Where do I find this stuff?  I stumbled across a repository of “half baked ideas” where people post the start of something, and then others help them decide whether it’s a good idea, whether’s already been done, and so on.  So naturally, like I always do, I find the search button and type Shakespeare.  What do I find? Exploding Shakespeare

When I was in High School, I hated every minute of the school produced Shakespearean plays we were forced to sit through. Imagine, though, that instead of committing suicide, Romeo and Juliet blow up. Just like that. Damn, what a great play.

It does give you a sampling of the quality of ideas in the directory, but some of the commentary is pretty funny.

BOTTOM
There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?

SNOUT
By’r lakin, a parlous fear!

STARVELING
I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is done.

BOTTOM
Not a whit: I have a device to make all well.
*BOOM*

I see so many random Shakespeare references all day long that I’ve learned to ignore most of them.  Then again, sometimes they’re funny enough to merit a report.  Here we have a seemingly innocuous story about Verizon and Google getting together to create an iPad rival tablet.  What’s this I see in the middle of the article?

Best Case

Google’s ready to prove its tablet mettle, and Verizon wants an answer to AT&T’s iPad. It’s Shakespearean, almost, kind of! Within months, AT&T and Verizon will fall deeply in love, and commit suicide due to an easily avoidable misunderstanding. No, wait, wrong play. I wanted the one where EVERYONE FIGHTS EVERYONE, AND IT IS AWESOME.

You see, people?  Make your Shakespeare references funnier and I’ll link them more :).  I’m looking at you, Huffington Post.

http://www.marionette.com/ I don’t really know what this is.  It doesn’t appear to be a store (there is no catalog, and no prices), but there’s not nearly enough material for it to be a gallery.  It’s Shakespeare marionettes, which is cool – Macbeth, Bottom, the witches, etc…. But it’s also paintings, in a similar style.  Perhaps they paint it first and then make the marionette? Either way, it’s some neat stuff to look at that I’d not seen, and I’ve been scanning the net for Shakespeare links for a long long time.

Thanks to everybody that took part in my little survey.  I’m happy to see that “merchandise” was beating all the other choices pretty soundly (although "tip jar" made enough of a showing that you’ll notice one over in the left margin, in case you have enough t-shirts and bumper stickers … )
I’ve actually had a store set up for quite some time, but after consulting with some folks that make their living at such things I realized how out of my league I was.  I had ideas for a handful of slogans, and they’re telling me to have a minimum of 100 products before I open my doors. Holy cow.
But that presents a problem, since I don’t know what people want.  So, I’m going for it.  Please feel to check out what I’ve got so far and see if you like.  Give me some feedback?  Be gentle, it’s a work in progress.
Thanks! UPDATED: Peak? Did I really title this post Sneak Peak last night? I’m going to plead sleep stupidity on that one, I’m normally a very good speler. 😉

Finally!  I can’t remember the last time I saw an interesting and well researched list of Shakespeare-ish movies.  Thank you ReelzChannel for providing the “Shookup Shakespeare” list, their way of saying “inspired by”.  All your favorites are here, from Ran and Throne of Blood to O and Ten Things.  Not one of them is a “modern version with original text” like Romeo+Juliet.  I can just imagine the crowd that sees this list either being those that saw and loved Ten Things and have never heard of Kurosawa, or vice versa.  Which is sort of the point of Shakespeare as unifying factor, no?