Last Day To Enter! Free Poster Giveaway!

[Originally posted January 15, 2015.  DEADLINE TODAY January 31, 2015!]

Hello my geeks! It's been awhile since I've given something away.  Let's change that.

Shortly before the holidays I was contacted by Clifford from ExaTextPosters.com who sent me a copy of their Utterly Complete Works of William Shakespeare for review. It's really the kind of thing you have to see to appreciate, so for the first time I decided to do a video.  Check it out!

Sorry about the shaky cam, I did it on my cell phone. And yes you can see my reflection in the glass.  Hi!



Pretty neat, huh?  I really wasn't sure what to expect when Clifford first wrote me, and we talked briefly about other similar products like One Page Books (of which I have several) and Spineless Classics (which I'd not yet heard of).  This is different. Those are more about turning literature into a work of art.  Anybody can walk up to one and recognize what it is.

This is different. From a distance, the ExaText poster just looks like a regular image. I've asked guests to take a look at it and see if they can figure out the secret.  They can't.  That's when I fire up the magnifying loupe that came with the poster, and that's when they agree that this is indeed very cool and geeky. The value in this product is not when your guests spot it from across the room and come over to admire it like a work of art, the value is in knowing the secret it holds.

There's two things I wish were different about the product. This is a review, after all. I was at first thinking that it might be something more along the lines of what we old timers used to call ASCII art, where the actual arrangement of the letters and appropriate choice of font, face and style are used to create the image itself (like this example spotted on qarchive). That's not this.  The image is just a regular black and white print, on top of which they've put the words.  So you're either looking at the words on white background or dark background, but at no point does the arrangement of the words go into creating the image of Shakespeare. Does that make sense?  They could just as easily printed the complete works on top of an image of the Mona Lisa. So what we end up with is a fairly generic picture of Shakespeare hung up on the wall.

I don't expect they can change that, as it's a complete different way to layout the text.  What I do think they can change, though, is the arrangement of the works. Right now they're in alphabetical order. Which I suppose is as rational a choice as any other. But imagine if they weren't. Imagine if they were random.  Suddenly the poster becomes a huge treasure hunt.  We all have our favorite plays and quotes, right? You get an opportunity like this and you're immediately going to look for a particular line. Alphabetically, it's pretty easy. I wanted The Tempest, I just moved down until I spotted Twelfth Night, then worked backwards through Troilus and Cressida until I found it. If the plays were randomly laid out? I'd probably still be looking ... and that would be awesome.

Ok, now for the fun part ... who wants one?

Win Your Own Utterly Complete Works of William Shakespeare from ExaTextPosters

If this sounds like something you simply must add to your collection, here's what you have to do.

1. Visit the Shakespeare Geek Facebook page.
2. Share this post.
3. Leave a comment telling us what quote you'll look up first.
4. Contest ends midnight EST on January 31, 2015.  Winner will be notified by Facebook message.

Good luck!

*That* is the Question (A Geeklet Morning Story)

Today over breakfast my 8yr son asked me, "What would rather watch, Hamlet or Midsummer Night's Dream?"

Good question.

In theory I'd like to say Hamlet, I think Hamlet is the better play with more depth to explore. But honestly Hamlet can also be incredibly boring if it's done poorly. Many times I find myself playing closer attention entirely in an attempt to find something about the secondary cast to interest me.

Midsummer, on the other hand, has that light and entertaining layer on top of its depth, so even a mediocre production is still likely going to be good for some laughs.

So my answer was, "Depends on who is playing Hamlet. If it's just another Hamlet with nobody special, well, I've seen that a bunch. But if it's a big actor of today, like say Daniel Day Lewis, then I'm totally picking the Hamlet. Otherwise I'll go Midsummer."

What do you think?

Sweep Streets Like Shakespeare Wrote Poetry

Happy Martin Luther King Day, everyone.  It's not quite as famous as the "Dream" speech, but here's the good Dr. King name dropping our favorite playwright to make his point:

What I'm saying to you this morning my friends, even if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, go on out and sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Handel and Beethoven composed music. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well."

The Trailer Game! Cymbeline becomes Anarchy

For those that missed it, Ethan Hawke's upcoming movie version of Shakespeare's Cymbeline has been renamed Anarchy. They've even released a new trailer.  But the marketing folks must think we're stupid, because it was only a few months ago that we got almost the exact same Cymbeline trailer.  Here's both!

First, Cymbeline:

 

Now, Anarchy:


Other than the name change and the really unnecessary "It's like Sons of Anarchy meets Game of Thrones!" graphic for those who didn't already feel hammered over the head enough, what are the most obvious changes you see?

Words, Words, Words - FREE Poster Giveaway

Hello my geeks! It's been awhile since I've given something away.  Let's change that.

Shortly before the holidays I was contacted by Clifford from ExaTextPosters.com who sent me a copy of their Utterly Complete Works of William Shakespeare for review. It's really the kind of thing you have to see to appreciate, so for the first time I decided to do a video.  Check it out!

Sorry about the shaky cam, I did it on my cell phone. And yes you can see my reflection in the glass.  Hi!



Pretty neat, huh?  I really wasn't sure what to expect when Clifford first wrote me, and we talked briefly about other similar products like One Page Books (of which I have several) and Spineless Classics (which I'd not yet heard of).  This is different. Those are more about turning literature into a work of art.  Anybody can walk up to one and recognize what it is.

This is different. From a distance, the ExaText poster just looks like a regular image. I've asked guests to take a look at it and see if they can figure out the secret.  They can't.  That's when I fire up the magnifying loupe that came with the poster, and that's when they agree that this is indeed very cool and geeky. The value in this product is not when your guests spot it from across the room and come over to admire it like a work of art, the value is in knowing the secret it holds.

There's two things I wish were different about the product. This is a review, after all. I was at first thinking that it might be something more along the lines of what we old timers used to call ASCII art, where the actual arrangement of the letters and appropriate choice of font, face and style are used to create the image itself (like this example spotted on qarchive). That's not this.  The image is just a regular black and white print, on top of which they've put the words.  So you're either looking at the words on white background or dark background, but at no point does the arrangement of the words go into creating the image of Shakespeare. Does that make sense?  They could just as easily printed the complete works on top of an image of the Mona Lisa. So what we end up with is a fairly generic picture of Shakespeare hung up on the wall.

I don't expect they can change that, as it's a complete different way to layout the text.  What I do think they can change, though, is the arrangement of the works. Right now they're in alphabetical order. Which I suppose is as rational a choice as any other. But imagine if they weren't. Imagine if they were random.  Suddenly the poster becomes a huge treasure hunt.  We all have our favorite plays and quotes, right? You get an opportunity like this and you're immediately going to look for a particular line. Alphabetically, it's pretty easy. I wanted The Tempest, I just moved down until I spotted Twelfth Night, then worked backwards through Troilus and Cressida until I found it. If the plays were randomly laid out? I'd probably still be looking ... and that would be awesome.

Ok, now for the fun part ... who wants one?

Win Your Own Utterly Complete Works of William Shakespeare from ExaTextPosters

If this sounds like something you simply must add to your collection, here's what you have to do.

1. Visit the Shakespeare Geek Facebook page.
2. Share this post.
3. Leave a comment telling us what quote you'll look up first.
4. Contest ends midnight EST on January 31, 2015.  Winner will be notified by Facebook message.

Good luck!

It Seems One Must Clarify Oneself, Dame Judi

What happens when one of the world's leading Shakespearean actors says that her schooling was so poor that it put her off a certain Shakespeare play for life?  For starters, the school comes looking for an apology.

Late last year, and I don't think I even wrote about this at the time, Dame Judi Dench  said that she developed a lifelong hatred for Merchant of Venice after being forced to read the play out loud, six lines at a time, in school.  (For the record, I can see her point.  She stresses that character breaks were not factored in - everybody got six lines, regardless of which character was speaking.  Talk about an easy way to break the spirit of those students and render the text meaningless!)

Needless to say The Mount School, which Dame Judi attended from 1945 to 1953, was not pleased to hear that.

Luckily, the actress (through a spokesperson) clarified that she was not talking about the prestigious secondary school, but rather her last year at "Miss Maeby's" primary school.

It's a bit of a silly story, but I do kind of understand their point.  "Hey, remember how we were thinking about sending our daughter to Mount?  Listen to what Judi Dench says about how awful the teaching is there. Forget that place."

IKEA Dreams of The Tempest

Scanning through my year-end headlines I found a Shakespeare reference in Mashable's "The 8 Best Ads You Didn't See Last Year". More specifically a Tempest reference, so you know I be clickin.

Check out IKEA's ad (#4), entitled "Beds":

Couple of thoughts:

* The voiceover appears to be Helen Mirren's version from The 2010 Tempest movie.

* For some reason I was hoping when I clicked for Caliban's Dream instead:

...if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.

* IKEA looks a whole lot like IDEA. I learned this after my fingers wanted to type it incorrectly half a dozen times trying to post this.  I wonder if that's on purpose?

* Is it wrong of me that I didn't click on any of the other ads? If somebody does, let us know if there are any good ones.  They mentioned Robbie Williams in one description and for a minute I got excited thinking they'd said Robin Williams, but alas, no.