Life is a State of Mind » History http://blog.scottnolan.org ideas, thoughts, rants Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:14:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Is the torch of democracy getting picked up by others? http://blog.scottnolan.org/2011/02/25/is-the-torch-of-democracy-getting-picked-up-by-others/ http://blog.scottnolan.org/2011/02/25/is-the-torch-of-democracy-getting-picked-up-by-others/#comments Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:17:11 +0000 snolan http://blog.scottnolan.org/?p=2118 Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch.com rarely disappoints and this Tomgram is particularly poignant:

Tomgram: Engelhardt, Washington’s Echo Chamber (Feb 24th, 2011)

Freedom is never free, it must be earned, and fought for. It is clear that even after toppling several dictators, the people of Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya have a long struggle ahead of them, but they are earning their own freedom now. It’s a fascinating time to be alive.

Hat tip to Mark who brought this Tomgram to my attention, though TomDispatch is already on my regular reading list and should be on yours too.

]]> http://blog.scottnolan.org/2011/02/25/is-the-torch-of-democracy-getting-picked-up-by-others/feed/ 0 Weekend in New York with La Belle Compagnie http://blog.scottnolan.org/2010/05/24/weekend-in-new-york-with-la-belle-compagnie/ http://blog.scottnolan.org/2010/05/24/weekend-in-new-york-with-la-belle-compagnie/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 15:06:39 +0000 snolan http://blog.scottnolan.org/?p=1751 We had a lovely weekend museum hopping in New York with La Belle Compagnie and enjoying the hospitality and cooking of Deb and Steve.

The museum hopping started at The Morgan Library and Museum where we got to see a Magna Carta on display. We spent a lot of time perusing the digital archive of two earlier exhibits on their information kiosks. Demons and Devotion: The Hours of Catherine of Cleves is fabulous and has many gorgeous illuminations created in about 1440. Zoom in on the following and count the medieval items you want to build:

Illuminating the Medieval Hunt was also still online, and it is full of early images of hunting.

We had an excellent lunch at Woo Chon and then continued the museum hopping at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy (this exhibit is traveling and will be in Richmond in January, 2012 and is awesome for anyone interested in beautiful sculpture or 15th century clothing and accessories) and The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry. We have big reproduction copies of the Belles Heures, but when you look at the original pages with a magnifying glass additional details pop out at you and become clear. The Limbourg brothers and their crew were amazing artists. I was also excited to catch Five Thousand Years of Japanese Art: Treasures from the Packard Collection and wandered through a few other exhibits for the fun of it.

]]> http://blog.scottnolan.org/2010/05/24/weekend-in-new-york-with-la-belle-compagnie/feed/ 0 Complete failure of the mainstream media http://blog.scottnolan.org/2009/06/14/complete-failure-of-the-mainstream-media/ http://blog.scottnolan.org/2009/06/14/complete-failure-of-the-mainstream-media/#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:59:33 +0000 snolan http://blog.scottnolan.org/?p=1472 So Iran’s election appears to be rigged. It looks like Mousavi won by a very large margin, and that Ahmadinejad came in a very distant third place (eg: only 5.69 million votes to over 19 million for Mousavi and well over 13 million for Karoubi); and that despite the obviously clear to the public victory for Mousavi, the military theocracy declared Ahmadinejad the winner without even bothering to count most of the votes. Furthermore, they audaciously proclaimed the alleged Ahmadinejad victory to be a mandate of nearly 2/3 of all votes; something that was so clearly wrong that Tehran and many other cities in Iran are in open rebellion now.

The mainstream media fail is that over 36 hours later, only the BBC has any real coverage of the revolution happening in Iran. You have to get this information from bloggers and twitterers if you want it. Guess the revolution is not being televised after all.

]]> http://blog.scottnolan.org/2009/06/14/complete-failure-of-the-mainstream-media/feed/ 0 Marietta’s Marching Through Time 2009 Pictures http://blog.scottnolan.org/2009/04/26/mariettas-marching-through-time-2009-pictures/ http://blog.scottnolan.org/2009/04/26/mariettas-marching-through-time-2009-pictures/#comments Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:19:30 +0000 snolan http://blog.scottnolan.org/?p=1400 I did not even know someone was taking pictures with our camera, but found them when I downloaded the photos of our love seat. Belated gallery of MTT 2009 photos at:

http://gallery.me.com/scottdavidnolan#100181

]]> http://blog.scottnolan.org/2009/04/26/mariettas-marching-through-time-2009-pictures/feed/ 0 Marching Through Time http://blog.scottnolan.org/2009/04/16/marching-through-time-2/ http://blog.scottnolan.org/2009/04/16/marching-through-time-2/#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:15:35 +0000 snolan http://blog.scottnolan.org/?p=1392 Just spreading the word that this weekend (April 18th and 19th) there will be a living history timeline event at Marietta Mansion (5626 Bell Station Road, Glenn Dale, MD) that is open to the public for a nominal fee ($8/adult, $5/ages 5 & older, FREE/4 & under) from 11am to 5pm both days. A timeline event is one in which there are many groups of living history interpreters and/or re-enactors organized into small groups where each group is interpreting a different time. Groups will be there representing Romans, Vikings, Medievals, Tudors, American Revolution, Napoleonics, American Civil War, both World Wars, and many other periods. The manor house itself is interesting as well, and weather is expected to be great.

La Belle Compagnie will be there, and I will be with La Belle. Come on out and see a fun event and learn a little history. Children and students of history generally love these events.

Printable flyer with directions.

Hat tip to CharGirlGenius for the reminder to get out the word.

]]> http://blog.scottnolan.org/2009/04/16/marching-through-time-2/feed/ 0 Gorgeous Sunrise over Bull Run Park http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/10/21/gorgeous-sunrise-over-bull-run-park/ http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/10/21/gorgeous-sunrise-over-bull-run-park/#comments Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:25:37 +0000 snolan http://blog.scottnolan.org/?p=888 On my way to get Erci‘s car serviced, I captured this image with my iPhone. We are very fortunate to be surrounded by so much beauty.

photo of sunrise over Bull Run Park I was very fortunate to be out all weekend with La Belle Compagnie at Colonial Plantation in beautiful Ridley Creek State Park between Philadelphia and West Chester. The sycamore trees at the park were in full Autumn colors and they are huge and provided beautiful dappled shade and sunlight for our living history event. There are pictures of the camp at Thatpotteryguy‘s journal.

We’ve been seeing more foxes, falcons, cooper’s hawks, and deer lately; and that is lots of fun. I am concerned about seeing more cats around our property lately, two have collars, but some do not.

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The drive along U.S. highway 29 is beautiful in light fog. Sadly, along the route somewhere a bearing in my driver’s side wheel hub gave out and it’s not under warranty…. $510.82 and several hours wasted at the dealer was how I got to start my Monday. Grrrr!

Reminder: in many, many states today is the last day to register to vote to be eligible to vote on November 4th. If you live in Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, or many other states; go get registered now.

Photos courtesy of Ed Thyberg:








]]> http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/10/06/weekend-fun/feed/ 1 La Belle Public Shows in October http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/09/24/la-belle-public-shows-in-october/ http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/09/24/la-belle-public-shows-in-october/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:18:20 +0000 snolan http://blog.scottnolan.org/?p=793 La Belle Compagnie is participating in two public shows this October. La Belle is a living history group focused on English history during the Hundred Year’s War, and right now we are focused on 1388.

The first is from 9am to 5pm on October 4th and 5th in Charlottesville, Virginia; it is called the American History Weekend and will be at the Albemarle County Office Building, 401 McIntire Road. The site is charging $5 per family or individual, and there will be re-enactors and living history interpreters there from several different eras. This being Virginia, there should be lots of Civil War and Colonial Virginia re-enactors; and this year they have expanded the scope to include groups (like ours) who interpret earlier periods history as well.
The second is on October 18th and 19th in Media, Pennsylvania; it is called Medieval Days and it will be at the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation in Ridley Creek State Park (note: their website is broken, and does NOT show the 2008 events schedule in Firefox nor Safari, though it does work in OmniWeb).

    October 18th; 10am to 5pm (last entry at 4pm)

    October 19th; 10am to 3:30pm (last entry at 2:30pm)

    Admission: Adults $8, Ages 4-12 $6, under 4 get in free

The Plantation is located in Ridley Creek State Park, Edgmont Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
It’s lots of fun for the whole family in either case. Anyone interested in history will like these events, and children studying these periods in school may learn more about history by touching armor or watching embroidery than they do in classrooms.

All images in this post are from La Belle Compagnie.

]]> http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/09/24/la-belle-public-shows-in-october/feed/ 0 1381: The Peel Affinity http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/03/17/1381-the-peel-affinity/ http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/03/17/1381-the-peel-affinity/#comments Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:00:18 +0000 snolan http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/03/17/1381-the-peel-affinity/ Oops – forgot to post about the point of the whole weekend shindig at our house, it was the publishing party for 1381: The Peel Affinity, An English Knight’s Household in the Fourteenth Century (please order directly from the publisher through that link). I am of course already familiar with the material, but seeing it in final form is splendid and I am reading it cover to cover for fun now. The pictures came out better than I’d hoped, hurrah!

Shumacher Publishing and Amazon have it at the same price ($49.95), but you’ll get it faster direct through Shumacher (who should be accepting paypal and credit cards soon).

]]> http://blog.scottnolan.org/2008/03/17/1381-the-peel-affinity/feed/ 0 ‘The Peel Affinity’ is coming soon http://blog.scottnolan.org/2007/12/07/the-peel-affinity-is-coming-soon/ http://blog.scottnolan.org/2007/12/07/the-peel-affinity-is-coming-soon/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:18:03 +0000 snolan http://blog.scottnolan.org/2007/12/07/the-peel-affinity-is-coming-soon/ For those of you who know about us through La Belle Compagnie, the book we worked on for a long time is finally getting published and is expected sometime in 2008 (February is tentative). The Peel Affinity has it’s own website, thanks to our amazing publisher, Shumacher Publishing, LLC.

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