My friend Shaun, who's peeking up all over this week's Renaissance themed week, is a real Hurdy Gurdy man. We pitched in to buy the once popular instrument for his birthday last year online.
The only catch was that he had to construct it himself. After months of toiling with scary looking woodcutting contraptions and crazy glue, a beautiful hand crafted piece has emerged, just in time to show it off at the Ren Fair.
My friend Shaun's job takes him to wonderful places. Like Kapellbr?cke in Lucerne, Switzerland, the oldest wooden bridge in Europe with hundreds of skeleton paintings from the 16th century adorning the ceiling. He took some great photos that you can view at Rotating Corpse.
The watchtower has a past as creepy as the imagery – it's been used as a torture chamber and prison.
You may not think it, from his hoodlum roles past,?but Ray Winstone makes a brilliant Henry VIII in this most entertaining television miniseries from a few years back. It's an oft told and adapted tale, but this production which also features a great performance from Helena Bonham Carter as Anne Boleyn is the best I have seen.
Angry reviewers, and there always will be angry reviewers online cry with outrage at the lack of historical correctness, on which I can't comment, but if you are not using this as a history lesson and merely want to be entertained, enjoy.
Mushrooms have been cultivated for thousands of years but modern cultivation commenced around the 16th century. Epicurious offered the basis for my recipe of Wild Mushroom Pasta, but because I didn't use dried mushrooms, instead grabbing a bag of mixed varieties from Madura Farms at the farmer's market, I used chicken stock and a splash of wine instead of reserved mushroom water.
Historical Food is a grand site for glimpses into the culinary traditions of the past. Ivan is the foremost authority on historical food and runs a working museum used as a teaching aid in his courses. Located in a seventeenth century farm in England, classes teach people how to create unforgettable feasts using old techniques and equipment.
Among the classes are: Late Medieval English Cookery, Italian Renaissance Cookery, Jelly and Moulded Foods and Period Sugarwork and Confectionery. For those of us unlikely able to attend one of these, the site is full of enticing, gorgeous photographs to fawn over.
The concept of the Dark Ages, a time when mankind actually reverted – forgetting the advances of one of the most advances civilizations in history, has always been fascinating and mystifying to me.
Sadly, most History Channel series that I've tried to watch fail to quench my curiosity regarding historical events, but The Dark Ages was not disappointing. Neither dry nor too jazzed up and hip-ified, their collection of experts and recreations offer an insightful exposition on the time of plagues and superstition.
The series is available on netflix on demand.