I’m enjoying this way too much.

I’m enjoying this on so many different levels. First, as someone that sews way too much 18th century clothing, the costumes didn’t make me want to poke myself in the eye with a hot soldering iron. This is a good thing. As a reenactor, I love the whole concept of this piece. As a descendent of one of the Signers, I’m glad to see their message presented memorably. As someone who had a stint as a “nightclub” DJ in the 1980s and remembers when MTV played music and not reality TV, I love how this evolves. As someone who loves the movie “Last of the Mohicans”, I loved the scene with violin on the promontory. And as someone who has read bit about Franklin, I could SO see him shredding the guitar were he alive today. As Shorter Half put it, “He did not live life by halves. If he was going to have the circus, he would have all the clowns there.”

Without further ado, I bring you:


Lyrics

Halfway across the globe
And we're standing on new ground
Screaming 'cross the waves
You can't hear a sound
There's no fair trials, no trade, no liberties
No tea
We've colonized America; we won't stand for tyranny,
Oh king

And it's too late to apologize
It's too late
I said it's too late to apologize
It's too late

We've paid your foolish tax, read the acts
And they just won't do
We want to make it clear, we believe this much is true
All men were created with certain
Unalienable rights
Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit
Of happiness

And it's too late to apologize
It's too late
I said It's too late to apologize
It's too late

It's too late to apologize
It's too late
I said it's too late apologize
It's too late

I said it's too late to apologize, yeah
It's too late
I said it's too late to apologize, yeah

Halfway across the globe
And we're standing on new ground

John Hancock has the pen. The really long pen. That’s he’s stroking in an odd manner. Thomas Jefferson is singing, John Adams has the hair that makes him look like a Cocker Spaniel, Sam Adams is sloshing the ale around, Ben Franklin is the one that looks like, well, Ben Franklin. And if the gaze George the III doesn’t make you want to put a couple of rounds through your monitor, then I don’t you hanging around me or my daughter.

Original website here.

Interesting comments here.

And if you haven’t see the One Republic video that sparked this, go here. It explains the self-combusting portrait of GIII.
 
H/T to CTone!

"Where a goat can go …"

William Phillips, born a commoner, was admitted as a gentleman cadet into the Royal Artillery Academy at Woolwich, England, at the age of sixteen. Unlike the British army and navy at that time, one could not purchase a commission in the Royal Artillery. He was one of very few British officers to be advanced by his ability alone.

Phillips rose to the rank of Major General, and he is said to have conducted one of the British army's most successful campaigns during the American Revolution. When he was in Petersburg, VA, in April of 1781, one of his standing orders to his army was that the “private property and the persons of individuals not taken in arms, are to be under the protection of the troops.” Thomas Jefferson described him as “the proudest man of the proudest nation on earth.”

For anyone who has ever hauled a gun around in Rev War reenacting*, he is perhaps best known for the quote he made as his men hauled their guns to the top of Mt. Defiance in 1777: “Where a goat can go, a man can go; and where a man can go, he can drag a gun.”

During the Second Boer War in South Africa in 1899, the Royal Navy landed guns from HMS Terrible and Powerful to help in the relief of the siege of the British garrison in the township of Ladysmith. The guns were transported inland, and for the the final part of the journey, sailors from the Naval Brigade manhandled the guns over very difficult terrain.

All that, to bring you this.



108 years have passed, and Ladysmith belongs to the Zulu Kingdom of KwaZulu-Natal. But the feat of the gunners from Powerful and Terrible has never been forgotten.

H/T to Dr. Mike for the link.

* Back in a previous lifetime, when I was in my early 30’s and just starting in the Rev War reenacting hobby, I had the opportunity to serve on a gun crew for a little 3-pound field piece. That is where I developed my affection for things that go “boom”, and *that* is a post for another time.

Reworking a Great Coat, Part 2.

So, if you care, here's Part 1. I'm reworking an "off-the-rack" 18th century great coat to look more appropriate. So far I've changed the buttons, opened up the pockets and cuffs, trimmed off the seam allowance and top-stitched so there were visable raw edges. The next step was to add a "cape" to update the coat to a more 1780’s silhouette. My copy of Beth Gilgun’s book, Tidings from the 18th Century* had a GC pattern in it, so I scaled up the collar pattern to fit this coat and pinned on one cut from a scrap piece of fabric.

It didn’t have enough flare, so I cut slits, measured the gaps, and transferred this to my next practice piece.

The next one looked pretty good. I transferred the alterations to the pattern piece,

and I cut out two new cape pieces, top-stitched around the edges, sandwiched the collar in between, and sewed them to the neck edge.

I added two buttons (the coat came with two spare buttons, yay!), and worked two buttonholes. Now I just have to redo the other 38 buttonholes by hand. But not today.

More good information on great coats/watch coats can be found here.

*This book has many valuable ideas, but parts of it are woefully outdated. Please don't use this resource without additional research.

For what we are about to receive ...*

HMS Victory is a first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Started in 1759 and launched in 1765, it was Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. She is the oldest naval ship still in commission, and now sits in dry dock in Portsmouth, England, as a museum ship. Keep in mind this demonstration was done with less than a full charge.

BLAMMO! (Heheheheheh.)
 
* ... may the Lord make us truly thankful.

Tired of Rainbows and Unicorns

Sweet Daughter received a new pair of pajamas for Christmas. Due to the concentration of rainbows and unicorns, we immediately dubbed them her “obamapajamas”. She LOVED those things, and wore them every night. Then one night she wasn’t feeling well, spilled medicine down the front of herself, and had to put on a different pair. The next night I heard “Momma, I’m tired of those pajamas. Can I wear my flowered ones again?”


Hmmm. Tired of rainbows and unicorns? Looks like she’s not the only one.

And now for a musical interlude

Hayseed Dixie (a play on the name AC/DC) performs a mixture of cover versions and their own stuff in a style that’s somewhere between bluegrass and rock. They’ve performed in 21 different countries since 2001, which might explain why some Europeans sthink “Dukes of Hazzard” is a documentary.





(Four rednecks with better teeth than Eddie Mercury? What are the chances?)

Or, go listen to a few other classics. They made me smile.

H/T to Theo.

Okay, I'll Bite.

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Go on. All the cool kids are doing it. You know you want to ...