Author: Drake Oranwood

Drake Oranwood (Eric Schrager) is a singer, songwriter, producer, lutenist, and medieval enthusiast who brings modern sensibilities to original songs set long ago and far away.

Categories
First Bardic War WordFameWednesday

#WFW: The Bardic War Staff

My #WordFameWednesday today is for the staff of the First Bardic War (which will begin one month from tomorrow, on Saturday May 15, and run until Sunday, May 23).

I am not a member of the Bardic War staff. I am a kingdom general, a partisan in the conflict, which is to say, staff-adjacent. Generals are privy to much of the organizational and planning conversation, but we have distinct responsibilities. This staff, let me say from close observation, is in the midst of a Herculean project that is hard to fathom from the outside (unless of course you’ve staffed an SCA war).

Here is a thumbnail sketch of the task that Hilla, Laila, and their coordinators and deputies are undertaking:

Continue reading “#WFW: The Bardic War Staff”
Categories
general

Gentle reminder…

Gentle reminder of a few things:

  • Pretty much everyone you know was EXTRA CRISPY and EXHAUSTED as a near-permanent condition by January 1 of this year.
  • They (we) pretty much all still are.
  • Every one of you who is trying to be of service, by volunteering, creating things to make people happy, or just showing up to the things that are expected of you each day is MY F***ING HERO.
  • Try, when you can remember, to treat everyone you can with kindness.
  • That starts and ends with yourself.
Categories
First Bardic War technology video

Tech Check: “The Zoom Where It Happens”

The motto of an SCA artisan is basically: “Show your work and share your work”. With the release of “The Zoom Where It Happens”, it has turned out that editing a complex video is part of my skill set. And since the upcoming First Bardic War is going to include editing of group videos as a key judging metric for a number of War Points, I thought I would discuss my process for creating this video, as an editing novice.

Here are the different technical components used to create this video:

Continue reading “Tech Check: “The Zoom Where It Happens””
Categories
bardic filk First Bardic War

Acknowledgments

So, I am totally going to bard hell, as promised. It’s a small price to pay for the joy of co-creating something that lifts spirits and promotes community and fun, and “The Zoom Where It Happens” seems to have done that.

But no one does anything alone. I threw out an idea, and it would have come to nothing without the dedication and talent of a large collection of friends old and new. So I have people to thank.

Continue reading “Acknowledgments”
Categories
bardic filk First Bardic War SCAatHome video

New Video: “The Zoom Where It Happens”

This weekend, I posted a new video of a brand-new filk, which tells the true story of the origins of The First Bardic War. “The Zoom Where It Happens” is, of course, based on “The Room Where It Happens” from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. This one, as you can see, involved a ton of collaboration from some incredibly talented bards (and a few very generous royals), and I will post more about that experience in the coming week. (The song page has copious annotations for serious geeks and Hamilfans.)

Enjoy (and I’d be very grateful if you subscribed to my YouTube channel while you’re there):

Categories
bardic First Bardic War

A Disclaimer

What…shenanigans? About the upcoming Bardic War? From bards?!? Coming soon? That’s…that’s preposterous.

I of course have absolutely no idea what these rumormongers are talking about. The very idea of our fine, upstanding SCA bards being involved in (shudder) “shenanigans” is obviously, patently absurd.

Honestly. (Shakes head) I have no idea where these rumors come from…

Drake, Consort’s Bard, East (and entirely too dignified for such nonsense)

Categories
bardic Competition First Bardic War SCA SCAatHome

A call to EK Performers

To all the performers of the East, greetings!

(TLDR: Sign up to perform for your kingdom! C’mon, it’ll be fun! But take a moment please to read the long post anyway…)

This is a strange time we are living through together. The first warmth of spring, and for many, the first traces of hope. Hope that the day is drawing ever closer, when we will once more be able to gather together, embrace, and share companionship, song and story at an in-person event. Even now, we do not know just how many months more that will be. It’s tantalizing and at times maddening, no?

And as we wait, lo, this spring brings a bounty of opportunities to put our performance and research skills to the test, in service to our kingdom. (All of them remote! More time in front of a webcam instead of a fire! Will it never end?) As your kingdom’s Bardic Champions, it can be a little awkward asking for people to sign up, particularly since these events ended up scheduled so close to one another. And yet, this is the calendar we face, and the kingdom needs the support of its performers now.

Continue reading “A call to EK Performers”
Categories
bardic concert First Bardic War general SCA

The First Bardic War (Upcoming)

On January 23 of this year, there was a wonderful Zoom concert called the Journeyman’s Concert hosted by the Midrealm, where I had the privilege to perform. This is coming to be known as The Concert that Started a War, because the couple dozen or so folks attending or performing in the concert, had a conversation that catalyzed the upcoming First Bardic War.

At the center of that conversation were Hilla Stormbringer of the Midrealm, who was one of hosts of the concert, and Laila al-Sanna al-Andalusiyya, former Queen’s Bard of the East, who had been performing. TLDR: There were a lot of Atlantian bards invited to a Midrealm event. The word “invasion” was used, followed by a discussion of holding the Atlantian bards for “ransom”, and the boast that if the bards of the East and Atlantia banded together, they could take over the known world… Within the hour, Hilla had posted in the SCA Bardic Arts group that she had instigated an “interkingdom incident”, and people were discussing a full-scale War event.

Continue reading “The First Bardic War (Upcoming)”
Categories
A&S Journey concert lute SCAatHome

Video: “Can she excuse”, Journeymen’s Concert

I have a couple of new performance videos to share, from the amazing Journeymen’s Concert held on Saturday January 23 as part of the second Ethereal Bardic Symposium (the same event that included Neurodiversity Panel I shared the other day). Cerian Cantwr is posting the individual performances on his YouTube channel, and ultimately will be sharing out the complete concert (which, rumor has it, will be billed as The Concert that Started a War–but that’s a story for another day, and I promise I will touch on that soon).

The first performance I want to share is of Dowland’s “Can she excuse my wrongs?”, which I have been polishing up for the last several months for public performance, and shared once or twice at circles. (I know the virtual background looks really weird especially when it hides parts of the lute, but my office is full of packing boxes at the moment.) I hope you enjoy.

Categories
bardic Competition concert inclusion Neurodiversity

Panel: Neurodiversity in the SCA and Bardic

The weekend before last, the Second Ethereal Bardic Symposium happened, spearheaded by Hilla Stormbringer, the Bard of the Midlands in the Middle Kingdom, and staffed by some dedicated people.

This wonderful weekend of classes, performances, and conversations may well have unexpected consequences (which I will discuss with relish in an upcoming post). But Hilla also set up a round table panel discussion on Neurodiversity in the Bardic and SCA communities, which I was privileged to take part in.

The panel consisted of Hilla, myself, and Ruqayya bint Rabi’a al-Aliyya of Atlantia. It was not live-streamed, but we had good participation from interested parties, both Neurodivergent and Neurotypical, who attended on Zoom. We had the opportunity to get into some “real talk” about issues that come up in the Society, and in Bardic, for those of us who are Neurodivergent. The session is now available on YouTube if you wish to check it out: