http://myfivebest.com/five-things-you-may-not-have-known-about-shakespeare/ I’m obligated to click on any link that promises a list of stuff we may or may not have known about Shakespeare. Typically I either knew it already, or it’s a list that just spouts out some typical urban legends that nobody really knows for sure about. So I’m happy with this list that starts out with Venus and Adonis and then moves right on the Love’s Labour’s Won (pointing out that it is probably another name for Shrew) and Cardenio, adding that it might have been written by Humphrey Moseley? There you go, I learned something. The middle – about the shotgun wedding, and all the words and cliches added to the English language – are pretty standard stuff. Then it ends again with more detail than you usually find, including credit to David Garrick for bringing Shakespeare out of obscurity 150 years after his death.
A Midsummer Night’s Lorax
I won’t be the first person to compare Shakespeare and Dr. Seuss. I just wanted to point out something that clicked in my head the other day and freaked me out a little bit:
| I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight; And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin, Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in: And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes, And make her full of hateful fantasies. |
At the far end of town where the grickle-grass grows And the wind smells slow and sour when it blows And no birds ever sing excepting old crows Is the street of the Lifted Lorax. And deep in the grickle-grass some people say If you look deep enough you can still see today Where the Lorax once stood, just as long as it could, Before somebody lifted the Lorax away. |
Those sound nearly identical to my ear. Dr. Seuss was even closer to Shakespeare than I think people realize. [And for the record, how brilliant is that opening? It’s my favorite Seuss. Look at the alliterative work – grass grows…smells slow and sour when it blows…birds ever sing excepting old crows… I’ve got about half that book memorized.]
Hot Girl, Bad Article
http://vipchain.com/2009/06/18/megan-fox-says-no-more-tattoos/ One of the many, many ways that Shakespeare geeks can count themselves lucky is because of Megan Fox’s tattoos. I think I find this more sad than funny, but the article above – which basically says that the poor girl’s covered enough of her body with ink, thank you – also says this:
…Including An Inscription On Her Right Shoulder Blade. It Reportedly Is A Reference To Shakespeare’s King Lear And Reads: “We Will All Laugh At Gilded Butterflies.”
Reportedly? Actually it is an *actual* Shakespeare reference. The text is a bit wrong, true, but I don’t think that word reportedly means what the author thinks it means. Am I being too picky? Ok, how about this one:
The Tattoos May Have Led To Comparisons With Megastar Angelina Jolie, Who Has Least A Dozen All Over Her Body.
May have? Way to take a stand.
Let Kenneth Branagh Play Thisbe!
http://liveforfilm.blogspot.com/2009/06/kenneth-branagh-acted-out-whole-thor.html
I thought this story funny about how the people involved with the new Thor movie would get “a three hour one-man show” from the “very Shakespearean” Kenneth Branagh as he’d walk through every single part.
Comic geeks may not appreciate that as much as we Shakespeare geeks who are left wondering if there’s a bit of old Bully Bottom in Mr. Branagh?
“An I may hide my face, let me play Odin too!”
“Have you Loki’s part written?”
”Let me play Loki too! I will roar and it will do any man’s heart good to hear me.”
Shakespeare Events Calendar
Ok, who wants to help me out with an idea? I’m tired of missing the good shows because I don’t hear about them until too late. I may not get to go to many anyway, but at least if I know about them ahead of time I have a shot at it. I’m sure others are in the same boat. So here’s what I’d like to try. I’m setting up a public calendar to track Shakespeare events. Once I get a few on it I’ll send the link around. Using Google Calendar you can get an RSS feed of events as they come up, too, and thus always be alerted to new ones. Not to mention the integration with Google Maps so you can see immediately whether an event is half a country away from you. What I need, of course, are events. If you’re in charge of an event and you’d like to be on the calendar, please send me the following info:
- Event / Organization Name
- Play(s) Performed / Description of event
- Dates it will run
- Location
- Link for more info
Thanks! Should be interesting to see if I get quickly overwhelmed. If I do, I’ll just open up the calendar so anybody can contribute.