http://www.slate.com/id/2214106/ Although it seems a bit stale as far as celebrity news goes (apparently the video just dropped), Slate’s got an article up look at Britney Spears’ “controversial” album title “If You Seek Amy”(*) and how it’s actually a much older joke than perhaps even she realizes.  Dates back through a whole variety of bands that thought of the joke before her, one of whom even acknowledges getting it from James Joyce.  The article then goes on to show that, as always, Shakespeare said it first.  Only his is dirtier.   (*) If you seem to be having trouble figuring out the joke, it helps to realize that sometimes words sound like letters.  So “If you” = F U …  do I really have to <ahem> spell it out for you?

If you follow the Shakespeare keyword on Twitter long enough, you’ll see the same lines thrown around repeatedly.  The most popularly “retweeted” quote, by far, is this one: There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so. It’s the sort of line that you can just picture people seeing come across their chat window, saying “Whoa man, that’s deep”, and feeling the urge to forward it.  I suppose if this were a generation removed it might have looked a little something like this in your email inbox:

Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: OMG SO TRUE! (Fwd: Fwd: MUST READ (Fwd: Fwd: The Power Of Thinking… But really, isn’t it a bit simplistic?  It’s a little like the “there’s no universal right and wrong, that’s why people need God as a moral center” argument.  Are good and bad always subjective?  Is it possible to find something that you think is bad, that people will universally agree with?  (That is, of course, other than the argumentative morons who take the opposite side just because that’s their purpose in life…)

http://davidsonnews.net/2009/03/18/sonnets-book-battles-football-and-shakespeare/ Congratulations to 7th grader Ruth Swallow who won first prize in the literature portion of the North Carolina Reflections contest for … let me see if I get this right …  composing a “coronet” of seven sonnets, each linked by first/last lines.  So the last line of the first sonnet becomes the first line of the next. I have to say, I’ve written sonnets and I found it difficult.  To write a bunch of them, on a theme, with that particular requirement?  In seventh grade, which would make her, oh, about 13 years old is all that much more impressive.  Good job, Ruth! [Of course, as a Shakespearean I have to note that the first/last line thing confuses me – we all know that there’s a different number of syllables in the last line!] [UPDATE : Thanks to Bill for gently pointing out to me that it is the rhyme scheme, not the syllable count, that changes in the final couplet.  Don’t ask me where my brain was, I don’t exactly know. ]   Wait!  There’s more! Later in the article where it talks about a local school’s production of The Comedy Of Errors.  Though I’m not quite sure the point of this paragraph: “This is not your grandmother’s Shakespeare,” claims Ms. Gerdy. “It’s full of physical comedy and characters that bear striking resemblances to famous old “clowns” like Charlie Chaplin, the Marx brothers and the Keystone Cops.” First off, it was probably one of Shakespeare’s earlier efforts and thus the very definition of “grandmother’s” Shakespeare as compared to a later, younger generation.  And second, Ms. Gerdy then goes on to compare it to Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Cops, shows that only my grandmother would recognize :).

http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/wwlp_ap_mass_shakespeare_company_layoffs_200903172056 While CommShakes struggles to stay alive on its own in Boston, over on the other side of Massachusetts the Lenox-based Shakespeare & Company is tightening its budget as well.  They’ve laid off a few, and cut pay for the rest – including the founders, who will take no salary at all for several months. I’m sure most theatre groups are having similar difficulties all over, not just in my neighborhood.  So go see some shows, huh?  Even better, drag your friends along.  And when the time comes to pass the hat or rent a chair or buy a t-shirt, be generous.  You are closer to getting no Shakespeare than you might think.  And should that time come, it’ll be too late to break out your wallet.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/03/west-side-story-portfolio200903 I knew that West Side Story was experiencing something of a revival.  With the help of Jennifer Lopez and friends, Vanity Fair magazine recreates some scenes from the famous (infamous?) musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Note that the pictures are actually in a slideshow format, you have to click on the navigation arrows atop the title screen to get it started.