My New Project! The Blank Verse Game!

~ duane ~ 6 Comments

Ok, so I haven’t been around much for the last week or so.  That’s because I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my latest project!  I call it Blank Verse, and it’s inspired by a post from just about a year ago, come to think of it.  I probably could have planned to roll that out exactly on the 1 year date.  Oh well.

Of course, when I say “finishing touches” I really mean “Convince myself that any bugs left are not the end of the world, and nobody at all is going to see it if I never hit that Launch button.”  In particular please forgive the coarseness of the design, I’ve got no skills in that area and have been trying to figure out how to improve.

I released the game early to email subscribers so some of you may have already seen it, either there or on Twitter/Facebook as people began sharing their games.  What I’d really like, and maybe some of you can help me out, is for people to hit that Contact button on the game and tell me what worked, what didn’t, what you’d like to see improved.  Anybody can take the game for a spin once and declare it “Meh.”  I want to know what it’ll take to make you want to play it a dozen times and tell all your friends about it on Facebook.

Slings & Arrows to Return?

~ duane ~ 7 Comments

I tweeted yesterday about the rumor going around that a fourth season of Slings & Arrows might be in the works.  Here’s a link to an interview with one of the writers where he says it is, quote “Well, it’s more than a dream, I’ll tell you that much. I’ll stop now, before I’m hoisted by my own petard.

For those that have never seen it, the short-lived Canadian TV series takes place backstage at a fictional Shakespeare theatre festival.  If you’ve not seen it, you must drop everything and go watch all 3 seasons.  This is not just another random drama that happened to throw some Shakespeare into the background.  This is a show *about* Shakespeareans *performing* Shakespeare.  The jokes are Shakespeare jokes.  You’ve got your overly dramatic Ophelia who throws herself into the river when she’s upset.  You’ve got to the bad director who SET THE TEMPEST IN NAZI GERMANY!  You’ve got an insane director who sees ghosts.  And most of that is just in the first season.

If you have seen it, what do you think of a fourth season?  I mean, they kind of swung for the fences in the first three seasons, tackling Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear (with a bit of Romeo and Juliet thrown in for good measure).  How do you follow that up?

Rest in Peace, Agnes Morin

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

I mentioned quickly on Twitter Friday (? is that the right order of those words ?) that my 95yr old grandmother was on her deathbed.  This was not an unexpected thing, she has lived in a nursing home for the last 4 years and has been on the decline.  This weekend was just a sharper turn.

 
Well, this morning we got the news that she passed away in her sleep last night.  This is a goodness.  She was in pain, and it was wearing on her 70+yr old children to be by her bedside for so long.  
 
I will end this post the same way that I always do when somebody in our little universe goes to visit the great undiscovered country.  But before I do that, I’d like to take a walk through some of Shakespeare’s more comforting lines at a time such as this.  After all, so many of the most memorable deaths he gave us are tragic, often men, typically violent.  Grammie was none of these things.  But, yet, death still comes.  
 
When I first heard the news on Friday I went right to “Give me my robe, put on my crown, I have immortal longings in me.”  I know that it is entirely a figment of my own brain, but I like to think that people have control over the moment in which they cross over, and do so when they are themselves at peace with it.
 

“To me, fair Friend, you never can be old, For as you were when first your eye I eyed
Such seems your beauty still.”  This one might be a little unusual to recite over your 95yr old grandmother, but I still like the point.  We all know that old age will eventually come.  But it’s up to us to decide how we deal with it.

 
“Thy eternal summer shall not fade.”  Another nice image, just like that.
 
I’m at work, so that’s all I’ve got for now.  Please feel free to chip in your own favorite quotes.  If someone close to you died, which words from Shakespeare would you find comforting?
 
A special personal thanks to WendyGough, Minisquiggs, Bardfilm and TheShakesForum who spotted my original Twitter note and sent me their own thoughts and support.  Thank you.
 
Now cracks a noble heart.  Good night, Grammie.  And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bad Shakespeare Dreams

~ duane ~ Leave a comment
Had a Shakespeare dream last night.  My whole  family had finally made it to Stratford and we were in some sort of bookstore where they had a guy dressed up and acting like Shakespeare.  Only problem is that he wasn’t any good,  and some of his trivia was wrong,  so I started mocking him.  Of  course this then gets me kicked out!  And not just out of the book store but out of Stratford! Needless to say I was a little bent out of shape that it had taken me this long to get there and in a matter of minutes I was kicked out;)