Feature Articles Vol. 11 #1, Issue #47   $9 each click here to order

 

The Rom: Still Strangers After All These Years
by Kevin Filan

Despised as criminals and vagrants, the Rom have been subject to centuries of brutal persecution. Their stereotypes are all too familiar, yet even today, the real Rom remain little-known to most outsiders. Even their common name "Gypsy" is a misnomer.

 

The Music of the Gypsies
by Richard Mackenzie

Mention the phrase "Gypsy music" and the images that come to mind are of gaudily dressed violin players entertaining the dinner crowd in European cafes. Such an image, however, is both anachronistic and erroneous. The rich and varied tapestry of Gypsy music was depended less upon a consistent style of music or instrumentation than upon a common understanding and experience that the Gypsies, or Roma, faced wherever they settled.

 

Coffee: The Dark History of the Devil's Brew
by Kevin Filan

From Sultans to Kings, all have railed against the "devil's brew" of coffee but were powerless to stem its ever-growing popularity. Today, the humble Coffea Arabica plant has become the world's largest cash crop, with over one billion cups of coffee consumed daily. The coffee trade helped spur the colonization of the New World while coffeehouses encouraged literature, poetry, and conversation in the long centuries before Starbucks. One can safely say that without coffee, renaissance Europe would have been a much sleepier place, indeed.

 

The Dark Fantasies of Artist Thomas Fleming

Featured Columns

Letters to the Chronicler

Proclamations

Digging into the Past

Now on Exhibit

Castle Lore
Hochosterwitz: The Castle of 14 Gates

 

The Costumer's Creation
How to Make an Exotic Gypsy Scarf in 5 Easy Steps

The Court Jester
The Medievalist's Bookshelf

From the Shoppe
The Female Heroes of the Seattle Knights

The Groaning Board
A Need for Fish: From Faith to Economics

Clef Notes

Moving Picture Reviews

Tomes of Lore

Ye Olde Classifyds

2006 Faires & Festivals

On the Net

Crossword

 

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