A couple months ago, a writer in Manchester, England sent us a story pitch that seemed like fiction: across Europe and North America, adults were dressing up like medieval knights and fighting each other with real swords, spears, and axes. Thousands of people—from curiosity seekers to die-hard fans—were showing up to watch. Too weird to be true, right? Turns out, this is a real thing, and videos from the fights have gone wildly viral on social media. So we sent the writer to Indiana for a fight night hosted by an organization called Armored MMA. He got behind-the-scenes access and filed this stranger-than-fiction dispatch. – Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief Plus: |
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Across America, in front of crowds of thousands, men and women are dressing up as knights from the Middle Ages and fighting one another. The weapons, violence, and chivalry are all real. |
In one corner is thirty-seven-year-old Matt Gifford, five foot ten inches, weighing in at 185 pounds. Over his armor, he wears a red brigandine, a cloth garment studded with metal. On the other side of the cage is forty-seven-year-old Jason Bryant—five foot seven, 155 pounds—in a black brigandine. They've just swaggered into the cage through thick smoke, hitting video game taunts for the crowd. They're both armored up to the extreme: backplates, pauldrons, vambraces, greaves, sabbatons. Tonight they are Arthurian knights, with scores to settle. |
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When the temps are high and layers are rare, each item you wear matters more. Everything from your sunglasses to your shoes has to pull as much weight as possible, style-wise. This isn't the time for ho-hum accessories. And on that rare occasion you're wearing something like a jacket? That jacket better look fantastic. If this all sounds a little intimidating, don't worry. We've picked out ten pieces that'll ensure every warm-weather outfit is up to snuff this season. Check 'em out. |
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Nine years before he fingered a few notes on the synthesizer in his bedroom that would become the most recognizable hook in one of the most famous—and downloaded—songs in the history of pop music, Magne Furuholmen was living the life of a little boy in Oslo. He was six years old when his father, a jazz trumpet player, left one day to play a gig, and the small plane on which he was traveling crashed, and he died, and Magne never saw him again. "My mother was now the center of the family, and she always said, I don't care if you sweep the streets or if you have a career academically or in music or whatever you want, as long as you're happy," Furuholmen says. |
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