Saturday Shakespeare Shout-out! SF Shakes

This Twitter account caught my eye:  SF Shakes:

Founded in 1983, the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's mission is to provide arts access to everyone!

Bay Area, CA · sfshakes.org

I feel the earth move--Shakespeare and earthquakes

My apartment is near a freeway and also a block from a supermarket supplied by big trucks that travel the street running perpendicular to mine. As a result, the apartment often vibrates, strongly enough that visitors--acutely aware they're visiting earthquake country--mistake for a tremor. "Is that an earthquake?"
"No.""
"Are you sure?"
"Trust me, I'm sure."

Long-time residents and natives deal with earthquakes in one of two ways, sometimes simultaneously. We practice denial. ("What do we say to earthquakes? Not today.") And we prepare. (I have a friend who has an earthquake app on his phone that notifies him of an earthquake anywhere in the world. I'm not sure what this does except fuel his own anxiety, but his is the house I'm headed to in an earthquake apocalypse. He has a GENERATOR.

There's a guy named David Nabham who believes he can predict earthquakes. If he's right, L.A. is due for a major quake this Saturday, between 4 and 8 a.m. or during the same time frame in the evening. The last big quake in LA was 20 years ago, the Northridge quake and it happened in the early morning. I find myself a little unsettled by Nabhan's prediction.  I have bought extra water. i will wear shorts instead of jammie pants to bed on the 11th. 
But since I am thinking Shakespeare this summe, I wondered if there were any mentions of earthquakes in the plays. Turns out there is one, a famous one in Romeo & Juliet. It's Nurse talking about how old Juliet is:

On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
	That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
	'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
	And she was wean'd,--I never shall forget it,--

La Bruja Roja is free on Kindle

Who doesn't like freebies? I mentioned Delia Fontana's Aixa & the Scorpion last week. Now it's free on Kindle for the next five days. If you fancy horror that's not the same old/same old, give it a try.

The Science of Shakespeare

Since mentioning Science and astrology yesterday, it seems only fitting to talk about Shakespeare and science today. After all, the times he lived in represented not just a Renaissance of the arts, but a time of great scientific exploration. I've just put this book, The Science of Shakespeare, on my wish list. I like the cover illustration depicting Shakespeare as a constellation. I could see that on a t-shirt.

Dan Falk, the book's author, gives talks on the subject and I hope he comes to Los Angeles sometime soon.

Shakespeare and Astrology

Susan Miller of Astrology Zone has been ill for the last few months, and this month her montly overview of what's in store in the stars is late. I know that Shakespeare used a lot of astrological imagery in his plays, but didn't know how much until I started Googling around. I found this intriguing artcle (with quotes) on Shakespeare's astrology, and this interview with Natalie Dellahaye, an astrologer living in Surrey.

Politicsworm.com, a histherto unknown (to me) Shakespeare blog has a somewhat crankypants post on Shakespeare and Astorolgy, plus lots of other interesting and informative posts. Chartplanet.com also has a post on the subject. My favorite post on the subject came from Shakespeare Online, though: Superstition, Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Time.

Sunday Stratford Shakespeare Festival Promo!

This looks like a good season; which I could be there.

Sunday Friend Promotion Delia Fontana's Aixa & the Scorpion

One of the things that annoys me about a lot of horror stories is that they all seem to be based on the same old, same old European/Catholic tropes. When I read a story that doesn't fall back on that, it makes me happy. (In fact, one of the best zombie movie scripts I have read lately integrated voodoo, biochemistry, and social issues and was set in the sugar cane fields of Florida.)

Delia Fontana has started up a new series she calls La Bruja Roja (the Red Witch) with an intial story of 11,000 words. She has four stories in the initial series, and will be publishing them serially, once a month. At that point (December), she'll combine them in one package, add some bonus material (like a Blu-Ray release) and then move into her next sequence of tales, The Poison Heart.

She published the first instalment Aixa & the Scorpion over the weekend. It'll be followed by Aixa & the Shark, Aixa & the Shadow, and Aixa & the Spider.  the stories are set in a town that straddles the Texas/Mexico border but also marks the dividing line between life and death. She describes Sangre de Cristo as a place much like the Bon Temps of True Blood, a place where the paranormal is the normal. If you'd like to read a horror story with a decidedly Hispanic twist, check it out!