I thought this story, analyzing the Philadelphia Phillies’ (baseball) season entirely in Shakespeare quotes was entertaining enough to merit a link. If somebody in Boston was literate enough to do that for the Red Sox, I might even have something to say on the subject. But … it’s the Phillies.

The new movie “Yes” by Sally Potter could easily have slipped under most people’s radar if not for the unusual fact that the whole thing is written in iambic pentameter. That’s a pretty neat trick.

Other than the straightforward “star-crossed lovers” theme lifted from Romeo and Juliet, there are no other particular parallels to the bard. As a matter of fact I got to the point in the review that says Potter wrote the movie “as a response to 9/11” and pretty much stopped reading right there. I go to movies to be entertained, not preached at.

This is the second time I’ve stumbled over a review of 1599:A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare so I’m putting up a link. The reason I didn’t in the first place is that given my recent reading I’m not sure of the value of something that says “Let’s take a specific year and look at all the details of what happened.” For instance do we truly know for a fact that this was the year that he wrote Hamlet, As You Like It, Henry V and Julius Caesar? Or is that just the accepted timeline? If it’s the latter, that’s cool – but it’s pretty hard to then write the book like a calendar of events, since it’s really only by mutual agreement that this is the case, not any cold hard facts.

This coming Sunday, July 3 10,000 British school children in 400 schools will all perform Shakespeare simultaneously. Organizers hope to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for most Shakespeare performances in a single night. What an odd record :).

Apparently, “Pupils will perform their own interpretations of shortened versions of some of Shakespeare’s plays, directed and produced by their teachers.” Own interpretations of shortened versions? Exactly how much of the original has to remain in order for it to still be Shakespeare?