How Do You Feel

[stx]

Re: How Do You Feel

To quote those stalwart sages of reenacting prose, REO Speedwagon, its "More than a Feeling".

Isn't that Boston?

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: How Do You Feel

To quote those stalwart sages of reenacting prose, REO Speedwagon, its "More than a Feeling".

Paul,

More than a Feeling was a song by the band Boston. REO Volkswagon sang Take It on the Run, Baby.

Is this Szabo's forum?

[paulcalloway]

Re: How Do You Feel

You know, that trip back from Chicago today must have damaged my brain.

Chalk that up to stupid.

[Hank Trent]

Re: How Do You Feel

The point i was trying to pull from this thread was to others sights on diffrent events. Patrick i think was aiming more at what i was shooting for. Points in the event where you can almost ( in know it will never be full) put themselves there. Thanks

Well, I've heard talk about "magic moments" since I first entered the hobby, and what always interested me was why they ended. In other words, why did they have to be moments, rather than hours or a day? We'd come all this way, gone to all this work, for what, ten good minutes? Half an hour or an hour tops? Why not more?

Usually, it seemed that reenactors chose to deliberately end the moment, by deciding to do something illogical within the context of the period (stop acting wounded or afraid, snap a picture, go on to another activity like shopping at the sutlers), or by talking about the "moment" that just happened in modern terms, or otherwise deliberately turning their attention to something modern. In other words, the ending usually didn't seem to be inevitable, it seemed to be caused on purpose by the reenactors themselves, as if they'd focussed on living history long enough and now it was time to do something else.

I still notice this behavior at many of the "right events," and it still puzzles me. It tends to keep the moments short, because anyone can generally end the moment, so the person who wants to end it soonest does so and the rest follow suit. It's rare for someone to try to end it and have the group turn against him and try to extend the moment.

Needless to say, I've always found it extremely frustrating, and I never understood why it happens. Well, among those who profess to be less focussed on history, sure, I understand that they have other equal goals for the weekend, like socializing, shopping, etc., and historic realism is only one of many attractions.

But it still puzzles me when it happens at supposedly "better" events. It may not happen everywhere at the same time during the event, but it happens among a subset, and if that's the subset you're in, you're out of luck.

And lest one say that it's simply impossible to extend the "moments" for very long, I've been to events where the "moment" did indeed last for virtually the entire event thanks to everyone's cooperation. And I've been to other events where some glitch or unavoidable situation interrupted, yet things got right back on track and continued. So it is possible to have magic hours or magic days, and it's generally predictable beforehand, too. I just wish the events where the moments lasted, occurred more often.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Jim of The SRR]

Re: How Do You Feel

Reo Speedwagon did "I Can't Find This Feeling"

Jim Butler

[Dale Beasley]

Re: How Do You Feel

To be without a home,
with no direction home,
Like a complete unknown......

LIKE A ROLLIN STONE

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: How Do You Feel

Hallo!

The sharpest needle, for bursting the Magic Moment balloon, is often the one found inside our own heads.
(Although I have run with packs of needle heads at times...)

Curt
Feelings, nuthin' more than feelings Mess
Proud Member of the How Many Angels Can Dance on the Point of a Needle Rifles

This magic moment
So different and so new
Was like any other
Until I met you

And then it happened
It took me by suprise
I knew that you felt it too
I could see it by the look in your eyes

[DougCooper]

Re: How Do You Feel

For me, every magic moment or whatever one calls it was either an early morning roll call or waking up the next relief at night, with men coughing and struggling out of their blankets...

or...

standing/kneeling in a soldier's cemetery and saying a Prayer of Thanksgiving for the men who died for us so long ago...

but we keep trying - BGR was closest.

[Chad Teasley]

Re: How Do You Feel

BGR was closest

Wow...If BGR topped Mansfield '04, it must have been pretty darned great.

Ben, to answer your question, the preservation march at Mansfield in April 2004 was it for me. I had been doing Civil War living history for five years prior to that point, and had always had a certain vision of what reenacting could be...But had never seen it achieved up to that point.
Mansfield was it.
I'll never forget it.

[NoahBriggs]

Re: How Do You Feel

Gotta chime in with Hank. I cannot begin to count how many times I personally strove for "magic moments", "That time travel feeling", "Civil Wargasm", whatever.

It was pretty clear to me my group had the ability (and occasional desire) to obtain the "magic moment". Then, in the case of the most bizarre form of ADD ever to exist in the human psyche, soomeone would bust it - pictures, modern joke &c.

I finally got the clue and left the group.

It is possible to keep your magic moment rolling for up to thirty-six hours and enjoy every minute of it. It is, of course, made even easier if you are in a setting with few or no visible anachronisms. My best "magic moments" could be classified as best "magic weekends", where I and my fellow reenactors share our historic research, resourcefulness, and our cooperation to recreate a small, select moment in the life of The Original Cast. Can it be done? Yes. It requires a little more effort and skull sweat. But it can be done.

[Charles Heath]

Re: How Do You Feel

I am so glad this is in The Sinks.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: How Do You Feel

Hallo!

Group Hug!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........
:)

Three Cheers and a Tiger for Male Pattern Bonding!
:)

Curt
Feeling better now Mess
Proud member of the Warm and Fuzzy Rifles

[Milliron]

Re: How Do You Feel

Reo Speedwagon did "I Can't Find This Feeling"

Jim Butler

Actually, I think it's I Can't Fight this Feeling.

I couldn't fight the feeling that I was going to be attacked by Confederate cavalry at any moment at about 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning at Outpost 2000

[Old Reb]

Re: How Do You Feel

Doug and Chad,
BGR tops my list followed by the Preservation March in '04. But these two events took place in the wilds of the Trans-Mississippi and the big river kept many from crossing to take part in the events. Maybe by '09 they will have a bridge across that big river.

[coastaltrash]

Re: How Do You Feel

Shoot, seems I crossed that scary river going to and coming back from Mansfield in November. Dang Biddle saved all of you for I heard the tide was up in June.