Living History

Thanks to all of you out there listening to the Living History Podcast and giving us feedback! In this week’s episode, number 31, we address some of the questions and comments we’ve received since we started the podcast including:

• What has been most surprising about doing the podcast?
• Providing more details as a part of our podcasts
• There is no such thing as a stupid tourist question
• Great tips for event survival
• Some unique living history terminology
• Is the human race loosing valuable skills to the detriment of us all?
• School Event restrictions
• Reenacting military life as a family, specifically gender disparities in more modern military reenactments
• How does the Renaissance Faire relate to Living History?
• What is our list of small items we still want (including an update on our chamber pot situation)
• Reenacting in order to show respect for those who lived in the time we are representing.

Musical Interlude: Jamie Raeburn’s Farewell by Tourdion

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This week we finish up Alena’s interview with Kelsey Freeman, blogger and female reenactor in a male dominated reenacting world. In this the second half of  their interview they discuss:
• Kelsey’s impression of reenactors and the reenacting community
• Her Ural motorcycle
• Packing light, reenacting with less stuff
• Women in reenacting

Musical Interlude: In the Blindage
Download: Interview with Kelsey Freeman, pt 2
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This week Alena and Stephen talk about their favorite places on the web, and how living history folks can utilize the web for research, community, information gathering and tons more. We talked about:
• Unit and LH group webpages – like the Saint Maximilian Landsknecht Reenactment Guild,
• Blogs – like Historic Cookery, Drifting Focus, Colonial Williamsburg’s Blog, and Tempus Fugit, and aggregators like the Civil War Interactive, and SCA Today.net.
• Forums – like Landsknecht.org, Living History Worldwide, The Muzzleloading Forum, and Armour Archive
• Digital Archives and Collections – like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Parker Library on the Web
• Vendors – including Reconstructing History, Jas. Townsend and Son, Amazon (in various countries)
• eBay & Etsy
• YouTube
• Google books
Musical Interlude: Come and I Will Sing You performed by Great Big Sea

Download: Living History on the Web
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Episode Summary

This week Alena and Stephen ask, what is living history? And how does one define reenacting? We talk about our early perspectives on living history and talk about some books we’ve been reading and how historical fiction, the SCA and renaissance faires do or don’t fit under the living history umbrella.

Musical Interlude: Ruffo: La Piva by the Renaissonics

Download: Living History Mixer

Episode Summary:

This week Alena and Stephen wax rhapsodic about their favorite convention: Reenactorfest, out in Chicago. We tell you about some of the cool people we encountered, the seminars and parties, and what can happen when reenactors from all different time-periods get together in a hotel in February. We talked about:
• The reasons why we go
• People we meet
• Seminars, shopping, live demonstrations and more.
Musical Interlude: Barley Corn performed by Ravenrook Consort

Download: Reenactorfest Recap