response to Anne

I think it's very possible that both of them loved each other very much. But I think the basis for that love was founded on the wrong ideals. I believe that they loved each other more for looks and position than who they were on the inside. A classic example of this that came to mind (and don't judge me) was that of the TV show GREEK.




It's a show about college life in fraternities and sororities. One of the major characters is named Evan Chambers.

He dates a girl in the third season because she's pretty and self confident, manipulating and quite honestly a Cleopatra. She dates him for his looks and his money (like millions in a trust fund).


Whereas they might actually like each others personality, and help when they can, you can't help but to feel a sense of uneasiness just looking at them. There's just not enough substance in their relationship, it's all about political (the Greek system wise) power. They have to prove their love to each other, rather than just loving. It's bad.

So there you go Anne, that's how I feel about Antony and Cleo

Story for the final project

So I was doing some research and I thought watching an episode of Xena would be a good choice for finding a story. Xena always ties in Greek and Roman mythology into the plot. I love it.

What did I find. Not what, but who!

Meleager. That's who

I did some more research on him and I think his story would be a perfect candidate for our class project. It's got war, the woods, classic prophecy from the beginning (the fatal flaw), romance, room to flesh out characters. We can even find room to add in some of our own characters. Maybe a B line of Meleager's never before heard of Sidekick Euriponditis, a lower class war attendant who provides Meleager with his weapons and food, and even has somewhat of a meddling role in the killing of Meleager's brother. I'm sure we can put in the pump up speech and cross dressing as we like.

Check out the wikipedia page by clicking on the image to find out his whole story! I think it could be very creative.

King Lear in Dance

So I'm pretty sure that you guys don't really need an explanation for the story here. I would like to see what you guys think. I realize it's not the best recording of all, but sometimes parents don't always like to film everything at once like they should, they only focus on their child....

I can't figure out how to embed the video, so I'll just link it to this picture of the dancers


Oh and don't worry, I've put a lot more meat on my bones since I did this dance. If you can't watch it, then just friend me on FB until I can figure out how to get the video onto youtube.

Edgar/Tom's favorite words

My favorite is Flibbertigibbet.

Flibbertigibbet is a Middle English word referring to a flighty or whimsical person, usually a young woman. In modern use, it is used as a slang term, especially in Yorkshire, for a gossipy or overly talkative person. Its origin is in a meaningless representation of chattering. ^[1] It does not always apply to females, however; it has also been used to describe Jiminy Cricket due to his whimsical, chatty nature.


So the next time you see a gossipy freshman walking around campus being trite and all hush hush, call her a Flibbertigibbet! See what happens

What's your favorite word of Edgars?

For those of you who haven't read Act 3 Scene 7 with the BYU recording. Thank your luck. I haven't heard or seen such a mortifying thing since I was a part of dance about rape. It was based off of Titus Andronicus for a competition at the USF.

This BYU recording was so good that I nearly wanted to heave my stomach out onto the keyboard. I guess that's the price we pay for good actors right? Realism.

I believe though that sometimes we are supposed to be exposed to those things that might disturb us to keep our conservative minds in a state of actualism. That we might see things as they really are. We may deny that there are children dying in Africa, or that our soldiers were tortured in the Middle-East, but the sooner we realize reality, the better citizens we become. We become aware of the potential of man: good and evil.

Court of Crazies

Okay so what the heck is going on when King Lear appoints Edgar to an imaginary judge and then presents his two daughters in the form of sticks and stools?


I'll tell you what. King Lear has lost all power over his children and his kingdom, so he takes advice from people that are so under him (Edgar pretending he's Tom, and the Fool) for two reasons. One, because they won't lie to them. Two, because he feels as lowly as their station. Unfortunately, because King Lear is around the two people that talk in circles, he starts going a little bit.... mad, crazy.

Quite honestly this part reminds me of a absurdist play where it's all about the breakdown of language. The most common one known is The Bald Soprano. I myself during both the court scene in King Lear and also in The Bald Soprano found myself saying to myself:

"why does this part exist?"

The crazier thing is that I actually find this run-around logic quite logical. You just have to listen to what they're saying and follow the train of brain thought rather than specifically what they're saying. If that doesn't make sense to you, that's okay. I have many friends that tell me that my own life is an absurdist play and that's the only reason that I get it. :/

I Cannot Heave my Heart into My Mouth

Duke of Kent

And your large speeches may your deeds approve,
That good effects may spring from words of love.

O!!! how right the Duke of Kent is. Goneril and Regan have pulled a pharisee moment. Like the pharisees of old that used to let other people know that they were fasting, disfiguring their faces and complaining of hunger, their reward was the appraisal of men. Goneril and Regan got the appraisal of their father.

Cordelia well put the fact that actions speak louder than words. She would rather act before she speaks. Unfortunately she has a "pharisee" for a father that cannot realize that the love between them is the strongest.

It makes you wonder what kept King Lear a king as long as he was.

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Edmund: a Bewidlering, Beguiling Bastard

This has to be one of the best monologues ever written. He has very valid points. Just like Shylock he was beaten down for something that he couldn't control. Shylock was a Jew, Edmund was a bastard. You really have to ask yourself, if you were in Edmund shoes, what would you do? Would you fight your brother? Would you run away? Would you challenge your father in an open duel?


This is a picture of Edmund from the Utah Shakespearean Festival production of King Lear in 2007


EDMUND

Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moon-shines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base?
Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate: fine word,--legitimate!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow; I prosper:
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

More Manly Men

Another thing about how men's brains work is shown through the ridiculous character of Dogberry. Guys also can have a hard time with letting things go. Girls, if you don't get this it's like calling a man a little boy; it's a total slap in the face.

One that lingers too...
Especially when someone criticizes how they do their job. Dogberry has this exact situation happen.

A servant calls Dogberry an ass because of the ludicrous way he does his interrogations (which is total gestus btw which I talked about about a month ago. The guards are played up to be complete idiots so that the lower class can have something to laugh at back in Shakespeare's day). So Dogberry gets totally defensive and calls for the scribe to come back just to write that down. check it out :)


DOGBERRY

Dost thou not suspect my place? dost thou not
suspect my years? O that he were here to write me
down an ass! But, masters, remember that I am an
ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not
that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art full of
piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness.
I am a wise fellow, and, which is more, an officer,
and, which is more, a householder, and, which is
more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in
Messina, and one that knows the law, go to; and a
rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath
had losses, and one that hath two gowns and every
thing handsome about him. Bring him away. O that
I had been writ down an ass!

So lesson learned boys and girls, don't blatantly criticize a man for what he does unless you want him to harbor bad feelings towards you for a while ;)

Much ado about.... Something

So last week instead of listening to the Librivox, I listened to the BYU library's audio play version of "Much Ado About Nothing." I loved it! There were real actors and they also had background music/ sound effects that put you in the scene. Even though it was hard sometimes to understand their words because of their British accents, it was BRILLIANT! The actors were actually reacting while the other were talking, like you do in real life, and you could hear it on the recording. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE BYU RECORDINGS!!

Something that I posted about a few posts back was about men's attitude. It think Much Ado has another nugget of gold when it comes to the this area of psychological mindset. Men tend to over analyze any situation. ESPECIALLY when it involves a girl. I don't get it. Benedick is so smart at the beginning I feel. He knows he doesn't want Beatrice, but then as soon as he thinks that she likes him, it's like Beatrice's whole personality suddenly changed from this

to this.

When in reality, the only thing that has changed is Benedick's perception of her. Seriously this next monologue is right after Benedick overhears that Beatrice supposedly likes him and then she comes to fetch him for dinner because she's told to by her uncle.

Benedick
Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in
to dinner;' there's a double meaning in that 'I took
no more pains for those thanks than you took pains
to thank me.' that's as much as to say, Any pains
that I take for you is as easy as thanks. If I do
not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not
love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture.

Seriously! just seconds before this he was saying how he wanted nothing to do with her. I can't believe he's gullible. But there's something else at work here.

The dude totally over thinks the whole thing! He finds a deeper meaning when there isn't one because he makes one for himself to tell him that he's right. I've seen this done many times before.

I admit, I am a man. (did you know???) I have done some of these same things, but none quite so bad as some of the people I love dearly and will leave nameless just in case they ever read this blog. yeah.... seriously.... I hope he never reads this........ :/

But the thing is, we men don't just over think things when it comes to women, we over think competition too. We start to overcompensate in some areas of competition so that we feel sure that we're going to win just in case some other guys does what we've anticipated. (no I'm not talking about guys who drive trucks) More often than not, nobody is going to make our anticipations come to life, unless we tell other people about it. It's like if you joke about somebody turning on an alliance in the game RISK.


We joke because we're afraid it's going to happen, but then some other guy gets the idea ONLY BECAUSE YOU SAID IT and actually does it. Self fulfilling prophecy. huh, that sounds like a lot of things in life actually.

Have I met myself half way?

Shakespeare literacy:

not quite.

The only thing I've done is go to the Merchant of Venice and watch Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (which I'm currently writing a blog post about).

All the other plays I've either already read or have been in, so it hasn't really increased my depth as much as brought a few more things to my attention.

Analyze Shakespeare critically:

I would say that I've actually done some of that, especially with the posts on the Merchant of Venice specifically my posts entitled Racism and Man's Attitude. In my original plan I wanted to go into historical detail because it would stretch me.

I've also done theatrical analysis on much of the stuff explaining why things are they way they are. Refer to Librivox? and Making Fun of the French


Engage Shakespeare creatively:

I have already performed a monologue for the class as well as read several sections of the plays aloud.

I also have watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ( as before mentioned, I'm currently writing a blog post about). I think Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Hamlet into this work is brilliant and also a new way of thinking about Shakespeare.

I also have a plan in the works for getting people to record two monologues from the Merchant of Venice, one for guys and one for girls and then piecing them together. But now that everyone has read it maybe I'll choose two monologues from my individually assigned plays. I will admit I've never read Othello and I'd like to give that a whirl, although I have directed two short monologues from it before. Maybe I should post that video in a post.


Share Shakespeare Meaningfully:

I've done some blogging, both formal and informal. I've also done some Facebook posts and some in person discussions with my acting friends. I was considering putting up a post about that, but my posts take a long time. I don't know that I've mastered writing an effective blog post yet.


Gain Digital Literacy:

I've listened to librivox for all of the plays except The Tempest.

As for producing content, I try to post links to other websites and artists that are worth looking into, or are relevant to the subject.

I would like to think that I've added to the class discussions for in class participation, as for outside, I have to go out of my way to actually get somebody who doesn't say "I hate Shakespeare." so I can work more on that one.

Say What!?????

Sorry I haven't really posted much in the last week and half, I've been stressing over this Doctrine and Covenants midterm that I have to take and everyone says it's super hard. I've got several posts that are saved as drafts they're just not finished yet.

So I'm in my Writing 150 class (which I'm taking for the third time to get a 1% better grade to get into my major) and I'm reading my Perspectives on New Media as part of an assignment. My teacher told me to flip open to a random article and start reading. I turned instantly to this one entitled "Dear Students: Don't Let College Unplug Your Future." Instantly I thought that it could be interesting. Guess who wrote it. Dr. Gideon Burton. yeah that's right. I'm reading stuff from my Shakespeare teacher in my writing class about blogging and new media in general. WHAT!!!!!???

HOLY CROSS SECTION LEARNING BATMAN!!

So I read the entire article and I have to say it completely changed my view on social media and especially on blogging. I've never been much of a blogger; I'm still not one even after having been in this class for a while. I found it profound that he addressed the exact thing that I was stressing over at the top of this post. College tests! You guys seriously need to read this article. It's really good. Oh and he used the word esoteric again, which I lol-ed in class at (which was really weird because everyone else was so quiet. Awkward)

The article also reminded me that I don't have to always listen to my communications teachers when they say you have to be careful what you post on the web. I can write informally here on this blog because that's where it's supposed to be. It won't be held against me when I go to apply for a job. That being said I did a ego google of myself. Didn't find much that wasn't connected to this blog. But then I did a ego google of my user name Skeggoms.


Sadly I found some things that I'm not proud of. Like that Flixster account I made when I was 12, and a Combat Arms online player profile I made when I went through my gaming phase. I've since deleted them as best as I can. Even though I've found those two negative things, I found many MANY more positive things. Like the link to my Youtube Channel where you can see things that I liked and even a fight video that I produced a little while ago as my application into the Advertising Program. I can see all the contributions to the social media world that I've made just my typing in my user name. CRAZY.

I then got the idea to ego google DR. GIDEON BURTON. Have you seen all the contributions this guy's made? holy Crap! He's got pages beyond pages of stuff. Also did you know that he has another professional blog? How many blogs does this guy have and how does he keep track of them all?

Professor Burton's article has actually inspired me, even though I'm not a blogger. I'm going to start up a blog/website for my fight choreography projects. The first one I did was my application, which if you haven't already checked out, you should. I've got millions of ideas about different film/theatre projects that have messages to them that I want to explore. I never thought about letting other people help me get more ideas because I've always been afraid someone would steal my own ideas. There comes a point where you have to stop being the old fashioned university and just make the leap onto the freedom of the webby internets. And yes I'll be using Skeggoms as part of the blog name. I'm also going to link it to a friends website that also a film major at the U that helps me make these ideas come to life. check out Blooming Filmmaking on FB.