The sporadic ramblings of Emily C. A. Snyder - devoted to God, theatre, writing, and much randominity.

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Location: New York, New York, United States

Host: "Hamlet to Hamilton: Exploring Verse Drama" | Founder: TURN TO FLESH PRODUCTIONS | Author: "Cupid and Psyche" "Nachtsturm Castle" & Others | Caitlin O'Sullivan in "The Ghost Ship" (Boston Metaphysical Society)

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Check this out!

We're in the Marlborough Enterprise! Buy a copy of the paper today! Post this link everywhere - in your myspaces, aims, everywhere.

Two weeks to show.

Mood: Eyebrows. Yeah.
Music: The Mellow Mix - so, currently "I'm With You"
Speaking of music: Prayers for this weekend's "Ave Maria" would be apprecated.
Hamlet Cast: Don't forget to go see State Fair this weekend. Most of you are going Friday. Be there!

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

More Ham

Or rather, the return of Glorielle! Yes! My car is back. Glory, glory, hallelujah. So God continues to provide despite nunskullitry.

Mood: Bon, merci
Music: Again, the diametrically opposed "Just a Girl" by No Doubt from the Ophelia Mix
Dad's Insight: Part of the reason that Gertrude can't bear to even look at Ophelia, besides 1) Ophelia "stealing" the love of Hamlet away from Gertrude and 2) Gertrude being afraid that Ophelia is angling to take G's place as Queen and 3) Ophelia's very existance being a threat since she knows everybody's "dirty little secrets" (since she's been at Elsinore and has had nothing to do but observe) and 4) Gertrude's fear that if Ophelia remains alive that will keep Laertes incensed enough to seize the crown himself - is that, as Dad pointed out (duh), 5) Gertrude has displaced anger towards Ophelia by seeing her (Gertrude's) own affair with Claudius mirrored in Ophelia's canoodling with Hamlet. Basically, while Gertrude is thinking to herself: "How could this harlot besmirtch the virtue of my perfect son?" what she's also thinking is: "I am that harlot and I passed on that weakness to my son. All that's rotten in the state of Denmark is my fault." And y'know what - it really is. Huh. Geesh.

Monday, July 24, 2006

And the people cried out

"God! Give us ham!" But God, being Jewish - well, usually He seems to load the Snyder household down with turkey - but tonight He loaded us down with ELEVEN FREE DELUXE PIZZAS, THREE BAGS OF BAGELS, FIVE DONUTS, and TWO HERSHEY BARS.

Go. Figure.

Move over manna. We still have crummy cars, and have are living collectively hand to mouth (which, as she says in Hello, Dolly! means that you'd better be ambidextrous!), and pre-Hamlet jitters are settling in, and all sorts of useless stuff - but darned if He doesn't prove Himself abundant despite the smallness of ourselves.

Thanks, Dad. Amen.

Mood: Floored
Music: Random TV
Prayer: OK, God. Jesus, I trust in Thee.

So glad this clip is up



Mood: Let the three week terror commence
Music: The diametrically opposed mellowness of Dido's "Thank You" from my current Ophelia mix
Thought: Wasps need to die. Stupid wasps! Paint is not the same thing as flowers! Gaaaaaaaaaah!

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Sunday, Sunday

Goodness is:

  • Singing at Mass

  • Mass

  • Holy Eucharist

  • Dad's car

  • Kidnapping Jules

  • A kidnapped Jules paying for dinner, drinks and dessert (and not minding that her sister is useless at conversation)

  • A kidnapped Jules letting a stir-crazy Emily drag Jules all around the area and back (eventually)

  • The Battlestar Galactica episode, "Final Cut."

    Mood: Bon - but still very affected by the emotional run of putting together not only "Going Under" (aka Ophelia's Death), but also the 21 second Hamlet's section of the letter. As Mal would say: Huh.
    Music: None. "Final Cut."
    Jules: Can't wait to read your story!

  • Saturday, July 22, 2006

    Otto is my savior

    So - with the exception of a few niggardly details (little cuts of seconds here and there) - Ophelia Drowning Is Done. I am not going to post it on YouTube - because I want it to be visceral for the audience when first they see it.

    It's good. It's done. And so am I. *schlompf*

    Mood: I have given up "bdptbdptbdpting" in favor of mere collapse
    Music: Mental "Suddenly I See"
    Hilarity is: Joining my brothers and father for Boys Night In with MST3K. Truly horrible movie tonight. One can't help but feel superior to a flick about cavemen with handgliders running from a cult of 80's snake worshippers.

    Did up the first cut

    Of "Going Under" (aka Ophelia's death) last night/this morning. Um.

    It's good. Very good. But the ending part of it is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too dark right now. Like - ew. (I mean totally, ew. Gross. A la Otto.) Anywho, and the difficulty is that I feel like I used up all of my good shots in the first half - by good I mean, not well-framed but rather film of good, sweet, wonderful things. So, to rectify the bleakness - because we do want some hope here that Ophelia didn't end with a whimper, I did some pick up shots with the glass bowl, a rosary, a fake diamond ring, and Julie's made-up eyes and wonderful hand. Also, I think I'll show Ophelia's life (the good portions of her life) flash before her eyes - because I realize you don't actually need all that much of her actually under water to get it in the brain. The brain is a wonderful organ and will fill in the details quite well on its own! I'm going to cut some of the struggling, too, and just go from Gertrude throwing the nightgown at Ophelia straight to being in the bathroom. *shiver* It's working - but is Gertrude ever evil like whoa.

    One wonders if this will inch me back to watching Pride and Prejudice for its medicinal properties? All good. Soooooo doing comedies after this!

    A good quote to round out the blog. From Monk last night: "And Emily...." "I'm not Emily. I'm Caitlin." "I don't care! You're all Emilies now!" There was something from Psych, too, but I can't recall it.

    Mood: Take right index finger. Apply to lips. Make "bdptbdptbdpt" sound. Shake head and repeat.
    Music: Crepescule playlist
    Thought: Oh, silly Emily and sleep. Et pensee redux: Waffle bowls are from God.

    Friday, July 21, 2006

    God Is Good

    He is truly great. Many thanks to Him for a) good filming; b) good showers; c) good weekend; d) great soliloquy. Thank God. And now to put together Ophelia's drowning. Happy day!

    Mood: Bof
    Music: Random TV
    Thought: FRIDAY!

    Thursday, July 20, 2006

    Cockiness

    Makes for mehgrump that even dancing and very high singing can't cure. Add to that - thecarsaga and "If I Can Keep Myself Awake" has great relevance. Not horrible - none of it - but mehgrumpinducingness. Whiteboards. Lots of them.

    'Twas to be expected, and is hardly as bad as it might be whatsoever, and time is to be had and all is falling in place and all shall be well (even with vacations and camps and flights to CA and alarming thoughts about bank accounts). I feel drawn to do some poetry, or possibly interpretive dance. I am hardly obscure. Insert noises here. C'est ca.

    Ich bin nicht so frolich. Pas de tout. Oh, for fluent Reyjori. I should like a Sable Valentine very much right now. The Silver Hoarde from Interesting Times is all well and good, but hardly swashbuckling escapism. Escapism, check. Flights over rooftops, nicht so much. I am in that place like when at the Ice Cream Station, behind the store, in the strange little cul-de-sac that the driveway and the half-tarpulined shed created - stealing a few minutes from the despotic Song, from the incessant chatter of inane customers who couldn't discern chocolate from vanilla - stealing a few moments to look upwards to an unremarkable view of slate and brick and tarp - and stealing my mind away to the city of Renquois, and the adventures of Elspeth and Poityr as they steal over my heads into wonderful adventures of their own. Sometimes, there is the need to slip into the poetry of More... a la post-#3/4 of Les Mis with Krissytina in the back of the crowded bus. There, there for a moment - where stakes are real and shadows come to life and stairways store secrets for the taking. There, there! just for an hour, a day, a week, a lifetime in a moment's breath - where one is not only observer but participant. To do, not merely to be. C'est ca. Ridicule. Choices stink, but there one is.

    Oh, silly, silly girl. Regarde l'heure! C'est le temp pour dormir, pas pour l'ennui existential! Folle! Petite chere - dort. (Qu'est que le conjugation? Ah! Pauvre langue! Je te mort!) D'accord. Je vais. Bon nuit, tout le monde. Je t'aime, [even] avec tes idees ridicule et les jeunes.

    Mood: Ridicule - trop - tres - moi.
    Music: "Too Cool for the Room" mix
    Latest find: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" - not the Green Day one, but a cover by Randy Greer and the Robin Nolan Trio. Sehr gut. I think it will make its way into next year's cabaret-oneact-thingummy.

    Wednesday, July 19, 2006

    Incroyable

    First night off-book. Incroyable. Obviously, not perfect - a few shoes are coming loose from the feet with the names of certain actors possibly imbedded on the soles, lessen they memorize their lines - but all in all...

    Tonight felt more like I was watching the first night of tech. NO.JOKE. IN-CROY-AB-LE! IN-CROY-AB-LE!!! I'm stunned. I'm thrilled. I've got one kick(pardonme)ass show. (Sorry, sorry.)

    BOO-YEAH!

    Also, betook myself and my Peter out to see POTC:DMC for the second time, savvy? And oh so savvy. Costume lust. I admit it: the first twenty minutes or so were spent simply drooling over the lace trimming on costumes and getting very frustrated at close-ups that didn't let me see the exact cut of those gorgeous brocade vests. Durn close-ups! I don't want to see his face (I mean, yes, very nice - VERY nice, Will Turner, Jack Sparrow, et cetera), but honestly - how exactly is that coat fitted about the shoulders?!?!?!? Really, people - the important things in life, c'mon now!

    Actually, that's not entirely true, either. I was initially and am still subsequently very impressed with Orlando Bloom' turn as Will Turner in this movie. Very dashing. Very dashing. Honorable, heroic, noble - le sigh. It really reminded me of all those great swashbuckling stories I ever read - which, upon consideration, is actually not that many. So I must have thought of great swashbuckling stories and told them to myself and forgotten they don't actually exist outside my brain. Sigh. More work for me.

    Oh! Have decided that Liam O'Brian cannot swim. And he ought to be very anal about keeping his person and his ship and everything about him very neat. Almost Scarlet-Pimpernelly if he maintained the "delicate hand" of the Lord whilst pirating - pardon me, privateering.

    Best part of tonight, possibly? Dancing in the movie theatre to the ending credits. Jiggity jig! More dancing ought to be required in life. Amen. Thus quoth Zarthrustra. QED.

    Anywho, because Jules ought to take this quiz and because really, really, really I did not cheat and was pretty sure that I'd get stuck with Snow White...I hereby present:


    Which Disney Princess Are You?

    Belle

    You are bookish but incredibly pretty. Belle was first seen in Beauty and the Beast (1991)

    Personality Test Results

    Click Here to Take This Quiz
    Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.



    Mood: Tres, tres frolich. So frolich, in fact, that I'm going to mix languages and not care at all. Nyah.
    Music: "Run" on repeat, because dangnabbit - it's a gooooood song
    Goodness is: A friend.

    Monday, July 17, 2006

    Otto's Hamlet for Dummies

    And without further ado, Otto von Krakendeschlossmeier's Hamlet for Dummies (AKA, Johnny in a funny suit narrating a synopsis of our Hamlet.) If the video's not working yet, wait for it - it will.



    Mood: Tiiiiiired
    Music: The TV
    Tonight was: Soliloquies and greatcoats. And greatcoats. Great. Coat. Great.

    Sunday, July 16, 2006

    Hamlet Promo

    Without further ado: Gaudete Academy Hamlet Promo.



    Also, here's Ralph Feinnes on Hamlet. And here's the direct link to mine.

    Mood: Praise God-y
    Music: Mental "O del mio dolce adore"
    Greatness is: Mass. His Grace.

    Friday, July 14, 2006

    A good skull is hard to find

    So, I'll still need to find a really good skull that's neither piratey or celtic. Had a good shoot today - downloaded video - and hung out with Jules speaking about the pirate ship, the Improbable. (Tee hee hee.) This article came out today - which is pretty neat. Terry Pratchett's The Truth is a great book and amazing rerereread. Distracted. Signing off.

    Addendum: Or not quite off.... See what happens in such a YouTubed world as ours? Some other Hamlet offerings:

  • Hamlet as Full House.

  • Hamlet as Star Wars.

  • Actually, a cute (garbage bag filled?) synopsis.

  • Well, it's short - as Statler and Waldorf would say (but what is it about doing Star Wars as Hamlet?

  • Not really sure what this has to do with Hamlet - but it's amusing.

  • Once again, not quite sure what quantifies silly string and cardboard as particularly Hamletesque, but we have (surprise surprise) yet another lightsaber.

  • They Die By Night Trailer for Hamlet as a Film Noir - excellently well done, and made me rethink Horatio a bit (or wonder if Hamlet couldn't be redone in the future as a film noir for real...).

  • This one's SO GREAT (no kidding, really, really fantastic) that I'm not only going to link to it - I'm going to EMBED it.



  • This one is not only clever, just - look - at - that - LIGHTING.



  • Gilligan's Island does Hamlet: The Musical - who knew?



  • Oh. Yes. The Simpson's Hamlet.



    Mood: Bonnish
    Music: "Run" by Snow Patrol
    Amusingness: Teaparties?
    Today's Pirate Pic: Oh yes. Coat lust. Nice. Click here

  • Thursday, July 13, 2006

    I blow down at Cindy's feet

    Cindy Settje's amazing rendition of Hamlet's coat. Boo. Yeah.



    Mood: Pleased.
    Music: So You Think You Can Dance TiVoed
    Thursdays: What else is there to say?

    Wednesday, July 12, 2006

    Sent by the beloved Southern Belle

    (Whatever shall we call you when you finagle your way back up? ;)

    Check out the hilarious askaninja.com's take on POTC:DMC. (You can tell that a movie has hit true fandom when it's referred to only by its initials.)

    Mood: Meh. Getting together stuffish for the day - to do list a mile long....
    Music: POTC:DMC *eep*
    Happiness is: Hans Zimmer being the actual main composer for this album. Oh, my darling Hans! You're back! And you even do aural "omages" to your Muppet Treasure Island!!! Oh, the sweetness! The extended musical leitmotifs! The use of instruments beyond the brass! Happy day! Good CD. Go. Buy. NOW.
    Schedule is: Do work; rehearse early; finish work; sleep; wake at impossible hour; drive Bible Study Ladies to Providence Airport; rush back; first voice lesson with Tambre (hurrah!); collapse; wake; realize I don't have to block after all; rejoice; rehearse; collapse - or else obsessively stay awake downloading video then collapse; wake just in time to; film; lessons; possibly movie abroad possibly movie at home; meander; miss Mom; and maybe even drag Jules out somewhere. Yup.

    Tuesday, July 11, 2006

    "What do you need that wig for?

    ...Are you going to wear it?"

    "No! It's for my head."

    Yet another one for the annals of why I love theatre and why it's so weird and yet so all-inclusive. So, far from making fake decapitated heads (as in the above exchange), I'm currently looking up and into the nature of the Ghost in Hamlet. Or rather, I'm more particularly interested in the Ghost as a religious division line. Now, at least according to Hamlet in Purgatory, most Protestants - or at least Puritans - at that time believed that anything ghostly was either demonic or angelic in origin. Catholics - again according to this book, which I only mehishly recommend (see the review "Better on Purgatory than on Hamlet" to approximate why the meh rating) - tended to view ghosts either as demonic, angelic, or as souls from Purgatory.

    Now, for myself, I've been asked regularly every year by the Freshmen (dunno why it's always the Freshmen, never the upperclassmen, but therey'are) "What about ghosts?!!?" My response has been something nebulous, but basically: "When we think about ghosts coming and haunting places, or Caspar or any of those things - well, I personally have a tough time holding with it - or with ideas that souls are trapped here on earth in such a manner. However, I don't know everything. But as far as I understand, I'd suppose that what we term ghosts are usually either demons, or angels, or sometimes souls sent back for a purpose and therefore for a short time - to pass on a message, etc." My practical side would, honestly, like to laugh at the idea of ghosts at all - except that my practical side has also seen something that I simply couldn't explain, and worse, that practical side was held up by a second person also seeing the exact same thing I saw.

    Story time: when in Europe for a semester, a group of us were coming back from a trip on a very crowded train. We were looking for a compartment that could seat all of us together - preferably an emtpy compartment. (There were six of us, the compartment could seat eight.) My friend, who is now a priest!!!, Nick and I went forward to scout out availability and we both spotted one compartment that only had one old gentlemen in it. Since he looked not only harmless but even a little ducky and since there were seven remaining seats in the compartment, Nick and I decided to open the door and ask the gentlemen if our party could join him. We opened the door, and could clearly see his face - he was looking rather quietly and peacefully at the opposite wall, he wore an Austrian hat and a neat tailored suit that wasn't quite Austrian but gave that same sort of impression. I want to say he leaned his arms on a cane, but I can't recall. The important thing is that we could clearly see his whole body.

    Nick stepped into the compartment, and then a moment later, I swung my foot over the threshhold. As soon as I did so - the man disappeared.

    Immediately, we heard our friends racing up the corridor calling out for us. We called them towards us, and then turned to each other and said, "Did you see?" "Yes." "All of him?" "Yes." "And then he just...?" "Yes." We didn't mention it to our friends at the time, but piled into the compartment. Later, both Nick and I went over what the man looked like, and agreed on every particular we brought up. And so, although I should like to scoff at the notion of such things, my waking brain simply can't.

    So what, if anything, do Catholics teach? Mark Shea, a leading modern apologist, indicates that unsurprisingly there IS no Catholic doctrine on the matter other than Hamlet's own reponse to Horatio's "'Tis strange" "And as a stranger, therefore, give it welcome. There are more things between Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in [y]our philosophy."

    So what does Shakespeare and Hamlet respectively believe about the Ghost? It seems fairly clear that the one followed soon after by the other admit to the third Purgatorial possibility. In such an age where religion was the politics, and where it was literally worth a person's own immortal soul to speak about the state of others, Shakespeare makes the Ghost the essential and inextricable catalyst of Hamlet. Moreover, although Horatio (who I think it's fair to play as Hamlet's soul) expresses doubt, and Hamlet himself when once alone with the Ghost is cautious, they are swayed when once the Ghost declares that:

    I am thy father's spirit,
    Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
    And for the day confined to fast in fires,
    Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
    Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid
    To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
    I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
    Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
    Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
    Thy knotted and combined locks to part
    And each particular hair to stand on end,
    Like quills upon the fretful porpentine:
    But this eternal blazon must not be
    To ears of flesh and blood. List, list, O, list!


    Immediately after, Hamlet - who is late from Whittenberg, a Lutheran divinity school - begins swearing by St. Patrick, the patron saint of souls in Purgatory - as well as a possible dig against anti-Irish sentiment - and using Church Latin "Hic et ubique?" - which is expresses only only solidarity with Rome and traditional Christendom but which also expresses the dogmatic belief about the nature of God being "here and everywhere." Hamlet's journey towards his Catholic roots follows the course of the whole play, and is consistently spurred on by the Ghost's presence. Hamlet, wisely, still distrusts his own discernment about the Ghost and the Ghost's word and so tests his uncle's guilt first. But once so tested (and that part digresses into the nature and use of plays and Shakespeare's own seditious use of the theatre), Hamlet again delays his revenge when he finds Claudius praying.

    Now the dual soliloquy scene I find interesting. (Perhaps even more interesting since we blocked it last night. The repetition of the word "there" still makes me giggle and roll my eyes. Sigh. But fond sigh.) First, we must ask whether Shakespeare is looking at Denmark as an essentially Catholic or Lutheran state. On the one hand, the original story of Hamlet from the Gesta Danorum is from the height of Medieval Christendom, and was indeed written under the patronage of a Bishop. However, the legend of Prince Amleth appears to predate the introduction of Christianity to Denmark. Which distinction may have made no difference to Saxo Grammaticus (the author of the Gesta Danorum), since the Christianization of ancient pagan legends and histories was common among north countries. Moreover, it would have made no nevermind to Shakespeare either, since he regularly mixes his mythologies as seem to suit his poetry.

    But all this speculation about the original story might be fruitless since it appears that Shakespeare is actually doing a rewrite not of Saxo Grammaticus, but rather of a fellow playwrite who'd written what scholars call the Ur-Hamlet. So, although the original text appears to have examined the possibly pagan history through a Catholic lens, Shakespeare himself may have been examining the story via what he knew of his own present day Denmark, which as Lutheran.

    And certainly, Claudius does not seek out a priest for confession. Yet, later, during the graveyard scene, a priest (not a pastor nor a divinical much less phycial doctor) is present and speaking about explicitly Catholic burial rites that the priest was apparently strong armed by the King into giving Ophelia despite her "doubtful" death (i.e., her apparent suicide which would not have merited her the Christian burial). So - strike one for Shakespeare's Denmark being Lutheran and another for it being Catholic.

    Regardless, during the double soliloquy, Hamlet is willing to concede that Claudius' apparent self-confession (sans priest) may be sufficient to save his uncle's soul from mortal sin. Hamlet shows caution here, but also residual Lutheran theology. Once Hamlet leaves, however, Claudius gives the pithy statement, "My words rise up, my thoughts remain below/Words without thoughts never to Heaven go." That is, his self-confession has no power of absolution. He is unable to feel contrition, and therefore cannot receive grace. (Cf. contrition and absolution here.) Curiously, had Claudius' sought out confession with a priest, he would have been given the penance of having to publically admit his deceptions - something which I doubt Claudius would care to take on. In this scene of fruitless self-confession, Claudius proves himself a sort of Dante's Satan, as he declares, "O limed soul that struggling to be free art more engaged!"

    From this point on, Claudius moves towards, if anything, aetheism with occasional whimpering in the face of God. (E.g., when Laertes declares the he would gladly "cut [Hamlet's] throat in the church," Claudius blenches.) Meanwhile, Hamlet moves towards reconciliation with God - in fact, towards reconciliation with a bloody martyrdom (that may have been connected in the minds of Shakespeare's audience with Campion and Southwell):

    Not a whit, we defy augury: there's a special
    providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
    'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
    now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
    readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he
    leaves, what is't to leave betimes? Let be.


    He immediately goes from this to reconciliation with his "brother" Laertes, (indeed, his potential brother-in-law, thus furthering the metaphor of Cain and Abel). He makes a sort of public Act of Contrition or Confiteor when he declares:




    Hamlet

    Give me your pardon, sir: I've done you wrong;/But pardon't, as you are a gentleman./This presence knows,/And you must needs have heard, how I am punish'd/With sore distraction. What I have done,/That might your nature, honour and exception/Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness./Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never Hamlet:/If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,/And when he's not himself does wrong Laertes,/Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it./Who does it, then? His madness: if't be so,/Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;/His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy./Sir, in this audience,/Let my disclaiming from a purposed evil/Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,/That I have shot mine arrow o'er the house,/And hurt my brother.
    Confiteor

    I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary ever Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and to all the saints, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault. Therefore, I beseech blessed Mary ever Virgin, blessed Michael the Archangel, blessed John the Baptist, the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and all the saints, to pray to the Lord our God for me. May Almighty God have mercy on me, forgive me my sins, and bring me to life everlasting. Amen. May the Almighty and merciful Lord grant me pardon, + absolution,
    and remission of all my sins. Amen.


    (Indeed, it would be interesting to view the duel at the end of Hamlet as a sort of Mass. It begins with Hamlet's declaration that he will undertake going to - for Elizabethan England - such an illegal sacrament "Let be," progresses to the Confiteor, includes a version of the chalice - here corrupted by the corrupt Claudius - and concludes with the injunction to go in peace and to reenact the story of Hamlet in his remembrance.)

    Hamlet, later, realizing that he himself might not be in a state of grace (since he is still planning Claudius' death and since he is in the middle of settling his argument with his brother) refuses the cup from his mother, saying "I dare not yet, by and by." He only receives the cup - drinking the dregs of the poisoned chalice so that Horatio might live - after he has revenged his father and exchanged true reconciliation with Laertes.

    Nor is death now a thing to be feared, because Hamlet is reconciled with God. In fact, death is almost to be sought as in the various monks call "Remember thy death!" And Hamlet himself calls for Horatio to tell his story, as we recount to each other the lives of the saints.

    Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
    I am dead, Horatio. Wretched queen, adieu!
    You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
    That are but mutes or audience to this act,
    Had I but time--as this fell sergeant, death,
    Is strict in his arrest--O, I could tell you--
    But let it be. Horatio, I am dead;
    Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
    To the unsatisfied.


    Harold Bloom calls the end of Hamlet an apotheosis, and he is quite right to do so. For, far from those tragedies wherein the deaths of the leads are "doubtful" - such as Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth and even to an extent Othello, we are certain sure that Hamlet is going to a place where "flights of angels" might "wing [him] to [his] rest."

    Right. Anywho. Must needs block said scene since we're doing it tonight. Enough rambling for today!

    Mood: Meh.
    Music: Mellow mix a la iTunes
    Thoughts: Really, really, really need to clean.

    Monday, July 10, 2006

    Savvy?

    Ha! HahahahhahahhahahHA! Pirates of the Caribbean has beaten every box office record! Can we say plunder? Oh. Yes.

    Mood: Oh, Liam O'Brien, where are you?
    Music: Mellow iTunes list
    Happiness is: The Captain Blood tribute in POTC:DMC
    My boys are: Often like this. Must make "throw rocks at them" icon for Jules....

    Sunday, July 09, 2006

    Going to sleep soon

    (Please God), having sung at one mass this morning, met with Fr. Jonathan, moved sets, lectored at the evening mass, watched with Jules the Battlestar Galactica miniseries (which, yes Kristen, is WONDERFUL - love to gab with you about it sometimes, and yes Jennie, is too adult at the moment but kudos for liking the original) and then production meeting with Mom, and then stupid 11 pm second wind kinda kicking in and....

    The upshot, is I figured out how to get this page working. You'll need Quicktime to hear the music.

    Mood: Bah
    Music: Regarde en haute
    Thought: Oh, heavens. Amen.

    Monday, July 03, 2006

    Oh. Wow.

    Adama: "They better start having babies."

    [Second Guy]: "Is that an order?"

    My goodness, Battlestar Galactica is AMAZING. Le sigh. Why are all the best books on TV right now? Why aren't we writing books as well as TV series? I mean, honestly, who throws a cupcake?

    So plane ticket sites are evil incarnate, Ireland is looking like a definite go, tomorrow is more or less a free day, The Devil Wears Prada was amazing - even though I would have preferred a more All About Eve ending at Meryl Streep's chilling line "What do you mean? Everyone wants to be us." House fidgets a la goldfish continue. Rehearsal good if surprisingly Laertes-less and Claudius-full. Brain-less....

    Dear God - amen.

    Mood: Maugh. (Not quite meh. Not quite augh.)
    Music: None but BG
    Strangeness is: This summer.

    Saturday, July 01, 2006

    Julie makes the world a better place

    Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without her. Thank you, Jules, for just being (and for being dragged around town with crumudgeony schweisters). If you don't have a Julie in your life, go and get one. No one's life is complete without a Julie.

    In other news, I'm a) working on Playing with Shakespeare a non-fiction book about my adventures with the bard and litcrit vs. performance and...

    b) updating my personal page. A lot of the links don't link to anything...yet. But they will, precious.

    Oooh! And especially check out the Gaudete Academy page! This image's for you, Jules.

    Mood: Sooooooooooooooo much better, thank God.
    Music: Narf - Flashdance. *grin*
    Thought: Sooooo, about that gallery, Jules?

    And will he not come again

    It's been a very full week, and I am glad for the weekend. Such a full week that included, among other things, singing at an early morning funeral, going to the Chancery, driving to Mystic, CT and going to the acquarium, and having rehearsals all around. Oh, and cantoring for tomorrow morning's mass and trailer checking in about twenty minutes. All good, but tiring. So much so that I fell right asleep, contacts in and all, on the couch yesterday after lessons for about an hour. I only woke up (mentally) when Mom was good enough to let me describe to her the nunnery scene and the continuing dynamic of the newest ought-to-be-royal family of Hamlet, Ophelia, and Canoodle throughout the upcoming mad scene and the past Moustrap scene. I finished by singing "And will he not come again" which I'm stealing from Branagh's version (and which I suspect he stole from the Drury Lane songbook - although I've yet to verify that) and which can be heard here (in part) from Patrick Doyle's Hamlet soundtrack. So in love with that song. Geesh it's all so sad!

    Am again toying with making Wallace's Will into a musical after all - one of those 1930's ditties - a fun affair. Howsomever, I'm not sure if the play does want to be a musical or not. I think it could support it, but then again.... Perhaps I'm just trying to make up for the habit I have of having an introduction or a prologue by a major character. Well, no, Christmas Carol doesn't have any such thing, nor did the original version of French Butler - but Nutcracker, King of Fools and to some extent Bearskin all do. Hrm. Perhaps I just ought to give up and let the characters simply set the scene for the audience after all. Let the literari figure out the whys and wherefores after me.

    Anywho, off to trailer check. Oh de schoene, oh de schoene, oh de schoene schnitzlebank!

    Mood: Mrwmnnnphthtpppt.
    Music: Regard en haute.
    Thought: Must get on ball for those other items. Oy.