gurdymonkey | Entries tagged with way of the sword

Good morning,

My name is Saionji no Hana, a member of the Society since 1995, a Companion of the Order of the Laurel, and currently serving as Royal Rapier Marshal in the Kingdom of the West. I also run rapier at a local branch practice on Thursday nights: in compliance with county, state and Kingdom requirements, it is held outdoors and while fighters have the option of not wearing face masks under helmets/fencing masks, they must wear them when their “hats” are off. Compliance has not been a problem.

I have spent the past week grinding my teeth in anger and frustration while in self imposed quarantine awaiting Covid testing results.

On the morning of Saturday, August 21, 2021, I received an instant message from someone who attended our practice: he had just tested positive for Covid-19 and wanted to let me know. I immediately messaged my principality and kingdom seneschals asking what I should do. When more than an hour had passed without response, I pulled the contact tracing sheet from that night’s practice and called everyone on it to inform them that they had possibly been exposed to the virus. At no time did I divulge the participant’s name while doing so.

When my Principality Seneschal responded, she told me to notify everyone who had been at the practice – which I had already done – and to hang onto the contact tracing sheet in case the health department needed it. My Kingdom Seneschal’s initial response was to tell me that I didn’t have to inform anybody except as a courtesy, but it was nice that I had. It was not until much later in the day, the deputy Kingdom Seneschal informed us that the Society Seneschal “confirmed that contact tracing sheets, which Society states will only be given to Public Health, should not be used to contact individual participants. General, carefully worded warnings posted to Social Media are OK, but we can’t use the info on those sheets unless directed to by Public Health.”

This confused mess is of a piece with the entire process of reopening practices starting in mid June in my kingdom. At that time we were told masking would be required and that we were to collect contact tracing information – but given *no* guidance on what that information was supposed to be or what we were supposed to do with it. I knocked together a spreadsheet, duly collected names, etc. at my practices and saved the sheets. It was weeks later when someone (I believe it may have been the deputy Kingdom Seneschal) put together a sample tracing form with instructions to turn them over to our branch seneschals and published them on the kingdom website.

It took me the better part of a day to find out what to do in case of a self-reported positive test, precious hours that could be used to book testing appointments, self quarantine and prevent possible spread of a virus that does not care about rules, only to be ultimately told that doing the right thing was the “wrong” thing.

I’m a marshal. My job is to keep people safe. I am allowed to tell a fighter that their equipment is not safe to use. If a fighter’s behavior on the field is unsafe, I can warn them to change the behavior, I can pull them off the field, I can even revoke their authorization card. As my kingdom’s Royal Rapier Marshal, I can even publish rules stricter than the Society standard if I deem it necessary to keep people safe. But I’m not allowed to pick up a phone and say, “You may have been exposed to Covid-19 Thursday night.” We’re not allowed to say, “Proof of vaccination is required to attend in-person activities.” (The only reason we can require masks in my area is because state and local government already do and the Kingdom is in compliance.)

As the Delta variant spreads, more and more businesses are requiring proof of vaccination to enter them or to work in their locations, insurers are raising rates on the unvaccinated. Being unvaccinated is an unacceptable risk. Further, my employer sends me daily emails reporting any positive Covid cases at any jobsite in the company as required by law.

As a private organization, the SCA can choose to require proof of vaccination and masking – and has chosen not to.

I accept certain risks as a fighter. I can mitigate some of them by keeping my kit well maintained and safe, by calling holds when I see a hazard, even by declining to fight if the situation warrants. I can get vaccinated and wear a face mask, but I can’t see a virus. We simply do not know enough about breakthrough infections in the vaccinated population yet. Covid-19 doesn’t care about honor or choice or whether someone might sue: it exists to spread and it’s really good at it.

My job as a marshal and as a peer is to protect my friends and the SCA is making it harder to do than it should.

We can do better and we must.

Saionji no Hana, OL, Royal Rapier Marshal
Kingdom of the West

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Response from the Board of Directors:

I’m so sorry that you were exposed to coronavirus. I hear the frustration that you just feel in these words you have written even though it’s tough, usually, to sense tone in an email.

I am Gigi and Friday is my day to respond personally to the emails we receive, although each director reads every email we get. We rotate days to do this so you know you’ve been heard, but more than that, so you know we are listening.

The next time we discuss our policy the words you have shared here will be considered. You’ve made some good points and by sharing this example you give us an idea of how our guidelines are or are not working well in practice.

Take care and thank you again.

Best,

Gigi Coulson, MS

Director Seat A, SCA

Ombudsman for Æthelmearc, Avacal, Drachenwald, Ealdormere, Lochac, and the corporate DEI Officer

gcoulson@director.sca.org

931-639-9337

Maestra Giata Magdalena Alberti, OL

5/21/21: Yesterday my rapier-legal wakizashi arrived from Castille. The tsuka (hilt), machined out of brushed aluminum, was left bare as specified, because I want to wrap it to match my katana. The blade is 18," which means it's a dagger by SCA rules, but it's got some heft to it, enough that it should be just fine against C&T weapons.

Quick backstory: I bought a katana at Great Western War several years ago from James the Just, who had mounted a Castille blade in a wooden tsuka. We discovered the tsuba didn't hold up to cut-and-thrust combat a couple years back, at which time I ordered a steel tsuba from Castille, stripped the original lacing, and wrapped the existing wood core with rayskin and green silk ito.

The tsuka profile of the wakizashi is more oval than the rectangular grip on the katana (also by JTJ), so they were not going to be perfectly matched, but it will pass muster from a few feet away.

For reference information, I used the hiramaki pattern from Thomas Buck's The Art of Tsukamaki. Free for Kindle with diagrams and full color photos, it's an excellent manual.

5/22/21: I soaked the ray skin in a dishpan for about half an hour or so to soften it up, took a pattern off the waki tsuka with some watercolor paper, then patted the ray skin dry with a paper towel. This skin was smaller and a little thinner than the one I used for the katana - in fact, the reason I have it was that I'd ordered it for the katana and it wasn't long enough. Anyway, this time I was able to cut it with shears instead of an X-acto blade. I left it a little long in case of shrinkage, wrapped it around the tsuka with a few old hair ties and let it dry for 24 hours.

5/23/21: After several false starts that I wasn't happy with, I realized that part of the problem was the curved shape of the tsuka was making it hard for me to get the lacing even. The other part of the problem was that the smaller ray skin wasn't quite grabby enough to get the silk to catch on it. I took a break, had some iced tea and a think and then dug out the double sided craft tape I use for my war fan. I know, heresy, but a strip down each side was just enough to allow me to get a more even wrap.

I also decided to skip the menuki. The handle on this is so short that the menuki was going to run into the beautiful natural rayskin node and I didn't like how it looked. (Since I didn't strip the katana tsuka yet, I won't have to redo that one with new menuki to match. I had to buy two new sets since I couldn't find any to match the old ones, but they were inexpensive alloy reproductions and perhaps I'll use them as special tokens to give to people.)

I was running out of ito as I neared the end - there was not going to be enough to do a more traditional end-knot over the top of the end cap. Ultimately I finished the wrap off with a neat square knot, trimmed the ito and clamped the ito ends under the end cap. It looks neat, it's not going anywhere, and I'm not going to have to untuck and untie a complicated knot if I ever need to unscrew the end cap again.

After doing my homework, courtesy of Thomas Buck's "The Art of Tsukamaki" which is available as a full color e-book on Amazon.com for about $10, I chose a style I liked and knew was period. Hiramaki was originally used on tachi and survived into the Edo period. http://www.montanairon.com/gifswords/tsukamaki/hira-maki_dragon.jpg It also doesn't involve twisting the ito (flat cord) as it crosses over each other. As I only have two hands, a couple of clamps and no special jig to hold the hilt core, this just seemed like it would add less to the juggling act I knew it was going to be, particularly as this style does not absolutely require the insertion of tiny paper triangles under the silk.

Stingray skin is traditional, and I wanted a full wrap around the oak core because this cut-and-thrust weapon already sustained impacts that damaged the original rapier-legal tsuba. I found a seller on eBay in China ( changjuanjj-5) with nice hides at reasonable prices. I did, however, underestimate with my first order and ended up with a hide that was just a skosh too small. The next size up was perfect, beautifully white, nice distinct nodes. The smaller one will go on my wakizashi dagger. Sigh, Of course, the place I got the silk ito is out of the color I ordered, so that's back-burnered. (http://www.swordnarmory.com/imported-japanese-silk-ito-green/ They get three weeks, then I'm gonna take my chances elsewhere and hope the color is a good match.)

I bought the reproduction brass menuki on eBay awhile back as well. I should have bought a second pair for the waki because now they don't have that particular style. Or they just won't match. My tsuba don't match anymore as it is.

Samegawa (ray skin) is hard, tough and abrasive. It needed 15 minutes in a dishpan to be pliable enough to handle. I patted it down with towels, put on a pair of work gloves and cut it with a utility knife on my self healing mat because boxcutter blades are cheap. Had I to do it again, I would have made my pattern template 1/16" inch wider in all directions as there was some little shrinkage. I managed to hide it beneath the ito pretty well, but that extra margin would've been nice. I cut it and wrapped it tightly onto the hilt core with hair ties and let it dry in place for a few days, figuring I would use the long Thanksgiving weekend to actually attack the wrapping portion of the festivities.

For the unitiated, a katana hilt has an "inside" (ura) and "outside" (omote). Imagine a sword on you left hip, edge upward - remember, katana have only one edge. The lacing has to start at the end closest to the tsuba (guard) and gets tied off at the pommel. Front and back orientation also dictates placement of the menuki - one on the omote about three or four turns from the tsuba, one on the ura about three or four turns from the pommel. Because this is a rapier katana with a threaded tang that fits a screw-in arrangement at the top, I had to work around an anachronistic arrangement of lacing holes instead of a traditional kashira (end cap).

I got about halfway through the ritual of pulling, crossing over, adjusting and repeating, took a couple pictures and posted it to the SCA-Japanese Facebook group. Fortunately someone spotted that I had been crossing the silk in the same direction instead of alternating it, so I chalked it up to good practice and decided to start again this morning.

I will also admit that the menuki were a pain in the ass and I am not to proud to tell you that I used a minute amount of double sided tape to keep them from falling on the floor nineteen times while I tried to lash them into position. Especially since I didn't have a dedicated rotating jig of the sword that normally gets used by artisans who build tsuka properly. Just me and a couple of big spring clamps for when I needed to stop and let my hamburgered thumbs and index fingers take a break.

As for tying that final knot on the top, I threaded some heavy thread through a couple of heavy duty needles, stitched it through the ends of the ito and used that to pull it through the holes in the hilt housing at the top and then again through the knot.

Considering that this is a new art to me, yeah, I see where all the mistakes are, but it mostly looks pretty good. That green is delicious, and the glint of "gold" menuki and gleaming white samegawa are just so. I'm pretty pleased.

A peer doesn't say, "You'll never be as good as me." A peer says, "How can I help you do better?"

Yesterday, one of our Western White Scarves wrote a heartbroken and heartbreaking post to his Facebook. This person told him "I know you're trying, but you're too old" to ever be a MoD." This person also told him that cut-and-thrust will not get him considered for a MoD - which is horseshit. The WWS lives in a relatively remote area and has to care for a disabled wife. This does not prevent him from driving long distances to try to get to events both in the West and An Tir. He loves to fight. He loves to teach. If I know he's going to be at something, it inspires ME to drive long distances so I can go fight him and his cadet - because they're so much fun to work with. He's done research on period fighting styles that adapt well to cut-and-thrust as we do it in the SCA.

While the WWS did not mention names, the offending MoD outed himself with a post on his own timeline about having hurt a friend. When I saw who it was, I was not at all surprised, because it proved all over again that a white collar does not make a peer. http://gurdymonkey.dreamwidth.org/2016/02/15/ (The irony is that the FB cover photo of this "master" is of him fighting me at the event where he refused to die to me.)

This guy was told that he'll never be a MoD by a schmuck who he'd just killed five fights in a row. He was told he's too old by someone who is at least as old as he is and who always seems to manage to be too tired or too injured if he feels like ducking a fight. He was told he'll never be a peer by someone who just keeps proving over and over and over again that he does not know how to be a peer.

I'm gonna go to An Tir West this week. I am going to beg as many fights with my friend as I possibly can because he will teach me, he will beam and laugh when I kill him, he will give hug me when we are done. He will be the peer that Schmuck MoD is not.

Busy weekend. I had agreed to give Brogan a ride to the Newcomer's Tourney so his lady could have the car to go see her mother on Saturday, so we loaded the loaner rapier gear into my truck after practice on Thursday. For me it was a meh kind of night. I was experiencing rolling hot flashes so my concentration was off and I just was not up for Staffan's plan of having us all critique each other because I had to think too hard to do it.

Met B at West Oakland BART Saturday AM with coffee and bagels from Levy's and drove down to the event site, a public park in Cupertino. It's official: I have to go all Mom on both Brogan and Thomas (aka JT) about putting on sunscreen. Left to their own devices, they will forget, particularly Thomas. Got there early enough to help with the set up of one of the sun shades, help kit out a couple of new people in loaner clothing and I hung out in the shade trying to conserve energy while Caterin and Thomas put them in masks and jackets and taught them some rudiments of rapier fighting.

It's a small event with some classes and demonstrations, and both a heavy combat and rapier tourney for relatively new fighters. Brogan and Thomas fought to fill out the field, but their wins would not count in the tourney standings as they have both been fighting for more than two years. I fight them and Caterin regularly, but Sunara and Allan were new to me. She was coming back from a shoulder injury and he had some saber experience back in college but was new to SCA style fighting. (Which didn't seem to stop him from thinking he knew more than he did. Brogan warned me to be aware of that.)

I died quickly in the warmup melees for the most part. Then I went out onto the tourney field and won every bout except the one with Brogan - and I missed a kill shot on him by about half an inch. (For those of my readers who have not witnessed SCA tourney fighting, the person struck is supposed to verbally acknowledge the blow, e.g., "Good arm," or "I'm dead," etc. if there is any question in either fighter's mind about a blow, we'll stop and discuss it.) He says he saw it coming in but didn't feel it and I didn't feel it touch at my end either. I was mildly frustrated for all of three minutes after he killed me back, then got my mind on being ready for my next fight. I don't remember the exact fight order, but Sunara took my hand while I was sizing her up, so I had to kill her left handed. Allan managed to tag me in the leg at the same time I killed him with a shot to the mask. (Brogan took this as a teaching moment to elaborate to Allan on calling blows, etc.)

I honestly wasn't keeping track of my standing, just trying to concentrate on each fight as it happened. I told Caterin to kick my ass right before we went into our last fight. I got her. Then I got called up to fight a best-out-of-three with Brogan and I lost two, which was completely silly and incongruous as I still was named the winner because his wins didn't count. At the end of the day I was awarded a pair of black leather gauntlets which are too big for me and a place setting of Cost Plus "feast gear." Both will be re-gifted at some point as I don't need them.

For my own part, I was sort of surprised at how well I did. Then again, my percentages against Thomas and Caterin are improving and B assures me I've made good progress in the time I've been fighting, even though it often feels like I'm climbing a steep hill in cement shoes.

Attempted a little calligraphy practice instead of more fighting, managed to socialize a bit with Brigit and Aasa. Oh, and the gourd canteen performed admirably and got some compliments. Holds more than I could finish by myself in the course of the day and the paraffin coating assured no weird taste was imparted to the water.

We helped the event staff with tear-down, then went to an Indian buffet place B knew in the area called Sneha. Ate VERY well and I could've happily binged on the carrot halva dessert if I'd a mind. Then I took him home so I could drop off the loaner gear at his place as I was not going to go to Sunday practice.

Spent today at the Asian Art Museum visiting the Terra Cotta Warriors again with Urtatim and her daughter - hence the sore feet.

It is a good hurt,
To wake a bit sore, thinking
Of yesterday's bouts.
Four wins only, but each loss
Was a far better lesson.

As I catalogue
The current bruise collection
I have learned a truth:
No one has ever called this
The Way of the Borrowed Sword.

(Brogan couldn't make it last night, so the little 37" Zen Warrior munitions grade rapier wasn't there. Instead, Staffan attempted to teach me feints with The Freakin' Crowbar he favors against his dagger. I cannot handle that monster with any subtlety.)

Struggled with sinus headaches all day and was seriously contemplating blowing off BART practice - until I got a text from James indicating that he and Sylvia were not going. Given that Staffan and Brogan both have to come some distance at $4+/gallon of gas to run practice, teach and bring loaner gear, I pounded down yet more Advil and picked up an iced coffee on the way. Yeh. I guilt-tripped MYSELF.

Brogan never made it with the loaner gear (later saw a FB post that he and Lady James have been trading germs back and forth and are under the weather). Eilis and Tom did, which meant we had to juggle Eilis' and Staffan's gear between the three of us (and Staffan ended up in my gorget when I hit my limit). We worked on the concept of invitations: what this means is looking at your opponent's guard and seeing where he/she is "inviting" you to try to strike (or conversely where you are open to attack). Staffan was not wrong when he pegged me as being more tentative than usual. I think it was a combination of (a) feeling like crap and being painfully aware/guilty of finding myself thinking while in range of being hit, (b) tiring quickly from using Staffan's crowbar of a sword and (c) and wary of Tom's old epee fighting habits which have gotten me hit pretty hard two or three times, though his calibration is improving. (He's also all arms and legs and I'm not fast enough to get past his guard most of the time when I'm not feeling like my head is in a vice. That said, I was staying alive longer than in the past against him.

Eilis is an interesting fight. She's all defense and a relatively small target. She likes tying up people in melee with her big ol' steel buckler, so she's the complete opposite of Jackrabbit Tom. In fact, she does some interesting things with slow timing. I managed to kill her a couple times, but she made me work for it.

In short, I sucked. At least I got out of the house and went.
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I have just been given a reason to blow off fall Collegium. For one thing, I wasn't sure what I wanted to teach. Then Tamsin/Yoko sent me an email introduction to her friend John, along with the program and registration information for the 2012 San Francisco International Conference on Chanoyu and Tea Cultures over at SFSU. The scheduled presentations are on various aspects of tea aesthetics (calligraphy, flower arrangements recorded in early Edo documents, utensils and so forth), so this is going to be far more scholarly than the usual Obon festival tea demonstration! Speaking of which, there's going to be a demonstration of Korean tea ceremony, about which I know zip.

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Off to meet the League of Evil Geniuses gang down in San Gregorio in a little bit. We're camping the Best Buck In The Bay rodeo this year.

( Read more... )

Thursday practice went ok. No Staffan, but Brogan had us do some work with both rigid parrying objects (read "sticks") and then taught us about dagger. Between him, Staffan and Sylvain, the brain now has a lot of dagger related information that needs to be programmed into the hands. That said, when I sparred with B at the end of the night, I felt like I wasn't doing too badly.

The other plus: my kit is complete except for actual weapons. The new mask gets an A for being easier to see out of, particularly when we have to fight under the BART station's orange sodium lights after sundown. Sylvia wears glasses and still had depth perception issues in hers, but I noticed a marked improvement in what I could see. The padding gets an A for fit - I took a couple of stout shots to the head and throat and it didn't budge and a D for being made of thick foam and slick synthetic fabric which doesn't wick perspiration and forms a heat trap. I'm glad I made the hood from linen.

I put my gusoku shita on James out of curiosity and proved that one-size-fits-many when it comes to Japanese garment construction. I need to make the sleeves a couple inches longer for him, but other than that, I can knock his out by patterning off mine.

Saturday was James' birthday. To celebrate, we went to the Exploratorium to check out their replica of the Mars Rover, Curiosity. The Exploratorium is eventually moving to Piers 15-17 on the Embarcadero, but right now it's still out at the old Palace of Fine Arts. Getting there via mass transit involved one BART train, one Muni bus and then a hike of about a mile to the museum.

There was a lot of Americas Cup activity on Marina Green with a regatta starting this week. And it being a halfway nice Saturday, the cavernous Exploratorium was hopping with people, but that's what it's for. The light conditions were kind of interesting, so I shot some photos in black and white of the interior, Curiosity, kids playing with interactive displays, James geeking out with one of the enthusiastic young "Explainers" and playing a vintage Atari Lunar Lander game. We also got to meet and listen to a planetary geologist who was manning the Curiosity presentation area.

James' birthday dinner was at Hana Japan out on the Berkeley Marina, a Benihana knockoff. It was fun and the Birthday Boy certainly enjoyed it.

No rapier practice Sunday as Brogan had picked up bronchitis from his lady, so the trip out to GG Park was kind of a waste. Got some reading done, socialized a little with the Cloondara gang and got home in time for my weekly dose of WTF on "True Blood" which has gotten more ludicrous with each season. This is balanced beautifully with the well acted, intelligently written "The Newsroom."

I freely admit that it will be anachronistic enough for a Japanese to be fighting with a European style rapier - however, I have to get proficient at the form before I can even think about pursuing the use of a rapier katana. (Besides, the merchant who carries them is currently having trouble getting appropriate blades, so there's no rush on that.)

I can hide most of my protective gear under existing (or new) garb. What I cannot hide is the fencing mask. SCA rapier rules require: "The front and top of the head must be covered by rigid material to below the jaw line and behind the ears. Standard 12 kg fencing masks are known to meet this standard......The rest of the head and neck must be covered by at least puncture resistant
material."

While I was at West An Tir, I saw some masks that had been painted, some to interesting effect. However, it's still a fencing mask. It's an anachronism, and most of the paint jobs simply draw attention to the mask.

The past several weeks of wearing loaner gear decided me in favor of the drape-off-the-mask vs. a separate hood to go over or under the mask: everything goes on or comes off in one step. I toyed with a couple of ideas for making it look vaguely period and Japanese....

1. A wig which will trap heat and become a tangled mess
2. Sohei cowl (an option we're looking at for James), which makes no sense as I am not portraying a Buddhist monk
3. Zukin likewise makes no sense unless one is dressing as a Buddhist nun.
4. Kendo bogu is distinctly post-period - and the real thing doesn't actually cover the back of the head because that's not a legal target area. Technically nobody ought to hit me in the back of the head anyway, but it probably happened to someone once so it got put in the rapier rules.

So, knowing it was going to be a complete anachronism anyway, I came up with the following compromise.

001

I covered the glaring white bib with a scrap of shibori fabric someone had wrapped a Twelfth Night gift in. The brown spots are actually pretty close to the color of the gloves I have.

I made the outer layer of the hood out of 3.5 oz/yard handkerchief linen. The mask frame is steel mesh over the top of the head from ear to ear and I wanted to keep what ventilation I had as the mask's foam stuffed, synthetic liner is likely to be hot. (If you look at the topmost photograph, you can see that the padding completely covers the forehead at the front of the mask.)
The portion covering the open back of the mask and the side flaps has two layers of the 7.1 oz unbleached linen sewn into it. The side flaps are sewn to the top of the bib.

My device and motto ("Honor, harmony, knowledge.") are displayed on the back.

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Before you cry, "Gesundheit!" the term refers to a shirt-like garment worn under Japanese armor. I decided to use it as a model for rapier "armor" which I should be able to wear under pretty much any existing or new Japanese garb I own that I might want to fight in. I look like a potato in it as it's made of unbleached heavy weight linen. The body is composed of two full layers of linen. The sleeves have a double layer from the armpit to elbow, as required by SCA rapier rules.

002
003
005
EDIT: When I was considering the design, it occurred to me that the seam between the migoro (body panel) and okumi (overlap) was one more place for potential wear/tear/puncture failure. As I had sufficiently wide fabric to work with, I simply cut the body panels to include the material for the overlap

Ishida-dono tells me he had sewn the waist tie to the body only to have it tear away. So mine isn't sewn on. I don't expect a double knotted himo to untie when I move.

Debating whether to add additional ties inside at the waist like some gi I've seen, but I want to see how it behaves when I wear it tomorrow evening.

The toggle is formed by a boxwood ojime of the three wise monkeys, the loop is a bit of round shoelace. .

May try to get better photos tomorrow, when there's a bit more natural light in the living room.

Had a cracking good practice Thursday night. The new gorget fits well, the new gloves fit well and don't smell like someone else's pheromones. First few minutes of each practice it takes me a few minutes to get my brain in gear, but after that, I seem to be getting a little more effective. Emphasis on "little."

Sylvia's getting over a tweaked back, so she didn't play. Got some fighting in with Staffan to start, including some clueless flailing with a belaying pin and little cluage clues offered by Staffan, who probably just wanted to see what I would do with an object in my left hand. (There's a stick in my hand! What do I do? ~~O-daiko solo~~ Duh, try to parry with it, dumbass!)

Had a blast fighting Brian. Brogan and Staffan have been oh-so-careful about not chasing me around because they know about my old knee injury. Brian's been playing maybe as long as I have, experience-wise, but he's young, quick, likes to fight in close and didn't know not to rush me. I'm pleased to say I was able to deal with him reasonably well (we killed each other about the same amount) and prove to myself I can move a bit faster than I thought.

Fought James a bit, but he was headachy and tired and knocked off a bit early. Brogan put a dagger in my hand and taught me a little about what to do with it, then called everyone in and did a tutorial on various parrying implements for those of us who are still traveling the road to authorization. After that, he suggested I fight Sylvain.

Sylvain is Brogan's White Scarf. For non-SCA readers, take that as "master," "sensei", "Legolas with a freaking rapier." He's that good. I've seen him fight before and I should've been way more intimidated* than I was because I know he could hand any of us our asses quite easily should he choose to. Then again, he teamed up with me for those bridge and gate mini-melees at the event in Napa a couple weeks ago. He pretty much let me dictate the pace because he wanted to see what I could do. It was toward the end of the evening, so we didn't do a whole lot, but we ended things on a good note.

*Part of it was definitely him, of course, but I haven't been particularly intimidated by anyone I've faced yet. I've experienced some bruisingly hard hits and it wasn't traumatic, I'm sufficiently inexperienced that I KNOW anyone can "kill" me at any time, and I'm so busy trying to remember what to do I just plain don't have enough room in my brain for intimidation too.
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In an exchange of messages yesterday, I discovered that Lash thought Debardchery was THIS week. They're going to come down for that in a couple weeks instead - save themselves some gas money and get more stuff done at his Mom's place. I'm going to get a little sewing on my rapier gi done this morning, then meet James and Sylvia at the Oakland Museum of California as there's a show there we want to check out.
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Drove down to Santa Cruz last night, picked up Dad and had dinner at the Davenport Roadhouse on Hwy 1. As per usual and his amoebic time management skills, he's renting a car today and who knows when he'll appear on my door step as he has friends in Berkeley and Sacramento that he's going to see. Might be tomorrow, might be Monday evening. I'll hide a key for him and we'll figure it out. He calls it spontaneity, I call it lack of plan..... At least there's fresh fruit in the fridge for him to snack upon and I'll leave the coffee and French press on the counter where he can find it if he turns up while I'm out.

Got a message from Brogan on Wednesday to call him, so I did - he had to go out of town suddenly and would I be willing to portage loaner gear to rapier practice and then bring it to the event on Saturday? We made the exchange on Wednesday, I got it to BART last night and we were able to kit out the Usual Suspects.

James had checked out Young's Trading Co. (where I got my jika tabi) and showed up with his new kendo gi and hakama, jika tabi and a red martial arts belt. (Yet I am not allowed to order linen for rapier armor because I don't know how much we'll need for whatever it is Sylvia is intending to wear to fight in. I'm going with a modified shitagi for me and James - lengthening sleeves to provide underarm protection and necessary 3" overlap with gloves and other garments. WANNA SEW!)

Without Brogan there, it was just Staffan doing marshal/coaching duty. I fenced with Sylvia, Brian, James and Emma (but somehow missed fighting her dad). We're all in various stages of rank beginner and it's hard to know what to do sometimes. Still not seeing things fast enough, if at all. Finally got some work in with Staffan towards the end (of course, when it was getting hard to see and when I was tired). One thing I have seemed to figure out and use with reasonable effect is the draw cut - if all else fails, I drag my blade against whatever part of my opponent is handy as I try to retreat. I also came home with an exercise on practicing disengaging my blade which involves me, my trusty wooden dowel and a nearby doorknob.

Both the guys are good coaches - always have positive, encouraging things to say, so one feels like one is making a little progress. Brogan tends to keep things simple, while Staffan doesn't mind getting a little more technical. Technical is actually good - I'm not a natural athlete, so being able to break down a process into more than just, "Do this!" is as useful as "Do this!" to me.

Met up with J&S at their place Saturday AM and headed up to Napa for the War of the Relic. James got authorized as a rapier marshal. (I watched and paid attention as I may very well do so myself at some point.) The rapier tourney used a positively diabolical format (designed by Staffan), a round robin in which each participant had to roll D12 dice which would determine which weapons they had to use in which hand for a given round. Crazy, fun and plenty challenging for the four authorized fencers who played. They also decided to do a few barroom brawl scenarios on the gazebo.

More photos here http://www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157630690395420/with/7619926348/

It was easily in the 90s, so J&S had brought several flats of water for everyone to avail themselves of and I'd contributed some snacky bits. When asked if we still-unauthorized fighters wanted to do some pickups, James and Sylvia declined - they're still relatively unacclimated to the hotter, drier inland microclimates, but I felt fine, so I geared up (I was wearing my linen hakama and plaid kosode over a sports tank and capri length yoga pants, so I just dropped it all, stepped into Lady James'* modern fencing jacket and pulled my stuff back on over it). We went down the hill to a shady spot on the trail with both a rustic gateway and a small wooden footbridge for some two-on-two melee. Sylvain was kind enough to pair up with me, and Brogan and Angharad were our opponents. I died a lot, but did manage to trade my life for Angharad's a couple times and even nailed Brogan with a sneaky slow thrust while defending the gate - I just waited for him to be focused on Sylvain and then slowly closed with him. I may never get away with that one again, but it was pretty neat at the time. It was also a good test of fighting in existing garb - the hakama didn't trip me up or get caught on anything and I felt comfortable, if hot. (*Brogan's lady's SCA name is James Bacon. It's completely documentable as a female name late in period and it suits her - it's just going to make this blog entry confusing!)

We all went down the street after the event to the Black Bear Diner. Plans have been made for a field trip to Victory Fencing in Millbrae next Saturday so J, S and I can get masks, with a gorget-making party at their place to follow. I got measurements and put in a linen order last night before bed. After wearing a nylon fencing jacket under my garb on a 95 degree day I WANT MY LINEN! And James has been very kind and tolerant about my stinking up her kit, which makes me all the more conscious that I should get my own together as soon as possible so she doesn't need to share it with me. (Though she had just finished a heavy linen leine to fight in.)

Gonna meet Sylvia at Civic Center BART at noon and take the bus out to Golden Gate Park for the Cloondara practice this afternoon. Should be a beautiful day for it.

Yeh, I'm hooked, can you tell?

In other news, my phone bleated at me at the diner. It was Ishida, texting to tell me he'd received his AoA. (Still can't believe it hadn't occurred to anyone locally to recommend him, so I was glad to instigate.)

Biggish turnout at BART last night for rapier: Eilis was back after being laid up with knee surgery to do a little light fencing and see how she felt. Looked like she was doing ok as long as she takes it in small doses. Me, James, Sylvia a new guy named Tom who had prior epee experience and his own kit with him and another new guy whose name I didn't catch. Of course, Brogan hadn't packed the loaner swords this week, so there was a bit of equipment rotation involved and Staffan and Brogan sat out a lot while we paired off. The boys have much heavier swords that what I played with last time, so that took a bit of adjustment. Staffan's cut-and-thrust sword ("Hold it like a hammer,") wasn't bad, but took some getting used to.

I did some attack-riposte stuff with Sylvia which involved a lot of flailing and laughing. Then Brogan made me fight Tom who killed me quite a lot: tall and lanky, rusty or not, he had significant modern-fencing skills and was going full speed, including the time he came in fast, I didn't move fast enough and got dinged HARD in the right bicep. He was immediately apologetic. I shook it off, assured him it was at least half my own fault and went right back to dying at his hands without a fuss. (Not a lot of surface bruising today, just a pale lavender crescent.)

There, that's out of the way. I've been hit solidly in the mask (last week) and hard in the arm. It startled me more than anything and I'm pleased to say it didn't make me want to re-think this exercise in learning something new. I'd never been a wimp about stuff when I worked around horses, but it's been a lot of years since I've taken a fall or been kicked and I've never done martial arts, so being purposely hit is a new experience.

Played a bit with Brogan, though as the sun went down it was hard to see his blade against his dark clothing. Did better with Staffan (who was at least in a white tunic). I like working with both of them - having more than one teacher means more than one point of view and different emphases.

I have a LOT to learn. That said, I should probably think about ordering linen for "armor." And start shopping for a mask. And a gorget.....

Definitely a busy, interesting week. Tent lumber was dry enough to drill and set some pins in, sewed up the "futon cover" (see previous post), and taiko went OK - we've got the parade gig on Wednesday and will be going full tilt on "Shinkyoku." Which means I'm definitely going to want a shower before the drive up to War.

Yesterday we had the annual Employee Appreciation barbecue luncheon (Hawaiian themed, this year) and raffle. Usually I look at the prize table and think "Dear God, don't let me win," because it's usually stuff I don't need (ice cream maker), already have (my bike is more awesome anyway), or won't have room for in my apartment (lawn games). This year I won a portable fire pit - which has a case and will fit in the back of my truck with room for drums if the cooler rides in the front seat. Of course, I now need fire tools for the thing....

Looking forward to camping with JAF and his lady - they're nice folks, we all cook and it should be fun. (We've been IMing back and forth over who's bringing what. Must take some ahi for grilling!)

Went to the BART practice last night, got in some rapier work with Brogan and Staffan. We're going fairly slowly and they're both good, patient teachers. Brogan did poik me in the mask a good one last night and while it startled me, it didn't freak me out. Nobody's hit me hard enough to sting yet, but I don't think I'm going to be deterred by fear of getting hit now. I fought with one of Brogan's Zen Warrior beginner kit blades that he has for loaner gear. Comfortable weight and length - I took along a wooden dowel, marked it so I can cut it down to the same length and use it for targeting drills in the alley. Might even drill a screw and a couple washers into one end if the balance doesn't feel right.

I had some lucky Nook Laloosh "That was beautiful, what did I do?" moments, particularly with draw and push cuts against Staffan: I think I realized that if I missed on a thrust I should still try to make some sort of contact with the blade. I'm starting to remember to use my off hand to move the other blade out of the way. And I sorta kinda remember to keep moving, though I have this stupid newbie tendency to attack and then stop.

James and Sylvia showed up and both gave it a try too. I ended up fighting the guy from Alaska whose name I can't remember and to whom I died repeatedly, and with Isolte who made me do all the attacking. (I'd almost prefer to do the same thing, myself, Gaius was all about the Way of The Potato, but I need to learn how to attack anyway). I died a lot, lost a hand and decided I might as well try fighting left handed. Felt awkward as hell, but when I went back to fighting Brogan I tried it again - and died again. The hardest part was when it got dark - the sodium lights in the lot were better than nothing, but the mask makes it darker* - Brogan became a looming, dark blob and I had trouble seeing where his blade was at times. *The mesh is painted black - stainless may be better when I choose a mask of my own. Lots of information to process, and I'm nowhere near ready to rush out and buy my own kit, but I AM having fun.

I thought I had the weekend wide open except for

karisu_sama and

didjiman's party on Saturday. Then James and Sylvia wanted to do Japantown on Saturday and how can I not go to J-town, right?. Then Dafydd and Margaret invited me down Friday night to do tent repairs (which could probably mean Dafydd repairs my tent and I run interference with the children). And the rapier folks are doing a melee practice in Golden Gate Park (this one I'm probably not even going to try to make). And the Buddhist Temple float decorating thang is also Sunday - may or may not get over for that depending on how late I'm up Saturday, but I do need to do some pre-war prep!