Elaby's LiveJournal - 57 Academics

This is how I spent my Presidents' Day XD

Okay, so, Macbeth, right? There's a version of it with Ian McKellen in the lead role and Judy Dench as Lady Macbeth, filmed in 1979. It's an extremely good production of the play, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes Macbeth. If you're unsure of your capacity to sit through hours of uninterrupted Shakespeare recitation, though, I'm not so sure I'd recommend it, because it's not the most... action-oriented of adaptations. And although the leads are freaking fabulous, it's somewhat lacking in actors who can say a line of Shakespeare in that tone of voice where you know what they mean even if you don't understand the exact words.

BUT anyway, aside from Ian McKellen and Judy Dench, Roger Rees plays the prince Malcolm and he is utterly wonderful. You may recall him, later in life, as the Sheriff of Rottingham in Robin Hood, Men in Tights. That's where I first saw him, and he's SO YOUNG as Malcolm. Not only is he young, but he is a literally shining paragon of virtue and kingliness - while everyone else is wearing flat black, very Victorian, very minimal costumes, he's dressed in a brilliant blinding white fuzzy sweater. He glows, for reals. And my favorite scene is the one where he tries (successfully, much to my shock) to convince Macduff that's really a ROTTEN PERSON - lock your daughters away, Scotland, and hide your treasure and don't expect vows to be kept or loyalties honored, because here comes Malcolm! Riiiight. Roger Rees plays the wibbliest Malcolm known to man. I can't figure out for the life of me how Macduff was fooled by this speech, because Malcolm is very obviously about to burst into tears through the whole thing.

The internets have nearly failed me in trying to find a screencap, but here's the one lonely picture I could find of Roger Rees as Malcolm. The graininess does not do justice to the SHINY WHITENESS that is Malcolm's sweater, but you can see that it does kind of glow. That's Macduff in the background, going "WTF about my wife and children, now?" and Ross with the curly hair on the right. Ohgod that guy (why hello Emperor Palpatine!) played such a bad Ross T_T Ross is one of my much-loved tiny side characters.

BUT OKAY, getting to the point, the comic. I drew a chibi comic essentially retelling Malcolm's "I'm such a heel!" speech and it's consequences. Aaand I gave it a new ending. The last panel is the only thing that DOESN'T happen in this adaptation of the play.

I'm linking it because it's like 3000 pixels wide and would hurt your f'lists if I didn't. It's horizontally paneled, unlike my usual vertical paneled meme things.

Macduff's day is going to get no better from here. And I don't care how cute and wibbly the guy is, if he made ME cry that hard, I'd want to lamp him one too.

"Lamp him one" is courtesy of my favorite the_arethusa, of course, and will forever be associated with what Tim Stamper wants to do to Sarah.

I still have no Hamlet icons! What's up with that?

Here's the promised squee about the David Tennant Hamlet. It was amazing XD And I babble accordingly.

( Hamletsquee )

I can has now? (Actually, I can. merrick42 was kind enough to find out that it's available on Amazon XD )

Guess who has the best wife in the universe? I do.

Today's caitirin and my anniversary (two years! The two-year anniversary is "cotton" XD) and she presented me with a Hem CD in a gorgeous cotton slipcase that she sewed for me. *love* And it's Hem, because cotton things have hems! I love Hem, OMG, and speaking of OMG--

OMG OMG OMG. Best wife in the world, once again, found this piece of information for me. Hem composed and performed the music for a production of Twelfth Night, which will be available soon. You know me and Twelfth Night, right? Especially me and the music from Twelfth Night? EEEEEE.

For her, I wrote in an incoherent and, as I deeply feel, an entirely inadequate fashion a poem. About cotton. It shall not appear here, as it is for my wifey and is rather embarrassingly schmoopy. I'm also going to buy her some yarn of her choice tomorrow (a cotton blend, of course) :)

I got this meme from janeturenne, and she asked me about some quite wonderful things :)

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

Cut, because I tend to go on. I discuss Holmesslash, but since I just talk about my definition of the term and about the fandom, it's safe for non-slashers.

( hands )

( Shakespeare )

( dreams/nightmares )

( research )

( Holmesslash )

You guys probably already know this, as you're all awesome and know stuff, but a new Tolkien book is going to be released in May. caitirin's Librarian told her about it, and she told me about it, and it went something like this:

caitirin: [[Librarian]] said that they found another Tolkien manuscript that they're publishing this year. And I knew I had to tell you, because it's about... Sigurd? And this ring? Wagner made an opera out of it?
elaby: OMFG NIBELUNGENLIED FLAIL!!!!!
caitirin: Thought so *grins*

It's not quite the Nibelungenlied; it's more like Volsungasaga, which I liked almost as much (just as much in some ways). But they both take stuff from the same source. Which is apparently what this is also based on. EEEEEEEEEE XD

HarperCollins is to publish a new book by the late Lord of the Rings author J R R Tolkien. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, edited and introduced by Tolkien’s son Christopher, will be published in hardback in May 2009.

The previously unpublished work was written while Tolkien was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University during the 1920s and '30s, before he wrote The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The publication will make available for the first time Tolkien’s extensive retelling in English narrative verse of the epic Norse tales of Sigurd the Völsung and the Fall of the Niflungs.

From here.

We're watching Richard III now, because Edward Hardwicke ("new Watson*") is in it. He plays Lord Stanley, and he's adorable. *wants to hug him* He's probably going to get killed in a horrible way, knowing this play. [edit: Hey, what do you know, he lived!]

Aaw, Clarence, you're such a sweet naive schmuck.

*caitirin and I have taken to referring to David Burke's Watson in the Granada series as "old Watson" and Edward Hardwicke's as "new Watson". Which is kind of misleading as David Burke was younger.

Oh, you've got to be kidding me. I have an earache. I'm twenty-five! Shouldn't I be exempt from earaches?

I'm going to the doctor tomorrow morning and hopefully they'll give me antibiotics or something. I commiserate with cranky toddlers, though :\

On Saturday night, for our anniversary, caitirin and I saw Twelfth Night at the Seacoast Rep. It was DELIGHTFUL. The theatre is so intimate and small, and we had very front row (on the stage*, even!) seats. I usually feel kind of weird about being that close, but this time it didn't bother me at all.

( Characters and how they were awesome )

*The stage isn't really raised; there's stadium seating and then a row of seats at the bottom, and then a bit of stage on the level of the seats and a couple of step-levels more of stage.

**The line is, classically, supposed to mean something like "How amazing!" That's how it was performed in this production (and in the movie). In the UNH production, Olivia delivered it like "OH HELL YES." *giggle*

Hey, remember about a zillion years ago when I was doing all of those First Kiss memes? I finally finished the one for minyan! She requested Horatio and Laertes. I reread my manga Hamlet yesterday and was inspired to finish the tiny draft/idea I had started at the time I posted the meme. So we watched Hamlet last night and I had raptures of squee, as usual, and here's the fic :) God, writing Hamlet stuff takes me for-bloody-ever. But I enjoy every minute of it T_T

831 words
Notes: Horatio POV. This was sparked by the fact that in the Kenneth Branagh movie, Horatio is the one to tell Ophelia's nurse not to keep her from running out into the room where Laertes was when he came back after Polonius's murder.

--

It may have been one of the most foolish decisions of my life, but when I heard Laertes shouting – and his voice is unmistakable – I stopped the nurse from keeping his sister out of sight. It would have happened eventually, his seeing her. I am sure of it. I can only hope my part lent a bit of dignity to a situation that would have had precious little otherwise.

( That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard )

Happy Ostara Eve! caitirin and I dyed eggs tonight ^____^

( Boldy underliney Shakespeare meme )

[edit: I need an "I [heart] Marlovian angst" icon! Except that it's not really the Marlovian angst that I [heart] about his plays. It's the Marlovian, um... badassery.]

We went to see the Hamlet Quarto last night, which means (it being Thursday) no Nano-writing. However, I did get much more schoolwork done than I thought I would, because my Theory class in the morning was canceled. Usually I spend the hour and a half up until class re-reading what we had read for class to make sure I could say something intelligent about it, but this time, since we didn't have class, I got to work the whole time on other homework and stuff. Whee, productive!

So anyway, no Nano last night, but today there's no school, so I should have time to catch up.

( The Hamlet Quarto )

Okay, Mask and Dagger's production of Twelfth Night = ROCK.

I haven't seen much live Shakespeare, let alone much live Shakespeare that wasn't done by the book (by that I mean sort of newly interpreted), but this was seriously one of the best productions of anything I've ever seen. The twenties costume theme was awesome, but the interpretation of themes was even cooler. ALL of the characters were done (and acted) superbly in the context of what the show was trying to put forth - that love is many-faceted, and often not in good ways. Sebastian and Antonio were done PERFECTLY (we even got kissing - though, as per the plot, Sebastian does end up with Olivia... but it was made clear that he should have been with Antonio, the infinitely more loyal and less skanky dedicated choice). Twelfth Night is THE play for messing around with gender roles, and this production utilized that to the full extent. Viola was played by a guy (a guy playing a girl playing a guy - how very Shakespearean), Feste was played by a girl, Sir Toby was played by a girl, all of Orsino's men were played by girls, and one of his random bitches was played by a guy. In a flapper dress. MAN, it was so awesome.

They did this awesome thing where they had chalkboards all over the set as walls, and people came out in costume, before the show started, and wrote "love" all over them, in different letters and with question marks and such. Then, at the end, each character came out and erased one of the "love"s and wrote over it something that pertained to their character. Viola wrote "obsession", for example; Sebastian wrote "immature", Antonio wrote "betrayal". I think Olivia wrote "lust". Orsino wrote "appetite". It was INCREDIBLY awesome.

Feste sang, too. And wore a shabby, patched jacket with pots and pans hanging off it, pajama pants, and a knit winter cap with a pom-pom. He also had this porcelain jester doll attached to his jacket, which he would talk to and make talk occasionally. The actress sang really well, and even though it wasn't the same tunes as the movie, they were very good ones. There was this one scene where all of the cast came out and were harrassing Malvolio (who was in one of those huge recycling bins with the lids for a jail cell) and singing this really creepy song, while kicking the bin rhythmically. That was the only part that got REALLY weird, and it still fit. OMGLOVE.

Feste showed Malvolio a mirror in the last scene, and Malvolio grabbed it and SMASHED it on the floor. It was very startling. GOD, I love Twelfth Night.

P.S. Rachel says "SQUEE" as well ^_^