A Distant Campfire: An SCA podcast

A review of the 2004 film King Arthur, starring Clive Owen and Kiera Knightly as Arthur and Guinevere.  We examine critically the film's claim to offer a new perspective on the historical Arthur and give an overview of the plot.  In part 1 we summarize the film, and in part 2 we offer our own comment and criticism of the director's choices. 

Following the narrative recap, Part 2 takes a harder look at how Ladyhawke (1985) by Richard Donner had more in common with an authentic medieval tale and less with other fantasy films of the 1980s. We discuss recognizable medieval storytelling elements and then tackle the apparent imbalance of agency among the main characters.

In Part 1 we look at the film Ladyhawke and give a narrative overview of the plot.  We discuss how it fit into the fantasy film genre of its day and why it really is unlike any of its contemporaries.   In Part 2 we will go into deeper commentary.

A companion to the overview podcast, in Part II we dig into the triumphs and failures of Kurzel's interpretation of Shakespear's Macbeth, both as an interpretation of the original play, and as a movie for modern audiences.

A summary of the plot of Shakespeare's Macbeth as realized in the 2015 film starring Michael Fassbender in the title role. This is the first part of a two part series. Here, we give an overview of the plot of Justin Kurzel's interpretation of the play, and talk about how he changed it to fit his media. In the second part we offer critical commentary and a review of the film.

A podcast where we discuss a recent staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. We talk about the different perspectives between medieval audiences for whom Shakespeare was writing, and modern audiences who bring their own expectations. We also discuss the technical challenges of presenting the play and how this local company attempted to meet them.

In this episode we take a look at what kinds of things draw us to an event in the Society for Creative Anachronism, and how we find that information. We take the example of the Rip Rap War, an event given by the Baronies of Marinus and Tir-Y-Don, and talk about our anticipation of, and expectations for, this creative event.

In this episode we talk about our experience at the major SCA event, The Pennsic War. This two-week long medieval re-creation event draws participants from across North America as well as around the world and attracts in excess of 10,000 participants. We were involved in many activities from music to dance to theater and we reflect on high and low point in our adventure.

In this episode we talk about our preparations for the annual pilgrammage to Pennsic War, the pre-eminant event for players in the Society for Creative Anachronism. We discuss our packing rituals and also our anticipation of what we will do when we get there.  Pennsic preparation is part practical, part emotional, and part ritual.

In this episode of A Distant Campfire, we talk a little about the structure of the podcast, and frame the kinds of questions that we'd like to ask.  We continue our discussion about SCA Garb, and introduce the Thorny Theoretical Question, and the Most Medieval Moment.  Finally, we end up with the beloved "Phrase of the Day."

We discuss our reactions and experiences from attending the Ruby Joust, a weekend camping event of the Society for Creative Anachronism hosted by the Barony of Caer Mear in the Kingdom of Atlantia.

We talk about the basics of setting up an encampment, preparing and wearing our garb, our favorite activities and magical or Medieval  moments to remember.

We discuss the tension between living in a kingdom within the Society for Creative Anachronism and holding true to some historical place and identity. This is one of the Thorny Theoretical Questions that make the SCA such an interesting topic of discussio