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Hi! I'm Zorikh. I started this site on 9/21/98
Within these pages you shall find:
Movies, comic books, history, the Society For Creative Anachronism, rockabilly music, Shakespeare, heraldry, theater, swordfighting, science fiction, and obscure sports.
Alright folks, if you're here, you may have noticed that this journal will contain notices of the updates and random ramblings from your humble webmaster. This is all part of the continuing effort to make your exploration of this site more efficient.
9/8/2000: ran out of room on this page and started new journal page!
7/19/2000: That's right, this is the last week of what will probably be your last chance to watch Zorikh Lequidre tread the boards before William Shakespeare's Haunted House this fall!
For those who don't know, I am playing the lead in "Mose the Fireman," a campy send-up of 19th century heroic comic opera inspired by a real-life 1840's Bowery Fireman named Moses Humphries. He rescues kittens from burning glue factories! He saves heroines from dastardly villains! He sings and dances! He hits his head on the ceiling and gets laid out flat! (Well, that was an accident, and the show went on, but with that low cieling over the stage, it's always a danger!) This show is part of a theatrical double feature called "Two Fisted Camp." The second feature is "Das Presley," the story of a bad Elvis impersonator who thinks his dreams of taking over the world are about to be fulfilled. The action centers around the Cafe Schweindhundt, a dive located somewhere between Cold War Europe and the Twilight Zone. The supporting cast includes Alfred Jarry, Klaus Blues, the Avant-Garde puppeteer, Dr. Otto, and Natasha Wolf.
This show is at Todo Con Nada, a.k.a. Nada, Inc., on Ludlow St, just south of Houston. Ludlow street begins on the south side of Houston Street between where 1st Ave and Ave A begin on the north side. This is the same street as Katz's Deli of "Harry Met Sally" fame.
(Show times deleted. The run is over. You missed it, you piker! Too bad.)
Ludlow St. is part of one of the hottest nightlife neighbrhoods in NY today, and my mom's coming to the Sunday show, bringing friends from France, Mexico, and elsewhere. So it's sure to be an exciting time, whenever you come. Don't miss it!
7/6/2000: I re-activated my guestbook and added a few new movies to various pages of my listings of movies of SCAdian interest , mostly on the fantasy and science fiction page.
6/30/200:"Short Shorts" went very well! It was not as well-attended as last year (the $5 hike in the suggested donatim may have contributed to this) but that turned out to be OK. The performance space was as packed as ever while the bar/lounge area of Botanica had room to breathe. I raised more money and had more firends show up, including my mom. I dropped a line or two in "O Hospital," but the scene went well anyway. "The Tea Master," which I directed, was a unique contribution that recieved good notice. "Romeo and Tybalt in Hell" tore the house down. The theme of it was that the Romeo-Tybalt duel from Shakespeare is representatively symbolic of all duels, any time, any place. The fight was first done with rapiers, then lightsabers, then like mafiosos with automatics, then like a western dues with six-guns, and the grand finale was Groucho (Tybalt) and Harp (Romeo) with selzer bottles. By the third go-round, the audience was hollering "I am fortune's fool!" and at the end Mark Greenfield said "That could only have come from the mind of Zorikh Lequidre!" 6/20/2000:"Short Shorts," an exciting evening of cutting-edge theater, will occur on Sunday, June 25, from 7-10 pm. This is a benefit to support the Faux Real Theater Co., a group that encourages the growth and experimentation of theatrical arts in New York. The company is led by Mark Greenfield, the man who gave me my big break in NY theater with "Henry IV" back in '98 (see below. WAY below). There will be free food, half price tap and well drinks, lots of people, and all the actors will be wearing shorts. Guaranteed not to be boring. I will be in pieces entitled "Mission Statement," "Subway," "O Hospital," "The Tea Master," (which I am also directing) and a new interpretation of my role from "William Shakespeare's Haunted House": "Romeo and Tybalt in Hell." The venue for this extravaganza is Botanica, on Houston st, between Mott and Mulberry.
"Mose the Fireman" is scheduled to open next weekend. It is the top of a double bill of theater called "Two Fisted Camp." The second feature is "Das Presley," a strange, moody piece about a bad Elvis imitator working the Cafe Schweindhunt, a bar somewhere between the cold war and the twilight zone. To say any more would be to spoil the shock and surprise, but I can reveal that other characters include Presley's daughter, the MC, Alfred Jarry, Natasha Wolf, Dr. Otto, a minotaur, and Klaus Blues with his puppet poet, Minky. I shall report the dates and venue for this in a future update.
6/8/2000: I was cast as the lead character in 19th century comic-opera style play "Mose the Fireman." Mose was a heroic anD legendary fireman in mid 19th century New York who had serial plays written about him. This will be a campy riot of a play performed as part of Ridicufest in late June and July. The venue will be Todo Con Nada on Ludlow St. in Manhattan.
June is going to be a busy month for me. I'm also going to be doing several pieces in Faux Real theater Co's evening of Short Shorts on Sun. June 25 at Botanica on Houston St. I've also been invited to write a tutorial on creating comics for an on-line university. All this and a championship too? I really am hitting the ground running!
6/1/2000 I've put up a mock ad for a beautiful sugarloaf helm I photographed at Pennsic. Check it out!
5/30/2000 I WON THE OSTGARDR CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNEY! On Saturday at the Huntington Renaissance Faire, 13 years of persistence finally paid off. In a round-robin tourney, I defeated all comers and laid low Lord Luigi in the final round to take the title. At the court that afternoon, The Viceroy and Vicerene gave me the medalion and sword of the champion of Cstgardr and named my lady, Kara, Queen of Love and Beauty. You will be seeing us now standing behind their excellencies at court.
5/22/2000 I'M BACK! on the way home we hit Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, and New York State. I lost $60 in Nevada casinos. I saw a canyon with a dam out west. We weighed the van and traile in Wyoming (over 12,000 lbs!). I did Karoeke in all sorts of places. I got a CD of a northwestern band that plays instrumental Tex-Mex in Denver. I sat in on a few workshops at the National Technical Theater Convention in Denver. I saw the outskirts of my old college town (Grinnell, Iowa). I ate a 64 oz. sirloin in 45 minutes in Ohio. We rocked the house at an open-mike in Scranton. I met old friends in Allentown, Pa. and Rochester, NY. I ate both a red and white hot dog in Rochester. I jumped out of a perfectly good airplane (tandem) in Ohio. I visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Oh. Drank with non-union elictrical engineers in Wyoming, and with Canadian union boilermakers in Ohio. I listened to a lot of country music radio (I like it!). In karaokes and open-mikes all over the country, I re-discovered my musical performer persona.
Now I'm back in NY, and God help the guilty! I'm fighting in the Ostgardr championship tourney this weekend in Huntington, L.I. I'll be doing some things with the Faux Real Theater's benefit showcase this June and in their Pericles this summer. I went through a lot during this tour that has given me a new perspective on things. Though I'm back at my old job in the city, I'm not going to let that keep me down or hold me back. I'm going to try to live up to the title of the Toby Keith song "How Do You Like Me Now!"
Brief conclusions I've come to: Phoenix sucks. Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Rochester, and Austin are cool. Folks who work hard like to relax hard. Lehigh Valley (central Pa.) is good for a small-town area. I'd really like to see a minor-league spoting event some day, just for the fun of it. No matter what you want to do on stage, it's not as important as getting the point of the story across.
I'll be putting select pictures up soon!
3/3/2000: I've lost track of day numbers. We've hit Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and we just got into California tonight. I am noticing more schools that happen to be white and happen to be black. It is impossible to get a rare hamburger anywhere but New York. I'm discovering I like beef jerkey. I walked Bourbon street in New Orleans. I saw a Rodeo, got a hat, played harmonica, and ate a steak in Fort Worth. I auditioned for Pioneer Playhouse in Kentucky. I found out that a country band (friends of mine) from New York called Anders Thompson and the Ex-Husbands is doing well and gaining popularity in the south. I visited the Civil War Soldiers Museum in Pensacola. I saw where Kennedy was shot in Dallas. I visited the Alamo in San Antonio. I discovered that in both Arizona and Kentucky the bars close way too early. At a Mexican restaurant somewhere I got a CD of Mexican Spanish versions of old Rock 'n' Roll songs. I visited White Sands park in Texas (surreal!). We stayed in a cabin in the Sacramento mountains. I almost made it to the finals of a kareoke contest in Biloxi. I had oysters on the Gulf coast and swam in the Gulf of Mexico. I held an M-1 Garand in Phoenix. Use the link in 1/17/200 below to find out where I'm going next!
2/1/2000: Day 1 of my tour is over. We played a high school in Newark, Delaware. A few rough spots, but nothing major. The crowd was a little small because of the bad weater. It was really interesting walking through the halls of a high shool outside New York. I wasn't expecting anything specific, so everything was a surprise. The kids were just like high school kids back in Stuyvesant, but the building was a lot brighter that my alma mater. There were a lot of school atheltic spirit exhibits. for some reason there seemed to be a military presence. In the hallway I saw a Sergeant wlking, and after the show, a Lieutennant Colonel was helping two girls get down a ladder after changing a sign. The scool also seemed surprisingly inegrated. The white/black mix was about equal to the national ratio. Well, another big day tomorrow. We play Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy.
1/17/00: Well, Doonsbury is back in the Daily News, but more importantly, I got the schedule of where I'll be touring with "Les Trois Mousketaires" (The Three Musketeers). Click here to see when I'm in a town near you!. E-mail me at zorikh@hotmail.com to tell me if you want to see it.
1/3/00: Yup, it's a whole new year! yadda, yadda, yadda...I just got a double dose of surprising, and bad, news. First, when the TV news broadcast that "Peanuts" had its last day (very sad, but not unexpected news on its own), they mentioned that a "Doonsbury" character payed homage to Snoopy. This reminded me that I had not seen "Doonsbury" in todays Daily News, which had been faithfully carrying the strip all my life. I double checked, and yes, there were two new strips, and no "Doonsbury!" But I had just seen it last week! Why did the New York Daily News stop running one of the most respected strips in the industry? If you can, call or write the paper to get them to re-instate this excellent cartoon strip. I will.
Second, The very next news report mentioned how an establishment known as Fraunces Tavern down near Battery Park in Manhattan will be closing due to a rent disagreement with its landlord. Fraunces Tavern is where George Washington said farewell to his officers at the end of the American Revolution. Currently it hosts a museum, an art gallery, and special programs on the holidays. Can you believe that this tavern has been open for well over two centuries? Can you imagine that it will be closed, not just within our lifetime, but very soon? I don't know what to do about this.
Oh yeah. I've been makiing some updates to the movielist, including splitting it into more pages for ease of use. check it out!
12/13/99: Hoo-hah! this year is gettin' busier and busier and next year shows no sign of slowin' down!
William Shakespeare's Haunted Ship at South Street Seaport went spectacularly well! Thanks to all of you who came and experienced it! the crowds were wonderful, large and enthusiastic. There were a few differences in the show this year, but I think they can be classified as, for the most part, experiments that worked. Our creative juices really got flowing and I think we really brought a new and exciting way to experience Shakespeare to New York. I hope this new Halloween tradition continues and does not grow stale.
Immediately after this, "After the Apocalypse" began shooting.This film turned out to be an intense human psycho-drama rather than a martial arts movie, and I think it's better for it.
When the shootong ended I auditioned for Biggs-Rosati's theatrical tours, and wound up with the role of Aramis in "Les Trois Mousketaires" (that's "The Three Musketeers")! I'll be touring 24 states in 14 weeks starting in February! Hoo-hah! I'm really excited about this!
10/29/99: Ladies and gentlemen, the Halloween event you've all been waiting for... William Shakespeare's Haunted Ship! (announcement deleted 12/13 to save space)
9/23/99: Well, it's been busy since my last update. I went to Pennsic. Fought in every battle, traded blows with several knights, came in third in the Meridies heraldic tourney, and got my eardrum blown out and tore a rib muscle. A week later I fought in the Chivalic challenge at the Amaral event at a new SCA campsite near Delhi, N.Y. I won the title of "Most Chivalous Fighter" in the sergeant's class. With the title came a new stainless steel bascinet (helm). On that same day I damaged my right medial collateral ligament and have been unable to fight since. I should be alright this weekend for the Queens County Farm Museum County Faire and the Cloisters Medieval Fest at Ft. Tryon Park.
I'm working on a new movie directed by Yaz Nakajima. It will be called "After The Apocalypse" and involves several voiceless people who, after an asteroid strike, must deal with the problems of food, shelter, and personal relationships. There's also a lot of martial arts fight scenes in a post-apocalyptic Brooklyn landscape.
It looks like I'm going to be in William Shakespeare's Haunted House again this year. Stay tuned for more details!
7/25/95:I just got back from an SCA event, the Southern Regional War Camp, where I got myself authorized in greatsword! I also fought with it in the battle. It was fascinating fighting in a battle where I could actually see what was going on.
Robin Hood at the Grove St Playhouse in Manhattan ended in June. Over the last two weeks I took over the role of Prince John, the plummest role in the show, which I think should be retitled "The Tragic Betrayal of Prince John by the Evil Traitor, Robin Hood." Before that I had been playing Little John and I called the show "The Fantastic Adventures of the Talented and Resourceful Little John and his Buddy with the Better Agent, Robin Hood."
Hey! I came in second in the Ostgardr Champions Tourney on Memorial weekend! That's the best I've done in 12 years in that tourney. A trend has been that whoever comes in second one year, comes in first the next, so next year, LOOK OUT!
The Faux Real Theater's evening of Short Shorts (short theatrical works in with actors in short pants) went spectacularly!. I had written, choreographed the fight scene, composed the music for, and acted in a short work adapted from Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D'Arthur (with a Marv Albert impersonator doing the play-by-play of the fight scene). It went over real well. This show was a benefit for the theater company and was very successful on that groound. The audience was packed to the rafters and lined up out to the street. One of my favorite local bands, the 20% Tippers, totally rocked their 2 song set. All the pieces that were planned went off very well. Next year we gotta do it in a bigger space.
For those of you who looked at the pictures of me and my father in armor and wondered just what the heck I do with that stuff, the local Society for Creative Anachronism has started its Tuesday night fighting practices in Union Square, 17th St. and Broadway, in Manhattan. You can see me there every week, although I might be a little bit to distracted trying to figure out what to do with this weapon to talk much.
4/6/99: A BIG THANK YOU...First to Lance, who I met at Union Square tonight. He found my bag and put it in his SBC Emergency Response Unit vehicle from Bethpage, NY. Next, to Paul Hilts for driving me home from fighter practice and then, when it was discovered that the aforementioned bag was not in the car, drove me back to Union Square. Finally, to Michael and Dave, for patiently putting up with all this along the ride.
On a more jolly note, as of 3/31/99, the first page of the lavishly photo-illustrated essay on my experiences at Pennsic XXV is here!
For several years now, I've worked at Shareholder Communications Communication. After all this time I've felt that some of these people need a website outlining the spinoffs and mergers of the companies they own stock in. So I am building one!
I've also got a new website dedicated solely to my paintings! Now you can se my famous self prtrait, an immortal swordsman, and a work inspired by a Robert Gordon song and a Brian Setzer song.
For those who don't know, it seems my father was in a Robert Bresson film back in '74, wearing armor. It also seems that I wear armor. Wanna see?
I've pretty much completed the first draft of my famous list of movies of SCAdian interest using Leonard Maltin as my main source. There are also plenty of films that could only be found by digging through bargain bins at Record Explosion and other obscure sources. Check it out!
The wait is over! For those of you who have wondered what I look like and what I have done, my headshots and resume are up!
I am also have a site dedicated solely to obscure sports and sports art. Of course it's not going to be just the mainstream stuff everyone already has. There's currently an illustration I did of David Cone piching. The essay on my experience and observations of a New York CityHawks arena football game is also there. Watch for more developments soon!
New York area SCAdians, stay tuned. A history of the Canton of Whyte Whey wil be here as soon as I finish researching and writing it. We still have the sample of some of the Pennsic photos that will be illustrating the rest of the essay on my experiences at Pennsic XXV. In the meantime, look at what's also here:
We gotMy Comics! We still got the first two Pennsic Pix! We got a sketch of A Helm I'd Like to Build!
We also got a banner you can use to link this site (see below).
Hey, I won a tourney! It was the An Dhubageann baronial championship tourney. I'm not a resident of that barony, so I didn't get the title, but I did go 4-1 and beat Lord Uther Shieldbreaker, their new champion! I may write about this someday.
Last summer,Gorilla Repertory Theater Co. performed Shakespeare's "Henry IV pts 1 & 2". I played Douglas, Gloucester, and Fang, directed the fights, and researched and painted the coats of arms of all the noble characters. For more on those coats of arms, lookee here!
On another heraldic note, I recently helped the Royer Genealogical page translate a bunch of coats of arms. Why not see the job I did?
William Shakespeare's Haunted House went great! I may write more about it someday.
Special Watch This Space products catalog
More Links and Webrings
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