Category: Uncategorized

Most of the posts in this category are simply leftovers from a previous era before the site had categories. Over time I plan to reduce that number to zero and remove this category. Until then, here they are. I had to put something in the box.

Horrifical Comical Tragical Pastoral?

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Let’s be honest, there’s some problems with some of the comedies when you judge them by today’s standards. Taming of the Shrew isn’t exactly a feminist masterpiece whether Katharina winks at the end or not.  And there will never be a production of Merchant of Venice that doesn’t come with a protest.

But is horrifying the right word to use?

I’ll give the author points for an interesting angle.  But you can probably guess all 7 plays that make his list, and why.  There’s two “bed tricks”, a shrew, a Shylock, and … hmmm …. I suppose it all depends on your definition of horrifying? Apparently the two gentlemen are anything but, and don’t get me started on the less than noble kinsmen.
The most interesting element on the list is Much Ado About Nothing. I know, can you believe it?  Turns out the horrifying bit isn’t Claudio calling Hero a whore — it’s Hero’s father siding with Claudio and telling his daughter that he’d rather she just died and saved the all the dishonor.
I suppose he’s got a point with that one.

Finally I Can See The Globe On Screen

~ duane ~ 1 Comment

There’s been a trend of late to film live stage performance for distribution to a wider audience, and I’m all for it.  I just wish I could get to see more of them!  Too often (I’m looking at you, Benedict Cumberbatch) the performane is a special event, one night only, and you have to be in the lucky position to be near one of the limited theatres in the very limited release.

But good news for me!  The Globe on Screen series – featuring Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice and Richard II – is scheduled to come to my neighborhood this fall.  I actually park in the movie theatre parking lot every day when I go to work (and no, I don’t work at a movie theatre – we just happen to have reserve space in the garage).  So it looks like going to see all of these productions – none of which are on my “seen it” list – is going to be a easy as taking a quick detour of about 50 yards instead of walking to my car that night.  Awesome!

Alas, Poor Deadpool

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

I loved the Deadpool movie.

I hated Star Wars : Shakespeare by Ian Doescher.

So how then should I feel about the upcoming special Deadpool Shakespeare issue this fall, written by Mr. Doescher?

I’m cautiously optimistic.  Well, that’s not the right word, that implies that I’m leaning toward “it’ll be good.”  I don’t think there’s any reason to put any real effort into it. I think there’s a pattern here where you take a pop culture phenomenon like Star Wars or Deadpool, and you make it do vaguely Shakespearean things like putting the main character in a ruff, or maybe some puffy sleeves or pantaloons, maybe have him talk to a skull. Then force all the dialogue painfully into iambic pentameter.  You ever try to read iambic pentameter for any length of time where it’s clear the author is doing it just to prove that he can?  It’s like someone telling you that they’re awesome at haiku, that they’ve written hundreds of them,

but when you begin
you see that they’re just
counting syllables.

There’s much more to it
than just the simplistic math
of five seven five.

I also fear that they’re going to take a cue from Kill Shakespeare, another project that I very much did not love.  Saying that something has Shakespeare content needs to be more than just naming your characters the same.

Yeah, optimistic clearly isn’t the word.  Is there a single word for “wishful thinking”?  I’m that.  I wish that it’s going to be something I like.

Shakespeare or Pokemon?

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Can you pick the Pokemon names out of this list of Shakespeare characters?

I thought this quiz would be a lot easier than it was. I assumed the difference between Shakespeare names and Pokemon monsters would be obvious enough.  I was wrong – I got 4/10.  Then I looked at the comments on the quiz itself and people are all, “10/10, big deal.” But I realized that it’s because they’re memorizing the Pokemon characters, just like we’d do for the Shakespeare characters. Admittedly I’ve got little knowledge of the lesser plays like Pericles and Cymbeline, which is where many of the questions come from, just so you know.
I thought it would be easier to just invent my own, so I mashed up both lists 🙂

Oh, Maybe That’s Where I Get It

~ duane ~ Leave a comment

Here’s a funny family story that does not involve my geeklets, but I thought you folks would like it.

My older (and only) brother, who lives across the country and who I see about once a year, posted a picture on Facebook of a broken tablet device and the caption, “This is why you don’t let people use your stuff.”

And of course his local friends commented the usual – “that sucks”, “omg how did that happen?”, “can it be fixed”, etc.

And then our mom commented.  Our mom lives closer out here by me, so she too sees my brother once or so a year, and basically lives for our Facebook updates.  The smallest “Sun is up, going to be a great day today!” comment from one of us is always guaranteed to get some sort of, “Have a great day, love you! xxxooo” from mom. (Which is exactly what moms are supposed to use Facebook for, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.)

What she wrote to my brother was, “It’s just like my mother, your Nana who you don’t even probably remember, used to say – neither a borrower or a lender be.”

So there ya go. My mom, who is in her 70’s, quoting *her* mom, who *died* in the 1970s, quoting Shakespeare.  She’s right, I don’t remember Nana, but I have to imagine I would have had a lot to talk about with her.