http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7043164.ece The continuing story of Raymond Scott actually picked up last week, when he was in court again denying that he did anything other than “find” one of the most rare books on the planet. The only reason this story is interesting is that the guy is a certified whacko:

Mr Scott appeared at Newcastle Crown Court wearing green combat army fatigues held up by a Gucci belt, and a pair of black Dior sunglasses, presumably a tribute to Che Guevara, a hero of Cuba.

Reminds me of when Michael Jackson showed up at court in his pajamas.

I love the idea of Seussifying Shakespeare.  I few years ago I took the kids to a production of The Tempest on Cape Cod that was done up that way, with a narrator who kept jumping in and telling what happened in a very Seussy sort of rhythm. http://www.ocala.com/article/20100304/ENTERTAINMENT/100309829

But we do find oodles of homage to the great children’s writer. For example, there are references, if you listen hard enough, to "Green Eggs and Ham," "The Cat in the Hat," "The Sneetches" and the "Tale of the Zax." Maybe even more, hidden in stacks.

Yet, from Seuss they’ve not borrowed, say Narrator Two and N. One. But nevertheless, the whole play is great fun. (stop! stop! stop it!)

Jodi Touchton and Lauren Ellers are the narrating pair, with plenty of spunk sporting blue and pink hair.

"The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet" Where: Outdoor patio, Ocala Civic Theatre, 4337 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala. Note: bring chairs or blanket to sit on
When: 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday and March 13; 3 p.m. Sunday and March 14
Cost: $6
Information: 236-2274 orwww.ocalacivictheatre.com

We’ve mentioned before that director Roland Emmerich, best known for his disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 , is taking on Shakespeare Authorship next. Here’s an interview with the man cast as Oxford himself, Rhys Ifans: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/03/04/rhys-ifans-says-roland-emmerichs-shakespeare-movie-anonymous-starts-shooting-in-april/ Who? Ifans is currently working on the next Harry Potter movie, but hasn’t been in any of the released ones yet.  Looking through his bio, trying to figure out what people would have seen … he’s really got nothing as lead.  Lots of supporting work.  I think I remember him best (and by that I mean, ‘at all’) as roommmate Spike in Notting Hill.  That’s going back a bit. Anyway, what do we learn in the interview? * Shooting starts in April. * Shakespeare himself isn’t cast yet, but is apparently an “illiterate drunk” in the movie. Sounds like a winner.

When I first saw the movie Hotel for Dogs with my kids, I spotted the Shakespeare reference to the two dogs in love – they were named Romeo and Juliet, obviously. Upon watching it on video with them, however, I noticed what had escaped me previously.  The brother and sister dog are named Sebastian and Viola. Anybody could have come up with the first one, but methinks one of the writers is something of a Shakespeare geek to have snuck that second one in there ;).  If we assume in context of the movie that it was the young kids who were naming all these stray dogs, and they were the ones that came up with the Shakespeare references?  All the better!

(Warning, this is about as related to Shakespeare as any other turn of any of his phrases, but it’s as good a place as any to braindump something I’ve been thinking about.  I’ll try to make it as Shakespearey as I can. :)) There’s an expression among writers, I’ve lost the original source, that goes “I don’t want to write, I want to have written.” In a strangely ironic twist I’ve often found myself using a related example in regard to books when I’ll say, “I don’t want to read it, but I want to have read it.”  The author of these books is almost always Dan Brown, by the way. :)   I once pitched to a friend a similar concept for movies, where you could rip the audio track from a dvd, and then listen to that the same way.  For dialogue heavy movies you could still get the general plot, recognize the famous quotes, and be able to say that you are familiar with it. Even though you never saw it. I realize this morning that this philosophy could be extended to just about anything.  I don’t want to eat, I want to have eaten.  I don’t want to sleep, I want to have slept. I don’t want to do, I want to have done. Is it the journey, or the destination?  Hamlet’s question is deeper, but precisely because we can’t experiment with it.  We can’t both be and not be and then decide for ourselves which is better, we can only hypothesize about it. In its own way, my question is quite related to his.  After all, doesn’t “to be” imply some level of awareness, of actually paying attention to your own life?  If you’re just going through the paces, always considering the future at the expense of the present, are you really “being”? I don’t really have anywhere I’m going with this, just wanted to throw it out there. I’ve had times when I’m awful at this, and I was reminded of it when speaking of audiobooks and I told the story of how I used to listen to them and 2x speed in the car for exactly the above reasons – I wanted to have read it, but not to read it.  Reading is supposed to be enjoyable, and yet here I am deliberately shortening that portion.  It’s just not right.