Comedy of Errors... a look back...
OK, so our first month ends today. The Comedy of Errors is over. I think we've made a pretty good start... I had hoped for a little more interaction from the community, but hey, that's ok... it's a pretty demented mission I've set for myself, and I don't expect many -- any? -- of you to follow.
As the month was ending, though, I began thinking hard about this blog. I've tried to stay as objective as possible in the composition of the daily entries (for those who know me well, you know how hard this is for me, a pretty SUBjective, heart-on-sleeve, passionate guy [read, at times pedantic and blowhard-y... yeah, not a word, I KNOW]). And in the past few days, I've began to wonder if (since there doesn't seem too many readers out there to offend) maybe I shouldn't just, you know, loosen up, let loose, and let the ever-lovin' bullsh!t flow.
But then I saw Julie & Julia last night in a special American Cinematheque screening at the Aero in Santa Monica. Julie Powell's blog was one of the touchstones for this project, and the early trailers of the movie were part of the inspiration to start this. I won't bore you with a review (I'll do that as this week's podcast instead), but let's just say that I now see the movie as a cautionary tale, a testament to why I should keep this as professional and professorial as possible.
[AS POSSIBLE, as if I could be completely either of those two P's... AS IF]
So I'm going to keep on truckin' the way I've been truckin'... as objective as I can be, right up to the point when I can't and I got to go all subjective on ya (in other words, being nice, in the words of Patrick Swayze in Road House, until it time to not be nice).
So there you have it.
We're a month into the project. One play down, thirty-five more to go. I've already spewed forth 25,821 words (18,700 alone on Comedy [for which Shakespeare wrote only 14,924 words], the rest as the run-up)... Comedy dies today, and with it comes tomorrow's Tragedy.
Tomorrow we begin the bloodbath that is Titus Andronicus.
I've only just discovered you (thanks to the ZenCast site) and think the initiative is fantastic. As a father of three, I couldn't agree with you more about the way that Shakespeare is taught.
Don't get too disheartened by a lack of response this first month; it'll take time to build. I'll certainly be participating (although vacation does loom, so there'll be radio silence of a couple of weeks).
A sincere thanks for taking the initiative to do this. I think you're onto something that will not only be a fantastic resource for Will-o-philes, but may be the beginning of a shake-up (excuse the pun) in the very nature of teaching.
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Paul, thanks for the kind words and good thoughts.
I'm not disheartened... I was just wondering if I needed to self-edit so much... and I do (trust me, I do!).
Thanks for joining the community... I hope you have a great bloody month of August and that we hear from you again!
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