Friday Video: Being a Regency Lady Ain't Easy

Loretta reports:

There’s quite a bit of variation in the extent to which re-enactors strive for historical accuracy, from hand-sewing, using the tools and methods that would have been used in the given time period—as is done at Colonial Williamsburg, for instance—to the people who create facsimiles or costumes rather than actual historical dress.

This lady makes no bones about the modern methods she uses to achieve a Regency look. But the thing is, she’s just a treat to watch. I think you’ll laugh at least once, maybe several times, as she prepares for the ball. You will also understand how important a lady’s maid was.

YouTube Video by Karolina Żebrowskaska: A Historical Get Ready With Me - 1808 Regency Edition

Image at upper left is a still from the video.

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Friday Video: Victorian Paramedics

Loretta reports:

Researching those of my books in which characters become ill, I’ve grown familiar with 19th century medical practices, many of which were based on theories dating back to the middle ages.

The strange treatments in this Horrible Histories video are mainly superstitions, rather than actual medical procedures. Still, they’re less disturbing than many of the remedies physicians truly believed in, all too often to the fatal detriment of their patients’ health.

Do you ever wonder what people a couple of centuries from now will think of our medical practices? They’ll be horrified, I don't doubt.

Image: Screen shot from video, Horrible Histories- Victorian Paramedics.

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A Friday Video from the Archives: An 18thc Gentleman Longboards Through Bath

Isabella reporting,

A surprisingly energetic video for a lazy Friday in June, and well worth a repeat performance. Combine an 18th c. gentleman (well, at least that's what he's supposed to be) on a longboard, the beautiful streets of Bath, and a dash of Iron Maiden, and you get Georgian shredding, dude. (I'm sorry about the inevitable advertisements, but a quick click on the X will make them vanish.)

Friday Video: Skeleton Dance

Loretta reports:

Concluding Halloween week, we’re taking another trip to the cemetery. This time, it’s courtesy Disney’s Silly Symphonies, and the amazing artists and musicians who made them in the days before computers. This one is from 1929.

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Friday Video: The Robots That Couldn't

Loretta reports:

What does a robot competition have to do with history? Erm...
 
Back to the future? This is what it might have been like, watching early attempts to fly. Or early attempts at many achievements we now take for granted.

Anyway, it’s Friday, and the video is short and amusing.

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Friday Video: Lewis & Clark Epic Rap Battle

Lewis & Clark & Sacagawea

Loretta reports:

U.S. schoolchildren who learn about the Lewis & Clark expedition probably remember little except Sacagawea
—which is OK, with me, since it’s not certain the explorers could have made it without her. Many years after those history lessons, I read Stephen Ambrose’s  Undaunted Courage, and developed a proper appreciation for what theses people faced and what an extraordinary accomplishment this was.

The video is a rather more lighthearted take, with plenty of in-jokes for those familiar with the story—and/or Bill & Ted.

Image: Detail of "Lewis & Clark at Three Forks" by Edgar Samuel Paxson, mural in lobby of Montana House of Representatives.

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will allow you to read at the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

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Friday Video: Origins of Monty Python

Loretta reports:

Though not the first appearance of what eventually became Monty Python, this show is part of their history.  Furthermore, it includes Marty Feldman, one of my favorite performers.

If you haven’t time for the whole episode, you might want to fast forward to the last sketch, the Four Yorkshiremen.

Illustration by me, with apologies to Terry Gilliam.

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Friday Video: Stop Looking at Your Phones

Isabella reporting,

With Thanksgiving just around the table, I can't be the only one who is trying to mandate a "no phones at the table" rule during the meal. Apparently I have historical precedent on my side – or at least this amusing parody of Downtown Abbey. This is one sketch from the The Britishes, a parody collection currently appearing on DirecTV, and I think I may have to hunt down the rest of the episodes. Or at least I will as soon as I take this call....

(Warning: there's a tiny bit of Adult Language here that may make this video NSFW.)

Friday Video: Young Frankenstein

Lightning strike

Loretta reports:

Continuing in Halloween week mode, I offer a snippet from Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein, which will be 40 years old in December.  In that time, I have watched it only 60 or 70 times. 

I’ll tell my favorite line if you’ll tell yours.



Image of lightning strike, 1942, courtesy  Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division Washington, DC.

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Friday Video: Say Again? Scots in the Elevator

View of Edinburgh

Loretta reports:

Last month, after several weeks of increasing suspense, Scotland made its historic decision to continue as a part of the U.K.  Many people who followed the media coverage spoke of not understanding what Scottish speakers were saying.

Me, too, sometimes, as I’ve mentioned before.

This funny bit about Scottish accents came courtesy my husband.

Certainly many of us in the U.S. have had similar Baffling Accent Experiences when speaking to people from other parts of the U.S.  Or even—as has happened to me—from my own hometown.  For more on one U.S. version of a sometimes-bewildering accent, please see my previous Friday video here. 

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Casual Friday Video Return Engagement: History of English in Brief

Loretta reports:

Some of us have short attention spans and some do not.  Either species will, I think, enjoy this piece—and probably learn some things.  I did!

Readers who receive our blog via email might see only a black rectangle or empty square where the video ought to be.  To watch the video, please click on this link to the  post title.

Casual Friday: Pride & Prejudice by Thug Notes

View at source here

Loretta reports:

Thanks to Isabella for calling this to my attention. We've seen other short, amusing treatments of Jane Austen's work (here and here are just a couple of examples).  This is a wonderful, brief, funny, accurate summary & analysis, in a language that, like Jane Austen's, may be foreign to some of us, yet understandable for all that.  Of course, the illustrations help.

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Illustration courtesy Wikipedia.

Casual Friday: Moose & Squirrel

Loretta reports:

Among the various effigies and tokens lining my desk is Rocket J. Squirrel.  He and Bullwinkle Moose, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, and all the supporting characters who lead various segments of the Rocky & Bullwinkle Show continue to infect my mind (with puns, among other things), and have probably found their way into my books in ways I may not even recognize. 

This nearly one-hour bio includes representative segments as well as historical insight into the time and circumstances that inspired the show. We have satirical animated cartoon series today, but for some of us, none can surpass Rocky and Bullwinkle.


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Casual Friday Horrible Histories explain WWI

View online here

Loretta reports:

With Russia looming large again in a debate about military action in the Mideast, I thought this Horrible Histories explanation of the origins of WWI offered an opportunity to compare and contrast alliances and the complications they create.

Or, you can ignore current politics and just enjoy the clip on its own merits.*

Image: British Navy at War (1915) courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

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Friday Video: An 18th c. Gentleman Longboards Through Bath

Isabella reporting,

A surprisingly energetic video for a lazy Friday in August! Combine an 18th c. gentleman (well, at least that's what he's supposed to be) on a longboard, the beautiful streets of Bath, and a dash of Iron Maiden, and you get Georgian shredding, dude.

Thanks to fellow blogger Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century for posting this first on Twitter!

Casual Friday: Curious Tudor Laws

Loretta reports:

The Tudors got their own TV show, which, from what I've seen, took some historical liberties.  But I'm not sure even TV can come close to the nuttiness of the real thing.  Here, Horrible Histories offers a glimpse of a few Elizabethan laws about clothing.

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Friday Video: Buster Keaton in the ring

Loretta reports:

I've incorporated early 19th C gentlemen's fondness for fisticuffs in several of my books.  For an idea of what boxing was really like back then, take a look at Georgian Boxing at Horrible Histories.


Fortunately for the squeamish, we don't have actual Regency era fisticuffs recorded on film—but here's Buster Keaton, my favorite silent film actor and comic genius, demonstrating his brilliance in the ring.

Cruikshank illustration from Pierce Egan's Life in London, 1821

Friday Video: History of English in brief

Loretta reports:

Some of us have short attention spans and some do not.  Either species will, I think, enjoy this piece—and probably learn some things.  I did!

Readers who receive our blog via email might see only a black rectangle or empty square where the video ought to be.  To watch the video, please click on this link to the  Two Nerdy History Girls blog.

Beau Brummell in motion

Loretta reports:

Since it's so much harder to find fashion plates for early 19th century men’s clothing than for women’s, we tend to rely more upon painted portraits.

But these have limitations, some artists being less interested in fashion detail than in, oh, art.

But the best way, I believe, to understand the sexy elegance of the era is to see real clothes on real men.

Of course, we all know that Brummell was the leader, rather than a follower.  Still, the Kinks' song works.  The clips are from the movie Beau Brummell: This Charming Man, very loosely based on Ian Kelly’s wonderful biography, Beau Brummell:  The Ultimate Man of Style.

Readers who receive our blog via email might see only a black rectangle or empty square where the video ought to be.  To watch the video, please click on this link to the  Two Nerdy History Girls blog.