Yes, mom is in her Insomnia class once again. So it’s time for a bit of blogging as I wait.

As mentioned in the prior post, it was my birthday a couple days ago. I thank everyone, my friends, and family, and acquaintances for their well-wishes toward me. It’s nice to know that people do care.

Now to celebrate my birthday, my sister (Daphne) and brother-in-law (Brian) had taken my mother and me to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. As I’ve mentioned, I normally don’t celebrate my birthday, but I wasn’t about to push away what would be an interesting experience. Yes, It was very entertaining.

For those that don’t know, a Renaissance Fair is a celebration of the Renaissance period in history. People dress up in period clothing and for a short time live out their lives as if it were that time period. They also set up shops to pedal their wares-Anything from clothing/armor to household decor, and even weapons, all painstakingly made in the players chosen profession can be bought by the public.

I suppose players is the wrong term. I dare say some are more fanatical than others, right down to their mannerisms and accents.

It’s not all purely medieval or Renaissance in theme however. I saw plenty of rather odd mashups. Plenty of modern kilts, when there were actually no kilts in those times. (I blame Braveheart.) There were plenty of bodice and corset wearing women with long flowing dress that looked absolutely gorgeous-and men brave enough to wear leotards. The people who worked the festival were all fairly authentic. The King was looking quite dapper looking like he stepped out of a Tudor painting.

The most interesting look, aside from the Turkish belly dancers, were these incredible pirate mashups. I didn’t really get it. These were medieval pirates. They were a mix of gypsy, medieval segmented leather armor, with those baggy pirate shirts with frilly cuffs, and the three pointed hat. Now I’ve seen this look before, on one of my favorite neo-medieval bands, Cultus Ferox, who I believe are out of Germany. Seems the look has taken on a life of it’s own.

Speaking of music. I was ecstatic as I heard the distant drone of bagpipes. So I broke away from my family and followed it. As I paced closer, I heard the melody from Game of Thrones. When I arrived to the stage, I found it was indeed a neo-medieval group playing live. One of their beautiful dancers was walking amongst the crowd with the bands CDs for sale. I stopped her and asked who they were.

They are called Cu Dubh. And here is a short video clip that I took of them

That was easily the highlight of my day there. I had never seen a neo-medieval group play live until then. And I can assure you, it’s far better live than watching it on YouTube or listening to it on some music player. I would definitely like to experience more of this sound in person.

Ooops. It is almost time to pack up as mom’s class is ending soon. I will continue with more of this later.