Encampment Gallery, Summer 2009

Caught Pig

Talking under the Tree

Standard Bearers

Funnelator

Greased Pig

Honorable Warfare

St. Maximilian’s Magazine Cover

Mr. Dietz

Sir Gabriel

Home made Slip-n-Slide

Slip-n-Slider

St. Dominic

Tower of Memorial

Tug of War

Videographer

Wrestlers

Group Shot

G.I. Joe: “Not Some Yankee Soldier”

The Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity has arrived.   The end of a legend.

European marketing, rather, focuses on action sequences set in Paris — where the Eiffel Tower collapses — Egypt and Tokyo, and emphasizes that G.I. Joe is an international team of crack operatives and not some Yankee soldier.

When it comes to selling “G.I. Joe” outside the U.S., the message is “this is not a George Bush movie — it’s an Obama world,” director Stephen Sommers said. “Right from the writing stage we said to ourselves, this can’t be about beefy guys on steroids who all met each other in the Vietnam War, but an elite organization that’s made up of the best of the best from around the world.”

I wonder if there are any black helicopters in the movie.

Spring Encampment

Click on image for information page on the Spring Encampment (Friday, May 22 – Sunday, May 24).

The link in the sidebar will remain there.  Note that the dates for the Summer and Fall Encampments are given there as well.  Mark your calendars.

Father-Son Construction Project

Let’s stick with the practical and necessary. This will make mom proud.

All the instructions are there. A bit on the expensive side, but I bet some ingenuity and mom’s shopping expertise will solve that problem. There are also videos to aid with the construction and some tantalizing demonstrations to keep the boys motivated:

Patiently Waiting

Sir David Marie of the Island of Rhode sends me this link to resources for sword training.  I post it in the hope that someone will eventually take the hint. . . hint. . . hint.

Oh well.

The End of Chivalry

The report said: “To whom would we assign blame – and punishment – for improper conduct and unauthorised harms caused by an autonomous robot (whether by error or intentional): the designers, robot manufacturer, procurement officer, robot controller/supervisor, field commander, president of the United States… or the robot itself?”

“intentional” “improper conduct” of a robot?  Close the doors and go home.  Please.

Amadis of Gaul

I am reading Amadis of Gaul, which was written perhaps in the early 14th century in the genre of the post-Arthurian Romances.  It is considered a classic of Spanish chivalric literature, though it may have been originally written in Portuguese.  Cervantes, of course, made it his business to satirize the Spanish Romances.  It seems that the genre was basically an imitation of Amadis for which Cervantes had some respect.  The following is from an old edition of the Encylcopedia Britanica [I have changed the formatting somewhat for the sake of clarity]:

We, of course, in England would place the Morte d’Arthur above all romances of the kind; and the praise that we allow to Amadis of Gaul is precisely that which Cervantes bestows upon it—of being the earliest and best of the Spanish romances. When the licentiate and the barber burnt the library of Don Quixote, they spared from the flames only three romances—-Amadis of Gaul, Palmerin of England, and Tirante the White.

“I have heard,” said the licentiate, “that Amadis of Gaul was the first book of chivalry printed in Spain, and that all the rest sprung from it ; I think, therefore, as head of so pernicious a sect, we ought to condemn him to the fire without mercy.”

“Not so, sir,” said the barber, “for I have heard also that it is the best of all the books of this kind; and therefore—as being unequalled in its way—it ought to be spared.”

” You are right,” said the priest, “and for that reason its life is granted.”

Amadis reads very much like Morte d’Arthur but is far less lurid. Adultery does not seem to be primary preoccupation of the students of ars amoris. In fact, I was struck by the delicacy with which a breach in virtue was addressed by the author.  In a chapter of the first book Amadis’ brother Galaor meets the girl of his dreams and the two of them waste no time with the pleasantries of introductions; however, the author of Amadis is not impressed:

And with that the damsels left them together, and nothing more shall be here related, for these and such like things which are neither conformable to good conscience nor virtue, man ought in reason lightly to pass over, holding them in as little estimation as they deserve.

So much for the decencies of Christian literature.  Those days are certainly gone.

The book is well worth the read by those minded to be knights.  I am still looking for some passages in support of Marian Chivalry.  Our Lady is often invoked by the knights and there is much about the Christian origins and principles of chivalry.  I will post more on this later.

Turncoat!

I, Father Angelo Mary, forswear my allegiance to the attackers of the watch fire and solemnly pledge my service and blood to the defense of truth and justice and to the aid of the ENCAMPMENT NIGHT WATCH from the last dog watch at eight bells of Saturday, October 11 to the morning watch at four bells on Sunday, October 12.

Let it be further known that the dastardly and cowardly attackers will no longer be at liberty to promulgate rules to their own advantage and the Squires of the NIGHTWATCH will be victorious in the integrity of honor and fairplay.

All are welcome to suggest rule changes and to congratulate me on my new allegiance.

. . . now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.

Fall Encampment Time

Click on image for information page on the Fall Encampment (Friday, October 10-Sunday, October 12.

All Blogged Out Right Now

I will get back to the grindstone momentarily.  If I must choose to live or to blog, I choose to live.  Anyway, I will be back.

Meanwhile there is this, because I live in America and  this is a cultural gem.

At some point I will have to talk more about culture and asctetics and their relationship to the restoration of chivalry and manhood.  Behold the disconnect.  Click on the link.