Glamping goes Tudor: historians to remake Henry VIII’s opulent tent: as an Elizabethan history nerd I’ve read all the stories of the Field of the Cloth of Gold; now UK’s Historic Royal Palaces are going to re-create one of these enormous structures. No photos as yet but I’ll keep looking.
Renaissance Festival Books: not modern renn faire but actual festivals that took place during the Renaissance. Festival books served as both records of the festival and promotion of the image the festival-throwers wanted to cultivate. In this sense they’re not unlike the many books about Burning Man or Woodstock.
Examples of Masque Costume in the late 16th & Early 17th Centuries: what, you didn’t think they partied in their everyday duds, did you? Mind, these aren’t exactly Halloween costumes; you see a lot more mythological heroes and pagan deities than superheroes and monsters. More on what goes into a masque costume plus a beautiful re-creation from ElizabethanCostume.Net (one of the earliest and best resources for 16th century costumers).
Okay, gotta say it even though it’s nowhere near the right period (and you posed this a while ago): that dance video keeps reminding me of the Boston Camerata’s “Carmina Burana” album (http://jlsjlsjls.freehostia.com/musiclist/artist/record98.htm). This recording isn’t the Orff orchestral score most folk are familiar with; it’s the original medieval sex and drugs (well, booze anyway) and rock’n’roll musical notation. “The Gambler’s Mass” is my especial favourite with the vocalists musically groaning the dice failing to deliver a seven …