It’s been a minute…

Well well, the thing i swore would never happen did happen-i left the blog alone for months. WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THAT COMING?

In all seriousness, in the immortal words of Badger from Breaking Bad, I have a lot to say, I’ve just got to write it down is all.

I’m becoming more convinced of the similarities between Historical European Music and Historical European Martial Arts. Yes, one involves being “an athlete of small muscles” and the other….athlete is a stretch in some contexts. Competitor, yes….but it’s not necessary to be an Adonis to be successful

In the past few months, I have taken zero auditions. I have played quite a few memorable concerts with my cherished friends across many groups however, and that continues to feed my soul.

I have competed in three tournaments: Unicorn Cup, Ascalon 2024 and Blades Against Harm. Let’s start with an overall context: my goal this year was to have an overall longsword record of .500 or better for the calendar year. My record last year was 7-15-1 (one doubles loss….arrgh). Progress, not perfection as they say is the name of the game, and i feel that a .500 record for the year is attainable.

Across Unicorn Cup and Ascalon, here are my records:

Unicorn Cup : 2-3. 2-2 in pools, only one loss by more than one point. Final exchange determined my elimination from the medal bracket to a club mate who earned himself a well-deserved and hard-fought medal finish, which I’m always happy to see

Ascalon: I competed in 2 divisions. Division 3, held the first day, I lost 2 pool matches, one to the eventual undefeated gold medalist for the Division,but still good enough for a first-round bye. I had a memorable match with a gentleman from Nashville in which we had to replay the final exchange 5 times before i was able to stuff his oberhau (overhead strike, generally) and present a thrust that earned me the right to move on.

Division 2 was against a mix of new, not-so-new, and very experienced fighters. My fencing on the day was actually overall cleaner, though my friend from Nashville avenged his loss from the day before by defeating me in pools. After qualifying again for a first-round bye, I won my next match, before being matched up with, you guessed it, another dear club mate. Our match that day was my favorite of the weekend, as we often face each other and know each other’s tendencies very well. We even got a compliment from the judges for the cleanliness of our fight. He prevailed, and i left the weekend with an 8-8 record, which, as above, paces me nicely after the first quarter of 2024.

Ascalon: 8-8

2024 Overall Longsword record: 10-11.

Blades Against Harm was an event held by my friend Constance Frazier. The event served as a fundraiser for Operation In My Backyard , a Philly-based harm reduction non profit which seeks to support displaced persons who have been forcibly relocated due to gentrification.

The event was a blast. I didnt know going into the day, but they had a vacancy in the Mixed Steel division, so i ended up picking up a Spadroon for the first time ever, and i won a pool match. Happy there. The Rapier division in the afternoon had a great twist to it, in which for a 5 dollar donation, you could replace your opponent’s offhand weapon (dagger, buckler, etc) with a rubber chicken.

How many of us can see we earned “2 pts for clean thrust, 1 extra for squawking chicken”?

It’s been an eventful year so far. I have some posts percolating in my head about the connections I see in these two spheres of music and fencing, and once i get down to it, they will appear in the blog. For now, till next time, farewell.