This year we've had some really great submissions to the pumpkin destruction contest! All of the entries were excellent, but there can be only one winner of the highly coveted, widely admired, and almost worthless Gordy Award for pumpkin destruction film excellence.
The trophy will be sent to the winner whether they want it or not.
In our view, every entry is a winner, but there are always gradations of awesomeness. We have therefore created awards for each entry.
Yankee Barber - The scare the neighbors at night award, $100 gift certificate.
Corey Templeton - "The only good gourd is a gored gourd" Crafty Bastard Award, $100 gift certificate.
Jordan Dahir - The epic award for Elvish copyright infringement ;-), $100 gift certificate.
Chris Fields and Josh Von War Bear, Best creative use of an A&A Item, and best example of sword makers community friendship. #SuhfjTY, $100 gift certificate.
Lake Forest Academy - The "it takes an army to kill a pumpkin" award. $100 gift certificate
Jon Hansen and Iris Hansen - The "super creepy and menacing use of a child actor award"! Best in show! $250 gift certificate and winner of the Gordy Award.
Thank you all for your submissions. Sometimes it seems like we are just laboring in the darkness of our sword dungeon, but these events let us see and connect with the best aspects of the sword community, and we really value that. Thank you all so much, it is so rewarding to feel the love. Well, back to the grind...
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985