Once upon a time I so much as mentioned Bob Dylan in a post, and it rapidly became one of my largest traffic spikes ever. And there wasn’t even any meat in that post, just a friend comparing Dylan and Shakespeare.
Well this time I’ve got a better link and I’m hoping that some of those Dylan fans stuck around to appreciate it. Our friend and long time contributor Bardfilm wanted to make the connection between Bob Dylan’s folk narrative in a song like “Seven Curses”, and the Shakespeare’s problem play Measure for Measure. He did this for his class (he teaches Shakespeare for a living), so this is not just some random grab for web traffic. This is an entirely independent project that *deserves* some recognition. That’s different.
What he’s done is to sing Measure for Measure. In 5 minutes. As Bob Dylan. To the tune of Seven Curses. Accompanied by a video, with finger puppets.
Regular fans of the site may have already seen this link go by on Twitter or the Facebook page, but it dawned on me this morning that it really merits a post of its own so that the blog readers who only stop by via RSS feed can see it as well. Normally I don’t play the “blog post pointing to a blog post” game, because that’s a game that results in way too many links and not enough original content. I’m making an exception here because of the quality (and quantity!) of content in this most. I think more people need to see it. Truthfully I’m hoping that we can get this little effort enough attention that he’s convinced to do it again. I’ve always been a big fan of learning and memorizing Shakespeare through song, and stuff like this is a golden opportunity.
I call this post Where My Dylan Fans At, and I mean that. All it took originally was for one Dylan fan to post my link on a Dylan fan board, and traffic the likes of which I’ve never seen came pouring in. I’m hoping that someone can extend that same favor to Bardfilm’s effort. I don’t even want you to link this post – link directly to him.
[And for the record he’s neither asked me to post this, nor even knows that I’m doing it (though I expect he’ll notice soon enough)]

Look at this, just the second installment and already I’m a day late. Hope you folks appreciate these 🙂 Since I clearly do not have the time to do a proper summary of the entire week (given that those summaries would each depend on how busy the previous week was), I’ll prune it down to just the most interesting posts…
The most notable push this week is the long-awaited (by some!) arrival of Gnomeo and Juliet, Elton John’s animated musical tribute to Shakespeare. We’ve been talking about this literally for four years now, and I don’t think anybody has expectations that it’s going to be the next Shrek, but we can dream.
First, we’ve got a review and a look at what it’s up against at the box office this weekend.
More interesting, I hope, is my plea for Shakespeare Geeks of all shapes and sizes to do what they can to make sure the world at large gives this movie a chance : What’s In A Gnome? To show that I’m not messing around I even dug up my old Cinderella Story from out of the archives. I wrote that two years ago, and I still want it just as much.
On a lighter note, Bardfilm brought us one of his famous lists, this time pondering Why Would You Watch A Shakespeare Play When You Could Watch The Super Bowl?
Not wanting BF to have all the fun I offered up my own list with Why Hamlet Can’t Date You, a riff on one of Twitter’s “top trends” that floated across my radar one day.
Lastly, in anticipation of finishing The Story of Edgar Sawtelle I posted A Hamlet Story, where we discussed the origins of The Lion King and pondered exactly how little Shakespeare can be in a story before you can’t call it Shakespeare anymore. Bardfilm pointed us to the official rules for defining that sort of thing. Who knew?

The Today Show provides us a list of what movies are opening this weekend opposite Gnomeo and Juliet. Who do you think will get the top box office?

• Gnomeo and Juliet. We’ve discussed this. A bit. 🙂
• Just Go With It, an Adam Sandler / Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy. Somebody remind me the last time either of them had a hit?
• The Eagle. Every time I see this trailer I swear I think it’s Coriolanus, but it’s not. I have no idea what it is, though. There’s ghosts, what appear to be indians, and Roman centurions. I’ve just learned in this article that it’s based on a book – I had no idea if it was supposed to be a comic graphic novel or what.
• And last but not least …. Justin Bieber. In 3D. The less said about this, the better.

So, wait, did I say who would win at the box office? I think young Mr. Bieber may have my gnomes at a disadvantage.

[ Why do I care so much about this movie? ]

Starting on a brief interview with Kelly Asbury, one of Gnomeo and Juliet’s creators, SFGate ends with a fairly standard list of “films that take liberties with Shakespeare.” Linked for those who may not be familiar with every item in the list. There’s at least one I’d not heard of.
By the way, if you’re wondering about the approach to Shakespeare Mr. Asbury prefers, let me quote him:

“I think Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo + Juliet’ is a work of genius,” Asbury says. “I think ‘West Side Story’ is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, musicals ever put onscreen – or stage, for that matter. I, frankly, like Zeffirelli’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ very much, too. I grew up with that. … I loved it; I loved the score, I loved the acting.”

I’ll let you all make of that what you will. 🙂