minstrel: intros

[Mike Baker]

Rathflaed, if you hadn't posted "So You Want..." I would probably have 
requested it be broadcast fairly soon (the differences aren't raised often, 
but when they are...)

I should follow suit, and introduce / re-introduce myself:

In these Current Middle Ages, I am known as Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra. 
The persona is very, very late XVIth century by Christian date reckoning, a 
merchant & mercenary with training in my youth as a village story-teller's 
apprentice. I am within the SCA a bard of Ansteorra, having first performed 
in the Society during the course of the first of the Ansteorra/Middle "wars" 
("Queen Willow's War").  I have also been mundanely accorded a bard-name, 
and work with some segments of the NeoPagan / "alternative religions" 
community.

In performance mode, I am as much storyteller as poet, and sing best when 
others accompany me (or as part of a group: I don't sing badly, just find 
myself "wandering" with the tune if I am not inspired, or intimately 
familiar, with it...).

I am particularly interested in the history of bards, bardic arts, and 
related fellow-travellers. Documentation is always appreciated, and the more 
specific the citation the better. I am refining an existing paper concerning 
the nature of bards historical and modern, and some of what drives the 
differences between bard and other forms of entertainer. (Broad hint: my 
sources indicate that a "true" historical bard entertained only as a 
secondary function, at least by the time of Cuchulainn and the Tain Bo 
Quelgney.)

Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard)  s.k.a. Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri 
al-Amra
     currently residing in Barony of the Steppes, Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mike C. Baker                      mbaker at rapp.com
Any opinions expressed are obviously my own unless explicitly stated 
otherwise! 

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