http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/clips/2005/04/25/PeterBrookNYTIMES.pdf I don’t know much about Peter Brook, other than the absolutely fall-over-yourself raving that Rosenbaum has for Brooks’ production of Dream back in the 60’s (in a good way, that is).  I happened upon this PDF, which is apparently a book excerpt dated 2005, that provides much more about the man – Brook, not Rosenbaum.

Technically it has nothing else to do with Shakespeare, but I’m just about finished reading Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, and enjoying it very much.  It’s somewhat of a classic scifi story, “the universe needs troops for its interstellar army” and all that sort of thing.  Been done in many ways over the years.  Why I’m posting, though, is the scene in the middle where a bunch of the old Earth folk, freaking out about having been in space so long, compare notes on what they miss the most.  One of them misses Shakespeare in the Park the most.  Later, we learn that the narrator has an even deeper back story with Shakespeare. I wouldn’t recommend the book based on that, it’s not like Shakespeare is essential in any way to the plot or the characters.  But if you like that military scifi stuff, I’m just saying, this one’s got some Shakespeare in it.

Just a reminder that the deadline to win one of three free copies of The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber, is April 1. Visit the original post for contest rules. I haven’t posted my review yet because I’m not finished with the book, but I’m just about there, so it should be up this week. I like it! It definitely does not suffer from that dreaded “thriller” disease where every other chapter ends with that DUN DUN DUNNNN! sound, as David so nicely put it last time ;).UPDATE: April 1, 2008 – Contest Over. Thanks for playing!

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2008/03/visual-versus-v.html This one is only borderline Shakespeare, but I liked it.  Specifically it’s a branding article talking about the power of your words, and in particular how the name of a product is the most important thing.  The author says, simply, “Shakespeare was wrong – a rose by any other name would not smell as sweet.” What I’m interested in is how you react to that sentence, particularly the first bit.  I’ll admit that my first reaction was to see if I could argue that Shakespeare was not wrong.  I’m pleased to be able to point out that their article is actually about the difference between visual and audio, and the rose comment is the only reference to smell, so maybe Shakespeare wasn’t so wrong after all.  Yes, if all you ever did was a radio spot where you told people “Wouldn’t it be nice to come home after a long day at the office and discover that your husband has brought you a dozen long-stemmed BabyDiapers?”  then yes, they have a point.  And if you’d seen, but never smelled, a rose, now called a “baby’s diaper”, then perhaps you wouldn’t be so keen on hunting them down and paying $5/stem.   But what if you smelled it first, without knowing the name of it?  And you said, “Hey, I like it.”  And somebody said, “It’s called a Baby’s Diaper.”  You’d say, “Funny name.  Doesn’t smell like that.  Smells good.” Slow news day in the world of Shakespeare, I guess.  You folks come here for the offbeat references, right? 🙂

I can’t say I know much about Paul Scofield, who appears to have been a noted Shakespearean actor.  Somebody tell us about him?  Anybody ever get to see him perform?