In my time at college, part of my education involved a two year block of study called Humanities. It's hard to explain but think of world history, literature, philosophy, fine arts, and composition all rolled into one killer course. There were books to read(from Homer to Sophocles to Augustine to Erasmus to Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, and on and on)lectures to hear, papers to write, and slide shows to watch depicting the art style of the period we were covering. I must say, back then, I really didn't see the point of all of the ramblings of the professors, endless reading, and the hours of viewing "works of art"....until now. This past weekend, my family made a trek back in history "Brought alive again" to a place called "The Ohio Renaissance Festival". Please understand, I am definitely NOT an expert the Renaissance period. I am frankly surprised that I can even spell it. I think that Renaissance is french for rebirth or something like that. To my recollection, some famous artist of that time were people like Michelangelo, daVinci, and Botticelli (or something like that). That's the depth of my memory but there we were all the same...The Ohio Renaissance Festival. Overall, we had a great time. The food was great ( I highly recommend the soup in a bread bowl)! There were shops everywhere. Wooden swords, clothing from the time, wooden swords, sticks, wooden swords, suits of armor, wooden swords....I think that you get the picture. The place was huge and there were many things to do. There were different shows that ran throughout the day and we were able to take in a couple. One was called, "The Mud Show". It was pretty funny. The one I really wanted to see(and by the size of the crowd, so did everyone else) was a real live joust with horses and everything. We went early to get a good seat. It took a long time to get to the jousting (lots of ceremony and the like). There was an announcer in the middle of the arena on this huge black horse that was trying to get the crowd all hyped up (probably 1,000+ people). The guy basically divided the crowd in two and each side was to cheer for their rider. He evidently picked me out of the the 1,000 people there to chastise for not cheering enough. He stopped the whole thing and pointed right at me and said "YOU!!! YES YOU!!! (he went on to describe me so that everyone knew who the slacker was) WHY DOEST THOU NOT CHEER FOR YOUR KNIGHT?" Needless to say, I cheered after that. Finally, the knights were going to make their first pass (can you feel the excitement?). The one dude dealt a direct blow and knocked the other off of his horse. Game over. All of that for one pass. Oh well. The funniest thing about the whole day was watching the people. Some people really take this whole renaissance thing seriously but at different levels:
Level One (spent 100's of $ on outfit, real sword)- They wore the whole outfit, shoes included. They even spoke with an accent. They drink their beverage (never carbonated) from a real, wooden, mug. These people would never be caught eating a frozen banana(they evidently had them during the renaissance you know).
Level Two (bought a cool outfit but no shoes and fake sword)- From far away they look like level one until you see work boots and wooden sword. These people do however, drink their Pepsi from a brown colored, plastic mug.
Level Three (bought part of an outfit while there, no wooden sword, but a walking stick)-They may have a horned Viking hat or a cloak on over their blue jeans. They Drink from a Pepsi paper cup but do like to eat the turkey leg thing.
Level Four (these people are confused)- A level four person dresses like Harry Potter or Captain Jack Sparrow or might even wear something from Star Wars . They are not really sure about the whole Renaissance thing. They like to eat frozen bananas.
Just a short note, please do not be offended if you are a level one, two, or three person. I think that you are great. If you are a level four person...you need help.
Overall, I guess I would recommend a visit to the Ohio Renaissance Festival. We did have fun, but spent a few bucks. It was also nice to put my education in the Renaissance period to good use (ha ha). Best of all, we can now mark another item off of..."The List"(see previous post).
3 comments:
Did you get your picture taken with a "wench"?
Ask Brad about hiring an official Renaissance Fair Wench to make pizzas @ Dominos.
ok, so you told me to read about this and i must admit, you captured the heart of the audience of the fair.
but, you forgot level 5. people in jeans and a t-shirt drinking bottled water not knowing that there are strong differences between levels 1-4.
hey dan, this is jaki...the youth minster of river hills...i work with your sister, robin. figured i'd drop by and say your blogs are pretty interesting, especially that video. :) i'd love to get some tips from you sometime...and maybe our youth groups could do some stuff together??? :) anyway, take care!
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