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Saturday, October 28, 2006
How yum
Posted by Lis Riba at 11:15 AM
 Saw a Slashfood entry that mentioned apple fritters. Sounded delicious, and we have apples in the house, so I asked Ian if he'd be willing to make some for breakfast. He wondered about recipes, so I searched Google Print and showed him sample pages from the first two cookbooks in the result list:
He took a quick look, and said he could improvise something along those lines. And he did. And it is good. The battered and fried apple slices are a beautiful golden brown with just a hint of cinnamon. I told him, "it tastes like autumn." He replied that that's what he was going for. Mmmmmm 
Friday, October 27, 2006
Further ruminations on reviews
Posted by Lis Riba at 8:00 PM
Last night, I dreamed I was at a party (dinner party? cocktail party?) where I met Steve Gilliard. He commented upon some issue that he was surprised I hadn't blogged on. I replied that I'm feeling a bit newsed-out at the moment. Aside from local blogs like Universal Hub, Blue Mass Group and Dan Kennedy, I haven't been reading any of the news blogs the last several days. A few of the comics and entertainment blogs (such as Ragnell, Kalinara, Polite Dissent, Such Shakespeare Stuff, Boing Boing, and SlashFood), but not the (national-level) political blogosphere. I've even fallen behind in reading my LiveJournal friends. Is there anything going on that I should know about? Instead, this has been a week for Shakespeare. I've seen two Shakespeare performances, and attended a panel discussion.
I decided not to write up The Tempest we saw at MIT. Though I don't agree with all his conclusions, Ian's review comes close enough to my opinions that I don't feel like duplicating his effort. [Isn't he lucky he doesn't have to be at work in the morning, so can stay up all night writing?] I actually had my notebook open and ready when the play began, and took a few notes on the first scene in preparation... then decided to just sit back and enjoy myself. Since I hadn't received comped press tickets, I wasn't obligated to review. I could just write if inspired. I started blogging dramatic reviews as a memory aide for myself, just to record my own experiences. Just a few dashed-off comments. After a while, I tried to write more formal reviews. Then, I got brave and asked for a press kit, and soon I was receiving press tickets to performances. I wrote up some of this history, and my mixed emotions with regards to reviewing in a July 2005 entry. So why am I dwelling on this now? Apparently, an operation called PayPerPost has been making waves, by offering to pay bloggers for promoting their products. I first heard about this from Seth Finkelstein, who concludes:
The press tickets I get are no different than those for professional reviewers. But they do make me feel compromised and sometimes constrained in my writings. Most directly, I feel an obligation to review in return for the press tickets. Fortunately, the issue hasn't yet come up, but I can't help wondering if a truly negative opinion might result in losing this access. Do I owe them not just a review, but a positive one?
But I'm influenced in more than just recompense for payment received. Particularly at first, I had trouble knowing who my audience was for these posts: locals who might see the plays? other Shakespeare-fen reading my blog from elsewhere in the country? the cast and crew themselves? As a blogger, I think I have a somewhat more intimate relationship with my readers. To a certain extent, I can tell who is reading pages in my site, where they're located, and how they got here. I do see egogoogling in my referral logs: searches on authors, actors and theater companies -- presumably, in many cases, by the subjects themselves. [ASP actually linked to my review on their blog.] These are individual people with feelings; I don't want to be rude. [Hath not an actor hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?] As a more terrifying possibility, I wonder if casting directors might not be Googling to screen auditioning candidates. Could my review cost somebody a job? Of course, that concern holds true whether or not I receive press tickets. In fact, the burden may be greater for amateur productions than professional ones. If I Google the name of a professional actor, my review is just one of thousands of hits. Amateur actors may receive a few dozen mentions at best, increasing my influence in possibly unwelcome ways. Anyway, once again, I don't have an actual point I'm trying to bring this to. These are just the thoughts roiling around in my mind. If you have something to share on the subject, either from the point of view of a reviewer or as somebody involved in the theater, I'd love to hear your comments...
Renowned Titus, flourishing in arms
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:13 PM
What should I make of this?
I'm not complaining, merely curious:
Is Julie Taymor to blame? Or did she merely catch on early to the trend?
Thursday, October 26, 2006
By Providence divine. Some food we had
Posted by Lis Riba at 11:15 PM
Just got home from seeing The Tempest @ MIT. Good show. An amateur production, but entertaining and well-told, with several outstanding performances. I recommend it. I may review it in more detail later. This drops to 16 the Shakespeare plays I haven't seen yet. Of those, I've read several and ASP is performing another later this season. Meanwhile, some mixed news:
BTW, while @ MIT we also stopped at MITSFS to kill a little time between dinner and the box office opening. They had a box of used paperbacks for 25¢ apiece. I picked up four of the James Blish Star Trek novelisations (2,3,4&5). I just wish to point out, for the record, that there are no unusual copyright notices for Harlan Ellison's "City on the edge of forever." (context) Also, Bear, you'll have to stop in the next time you're in the Boston area. Did you know there was a Man from UNCLE monthly magazine published in the late 1960s? Neither did I, but the MITSFS library has at least a dozen issues... Finally, funniest unintentional joke heard today was an NPR story about the protests at Gallaudet. Among the complaints about the new president is that she doesn't listen... And, on that note, I should get some sleep. Goodnight, everybody!
To consider too curiously
Posted by Lis Riba at 11:01 PM
While watching Boopsie stre-e-etch this morning, I was wondering... All mammals evolved from a common ancestor. Did humans lose most of the muscular control over our ears, or is that something that cats/dogs/etc developed after we split off?
For the record
Posted by Lis Riba at 8:58 AM
I don't remember how I voted on 2000 ballot questions, either. Heck, I can't even remember what all the ballot questions were in more recent elections...
Memory holds a seat in this distracted globe
Posted by Lis Riba at 7:59 AM
“Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though And with articles in today's Globe, all the major local papers have weighed in with their reviews of ASP's Hamlet. For comparison sake, here they are, in the order of their publication:
And, of course, Ian's and my reviews, which were posted before any of the papers, can be found at RibaRambles.org/Reviews.htm PS (added later): On Tuesday, Ian wrote up some of his observations about blogging theater reviews, the advantages and disadvantages we have compared to professional journalists.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Pansies, that's for thoughts
Posted by Lis Riba at 11:20 PM
Academics can and do endlessly theorize about Shakespeare:
That's fine and fun, but actors often do similar things -- and need to actually pick an interpretation and put it into practice on stage. Last night, Actors' Shakespeare Project gathered actors and directors from several recent productions of Hamlet along with professors David Evett (ASP's scholar in residence) and Stephen Greenblatt of Harvard (most recently, author of Will in the world) to discuss the play. I've inquired several times about the nature of dramaturgy? Well, last night I was soaking in it! The rest of the panel included:
Plus other members of both casts were on-hand to contribute, both to the discussion and in acting out several scenes. Ideas flew fast and furious, and there's no way I can remotely convey even a portion of the discussion. Here are just a few bullet points that stood out in my memory:
Although multiple scenes were performed, by ASP, S&C and a few mixes (filling in for absent actors), there were no direct comparisons showing the same scene or soliloquy delivered by different casts. "O what a rogue and peasant slave..." was on the agenda, but Ben Evett needed to save his voice for today's performance, so we only got Jason Asprey's rendition. Clearly, this means they need to run such a program again. After the panel discussion was over (certain elements ran over, leaving no time for Q&A), I asked Professor Greenblatt for some references for his comments about the many problems of Hamlet. Though it's over fifty years old, he recommended J. Dover Wilson's What happens in Hamlet? Education and outreach are a major part of ASP's mission. As Ed Siegel writes for the Phoenix: "the company deserves credit for bringing Shakespeare to underserved audiences while luring tonier theatergoers to Dorchester." And I've been reading the press releases and newsletters as they've brought Shakespeare into schools and communities. [I don't often blog such items, because few of my audience are the target for these programs. But I still remember the Q&A after All's Well, in which more than one person said this had been the first Shakespeare they'd seen.] Still, it's nice to see ASP recognizing the Shakespeare wonks deserve special events, too. We can't all enroll in academia to fulfill our needs, so I welcome more of this kind of outreach. The fact that they had over 120 attendees on a weeknight (the onstage seating was filled to capacity, with several dozen more sitting in the auditorium) suggests that others share this interest and are willing to pay for the experience. In other words, Encore, encore! PS: Having just seen ASP's Hamlet on Saturday night, I didn't feel a need to watch their scenes as obsessively. I had brought along my smaller Complete Works and followed along with the "script." Fascinating, seeing how much was cut and where lines were changed (mind you, some of the changes may be quarto/folio differences; I'm not sure the basis of my text). I really wish I could afford to attend all Shakespeare performances twice, the second time just reading along with a booklight and text...
Why, how now, Orlando! where have you been all this while?
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:42 PM
In my continuing quest to find out just when I'll be able to see Kenneth Branagh's As You Like It comes a recent article from the Houston Chronicle, which states:
So much for the oft-promised Fall 2006... IMDb isn't much help. According to their release info, it's already opened in limited release in Italy and Greece, and opens in Hungary(!?) end of December. However, I have found a site with numerous production stills. Looks like Brian Blessed is playing both good Duke and bad Duke, though Rosalind doesn't look terribly boyish. And I can't quite explain why, but this still of Touchstone and Jacques doesn't inspire me with much confidence. Nor does the dearth of actual Asian faces, an issue I've blogged before.
Thence to a watch, thence to a lightness
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:12 AM
Ian found The Enfolded Hamlet, (Intro), which intertwines the text of the Second Quarto and First Folio to compare and contrast.
Meanwhile, Duane uncovered a Hamlet Tag Cloud demonstrating word frequency in the play. Continuing with the Shakesweird, anybody else remember Mel Gibson and Elmo on Monsterpiece Theater? Astonishingly enough, the video hasn't made it onto YouTube yet, but I've found this transscript. Finally, I just discovered that November 8-12, University of New Hampshire will be staging the Bad Quarto. I'll post further details shortly to Bard In Boston.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
To die, to sleep... Whoops!
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:35 PM
This was buried in a link-heavy post a few months ago, but since Ian wouldn't stop quoting it... In this comedy sketch, Hugh Laurie plays Shakespeare, Rowan Atkinson is his editor, and they're working on that blasted soliloquy: For those who can't watch streaming videos, I've found transcripts here and here, but the delivery is really what makes it... While I'm at it, does anyone have a current link to The Most Lamentable and Excellent Text Adventure of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark? The old site, on http://www.robinjohnson.f9.co.uk/ is no more, and with all the talk of Arden, I'd love to play it.
The more fool I
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:20 PM
Last week, I blogged about a forthcoming Shakespearean MMORPG by researchers at Indiana University. This morning, Michael Burstein sent me links to portions of the project already up: Did I mention that this probably spells my doom?
Ay, there's the rub
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:15 PM
So this morning I disturbed Ian with a lewd interpretation of a Shakespeare line which he thinks Shakespeare didn't actually intend. At the end of yesterday's entry on Shakespeare slash, I concluded with:
This largely depends upon a double-meaning of "flesh"
At any rate, if "flesh" can be a euphemism for... man-flesh, then under what circumstances does "solid flesh" melt and "resolve itself into a dew"? Ian's response was ‘Ewwwww’ and he thinks I'm overreaching. [Oh, and keep in mind that the second quarto spells it as "sallied flesh," where "sallied" is an archaic form of the word "sullied." Unlike on LiveJournal, I can't conduct interactive polls, but I'd like to hear your comments.
I'll try to compile the responses and post results by Saturday (to keep it all on the same page in my archive). PS: Ian should be thankful that I'm not delving into this bit from another Hamlet soliloquy, which mentions:
PPS: I just discovered the existence of A Dictionary of Shakespeare's sexual puns and their significance by Frankie Rubinstein. PPPS: Related posts:
Monday, October 23, 2006
Speak the speech, I pray you
Posted by Lis Riba at 9:12 PM
Many people are familiar with this exchange in Hamlet:
In the final line quoted above, Ben Evett strongly emphasized the first syllable of "country" to better expose Hamlet's crassness. While the meaning may be clear to folks familiar with the play, his harsh talk of "CUNTry" to Ophelia was a shocking slap in the face for the entire audience, and thus, very effective. Likewise, the fart joke is already rather obvious in this bit from Comedy of Errors:
But in the 2004 Shakespeare & Company production, Dan McCleary delivered "words are butt-wind." The audience laughed so hard they could barely breathe. It is lines like these that make me believe it's far better to see Shakespeare well-acted (at least for one's first exposure) than to read the text. Footnotes are rarely as good at conveying nuance and laugh-lines. Any other similar examples of brilliant delivery you'd care to share?
Rambles Reviews: Hamlet
Posted by Lis Riba at 8:40 PM
The first thing you'll notice, should you attend the Actors' Shakespeare Project's production of Hamlet, is the theater itself.
Despite its unassuming exterior, the Strand Theatre in Dorchester opened in 1918 as a movie and vaudeville palace. Archaic grandeur from the days when even movies were events worth glorifying. Although the official capacity of the theater is over 1400, the Actors' Shakespeare Project rearranged the configuration to seat barely 120. How? The audience sits on risers placed upstage left -- occupying about a quarter of the stage facing the auditorium. This makes for a setting both intimate and majestic. Most of the action takes place downstage and stage right, but in truth, the company has the whole theater to work with.
The space is perfectly suited to Hamlet's description of: “this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire” (Act II, Scene 2) With a backdrop like that, who needs much more in the way of scenery? Just a bit of scaffolding to climb upon, and the occasional chair, table, couch or curtain. For example, Claudius and Gertrude watch the players from ornate box seats. But probably the most effective use of space comes from the very opening scene. Using no illumination but the guards' own flashlights, glimpses of a ghost in the upper balcony are genuinely chilling.
Company regular Ken Cheeseman plays the ghost -- along with the Player King and Gravedigger -- demonstrating wonderful versatility. The cast consists of 14 actors playing 24 roles total (given doubling). However, only five (playing 8 parts) come from the regular company. The rest of the cast are guest artists for this production. [Actors of color comprise about half the cast.] The most notable guest star has been Johnny Lee Davenport as Claudius. He's on a mission to perform all of Shakespeare's plays, and Hamlet makes 29. [Even before the show's opening, he's garnered profiles in both the Globe and Herald, both for this record and for his outreach for minority actors.] His Claudius is quite the charmer, more in love with power than policy. When it comes to the actual work of running the kingdom, he seems more than willing to delegate that to Polonius' decisions. He's also very much in love with Gertrude. The NRE between them is quite palpable the first half of the play, and they're an extremely passionate and demonstrative couple. Marya Lowry is surprisingly good at playing giddy infatuation. Gertrude obviously has a different tone from last season's Olivia, but it seems clear that Claudius and Gertrude have more than a mere political marriage.
As Ophelia, Marianna Bassham is incredible. I found it hard to keep my eyes off her whenever she was onstage. As Polonius advises Laertes (Act I Scene 4), she affectionately rolls her eyes when her father isn't looking. But from the beginning, she also conveys a sense of fragility that renders her later breakdown both tragic and inevitable. Which brings us to Ben Evett as Hamlet. From his first appearance, Hamlet stood out. While everyone else was attired in well-pressed court finery, Hamlet's clothes were rumpled. He slouched. In his initial scene, he seemed alternately sulky and sarcastic, limber and restless. He seemed positively suicidal during portions of his first soliloquy ("O that this too too solid flesh would melt"). And through it all, his shoulders never lost their slump. In many respects, his Hamlet felt like he was supposed to be a boy in his late teens or early twenties -- with the attendant instability and vulnerability of youth. Sometime I would like to see a production with such a young actor in the lead, but this wasn't it. Hamlet's immaturity seemed at odds with his appearance, and I found that a bit of a distraction. Nonetheless, his acting was superb. I would love a recording of Ben Evett's delivery of "To be or not to be." He evoked such... longing when he spoke of sleep... I'd love the luxury to really listen to it. I won't name everyone in the cast, but excellent performances all around. And therein lies my major problem with the production. The break took place about an hour-and-a-half in, and the play ran two hours after intermission. And for me, the second half dragged... There's so much story and politics and emotion crammed into the second act, that it just wore me out. To be fair, I had been up late the night before, so it's possible I was just tired. And Ian had no such issues with the second half. But the 7:30 play ends about 11:15 pm, which may be a consideration when deciding what night to see the show. Still, Ken Cheeseman as the gravedigger offered a breath of fresh air, a second wind, as it were. And from that point, the pace picked up until the play's speedy and violent end. Hamlet Strand Theatre in Dorchester Thursdays — Sundays @ 7:30 pm (plus 2pm weekend matinees) through November 12 (Schedule) Tickets: $35 Thursdays; $40 Fri-Sat-Sun; Also note that ASP's King Lear sold out last season, even with two extensions, and this venue has less seating, so if you're interested, you should book your tickets soon.
Now cracks a noble heart
Posted by Lis Riba at 6:09 PM
Now, as far as I can tell, Hamlet/Horatio is practically canon. But during Hamlet and Laertes' words before the duel, I started to imagine Hamlet/Laertes slash:
With this interpretation, Laertes warns his sister away from Hamlet, not just out of brotherly concern, but from bitter experience... And if they had a bad breakup, no wonder Laertes is willing to believe the worst about Hamlet when Claudius whispers poisoned words in his ear. Googling around, I see several fanfics have dealt with this pairing, mostly on the
So, I guess it's not that uncommon an idea. What was Henry Jenkins writing about different approaches to highbrow and lowbrow art? I think the distinctions are breaking down...
On a related note, the initial fandom list has been posted for It includes the following Shakespeare plays: A Midsummer Nights Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King John, Macbeth, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, The Henry Plays, The Tempest, Titus Andronicus, Twelfth Night Plus there's the option of Shakespeare RPF. Just trying to whet your imaginations and appetites...
Sunday, October 22, 2006
I know so many people who need this
Posted by Lis Riba at 10:21 PM
oh dear
Posted by Lis Riba at 9:35 PM
I feel as if I'm coming down with another cold. Maybe I'm lucky and this stuffed nose is just an allergic reaction to something. However, Weather.com's pollen calendar doesn't show much blooming this month... |
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