Chasing Shakespeare

~ duane ~ 2 Comments

While poking around IMDB for Shakespeare movies I spotted the indie Chasing Shakespeare, starring Danny Glover.  The link above has the most information, and that story was dated a year ago.  IMDB lists the film as having as 2012 release.

The plot? “A love story between a young African-American man and a Native American girl with a passion for Shakespeare.“

Well, at least we know this one will have some Shakespeare in it.   Has anybody seen this one, or heard of it?

The Immortal Bard, by Isaac Asimov

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

I saw a reference to this Isaac Asimov short story and thought, “Ooo, it sounds like I would like that!”  Then I googled for it, found it available for reading online, and the link was already purple – meaning that I’d been there before.  Go figure! 🙂

It’s a short and easy read, and the plot is familiar enough – Shakespeare + time travel.  What does Mr. Shakespeare think of how we’ve elevated him in the past few centuries?  Of course, much like Mr. Shakespeare, Mr. Asimov had the same talent of taking a story that’s been told countless times and putting his own personal spin on it.
Isaac Asimov is famous among Shakespeare geeks for other reasons as well, most notably his own guide to Shakespeare, with which I’ve had something of a love/hate relationship.

Coming Soon : Shakespeare’s Daughter

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

I noticed a new movie in IMDB today called Shakespeare’s Daughter. The cast is a number of big names – Eric Roberts, Chevy Chase, Tom Sizemore, Bonnie Wright…

The plot so far is only the short synopsis, “Eugen Devlin, a once famous, and now reclusive poet searches through his past looking for redemption and peace.”

I don’t expect that it’s got much if any Shakespeare material in it (other than the almost obligatory references to Shakespeare’s literary genius, like something out of Good Will Hunting), but who knows?  Does anybody know the material?  I’m wondering if it’s perhaps based on a book or something that might tell us what to expect.

The Delighted Beauty Project

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Back in May I mentioned the “Shakespearean Rosetta Stone” project where a line was taken from Othello:

If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.

And the world was asked, “Translate this line into your language.”  The idea was to take a culturally sensitive line and look at how that aspect plays into the translation.”

Anyway, I’ve learned that the Delighted Beauty site is up and running, and you are invited to participate.   They are inviting full multimedia contribution of any translation along with its back-translated English version.
The best I could offer is Esperanto, but I don’t know it nearly well enough to do translation.  Anybody going to participate?  Let us know in the comments!

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?