Welcome to Stevieville

Got this from Sheila O’Malley - I tried to find where the meme began but gave up after half a dozen links or so.  Confession: I didn’t read her answers or any of the others. I’m so solipsistic!  Here goes:

What was your first introduction to William Shakespeare? Was it love or hate?

My first intro was reading Romeo & Juliet in 9th grade. It wasn’t love so much as surprise: I will never forget when Mr. O. made us sit and paraphrase the balcony scene line-by-line, because it seemed so “blue” to me - I thought I had to be getting it wrong. Shakespeare is all classy and sophisticated, right? What’s with all the dirty stuff?

Which Shakespeare plays have you been required to read?

In high school: R&J freshman year, Hamlet & Macbeth senior year. In college: Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Henry IV, Part I, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (the only real comedy)… I think that’s it.

I’ve read many others through Shakespeare Club, although I don’t feel it was “required.” As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, Titus Andronicus, Twelfth Night, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Merchant of Venice, A Comedy of Errors, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, all the Henrys & Richards (except Henry VIII), Julius Caesar (which I think I have some kind of block about - I never remember it very well). Someday I’ll hit the rest of the later stuff.

Do you think Shakespeare is important? Do you feel you are a “better” person for having read the bard?

Now aren’t those two different questions? I absolutely think Shakespeare is important, and maybe only because our culture has decided to make him so, but the fact that the cult of Shakespeare is so pervasive makes it relatively accessible, which makes it an effective link to a past point in British culture and specifically in the English language that, for me, has been very educational. To segue into that second question, I think it’s helped me to learn things and figure things out. Does that make me a “better person”?

Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play?

I can never commit to a favorite anything. The more time I spend looking at any one play, the more I enjoy it. Othello & Macbeth are good examples of that. Henry IV Part I probably made me laugh more than any other. Hamlet is probably pretty close to a favorite.

How do you feel about contemporary takes on Shakespeare? Adaptations of Shakespeare’s works with a more modern feel? (For example, the new line of Manga Shakespeare graphic novels, or novels like Something Rotten, Something Wicked, Enter Three Witches, Ophelia, etc.) Do you have a favorite you’d recommend?

I feel most of them are too gimmicky to be taken seriously - although I’ve liked a few here & there. Michael Almereyda”s Hamlet (aka Hamlet 2000) is pretty cool in a lot of ways: I love the techno motif and the casting in general, but I always get annoyed at specific cuts in dialogue and other weird choices. I have that problem with every Hamlet adaptation I’ve seen. Hamlet 2 was awesome, but really had little to do with Shakespeare.

What’s your favorite movie version of a Shakespeare play?

Probably Branagh’s Henry V. It would be his Much Ado About Nothing, were it not for Keanu Reeves and Michael Keaton. But I love Denzel Washington and Emma Thompson in that.

So far? Helped to throw out a dead kitten. I guess the day can only get better, right?

As if life needs to get surreal-er:

Okay, now when people find out I got engaged last Saturday, they all say the same thing: “Were you surprised?” My response: “Um, no, I was in on it!” It’s not like Paul secretly decided he wanted to marry me and “popped the question.” It’s something we both decided we should do. I know it’s hard to understand for a lot of people - I get that - but it amuses me that as soon as I get engaged everyone assumes we have these traditional roles: as the man, he makes the choice, and as the woman, I sit home wringing my hands every day wondering, “Will he propose?” I’m probably just overreacting as usual, but nobody asked whether I was the one to propose, or anything like that.

Anyway, the next day was Sunday, and on his way home from the gym Paul went to the Big Apple flea market and bought the most gaudy, hideous cubic zirconia ring he could find, came home, got on one knee, put it on my finger and asked me to marry him.

Who could resist?

Oh yeah, it’s a size to big. What to do? Black electrical tape, of course!

Okay, how’s this for weird?  Eliz and I are looking for makeup for our Halloween costume, so we end up going to 3 different Ricky’s (we probably could have found it right away at the SoHo store, but we were hanging out more in the Village, so we ended up running around to three tinier Ricky’ses).  While we’re waiting for the makeup girls to help us at the 6th Ave store (between 11th and 12th), I notice a short blond woman waiting in line with a little girl; she looks past me and I’m thinking, “I know who that is, but I can’t place her.”  Paul comes up and whispers, “The woman from Law and Order: Criminal Intent is here,” and I’m like, THAT’S who that is!  Eliz can’t get over how short she is, and I tell her all actors are short.  So we’re still waiting and Paul comes back whispering again. “Okay, how weird is this? Jill Hennessey is here too.”  I go “No way!” and look behind me at the line that’s stretched through the whole store.  I see a tall woman in dark glasses; if Paul hadn’t told me she was there I wouldn’t have recognized her, but I realized right away it was her.  So Paul goes outside because it’s so claustrophobic in the store, and as we’re finally getting our makeup, Criminal Intent lady meets up with Jill Hennessey and they introduce themselves to each other and chat about what their kids are doing for Halloween!  Incidentally, this is how we determined that it was actually Jill Hennessey and not her twin sister.  All in all, it was pretty bizarre.  As we were leaving I half expected D’Onofrio and Sam “Ol’ Piggy-Eyes” Waterston to come through the door.  And why was SVU not represented?  Even if Mariska was busy, they could have at least sent Ice-T.  Too weird.

Oh, and Eliz thought Jill Hennessey was short too.  BECAUSE SHE’S CRAZY!!!!!!

This was the first really chilly morning for me going to work, and just like I do every year I thought I should get a remote starter for the car, and as soon as I started imagining that it was a quick jump to picturing - ugh - snow. I wasn’t miserable about it all day or anything, but going back to work this year, especially since it was in AUGUST, didn’t make me feel like summer was over. The chill in the air today was enough to make me feel that.
SO I DIDN’T NEED THIS, DUANE READE!!!