novels Army, not Navy?

One of them had an admiral or ship captain.  Northanger Abbey I think

[garbon]

Oops Persuasion

[mongers]

I may be required to portray a bronze age archer in a while. 

[Caliga]

I would say we were semi in-character, meaning we would do drills in (badly mangled  ) Latin and sort of be tongue in-cheek about it the rest of the time.  For example, we referred to cars as 'magic chariots' and cell phones as 'horns of the gods' but we didn't go around speaking in Latin when people asked us questions about our kit or how Romans fought, etc.

When I re-enacted, I did not wear my glasses.

btw I am in the process of assembling a new costume.   FB friends will know what it is and I may do a TBR photo soon.

[Caliga]

I may be required to portray a bronze age archer in a while. 

We had a guy who portrayed a Nabataean archer and built his own composite bow.  He was pretty damn good with it, too.

[CountDeMoney]

Wow.

[Barrister]

So part of a Regency Ball is dancing.  Mrs B signed us up for dancing lessons that were put on by the ball organizer.

Somehow we were also tasked with going to pick up the dancing instructor.  She was a nice elderly English woman who was going to teach us how to do English Country dancing.  She also had a helper, an even older scandinavian fellow.  On the way over they wondered just how many people would be there, commenting that at a minimum you'd need at least six people.

Well we get to this community hall and the parking lot, and building, are packed.  There had to be 60-80 people there ready to learn to dance.  Our dancing instructor was floored - she'd never thought that many people would want to learn english country dance.

The crowd had more of it's share of weirdos, but wasn't too bad.  Overwhelmingly white, middle aged females, of course.

I've got two more weeks of dancing lessons to go.   

[The Brain]

Ancient Scandi dude got game?

[Barrister]

Ancient Scandi dude got game?

He must - he mentioned in their little group of dancers he'd often be the only man. 

[Richard Hakluyt]

It's been a while, but weren't the military characters in Austen novels Army, not Navy?

I dunno - I haven't read them (don't tell Tara) 

But I understand there were some naval characters in some (though not in P&P?), and Austen's brother was a naval captain.

But the point isn't to recreate the novels themselves, but rather the general time period.

There are several, including a yellowed Admiral who tells slightly risque anecdotes and a couple of sea captains (eg Captains Benwick and Wentworth in Persuasion)...........there may be more I can't recall. They don't really stand out as naval characters per se as she portrays them in their social off-duty guise rather than as fighting men.