How would you rate your own authenticity?

[flattop32355]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

Just for curiosity's sake, would it be possible to post some full length pictures of some of our more progressive/accurate reenactors (front, side, back) wearing full gear? It would help some of us poor, misguided 'streamers to compare our own gear to see where we can improve. Not a perfect solution, but from an over-all perspective, it would be of value.

[dusty27]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

Bernard,

You could check the Image Gallery above

[Kykeydet12]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

The more I learn, the more I realize how much more I have yet to learn. Humility is essential to knowledge. Therefore I always refer to myself as still in the progressive stage.

I agree i labeled myself mainstream but an alert popped up and said to try later . so I will. i'm pretty much a mainstream reenactor that is progressing slowly( getting closer every month, with allowence :wink_smil :D ).

[Miche_Todd]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

Just for curiosity's sake, would it be possible to post some full length pictures of some of our more progressive/accurate reenactors (front, side, back) wearing full gear?

There have been a couple of article in Camp Chase Gazette with pictures such as these and a complete rundown of the gear. I'm sorry, I can't remember the title of the article or the dates. Sorry. Maybe some of the others on the list remember...

[pvtRB_4thOVI]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

Just getting started, I would say i have average authenticity. I am working on it though. I don't have anything that is farb or unauthentic, but alot of stuff needs improving. There are alot of reenactors that i see that have been around longer, but are obviously unauthentic in their impressions. In several years I hope to be a step below hardcore.

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

Were is totally bychin Hardkewl?

[texandrummer61]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

I've been thinking about this for a while. Someday I want to be able to
call myself hardcore-but that day is definently not today.
I am progressing quite quickly through the different levels of authenticity. I try my hardest to keep in first person
the whole event, but that is pretty hard when the men around around
you are talking about monday night football. I believe my uniform is on
par with authenticity- save for one or two items that I am working on upgrading. So- after all this ,I have come to the conclusion that I am on
the campaigner level - but still progressing. :)

Ian Broadhead
5th Texas co. A
Medich Battalion

[FedOfficer]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

I think 2RIVB described my situation pretty well. Nicely worded.

Rick Rachal

[billwatson]

the whole package

Some of us are obviously not hardcore because something about our appearance is not right. I've reached the point where I could do a very hardcore homeguard impression of a white-bearded citizen fumblingly pressed into military duty in an emergency, but to reach the very outside limits of plausibility as a front-line combat soldier I've got to resort to General Beauregard's Solution and painfully whip an increasingly creaky body into some semblance of fitness. And anyone visibly carrying a bit too much weight reduces their plausibility by as much weight as they could lose.

But there's an ingredient nobody has been much talking about, and it's reflected in actions and deeds, not images. You can look like you fell out of the pages of a history book, but if what comes out of your mouth at an immersion experience relates to Britney Spears, pimp your ride, who you hang with and -- above all else -- where you got your g.d. gear -- then you aren't hardcore. And you aren't progressive. And you may not even be popular in some mainstream groups.

Here's a real test: How many of us, if plunked by a time machine into the theatre and campaign of our choice 1861-1865, could adjust not only our appearance, but our attitudes, actions and comments to the point where we would not be regarded as wandering escapees from a lunatic asylum by the people we met? That would require not only having the knowledge of what was what, but of successfully interpreting it from moment to moment in all our interactions. Now that's hardcore. And for all except maybe two or three people, that's a goal, not a condition. Since we'll never take that test, it's somewhat speculative -- but surely the ability to successfully slide into a niche in time is a logical result, in concept anyway, of all the effort we pour into depicting history?

We can go round and round on this, but what we're looking for and trying find a way to measure is really in the degree of intensity of the approach to the pastime, and it's an odd juxtaposition of seemingly opposing themes: How "seriously" do you have to depict history before it meets your definition of "fun to do?"

[reb1912]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

Friends,

I would not label myself, but rather be labelled by others. If I can get somebody to say: " Oh lord, look at that rebel spooning parced corn with a cold bacon slab, wearing rags, various federal accroutments, brushing teeth with a twig, eating bacco, peeing miniés, sleeping naked in his painted ground cloth....his timeline must have stopped around 1864, on the outskirts of Franklin." Then I'm Hardcore.

If somebody says:" Ahhha...that leather belt doesn't look 140 years old!" Then I would think of myself as mainstreamer, because i haven't obtained perfection.

As long as I'm getting a feeling of " being there..." (were not talking about running around in absolute farb stuff with a smile on my face). I mean, I'm buying period literature at auctions, and carriing them with me on events)

I'm always trying to find new way to better my impression. But nobodys ever called me progressive or hardcore or such. In Europe were, I live these terms don't "fit". Here you're either regular(buying stuff from a sutler and holstering average knowledge) or authentic (buying stuff from aprroved vendors and holstering specific knowledge ). I'm labelled authentic by my friends and fellow soldiers.

[Wild Rover]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

I am a farb.

:)

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

I am a farb.

:)

In reality are we not all?

[Wild Rover]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

In reality are we not all?

Yep.

We can always strive to be 100% authentic, knowing we will never get there.


Jeez, now I am depressed. :tounge_sm

[DougCooper]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

Patience guys...still working on this time machine and hope to have it ready for the 150th. The plan is we go back to the war, join up, spend a few months and jump around to various locales getting smart (and hopefully surviving). We then return to the 125th era spreading the gospel and stopping outfits like Winchester Sutler, C&C etc from ever getting started and then jump ahead to the present and all will be OK. Oh, and I want to bring back a couple of veterans and let them see what we are up to.

....or we come back and tell everybody the whole idea is crazy, that it was the most awful experience of our lives...and grading authenticity is a futile exercise...

seriously, I have no idea how "authentic" I am...sure am trying hard though. Steve Dunfee has a way to describe when you are on the right path - it's the day you decide you just want to be a soldier and are content with that.

fun on a Friday...

[Gallinipper]

Re: How would you rate your own authenticity?

Victorian era gentlemen generally had manners. When they were addressed, they acknowledged it and responded in kind. Dress yourself up all you want, but some folks need a bit of work there. There's a lot more to a good impression than wearing the latest "designer reenacting" fashions.
Just my $.02, thankee kindly.
Rich

Rich, Please refer to No. 1 of the AC Forum Rules (url listed below):

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1034

This is your first warning.

Scott McKay, moderator
AC Forums