All things Elizabethan

When you start thinking about Shakespeare, you inevitably start thinking about the Elizabethan era. I was looking for information on Elizabethan-era music, and ran across this site, which is simple but chock full of information about everything from Elizabethan cuisine to Elizabethan sports. I knew that they played tennis in Shakespeare's time (remember in Henry V when the French ambassador sends Henry a gift of tennis balls?) but I had no idea that they also bowled. They also enjoyed dog and cock fighting, as well as bull and bear-baiting. (Again, I knew about the bear-baiting but not about the bull-baiting.) Anyway, the site is a great way to while away a few minutes if you're taking a break from doing the things that pay your rent.

Smother Mother--New NoHo Noir

The heat is on over at NoHo Noir. We haven't heard from Shannon Garrick and her son Liam since he testified against the gang shot-caller who killed the motel owner. Shannon's mother Maeve McConnaughey is still here and let's just say, she's overstayed her welcome. Check out the latest installment here. As always, illustrated by Mark Satchwill.

No Shakespeare for me this Sunday

There's probably a quote from the bard about "best-laid plans" and so forth, but none comes readily to mind. I was supposed to go see A Midsummer Night's Dream tonight at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. (Free!!) Instead, I will be going next week. Stay tuned.

Review of Rome & Jewel (2008)

This hip-hop musical version of Romeo &Juliet has some great moments. John Rubinstein plays Mayor Capps (Jewel's father) as the whitest white man in Beverly Hills--all capped teeth and spray tan. Cleavant Derricks plays Rev. Q (Rome's father), who opens and closes the film with his sermons from the little South Central church where he's the pastor. These veteran actors anchor a surprisingly effective modern urban take on the story that would have worked a lot better if the young actress playing Jewel had had a better voice.  Everyone else handles the songs (which are fine) but her voice is so reedy and thin (especially in an awkward "Sweet Sixteen" rap where she's grinding all over Rome), that the energy of the movie just deflates every time she opens her mouth.
As the movie opens, Rome is at odds with his minister father, who is furious he's blown off an important church meeting to dog a girl named Roz. Rome admits "the bitch messed me up" and his friend DJ Mercury (Allen Maldonado, who's great) invites him to a sweet sixteen party where he's performing to take his mind off the girl.
The movie was only out for a week in what was probably extremely limited release and made less than half a million. That's a shame because it eally was a smart transposition of the timeless story of star-crossed lovers.

More free books!

I'm serious about cleaning out. Any books I don't give away here are going to the Prison Library Project as donations for their used book store. They sell paperbacks and hardbacks to raise money for their work. If you'd like to know more about them, here's a link.

All you have to do to claim the books is leave a comment on this post and I'll contact you and arrange for shipping (within the United States.)  See here for other packages on offer.

The Laura Joh Rowland package--Five novels in her fantastic Sano Ichiro novels about the Shogun's Most Honorable investigator. The titles are: Dragon King's Palace, Perfumed Sleeve, The Way of the Traitor, Concubine's Tattoo, and Black Lotus.

The Grab Bag Package--a little bit of everything. James Rollins The Doomsday Key,  Michael Gruber's Tropic of Night, Dorothy Miles Disney's Dark Lady (a Crime Club paperback from 1964), Carl Hiaasen's Star Island, Janet Evanovich, Sizzling Sixteen, Janet Evqanovich Smokin' Seventeen,

The Eclectic package--Elmore Leonard's Tishomingo Blues, A. Lee Martinez' The Automatic Detective, She Nailed a Stake Through His Head (an anthology of Biblical Tales of Terror), Precinct 19 (true accounts of NYPD's 19th Precinct), David Manual, A Matter of Roses (first in the Faith Abbey Mysteries), C. S. Graham, The Archangel Project (political thriller set in New Orleans), Mafia Chic by Erica Orloff (a chick lit mystery), Winter Moon (fantasy novella collection with Mercedes Lackey, Tanith Lee and C.E. Murphy).

And more to come.  Ask and ye shall receive...

Happy Bastille Day!!

I intend to celebrate with a baguette and some imported raspberry jam. Vive la France.

Shakespeare, the brand

As I've been wandering about the web in search of interesting Shakespeare stuff, I've noticed that there are more than a few items with "Shakespeare" as a brand name. I started Googling a bit for more information and ran into some interesting articles on just that subject.  This article on Shakespeare in Advertising appeared on Transmedia Shakespeare (studying Shakespeare beyond the text).  It begins:  Shakespeare. One word, a name, that represents so much more than a man. Shakespeare is an industry, a language, a symbol of literature and art, and an era in time. The advertising world has used this to their advantage, and Shakespeare’s influence can be recognized in almost every branch of pop culture.
The No-Sweat Shakespeare blog has an intriguing article called "The Shakespeare Brand in the World of Commerce." Starting with the example of the Learjet, the article discusses what the writer calles "Shakesploitation."
Shakespeare author Ben Alexander has some interesting figures here, showing where the search term "Shakespeare" rates in the Google-verse.