Had an interesting thought today.  Was pondering a situation where I’ve met someone, they’ve heard about the Shakespeare Geek thing, and this person says, “Quote something.”

What’s the first quote that comes to mind?  No fair thinking about it, no fair with the followup questions like I’d normally do (“Oh, geez, something from the tragedies or would you prefer a comedy?”)

Reason I ask is that, when it occurred to me, the quote that came to mind was “If we shadows have offended think but this and all is mended that you have but slumbered here, whilst these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme no more yielding but a dream, gentles do not reprehend.  If you pardon, we will mend.”  That surprised me, because normally I don’t go for Midsummer like that.  If I’d been asked the question like this I think I would have said I’d pull out some Hamlet, Macbeth, or possibly Tempest.  But not Midsummer.

Whether that’s because I just watched Were the World Mine, I don’t know. That’s not how it first came to mind.

What about you? No fair thinking about it. Quote something first, then ask why that one.

Hi Everybody,

This post goes out primarily to those folk reading Shakespeare Geek on RSS and maybe not coming to the web site regularly.  I’ve got a survey up in the left nav over there for a couple weeks trying to be democratic about the whole “make money” thing.  On the one hand I hate to do it, because it feels cheap.  I do this because I love it, and putting a price tag on it is difficult for me. But on the other hand, I’ve put a lot of time and effort into creating what I hope has been of significant value for a lot of people over a good number of years now, so it’s pretty silly of me to let that value languish on principle while others don’t think twice about slapping together less content of poorer quality and sticking a price tag on it from day one.  (Besides, more income means more budget to buy stuff, which I can then review or give away as promotional materials.  And I’ve got no shortage of ideas about what I’d like to do, believe me, it’s just a simple matter of resource management — I dedicate X amount of time for Y profit, so if Y goes up, my motivation for increasing X goes up accordingly.  It’s not like I’m expecting this to suddenly take over my day job, but it does have to pay for itself.)

So could I beg a favor?  I put up some choices about what people would find least offensive, as far as money raising goes — banner ads, affiliate links, merchandise, tip jar — and even included a “None” option for the folks that want to express that particular desire.  Could I get two seconds of your time to come and click on it?  The more votes the better the indicator.  I’d rather have people click “None” than not click at all, you know?  At least that way I know.  Be honest, because I am going to implement something. 

Thanks! Sorry for the  interruption.

We’ve been talking about Julie Taymor’s Tempest, starring Helen Mirren as a role-reversed Prospera, since 2008.  Last year when Disney’s Miramax division went defunct, the fate of this project was up in the air.

Well, I’m happy to report that it looks ready for release in December under the Touchstone banner, instead.  Hurray!  Article doesn’t have much other than an explanation of the plot, but it does have a picture of Prospera if you’re interested.

Hat tip to Ian Thal today (via his Facebook wall) for bringing us this story about Sir Ian McKellen being mistaken for a homeless person!  Seems he was taking a break from his production of Waiting for Godot, and for whatever reason had his upturned hat at his feet.  Someone threw him a dollar.

“If that man would like to identify himself, we would like to invite him to come and see Waiting For Godot. And if he insists on paying, we’ll knock a dollar off the ticket price.”

Bonus, for the curious, when Sir Ian explains who exactly “Godot” is supposed to be, in case you never really understood it when you read it in high school :).  When I was a teenager working at the supermarket I’d pull into the parking lot and often run into the situation where a person had stopped their car in the middle of the lane to wait and leech the parking space of a person filling their groceries into the trunk.  Inevitably I’d drive a couple yard farther down, park, walk back and still the car would be waiting there, under some strange mistaken math that told them they’d be saving time by getting a closer space.  “Mr. Godot’s not coming today,” I would say through their windshield.  “Surely tomorrow.”