Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:40 AM

Arisia

Which couldn't come a moment too soon, as far as I'm concerned.

I intend to enjoy myself and keep my mind off work as much as possible.

[The only downside is they've extended the con to three days this year, and my company does not give time off for MLK Day. And as recent entries (both in allusions and testiness) should attest, I'm waaaaaaaay too busy to be able to request time off in the immediate future.]

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:40 PM

          But pardon, and gentles all,
The flat unraised spirits that have dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France?

The audience chuckled, finding surprising resonance in the familiar prologue as we all stared at the tiny platform in a Harvard Square basement. And at that point, I knew I had found the lede that would probably launch most reviews of this production.

Into a thousand parts divide one man...

Mistress Quickly (Paula Langton) and Pistol (Ken Cheeseman) say farewell.

King Henry (Seth Powers) and Princess Katherine (Molly Schreiber) decide to wed.

In college, I saw Actors from the London Stage perform Midsummer Night's Dream with five actors and minimal sets. I was utterly blown away by the experience. Eliminating all the stagecraft intensifies your focus on the acting and dialog. Shakespeare's language can hold up to the scrutiny, leaving it all up to the cast. Impressively enough, even when AFTLS actors played multiple roles in a single scene, I never had any confusion about which character was which.

That's what Actors Shakespeare Project accomplished with Henry V.

Last season, ASP put on a six-person Love's Labour's Lost, but I found the experience a bit too gimmicky for my tastes. They played Henry V straight, and it was everything I remembered so fondly about AFTLS.

The doubling and tripling of parts does not interfere with comprehension. They definitely edited the text, reassigning lines and possibly conflating characters. Shakespeare helps keep the audience keep track of who's who, with dialog clearly introducing newcomers by name.

In fact, doubling of roles can actually reveal subtle resonances. For example, I never before noticed how many characters lecture Henry in the guise of giving advice: the Archbishop of Canterbury in Act I, Lord Scroop (briefly) in Act II, Michael Williams in Act IV... But with Ken Cheeseman playing all three, the repetition becomes more obvious.

Although allocation of roles is tricky in a production like this -- everything hinging on which characters appear in scenes together -- I did notice that the male characters who came closest to crying (Exeter in IV.6 followed by Fluellen in IV.7) were both played by Paula Langton. Given all the discussion the previous week regarding gender issues in the presidential race, I wondered how the crosscasting influenced the emotional reactions.

Of course, the only way to carry off a production like this is with a strong and talented cast. And, though I noticed a handful of flubbed lines here and there, they were all seasoned pros.

               Why, how now, gentlemen!
What see you in those papers that you lose
So much complexion? — Act II, Scene 2

I recently read an essay (which I've been trying fruitlessly to find for this review) which compared stage Shakespeare to film Shakespeare. The author discussed soliloquys as a device for revealing characters' innermost thoughts -- but a well-shot close-up can be equally effective in a way rarely possible onstage, given audience distance. [I believe the example chosen was Marlon Brando in Julius Caesar.]

ASP arranged the room so that no seat is more than three rows from the stage. During the scene quoted above, I was startled by the intimacy in watching Molly Schreiber's face fall.

Unfortunately, center stage is dominated by a massive support beam. David Evett, the company dramaturg, blogged about the challenges this presented. And by using a circle-in-the-round arrangement, every seat will have at least some obstructed views. Most of Henry's wooing of Kate (V.2), one actor or the other had their back to me. Later that scene, I didn't even realize the King of France had returned until he spoke, the pillar so effectively blocked my view.

[Also, although not personally affected, I should point out that the venue is handicapped accessible by appointment (call to arrange access) and you have to go outside for the nearest bathroom. This play had been scheduled for Jimmy Tingle's theater in Davis Square, and relocated here when that establishment closed.]

Inconveniences aside, if you like your Shakespeare tight-knit, well-acted, and without a great deal of sound and fury (hopefully, I'll find time to blog our experience with the Met's HD Live broadcast of Verdi's Macbeth, which we also saw last weekend) ASP is definitely the place to be.

Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story,
In little room confining mighty men,
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:51 PM

In response to the multiple Humpty Dumpty comments made to my previous post, I wish to draw your attention to how I titled that entry.

Glory: Jon Stewart v. Jonah Goldberg

To wit, pay attention to the highlighted word in the following passage:

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

by Lewis Carroll

Chapter VI: Humpty Dumpty
(already in progress)

[... "T]hat shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents --”

“Certainly,” said Alice.

“And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!”

“I don't know what you mean by ‘glory’,” Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don't -- till I tell you. I meant ‘there's a nice knock-down argument for you!’”

“But ‘glory’ doesn't mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master -- that's all.”

In other words, not only was I aware of the similarities, but I mentioned it (albeit obliquely) in the title.

Maybe I'm too subtle?

^* Regarding the title of this entry, the scene continues:

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. “They've a temper, some of them -- particularly verbs: they're the proudest -- adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs -- however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!”

“Would you tell me please,” said Alice, “what that means?”

“Now you talk like a reasonable child,” said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. “I meant by ‘impenetrability’ that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.”

“That's a great deal to make one word mean,” Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

“When I make a word do a lot of work like that,” said Humpty Dumpty, “I always pay it extra.”

“Oh!” said Alice. She was too much puzzled to make any other remark.

“Ah, you should see 'em come round me of a Saturday night,” Humpty Dumpty went on, wagging his head gravely from side to side, “for to get their wages, you know.”

(Alice didn't venture to ask what he paid them with; and so you see I can't tell you.)

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:10 AM

According to Roy Edroso, Goldberg pre-emptively distanced himself from his own interview:

I knew I was in trouble when the interview just wouldn't end — and I got the sense it wasn't ending because Stewart didn't feel like he "won" so he had to keep going. I haven't watched it (though I pretty much never watch myself on TV), but I knew that editing wasn't going to help me. Still, I also went in knowing I wasn't going to get a supportive reaction from the guy.

Judge for youself:

I just wish to remind people of this excerpt of Goldberg's book I posted back in December:

Sam Boyd sums up the book in this manner:

Goldberg reminds me of a friend of mine with a taste for arguments about philosophy. His secret was that he cheated. He'd argue some seemingly absurd premise but then retreat to a definition of a key word that was so different from a reasonable one that it was unrecognizable. You'd try and keep in mind his weird vocabulary, but the words maintained the force of their original meaning and it was hard to keep your argument straight. A similar thing is going on with Godlberg.

John Cole calls this the "Goldberg Principle"

You can prove any thesis to be true if you make up your own definitions of words.

For those who prefer a reality-based approach, Dave Neiwert provides a collection of accepted definitions. And John Scalzi re-examined primary sources -- Mussolini's "Doctrine of Fascism" -- both Monday and Tuesday.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:22 AM

Conversation last night regarding my previous post:

Ian: You should do Bible code stuff next.

Lis: No, it's Bacon code.

Ian: Which you tape to your cat?

Lis: No, you attach it to Kit.

Also, one more tidbit from last night's Marketplace that I meant to mention. In a segment on advertising in "out-of-home media" they aired a commercial for NBC News, with the tagline:

“Everywhere you go, there we are.”

Think their pitchman was a Buckaroo Banzai fan?

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:15 PM

Remember what I said the other day about my wool-gathering data-gathering habits and how I'd been number-crunching multivitamin ingredients?

Since I haven't been writing as much lately, I thought I'd share the fruit of my labors:

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:35 PM

Two stories caught my... erm ear on this evening's broadcast:

1) Congress vowed to craft a bipartisan economic stimulus package:

In a report weighing the options, the Congressional Budget Office endorsed Democratic proposals to help low-income workers, such as expanding unemployment benefits and food stamps. CBO said the Republican idea of extending President Bush's tax cuts, due to expire in 2011, wouldn't provide any immediate economic stimulus. Asked about that at a Joint Economic Committee hearing today, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said making those tax cuts permanent would also add to future deficits. [...] Pennsylvania Republican Philip English dismissed that in favor of permanent tax cuts as the right stimulus.

Reminds me of something Ron Suskind wrote about modern Republicans dismissal of "people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'"

And we've seen how well that experiment has turned out...

2) The bear market and clothing sales

PS: I believe the CBO report in question is Options for Responding to Short-Term Economic Weakness (PDF)

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:20 PM

I've found myself meditating on the classic aphorism —

“Poor planning on your part should not constitute an emergency on my part.”

— and how it utterly fails to hold up against my current circumstances.

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:40 PM

Do you think that the inventor of the time machine was frustrated by constant demands to "have it on my desk yesterday!

Why yes, it is 6:35 pm and I'm only just about to leave the office (though not necessarily done with the day's work -- I'm bringing stuff home). Why do you ask?

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:21 PM

The cocktail blogosphere hosts a regular event called Mixology Monday.
And this week's theme is Brandy [hosted at Sloshed!]

Now I'm a librarian, not a bartender, so my focus may differ from the usual fare.

In Imbibe, David Wondrich laments

the complete disappearance of real peach brandy. With other great archeological ingredients like Batavia arrack, Holland gin and absinthe, at least we have some recourse -- they're made somewhere in the world, after all, and with a little persistence, ingenuity, and cash they can be secured or imitated. With peach brandy, we're screwed. A dry eau-de-vie that was distilled from peaches and their pits and then aged in oak barrels, often for many years, real peach brandy never really came back after Prohibition.

Well in 1897, a Q & A column in The Indiana State Journal provided this recipe (click to enlarge):

Don't know how authentic it is, coming from north of the Mason-Dixon line, but it does date back to before Prohibition so probably produced something reasonable.

If any enterprising reader cares to make a batch, let me know how it turns out.

It seems like a good time to be a bartender, with all the interest in historical recreation.

The Regans' started producing orange bitters, and now Angostura is making them.

And last month, I discovered that Hayman Distillers in the UK launched a brand new Old Tom to the market.

PS: David Wondrich's appearance on Conan O'Brien Friday night is now available on streaming video on the NBC website. Select the "Fri Jan 11" episode and fast-forward to the 27-minute mark.

In the segment, Wondrich makes a Blue Blazer, Clover Club Cocktail, and (at last, non-alliteratively) an Improved Cocktail.

They should've dimmed the lights for the Blue Blazer -- it didn't look anywhere near as impressive as his YouTube video.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:00 AM

According to Writers' Almanac,

The cartoon that first made [Charles Addams] famous appeared in the January 14th issue of The New Yorker. It was a drawing of a woman skier whose tracks pass on either side of the tree behind her; an observer stares back in disbelief while the woman glides nonchalantly on.

I was wondering... has anybody drawn a pastiche/tribute of that image featuring Kitty Pryde as the skier? Either officially or as fan-art?

D.L. Hawkins (of Heroes) could do the same, but he doesn't seem the schussing type.

Which other superheroes are capable of such a stunt? Firestorm, Metamorpho (and Element Lass) also can go intangible. I suppose any of the stretchy supers -- Elongated Man, Mr. Fantastic, Plastic Man -- could just contort their way over the tree without tying themselves in too many knots.

If she was in the mood for some stunt-skiing, Triplicate Lass could (1) double herself just before the tree, (2) ski one-legged around the tree, and (3) rejoin on the other side. But that gets more complicated than likely.

Any other candidates?

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:40 PM

Consider this a public service for my fellow androphilic comic-book fans:

Tired of all the cheesecake art of female comic book characters?

Wishing to find fan service that panders to your desires?

Look no further. I just found the site for you:

Shirtless-Superheroes on blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Posted by Lis Riba at 1:30 PM

I don't follow TV much, and have been doing so even less given the Writer's Strike.

So, for the benefit of anyone else out there who may be equally ignorant, I just want to inform you all that tonight's the series premiere of The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- the TV spinoff of the Terminator movies, starring Summer Glau of Firefly/Serenity and Thomas Dekker, who played Claire's friend Zach in the first season of Heroes.

8 pm Eastern Time on FOX, after football (which may play havok with the schedule)

Speaking of Firefly/Serenity, get a load of this wicked fanvid by Y-Fish!

Joss Whedon himself has praised and linked to it.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:20 AM

Inspired by Shakespeare and ASP:

original image tanakawho

Consider this yet another creation by the warped mind that brought you:

• This speech filked to a Billy Joel tune
• Lol!Shakespeare
• Pokemon-style Shakesdex with chibi images for all the plays