As Far As You Know

Made it to London. I am tight on time because I have tickets to the theater (or, theatre, as they spell it here) with a 2:30 curtain and so I took the Heathrow Express into Paddington and then had a short Underground rather than taking the Tubeall the way in; this saved me about 20 minutes or so (and I paid dearly for it!). So off I go to the Old Vic.

The Bridge Project has been performing The Winter's Tale in repertory with The Cherry Orchard all over the world this year. I saw this Anglo-American hybrid cast do the Chekhov production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this past winter and then this afternoon caught them here in London doing the Shakespeare play. This was my first exposure to The Winter's Tale and I liked the staging by Sam Mendes quite a bit.

Two Shakespeare plays in seven hours, both of them new to me! It's always a treat to see something in the Globe reconstruction. As You Like It is a perfect vehicle for this space, with broad comedy, music, creative use of the stage as the forest, and some of the Bard's best dialogue. The casting was spot on and this production clearly clicked with the full house.

One could do worse than spend a summer's night in Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames, I think!

Well, that's how they referred to Cambridge when I was at Oxford. After sleeping in past 11 a.m., I headed over to King's Cross on the Tube and took the train north to Cambridge and I have settled in at Clare College. My rooms are on the fourth floor of Memorial Court--the worst part of that was carrying the bags up three flights of stairs upon arrival, but no worries. I walk through the college's gardens and cross its bridge (pictured above) on my way to the Great Hall for morning and evening meals each day. I am heading out now to explore the town (sorry, I can't call this a city as they do!).

This expression of gratitude is etched into the entrance to Old Court on the "backs" side, recognizing Paul Mellon, who lived here for two years. Mellon was also Choate's greatest benefactor, having endowed the Humanties Building, the Arts Center, and the Science Center, among other major gifts.

Here's my routine for the first week of classes in Cambridge's Shakespeare summer school program:

7:45 a.m. - breakfast served in Great Hall, Clare College
9:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. - "What Happens In Hamlet"
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - plenary lecture (different topic each day)
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - "Political Shakespeare"
6:30 p.m. - dinner served in Great Hall, Clare College
8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. - plenary lecture (different topic each day)

Even with some generous breaks built in, this is a fairly ambitious schedule. The courses change for week two (I will be taking classes focusing on King Lear and Macbeth). The "Political Shakespeare" class is centered on Richard II and The Tempest.

Seen on the street on my way to lunch today:

I snapped the photo above with my iPhone while walking from dinner to my evening lecture. You can see cows in the field in the foreground. You probably can't make out the River Cam, which divides this field from the tightly cropped lawn in front of King's College Chapel, probably the University's most famous landmark. (Clare College is right next to King's.)

If I had a bit more foresight (and a lot more light) when I finished packing last Friday, I'd have thrown my Airport Express into the bag. That way I could have used my Ethernet connection in my rooms at Clare to set up a local wireless network for both the MacBook Air and my iPhone. Now I have to go into town to the Apple Store once a day to use its free wireless network to sync my iPhone.

They ferried students and faculty out to the University-owned Madingley Hall--a lovely old manor estate--for a garden party (mostly indoors due to the pouring rain) celebrating 800 years since the University of Cambridge was founded in 1209. Pretty cool to be here for the occasion!

I joined the Medieval Studies program this afternoon for a practical demonstration about the Battle of Agincourt in 1415--a memorable part of Shakespeare's Henry V with the St. Crispin's Day speech--led by a military historian and a master armourer (pictures with a bow and arrow above). This was a fascinating presentation that included a hands-on exploration of the armor and weapons of the time as well as a fascinating overview of the context for the battle as well as the strategy and tactics of the English and the French. I visited Agincourt (in France, it's Azincourt) in 1990 and have a much better sense now of what happened in this momentous showdown.

After a full week of classes and lectures (at least four sessions a day, plus seated meals) the weekend has arrived and I am looking forward to a couple of entirely unscheduled days!

Thanks to one of our number who is a member, we got to spend some time this evening at the Cambridge Union Society, the oldest student debating society in the world--a very prestigious organization. The Society has its own building (and bar).

August 8 is an auspicious day. In addition to being my birthday, it's also the day the famous photo that graced the cover of The Beatles' Abbey Road album was shot. Today is the 40th anniversary of the event and apparently it's a big deal over here in England, with swarms of tourists expected to descend on the site.

Happily, today is a beautiful summer Saturday here. I am about to head into London for the day.

After a rather leisurely morning, I took the 12:45 train to London and arrived not long before curtain time, but managed to get a great seat (actually a premium seat at regular price!) for War Horse, one of this season's hottest theater tickets in the West End.

The show is visually spectacular, an engaging theatrical experience in which a team of puppeteers manipulate full-sized horses on stage. The story is about a young man who bonds with his horse in the Devon countryside, only to see it taken off in the war effort in 1914. The boy heads "over there" in search of his lost horse and at the end of the play, there were plenty of tissues dabbing at eyes. This production is well worth seeing.

I saw Oliver! this evening and felt like another West End tourist filling the theaters to see a musical. The show has a place in my heart because it was the very first play I was ever in, back in the sixth grade. So I knew all the songs pretty well and even remembered some of the dialogue bits. But my experience seeing Oliver! was slightly disappointing; I think there were better offerings on tap in London I'd rather have seen.

Thought for the day:

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.

I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.

After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.

On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

And then I log on to the internet -- which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration -- and post on Freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right.

Here's the latest Gallup polling on party identification in America:

The top eight men's tennis players in the world have advanced to the quarterfinals of the Master's Series event in Montreal this week. Should be some interesting matches the next few days. The event's major storyline is Rafa Nadal's return to the tour after his first-ever loss at Roland Garros and a missed Wimbledon. Also how new father Roger Federer performs will be fascinating to watch. And the rest of the cast potentially has its share of spoilers: Murray, Djokovic, Roddick, and Del Potro among them.

. . . I watched an episode of Dr. Who, something I can't recall ever doing before. It's sort of silly/camp, but I can see how some people get sucked into all of this.

Since I'm immersed in studying Shakespeare for a couple weeks here in Cambridge, I decided to take in one of the al fresco productions of the Bard's work that is being staged each night on all sides of me. I've been hearing the dialogue from The Tempest come wafting through the window into my top-floor rooms in Clare College in the evening hours ever since I arrived a week and a half ago, so I bought a ticket in adjacent Trinity College Gardens to see the production.

It was a ten-actor affair and staged pretty effectively, given the spare resources--both human and otherwise. A mostly creditable, lean show.

Two new courses started for me today in week two of the program: "Shakespeare's Stagecraft in Macbeth" and "King Lear: Sources, Texts, and Significance."

I have enrolled in a Harvard class this fall, though will be taking it mostly via the Internet. It's a course with Shakespeare scholar Marjorie Garber. Apparently the only time I have to physically appear in Massachusetts is for the final exam (if there is one).

iTunes Store has offered the first three hours of the ABC series "Defying Gravity" the past two weeks, so--since I am lacking in American television programs at the moment--I watched them over the past few days. The premise is that forty or so years from now, eight astronauts take off on a six-year tour of the solar system. But there is a hidden agenda known only to a couple administrators and the commanding officer and coming from a mysterious presence known as "Beta" that apparently has the ability to communicate as well as alter the biology of those on board the ship.

I canceled my order for the forthcoming Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol, and pre-ordered it on the Kindle for only $9.99. It will download to my device as soon as it's released!

Most aspects of university life are at Cambridge centered around one's college. I sleep and eat in Clare College--the second oldest in the University. Breakfast is informal and served downstairs, cafeteria style, in The Buttery. Dinner, on the other hand, is a formal affair, served by the wait staff in the Great Hall. Tonight we have a fancier-than-usual dinner to mark the end of the program.

I spent the evening with almost 90,000 others in Wembley Stadium seeing U2 on its 360° Tour. I was positioned just to the side of the stage, one level up, with a good view of "the Claw"--the immense staging above and around the band. Of course there is a tremendous history involving Wembley Stadium--at least the older version of this venue--and the band: U2's performance here at the "Live Aid" show 24 summers ago is what really vaulted the group into the rock stratosphere.

Musically, the highlights of tonight's show for me included two of my favorites from Achtung Baby: "Until The End Of The World" and "Ultraviolet." I also heard "The Unforgettable Fire" performed live for the first time since my very first U2 show in April 1985. (Three other songs from The Unforgettable Fire album--"Pride," "MLK," and "Bad" made the set list as well.) It was good to hear the tunes from the new album, too. I'm not sure I liked the dance remix of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" as much as the original version, but the song that is sticking in my head after the concert is "Unknown Caller," which I hadn't paid much attention to before. That's one nice element of seeing a band live: getting to appreciate songs that I hadn't previously.

The set list:

Breathe
No Line On The Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Beautiful Day
Until The End Of The World
New Year's Day
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stay
Unknown Caller
Unforgettable Fire
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Remix)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Pride (In The Name of Love)
MLK
Walk On
Where The Streets Have No Name
One
(Bad)

encores:
Ultraviolet
With Or Without You
Moment Of Surrender

About to depart from Clare College. I've enjoyed my fortnight in this medieval town and my time studying Shakespeare in the university.

I have rented a car and am off to Stratford-upon-Avon and then to London tonight.

I saw a performance of The Winter's Tale for the second time in fourteen days, this time at The Courtyard Theatre--the Royal Shakespeare Company's temporary home as the main theatre complex is being rebuilt. Seeing the play for the second time, I came to appreciate a lot of its nuances, especially the character of Paulina. The staging of the bear--an important element in evaluating any performance of this play--worked for me, though it was very different from what they did at the Old Vic. The first half of the play--set in Sicilia--was stronger than the Bohemia scenes, but overall the production succeeded because of some very strong acting, particularly in the parts of Leontes and Paulina.

I debated whether to see another play this afternoon or to enjoy an unstructured afternoon in London. But the National Theatre's current production of All's Well That Ends Well got strong reviews and the tickets cost only £10, so I figured I might as well take advantage of the opportunity to see another show.

I'm glad I saw it. The director/designer pair was the same that worked on War Horse, which I enjoyed immensely last weekend. The staging cleverly evoked the fairy tale quality of the story, and I thought the expressions on the faces of the actors playing Helena and Bertram in the closing moments of the play effectively captured the "problem" that critics have found in this work: the "happy ending" may not, in fact, be so happy.

It was an ideal night for a production at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the south bank of the Thames: the weather was ideal and the play itself was thoughtfully executed. I sat in the first row of the middle level, and I felt as though I was right on top of the action. Of the various vantage points I've had in this space the past couple of years, I'll have to remember Bay E on the middle level, A13, as just about the perfect seat!

Troilus And Cressida is another of the Bard's "problem plays"--works that do not fall neatly into the established categories of histories, tragedies, and comedies. Because the two title characters do not end up together in the end, it's not a conventional comedy, but neither of them meets a tragic end, either. I can see why this play--one of the least performed in the canon--enjoyed a resurgence of popularity after the horrors of World War I, for its open as it is about the horrors of war itself.

Tonight's show effectively blended humor, music, battle scenes, and effective acting to produce a satisfying night of theater.

Seen on the Internet tonight--about as accurate a statistical graph as I can imagine:

I arrived in Prague after a relatively short (90 minutes or so) flight from London. Plenty of empty seats on the plane, so a very comfortable trip. Had a wild ride into the city center from the airport thanks to a crazy driver, but I am now settled in at my hotel and ready to head out and explore.

Of course when expectations are really low, it's not hard to exceed them. But I watched 17 Again on the flight from London to Prague, anticipating it would be wretched, and so was pleasantly surprised there were some good moments contained within. Then this evening I unwound with Knowing, a film that is sort of hard to classify (suspense/thriller? horror? disaster? science fiction?). While neither of these movies should be considered especially memorable, they were reasonably entertaining escapist fare.

Had a great day exploring Prague. I can see why it's widely regarded one of the world's most beautiful cities: the winding streets, the majestic churches, the bridges over the River Vltava, and the castle dominating the cityscape.

Tonight I trekked up to Prague Castle on the other side of the river to see The Comedy Of Errors performed in the Czech language. Of course I understood almost none of the dialogue, but I've seen the play a couple times and I wanted to see how much, if any, of the humor came through without the language. The answer is: not much. Comedy is probably more dependent on language than tragedy, I suppose. It was interesting to follow the structure of the play without getting all the jokes. An interesting experiment, though one I don't feel compelled to repeat again!

Made it to Hartford after a brief stop on campus to print out my ticket--didn't even go home, just swung by the office. After some pleasant tailgating with friends, I enjoyed a terrific Bruce Springsteen concert. Once again Hartford was the first stop on this leg of the E Street Band tour and the Boss was in excellent form, connecting with the crowd as well as I've seen him and in unusually high spirits and energy. The final 45 minutes or so of the show was especially awesome.

The set list:

Sherry Darling
Badlands
Out In The Street
Outlaw Pete
Spirit In The Night
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Murder Incorporated
Something In The Night
Raise Your Hand
Mountain Of Love
Sha La La
I'm on Fire
Be True
My Love Will Not Let You Down
Waitin' On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
American Skin (41 Shots)
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run
Rosalita
Thunder Road

encores:
Hard Times
American Land
Dancing In The Dark
Twist And Shout

It's true that I don't think the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best colleges in the country mean very much at all. It seems ridiculous to try to generate a list that purports to place institutions of higher education in a pecking order. That said, I am not unhappy that my alma mater Williams College finished atop the list for yet another year!

Packed up and about to head to the airport. Prague was an all-too-brief treat, but I am anxious to get home at this point.

Happily--and surprisingly--I was able to check my bags through to New York at the Prague Airport, which saved me some schlepping from (the lovely) Terminal 5 to (the barely tolerable) Terminal 3 here in Heathrow. I also checked in for my American Airlines flight to JFK there, so this layover is pretty relaxed.

I saw Camelot at the Goodspeed Opera House tonight. While I was familiar with the songs, I can't recall ever seeing musical actually staged. This was an entertaining show, with strong production values and solid acting and singing. The Goodspeed is a small venue, so you really feel like you are very close to the stage (and I was in the fourth row).

I wanted to see (500) Days Of Summer before it left the theaters--it wasn't playing in England while I was there--so I caught a late afternoon show on my way over to Haddam. It wasn't quite as good as I expected it to be, but still a fairly charming tale with some provocative elements, not the least of which was an engaging soundtrack.

A rebate check for $100 arrived from Apple in today's mail. To be honest, I had forgotten all about this: it was part of the deal when I bought the MacBook Air in July (along with the free iPod Touch and the printer). Always nice when money appears unexpectedly!

I really like traveling by Amtrak or Acela in the Northeast Corridor. So many of the hassles of air travel are avoided and I have time to read or get some work done.

I boarded the train late this morning for the journey to Philadelphia. I am seeing a play here tonight and the theater is just a few blocks from 30th Street Station, so the train was a no-brainer. Good to be back in the City of Brotherly Love.

The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre staged a bare bones production of Henry IV, Part I, meaning the theater was a black box set-up, with no sets to speak of and minimal costumes. The actors were part of the PST's youth company (in their early 20s, I'd say) and did a creditable job with the material. This is, of course, the play in which Falstaff is introduced and the depiction of Sir Jack was pulled off fairly well.

District 9 was an amazing flick--it started slowly, and I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into during the first 10-15 minutes, but by the end credits, it was clear this work is a triumph. People wary of science fiction need not avoid this movie: like all good sci-fi, it's really a commentary on our own society and its foibles.

I had three episodes of True Blood waiting for me in the DVR upon my return from Europe. Tonight I digested all of them, and this series has gotten quite good. The Godric/Dallas storyline was nicely wrapped up, but plenty of strangeness still brewing with the Maryann Forrester-led Dionysian mayhem still going on in Bon Temps,

At Bradley Airport right now for a 5:30 a.m. flight to Philadelphia, where I will connect to a flight to Denver. I will end the day in Ashland, Oregon--home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

After a bit of a harrowing landing experience--after a harsh jolt upon our initial touchdown, the pilots ascended to circle around and try again--the airport in Denver has been quite pleasant. If memory serves, I haven't been here since 1994, when it was still quite new. Since my Denver-area plans for the day fell through, I'll be able to jump on an earlier flight to Medford, Oregon, which will get me into Ashland six hours ahead of my original schedule!

Just a day and a half later, I am back in Philadelphia, but only to make a connection in the airport. I don't remember being in this particular airport before, but it's pretty nice.

Had a great flight from Denver to Medford, Oregon--"over the rockpile," as the pilot referred to the Rocky Mountains. There was one weird aspect to it, though: the older woman sitting next to me was working her way through the latest Sookie Sackhouse novel and I began to notice a faint whispering to my right: she was very, very quietly reading aloud, as if this was the only way she could read a book. Strange, and slightly annoying. Out came the earbuds and iPod.

Once I arrived in Medford, picked up my rental car and made the short drive down to Ashland. Once settled in, I noticed that In The Loop was playing at the downtown cinema and so I went to a late afternoon showing. This is a laugh-out-loud funny look at politics in London and Washington. The "Malcolm Tucker" character was simply hilarious. Recommended.

I am in Ashland to see a bunch of plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the second year in a row--I drove up here when I finished up at Stanford last July and fell in love with the bucolic town nestled in the foothills and the chance to see so much theater in one place.

This afternoon was a matinee of Macbeth. This production worked well because of the strength of the two lead actors, I thought. Peter Macon--whom I saw portray Othello in 2008--was effective in the title role and Robin Goodrin Nordli was especially good as his ambitious wife.

I first saw Much Ado About Nothing in a castle courtyard in Oxford in 2008, and again this past July in Staunton, Virginia. Tonight's OSF show was the grandest production of Much Ado I've seen staged, and appropriately so for the open-air Elizabethan Stage here in Ashland. At first I didn't quite buy this particular Benedick--he seemed outmatched by the very impressive Beatrice--but I was won over by this particular pair by halfway through. The play was set in Sicily in 1945, which made the witty interplay between the two seem like it was lifted from a Hepburn/Tracy screwball comedy.

I just saw All's Well That Ends Well ten days before in London, so today's stripped-down, small-theater version at the OSF inevitably suffered in comparison to the National Theatre's lauded production with a large cast and spectacular staging. While the latter emphasized the "fairy tale" aspects of this play, today's production certainly imposed a happy ending in the final moments of the show. with "home video" scenes of Bertram and Hero and their young son at play years later. An interesting (if not entirely convincing) attempt to solve the "problem" of this problem play.

The chance to see Henry VIII--a rarely-staged play in the Shakespeare canon--was really what attracted me back to Ashland this summer. The production was full of pageantry and spectacle and though its closing scenes seemed to derail the drama that had built up earlier, the final tableau of (Queen-to-be) Elizabeth's christening was a fitting coda for a body of work closely associated with the Elizabethan era.

Sad news from Cape Cod this evening, as it was announced that Ted Kennedy passed away tonight after a brave fight against cancer. This was not a surprising development, and yet the news of his death hit pretty hard. The Massachusetts icon blossomed in recent decades as "the Lion of the Senate" and for someone born into great privilege, he was consistently a champion of the underdogs in society. He shall be missed.

The forthcoming update to Mac OS X is shipping at the end of the week--a month early! Sweet. Already got my copy ordered from Amazon--I save four bucks and get it with free two-day shipping as an Amazon Prime member.

The most recent GQ published a feature on "America's 25 Douchiest Colleges." Here is one choice entry:

Click in the slideshow on this site to see the whole thing.

Heading to the Elizabethan Stage here in Ashland for the second straight night. This is a spectacular outdoor theater. On a nice summer night like this one, it's a treat to begin an 8 p.m. show in the remaining sunlight and have a canopy of stars overhead by intermission.

After four Shakespeare plays in two days at the OSF, today brings something of a break from Elizabethan theater. This afternoon I saw a matinee of The Music Man, a traditional American musical. This was a polished production, and a much better show than I remembered.

Wow. Equivocation is a new play that explores playwright William Shagspeare (using one of the various spellings of the Bard's name) being commissioned by royal authorities to write a play about the Gunpowder Plot (e.g., Guy Fawkes and company trying to blow up Parliament in 1605). This play touches on so many provocative topics: the nature of theater and of history, the interplay between Shakespeare's acting troupe and the court, and political power in Jacobean England, just to name a few. This was a tremendous production of a truly excellent piece of work.

I am in transit from Ashland to San Diego, stopping at the San Francisco Airport for a layover. I just picked up the new Entertainment Weekly, mostly because of the enticing cover. I remember being in Melbourne, Australia in January 1998 when it was announced Seinfeld would end its run. Glad to see the gang in being reunited on the upcoming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Not only did the Bryan brothers land a feature spread in The New York Times Magazine today, but they are subjects of a lengthy article in the latest issue of The New Yorker as well.

I came to San Diego pretty much just to see this play, and Coriolanus at the Old Globe delivered. This was my seventh play in four days, but fatigue was conquered by a pretty gripping production. The role of Volumnia--the mother of the title character--is critical to this piece, and the actress filling those shoes was well cast.

The tennis world shifts its focus to Queens as the final major of the year, the U.S. Open, is about to get underway!

The good news was that 18-year-old Devin Britton earned a wild card berth in the U.S. Open field by virtue of winning the NCAA singles championship in May. The bad news is he drew #1 seed Roger Federer in the first round!

It's set in a little hole-in-the-wall location in a strip mall next to a 7-Eleven, but Sushi Ota has some of the best sushi I've ever had! It's in the Mission Bay section of San Diego and I can't imagine coming back to this city without a stop here.

The flight from San Diego to Charlotte was uneventful--other than the guy in the window seat of my row making me get up four times (!) to let him out--but when we landed in Charlotte, the jetway at our assigned gate didn't work so it took about an extra 45 minutes to deplane. Some people were in danger of missing connecting flights but fortunately it looks like I will just make my flight to Hartford!

Amazon delivered Snow Leopard (a.k.a. Mac OS 10.6) today and I already have it loaded on my iMac and will install it on my MacBook Air later today. So far, so good!