I don’t have enough of an opinion on the politics surrounding the whole Rove thing to really take a stand either way. But when somebody makes such an articulate case comparing Rove to the “calculating, corpulent and very good at self-preservation” Falstaff it merits a mention. I wasn’t about to pass up an article that has gems such as this one: “It’s time for Bush II to be less Prince Hal and more Henry V. There is no better, smarter or meaner political operative than Karl Rove. But Bush II cannot afford to keep Falstaff on staff.” It even reads like a Shakespeare lesson :)!
Month: July 2005
Now is the winter of Iraq’s discontent?
Here’s a great way to get people talking about Richard III again — portray him as Saddam Hussein. Biggest complaints are coming from the Richard III society, who are quoted as saying “We already have our work cut out for us as it is without going to this extreme.”
I’ll bet that if they’d portrayed him as Bill Clinton nobody would bat an eye. 🙂
What, no parseltongue translation?
Harry Potter fans aren’t that nuts, says this article about just how nuts they are. They haven’t, quote, “gone the Star Trek route and translated the works of Shakespeare into parseltongue yet”. Referring of course to the fascination with the Klingon language that has inspired so many a Trekkie/Trekker over the years. (Parseltongue, by the way, is the snake-language of Harry Potter, in case you’re not much of a fan.)
But maybe that’s not so far off, if you look at your Star Trek history. A few words of the Klingon language were specially commissioned for I believe it was the second movie. The producers found a real linguist, Mark Okrand, to do the work. It was a hit, so they included more and more in the movies and the series. And before you knew it, a cult following was born.
Why not in Harry Potter? Stranger things have happened.
More Harry Potter / Shakespeare …
Top Twenty Female Actors
Found over at blogcritics.org, this guy’s list is particularly interesting because of all the Shakespeare on it:
Judi Dench (’nuff said)
Emma Thompson (formerly married to Kenneth Branagh, starred in Much Ado about Nothing, Henry V…)
Joan Plowright (formerly married to Laurence Olivier. Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice … )
The name of the game is to see how many of his top 20 have Shakespeare in their resumes. I was hoping the answer would be “all”, but alas Cher had to fail me.
Shakespeare and Star Trek
Every good geek knows that Star Trek is loaded with Shakespeare references. Mostly in Next Generation, where Captain Picard just quoted it all the time, and Data kept performing it on the Holodeck, but also in the original series and the movies as well.
I found a site that tries to track as much as it can. It’s pretty impossible to get them all, given how many episodes Star Trek ran through, but it’s a start.
One of my favorites has always been Star Trek VI, in particular during the final battle scene where Christopher Plummer (playing Klingon General Chang) cries, “Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!” Gives me chills. Even better for a whole different reason is when the shot switches to the Enterprise, and they can hear Chang taunting them over the speaker:
Chang: “I am constant as the northern star…”
Dr. McCoy : “I wish he’d just shut up.”