Greetings everyone and a Happy New Year!
With the turn of the year thoughts turn to upcoming spring events. Please consider entering the Midlands Arts and Sciences Fair this year. You have plenty of time to prepare a project for submission some time in March or April.
Regular Arts and Sciences meetings will continue to meet on the first and third Thursdays of each month in the gym at the First United Methodist Church at 211 N. School in Normal. We may be occasionally moved to another room if the Church needs the gym for a special function. I will always notify everyone ahead as the occasion permits and post the new location on the easel in the first floor hall. Please note that you should always use the back entrance since usually the front entrance on School street will be locked.
If you are unable to attend the business meeting, please note that you can always report your projects to me via e-mail. My addresses are moas@scolairi.org and smhufel@ilstu.edu . Either one will work.
Eithne
Sites of Interest
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol/exhibitions/livingwithromans/roundhouse.asp
The Museum of Liverpool. Accessed 12-11-06.
The museum has built an Iron Age roundhouse of wattle and daub that they posit would have been built in the time of the Roman occupation. They provide photos of the roundhouse under construction. A lase film of the roundhouse construction is available via Windows Media, Quicktime or MPEG.
http://www.historicfood.com/about%20us.htm
Historic Food. Accessed 12-11-06
Ivan Day is
known for his museum exhibitions of re-created historic table settings and is considered to be one of the foremost authorities in this field. Wreay Farm, his small seventeenth century farmhouse in Cumbria, is a private working museum of antique kitchen artifacts utilized as a teaching aid in his courses. It is equipped with a wide range of antique kitchen utensils and a roasting range complete with clockwork jacks. It is not open to the public. His website provides recipes, a gallery, and interesting images of period cooking utensils.Eithne
Nothing to report on the practice front, that I know of. This month is Maidens in Champaign. It's a good fencing/bardic event and close too. If you can make it, it's a good event to go to.
Catalin
Missing Officer Reports/Articles:
Seneschal - Rory - No article this month
Pursuivant - Dugan - No article this month.
Knight’s Marshal – Aileen - No article this month.
Archery Marshal - Simon - No article this month.
Eschequer -Francesca - No article this month.
Chatalaine - Ellen - No article this month.
It’s always so exciting when a major network blocks out a large chunk of time for people with our interests. Partly, that’s because it happens so seldom. I mean, unless it’s a recent blockbuster movie that also just happens to be set in period, it’s not going to be shown but infrequently. And it’s partly because we have a strong interest in what is a comparatively small – and old – period of time. As a consequence, there are fewer movies that cater to our interests. So, of course, when Daniel “Bubba” de Lincoln called me to let me know that Turner Classic Movies was going to be running a marathon they were calling “24 Hours of Shakespeare”, of course I was interested. (They were also going to do what they called “Alternative Shakespeare”, with Kiss Me Kate and Forbidden Planet, a couple of movies heavily based on The Taming of the Shrew and The Tempest, respectively.) So I checked the schedule, set the VCR, and thus it is that this month, Da’ud Bob reviews 1965's Othello.
Starring Laurence Olivier in the title role, with Maggie (“Professor McGonagall” in the Harry Potter movies) Smith as his love interest Desdemona, Frank (“Porthos” in the 1973 The Three Musketeers) Finlay as the constantly plotting villain Iago, Joyce Redman as Iago’s wife Emilia, Derek Jacobi (looking very much like a young Claude Rains) as Cassio, Robert Lang as the ill-used Roderigo, Kenneth MacKintosh as Lodovico, and Harry Lomax as the Doge of Venice, you are surely familiar with the story of the Moorish general in the service of the Republic of Venice, who marries a daughter of one of the senators, and is brought low by the petty jealousy and plotting of his subordinate Iago. This is the only movie (so far) of one of Shakespeare’s plays to have had all four leading actors (Olivier, Smith, Finlay, and Redman) nominated for Oscars. That none of them won is probably, at least in part, to be attributed to the fact that they were up against movies like The Sound of Music and Doctor Zhivago in 1965. But I digress.) It is a Shakespeare tragedy – practically everyone dies at the end. And it helps to point out the importance of open communications between husband and wife in a marriage; the whole thing could have ended so much better if only Othello had just talked to Desdemona early one. (Well, and if she hadn’t lied about the handkerchief.)
Good points: It’s Shakespeare! And Shakespeare’s words. (Unlike some movies of a Shakespeare play, this one remains true to the text.) It’s Olivier! Who until Branagh had no equal at bringing Shakespeare alive on the screen.
Bad points: Well, it’s a film of stage production, with stage play sets and stage play costuming. For example, Desdemona’s dresses. And hairdo. Maggie Smith seems a bit stiff, especially in her early scenes, like she’s not comfortable doing Shakespeare. Cassio’s overly long pageboy haircut. Olivier’s black makeup, though done very well, is really not enough to keep him from looking like a white man in blackface. (And his makeup was pretty controversial at the time, too.) Olivier’s scenery-chewing goes at bit too far sometimes; he seems overly emotional, and you expect him to actually froth at the mouth in some scenes.
Zero breasts. Two tablespoons of blood. Four dead bodies. Sword fu. Dagger fu. Handkerchief fu. Fighters roll. Othello rolls. Plots and sub-plots roll. Gratuitous plotting. Gratuitous drinking songs. Gratuitous flattery. Gratuitous singing. Academy Award nominations to Frank Finlay as Iago for being the most believable character in this play, and to Laurence Olivier as Othello for working so very hard to make Shakespeare come alive to a modern audience. A 61 on the Vomit Meter. 2½ Stars. Da’ud Bob says “Check it out!”
Chocolate Cherry Cups
- Submitted by Catalin
Part the First-
Dark Chocolate (melted over a double boiler or in the microwave)
Silicone Cupcake Cups
Pour the chocolate into the cups, drain off excess, let harden.
Part the Second-
1 can Eagle Brand Evaporated Milk
1/4 cup Butter
2lbs. Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
Mix all ingredients. If too stiff, add a little bit of water.
Part the Third-
Chocolate Cups from Part 1
Frosting from Part 2
Marischino Cherries with juice
Fill cups 1/3 with frosting. Put cherries on top (3 will fit into the small cups, more for bigger ones). Add a little juice. Cover and let sit in a cool place or fridge overnight.
This is the on-line version of The Scolairi Notes. Scolairi Notes is the publication of the Shire of Baile na Scolairi, a branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. Scolairi Notes is available from Renee LeVeque, 711 E Taylor, Bloomington, IL 61701, at no cost. It is not a corporate publication of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., and does not delineate SCA policies. Opinions expressed herein are not those of the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. Webbed version created by Rory mac Feidhlimidh.