Word Of The Day : Forwhy

Wordsmith's word of the day today is "forwhy".

My friend Rob sends these to me when they have a Shakespeare slant. Today's word comes from Titus Andronicus, of all places! Thanks Rob!

Macbeth Re-Arisen

I always love a good sequel.

This horror movie homage to the Scottish play has Macbeth rising from the dead to wreak havoc on his former kingdom. The linked article really goes into more detail than I could here, I'd just be summarizing the original, so go read that instead.

Contest WINNER!

Ok, I said I'd get my act together, and I didn't lie.  The winner of the Manga Shakespeare edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream is...

Bill, from Shakespeare Teacher!

Congratulations, Bill!  Get in touch with a mailing address and I'll send the book right along.

Thanks for playing everybody (and to those who didn't even realize they were playing :)).  I've got a good game in mind for the next giveaway, I just have to get back in touch with the publisher and get some giveaways :).

Contest Update : Not Forgotten

Hi Everybody,

I haven't forgotten about the Manga Shakespeare contest, just finding myself very busy now that my old schedule has gone completely out the window with the loss of my job. You have no idea what it does to a geek like myself (and in this case I mean geek in the computer sense) when you take away the machine that he'd carried around with him daily for the last 2 years. I can't yet comfortably sit in my office and do things the way I used to sit on the couch and churn stuff out.

But fear not, I should have something up by the end of today. Stay tuned! Thanks for everybody that played, I hope everybody that's left a comment knows they just got entered into the contest :)

10 Things : The Series

Ok, I know there are folks out of there who are mad crazy fans of the move 10 Things I Hate About You, either for the Shakespeare or the Heath Ledger, I'm not sure which.

You folks will be happy to learn that ABC Family is going to attempt a series out of it. Of course, it won't have Shakespeare (if he didn't write a sequel to Shrew, what can ya do?) and it won't have Heath Ledger.

Filthy (and by that I mean Stupid and Ridiculous) Shakespeare

So I was thinking the other day what Shakespeare might have to say on the subject of unemployment. Then I thought it would be funny to break out my copy of Filthy Shakespeare, since when you are unemployed you do tend to swear. A lot. :)

Wow, what a horrible book this is. I mean, it's offensively bad. I have "Bawdy Shakespeare", the classic reference on Shakespeare's more colorful language. The problem with that one is that, having been written over half a century ago, it goes to great lengths to cover up its own subject matter. Students today looking up the dirty Shakespeare words would probably also have to start by looking up words like "pudenda."

No such problem with Filthy Shakespeare, where even the chapter titles are so profane I wouldn't let my mother anywhere near them. Forget about f-words, there's a couple of good variations of c-words in there as well. I'm not kidding, there is a chapter entitled "Pertaining To .... " well, country matters. You know?

My problem is not so much with the language, but with the childish way it ends up presented. For instance, did you know that the word "all" could also be a reference to male or female genitals? Now, take that knowledge and go to any passage in Shakespeare that uses the word, and replace it with the swear word of your choice (I'm trying very hard not to just go for broke and use the same language this book uses). Because, as everybody knows, if a word could mean something else in one context, then OF COURSE Shakespeare meant it that way EVERY TIME HE USED IT.

As I write this review I keep flipping randomly through the book, hoping to find something good to say and only coming up with more examples of why I hate it. Want a good one? Try this out at a cocktail party (gasp! I said cocktail!! I must have meant buggery party!!!): "Hey everybody, did you know that Shakespeare's name really is slang for wanker? Get it? Shake your spear? Hahaha, isn't that a riot? No? Anyway...")

The format of each chapter is simple : Eye-catching obscene title ("One Prick Too Many" is about the tamest one I can find), chapter summary where the author tells us what sorts of words we can hope to find, and in what scene of what play, and then some normal text that attempts to actually be grown up talk. Then the scene, and then a word-for-word translation of the scene with all the dirty words swapped in, which ends up for the most part making no sense at all. Oh, and then a glossary that breaks down every word, just in case you missed it the first 10 times. Each chapter is like it's own little Freudian lesson - if it's longer than it is wide, it's a phallic reference, and if it's round (or soft or indented or apparently fruity or birdlike) it's a female reference.

Methinks somebody needs to tell the author that sometimes a rapier is just a rapier. I'm left thinking that this book is some sort of joke to be passed among Shakespeareans so we can all chuckle and say "Oh Pauline, you tramp! Oh no you didn't!" and then move on.

CONTEST : FREE Book Giveaway

Ok, everybody, let's do this. I've had a copy of Manga Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream sitting on my shelf for weeks, waiting to give it away. I keep saying I'll review it first, but honestly I just don't have the time these days, so you'll have to take my word for it or do you own research. I expect that if you're at all into "manga" then you know exactly what to expect.

Here's the rules:

* Between now and let's say end of day Saturday, November 22, leave a comment on a Shakespeare Geek blog post.

* It cannot be this one. It has to be something with actual "talking about Shakespeare stuff" content.

* Say something more valuable than "Please include me in the contest!" Trust me, I'll see you. I have alerts on all the site comments.


* Early next week I will randomly select from all the comments received, and post the winner. I'll need to get in touch with you if you win so I can get your mailing address, so please stay in touch if you're not a regular visitor! Come back and look for the results post.


Ok. Any questions? Get to commenting.

Shakespeare Teacher Is Trying What Now?

http://www.shakespeareteacher.com/blog/archives/907

Shakespeare Teacher owns the "Shakespeare anagram" marketplace (what there is of it :)). Well maybe he's looking for more of a challenge, because now it's going to write plot summaries for five of the plays each using a different target vowel. In other words and entire review only using A as the vowel, then E, and so on.

The idea comes from the book Euonia, a five chapter book where each chapter uses only a single vowel.

Good luck! There's a famous novel or two written using just the vowel E, if I recall. I'm sure similar experiments have been done with other vowels. But putting the Shakespeare twist on it should be fun, especially watching what he does with the character names.

Playing Shakespeare

To my 4yr old, Daddy being unemployed means Daddy is home to play with her more, especially when her older sister goes off to school in the morning. "You want to play the Shakespeare game?" she asks me.

"How do you play?" I ask.

"You find a doll to be the Prince, and then I find a doll to be Miranda, and we are on the island. Wait, I'll get the book." I'm not kidding. She runs into the family room and comes back holding my copy of Manga Shakespeare's Tempest, which I did not even realize she knew I had.

So we begin acting out the story. I am using my Shakespeare action figure, although he is actually playing Ferdinand. Miranda is played by a blue Tinkerbell fairy. Ariel is a stuffed unicorn, and Caliban is the dog from the Simpsons that she got in a Burger King Happy Meal.

But soon I'm shaken from my private little world when the reality of playing with a 4yr old comes down around me.

"So Ferdinand is chained up by Prospero's magic and forced to carry the firewood to prove his love for Miranda," I read. I turn up little Shakespeare's arms and make him carry a Lincoln Log.

"But then her mommy comes and breaks his chains and sets him free!" my daughter says, waving a stuffed ballerina doll.

"Wait, whose mommy?"

"Miranda's mommy."

"Miranda's mommy is not in the story, sweetie."

"She's been in the garden out front. She breaks the chains and Ferdinand is free!"

Oh, of course that's where she's been. :)

Review: Will, By Christopher Rush

A few weeks back the good people at Overlook Press sent me a copy of Will, which imagines Shakespeare on his deathbed dictating his last will and testament to his lawyer.

Given the prominent role the mystery of the will plays in the authorship question, what with talk of second-best beds and no mention of books and theatre things, such a task is quite daunting to begin with. When you open to the first page and realize that Rushmore intends to tell Shakespeare's story in first person, well, to borrow a phrase from the vernacular let's say the man has some serious grapefruits on him. Know what I mean?

And what does the voice of Will say? Well, he quotes and references himself quite often. Not in a bad way, not like Rushmore can't think of anything better to have him say. Instead we get a man who spent his life crafting a phrase and now mocks his own talent at doing so, borrowing his character's words to express his points, those words having come from his own brain in the first place. Very believable for a playwright recounting his life. He even puns on his own work, such as referring to a particular term as a "brave new word." I particularly got a kick out of him working the word "groatsworth" into the narrative, I can only imagine how small a portion of the audience gets that reference.

What else does grumpy old Will tell his lawyer? Well he swears a lot. Talks about bodily functions in graphic detail, obsesses about death. That second bit is pretty interesting. Lots of undiscovered country talk. A fascinating digression on Lazarus and why nobody bothered to ask him any questions about the Great Beyond. In Rushmore's version, Will spent his childhood haunted by ghost stories and visits to haunted cemeteries. He does
Not paint a pleasant picture of life for young Will.

I won't lie, the narrative is hard to follow. Shakespeare is the narrator, speaking to his lawyer. So 80% of every page is supposed to be conversational, but never with a quotation mark or a "Shakespeare said..." Between every few paragraphs the lawyer interjects with typically a single sentence, and it's almost like the author does that just to make sure we don't forget Will isn't just talking into a tape recorder.

And then periodically it switches to third person, which leaves me wondering if that is an editor's mistake. You'll get a line like (paraphrased), "Then Frances took a bite of his meal." Ummm... The narrator Shakespeare is speaking to Frances the lawyer, so who is talking there? It happens infrequently enough to be jarring when it does.

What of the big questions? The second best bed and all that? I'm not done with the book yet so I can't spoil it for you. I can tell you that I'm anxious to find out for myself!

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On The Road

(trying new posting software...)

Driving home after a party on a dark and stormy night, trying to take a left onto a main road:

Geek: "See anything coming on that side?"

Mrs Geek: "Just trees. "

Geek: "Yeah but has Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane?"

Mrs Geek: "huh?"

Geek: "Never mind. "


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Off-Topic : Out Of Work

Hi gang,

those of you paying attention to that Twitter stream over on the left already know this, but as of earlier this week I've officially joined the ranks of the unemployed.  Hopefully it won't be for long, but it was certainly a disruptive experience. Most notably it took away from me the computer I've been using for the last several years.

So in theory I'm not going to have more time on my hands to catch up on those book reviews and giveaways I've been promising.  But to do that I need to breathe a little life into these old clunkers I've had lying around my office collecting dust.

Oh, and if anybody's hiring software architects in Massachusetts, particularly North Shore region, drop me a line :).  Rails, Java and other backend web stuff a specialty.

:)

Surrounded By Geeklets!

Not to be outdone by her artistic 6yr old older sister, my 4yr old is now in on the act.  While working at the craft table she shoves paper and crayons in my hand, saying "Daddy, can you draw us the As You Like It picture?"

I asked her which picture she meant.  She repeated, "The As You Like It picture."

I still don't know what that means.   I think I read them AYLI once, and they have not seen it.  They've heard about it, briefly, over the summer - Kerry and I went to see it in Boston.  I may have mentioned taking them.  But she surely has no idea of the plot.

Today during game time we got out "Don't Break The Ice", where you have to make a grid of like 64 white ice cubes and then take turns smashing it.  "We don't have to play the original game," she tells me.  "We can just build stuff with the ice.  We can make a castle, or a dinosaur..or Shakespeare!"  She always wants to make "Shakespeare things".


Later that evening, during story time, the 6yr old is reading an Angelina Ballerina book.  That's the one where the mice are all ballet dancers.  She brings the book over to me, pointing to a certain page.  "Does that say Macbeth?" she asks.  Odd, because she is not pointing to any words, she's pointing to the picture itself.

I look closer.

Sure enough, the scene takes place back stage in a theatre or dressing room of some sort.  On the wall is indeed a poster for Macbeth, which she has spotted (even though the artist has only sketched the letters in partially).

A Couple Of Micro-References

A long time ago when I started this blog I used to note random Shakespeare references I heard during the day, like tv commercials and such.  Given that I heard 2 in the last 12 hours or so, it reminded me to post more of them:

On this week's "Lipstick Jungle" episode (watching on Tivo, normally airs Friday night), Brooke Shields' movie producer character is getting pitched an indie film.  "Set in Belfast in the 1960's," the writer says, "Romeo and Juliet stuff.  Catholics and Protestants going at each other."

That was last night at maybe 9:30 or so.

This morning on the drive to work (7:30) I heard a radio commercial for Bengal Traders coffee, which I guess they're serving at ExxonMobil gas stations now.  I missed the lead up, but the man is trying to explain some sort of deal to the woman - I think it has to do with getting a bottle of water with your cup of coffee or something.  "They go great together, like Romeo and Juliet!" he says.

"Look how well they turned out," says the woman.

That's it.  Hey, I called them "micro" for a reason. :)

Breakfast, continued

Next day, same hotel, same breakfast buffet.  Geeklet has already begun coloring a picture of some sort when I say, "Hey, why not try Romeo and Juliet?"

"I don't really remember enough about that one," she tells me.  "The other story I'd heard so many times, it was easy."

Still, she ponders how she can turn her already created drawing into something Shakespearean.  She colors for awhile, and then says, "How's this?"

On the paper is a banquet table, with a girl - labelled Juliet - at one end, and a boy - Romeo - at the other.  In the center is a goblet.  Above the goblet is the word, "Yum."

She informs me that Romeo and Juliet are having a nice dinner together.  But of course given the whole "sleeping potion" plot device, the drawing really ends up with a whole different meaning.  I love it.

Wolfson Collection To Be Donated To The Globe

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/donation-sends-shakespeare-plays-home-to-the-globe/

John Wolfson, a playwright and collector of antiquarian books, has pledged to donate more than 450 works by William Shakespeare and other playwrights of his era to the Globe Theater in London, The Guardian reported. Among Mr. Wolfson’s collection is a rare first folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays, published in 1623. The donation, to be made after his death, also includes second, third and fourth editions of the Shakespeare folio, as well as works by Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson, Thomas Middleton and John Ford. The original Globe Theater was built by Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s men, and later destroyed in a fire; the modern reconstruction of the Globe opened in 1997.

Breakfast With Geeklet

The story you about to hear is 100% true.

We're on vacation, up in a hotel in the mountains.  We're having the breakfast buffet, and as is typical, the kids have placemats and crayons to occupy them.  Katherine, my oldest at 6, shows her picture and says, "What do you think, Daddy?"

"Looks like a shoe with windows," I say.  "Is it the old woman who lives in the shoe?"

"No," she says, with the head tilt and eye roll that all 6yr olds master on their 6th birthday.  "It's Miranda on the island.  See, that's her Daddy next to her, and this is the boat that's going to crash on the rocks.  She's calling to them, saying that they'll be safe on the island.  See the people?"

"...."

She flips the paper back over, colors some more, and flips it back so I can see it. "What's the name of the monster, again?"

"Caliban?"

"Right, Caliban.  That's him, there."  Caliban has been drawn in red, and looks rather devilish.

Again the flip, the coloring, the flip again.  Now Ariel is up in the sky, like an angel of some sort.  "What else can I draw?" she asked.

"Books," I told her.  "You need the magic books."

"Right!" she says, and returns to drawing.  "Finished!"

I look at the final picture (which I have, and plan to scan when I get home).  The books are in a tree.  "Prospero keeps his books in a tree?" I ask.

"That is the entrance to his secret hiding place," she says, again with the head tilt and eye roll.

 

It may never actually happen, but I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that art class:

"What did you draw, Hailey?"
    "I drew a flower!"
"And how about you, Aidan?"
    "I drew a dinosaur!"
"Katherine?  What did you draw?"
    "I drew the opening of Shakespeare's The Tempest.  Act I, Scene 2."

Hi, Romeo? It's Juliet. Listen...

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832002

 

"If Movies Had Cell Phones".  Dugg for inclusion of Romeo and Juliet:  "Listen, Romeo, I'm gonna fake my death tonight, I wanted to let you know so you don't freak out or anything."

Obama Wins, Here Come The Henry V Posts!

In case anybody was wondering if I'd missed these....

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/chicago-tomorrow.html

http://matthewsalomon.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/election-day/

http://matthewsalomon.wordpress.com/2008/11/05/the-day-is-yours/

http://www.lackhead.org/2008/11/once-more-unto-the-breach-dear-friends/

 

I'm sure there are a few hundred more out there someplace, but you get the idea. :)