Month: March 2009

http://chicagoist.com/2009/03/27/its_a_bird_its_a_plane_its_a_shakes.php So says the Chicagoist article about an upcoming production of The Tempest at  the Steppenwolf. “Safe is not exactly what I do," said Sylvia Hernandez-DiStasi, co-artistic director of the Actors Gym and aerial coach for The Tempest. I wonder if my pal David Blixt, the Master of Verona, is still out there, because he’s a) based in Chicago but also b) outspoken on the need to keep actors safe onstage.

“I’m reading a book by Douglas Crockford called "Javascript: The Good Parts" and he precedes each chapter with a Shakespeare quote that underlines the topic of the chapter. Very cool considering it’s a very technical book. There’s your Will + geekery for the day” JavaScript: The Good Parts Thanks to Jay for the old-school geeky link.   He’s right, here’s the opening for chapter 1, which is titled Good Parts: ….setting the attractions of my good parts aside I have no other charms.  – William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives Of Windsor That of course is only going to be of interest to web programmers, but I happen to be one of those :).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123809862598451041.html I don’t know anything about Japanese Kabuki theatre, but I like the idea of the cultural crossover.   Also of note is that a single actor will play both Cesario/Viola and Sebastian, her twin brother.  In Kabuki theatre all the parts are played by men, just like Elizabethan times. From the article: In Kabuki, there are many, many forms — you could call it a toolbox — and it was a matter of choosing the right ones and putting them together. Because they know the forms so well — some of which I didn’t understand — they normally rehearse and put on a play in three days. Wow.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/27/gdc09_jeffrey_kaplan_session/ What happens when the leader of a very popular computer game company gets on stage and mentions Shakespeare?  My news filters all go frickin bananas, I’ll tell ya that! This is only borderline related to us, but basically the maker of computer game World of Warcraft said very publicly to his developers, and I quote, “to stop writing a f***ing book in the game because nobody wants to read it…the sooner we accept that we are not Shakespeare, Scorcese, Tolstoy or the Beatles, the better off we are.”   I’d just like to say that there’s nothing wrong with building your game on a literary foundation such as those you mention.  Why not write in a plot that lifts directly from Kurosawa’s “Ran”, for instance?  You’re right, you won’t come up with stuff on your own that’s nearly as good.  But most of the good stuff is public domain, so why not just take it? He’s right about not putting everything into text, no doubt about it.  I don’t play many games, but when I do (on Wii, mostly) I tend to skip the text.  Show me the story, don’t tell it to me.

So I was reading the sonnets today at lunch.  Not somebody’s commentary, the plain text file.  I was looking for something random and romantic to text my wife on this nice spring day we’re having.  (I know, awwww…….:))  [UPDATE : I actually started this yesterday, I just realized that I’m posting it a) before lunch and b) it’s raining. ]
Anyway, I was intrigued at how without training in what the heck it all means (Hi Carl!) some of them just make your eyes glaze over, and some pop out and make sense.  I think it has a great deal to do with word choice, in particular the first line or two.  If you immediately hit on a word that you don’t understand (“unprovident?”), and you can’t figure it out from context of the other words, then I expect you’re basically screwed as far as “getting” that particular sonnet, at least until you get some reference materials.
So I happened to get a kick out #12:

When I do count the clock that tells the time,
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;
When I behold the violet past prime,
And sable curls, all silvered o'er with white; 
When lofty trees I see barren of leaves,
Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,
And summer's green all girded up in sheaves,
Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,
Then of thy beauty do I question make,
That thou among the wastes of time must go,
Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake
And die as fast as they see others grow;
  And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence
  Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

We know, since it’s one of the “procreation sonnets”, that the blunt message of this one is “Dude, have a kid.”   I like the way this one just rattles off the rapidfire images of what happens to things as time goes by / when they get old:

* sunset (“brave day sunk into hideous night”)

* withered flowers (“violet past prime”)

* gray hair (“sable curls all silvered over with white”)

* lofty trees barren of leaves

* fields all harvested (“summer’s green all girded up in sheaves”)

Then, he makes it personal — “Bro, I’ve seen what happens to things when they get old, man, and then, well, I look at you, you know?  And I wonder how long you’re gonna stay as beautiful as you are right now?”

I mean, that’s just good stuff right there.  It doesn’t say much about the person they’re apparently written *to*, who must be just crazy obsessed with his own awesomeness, but it says wonders for the poet.

It ends almost conspiratorially, calling out a throwdown against Time himself, the dude with the scythe – “You want to know how to tell Time to go screw himself?  Have a kid.” 

I think I like this one because, while reading it, I can visualize an entire scene – some annoying prince who refuses to get married and have kids, and an adviser whispering in his ear, playing to all the prince’s own weaknesses and conceits.  He doesn’t say “Everybody gets old”, he paints a picture of how ugly things get when they get old.  They he transitions into “You know, you’re beautiful now, but….” only briefly, just planting the idea, before quickly (I can even imagine him snapping his fingers like, “Aha!”) moving on to “Hey, I just had an idea!” (like he just thought of it, yeah right)  “You want to know how you can have the last laugh?  What if you had a kid?  Then when your time does eventually come, you’ll know that the world can still benefit from your beauty.”  And then the prince, who has been staring out the window the whole time, smiles and nods like “Yes, yes, that is a good plan, I will have the last laugh.”

I’m not saying that my interpretation any way echoes reality – we have no idea who they were written to, they were almost certainly not recited directly to the intended, and I doubt strongly that anyone of them convinced the recipient to go sow some wild oats.  I’m saying that you could pull this one out of the entire lineup and you could write an entire story of your own around it, it is that vivid in its imagery.