There was a day when I would have kidded myself into thinking I’d write this, but it’ll never happen so I put it out here in the hopes that somebody else with more resources might decide to run with it. I was speaking with Stefanie from MadShakespeare today about the future of Shakespeare on the iPad (since Shakespeare In Bits is leading the way with an iPad version of their Romeo and Juliet experience, which we are giving away, hint hint big hint).  While I think that the iPad itself might not change the world, I think it is ushering in an age of “tablet as primary interactive device”, which I think could be huge.  Here’s what I want: You know how on YouTube right now there are short clips of just about everything under the sun?  I just posted some King Lear earlier today as an example.  Sometimes you only get a snippet, sometimes if you look you can find a whole movie that’s been broken down into a dozen pieces. What I want is a directory of Shakespeare video that allows you to stitch together all those videos into a meaningful form.  Say, for instance, that I was looking for King Lear.  I’d get a list of all the versions of Act I Scene 1 there are on YouTube (assuming I wanted to start with I.1).  And then I could compare them.  Maybe I put the Olivier up next to the James Earl Jones and see what they do differently, or similarly.   Maybe I can see a whole list of Olivier’s Shakespeare videos, and jump instead to his Othello. While I’m doing this I would also have some sort of note-taking application available so I could jot down ideas, either for myself (such as if I’m doing research for an article or a paper), or directly onto the video with the intent of sharing my thoughts with anybody else who watches the video.  And of course  there would have to be some sort of snipper/highlighter for capturing, well, highlights. This would be perfect for an iPad type of application, using the interface to essentially build your own Shakespeare movie.  Maybe I could combine my highlights and my notes into a research paper, and publish just the descriptor file so that anybody with this browser could load up what I created and play it?  The original videos wouldn’t have to change, just the way you access them. It’s really a very simple idea.  Somebody would have to host a  directory where people register their videos, stating some simple meta information – play X, act Y, scene Z.  It’d be nice to believe that you can scrape YouTube for this, but the simple problem with that is that the edges are rough and you don’t always find apples-to-apples comparisons.  You could even start it yourself by priming the pump manually, scraping YouTube for whatever you can to start with. I expect that there’s something in YouTube’s terms of service that would prevent such an app from being created.  That means that if anybody does want to build this for real, their future would probably involve becoming a video hosting/streaming site of their own, and that’s big business.  So maybe it’s not so easy on the execution.  But then again that’s why I never build these things, I always talk myself out of them.

There’s not a great deal new about Shakespeare in this piece from the Examiner detailing examples of classic authors bashing other classic authors.  We’ve got George Bernard Shaw who despises nothing as much as he despises Shakespeare, and Samuel Pepys who found Dream to be the most insipid ridiculous thing he’d ever seen. What I found fun, though, was seeing how long I could trace through the list.  For instance: William Faulkner bashes Mark Twain (#25) Hemingway bashes Faulkner (#27) Nabokov bashes Hemingway (#1).  Bells, bulls and balls! And so on.   Can anybody find a longer connection?  Who gets bashed the most, who does the most bashing? BONUS for Shakespeare Geeks! For every time we’ve spotted “Harry Potter” on a list of most influential/popular/blahblahblah books, beating out something by Shakespeare, here’s the illustrious Harold Bloom giving JK Rowling a good swift kick (#9):

How to read ‘Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone’? Why, very quickly, to begin with, and perhaps also to make an end. Why read it? Presumably, if you cannot be persuaded to read anything better, Rowling will have to do.

When I was just out of college and getting into Shakespeare independently, I got it into my head to watch the best.  This was some time right around when Mel Gibson did Hamlet, so I think I wanted something to compare it to.  So, naturally, I got a VHS tape of Laurence Olivier as King Lear. Honestly, I never finished it.  I’d never read the play at this point and I simply couldn’t follow it. Funny how time changes us.  Here is the end of the play where Lear, a ghostly shadow of his former self at this point, carries the lifeless body of his daughter back on stage …

(*Note attention to detail – they actually put a scar around Cordelia’s neck!) I’m intrigued by the “howls”.  Here, Olivier does manage to make near animalistic noises, but he’s still articulating the word “howl”.  I always wondered if perhaps this was the equivalent of an “o-groan”, something to be taken more as a stage direction (“Enter howling”) than actual script? I think the interaction between Kent and Lear is excellent, how he so conversationally gestures to him with that “what is your name? you look familiar…” as if it’s just a normal interaction, and yet how he does not make the Caius connection and thinks Caius dead. Ok, need to stop, the “Cordelia, stay a little…what does thou say?” just brought tears to my eyes.  Wow.

Mad Shakespeare is having a contest, and they’re giving away the hot new book by James Shapiro, CONTESTED WILL: WHO WROTE SHAKESPEARE? Contest details, courtesy of editor Stefaniya:

In honor of Shakespeare’s birthday on April 23, Mad Shakespeare is holding a contest: create a postcard (photo or digital art) based on the theme “Mad Shakespeare.” We’re looking for a postcard that epitomizes the aim of our website: to show how Shakespeare is still modern, relevant, and interesting.
Photograph a reference to Shakespeare in your city: a memorial or mural, a restaurant or public performance. Create your own portrait of Shakespeare (maybe based on our tagline, “Shakespeare’s face is changing”). Or take a play or a quote from Shakespeare as your starting point and get artistic. For example, what image is suggested to you by “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury”?
The winning postcard will be published on MadShakespeare.com and the winner will receive a copy of CONTESTED WILL: WHO WROTE SHAKESPEARE? by James Shapiro. There are only a few days left to enter; the deadline for entries is April 19. Visit MadShakespeare.com to enter.

Sounds like fun! While you’re in a contest entering mood, remember that Shakespeare Geek has partnered with Shakespeare in Bits to give away *10* copies of their multimedia Romeo and Juliet software!

“…It’s kind of a Shakespearean story we tell about these three brothers. One grew up on the streets and gets adopted by the king because in those days, when you had sons, they were inclined to assassinate the father to become king,” Prince of Persia producer Jerry Bruckheimer said. “By having this kid who could never be king in the palace, he was always protected. If the father died, they’d throw him out. That’s the kind of Shakespearean part of our story,” Bruckheimer said.

Ummm…ok?  That’s about as Shakespearean as any other “kings had a tendency to get assassinated” storyline.  And Shakespeare didn’t really make that up.  Which brother is the hero? What’s his flaw?  Help me out here, Jerry. 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99953-New-Prince-of-Persia-Movie-is-Kind-of-Like-Shakespeare

P.S. – Insert joke here about Earl of Oxford having two brothers, one of whom gets adopted by the king ….