Month: September 2012

So, Who Wants To Teach Me About Mumford & Sons?

~ duane ~ 8 Comments

I don’t believe that the band Mumford & Sons is new, but I do know that I’ve been hearing them a lot more on the radio lately, and they’re going to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live next week, so something’s definitely happening in their story arc.

The name of their debut album?  Sigh No More, which is a quote from Much Ado About Nothing. Honestly I’m not loving that particular song, but maybe it will grow on me.

Rather than do some quick Wikipedia searches and pretend like I know something about the band, I figure the reference in the subject line will be enough to attract the fans who can come and school me.  This is why the blog has been successful  – I just open up the conversation and let you folks do the talking.

So, somebody enlighten me – what’s up with Shakespeare and Mumford and Sons?  Are there lots of references?  Have they spoken about this in interviews, and is there a specific connection they’re working from (I’m reminded of the stories about Sting being an English teacher, for instance).  If a new fan stumbles across the band almost entirely because of the Shakespeare thing, what’s the best song to point them to?

Once Again, Geeklets Knock Me For A Loop

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

So tonight it’s bath night and I’m pouring water over my son’s head in the tub.  “Look, a double bubble!” he says.

“Double bubble toil and trouble,” says I.  “Fire burn and cauldron bubble!”
“Fillet of a fenny snake,” I hear out of the 8year old.
“Holy sh*t!” says I, who did not realize that they knew the speech.  (Ok, I didn’t really say that, but I certainly thought it :))  It’s not like any of those are commonly used words, after all.  “Ok, you caught Daddy by surprise, I did not know that you guys knew that speech.”
“Oh sure,” says the 10year old, “Everybody knows that speech.  Fillet of a fenny snake, in the cauldron boil and bake.”
Seriously, the only time I know of that they would have heard that speech (other than the opening line) was when I taught the 8yr old’s Brownie troop.   Either it just stuck somehow, or they’ve been exposed to it in other ways.
Pretty soon they’re going to come at me with Shakespeare knowledge that they picked up independently of me.  I can’t wait.

More on the Psychology of Romeo and Juliet

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

A couple weeks ago I stumble across a mention of The Romeo and Juliet Effect in a book about motivation and will power.

Today among the various Shakespeare feeds I scan I spotted this 2008 Psychology Today article entitled, “Romeo and Juliet’s Death Trip: Addictive Love and Teen Suicide.”  

There are no great insights to be found.  The author pretty much skims the story for various death references and ties them all back to suicide, including the claim that Romeo is suicidal over Rosaline at the opening of the play.  I think that’s a bit much.  That’s not suicidal, that’s emo.  Not the same thing.

The article’s at least entertaining, though, and I appreciate that.  I wonder how far his tongue was in his cheek while writing it?

Father Laurence tries cognitive behavior therapy:

I’ll give thee armour to keep off that word:
Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy (read “psychology”),
To comfort thee, though thou art banished. . . .
rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew’st Tybalt; there are thou happy too:
The law that threaten’d death becomes thy friend
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:
A pack of blessings lights up upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array.

But then (oy!!!) the good Father resorts to pharmacology: he gives Juliet a potion to make her appear dead.

College Shakespeare (in Boston)

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

Bard in Boston has been collecting a list of fall shows playing at some of our many Massachusetts colleges, including an all-female Taming of the Shrew, and a “a creative encounter with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, incorporating movement, music, martial arts, sound and song”

Maybe I’ll make it to some of these!  I really don’t see nearly enough Shakespeare, relative to how much is around me at all times.  Maybe some of the more North Shore schools will get added to the list?  I’m looking at you, Merrimack College …

A Dogberry Spinoff?

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

In this interview with Joss Whedon about the upcoming Much Ado movie we learn a couple of interesting bits:

  • Although the Shakespeare readings at his house have been going on 10 years and started during Buffy, Sarah Michele Gellar did not take part.  I expect he threw this in there because it’s a frequently asked question – she’s still arguably the most well known name to come out of that series (that is, outside the Whedon universe).
  • Nathan Fillion, cast as Dogberry, had never read Shakespeare before.  “People are thinking spin-off!” Whedon says.
He goes on to talk about how a Shakespeare movie is similar to The Avengers, but isn’t that what all directors and actors do when they’re interviewed?  Talk about how it’s all basically drawing from the same source?  I get his point – that both works are ensemble pieces, and you need to clearly understand and present why each character is there – but I wouldn’t call it a groundbreaking opinion.
What got me most curious was that spinoff idea.  Could you imagine that?  You take a well known cast of characters from a world where spinoffs and sequels abound (that being the comic/sci-fi world).  Then you drop some Shakespeare on them.  They don’t need to glorify the text like we do – they just want to see their favorite characters having new adventures.  So, why not?
We’ve talked about Shakespeare sequels in the past, but I don’t think we’ve ever done spin-offs.  What would a Dogberry spin-off look like?  Could you get a movie out of it, or a whole television series?