http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/archives/204 Shakespeare Teacher’s got a Shakespeare crossword up, with a twist.  Well, in this case without any actual twists (or crosses?), as it is a “one dimensional” puzzle.  You may have seen these before.  The clues are given “left to right” and then “right to left”, so whatever you put in as the answers for one side has to match the answers going in the opposite direction.  Try it out!  

Last week I mentioned seeing Prospero, Miranda and Ferdinand in the clouds as I was driving home.  Well, yesterday I saw Romeo and Juliet.  More specifically I saw the “Eyes, look your last, arms, take your last embrace” moment from the final scene. Juliet lying there, dead (or close enough), Romeo bent over her to give one last kiss.  Truthfully it could just as easily have been The Prince coming to kiss Snow White.  But I like my image better.  I’m kinda digging this, I have to keep an eye out for more Shakespeare cloud formations.  

I am very, very sorry for this, but I feel obligated to post it. http://community.livejournal.com/cat_macros/1895731.html   (I much preferred the old days when lolcats had bad spelling, but at least proper grammar.  Now everybody seems to think that it’s funnier if you just randomize the words.  I mean, come on, “please it is can be”???)  

Shakespearean version of Abbott and Costello’s classic “Who’s On First” routine, if you’re into that sort of thing.    

Good news! Kenneth Branagh’s HAMLET on DVD is finally here!   August 14 is the scheduled release date. For those who haven’t been following this long awaited release, Branagh’s 1996 Hamlet is what some might call the masterpiece in a career loaded with groundbreaking Shakespeare film adaptations (Henry V, Much Ado, Othello….) This was the “full text” version, in other words a 4 hour long movie. Loaded up with star power as well, including Robin Williams, Judi Dench, Richard Attenborough, Billy Crystal, Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud, Jack Lemmon…. I could keep going.  It was a big cast. 🙂 Let’s be realistic here for a minute. As far as going and sitting in a movie theatre to see this? Not so much. I can honestly say that I didn’t always love his interpretation, either. I thought it a bit unnecessarily violent in some key areas, and a bit too “I’m starring in my own movie so there’s nobody to tell me I’m overacting” in others. But as an academic resource, this is simply amazing. Nobody does the full text Hamlet. This is the sort of thing that you could envision English students being told to watch for homework instead of the Olivier version.  And hey, I don’t recall Kenneth Branagh making out with his mom in this one. If you were looking to add a Hamlet to your Shakespeare on Film collection, you can certainly do worse than Branagh.  This is the sort of movie where I’d like to see a bookmark feature so I can just jump right to the most interesting scenes.  (Yes, I know that all DVDs have a scene menu.  I’m talking about favorite scenes instead of having to page through 50 little thumbnails every time).