The Scottish Play

I just realized that I should have gone for Julius Caesar for March, what with the Ides of March coming up ("Beware the Ides of March").
So yesterday, when I started this post, started watching Macbeth with Sean Connery and I got most of the way through, but I just don't know that I can bring myself to finish it. I had hopes that watching it would help me enjoy Macbeth more, not so. There's a reason that you've probably never heard of this vision; it's black and white and poor quality (I think it may have been made for tv), half the time you can't really see the faces of the actors. A highlight is hearing Connery and his accent monologue, but that doesn't do enough for me to want to finish. There are many good parts and well known quotes from Macbeth though, maybe reading it will be the way to go. Part of my problem is that I just do not enjoy things that are doomed to tragedy and watching things go from bad to worse. I realize this could be a serious set back in working my way through the tragedies...
Anyway I'll try the Patrick Stewart version and see if I like that any better. If not I'll have to just suck it up and read the play.

Comdey of Errors

I finally finished the Comedy of Errors. I haven't gotten around to watching any versions of this and I don't think I will as the month is almost over. I did remember the production I was in and enjoyed replaying those scenes in my mind.
I remember hearing that Shakespeare was a punster and I don't know that I've really noticed it all that much before now. Comedy is full of puns, quite a few of which are groaners. I must also admit that I would have been oblivious of at least half of them with out the footnotes. Comedy is light, it's silly and somewhat ridiculous but there are some great scenes and verbal sparring. Not a bad place to enter Shakespeare, or begin to revisit Shakespeare.
I've been reading from my Shakespeare textbook: Riverside Shakespeare, I have the second edition. This work has all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets and some other things besides; it also has tons of information and footnotes. It is however a beast, it's huge, thick and heavy.

The play I'm planning to read for next month is Macbeth, the Scottish play. I think I'll try to watch at least one version before I start reading. I haven't loved my encounters with Macbeth in the past, hopefully this one will be better. I have enjoyed a parody of Macbeth, Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. For versions to watch, I recently received a collection of movies which included this version with Sean Connery. There's also this more recent version with Patrick Stewart that I might also watch.
For those that are interested in reading along, this version of the play is available online.

An Adendum

Okay, so last time I posted I was all excited about the Shakespeare project and was going to be reading two plays a month. It seemed like a simple task. I'm still working on the Comedy of Errors and I've been enjoying it and I'll finish it before the month is out but I think two plays a month will not be happening. There's a lot going on, and there are a lot of things I'm putting above reading Shakespeare. Part of my problem may be that I use my textbook from my Shakespeare class, it has the complete works, detailed footnotes to help the modern reader and weighs about a ton.
At any rate I'm still getting some Shakespeare into my life and I'm glad for that. I'll hopefully have a proper write up on the Comedy soon.

Shakespeare Project

I haven't posted in ages, I've been focusing my attention on my art blog. At any rate I've recently decided to launch a new project in my life, one that I think would be good for blogging.
I've loved Shakespeare, possibly since my introduction in middle school, maybe later, but I love it. One of the best classes I took in college was a Shakespeare class. Recently I saw a pbs program on Shakespeare's plays and it made me remember how much I miss Shakespeare and could use more culture in my life. I've decided from that to read and reread Shakespeare's plays.
I've observed in the past, that I have an easier time reading a play if I've seen some rendition of it, so I will be watching at least one version of the plays I read, and then reading and writing about them. I'll be aiming to read two plays each month. I think I'll be reading The Comedy of Errors first. Feel free to read and comment along with me.

American Masters

Over the years I've enjoyed episodes of the PBS series American Masters. Yesterday I watched two of them that I quite enjoyed. I watched one about Johny Carson which was interesting and fun to see. I missed out on Carson being on the air and have only learned about him through such programs.
I also watched on about Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. It was interesting to learn a bit more about her and about what was going on in the country when her book came out. I now need to reread To Kill a Mockingbird.
Thank you American Masters.

kids today

This morning I got to bottle feed a very cute baby goat named Tinkerbell. I petted a goat kid (that's what you call baby goats if you didn't know) named Max. There were three other kids who's names I don't recall. I said hello to horses and grown goats and dogs and birds and an emu, which is also a bird. We visited my third grade teacher who's a farming sort of woman among other things. She's excited because she's learning to make cheese with goats milk. While I often sit around wasting my time and my life, there are people who live it up, every minute. I should really work on living a better life, one with more life in it. Maybe even more cute goat kids in it.

The thought that got me out of bed this morning was a line from a song that I heard on New Years Eve: what are you waiting for?? It was in the chorus and repeated over and over (with other words too but these were the ones I remembered.). It got me out of bed and now it's got me excited to go about my life and remind myself, what am I waiting for?

What are you waiting for?