Another #ShakespeareDay Is Done

*phew!*

So, how was your day?

This year I succeeded in publishing a new record *28* stories.  And you know what?  I'm pretty sure that a silly picture I tweeted in the middle of the day got more traffic than all of those stories combined.  But that's ok.  Tweets are temporary, posts are forever.

Here's a quick recap of the day's action, since so many posts will have scrolled into the archives before most people get to see them:

1. My Shakespeare, Rise!
2. Cover Songs and Sampling
3. Playing Against Type
4. Deconstructing Shakespeare
5. Theme Song Shakespeare : And The Rest!
6. The Master
7. A Game! Novel Perspective
8. Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music
9. A New Sonnets to Music Collection
10. WIN One of the Beautiful Shakespeare Signature Series, Free!
11. Review : Undiscovered Country by Lin Enger
12. Synetic Shakespeare
13. "Shakespeare" by Jaden Smith
14. Romeo & Juliet Trailer
15. Drive-by Earl of Oxford Jokes
16. Review : Shakespeare Shaken
17. Review : So Long, Shakespeare
18. Willie "Shakespeare" Joel's Greatest Hits
19. Kinderbard
20. Dreaming in Shakespeare (A Continuing Series)
21. Tales from Shakespeare : Illustrated
22. Why Are Some Plays Better Recognized Than Others?
23. Pen Us A Play You're The Stratford Man
24. Review : The Wednesday Wars
25. Rocky Shakespeare III
26. What Shakespeare Means To Me
27. Is Shakespeare Universal? Show Your Support!
28. Why Should I?

This year I'm trying something a little different. I'm running a fundraiser that I'm calling "Shakespeare is Universal."  In the style of Kickstarter, this company Teespring produces a much higher quality product at a lower price than any other outlet I've yet found.  The trick is that you need to get a minimum number of people to sign up for the campaign (i.e. reserve a shirt) by a certain time.  By working in bulk quantities the prices stay low, without sacrificing the quality. 

I am hoping that loyal readers who have enjoyed the blog and everything I've done for the cause of Shakespeare over the years will do me the honor of joining the campaign.  There's three good reasons I'd really like to see this latest effort of mine succeed. First, there's the obvious practical reason that if I have money I can spend it on more cool Shakespeare things. I don't believe in lying about that or trying to hide it.

Second, I think it's a nice shirt.  I made this image awhile ago by taking "To be or not to be" and translating it into as many languages as I could find, and had a graphic designer friend help me with the layout.  When you look at the patterns and realize how you can tell what it says even when you can't speak the language you begin to see Shakespeare as this Rosetta Stone that enables communication between people all around the world. I think that's a very cool idea.  When we talk about "Shakespeare for everyone" that doesn't just mean English speakers.

Lastly there's a reason of personal importance to me.  If the campaign succeeds, that will mean that there's at least a hundred people out there who'll be wearing shirts that identify them as fellow Shakespeare geeks.  One day I will bump into somebody in the wild who is wearing one of them, and that will be an amazing milestone for me, because my bond with that person will be deep and it will be instant, yet again confirming that power that Shakespeare brings out in all of us.