http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7655167.stm I’m always interested in putting Shakespeare to music, I think it makes things much easier to memorize (and I’ve got the geeklets to prove it).  Here’s a story about a guy from a Beatles tribute band doing a show where he does exactly that, putting Shakespeare’s words to the Beatles’ music. “The speeches are harder to do,” says the singer who did not study Shakespeare in school.  “But the sonnets seem to be very easy.  They are perfect to put into music.” There is a multimedia widget on the page, but I cannot get it to play.  I’ll update if I get it working. UPDATE: Got the player working in Internet Explorer.  It is….well, let’s just say you have to like the Beatles, shall we?  It’s certainly Shakespeare’s words, but it’s more like “Hey that’s the Beatles doing Shakespeare” rather than “Hey that’s Shakespeare put to music”, you know?  I don’t think I’d love a whole show of it.  I’ll take Rufus Wainwright any day.

http://i.somethingawful.com/inserts/articlepics/photoshop/10-03-08-oneletter/Phthalogreen1.jpg Something send from a friend, via Twitter.  Anybody got more?

http://www.cracked.com/video_16684_probably-not-answer-he-was-looking.html Not what I expected – a guy starts quoting Twelfth Night, gets stuck, and his friend offers no help at all.  Funny, although it drags on too long.  I just like that it had so much Shakespeare content. 🙂 Bonus points to the geek in the comments who points out that he missed a line in his monologue 🙂

About 4:16pm.  I know this because my wife got me a Shakespeare watch. 🙂  Specifically this one, from Shakespeare’s Den.  It’s got Will’s face, and a quote from Twelfth Night: “O time thou must untangle this, not I, it is too hard a knot for me t’untie.”  I love it, I am now one more point Shakespeare geeky.

You learn a great deal about how you communicate when it gets parroted back to you by your children, who absorb words and phrases with no sense of sarcasm and just the barest amount of context. Over the vacation I was wearing my shirt that reads “My kids walk all over me”, complete with footprints, that the kids made for me for Father’s Day.  This was the Father’s Day where I also got “Shakespeare things”, including a mug and a refrigerator magnet.  Since I am not a coffee drinker, the mug has sat “decoration-style” on top of the microwave ever since. My 4yr old always notices when I wear the shirt.  This time her comment was, “We made that shirt for you, Daddy.  Remember for Father’s Day, when we got you that Shakespeare mug that you never drink anything out of?” Sounds totally sarcastic, but that’s just her way of explaining the mug she’s talking about.  Who knows, maybe you had to be there.  I thought it was cute. 🙂 P.S. Hot chocolate weather draws near.  The mug will get much use.