Month: October 2010

We’ve talked about projects to visualize Shakespeare before, in a variety of ways. Here’s one I hadn’t seen. Via Incredible Things I give you an actual wallsized poster of Hamlet, diagrammed. Suitable for framing.
At almost $300 I’m not going to run out and grab one, but it does fascinate me. It is *very* tight. I’d love something in a big TIFF file that I could peruse at my leisure, to sit down and really see whether the entire story is adequately captured so succinctly.
I’d also like to see whether she’s done the other plays! (Her bio lists just the 1 item for sale, so I’m guessing not. But maybe coming soon?)
Seriously, this is the kind of thing that kicks the computer geek side of my brain. I’ve always dreamed of having this sort of semantic engine that could read Shakespeare’s work and then spit back out whatever you asked for it (at least, the objective stuff like “When does Hamlet kill Polonius” or “Who is Tybalt to Juliet?”). Just the other day I saw on a mailing list where somebody asked whether you could programmatically solve “The doubling problem” by making the definitive list of all characters who are on stage with each other. Assuming you’ve got an accurate representation of enters/exits, then yes, you certainly could, I’d think.

We’ve talked before about stage combat, and the safety of the actors. So I feel a bit obliged to mention stories such as these when they cross my radar. Sometimes Geek readers actually know the people involved and can vouch for their credentials (either pro or con):

McHale, who plays Caesar’s friend Proculeius (as well as Ledipis, a friend of Antony, and the Schoolmaster) was sliced in the left calf in a Tuesday night pre-show swordfight rehearsal by John Douglas Thompson (who plays Antony). McHale, who is making his Hartford Stage debut, was taken to the hospital for stitches and the show was cancelled.

The rented stage swords are metal lances and, though dulled, can still inflict harm. Rick Sordelet is the fight director who staged the duels before opening night. A fight captain oversees the rehearsals after that. Director Tina Landau was notified of the accident, said a theater spokesman.

I don’t really know how to just the circumstances. “Sliced in the left calf” clearly sounds like a sharp object was involved, but who really knows how the injury occurred?
http://www.courant.com/entertainment/arts/hc-rizzo-ticker-1021-20101021,0,1963723.column

I don’t pay much attention to tattoos – it seems like everybody these days is rocking some sort of artwork somewhere on their body (though, granted, some represent way, way more commitment than others).
What I do like are tattoos with words. I like to read what a person’s chosen to express on their body. Often it is a date, or the name of a family member. But sometimes it’s a quote. Those I love. Those tell me something about the person. I once spotted someone with most of To Be… tattooed up his arm.
So I find this article about literary tattoos pretty cool. Look at that Jack Kerouac example. Wow. The article is promoting a book on the subject, so apparently I’m not the only one who finds this particular method of self-expression fascinating.

Over on the Facebook page (see that big button over in the left nav? Click that), Ashley has a question:

We’re getting ready to read the sonnets over at Shakespeare in a Year, and I’m wondering how to split them up into two or three manageable batches. Does anyone have suggestions?

Interesting question. I don’t think you can really split them up by Fair Youth / Dark Lady / Procreation in a meaningful way for this purpose, can you? The batches would be lopsided, I think.
I’ve told her that I’d post the question here, since the primary page gets more traffic than the Facebook page. Feel free to answer on either.

Being in the web business, I get excited when I see headlines go by like “Shakespeare and the Invention of Web 3.0” and other topics that look like they’d tie my two loves together. Imagine how disappointed and frustrated I get when I skim said article and discover that the closest they get to Shakespeare is one “A rose by any other name….” message thrown into the mix. (I saw this one just this morning, as a matter of fact).
So when I saw Print, Real People, and Shakespeare : A Content Strategy I thought I was again in for disappointment. In fact on first skim of the article I saw no Shakespeare mention at all, and dreamed up this ranting blog post.
Wrong!

The answer can be found, as usual, in Shakespeare. I don’t mean that there’s a line from Hamlet that we can lazily interpret to impress the audience. I’m talking about the plays themselves — the performances. Will a video of actors on the live stage ever replace the experience of being in the theater? Not likely. I think most will agree that seeing a live play will always provide a different experience than watching it on a screen — and that it will always be a valued experience.

The article goes on to argue that it is that “real” content of a print publication, something you can hold in your hands, that will forever give it a premium value over and above purely online content. It’s an interesting argument, and I can see his point. Not sure I agree with it, but that’s a different story. I just wanted to credit them with actually using Shakespeare meaningfully in their article. Thanks!