Europe 2011: Part 11, Jane Austen Festival #1

The Jane Austen Festival in Bath, England is one of the most fun events I've been able to be a part of. It's hard to explain, but the combination of pretty fashions, interesting lectures, dancing, and company of friends makes for lovely memories!

This post is mostly going to be me sharing pictures, because honestly, that's the next best thing to being in Bath!

You know it's a Jane Austen Festival when there are bonnets on the wall!

Meeting up with Jane Austen Book club friends the night I arrived!

And then on to day 2:

Lunch with the majority of the International Jane Austen Book Club! :D

Dolinde, Viktoria, and Aurora!

I decided to have a small tasty snack at the Jane Austen Centre and check emails! :)

I believe this is Queen Square

Jane Austen Centre! :D

And I also worked on some panoramic shots:

Royal Crescent

Royal Crescent, different version

In the evening, we had musical entertainment at the Masonic Lodge, which was the old Theatre Royal.

The ceiling is quite interesting

I sadly had to leave early to join friends watching the first episode of Downton Abbey's season 2! Yes, that's right, I saw the season premiere as it aired in the UK last year! :D

Going to One Wedding Brings on Another

In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, John Thorpe attempts to sneak his way into marrying Catherine Morland and a snippet of the conversation goes as follows:

[John Thorpe] "A famous good thing this marrying scheme, upon my soul! A clever fancy of Morland's and Belle's. What do you think of it, Miss Morland? I say it is no bad notion."
[Miss Morland] "I am sure I think it a very good one."
[John Thorpe] "Do you? --that's honest, by heavens! I am glad you are no enemy to matrimony, however. Did you ever hear the old song 'Going to One Wedding Brings on Another?'

During the course of this last month I have had the honor of being invited to two weddings, which while they were no more connected one to the other than John Thorpe's fantasies were to reality... did at least in my life happen to occur one after the other. I was therefore reminded of the reference. :)


As a result, I send my official congratulations to my cousin, Ismail and his lovely bride Capucine, whose wedding I was able to attend during my Europe trip. My cousins are all rather cool people and I was really happy to be there for the special day. Living on different continents means we only all see each other sporadically, but thankfully my family and I have been able to visit periodically since I was an infant. This wedding was also really good for bringing most of the French family together in one place, which hasn't happened in a long time. I also met much of my uncle's family for the first time, and they appear to be a good and enjoyable group of people!

French civil wedding

My sister and I with Capucine... brilliantly my sister and I both wore seersucker!

The first dance at evening reception :)

Secondly, this last Saturday I was at the wedding of a wonderful friend of mine, Peter and his delightful bride Erin. I've been friends with Peter and his family for some time now, and they are really amazing, solid people. If everyone were more like them, the world would be a better place! :) Again, blessings and congratulations on the happy couple! 

Lovely Episcopal service in Virginia

The conclusion to their first dance :)

I should throw in that Peter's brother Kevin is now in the National Philharmonic Orchestra's choir... and I went to see his first performance with the orchestra, in which he sang Ode to Joy in Beethoven's 9th symphony! Yet another great reason to go listen to good music!

At Strathmore with Hannah, Kevin, and Eric!

One last passing note... not only were both weddings very fun and enjoyable--with regard to style, I thought they were really well done... both brides picked dresses that were flattering and lovely! It really does give me hope when I see good taste in dress. The future may not be completely lost! lol :)

Jane Austen Spoofs!

I generally am a purist and don't like twisted up versions of the Austen stories... however, some of these are classic or infamous in their own right, or simply worth a laugh. As a result I am sharing them with you now for my more daring readers. Some of them may be slightly offensive and for that I do apologize in advance. I obviously didn't design them myself, or else they would have been a bit different, undoubtedly.

Enjoy!

Jane Austen Fight Club (viral video):

That Mitchell And Webb Look: Posh Dancing (wherein, Darcy shows of his sweet moves)
(note: there is one offensive word in the middle, fyi)



I just ran into this series: 'Jane 08'... which parodies the films in the style of an American political advertisement to promote a fan-fiction novel. (The best part has to be the one about the environment)


But wait... there's more! 'Truth'...

And it continues! 'Leadership'...

This last one counts as explosive... and advertises beer... be ready for gratuitous gunfighting...

In Praise of the Cut of the Back of Regency Dresses

Emma in the 2009 BBC Emma

I know that for me to praise the back of a dress will likely scare a few people, and scandalize others. The fact is, most people pay more attention to the front of a dress... probably due to a combination of the face and the bust... however, last year I realized that the Regency dress actually is lovely from any angle.

Emma and Mr. Knightley in the 2009 BBC Emma

The goal here is to show in the best way (though words do not do justice!) how the topic is neither frightful nor scandalous. In fact, what I hope to do here is to point out how Regency dresses manage to avoid both the old world sin of artificially increasing the size of a woman's rear (think of excessive padding, etc.) and the modern sin of trying to virtually paste the dress onto a woman and leave nothing to the imagination.

Miss Aurora's blue Regency dress

Instead, my dear readers, please observe... the back of the regency dress does a number of very interesting things:

• It gives room for the lady to walk (the gathering in the back prevents billowing at the front and allows the dress to actually have give. If a 'Regency' dress is constructed without the gathering and extra material, the lady may not be able to walk easily... and will look significantly more awkward and less elegant)
• It does not cling to her rear unnecessarily (again, a feature of the gathering and interestingly, the empire waist... by starting the waist higher, the upper back is accentuated, rather than the lady's behind)
• Depending on the lengh of the dress, the gathering may even form a miniature train (again, due to the extra material/gathering)
• It gives the lady a more slender upright figure (this is the result of the empire waist combined with the floor-length skirt)
• It frames her upper back in a most lovely fashion (look at the picture and observe the lines of the stitching and how the neckline at the top lines up with the waist and the sleeves... the buttons also frame the center in a way similar to how the 3 buttons on a white-tie men's waistcoat frames the lower part of the waistcoat)
• In summary... there is no other dress style that gives the exact elegant, statuesque, graceful attitude to the wearer from the back. (and the front)

Close up of Miss Aurora's Regency dress

Northanger Abbey: notice how the dresses allow the ladies room to move, while remaining completely graceful and modest in the process

Another additional point that is important: I've heard girls complain that modern empire waist attire makes them look as though they are with child. My observation is that with most properly constructed Regency dresses, this is not an issue. Why? Because the length of the skirt pulls the dress down with its weight. Additionally... the length of a dress not only makes it more formal (if cut right!) but also prevents anyone from being in danger of questioning a girl's reputation. Something I cannot say for the ever popular cocktail minidresses that many girls today seem to be having a passionate love affair with.

In Bath, England with Miss Aurora during the 2009 Jane Austen Festival

Many thanks to my good friend, Miss Aurora, of The Secret Dreamworld of a Jane Austen Fan, who kindly gave her permission for me to use some of her pictures for this post!

The snapshots from iTV's 2007 Northanger Abbey and BBC's 2009 Emma are used for informational purposes and I hold no rights to the images.

Happy New Year!!!! Bonne Année!!!!

For my friends in both the new and old worlds, I wish a lovely new year!

I remember my friends and family in Maryland, France, Virginia, Sweden, England, The Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Ontario, Kentucky, West Virginia, New York, Corsica, Texas, Washington DC, Arizona, China, Oregon, etc. and all those who live places I don't presently remember!

I hope in this new year to be a better person, and to discover many new things! :)

I also hope that Debout La République and Nicolas Dupont Aignant will have much success gearing up for the 2012 French Presidential Elections. (I would love to be there for some of the excitement!)

Also, my wishes include the European bureaucrats not getting ideas for new ways on how to remove our liberties and tread over our traditions and everything good. Same thing goes for the self-important people in the Federal Government of these United States, and for those who have lost touch with common sense in Maryland. May those in Europe never forget their national identities like the citizens of the Sovereign and Independent States have here.

Additionally, I hope to see many of my friends again over the course of this year and to enjoy the time we have while placed on this earth.

Happy New Year everyone! :D

Image source for arms of Royal France and Maryland: Wikipedia; for those of Mordecai Gist,

Christopher Gist of Maryland and Some of His Descendants, 1679-1957 by Dorsey and Dorsey.All images edited by Justin Gist Preuninger for www.lifelibertyelegance.com

Cleaning wipes + Jane Austen?

My little sister came up with this concept as a gift for me... lol! I guess this combines my over-disinfecting and being a Janeite into one package... :)

Ballroom at the Upper Assembly Rooms, Bath, England

I took a number of pictures and a video of walking around the ballroom when I visited the Assembly Rooms. Unfortunately, the other rooms were in use, so I only got this one. :( That said, the details that are in this room are really amazing; they're simply gorgeous! Enjoy!

And the video:

I've been interviewed about Jane Austen... :D

Dear readers, my good friend Miss Aurora (whom I met at the lovely Jane Austen Festival in Bath, England) has been so kind as to post the interview she conducted with me. It's about my thoughts on Jane Austen, etc. You may read it at her blog 'The Secret Dreamworld of a Jane Austen Fan'. Incidentally, her blog has all sorts of interesting information and pictures of some really nicely done period costumes that she has made herself! :D

Click here for the interview!

P.S.: She does a really good job of continually posting, so I had better get to work here so I don't look too lazy, lol! :)

P.P.S.: The dates for the 2010 Jane Austen Festival in Bath, England have just recently been posted online at the festival web page by the Jane Austen Centre, Bath! Click here for more info on the upcoming festival information...

JASNA DC Meeting and New Emma Soundtrack

I just got back from my first local JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America) meeting, which was nice. It's good to meet other Janeites and enthusiasts. I had the pleasure of being able to assist them with making the speaker's DVD projection work, despite requiring a trip to Best Buy for additional audio cables. Folks, just be aware, Clyde's of Tyson's Corner does not carry the right equipment for you to show a video with their supplied projector. That not withstanding, the event was nice, the food was good too. In short I've had an interesting day! :D

Today's talk was about self-respect and the role of laughter in improving the people in Austen's novels. It was by Dr. Lorraine (Lorrie) Clark Ph.D. from Canada, and as you might imagine, contained a good deal of things going back to the ancient Greeks and much technical terminology. It was interesting, but I'm not sure I can say I entirely agreed with the perspective of the speaker, although she really was a very nice person to meet and work with today. I must sadly confess, her talk also reminded me of why I was never a lit major in college... I'm still trying to figure out how she tied in the apocryphal archery scenes from two of the films into Austen's actual works... :P

And sadly, I was too busy to take any pictures... I suppose I'll have to wait and see if any float around...

I should also mention, I now have a ticket to go see The Young Victoria next week, compliments of JASNA, so hopefully that will be good too. I'll blog about that after I see it.

For those who have been following the new 2009 BBC production of Emma, you are undoubtably aware it will come on US television in February, as well as on DVD. (I'm thinking of pre-ordering a copy off of Amazon) What I want to mention however, is for those of us who like movie soundtracks... they have already released the music! I was somewhat surprised, as the last couple period pieces the BBC have made did not have soundtracks available for public purchase... the common thread seems to be that Martin Phipps composed most of those scores. Alas, it is such a pity, as some of his music is simply amazing. But, I have lost my thought here... please visit Austenblog to see where you can download the new Emma soundtrack. It is absolutely gorgeous! I used the 320kbps link, which is the same price as iTunes, but higher quality. http://austenblog.com/2009/12/09/emma-2009-soundtrack-information/