daily twit

twit(s) of the day

• 10:39 Musing "vampires/vixens/villians" costume for CostumeCon. There's not enough time to make Zam Wessel (tinyurl.com/5tm2bd). Thoughts?
• 14:03 Listening to discussion re: how Evil Dead *really* set the quality standard for lethal prosthetics in films.

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mindful fencing

Started to make a tidy outline of everything I need to remember from my lesson tonight, only to realize that I'm already forgetting bullet points. Drastically abbreviated summary: Every action in fencing has a purpose - good fencers know why they're doing the things they are out there.

Every action is one of 4 things: 1) Offense 2) Defense 3) Feint 4)....(NOT profit! I'm desperately trying to remember here - Distance? More proof that my mental shelf is shrinking :( )

We did a distance exercise tonight in which opponents had to keep their blades crossed and only defend with distance. I practiced tiny, mincing steps and after an hour of painful adaptation I was managing to stay down and not trip over myself :P Also rediscovering my lunge and what my distance is for that too. This is an excellent exercise because it made me pay close attention to where my point was and think of ways to "push" my opponent into doing something.

I've known the basic parries and footwork for years now. It's only been in the past couple that I think I'm really learning when to do these things and how to put it all together. Next: instead of waiting for my opponent to mess up, making it happen!

And yes, the A/C is back :)

PSA: Capoferro redux

In answer to lady_masque and fencerchica but posting to all 'cos you never know who might be interested:

The notes for the SCA demo I went to a couple of weeks ago are now online.

Also IIRC, the instructor mentioned that he usually tries to present something at the local Kingdom universities. The next one is the first weekend of October but no classes are posted yet - might want to check back later. The name you're looking for is Dante di Pietro.

The SCA requires attendees of their events to make a "reasonable attempt" at pre 17th c. clothing; their extensive newcomer's links can help you figure it out if you decide to attend.