Methinks that Stanley Wells was jonesing for some Cherry Garcia.

The problem is that they were supposed to get permission, and didn’t. They were unaware that the building was classified Grade I (“the building is of exceptional interest, sometimes even considered to be internationally important”). They are now on the hook to get “retrospective” permission and, if that falls through, could be required to put the building (actually just a “pea shed”) back to its original condition.

Paul Edmondson from Blogging Shakespeare alerts us to mark the date for October 20th, when Roehampton University will be hosting a symposium entitled Shakespeare and the Contemporary Sonnet:

Which Shakespeare sonnets do modern poets refer to again and again? What still attracts them to the sonnet as a form, and to Shakespeare’s poems in particular? Are there sonnets that resist adaptation in terms of theme, sexual politics, structure? Is the original 1609 sequence still important or do a small number of sonnets now stand alone? What are the challenges and possibilities afforded by adapting Shakespeare’s sonnets into modern idiom and modern culture?

Sounds like a neat topic.  Naturally it’s more on the academic side, not the kind of thing that we casual hobbyists can just zip off to.  Maybe they’ll do some live tweeting or blogging of what content comes of it?

[ If you want to see just how much depth can be found in even a single sonnet I point you to Paul’s previous article “Miracles in Miniature” where he talks about working through Sonnet 29 with a group of people and how you could talk about it for hours, down to the last syllable and punctuation mark. ]

While researching a new game (coming soon!) I noticed that the new center of the Shakespeare universe might well have turned up in McLean, Virginia?!  Check it out:

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You might need to zoom in to get the details.  See anything amazing?

Birnam Wood Drive.  MacBeth Street. Oberon Way. Titania Lane. “Agin Court”. Cawdor Court. Dunsinane Court. Hamlet Park. Falstaff Road. Ariel Way. Capulet Court. Elsinore Ave. Timon Drive. Lear Road.

Are you kidding me?!  Is anybody in the audience from this neck of the woods who can explain how exactly this little slice of heaven came to happen?   I wish I’d known about it during my trip down to Washington DC earlier this year, I might have made a special detour!

I tend to keep half an eye out of “Young Adult” novels with a Shakespeare twist, and several references to Kissing Shakespeare popped up this weekend.  My oldest daughter enjoyed books like The Shakespeare Stealer (which, I realize, I never reviewed here) so I scan the plot:

In this story we meet Miranda. The daughter of two famous actors with the New England Shakespeare Company, she finds herself beginning to despise acting.

Ok, so far so good.  Shakespeare name, Shakespeare content.

After opening night of Taming of the Shrew, where she basically performs the lead role as a statue, a boy who’s a senor year transfer student from England that no one has really spoken to, comes up to her and tells Miranda she has to come with him. Apparently this Stephen Langford is from 1581 and he’s there to tell her that THE William Shakespeare is in danger.

Again, not a problem – the whole “young hero/heroine needs to travel in time to save a famous historic figure” is a common plot.  A little confused about playing the lead in Shrew as a statue, though.  Did they mean Winter’s Tale?

What does Stephen Langford want her to do? He wants Miranda to seduce Shakespeare so that the future bard will forget all about becoming a priest.

LALALALALA *hands over ears* LALLA I AM NOT LISTENING I CAN’T HEAR YOU LALALALALALALALALALA

I don’t know when I got old, but I don’t want to see the work “seduce” anywhere near the words “young adult”, thankyewverymuch.

🙂  All kidding aside, my daughter is 10 – I’m well aware that there’s an entire audience of later teens that can deal with such topics while still falling under the “young adult” category.  I’m just not going to push it. In my house we’re still in the midst of an ongoing brainwashing experience, where every time we stumble across even the most innocent kissing scene my wife and I will screw up our faces and yell ‘EWWWWW!  KISSING!’  so that this is the first thought in our daughter’s head when the subject comes up, for as long as possible. 😉

While poking around IMDB for Shakespeare movies I spotted the indie Chasing Shakespeare, starring Danny Glover.  The link above has the most information, and that story was dated a year ago.  IMDB lists the film as having as 2012 release.

The plot? “A love story between a young African-American man and a Native American girl with a passion for Shakespeare.“