What passes for culture

In the on-going search for culture in the Ark-la-tex I went to the Minden Tartan Festival on Sat and a reenactment of the Battle of Pleasant Hill today (Sun).  I would have been done with the Tartan festive in all of 5mins or less if it hadn't been the band NeedFire they imported from Dallas.  NeedFire put on an excellent show - and I couldn't get enough of the bagpipe-rock.  The rest of the fest consisted of 'Looking up your Clan name' (Oooh!), smirking at people sweating in unyielding layers of wool, and looking at Highland cows.  Yes, that exciting.  Though I did hold my breath when the idiot at the hammer throw came frighteningly close to hitting the crowd.

Watching the Civil War reenactment this afternoon was a bit of something else entirely.  And as cringe-worthy as I find the 'The South Will Rise Again' mentality, the reenactors usually put on a decent show.  I was not disappointed.  The artillery was great.  They moved the earth with their resounding cannonades.  The Calvary looked dashing.  The men fearsome.  The Belles, well, some of them had the vapors for real.  Their encampment was excellent too.  Anything out-of-period was tucked away.  

But the most amazing thing of all was the invincibility of the men - or perhaps they couldn't shoot.  I'm not sure.  What I do know is that the first 15 minutes of close combat that filled the battlefield of thick smoke and the smell of blackpowder, not a single soldier was injured.  Historically the South won the engagement, but I wasn't sure how that was going to happen because the North apparently didn't have any casualties until they called for retreat.  In the final 5 minutes of battle all the bullets struck true.  Amazing.

And me?  I pulled my iPod out and threw on some tunes, because watching the reenactment was fun, but having a soundtrack to it was frickin' sweet.  There's got to be something wrong with me.