I'm playing Abraham Lincoln in a play about the Emancipation Proclamation!

I don't have time to do full justice to this announcement, but I wanted to make sure I put it in a permanent place (as permanent, anyway, as the Internet can be).

Earlier this year, Boria Entertainment sent me to an audition for a play titled "Human Cargo," produced by the INCARN ministry of the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, NY. It was about the history and experience of African slaves brought to America. I wound up getting cast as a slave ship captain and a slave hunter. It was a very intense play and my characters were among the worst people I have ever known. I was proud to be a part of it, though, as it was an important part of history and a very moving play. I also got a lot of good work knocking the rust off of my acting chops, being in a bitchin' fight, and even doing a little dance work in the rehearsals.

This was followed by my role as General William Tecumseh Sherman in this organization's next play, "Honorable distinction. This wa about the Black experience in the American Civil War. In addition to playing the general who conceived the plan that came to be characterized as "40 Acres and a Mule," I also played harmonica with the keyboardist during the musical numbers,as background, and during interludes. I also got to teach the actors playing the 54th Mass. "The Battle Cry of Freedom" and the rebel soldiers "Bonnie Blue Flag" and sing it with them.

Now, in the third play of this trilogy, "Emancipated Glory," I play the great emancipator himself in the months leading up to the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The play is being performed on December 30th and 31st at the Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church. Details and a brief diary of the experience to follow.

Cosplay Cabaret and Another Freakin' Con this week!

Hi friends! I am just back from the Pennsic War (videos coming soon) and not only 
are my arms tired, I am hitting the ground running!

This Wednesday, August 15, The Death Star Repairman (Yours Truly) will be appearing at 
the second "Cosplay Cabaret" at 53AboveBroadway! This means that in addition to 
seeing a torrent of talented costumed cabaret entertainers, the one and only blue-collar 
Death Star Repairman will also be regaling you with a couple of space chanties that are 
popular in Local 1138, the Imperial Repairmen's Guild.

WHAT: performance at Cosplay Cabaret
https://www.facebook.com/events/202830777063097
WHEN: Wednesday, August 15, 2018, 7 PM
WHERE: 53AboveBroadway.
318 West 53rd Street, New York, New York 10019

 Next, on Saturday, August 18, there is "Another Freakin' Con" at the Queens 
Museum! At this new convention by Great Sauce Entertainment, I will be lecturing about 
the history of the many Captain Marvels and selling my books, comics, CD's and videos.

This lecture, running from 2 - 3 PM, will answer all your questions about the characters 
in the two upcoming movies, "SHAZAM!" from DC and "Captain Marvel" 
from Marvel. And let me tell you, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. 
And correctly? Just to give you an example, here is a portion of that lecture I gave some 
years ago... 
https://youtu.be/SA6eZ6s1_yU

To see the complete lecture, come to ANOTHER FREAKIN' CON! https://www.facebook.com/events/1716775221746752/

WHAT: Another Freakin' Con
https://www.evensi.us/freakin-wwwgreatsauceent/261545179
WHEN: Saturday, August 18, 2018
WHERE: Queens Theater
14 United Nations Avenue South, Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, Queens

Things are starting to heat up, folks! Keep an eye out for more appearances and some 
important blog posts and videos in the very near future!

Onward and Upward!
Captain Z
http://www.captainzorikh.com

Return to training....but I can't tell you why.

Over the past few weeks, folks close to me may have noticed that I have been spending more time training than I have in years. There is a reason for this,m but I can't talk about what it is. There ain't no law, however, against me talking about my training.

I don't have much time right now, so I w ill just start by saying I started in the 4th worst shape of my life. My strength was down, my endurance was down, and my armor needs an upgrade. I blame it on simply not choosing to actively, regularly exercise to keep in shape. I have allowed myself to do things like edit videos, write about various Captain Marvels, and correct people who are wrong on the Internet. I also have an office desk job, and I have been in a play or two.

While those plays did involve dance workshops. rehearsals, and warm-ups, it was not regular enough, or long-term enough to really affect my fitness. Likewise, my daily commute which involves a light jog and climbing up a significant number of stairs, was already factored into my unsatisfactory fitness level.

My diet is what I would call "casually healthy"; I try to avoid things like excess sugar, high fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutimate, excessive fat and sodium, French-fried potatoes, pasta, and more than a small serving of cakes and other desert-y baked goods. I try to have vegetables and/or salad at every meal, choose juice and tea drinks over soda, drink green tea every day, and eat healthy, all-natural breakfast cereal.

But I am not a vegan, I do eat chocolate, and I like cookies. I probably do not eat enough fruit, and energy drinks keep me going more often than I would like to admit. I am also more sedentary than I was before my knee surgery.

In fact, two of the three worst shapes in which I have been have been since my surgery. These were periods in which I was not actively training for anything, did not have the money to keep up my gym membership, and was involved with work that had me sitting at a desk for long periods of time. I know my shape was terrible because I have pictures top prove it. Also, when I went to the Pennsic War, after marshaling one battle, I would be so exhausted, I would have to sleep half the rest of the day.

So I am grateful for this impetus to get off my ass and do something again. I have found, however,. that I have a ways to go until I am in top shape. I discovered that I was about 215 lbs, that where I used to be able to run 5 laps around the park in my gambeson and helmet, carrying sword and shield, now I can barely to three laps, even without the helmet, that while I used to be able to do three sets of ten reps of 135 lbs, now I am back to doing "almost two" reps. Also, I have not been able to fit into my 34-waist pants in a couple of years.

So I will try to post reports of my training here, so we can all see how  hard I am working and if it doing any good.

Stay tuned!

What I learned about General William Tecumseh Sherman from playing him in "Honorable Distinction"

So I just got through the two days of performances of "Honorable distinction," A play by Kenya Cagle directed by Michele Hawkins Jones at the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church. This play was about the Black experience in the American Civil War, focusing on the 54th Massachusetts infantry regiment and the community from which it came.

I played harmonica in the two-person orchestra (the other guy was the keyboard player, with Ivanhoe Gadapaille sitting in on a couple of numbers on guitar), portrayed a Rebel singing "The Bonnie Blue Flag" and fighting in a battle, and, most importantly, had the role of General William Tecumseh Sherman in one scene with General U. S. Grant and president Abraham Lincoln.''

I didn't have much time in my schedule to do a thorough research job on the man, but I did what I could, and found out the answers to things I had never thought to ask about Bill Sherman the Civil War.

He came from a broken home and married his stepsister.

He had a mental breakdown at the beginning of the war.

His racial attitudes were a product of their time.
 
He was a brilliant strategic logistician.

He was very practical in his handling of Atlanta civilians.

The march from Atlanta to Savannah was an audible.

He came up with what we now refer to as "40 Acres and a Mule."

Now, I would love to, and  intended to, elaborate on each of these things, but my life is too busy right now. I may revisit this some time in the future, but if you would like to elaborate o n each of these things, feel free to do so in the comments section below.

Thanks! Onward and Upward! The Union Forever!

I am going to try something...

I have a few projects that have been waiting for me to do those last steps needed to call them complete:

Return to Pennsic
American Knights 2015
American Knights 2018
Captain Marvel Culture

The trouble is that when I try to find the time to do them, I wind up checking email, visiting Facebook, monitoring my YouTube video stats, editing some other little video, or doing some other thing that will bring momentary, instant satisfaction, but is of dubious value towards those three projects.

Oh yeah, and there is always "someone wrong on the Internet" (I now hate Quora).

So here is my plan:

I have two short videos in the que for me to finish and post to YouTube. I have two blog posts about the upcoming "Captain Marvel" and "SHAZAM!" movies that need to be finished and posted. I have some upcoming events that I need to promote.

I will get this done in the coming week or stop working on them.

I will stop posting and commenting and "liking" on Facebook.

I will stop counter-trolling the HEMA snobs on IMCF and Battle of the Nations videos on YouTube.

I will stop correcting everybody who gets something wrong about one or more Captain Marvels on...just about everything.

I will continue posting promos of upcoming events, and sending birthday greetings every morning, but that's it.

Everything else I do on the computer will be in the service of completing or getting to an as-yet unrealized level of completion of the three projects listed above.

I may even cancel a scheduled or potential engagement to get something done.

So bear with me, friends and fans. This is going to be big.

Captain Z

Big Apple Comic Con this weekend, and Captain Z is ALL OVER it!

Hi friends and fans! Captain Zorikh here with two pieces of news, one big and immediate, the other big, but with a slightly longer time frame.

 

As many of you may have noticed  (considering the makeup of this list) the Big Apple Comic Con is coming up this weekend. And yes, yours Truly will be a big part of it again!

 

This year I will be managing the panel room programming, hosting one discussion panel, and hosting not just one, but TWO costume contests!

 

The Big Apple Comic Con will be held this Saturday and Sunday, April 14 - 15 at the Penn Plaza Pavilion at 401 7th Ave (corner of 33rd St). The panel room (https://www.facebook.com/events/334166707092351/) will be in the basement of the venue, in the Globetrotter Room. WE have a great selection of discussion panels, celebrity Q&A's a live podcast about the Avengers, and more!

 

My panel will be with the famous writer Peter David about his career and his Captain Marvel, Genis-Vell, the third longest-running and most underappreciated of all Captain Marvels. I am sure this discussion will reveal some remarkable insights into society, culture, and the comic book business, as that Captain Marvel serieswas remarkable in its highlighting of those issues.

 

The two costume contests will be significant. On Saturday at 5:30 PM I will be hosting the first-ever BIG APPLE CON COSPLAY CHAMPIONSHIP (https://www.facebook.com/events/188081085254195/) ! This will be a contest of costuming excellence with the following judges:

 

Lua Stardust (Suicide Girls, cosplay celebrity)

Emma Pool (up-and-coming cosplay hero)

Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Jennifer Cihi (Sailor Moon)

 

Then on Saturday will be the traditional CAPTAIN ZORIKH'S PEOPLE'S COSTUME CONTEST (https://www.facebook.com/events/439547243142497/), the Most Fun Costume Contest on the East Coast, where costume builders and wearers and the people who love them can connect and appreciate each other. The contest will be judged by the patented "Captain Z Applause-O-Meter," and there will be plenty of amazing prizes for all!

 

The leading prize sponsors for these contests are Halloween Adventure Costume Shop, Forbidden Planet, Artist & Craftsmen Supply, and Midtown Comics.

 

And of course, the Big Apple Comic Con will have 100's of dealer tables, scores of celebrities and comics creators, including both living legends and future superstars. and lots of other surprises!

 

I hope to see you there!

 

The other news is that once again, I will be making another video documentary of the USA Knights at the International Medieval Combat Federation World Championships! This will be done with the assistance of Brad Blackmon, an award-wining TV professional who also happens to be a fighting member of the USA team!

 

I will have more details on that very soon, but for now, you can learn more abotu the project and help get it under way by visiting https://www.gofundme.com/usaknights2018video and looking over the special "perks" we have lined up this time around!

 

So, as always Watch This Space for more details, and...

 

Onward and Upward!

PS: On Friday, April 20, at 8 PM, he TV channel and website Viceland will be broadcasting "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," and I will be appearing in a hosted feature during the breaks! You can see me ALL OVER this little promo for it... https://www.viceland.com/en_us/video/jake-loves-movies-bill-and-teds-excellent-adventure/5ac672f5f1cdb329aa7c9fa1

I learned medieval stuff this weekend!

On Saturday, February 10th, 2018, The East Kingdom of the Society for Creative Anachronism held it's annual Arts & Sciences and Bardic Championship the Crown Province of Ostgardr (the greater NYC area). This event gives folks the opportunity to showcase their work in making things and historical research.

I learned so much at this event! I have been in the SCA for about 30 years and while I do my share of research and making things, I have never dedicated myself to a specific project or discipline to the degree and focus that the top levels of this competition do. The remarkable thing about doing this kind of research is that not only do you learn how a thing was done, you can learn why a thing was done, you can learn how a thing fit into a culture, you can appreciate the journey that humans have made in culture and technology.

I learned that "bowed cotton" is fluffier than cotton batting, and that sewing your gambeson pattern pieces as a pillow and beginning the quilting in the middle is a thing that can be done and can benefit your final product. Also that if you make a sample piece of your quilted garment, you can calculate the reduction in measurement of the pattern pieces that happens during quilting so that you know how much to over-size the piece when cutting it.

I learned that people carried wax tablets on which to write things, either they wrote temporary things meant to be erased later, like grocery lists, or else the tablet was turned over to a scribe to copy down in ink, then erased. This meant that some folks carried three, or five, or even ten tablets on which to write things, like business deals or tax assessments. This made me wonder if there were medieval "copy shops," in which scribes worked and one could deliver one's wax tablets to be trans-"scribed."

I learned that papercutting is an art in just about every culture with paper. A fellow at the event is researching evidence that the creative art of papercutting traveled with the technology of papermaking itself as it traveled from culture to culture. Of course, as each culture had different paper (the Chinese had rice, the Germans had wood pulp, and the Aztecs had tree bark), each had different tools to cut the paper (knives, scissors, and chisels, respectively). Multiple layers of different colored paper an also be used for different effects.

I learned that Welsh breadmaking did not involve a lot of wheat flour until late in the medieval period, so bread baked in the 1100's in Wales may have used oat flour, but it seems to be difficult to recreate a recipe and baking technique for bread used in a particular Welsh festival feast without it, using only ingredients that could have been found there then.

Putting all this together, it made me think of a story in which a fellow went to a tailor to have a new gambeson made, and the tailor wrote down his measurements on a wax tablet. He took the tablet to a scribe, who wrote it down on a small piece of parchment. This parchment was lost, however, and found by a papercutter, who used it to cut a design in celebration of the Welsh festival coming up.

I look forward to learning more!

Captain Zorikh at Wicked Faire this weekend!

Hi Friends! Happy new year to all of you! Every single one! Let's make it a great one together!

This year is starting off with a bang for me. This coming weekend I am returning to the wicked Faire at the Hayatt Regency in Princeton, NJ, where I will be making music and screening video!

AS has become tradition, the Time Travelling Bard will be singing songs and telling stories covering everything from Cyborgs to cowboys, from viking ships to railroads, from the War Between the States to a Galaxy Far Far Away, most often with tongue firmly in cheek, twinkle flashing in eye, and head lost in the clouds! This will happen Friday night at 11:30 PM.

https://www.facebook.com/events/155312868523540/

Then on Saturday at 3:30 PM, for the first time ever, the documentary "Return to Pennsic" will be screened for the public in its completed form! There will be a Q&A afterwards about the making of this project and what it means.

https://www.facebook.com/events/320926065068547

Finally, at 1:30 PM on Friday. I will be hosting the Three Chord Monte Open Jam! This is a jam session that happened spontaneously at the Steampunk Worlds Fair last year and was so much fun we will be doing it again! basically it means we will play every song we can, and some songs we shouldn't, with a 1-4-5, three chord arrangement. That means if you know any one of those three notes, you have a one in three chance of playing the right one at the right time!

https://www.facebook.com/events/194423891295116/

So come on down, it will be a blast!

And yes, I know there has been some drama in the organization, and for those who are involved in any part of it, it is a serious matter. But this event has been, for a lot of us, a wonderful, amazing, fun way to hang out with like-minded people and share a culture we love in an environment where we can be who and what we are and what we want to be without judgements and with appreciation.

In addition to me, there will be lots of amazing, fantastic, spectacular entertainments, activities, and vendors, and there are some rooms still available at the hotel. The parties can be epic, and the memories will last forever!
http://www.wickedfaire.com

I hope to see you there!