I HAVE TO PUSH THE PRAM A LOT

I am so sorry. As I was drafting this post there was something I just could not get out of my head:

So anyway, pretend knights jousting at the Renaissance Faire. Refreshingly, the blue knight is a woman.

Looks like it's going to be too wet to shoot our outdoors Halloween party tonight.         

Gratuitous Violence

The Renaissance Festival always has a jousting show, but it was different this year. After a few runs on horseback with lances, the knights dismounted and engaged in hand-to-hand combat. It got nasty.

These pictures are in chronological order. It felt genuinely dangerous. Never before did one knight slit the throat of the other and leave him to die, spouting fake blood, in the dust. I thought it was horrifying, perhaps reflecting the darker side of America. The audience was  full of children. Madeleine, of course, was too young to get it but she did look over my shoulder while I was editing these shots. "He's mean!" she exclaimed. 

Yes, really mean.              

In Days Of Old When Knights Were Bold

 

The Renaissance Festival always has jousting, a crowd-pleaser but about as real as American professional wrestling. There's more build-up than action - lots of trash talk, boasting and killing time. But once the competition begins, well, stay out of the way.

It's usually pretty tame but this year's version became graphically violent and, you know, there were lots of kids in the audience. More about that tomorrow if time permits. Two major annual photo ops overlap this weekend, Artica and Studio Open House. I want to catch as much of both as I can but I also need uninterrupted time at work. We'll see how it goes.

              

Special Effects

The Renaissance Faire always has fake jousting and swordplay. When one ne'er-do-well attacked another, the victim ended up with a dagger in the eye and red goo squirting everywhere. Then they get up and do it again two hours later.                                            

Madeleine Monday

My favorite tyke waits patiently for dinner last night while her mom and Mrs. C work the kitchen and grandpa works the Canon. She is rolling around in what the family calls The Tank. Nothing can stop her. 

Her hair-do is something of her own invention, if not her intention. My little punker.
                     

The Joust

Still some pictures to review from the Renaissance Faire. There is a jousting match every day. The audience is on either side of the field of honor and each side has cheerleaders. They train the crowd to scream for their hero, boo the other guy and chant "Blood! Blood! Blood!"

The event has much more talking than action (a common human condition, isn't it?). But when the knights charge the fans go wild. Rules of chivalry notwithstanding, the combatants are encouraged to cheat. There is an example in the bottom photo.         

Never Kick A Man When He's Down, Or, The Eagle Has Landed

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More foam mayhem in Forest Park. These people go at it with great enthusiasm. It looks like good exercise and psychotherapy. You wouldn't catch me wearing one of those tunics, though.

There were more unusual things to discover in Forest Park on Saturday. Tomorrow: women's rugby.

Hors De Combat

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While doing my weekend photo trawling around town I saw a group of people, some in quasi-medieval dress, some it tee shirts and shorts, in pitched battle on the make-believe Runnymede of Forest Park. Had to stop and say hello.

This is the Realm of Arnor, according to Mike Hockaday, the organizer. It's the St. Louis branch of Belegarth, a "medieval combat society" inspired by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien: role playing, fantasy and good outdoor exercise with foam-covered swords and cudgels. What a great idea. There are lots of times I'd like to whap the bejeezus out of certain people with foam (or other) weaponry. More tomorrow. And pray, my lord, smiteth not the photographer!

Two days in a row with non-English post captions. Am I putting on airs?