Other Libraries Around The World

Being a library geek, I usually make a point of stopping in libraries when traveling. Here are some libraries that I have really enjoyed seeing.

First, Toronto's North York Central Library. All in all, an amazing facility!

These photos were taken in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. It's a Carnegie library so it postdates Shakespeare by a few years. Nice cozy facility, though.

This last picture is the only good shot I got of the Whitehorse Public Library. Nice view of the Yukon River outside, eh?

Julius Caesar performed at Niagara University

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I was attending Niagara University in Western New York state. One evening, I went with the campus literary club to see my first Shakespeare play (The Merry Wives of Windsor). I'd like to claim that I was immediately captivated and "got" Shakespeare but that would not really be true. I did enjoy it and understood that there was a great deal of interesting, stimulating material in the text, though.

Over the years, I occasionally saw another Shakespearean play performed. When they really came alive for me was when I listened to the Great Courses taught by Peter Saccio. Since then learning more about the plays and their interpretations and subtexts has become very important to me. I have even seen Sir Antony Sher in the role of Falstaff at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. I see nearly every performance by the Seattle Shakespeare Company and volunteer there as well.

Last month, the Seattle Shakespeare Company produced Julius Caesar and while preparing for a trip to visit family I discovered that Niagara University Theatre would be performing Julius Caesar as well. Two nights ago, I attended a performance at NU. It was very much worth the trip!

Sometimes shallowly politicized in this wacky political year, Julius Caesar is actually a cold, hard look at the reality behind the scenes in political intrigues...and a warning that choosing the wrong course of action based on a flawed analysis can produce devastating consequences. Those unintended consequences can include creating the very nightmare scenario that was meant to be avoided!

The set design was clean and stark, a number of cold stone columns and thrones, rearranged during scene changes to create different environments. Several masked performers slouched around the theater and watched coldly before the start of the play.

(Here the crew begins intermission cleanup. There WAS blood, though not at Titus Andronicus levels)

The cast as a whole was well-rehearsed and tuned into what was happening in the play, what their characters' motivations were. Casting was often against written gender, with a male Calpurnia and female Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Marcus Brutus and Marcus Antonius (Marc Antony). In fact, all of the conspirators who assassinated Julius Caesar except for Gaius Cassius Longinus (Cassius) were women. And the combat scenes were on point.

While all of the performers did great work, my favorites were the actors in the roles of Cassius, Brutus and Marc Antony. Johnny Barden's Cassius WAS lean, hungry and dangerous. Kayla McSorley's Brutus was a Roman stoic, with a fine mind and poor political instincts. Rachael Buchanan was a *terrific* Brutus: happy under Julius Caesar, coldly furious when initially confronting Caesar's killers and manipulating the mob, casually choosing the list of people who the triumvirs would execute. I can easily imaging her playing a key role in the Upstart Crow Collective's all-female Henry VI/Richard III cycle.

All in all, this was a wonderful performance and it was a treat to be sitting in the Niagara University Theatre once more. And to see the campus again...

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Written By: William Shakespeare
Directed By: Steve Braddock
Sets By: David Dwyer
Costumes By: Maureen Stevens

CAST MEMBERS

Sonia Angeli  (Portia/ Lucilius)
Johnny J. Barden IV  (Cassius)
Rachael Buchanan  (Antony)
Briegette Bullock  (Trebonius/ Octavius)
Krista Cantrell  (Cinna/ Strato)
Marissa DelVecchio  (Decius/ Clitus)
Nicholas Edwards  (Metellus Cimber/ Volumnius)
Kalee George  (Casca/ Titinius)
Mersedez Hoover  (Caesar)
Kayla McSorley  (Brutus)
Kevin Trala  (Artemidorus/ Messala)
Elijah Vasquez  (Soothsayer/ Pindarus)
Christian Webster  (Calpurnia/ Soldier)
Russell Wilson  (Lucius)

A new direction for this Geek Blog

In my previous post about home database programming projects I have been working on, I alluded to the fact that I am on a "temporary work hiatus" right now. Translation: I was laid off in the course of my previous employer's reduction in force and am busily searching for a job.

Obviously there are some stresses from not having much of a positive cash flow. However, I am endeavoring to use every moment of my time as constructively as possible:

• Searching for at least a few jobs to apply for a day (more now that a friend referred me internally in Microsoft and I have the assistance of one of their recruiters for a few weeks)
• Spending a few hours/day playing catch-up on some of the newer technologies
• Exercising (running, walking the dogs, using the stationary bike in the evening)
• Rebooting my eating habits: it's far too easy to go into grazing mode under time pressure
• Reading books I haven't had time to read, in the evening

This still leaves me with enough free time that I have decided to use in rebooting another activity I've always wanted to do: write on a regular basis. Therefore, I will be taking this previously unfocused geek blog and begin adding consistent entries about the state of the tech industry from the point of view of someone who has been a developer for a for quite a while. If this results in enough material (especially if it develops some readership) I may spin it off into a completely separate blog.

Looking back over previous entries dating back to 2010, this current geek blog has been a bit of a catchall:

• Musings about how the hot computer which launched my development career is now an exhibit at the University of Washington and how much more powerful my Android phone was.
• Comments about home computer projects, from encryption applications to database tools that I used daily at work
• Shakespeare and other literary geekery, including tattoos, cool old books and word frequency counts in Shakespeare plays
• Miscellaneous topics such as work Fitbit challenges and pictures from a trip to England and Wales

But since the topic of what the computer industry is like right now is especially compelling to me personally now, that will be a new consistent focus. I hope that others will find my commentary interesting.

Michael Almereyda's Cymbeline

All of my friends who I've talked to about this movie who are fellow Shakespeare geeks have panned it. I will explain a bit here about why I actually enjoyed this movie and will watch it again...

When evaluating a movie or play, I think a crucial to define the category under which it's being evaluated. For example, evaluating Ian McKellen's Macbeth as a situation comedy would not rate it very highly. There were very few laughs. And evaluating Viggo Mortensen in "A History of Violence" as a musical extravaganza would similarly rate it poorly. This despite the fact that both were excellent, all around.

So how should this version of Cymbeline be rated? As a straightforward Shakespearean production, it would not score very highly. As a Shakespeare geek, applying that measurement was my first thought. Under that categorization, for example, Joss Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing" was superb. Not that I'm biased, being a total Joss fan boy... :)

But while I was watching this version of Cymbeline, I found myself enjoying it. I wasn't *loving* it but I enjoyed the experience and I know I'll watch it again. Then it occurred to me that I enjoyed it because it did what so few Hollywood movies do these days: it took some big chances and tried to do something memorable. It hired some very talented people (Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, Anton Yelchin; NOT Ethan Hawke. I'm reserving judgement on the lovely Dakota Johnson) and took on the huge challenge of setting one of Shakespeare's most complex plot lines in a modern setting. Cymbeline is a very thoughtful fairy tale play and thoughtful isn't something we see a lot of in Hollywood. It tried to do something big and succeeded modestly, in my opinion.

So given that categorization, I would recommend taking a look at this movie.

The Art of April 23

For lovers of literature and culture, April will always have a special significance. By tradition, that is the day on which William Shakespeare was born in 1564 (we know he was baptized 3 days later) and also the day on which he died in 1616.

The 400th anniversary of these milestones were bound to be celebrated with vigor and enthusiasm and such, indeed, was the case. Special events in England reached a crescendo, with special shows and broadcasts highlighting the notable performances of eminent actors. In the US, the Folger Library has sent several of the posthumously published 1623 First Folio to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Bard fever is in the air and millions have joined a worldwide cultural celebration.

But there have been many quiet personal celebrations as well. Here are notes about a couple such celebrations.

On April 23, 1964, this envelope was used to send a letter home to Denmark (thought not to Elsinore Castle) from a visitor to Stratford-upon-Avon. The envelope and stamps were designed by the British Post, highlighting some iconic scenes and characters from Shakespeare's stories. But I find it intriguing to wonder who the visitor was that paused in his trip to Shakespeare's home to send this letter home to a family member or a friend.

52  years later to the day, exactly 400 years after Shakespeare died, this happened. The tattoo was inspired by the Hamlet statue at the Gower Memorial in Stratford-upon-Avon. This is not my Shakespeare tattoo. This is the BEGINNING of my Shakespeare tattoo...

Shakespeare's First Folio Visits Seattle

 

Tradition has it that William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England on April 23. 1564. During the course of his life, he wrote nearly 40 plays and co-wrote some number of others. He died on April 23, 1616. Yet for a man who lived 400 years ago, his impact on the world has been astonishing. He contributed dozens of common expressions to contemporary speech (e.g., jealousy as the "green eyed monster") and created a number of the most memorable characters in the Western Canon. Some even credit him with creating a model of human consciousness by examining the rich inner lives of his characters.

Yet there were times when these rich cultural treasures could have been lost forever. At the time of his death, only about half his plays had been collected together. Two of his contemporaries, John Heminges and Henry Condell, succeeded in getting the First Folio of Shakespeare's work published in 1623, restoring some nearly lost classics such as Macbeth and As You Like It. Later, legislation enacted by the Puritans crippled theatrical performance from 1642-1660. The Great London Fire of 1666 destroyed nearly half of all editions of the Third Folio.

Our extreme good fortune in having the work of Shakespeare available to us is why the world is celebrating the 400th anniversary of his passing, this year. One of the exceptional things happening this year is that the Folger Shakespeare Library, in cooperation with the Cincinnati Museum Center and the American Library Association, is sending some of the 82 First Folios in its collection out on a nationwide tour. This tour includes all 50 states in the United States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Seattle's turn started on March 21 and runs through April 17. Today was our day to visit the First Folio, at the Seattle Public Library..

The terrific thing about this exhibit is that, while it celebrates the First Folio, it was really about a lot more than that one (AMAZING) nearly 400 year old book. OK, I'll look at the First Folio first but there are more cool things to come.

 

 

These are the best pictures I got of the First Folio. Obviously, we didn't get to physically touch it but it was open to one of the most well known passages in world literature, Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech. Even being that close to it physically was like communing with the world of Elizabethan England in some inexplicable way. This IS one of the most famous and important books in the world.

 

However, Seattle was exceptionally fortunate in that we also had a copy of the Third Folio from the Pigott Collection on exhibit. Moreover, while the First Folio drew a crowd that had a constant stream of people walking in a queue past it, the Third Folio was not looked at quite so much...I got to linger there a bit. The Third Folio was open to As You Like it, specifically Jacques' "All the world's a stage" speech.

Seeing the Third Folio also was quite an unexpected bonus. It is nearly as rare as the First Folio, in that nearly half its printed run was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.

We didn't get to physically touch the Third Folio, either, strangely. But the Seattle Library clearly anticipated this frustration by having a number of Folio copies that you could actually flip through. They were quite gorgeous...I think I'll have to add one to my Shakespeare shelves, some day.

 

There was also an exhibit which highlighted the rich tradition of Shakespeare play performances in Seattle. I've been a fan of the current Seattle Shakespeare company for years, now. It was fascinating to find out how far the area's tradition of performance goes back.

The library has also been hosting a series of performances and lectures to accompany this exhibit.

And there were mementos and kid activities accompanying the exhibit, too.

I really have to congratulate the Seattle Library and its people for doing such a phenomenal job with this exhibit. The exhibit itself was BRILLIANT and the people tracking tickets at its entrance were very friendly, helpful and enthusiastic.

The First Folio's visit to Seattle ends two weeks from today and online tickets were going fast. If you have the time, I seriously recommend try to go...some drop-in admission openings ARE available. Information here.