Snakes, Sunrises, and Shakespeare

Over at Cafe Otherworld today I'm blogging about superstition and in the course of researching that post, I ran across this book by evolutionary biolgoist gordon H. Orions, published by the University of Chicago press last April. Just leafing through the first chapter (I love the "inside look" feature on Amaon) was enough to convince me to buy the book, which is subtitled "How Evolution Shapes Our Loves and Fears."  Here's a link to more information about the book.

Shakespeare's names--and you thought "Apple" was bad

I come from a family where given names have been recycled for generations. My sister's name was Mary and we had two great aunts named Mary (who both thought she was named for them). My brother is the third Robert in a row, I am one of several generations of Katherine going back to the 19th century. My cousin's name is Helen, one of my mother's sisters was named Helen and I had a dear great-aunt named Helen.   in my family, and not much imagination either. And you know, I'm okay with that.I have freinds whose parents got just a little too carried away while leafing through baby name books and the results weren't pretty.
Turns out there's a site that lists all of Shakespeare's names should you be inclined to bestow a bardic sort of name on your child.  The girls' names aren't bad, if a little old fashioned--Viola and Beatrice and Katherine and Portia, but God help the boys.  For every Marcus (Brutus) and Michael (Cassio) there's a Petruchio or an Iago or a Mercutio.  Check out the list here.

Shakespeare Calavera

Jose Pulido

Look what I found on Etsy!  This very cool Day of the Dead Shakespeare. The artist is Jose Pulido and his shop is MisNopalesArt.  Check out his Flickr page to see his latest work. Like him on Facebook.

Shakespeare Quote of the Day

O.J. Simpson is not Othello

It's been 20 years since Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were murdered in Los Angeles. Nicole's ex-husband, football star-turned actor/pitchman O.J. Simpson was accused of the crime and the ensuing eight month trial became a media circus that, among other things, first brought the name 'kardashian" to public awareness. (The now-deceased K clan patriarch, Robert, was Simpson's good friend and attorney.)

Shakespeare Noir Mi Corazon

  MI CORAZON

 

By Katherine Tomlinson

 

 

You’re with Raimundo on K-ESE Los Angeles and it’s time for the news.

 

A clash between Montagues and Capulets left five dead as gang violence spilled over in Verona this afternoon. Responding to pressure from residents of the small suburb of East Los Angeles, the Verona police chief announced a new zero tolerance policy that would implement the death penalty for any gang member caught breaking the law.

 

Bigstock Images

The first time Romeo Montague saw Julieta Capulet he forgot all about Rosa, the Capulet cousin he’d been boning in order to get intel on the Capulet gang. Rosa had invited Romeo to her cousin’s quinceanera on a dare and to her surprise, Romeo and his compadre Mer-Q had shown up.

Romeo was chowing down on home-made tamales when Julieta appeared on the dance floor wearing a turquoise dress he wanted to rip off like wrapping paper. Some little nerd of a Capulet cousin was dancing with Julieta when Romeo stepped up to claim her, right there in front of her father and everyone else. “I don’t know you,” Julieta had said as he danced her backwards around the room.

“You have always known me,” Romeo said in Spanish so that it wouldn’t sound cheesy. “My name is Romeo Montague.”

Shakespeare in 144 characters

Photo courtesy of Bigstock

I think if Shakespeare were alive, he'd have embraced social media. "All the world's a stage," he wrote and isn't it thrilling to contemplate what he would have done with a global stage like the Internet? It's already amazing enough that his work remains potent nearly half a millennium after he was born.  And when we reach the stars, somewhere we will take Shakespeare with us. Because he is alive and well on social media.

There is a Facebook group devoted to Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, who many believe was the "real Shakespeare." There is a group devoted to Kill Shakespeare, a comic book in which Shakespeare's greatest heroes are pitted against his most menacing villains (more on that later in the summer.) Goodreads has a Shakespeare Fans group that has more than a thousand members. There are study groups and reading clubs and appreciation circles all over the place, including the Michigan-based Oberon's Shakespeare Study Group, which is particularly interested in the authorship question.

Shakespeare is vibrantly alive on Twitter.

I follow a lot of Tweeps who tweet Shakespeare. Here in L.A. there are a number of Shakespeare-centric drama groups and theater companies that I keep up with (like Theatricum Botanicum) and it's a way of making sure I don't miss their special events. There's @ShakespearePost who has more than 32,000 followers and is following nearly 27K.  Not quite George Takei numbers, but if it were really Bill S posting, I bet he would have gotten to 1 million followers at least as fast as Anderson Cooper. Mostly this account tweets quotes from the plays and sonnets but every once in a while, there's something else, like a link to an article about very unfortunate tattoos that was quite entertaining.

If you're on Twitter and want to find more Shakespeare-friendly folk, all you have to do is type the bard's  name in the search bar. There are a lot of us out there.