tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52663547263742311142024-02-19T06:50:47.461-08:00My ShakesyeareBarb Gutierrezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613608613256369172noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266354726374231114.post-37560988196212035252014-06-24T11:19:00.002-07:002014-06-24T11:21:33.795-07:00Heaven Today (dreamt of in my philosophy)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the
wing wherewith we fly to heaven.” </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><em>Henry VI Part 2</em>, </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">IV, 7, 78-79</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My definition of heaven has changed every
half-decade or so. Today heaven is my current setting: a clear blue sky, a
ten-year-old son three hours away from the waning moments of fourth grade, a warm
cup of creamy coffee, and a blank page of pure white primed to hold several
hundred words I will soon pluck from the air and distill into an entertaining,
witty diatribe. That is, if I refrain from opening Facebook, or Twitter, or
email.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Ew, but what if someone needs me. Right: you know who
needs me? The marketing division of every online or brick and mortar shop I’ve
ever patronized or surrendered my email address to in a moment of weakness. Why
can’t Twitter stop sending me suggestions? Pinterest, you are enough of a time
vampire before you clog my inbox with recipes and DIY. Maybe today I’ll execute a
mass unsubscribe sweep<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">.
Ah, but I can’t </span>because I might miss the next kooky Star Wars
branded household product. Darth Vader spatula? Why not? I could store it next
to my Stormtrooper salt shaker. “TK-421, why aren’t you seasoning my green
beans?” <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I can ignore the multiple job posting alerts, but I
certainly can’t unsubscribe to those, because how will I find the dream job
I’ve fantasized about since I was 21: travel writer based in London? My
mortgage lender might have a few words to say about that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When I do find something that actually has some
value to my life – a real email from a real person I actually know! – what do I
do? I “mark as unread” and save it to read later. </span>Barb Gutierrezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613608613256369172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266354726374231114.post-23261087591950732622013-03-15T15:05:00.000-07:002014-06-24T11:23:15.028-07:002,057 Years Later…<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><em>Julius
Caesar</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
started <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Julius Caesar</i> with the intention
of paralleling the political drama of the play with that of our presidential
election. I planned to write this blog comparing and contrasting a tragedy with
a comedy, if you will. Well, that was last July, and I got distracted (as I do,
as you can see from the wide date range between posts). Today, as dawn broke on
the Ides of March, I reviewed my reading notes but found not a hint of the politics
behind the assassination. What I noted, and therefore wanted to remember from
this play, were the puns, the vividly violent vocabulary, and alliteration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
cobbler’s “all with the awl withal” bit (I, 1, 20-22, 28) is great, and I
regret that I probably didn’t get it when I first read it in tenth grade. Now I
find it so amusing I refer to it as a “bit,” as if a sitcom writer put it
together. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One
of the cobbler’s lines did remind me of a certain business man presidential
candidate:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Flavius</span><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">: <span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">AVIUSFLAVIUS</span></span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But wherefore
art not in thy shop today?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why dost thou
lead these men about the streets?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cobbler: </span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Truly, sir, to
wear out their shoes, to get myself into more work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.playshakespeare.com/julius-caesar/scenes/356-act-i-scene-1"><span style="color: blue;">I,
1, 23-25</span></a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Calpurnia’s
choice of phrases in Act 2 Scene 2 demonstrates her high emotional states, or
as I think of it in 2013 terms, her freaking out:</span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“graves have yawn’d”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“drizzled blood”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“dying men did groan”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">“ghosts did shriek and squeal”</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Full
disclosure: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">onomatopoeia</i> is my
favorite word in the English language (in Spanish, my favorite word is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">motocicleta</i>).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">More gory
language erupts in Act 3 Scene 1 (254-275)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“bleeding piece
of earth” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ew</i>)</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“butchers” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nice image</i>)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“ruby lips” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ooh</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Blood and destruction” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">good summary</i>)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“infants
quartered” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unthinkable</i>)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“pity chok’d” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ack</i>)</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“hot from hell” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">phew!</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“carrion men,
groaning for burial” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zombies, Mr.
Shakespeare?</i>)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">What
can I say, but “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beware</i>”?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I’ve
clearly been listening to too many Reduced Shakespeare Company podcasts this
winter (mostly Episode 86, <a href="http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/2008/07/episode-86-meet-matt-rippy/"><span style="color: blue;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Meet Matt Rippy</i>,</span></a> on which I got the
random fan shout-out). Evidence? I could imagine only the lads from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> RSC rattling off the alliterative warnings
of </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Artemidorus: “beware of Brutus; take heed of Cassius;
come not near Casca; have an eye to Cinna; trust not Trebonius; mark well
Metellus Cimber; Decius Brutus loves thee not; thou hast wrong’d Caius
Ligarius.” (<a href="http://www.playshakespeare.com/julius-caesar/scenes/361-act-ii-scene-3"><span style="color: blue;">II,
iii, 1-3</span></a>) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Why was I imagining Austin Tichenor bouncing around
sing-song-saying it to the tune of “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover”?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">More importantly, why did it take me six months to write
these 400 words?</span></div>
Barb Gutierrezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613608613256369172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266354726374231114.post-6298174352673094992012-04-07T13:46:00.005-07:002012-04-07T14:17:22.998-07:00Next Crisis PleaseWhat was I thinking? Finish thirty-seven plays in twelve months while crafting a dramatic career change? For those of you keeping score at home, that was twenty-three months ago, and I have not only remained inert at the soul-crushing job, I have also managed to avoid cracking my giant copy of <em>William Shakespeare Complete Works</em> (a “Bargain Value” at £3.99 circa 1992). However, I did put my hands on it at least twice daily: it is the perfect thickness for blocking out the blue digital glow of my clock radio.<br /><br />I haven’t taken a vow of a-literacy, though. Recent favorites include Melvyn Bragg’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/8421679/The-Book-of-Books-Melvyn-Bragg-interview.html"><em>The Book of Books: The Radical Impact of the King James Bible 1611-2011</em></a> and my hero <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/">Bill Bryson’s</a> <em>At Home: A Short History of Private Life</em> and <em>Notes from a Big Country</em>. The latter contains a line I am trying to adapt to describe myself, “…my father was the last person in the Midwest to buy an air-conditioner. He thought they were unnatural. (He thought anything that cost more than $30 was unnatural.)”<br /><br />Well this is it: I’ll “screw [my] courage to the sticking-place” (I, 7, 49-51) and begin my Shakesyeare again!<br /><br />So, before I update my resume (again), I need to express a few thoughts on <a href="http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/playmenu.php?WorkID=macbeth">the Scottish play</a>. Writing a blog post without actually typing the play’s title is a welcome exercise as well. How do I know that the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-10020,00.html">theatre superstition</a> doesn’t apply to the theatre of the blog as well?<br /><br />I selected it while perusing the umpteenth Republican debate, thinking that a vicious, power-hungry couple would be infinitely more pleasurable to watch. I also thought it would be a welcome respite from my waxing corporate disgust. Good call!<br /><br />As usual, I enjoyed this play a lot more than I had in 10th grade. Lady M. and the witches are fascinating and entertaining characters which kept me fully engaged.<br /><br />I love Lady M.’s “man-up” language! What man then or now could resist that eloquent nagging?<br /><br />“When you durst do it then you were a man;<br />And, to be more than that what you were, you would<br />Be so much more the man.” (I, 7, 49-51)<br /><br />What could the title character do but start hacking his way to the top? On the positive side, for all of his horrible deeds, he didn’t eliminate hundreds of employees’ positions at the end of the year, did he? I’m not saying that corporate restructuring is worse than murder of course – I’m referring to fictional murders and real layoffs. For all his bloody ambition, at least Lady M.’s husband wasn’t motivated by the desire to increase the wealth of his shareholders. I digress.<br /><br />Several of the witches’ lines are so ubiquitous in our age that even my eight-year-old thought some of the rhymes sounded familiar, and he’s been raised without the cultural benefit of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm-36iZ6_Aw">Warner Brothers cartoons</a>, much to my disgrace.<br /><br />Here’s a lovely recipe for a cool April afternoon (vegetarians, look away!):<br /><br /><em>Fillet of a fenny snake,<br />In the cauldron boil and bake;<br />Eye of newt and toe of frog,<br />Wool of bat and tongue of dog,<br />Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,<br />Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,<br />For a charm of powerful trouble,<br />Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.<br /></em>(IV, 1, 12-19)<br />(No anti-Gingrich sentiment intended; on purpose anyway!)Barb Gutierrezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613608613256369172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266354726374231114.post-6293301843476272012011-04-23T07:43:00.000-07:002011-04-23T07:45:33.566-07:00Happy Birthday, Will!Have I finished all of Shakespeare's works in a year?<br />No.<br />Will I try again to make 2011-2012 my <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Shakesyeare</span>?<br />Yes.Barb Gutierrezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613608613256369172noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266354726374231114.post-24551784356587048172010-07-15T13:47:00.000-07:002011-12-17T11:12:17.600-08:00Eat no onions nor garlic...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6VF0HuPOZFU8JgsKjYk86WGwCu9X05biVjP-F_ci8Z7L3fczHIRhy8Xhfzgyga0Q7THeLB406d0cWVMRjkQLezTJMtKQwm0ktysl6vjRmGarAPowHCYiiPxkuLnSU901adkOJRY5IDwE/s1600/IMG_4311.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495264706531348914" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6VF0HuPOZFU8JgsKjYk86WGwCu9X05biVjP-F_ci8Z7L3fczHIRhy8Xhfzgyga0Q7THeLB406d0cWVMRjkQLezTJMtKQwm0ktysl6vjRmGarAPowHCYiiPxkuLnSU901adkOJRY5IDwE/s320/IMG_4311.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><em>A Midsummer Night's Dream</em><br /><br />How could I let midsummer pass without reading A Midsummer Night's Dream? I deviated from my chronological course and brought my petite blue play book on my vacation to México. I truly put the “vacate” in “vacation” this time!<br /><br />I didn’t cook, clean, drive, type, phone, login, log off, download, upload, conference, audit, escalate, procrastinate, complain, or stew. I did eat, sleep, drink, make merry, and translate: “Estoy leyendo una historia con dos pares de novios y ‘fairies.’”<br /><br />I also spent one afternoon in the back garden of my suegros (parents-in-law), surrounded by lime, pomegranate, and peach trees, finishing the play.</div><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><div>"And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath, and I do not doubt but to hear them say, it is a sweet comedy.” (IV, 2, 43)</div><br /><br /><div></div>Barb Gutierrezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613608613256369172noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266354726374231114.post-8977004132709125242010-06-13T09:40:00.000-07:002010-06-13T09:45:20.323-07:00No treachery; but want of men and moneyI headed through the stacks toward 822.33 and found the cutest little blue copies of the plays! The Yale Shakespeare edition, copyright 1918 (third printing 1961) measures 4.5 by 7 inches per play. I checked out <em>Henry VI Parts I, II</em>, and <em>III</em>. They even smell old!<br /><br />I am going to look just like a medieval abbess reading these! That is, a medieval abbess sitting in a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Honda </span>in the parking lot at the manufacturing facility. It’s just too humid for a wimple.<br /><br />I had to make a chart to keep track of the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster factions. Since this was the first Shakespeare history I had read in its entirety, I was pleased to see Joan of Arc as one of his characters. Why do they keep these secrets from high school students?<br /><br />Some of my favorite lines include Mortimer’s description of old age and dying (II, 5, 5-15 and IV, 5, 4) and the comment about the French (I’m French, so it’s OK for me to like it!): “Done like a Frenchman: turn, and turn again!” (III, 3, 85).<br /><br />By the time I finished <em>Part I</em> and picked up <em>Part II</em>, stuff had started to hit the fan at work, and my lunchtime reading time was put on hold. Now I’m behind schedule (at work and on my <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Shakesyeare</span> project) and on a daily basis feel I could shout,<br /><br /><em>May never glorious sun reflex his beams<br />Upon the country where you make abode;<br />But darkness and the gloomy shade of death<br />Environ you, till mischief and despair<br />Drive you to break your necks or hang yourselves!</em> (V, 4, 87-91)<br /><br />Yet, I’m pretty sure that would be a violation of our corporate harassment policy.Barb Gutierrezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613608613256369172noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266354726374231114.post-8333963345994868692010-05-25T15:10:00.000-07:002010-05-25T15:15:40.505-07:00The Comedy of ErrorsIf the library book is due tomorrow, does that mean this blog post is overdue?<br /><br />My work situation has stabilized – in my head at least – since I started my Shakespearean quest (or is it really a Quixotic quest?). So, what did I find most relatable in The Comedy of Errors? The repeated misunderstandings caused by two sets of twins who are apparently not only identical but are also wearing matching sets of clothes?<br /><br />No: the repeated beatings of the Dromios by the Antipholuses (II, 2, 23; IV, 4, 18; IV, 4, 45; IV, 4, 53). For truly, what is an on-site staffing vendor if not a servant to be beaten again and again by the client…I mean master? I love the sixteenth century violence because it is just so politically incorrect in the context of a twenty-first century work space. Our repeated beatings are non-physical yet often comical and usually painful. It sure wasn’t Dromio’s (either one) fault! Antipholus just had to come to certain conclusions based on bad data.<br /><br />On the lighter side, I can finally appreciate what my high school English teachers were trying to instill: Mr. Shakespeare <em>was</em> a poet! My lunch breaks spent reading <em>The Comedy of Errors</em> became not only a respite from the grind of staffing operations and compliance…and paperwork – oh, the paperwork! They became a haven from the complete works of text messaging, corporate-speak, and sloppy spelling that fills my email inbox (and what is the deal with this “invented spelling” they are teaching my kindergartener – where are the blogs on that?).<br /><br />I’ve never seen a Hallmark card as good as this:<br />“It is thyself, mine own self’s better part,<br />Mine eye’s clear eye, my dear heart’s dearer heart;<br />My food, my fortune, and my sweet hope’s aim;<br />My sole earth’s heaven, and my heaven’s claim.” (III, 2, 60)<br /><br /><em>Sigh.</em>Barb Gutierrezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613608613256369172noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5266354726374231114.post-33628805212328039182010-05-08T10:56:00.001-07:002010-05-08T10:58:00.935-07:00Crisis AvertedWhat a week! Two competent colleagues out; confidence in my career track, which had been plummeting lately, hit rock bottom when suddenly I had a crisis of conscience. My yearning for being a stay-at-home mom again was stronger than my credit card debt was deep. I needed a big change and fast. I casually emailed my former employer and within days had another job offer which would solve my short term confusion but not my long term goal of something “else.”<br /><br />The end of that very long week was the 23rd of April, possibly the birth date of William Shakespeare, and certainly his death date. Usually I celebrate by displaying my postcards from <a href="http://www.stratford-upon-avon.co.uk/"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Stratford</span>-upon-Avon</a>, telling everyone I talk to that it’s Shakespeare’s birthday today, and walking around the house with my copy of The Complete Works. I just carry it around. I don’t read any of it.<br /><br />I nearly dragged my husband and son to <a href="http://www.shakespeare.org/"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Lenox</span></a>, Mass., but I was so frustrated by my misery at work, I let another “Shakespeare’s birthday event” slip away without a major undertaking.<br /><br />Then it hit me: who am I to celebrate the bard’s birthday? Because I once took a <a href="http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/routemaster-bus">double-<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">decker</span></a> bus ride around <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Stratford</span>? Because I took notice of the <a href="http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/">new Globe</a> construction on London’s South Bank back in 1993? Because I celebrated my 29<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">th</span> birthday as a penny-payer at “King Lear?” I <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">didn</span>’t even make it to the third act: my new Doc Martens were killing me. I needed to do something big: READ ALL THE PLAYS.<br /><br />That night, Friday, April 23, 2010, I took my giant copy of William Shakespeare Complete Works (a “Bargain Value” at £3.99 circa 1992; published 1991 by The Promotional Reprint Company Limited for <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bookmart</span> Limited, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">Desford</span> Road, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">Enderby</span>, Leicester, U.K., reprinted 1992…so it really was a bargain!), and I sat down in front of Google to make…<br /><br />…my plan: read all of Shakespeare’s plays in one year, from the 23rd of April to the 23rd of April. Within his works I shall find inspiration to sort out my professional life! I shall instill in my <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">kindergartener</span> a love for the words. Then, at last, in the spring of 2011, I shall say, “yes, I have an M.A. in English lit, and I have read all of Shakespeare’s plays.”<br /><br />I’m using the list of 37 I found on <a href="http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">OpenSourceShakespeare</span></a> because I’m 37 years old, and because <a href="http://www.reducedshakespeare.com/wp/">The Reduced Shakespeare Company</a> said something funny about “Two Noble Kinsmen,” so I’ll read that as a bonus if I get through my list in time.<br /><br />I’ll read the footnotes, maybe rent the DVDs, read original versions; all at the pace of three plays a month.<br /><br />Or, maybe I’ll just read the plays and be inspired. I won’t read the Julie/Julia blog because, 1. I’m not cooking the plays, 2. I’ll never get to meet my mental mentor, and 3. I don’t want to plagiarize subconsciously!<br /><br />So I sorted my list by (alleged) year of publication/performance and decided to tackle it chronologically. First up: “The Comedy of Errors.”<br /><br />What about the sonnets? Maybe another year.Barb Gutierrezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613608613256369172noreply@blogger.com2