I’ve been musing on creating a Shakespeare Concordance that includes side-by-side comparison of Folio, playscript (as used by my SL Shakespeare Company), and (interpretive) Modern English editions, as well as other language editions, with video and audio segments (SLSC again!) and inline notes (and perhaps even some rudimentary scansion — stray syllable counts, if not some de-dum marks!) Beautiful(ish) layout with jQuery perkiness, and just convenience, in general, especially for acting troupes who use the first folio for analysis.
Today I’ve gone through creating its first data file (and, there are also several foreign language files, aside from some of the Mandarin Chinese, all translated by volunteers, each one lined up by row numbers).
It’s initially a series of flat files, for reference for actors. At the current rate, aiming to produce a Shakespearean-play-a-year, it’d probably take a bit for the actual lexicon to fill up. The spreadsheet above should easily convert to csv for php’s text processing functions to shrill!
It started when I was trying to catch up on what our original Mandarin Chinese translator was supposed to translate, but didn’t get to do. Fortunately, for OEP1, I’d finished much of the wardrobe assignments and scenic design items months ago in our preview season in late 2008 - so I had some time for manual labor. But, the Chinese texts I found were all so sterile, I ended up translating my own versions, where I attempted to convey more of the poetry and interpretive meaning I’ve applied in directing Twelfth Night. (You can see a bit of what I mean in the “first data file,” especially my Modern English interpretive translation.) This unexpected bout of creativity made me remember how when I first encountered Shakespeare’s plays in seventh grade, I’d read them quite differently than the standard interpretation. So, it’s given me chance to (literally!) find my own meaning in the play, where I disagree with the various editions (and, it seems, that many words in the concordance are taken out of context — or perhaps not viewed as creatively, as should — for example, there’s the reference of fools’ breast in Act 2, which might have been taken literally, with a drunken Andrew noting Feste’s breasty breast!, instead of interpreted as voice).
Category: Amusing, Projects, Reviews, theatre
The Patriot Witch by C.C. Finlay
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
Review Patriot Witch
On the brinks of Revolution, American militia men—troupes of armed farmers and other non-military men—stand to guard the “Patriot Cause” against the British redcoats. Unknown to the vast majority of fighting men on both sides is the presence of magical intervention—or that those among them are charmed or gifted with supernatural abilities.
Twenty-year old Proctor Brown, a farmer and militiaman, spots a charm worn by Major Pitcairn, a British “lobster”. Though Proctor is supposed to be wooing his sweetheart Emily’s father, the British soldiers pull him into a brawl, where after he is forced to ram a knife into Pitcairn, he discovers that the officer with the charm is invincible. Proctor’s worrying about making a good impression on Emily’s father fades as both war and magic come crashing into his life.
In Finlay’s mythos, magic in colonial America was made famous by the Salem witch trials; Proctor, as betrayed by his name, is a descendent of Salem witches. Fearing for persecution, his mother has taught him very little of his inherited abilities, and discourages him from discovering more, both for fear of the principle and of losing her only son. In the beginning, Proctor is only capable of scrying, but through the course of the story, becomes capable of invoking protection and reversal spells that become crucial in determining the outcome (which we know in hindsight) of the battle of Bunker Hill.
Magic, in this saga, seems more plausible due to its limitations; flights are illusions, but magic can spontaneously combust things (and people), summon zombies and spirits, heal, and be channeled. The exact words of your spell don’t matter, if you don’t find a focus; thus, it’s interesting to see blood used as a focus, and verses from the bible as incantations for spells. We do get to see a bit of that nostalgic “learn magic in a school-like setting,” when Proctor is exiled a la the Quaker Highway to stay at the Farm, a sanctuary of witches protected by enchantment from outside view. However, Proctor’s male gender, in part, creates some discrimination against him in the Farm, composed of a small group of female witches. There is virtually no sexual tension, however, other than the differences in culture between males and females.
While the author cites inspiration from his experience researching original documents from this era, historical details do not weigh the book down, and the setting of the book seems more like a stereotypical “pop culture” conveyance. The lack of subplots slows the story, but keeps it clear that our story is about the Patriot Witch—not quite a wizard, but just a determined and able colonial man named Proctor Brown.
View all my reviews.
Category: Reviews
Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin
rating: 4 of 5 stars
[ The Mistress of the Art of Death series recounts the adventures in medieval England of Adelia Vesuvia Rachel Aguilar, a rare woman trained as a medical doctor in the famous schools of Salerno. Under the summons of King Henry II, in Book I, Adelia arrives in England to solve a mystery concerning the murders of many children. Though disgusted by him at first, she meets and falls in love with Sir Rowley Picot, but chooses to undergo an unofficial relationship with him in order to maintain her independence. In Book II (The Serpent’s Tale), the King’s favorite concubine Rosamund is found dead, and Adelia is summoned to solve the mystery. Adelia has settled into a home in the fens with Glytha—and Rowley’s child, whom she is determined to raise without him. (After Adelia had spurned married life with him, Rowley had taken the King’s offer to become Bishop Rowley.) Book III in this historical fiction saga (with its own quirky dose of forensics) puts Adelia in the midst of the uncovering of truth in legend. :]
The story begins in the year 1154 A.D., when a cathedral-destroying earthquake strikes Glastonbury, England, creating a fissure in the earth—where the alleged remains of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere’s bodies would be found. Twenty years later, King Henry II fights to gain his lands in Wales—against a people who don’t recognize him as King, believing that King Arthur (who lived in the 6th century) is still alive. Henry thus summons Adelia away from her otherwise normal life to investigate the truth of Arthur’s bones—and, he hopes, to prove to the Welsch that their so-called King had long ago died.
Adelia is traveling with Lady Emma Wolvercote (the abbey choirgirl in Book II, raped by the late Lord Wolvercote), when the King’s men arrive to take her off course. Arriving in Glastonbury, she and her manservant Mansur (officially, the “doctor,” to save Adelia from ignorant accusations of witchcraft), are greeted by the abbot, whom, with suspicious openness, allows them to inspect the remains of the alleged bones that are believed to be Arthur and Guinevere’s. As expected, there would be those resistant to the discovery of the truth behind the bones, and our heroes thus narrowly escape death several times from attempts to put them off.
Although once a woman baffled and embarassed by how others could sacrifice their life for the love of a man, Adelia—on the brinks of death by aphyxiation with Rowley in a sealed tunnel—finds that she would be ready to do that for Rowley. Our heroine and her beloved survive, of course, but the incident would set about a course of confessions and revelations that would explain both Arthur’s bones and the relations between several unlikely parties in this small town.
Ripe with both historical and forensics details, the novel entertains and educates without detracting much from the story. Most memorable is a touching conversation in a rose-garden in summer between Adelia and Emma on love and circumstances, wherein Adelia, in her pedantic nature, goes off a tangent discussing historical contraceptions, notably venerable pessaries soaked in vinegar. Another interesting fact revealed in the story is that preserves or Worcestershire sauce are the best means to clean historic swords preserved in muck—this was used to reveal that a rusted sword that had saved Adelia’s life was, in fact, Excaliber. But, though the story is lovely at times, it is a work of fiction. Although Henry II was reportedly its owner at one point during his reign, no one now knows where Excaliber is; the author admits in the endnote that the dates of certain events are shifted to render them in accords with other events. Nevertheless, who’s to say things didn’t happen as they did? Even the study of history in academia is prone to changes, as new findings challenge existing notions.
Interestingly, unlike its predecessors, Book III ends in suspense—as one of the villains Adelia narrowly escapes in the woods looks on at her passing in menace…
View all my reviews.
Category: Amusing, Reflections, Reviews
Written by ina on Thursday, 18 of December , 2008 at 9:36 am
Tags: shakespeare, slsc
Naergilien Wunderlich has created a “One of a Kind” dress that is a meticulous Second Life reconstruction of Queen Elizabeth I’s Rainbow Portrait dress.
This dress can be obtained through a silent auction that ends at 4 PM SL Time on Winter Solstice December 21, 2008.
The bid is currently at L$10,600. IM and notecard Naergilien Wunderlich directly with your bid.
Proceeds benefit the SL Shakespeare Company in their SOS “Save Our Sims” Campaign.
Closeup Image:
Here are a few more shots (click for big pic):
Unedited “Direct-from-SL” shots of the two main ad photos above are here (click for big pic):
These photos are taken direct from SL with “Atmospheric Shaders” turned off in Edit > Preferences:
This dress is also available in “3d preview” at Wunderlich’s Garb Mainstore and at the Shakespeare Island sim. More details here on Wunderlich’s original post.
Queen Elizabeth I will be making an appearance as Gloriana Sixpence in the SL Shakespeare Company’s Shakespeare on Ice to premiere on December 21, 2008.
Category: Daily Sumly, Lists, Projects, Reviews
Written by ina on Monday, 11 of February , 2008 at 1:15 am
Tags: hamlet, nunnery, ophelia
If Hamlet were to say, “Get thee to a nunnery” *today* to Ophelia… she might try googling it up only to find the complete dearth of info on the process. In this day and age, when one can almost always find a “step-by-step how to” or “dummy’s guide” to practically everything, with searches like “joining the army”, “joining the zombies” or “joining the __,” how interesting is it to chance upon a search with no pre-existing guides. One wonders… is this truly the path less taken? The googling turns up a page on TSUM and a number on Kidman’s possible Australian nunnery, which accepts married women.
TSUM describes a monastery in Tibet that until recent times were below minimum living standards, unable to properly shelter and feed its monks and nuns until recently, when some donation spiel started. Apparently, most of the nuns came from situations prone to domestic violence, and thus the path to Dharma is advertised as the better path.
A search for “Australian nunnery” yields more results on Kidman’s potential joining the nunnery, and also a Nunnery Hotel whose rates come with free food. Apparently, monastery hotels are now the rage according to CNN. But, hotels are brief escapades. What of longer stays — say, lifelong ones?
Searching for “how to join a nunnery” yields results about how Bhutan didn’t used to have nunneries, but now has 13. There’s also this other girl’s blog about her preference for cloistered life.
One wonders if it’s just a googlian conspiracy for the peculiar lack of guidance on joining a nunnery. The other yields this as the first link for a search on “joining a nunnery.” And again, you get the idea that nunneries are badly kept places, where the nuns all starve. :-X And yet, another yields this as one of the top results.
Tibetan nuns seem like wonderful people, and they know these finger tricks.
In conclusion, I’d say that a modern Ophelia would be thoroughly confused at finding out *how* to join a nunnery. NASA may even have to issue out another RFI.
Category: Amusing, Projects, Reflections, Reviews
Written by ina on Friday, 8 of February , 2008 at 5:01 pm
Tags: 3d, antics, machinima, pre-viz, software
Antics is to fall in love with — both as a previz tool and as a rough blocking tool and as one of the most easy to learn and customize machinima-making tool so far (they allow for direct import in .3ds format). (Also, I can totally imagine bringing in the renders into AfterEffects to convert to cartoon-ish form to make production quality cartoons!). I especially love the camera shots and transitions, the intuitive keyframing and smart camera sync’s, although their zoom/navigation system is a bit confusing — and lack of custom shortcuts is almost as painful as building in SL. Their basic build system is SketchUp-esque (well, sans push-pull - you have to click the wall button to add walls), but it’s intuitive to block out a 2d floor plan and then to click add walls. Like other OpenGL programs, their textures are limited to base 2’s. Interestingly, the system is powered by a command line system (such as “go to chair”) with more-or-less obvious theatre syntax.
They’re kind enough to offer a free unlimited version (it just lacks premium content). And they happen to be running a medical competition when I chanced to find them, so here’s my entry–basically the first thing I made in Antics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH-ohpjzEUc
Category: Reviews, machinima
