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Someone posted this on my Facebook page today in the wake of last night's U.S. defeat of Canada in Olympic men's hockey. Pretty amusing.]]>
(click to enlarge)
Someone posted this on my Facebook page today in the wake of last night's U.S. defeat of Canada in Olympic men's hockey. Pretty amusing.]]>
Republicans insist that the deficit must be eliminated, but they're not willing either to raise taxes or to support cuts in any major government programs. And they're not willing to participate in serious bipartisan discussions, either, because that might force them to explain their plan -- and there isn't any plan, except to regain power.]]>
I didn't plan to start watching Caprica--the Battlestar Galactica prequel series that debuted just a few weeks back--but got sucked in by the first episode, which was a free download on iTunes, and now appear to be hooked.]]>
I am trying to prepare some clips from some Region 2 DVDs for my Shakespeare class this spring. I've used Ripit with some success to create a "virtual" replica of a DVD on my hard drive, but it's not handy for excerpting clips. So I am now employing Handbrake to rip just the movie file from The Shakespeare Collection, the complete set of BBC-produced plays for television. Doing this creates files that I can open in iTunes--which means I can view the films on an iPod, iPhone, or my AppleTV.]]>
Broadway's God Of Carnage is a fairly biting comedy of manners, a black comedy for sure. The four-person cast (Christine Lahti, Jimmy Smits, Annie Potts, and Ken Stott) was excellent in this witty send-up of modern bourgeois values.]]>
Here is an update on my progress seeing all of Shakespeare's work staged. I am within a few months of completing my quest.
Thank God for the Internet; without the Web, I don't know how I would have tracked down some of the more obscure theatrical offerings I have arranged. For example, a little Shakespearean company in New Jersey is staging the Wars Of The Roses plays (all three parts of Henry VI along with Richard III) in the space of one day in early March, dubbing the experience the "War-A-Thon." Attending this enables me to knock off three hard-to-find Henry VI shows.
Here is what I have seen thus far (not counting anything I saw before the spring of 2008):
1. 4/24/08, Macbeth, Broadway 2. 6/20/08, Hamlet, Shakespeare In The Park, The Public Theater, New York City 3. 6/26/08, King Lear, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA 4. 6/27/08, Twelfth Night, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA 5. 6/28/08, Measure For Measure, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA 6. 7/3/08, All's Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare & Co., Lenox, MA 7. 7/18/08, The Comedy Of Errors, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR 8. 7/19/08, Othello, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR 9. 7/22/08, Romeo And Juliet, Old Globe Theater, San Diego, CA 10. 8/8/08, The Merry Wives Of Windsor, Shakespeare's Globe, London 11. 8/9/08, The Taming Of The Shrew, Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford, U.K. 12. 8/13/08, Much Ado About Nothing, Oxford Castle, Oxford, U.K. 13. 9/9/08, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hartford Stage Company, Hartford, CT 14. 10/3/08, The Tempest, Classic Stage Company, New York City 15. 5/14/09, The Merchant Of Venice, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City 16. 6/13/09, Julius Caesar, Stratford Festival, Stratford, ON, Canada 17. 6/20/09, Henry V, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Richmond, VA 18. 7/10/09, Pericles, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Garrison, NY 19. 7/19/09, Titus Andronicus, American Shakespeare Center, Staunton, VA 20. 7/26/09, Two Gentlemen Of Verona, Colonial Theater, Westerly, RI 21. 7/28/09, Antony And Cleopatra, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Center Valley, PA 22. 8/1/09, As You Like It, Shakespeare's Globe, London 23. 8/1/09, The Winter's Tale, The Old Vic, London 24. 8/16/09, Troilus And Cressida, Shakespeare's Globe, London 25. 8/22/09, Henry IV, Part 1, Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, Philadelphia, PA 26. 8/26/09, Henry VIII, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR 27. 8/28/09, Coriolanus, Old Globe Theater, San Diego, CA 28. 9/27/09, Richard III, Chicago Shakespeare Festival, Chicago 29. 10/28/09, Love's Labour's Lost, Annenberg Center, Philadelphia, PA 30. 12/10/09, King John, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 31. 1/10/10, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Guerrilla Shakespeare Project, New York City 32. 2/13/10, Cymbeline, University of Delaware, Newark, DE(I have seen some of these plays two or three times in the last two years, but I am only counting the first viewing in tallying the canon.) And here's what I have on tap in the next few months (I already have booked tickets for each of these shows):
33. 3/7/10, Henry VI, Part 1, Collingswood Shakespeare Company, Collingswood, NJ 34. 3/7/10, Henry VI, Part 2, Collingswood Shakespeare Company, Collingswood, NJ 35. 3/7/10, Henry VI, Part 3, Collingswood Shakespeare Company, Collingswood, NJ 36. 4/3/10, Richard II, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, DC 37. 4/13/10, Edward III, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, Richmond, VA 38. 6/10/10, Timon Of Athens, Actors' Shakespeare Project, Boston, MA 39. 8/1/10, Henry IV, Part 2, Shakespeare's Globe, London (Technically I saw Henry IV, Part 2 as part of a combined Henry IV production a Lincoln Center some years back, but I am not counting that as part of this series.)Fitting, I think, to finish my quest in the recreated Globe Theatre in London!]]>
Once every three years, Choate co-hosts (with Yale University) the Men's Intercollegiate National Squash Championships. We are lucky to be able to see a handful of the top-ranked college teams in action right here in the Johnson Athletic Center. I got to see #1 Trinity extend its domination of the CSA in a quarterfinal win over Western Ontario as well as an entertaining showdown between Ivy powers Princeton and Harvard.
It's especially gratifying to see so many Choate alums competing in this tournament. By my count there are 12 Wild Boars in the event (a few of whom never played on squash teams here at school!).]]>
This is the new flip side of Mr. Lincoln's profile on the one-cent coin. Looks kind of retro to my eye.]]>
We're nearly a week into the 2010 Winter Olympics and I haven't yet watched even a snippet of the television coverage from Vancover. I actually know a few of the competitors and haven't even tuned in to see them. Now that I am part of the HD world, I guess I'll try to see some of the action this weekend.]]>
The Tempest is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays and I battled through the snowstorm in Connecticut to get down to Brooklyn to see it tonight (New York City has virtually no snow on the streets, while there is over a foot on the ground back home). I've now seen all four productions by The Bridge Project, an Anglo-American collaboration that stages two plays in repertory and takes them around the world for the better part of a year. Last year in the inaugural season for this company, The Cherry Orchard and The Winter's Tale were paired; I saw the former in New York in the winter and the latter in London in August. The cast of tonight's play was the same one I saw perform As You Like It a few weeks back.
I liked this version of The Tempest. British actor Stephen Dillane was a marvelous Prospero in particular. The sets and lighting were inventive, with the rear of the stage filled with a couple inches of water. The play was staged without intermission, running a bit more than two hours, but it was engaging throughout.]]>
Dan Meyer's 2009 Annual Report from Dan Meyer on Vimeo.
You can follow him in the blogosphere.]]>
Spent some time online tonight, surfing for deals on flights and hotels in Copenhagen, London, Ontario, Vancouver, Seattle, and Ashland, Oregon. The Expedia and Marriott websites have been the backbone of my searches, but I make a point to do some comparison shopping before booking anything. It looks like I've gotten some good deals by paying weeks or months in advance.]]>
I left the Choate campus about 3:00 this afternoon to drive down to the University of Delaware campus for a performance of Cymbeline, one of the few remaining plays in the Shakespeare canon I had not yet seen. It was an easy--if lengthy--drive, but the play was worth it. This work is an under-appreciated gem, with an intricate plot that weaves together elements found in a handful of the Bard's other plays. This production was staged by the graduate students in the university's drama program and the acting and production values were quite good. The theater was a black box, with seating on all four sides and the show employed no scenery to speak of and very few props. This kept the focus squarely on the language and the action, and thus was a memorable evening's entertainment.]]>
For my second trip to the cinema in six hours, I saw Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief tonight and wanted to like this movie, but found it pretty middle-of-the-road. The premise--a boy discovers he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon--is promising but the execution was mixed. Lots of pretty special effects, but this story (at least on flim--I haven't read the series of books) didn't have as much heart as it could have.]]>