But we benefit!   Here’s only a portion of what Bardfilm left on my doorstop this morning…

[The youngsters in the audience are directed here, in case they don’t recognize the tune.  Now get off our lawn, ya whipper snappers, we’re trying to sing along ;)]

Hello, I’m Richard the Third.

My kingdom for a horse, of course.
And no one can talk to me of remorse
Unless, of course, I get no horse and I end up being dead.

I have no remorse for Anne, of course,
though I caused her death (instead of divorce).
I’m always on a steady course–until I end up dead.

Richmond yakkity yaks a streak and wastes my Bosworth Field.
But Richard, in winters of discontent, will never, never yield!

So go check the source (Sir Thomas Morse)
And you’ll see my crown on a bush of gorse.
You want a kingdom for a horse?

Well, listen to this.

Whoops! I guess I’m dead.

Somehow the other day, Bardfilm and I got onto the subject of the Golden Girls.  Remember that show?  It wasn’t long before we were singing the theme song (luckily over instant message so one one had to hear such a thing), and it wasn’t long after that that we started inserting the theme songs into random Shakespearean situations.  Thus was born our new game..

Come and listen to my story ’bout a king named Lear–
A crazy British monarch well-stricken up in years.
“Daughters, what can you say to show you love the king?”
Cordelia spoke up and said, “Daddy—nothing.” 

Nothing? Nothing will come of nothing. 

Well, the next thing you know, old Lear’s out on the heath.
Regan said, “Now, that’s a big relief!
But I think that our Lord Gloucester’s trying to help out that guy.”
So she and hubby Cornwall plucked out both his eyes. 

Oh, that vile, vile jelly. 

Well, now it’s time to say goodbye to Lear and all his kids.
They’re mostly lying dead on stage, done in by what they did.
You’re all invited back next week to this locality
To have another helping of Shakespeare’n tragedy. 

Swimming pools—with Ophelia drowned in them—movie stars—betrayed by their own ambition.

Obviously these are much longer than our usual games and not the sort of thing where we can put together 20 of them in one post.  Look for more coming soon!

Yes, I’m reading them.  Technically, listening on audio book.  I like to know what the latest pop culture things are all about.  Just don’t ask me about 50 Shades of Grey…

Anyway, I discovered (and I don’t think it’s a spoiler) that the bad guy’s first name is Coriolanus.  Really?  That caught my attention quickly.  I wondered why for awhile, but could not immediately make the connection.

Then I learned that a girl who has her tongue cut out is named Lavinia.  Aw come on!  That can’t be coincidence.

Of course, there’s an obvious connection to Roman history running through the games (not even counting the whole bread and circuses, gladiatorial thing).  Once I started looking I realized that other characters are named Cinna (“I am Cinna the Poet!  I am Cinna the Poet!!”), Octavia…heck there’s even a Caesar.

So does anybody know whether the author had any Shakespeare thoughts in mind with these stories?  I’m guessing that perhaps she had enough passing familiarity with Shakespeare that she was able to pull names at will, and just used them as she saw fit.  The Lavinia thing probably isn’t a coincidence, I suspect that when she was seeking a Roman name for her girl with no tongue, Lavinia was the obvious choice for anybody who knows who that is.

I saw a brief mention yesterday of “America’s Son” being picked up by Fox:

This project focuses on a Kennedy-esque political family. When the family’s favorite son and presidential hopeful is killed in a car crash, his son (described as being a JFK, Jr. type) returns to D.C. to find out the crash that killed his father wasn’t really an accident.

But I was unaware of ABC’s venture into a similar (potential?) space with Westside:

ABC also has a Shakespeare-based project on tap called Westside, which is generally referred to as being based on West Side Story.

The Cinema Blend article  goes on to talk about how far removed the projects are from Shakespeare, so that they “don’t suffer too much.”  Fair enough.

But perhaps we should point them to Sons of Anarchy, which will be heading into its sixth season?  The show about a motorcycle gang has long been seen as drawing upon Hamlet for its inspiration. Though I’ve never seen it (not really the kind of thing we watch at my house), I did spot the connection back in 2009.

I’ve also just realized that in my article, the creator said that he planned a 5 year run of the series to mimic the 5 acts of Hamlet.  And that it’s now been renewed for a sixth season.  Hmmmm.

I didn’t post much last week about the possible discovery of Richard III’s bones, because so many other stories already beat it into the ground.  We did have some fun with the puns, though:

• To repeat, archaeologists are not 100% sure that this is Richard III – they only have a hunch.
• Somebody please tell me he was found on a Wednesday so we can call it Hump Day?
• You might think Richard III would have been great at the new “Gangnam Style” invisible horse dance, but he was partial to the Humpty Hump.
• Ironically, they found the bones of a horse right behind Richard.

You get the idea.  If you like them, they’re mine, if they’re awful they’re Bardfilm’s. 😉

Anyway, by not posting I realized that I was denying the Shakespeare Geek audience the opportunity to get together for discussion, so here be that post.  What are your thoughts?  Do you think it’s him?  Where do you stand on the whole “Richard III wasn’t really the bad guy he’s been painted by history” angle?

As I’ve mentioned, I’m just plain not that familiar with the story of Richard III, so I have little opinion on the matter other to say that I make no connection between what Shakespeare wrote, and what reality was.   He could have been a saint for all I know.  Though probably not.

My favorite quote from the linked story, by the way:

“If Richard was the kind of plotter Shakespeare makes him out to be there are a lot of questions to be answered, like if he was so power-hungry why didn’t he kill his brother King Edward IV?”

“Oh yeah?  Well what about all the people he *didn’t* kill, huh?  How come nobody ever talks about that?”  That sounds like a line out of a Saturday Night Live skit.