Holy Crap. Shakespeare Makes Sense.

Hello all,

I finished reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (and the other stories in the collection) and have decided that, were Robert Louis Stevenson still alive, I would want to have his babies. He is so brilliant. Now I'm reading Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, which I was inspired to pick up because a friend of mine (David Andino) showed me these videos (of songs from the musical Darling, which is a completely new take on the Peter Pan story):

Never

Lost Boy

So the other day I was wandering through Target and I spied by chance a DVD version of Hamlet starring Patrick Stewart and David Tennant. My older sister and I are HUGE David Tennant fans, stemming from his performance as Dr. Who, and when we found out he was going to be Hamlet in London we actually tried to figure out how to get over there to see it (having no money turned out to be an obstacle). Anyway, we were depressed because we thought we'd never be able to see his take on the character, or Patrick Stewart's on Claudius. But, miraculously, there this DVD was before me, a specially staged edition that seemed to say, "Dear Cayla and Cara: Thinking of you. Love, The Royal Shakespeare Company."

I bought it. We watched it.

Now here's the truth of the matter: I've always known that William Shakespeare wrote some of the most beautiful material ever put to paper, but prior to this Hamlet, every Shakespeare show I'd seen had me bouncing my foot and itching to get out of my seat because I just couldn't make myself enjoy it, and I thought I had to be dumb and uncultured because of it. (I'm still sure I'm dumb, but that's for unrelated reasons.)

But aha! I have been shown: the difference between amateur Shakespeare and professional Shakespeare is the difference between a preschool pageant and a rock concert. It just has to be done right. Patrick Stewart and David Tennant understand the material so completely in this production that the lines they deliver don't seem like high language, or language that's fallen out of use. There's no pretension, it's just like this beautiful melding of brilliant minds and more talent than the planet ought to be able to hold, to form something so utterly REAL that you can't help but be devastated by the progressiveness, uniqueness, awesomeness, and GENIUS that William Shakespeare possessed.

If he were still alive, I would have his babies as well.

Seriously, if you love Shakespeare, buy this Hamlet. If you've never gotten Shakespeare before (like me), buy this Hamlet. Here:

Awesome Amazing Spectacular Hamlet

This blog post in sum: read Robert Louis Stevenson, and watch Hamlet. (Also watch Dr. Who. Because who doesn't love Dr. Who??)

Hearts and loves,

Cayla

I'm From Wisconsin

Well. I was watching an episode of Law and Order, and the detectives were searching this person's apartment. One of them picked up a piece of paper and commented that the person had to be a tourist because they kept a subway map.

I thought they meant a map of the locations of all the Subway restaurants in New York City.

...

I am so from Wisconsin.