A Shakespeare blog seems as good a place as any to take a moment out for a little Sir Ian McKellen love fest, don’t you think? We talk frequently about the greatness that is Sir Ian, but I thought it would be fun to gather all the good stuff in one spot for the rest of the world to appreciate. Let’s get started!

10. Impossibly Cool Young Ian Before he was the acting god (and all around fine person) we’ve come to know and love, Ian McKellen was, well…

….damn! This picture of our man circulated around the net in September 2010 and made more than one net geek rethink what the term “man crush” really means.

9. He’s Magneto. What else is there to say? This isn’t the greatest clip, but it’s the most readily available one. The smile at the end is the kind of thing that put Magneto over the top.

8. Harry Potter is nervous around him. Rumor has it that Sir Ian did get a shot at the Dumbledore role, but didn’t think it would be appropriate because a) he was already another famous wizard and b) Richard Harris, who originated Dumbledore’s role, thought McKellen was a dreadful actor. I enjoyed this interview where Mr. Harry Potter explains what a day on the set was like when Mr. McKellen showed up and taught them all what being “Important” looks like.

7. He was so good at waiting for Godot, Godot actually showed up. Well, no, not really – but while taking a break from the show he looked so authentic that people were throwing money into his hat. McKellen even went on record to invite the person to the show who threw him a dollar, “And if he insists on paying, we’ll knock a dollar off the price.”

6. He’s Gandalf. Demonstrating his continued dominance of the geek world, he moved from comic geeks to fantasy geeks by becoming the wizard Gandalf. He’s even messing with the legions of fans lining up for the next installment in the Lord of the Rings series. When people constantly ask him for updates on the new Hobbit movie(s) he just smiles and says things like “Oh yes, I heard they were making those. No, no one’s called me.” YOU SHALL NOT PASS! (embedding disabled, darn it).

5. Richard III. I’m trying very hard not to make this a Top 10 Shakespeare Reasons We Love Ian McKellen, since his awesome extends far beyond our little universe. But we have to include his Richard III. Anybody who looks at Magneto and thinks, “Wow, this guy plays an awesome villain” needs to check out his Richard.

4. He’s gay. Get over it. Unfortunately that awesome “I’m Gandalf and Magneto” t-shirt turns out to be a photoshop, but that doesn’t change the fact that one of the greatest actors of our generation is an out gay man and not shy about it in the least. He does march, he does speak at rallies, and he’s got plenty of quotes on the subject that are absolute gems:

I’ve had enough of being a gay icon! I’ve had enough of all this hard work, because, since I came out, I keep getting all these parts, and my career’s taken off. I want a quiet life. I’m going back into the closet. But I can’t get back into the closet, because it’s absolutely jam-packed full of other actors.

3. He’s best pals with Jean Luc Picard. Having the comic geeks, fantasy geeks and Shakespeare geeks firmly in his pocket, I wonder if maybe his longtime friendship with Patrick Stewart is McKellen’s attempt to go after the sci-fi geeks and collect the whole set ;). No, seriously, I’m well aware that Stewart and McKellen were members of the Royal Shakespeare Company together (and highly recommend Playing Shakespeare, where you’ll see them acting together years before X-Men). Non-Shakespeare folks may not fully appreciate the awesomeness of this acting duo, who’ve appeared together on both screen and stage. Here they share a stage in Waiting for Godot:

2. He’s Lear. When he’s not being a wizard or a super villain, marching in a gay rights parade or scaring Harry Potter, Sir Ian McKellen still finds the time to tackle the Mt. Everest of Shakespeare, King Lear. Every actor wants to put his mark on Hamlet, but it takes a lifetime to prepare for Lear.

And the #1 reason we love Sir Ian McKellen…

1. He gives away all his best secrets. In this Extras clip, Sir Ian patiently explains to Ricky Gervais exactly how he does what he does. You want to be Gandalf? Listen carefully.

Thanks for everything, Sir Ian! And I do mean everything!

When our kids study history they’ll no doubt hear about great works of art throughout the centuries – the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel, the statue of David. It’s a fairly safe bet that most students, regardless of what they are studying, will be exposed to these works are part of their general education, yes?
At what point do we start quizzing them on the kind of brush strokes that were used, and why? Or the political and economic climate at the time they were created?
If you’re a student of art history, then sure. if you’re destined to become an artist yourself, then absolutely. But for the most part, isn’t it important to understand that these great pieces exist, have a little bit of an idea about who created them and how and why they came into existence? Do we really need to analyze them into the ground from the moment we expose our kids to them?
You see where I’m going with this, right? How come we make them dissect Shakespeare until they hate it, then? A great deal of their education in this arena goes strictly to the items I mentioned, no doubt – understanding its existence and some concept of why it is important and how it came to be. Fair enough. But I monitor homework question sites. Most of the questions are of the “Compare and contrast the themes that Shakespeare expresses through specific use of anaphora in the following scenes and cite examples…..” blah blah blah.
Am I making a mountain out of a molehill on this one? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Shakespeare as a lesson in history, rather than in literature, and this is the idea that struck me this morning. Should we teach Shakespeare as part of history class?

[Argh, I hate this client, it eats my posts and I never know until somebody tells me.]
I think everybody remembers that dreaded day this summer when Sarah Palin didn’t know how to spell repudiate, and the world exploded. Trust me, I remember it well, I was on vacation and woke up to about 10,000 messages telling me that Palin had compared herself to Shakespeare. A book even came out of all the ShakesPalinisms that were spawned.
I would happily forget the whole thing. Except that the New Oxford American Dictionary has made her nonsense word the Word Of The Year, thus continuing to demonstrate the uselessness of dictionaries. I’ll leave it to Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers to eviscerate her, and them, the right way.

I don’t know what Prezi is, exactly, but I like the idea behind this presentation on Shakespeare’s Biography. It’s as if someone laid out a whole bunch of index cards on a big screen, some text, some graphics, and then played connect the dots with them. The player/browser walks you through the cards in the intended sequence, but be sure to click the X inside a circle (next to the Play button) which will bring up the entire map at once and yet you jump around.
I’m not linking this for the quality of the Shakespeare info. It’s ok, and even covers some info that’s often overlooked (like the deer-poaching story, or the fact that when people speak of Shakespeare “inventing” words, that doesn’t really mean what you think it means). But it’s also pretty light on everything else, and never really mentions any plays at all, just timeline stuff.
What’s interesting to me is the potential for something like this. Play with it first, so we can discuss it. Got it? Ok, good.
Imagine this thing on an iPad. You’re using your fingers, getting in there and driving your way around Shakespeare’s life. Now like I said, this particular sample is pretty shallow – but imagine a really deep one that went into all the plays? Or even better something that had a certain amount of wiki to it, where people could continually comment and add ideas? It’s easy to write one sentence that says “Shakespeare had twins Judith and Hamnet, and Hamnet died at 11.” But think about all the different places throughout Shakespeare’s work where you could link possible examples of how his son’s death impacted his work.
Imagine it interactive! This was apparently created by a teacher, for his class. So why not have something in there were students could post questions back to the teacher? Or have homework where they have to create their own branches?
I love stuff like this that’s got obvious educational potential.