#American Shakespeare Center

[valeroyeaux]

to the person who said “i like your shoelaces” as we were leaving the theatre: i did get the reference but you have to understand that i have the instincts of an anxious prey animal and i panicked

[traveling-clitoris]

Clitoris thought the theatre was beautiful, the live music they played was gorgeous and we wished we couldve seen the band candy show tonight, unfortunately we are driving our way back home today. Clitoris thoroughly enjoyed their week in Shenandoah Valley.

[bisexualwintermoon]

MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM PLAY OF THE CENTURYYYYYYY

[tanadrin]

Imagine that a century or two from now, the eastern half of the United States is conquered by the Canadian Empire, its intelligentsia deported, its land colonized by Canadian immigrants, and its remaining people mostly gradually absorbed into a Neo-Canadian identity. The West reorganizes, developing a new political and cultural center, and comes to regard itself as the "true" United States, with the remnant culture of the East (by now much changed by Canadian rule) as representing an unchanged tradition stretching back to the time of George Washington. The holdout western half is subsequently conquered by the Reformed Mexican Empire, and while most of the population remains in situ, its elite is taken to Mexico City. There, for three or four generations, they do their best to maintain their distinct American identity, focusing on the American "civil religion," the distinctive political ideals and cultural features that mark them out as Americans, and come up with a new way of interpreting their history that allows America to be a perennial idea, something not directly physically tied to the territory of the United States, which no longer exists. They compose a body of historical works based on Washington Irving's rather fabulistic approach to early American history, the half-remembered popular versions of the stories of Columbus and the Pilgrims, the First Thanksgiving, even the Revolutionary War. They don't have access to the original texts anymore--let's say this is all taking place in a post-Collapse North America where long-range travel and communication is difficult and a lot of history has been lost--but they do their best. They append to these books, or include in their text, of history a copy of the Constitution, big chunks of the United States Code, and Robert's Rules of Order.

Subsequently, the Empire of Gran Columbia invades, conquers southern and central Mexico, and its Emperor lets the captive Americans go home. They return north, mostly to California, find that the version of American history and civics that is remembered there isn't the same as the version they have (not that the Californian one is correct--the Mexican Empire has suppressed English-language education and high culture in its Aztlani provinces), and set about reforming and reorganizing the Western States (as they're now called) to be more in line with the forms they brought back from the exile. In the meantime, other bits of important literature start being kept in libraries next to copies of the received histories: some bits of early American literature, like Hawthorne, the Song of Hiawatha, some highly abridged Herman Melville, Thomas Paine--heck, even some John Locke, and quotes or fragments from Shakespeare. Some traditionalists now argue the capital of the United States has always been located in San Francisco, and that Washington, D.C. only because the capital later, under the influence of Eastern heretics.

In the following centuries, the Western States retain their independence for a time, but eventually become a secondary battleground for a lot of other empires--the Mexicans, the Canadians, the Pan-Pacific Federation, and so forth. American culture remains distinctive, insulted in part by its unique traditions, though now everybody speaks Future Spanish, and only learns English to read the old texts. In this period additional material, including later compositions, continues to accrete, forming a distinct body of sacred American scripture, although it does not exist in a single canonical form. Attempts to reconcile distinct sources, like more literal and historically-grounded accounts versus the simplified narratives of figures like Irving, produce hybrid texts that sometimes are full of internal conflicts.

Oh, and through all this, some institutions of American government like the Supreme Court still function, although their rulings only apply to Americans, and there isn't much in the way of a federal bureaucracy.

Finally the Great and Sublime Brazilian Potentate conquers most of the Americas, sets up an American client state that roughly coincides with the heartland of the old Western States (California, Oregon, most of Washington and Nevada), and allows the Americans to elect their own President (subject, of course, to Brazilian approval). During this period, an apocalyptic street preacher from Los Angeles claims to have inherited the authority and power of George Washington, and is executed by the Brazilians; his later followers point to the prophecies of Emperor Norton, and out-of-context bits of a Quebecois translation of Moby-Dick and some Mark Twain stories to say no, really, he was George Washington. Inexplicably, a version of this religion becomes the dominant faith of the Brazilian Empire before it collapses. But long before then the American state in California fails, crushed when it tries to revolt against Brazilian rule; the remnant Easterners likewise dwindle down to only a few hundred souls living in a village in Alexandria, Virginia. Centuries from now, as the descendants of the descendants of the Brazilians colonize Mars, they will point to the sacred Americanist scriptures, the Neo-Americanist narratives of their prophet's life, and the letters written by the early leaders of Neo-Americanism, and say, "all of this was written by the spirit of George Washington, and is free from contradictions." Meanwhile the remnant Americanists, who have been writing about Americanism and how it applies to their everyday lives in the centuries since, and whose commentary has formed around the copies of the last editions of the U.S. Supreme Court Reporter (SCOTUS managed to outlast the final American state by a hundred years or so) plus the thoughts of the remaining Americanist community in Mexico, continue to regard their traditions as the unbroken and unaltered practice of American culture, politics, and ideals as they existed since the Revolutionary War.

This is, as far as I can tell, approximately how the Bible was composed.

[jstor]

any recommendations/personal favourites from the image collections to print out and make a wall collage out of? (extra love if it’s not artstor, my uni doesnt have a subscription to that)

I love this question! It very much depends on your personal vibe, but here's a list of every collection designated as open to get you started:

Folger Shakespeare Library

Images from the History of Medicine

Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Science Museum Group

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Statens Museum for Kunst-National Gallery of Denmark

The Cleveland Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wellcome Collection

[soberscientistlife]

James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. Over his career, he has received three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985. He was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009 and the Honorary Academy Award in 2011. Suffering from a stutter in childhood, Jones has said that poetry and acting helped him overcome the disability. A pre-med major in college, he served in the United States Army during the Korean War before pursuing a career in acting. Since his Broadway debut in 1957, he has performed in several Shakespeare plays including Othello, Hamlet, Coriolanus, and King Lear. Jones worked steadily in theater winning his first Tony Award in 1968 for his role in The Great White Hope, which he reprised in the 1970 film adaptation earning him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. Jones won his second Tony Award in 1987 for his role in August Wilson's Fences. He was further Tony nominated for his roles in On Golden Pond (2005), and The Best Man (2012). Other Broadway performances include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008), Driving Miss Daisy (2010–2011), You Can't Take It with You (2014), and The Gin Game (2015–2016). He received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017. Jones made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964). He received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Claudine (1974). Jones gained international fame for his voice role as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, beginning with the original 1977 film. Jones' other notable roles include in Conan the Barbarian (1982), Matewan (1987), Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Sandlot (1993), and The Lion King (1994). Jones has reprised his roles in Star Wars media, The Lion King (2019), and Coming 2 America (2021).

Source: African Archives

[broadwaydivastournament]

Broadway Divas Tournament: Round 2A

Christine Baranski (1952) "CHRISTINE BARANSKI (Charlotte) last appeared in the Playwrights Horizon’s workshop production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George. Just prior to that she appeared in the New York Shakespeare Festiva’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for which she received an Obie Award. She also recently completed filming Louis Malle’s new movie Crackers in which she co-stars with Donald Sutherland. Other New York credits include Sally and Marsha with Bernadette Peters at the Manhattan Theatre Club; The Undefeated Rhumba Champ at the Ensemble Studio Theatre and Coming Attractions at Playwrights Horizons. Her films include Playing for Time with Vanessa Redgrave, Lovesick, and Soup for One. She has worked at Center Stage in Baltimore, Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and the McCarter Theatre in Princeton as well as the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. Christine is a graduate of the Julliard School and is the happy bride of actor Matthew Cowles.” – Playbill bio from The Real Thing, May 1984

Judy Kuhn (1958) “JUDY KUHN (Alice/Succuba/Citizen/Miss Isabel Yearsley) is making her Broadway debut in Drood and was a member of the original company in Central Park last summer. Off-Broadway she received critical praise for her performance in the Jewish Repertory Theatre’s production of Pearls. Before that she was seen with Yul Brynner’s farewell tour of The King and I. Roles in stock productions include Maria in West Side Story, Julie in Carousel, Rosamund in The Robber Bridegroom. Judy is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and studies acting with John Stix.” – Playbill bio from The Mystery of Edwin Drood, April 1986.

NEW PROPAGANDA AND MEDIA UNDER CUT: ALL POLLS HERE

"With the devastating elimination of Patti LuPone, Christine Baranski may well be our reigning *Diva* in the most literal sense of the word. Are you truly worthy of the title if you don't inspire drag egos? Go on, close your eyes right now and picture a living Broadway Diva. Baranski is going to be on that list every time."

"Four-time Tony loser Judy Kuhn is a sad sentence to type. But hey, at least she's in good company with Elaine Stritch. Judy doesn't need a fancy trophy to prove how talented she is. She's booked and busy, and aren't we glad for it?"

[visit-new-york]

The Mall

The Mall in Central Park is a famous and iconic feature of this renowned urban park located in the heart of Manhattan, New York City. It is a tree-lined promenade, often described as a "grand boulevard," that stretches for approximately 40 feet wide and 0.25 miles long. The Mall runs through the center of Central Park, offering a picturesque and serene setting for visitors. Here are some key details about The Mall:

Design and Landscape: The Mall was designed in the 1850s by the park's creators, landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. It was intended to provide a peaceful and contemplative walkway that contrasts with the surrounding bustling city streets. The design includes a double row of American elm trees that create a leafy canopy overhead.

Scenic Beauty: The most striking feature of The Mall is its canopy of American elm trees, which arch over the pathway, creating a natural tunnel. The lush green canopy provides shade during the summer months and a stunning display of autumn foliage in the fall.

Historical Significance: The Mall is one of the original features of Central Park, dating back to the park's inception in the 19th century. Its historical significance lies in its role as a tranquil retreat within the bustling city, fulfilling the vision of Olmsted and Vaux.

Literary and Cultural Associations: The Mall has been featured in numerous films, television shows, and works of literature, adding to its cultural significance. It often serves as a backdrop for romantic scenes, leisurely strolls, and outdoor performances.

Statues and Sculptures: At the southern end of The Mall stands a statue of Christopher Columbus, unveiled in 1892. The Mall also includes statues of famous literary figures, such as William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott, as well as plaques featuring quotes from their works.

Activities and Events: Throughout the year, The Mall hosts a variety of events and activities. These can include art installations, concerts, outdoor performances, and cultural festivals. The pathway is often filled with musicians, artists, and street performers showcasing their talents.

Wedding Photography: Due to its romantic atmosphere and picturesque setting, The Mall is a popular location for wedding and engagement photography. Many couples choose to capture their special moments amid the elegant backdrop of the tree-lined promenade.

Four Seasons: The Mall offers a different experience in each season. In the spring, the elm trees sprout new leaves, creating a lush green canopy. In the fall, the changing leaves create a breathtaking display of autumn colors. During the winter, The Mall can be particularly enchanting when covered in snow.

Access and Location: The Mall is easily accessible by foot from various points within Central Park, making it a central and popular destination for park visitors. It is located near other notable landmarks such as Bethesda Terrace, the Central Park Zoo, and the Central Park Conservatory Garden.

Artistic Inspiration: The Mall has been a source of inspiration for countless artists, photographers, and writers. The atmospheric beauty of the tree-lined pathway and the changing seasons make it a captivating subject for creative expression.

Fitness and Recreation: While The Mall is primarily known for its leisurely strolls and cultural activities, it also provides an excellent space for various recreational activities, including jogging, yoga, and tai chi. The wide pathway and serene surroundings make it an ideal place for outdoor exercise.

Wedding Ceremonies: Beyond photography, The Mall is a popular choice for outdoor wedding ceremonies due to its romantic ambiance and picturesque backdrop. Couples often choose to exchange vows beneath the elegant canopy of elm trees.

Cross-Country Skiing: During the winter months when Central Park is covered in snow, The Mall transforms into a cross-country skiing destination. It offers a serene and snow-covered landscape for winter sports enthusiasts.

Quiet Reflection: Amidst the activities and events, The Mall provides moments of quiet reflection. Many visitors come here to find solitude, read a book, or simply enjoy a peaceful pause from the demands of city life.

Birdwatching: Central Park is a haven for birdwatchers, and The Mall is no exception. The combination of trees and open space attracts a variety of bird species, making it an excellent spot for birdwatching.

Educational Opportunities: The Mall's natural setting and historical significance provide opportunities for educational programs and guided tours. Visitors can learn about the park's history, ecology, and the significance of its design.

Horse-Drawn Carriages: Visitors can often spot horse-drawn carriages offering rides along The Mall and other parts of Central Park. It's a charming and nostalgic way to explore the park while taking in the scenic beauty.

Public Art Installations: Central Park frequently hosts temporary art installations, and The Mall is no exception. These installations can include sculptures, art exhibitions, and interactive displays, adding an artistic dimension to the natural surroundings.

Access: The Mall is wheelchair and stroller accessible, ensuring that visitors of all mobility levels can enjoy this iconic feature of Central Park.

In summary, The Mall in Central Park is a multifaceted destination that caters to a wide range of interests and experiences. Its natural beauty, cultural significance, and seasonal transformations make it a beloved and enduring part of Central Park's charm, providing both New Yorkers and visitors with a tranquil and enchanting urban escape.

[forkaround]

This post is an extension to this post about what can be classified as a BL. I'd rec you read that post first.

I woke up in the morning with this in my notifs and I just....

Anyway, let's break it down:

Does a QL simple mean that the main characters are queer and you go in knowing that?

First of, in my post I say BL is where you know "Boys are kissing boys and girls are kissing girls." If there is no romance (thus the reference to kissing), the show becomes irrelevant to the conversation.

But to answer: What's wrong with that?

That makes literally *anything* centering queer people and queer love a QL

Great! It's QL.

I've seen this pointed out multiple times have these people wondered why they don't want to call something they think is good a QL? What is wrong with the title of QL?

and that imo is somewhat belittling of queer people's existence as in their presence in society as a a given is inherently 'genre'

Yeah, and Pride and Prejudice is a 'straight genre'

If that doesn't make sense, well, that sentence didn't make sense to me. Does making crime shows make the lives of cops and criminals in to a genre??? It's such an absurd statement. Or maybe I'm just sleepy....

this is very different from thinking QL is 'bad'--you'd never call anything with an expected straight romance in it 'romance' by default

Yeah! That's how it works! Romance is romance. Romance is a genre. It's literally the biggest genre there is. There is more romance written, published, made into animation or live action than literally any other genre by a huge margin.

Romance can and is often combined with other genres. Doesn't change that it is a romance.

you'd call it whatever genre it is; when you meet a series of fitting tropes you'd call it a rom-com

What does rom stand for again?

Romance is often used with other genres, from action to horror to contemporary to fantasy to sci-fi.

This I think primarily comes from people not knowing how genres work. It's not a Boolean (as one would say in computer science). It's not a True/False thing where if it's action it can't be romance. If it's romance it can't be political.

As they say: It contains multitides.

shouldn't queer stories be afforded the same discretion?

Moonlight Chicken, Kinnporsche, Old Fashion Cupcake, Bad Buddy, Love in the Air, Not Me, 180 Degrees, GAP the series, HIStory 3: Trapped, About Youth, Mood Indigo, Cherry Magic, I could go on. You don't have to go anywhere else for it. BL already has it all.

So I'll ask again: Why do you feel that 'BL' is a bad word?

Other people have wrote about this with better sources and much deeper understanding so I'll try my best to convey it here:

As I understand the situation, something got lost in translation when yaoi travelled from Japan to the US and people started understanding yaoi to be a 'dirty' genre, that did not depict honest queerness despite it being made up of majorly queer people. It became the genre that was 'for straight women by straight women'. If you look at US the same phenomenon can be observed when people talk, or at least talked, about slash fiction. Mix in some cultural context and yaoi goes from a fun escapist genre to the bane of queer existence genre. Fiction is enjoyed differently in different parts of the world. Nothing wrong with that. Hell, nothing unique or special with that statement either. It's a fact of life. If Shakespeare can't be universal, as many like to claim, we should not expect the same of anything else.

And let's never forget how westerners think their version of queerness is the only real version. I've had personal experience with this and I can say: People need to open their minds and understand that not everything is from their perspective. When I encounter any American thing in a show or book, I simply slide past it because I'm not American. I've never been to America. It doesn't change the story itself, so why bother, what would be the point. If people applied that approach instead of analyzing every detail and expecting it to fit your world view then we would all be happier.

(It turned sappy at the end there. I'm sleepy.)

[vintagetvstars]

Anna May Wong Vs. Peggy Ashcroft

Propaganda

Anna May Wong - (The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong) - The groundbreaking Chinese-American star became the first Asian-American to star in a TV show with this series on the DuMont Network. Like most DuMont shows, no episodes survive, but we know from her other roles that Anna May Wong was indeed very hot!

Peggy Ashcroft - (The Jewel in the Crown, She's Been Away, The Wars of the Roses) - Peggy Ashcroft's brilliance needs no introduction. One the finest stage actresses to ever grace the British stage, Dame Peggy Ashcroft made several notable TV appearances, particularly in the mid and later eras of her career. In the TV adaptation of The Cherry Orchard (1962) she played Madame Ranevskaya, and while her performance was brilliant she cut an elegant, tragic, beautiful and somewhat foolishly carefree figure who instantly caught your eye. In the TV series adaptation of The Wars of the Roses (1965), she played Margaret of Anjou, going from naive youth to fierce warrior queen and bitter old age in a matter of episodes. It was a masterclass in Shakespeare on TV by one of the best Shakespearean actresses ever, a magnetic performance and she herself looked absolutely stunning. In the TV film "Caught on a Train" she played an elderly Austrian aristocrat, self centered, kind-in-a-weird-way, imperious and elegant. In the TV film "Cream in My Coffee" she was a sad married woman hoping that a holiday would build bridges in her marriage that broke down before it even began. The TV series The Jewel in the Crown was one of her best TV appearances ever where she played a slightly dotty retired missionary and her ultimate tragic end. Her swan song on TV was her final TV appearance in the the TV film She's Been Away where she played an old woman released from a mental asylum where she was locked in since her youth. Peggy Ashcroft looked stunning on TV and translated her wealth of stage experience into her television performances, winning several BAFTA awards for Best Actress, being nominated for several more BAFTA's for Best Actress and was nominated for two Emmy's (one outstanding lead actress and another outstanding supporting actress) and a Golden Globe (also for outstanding lead actress) as well.

Master Poll List of the Hot Vintage TV Ladies Bracket

Additional propaganda below the cut

Anna May Wong:

Peggy Ashcroft:

[pipzeroes]

ALL YOUR BREATH ARE BELONG TO US.

This whole thing is based on the All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme. The warning at the beginning is because a.) the music is a subgenre of hardcore techno known as gabber and kind of loud, in case you are unfamiliar with this kind of EDM and/or the song in the original video, and, b.) concerns such as photosensitive epilepsy (at one point, 16 images appear in just under four seconds).

More background beneath cut.

(Writeup also posted on dreamwidth and post about video also shared on zeroes; video on Vimeo and on YouTube as well.)

A rundown on the content of the vid:

The images of the wolf are from the seventh episode of the fourth episode of The Simpsons, Marge Gets a Job; it is a wolf startled by LOUD NOISES. Then it's Cats from Zero Wing (the video game central to the All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme) with a SARS-CoV-2 virion for a face. And the poster for the 2017 film The Shape of Water (see also on zeroes). Then it's the webcomic Dinosaur Comics! (Thanks, Ryan!) Next a reference to the slipcase for White Town (Jyoti Mishra)'s Your Woman. (Just added a mask to the picture of the cat with the thumbs up; I am afraid I am unaware of the origin of the original cat meme...) Then it's the first page of All's Well, that Ends Well from the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, published in 1623. And then the scene from the 2022 film Glass Onion when Lionel Toussaint holds up a faxed message from Miles Bron: "Uber for Biospheres". Next, a reference blog/webcomic Hyperbole and a Half and a panel for one comic where the author portrays an initial manic enthusiasm when cleaning up: "CLEAN ALL THE THINGS".

The original Doge photo. (See also: DOGE on tumblr, DOGE on zeroes.)

And The Quest of the Virosols!!! I really appreciate these graphics. (Please note, I am not affiliated with the Aerosol Science Research Center, I am publicly disseminating useful information for educational purposes; All Your Breath Are Belong To Us is a PSA <3)

The record is based on Otis Rush's "All Your Love" and "COVID" was "Cobra" (see also: some images used to construct).

The Sudden Clarity Clarence meme!

An animation of a diaphragm exhaling and inhaling (with the little purple virosols added!)

And then False Knees Comic 296! (Thanks, Joshua!) (I am once again reminding you that I am not affiliated with the Aerosol Science Research Center.)

And the next six images are the only memes I've not made in this vid (and the person who added the masks to pictures of these images has approved the use of them in this video; thank you!)

Fruit by Alphonse Mucha (Source.)

Le Désespéré by Gustave Courbet (Source.)

Autoportrait by Tamara de Lempicka (Source.)

Trop tôt by James Tissot (Source.)

Autorretrato con Collar de Espinas by Frida Kahlo (Source.)

A photo of the models for Grant Wood's American Gothic standing beside the painting itself. (Source.)

Then the poster for the 1994 film The Mask. (See also on zeroes.) Next a scene from Datalore, the thirteenth episode of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

And a reference to a version of the album cover for Vangelis' 1985 album Mask. (See also: Vangelis' Mask (1985) is not to be confused with Vangelis' mask (Ninjago), which is a face cover worn by King Vangelis of the Kingdom of Shintaro (for like, a moment [while trying to find info about the album cover], I thought the Greek composer and arranger of electronic, progressive, ambient, and classical orchestral music had an alter ego known as the Skull Sorcerer, but apparently not). [mirror on zeroes])

Aaaaand the Original Goncharov shoe!!! (See also.) Then the 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind [風の谷のナウシカ "kaze no tani no naushika"]; the character Nausicaä wears this mask in the original film. Next, an image of a number of risks, originally published by the CDC.

Steamed Hams. (See also: ...and you call for "cleaned hands" despite the fact COVID is obviously airborne... [mirror on zeroes])

(I am once again reminding you that I am not affiliated with the Aerosol Science Research Center.)

GEORDI LA FORGE! (See also: Hand washing as but one component of a "Swiss cheese model" composed of preventative measures including personal actions [such as wearing a well-fitting mask, physical distancing, avoiding crowds, and "staying home when sick"], as well as public measures [such as standards for ventilation and air filtration of indoor spaces, effective messaging on disease prevention, and reliable support for those needing to "stay home sick"], mitigations which, when used in combination, significantly reduce the spread of airborne disease.)

WEDNESDAY FROG MEME! (See also: It is Airborne, my dudes. [mirror on zeroes])

S'CHN T'GAI SPOCK! (See also: logic clearly dictates that SARS-CoV-2 spreads via infected breath [and can remain suspended in the air, travelling inside tiny specs of moisture, floating like smoke or mist]; therefore, COVID is airborne; mask up, live long, and prosper [mirror on zeroes])

The woman yelling at a cat meme.

The Is This a Pigeon? meme. (See also: "Droplets" are basically spittle, falling to the ground not far from the source [the infected person's mouth]. "Aerosols" are pretty much breath, tiny particles of infectious virus-containing-moisture that can remain suspended in the air [able to float distances greater than a metre]. [mirror on zeroes])

Darmok and Jalad at 2 metres! (See also: 2 metres physical distance helps you to avoid droplets [infected spittle] but "COVID is airborne" and floats like cigarette smoke, so even 2 metres still means a risk of airborne transmission [from infected breath]. Like Tanagra, 2 metres from a potential source of infection is still a place of potential danger. [mirror on zeroes])

Napoleon Dynamite (the shirt with "COVID IS AIRBORNE" originally says "VOTE FOR PEDRO"). (See also: I spent last summer making Corsi-Rosenthal Box filters, like, fifty of 'em! The SARS-CoV-2 floating in the air kept trying to attack my cousins, what the heck would you do in a situation like that? [mirror on zeroes])

Pokemon! (See also: if COVID aerosols/breath builds up somewhere indoors that isn't well ventilated, and the air is not filtered well enough, you may get sick even after an infected person has left the room. [mirror on zeroes])

AVATAR. (And yes, the font used for "AIRBORNE" is Papyrus.) (I am once again asking you to remember that I am not affiliated with the Aerosol Science Research Center.)

GONCHAROV!!! GONCHAROV!!! (Thanks Beelz!) (See also: Written by Mattwo JWHJ 0715. [mirror on zeroes])

The Always has been meme. (See also: Aerosols/breath (tiny bits of infected moisture) can remain suspended in the air and are able to float distances greater than a metre. [mirror on zeroes])

(I am once again asking you to remember that I am not affiliated with the Aerosol Science Research Center.) Aside from the images which just are what the are (e.g. the CDC infographic, the ASRC graphics), and the six images related to paintings, all memes were put together by yours truly. <3 The song was, originally, "Invasion of the Gabber Robots" by the Laziest Men on Mars, which sampled music created by Tatsuya Uemura and Noriyuki Iwadare.

Re-writing of lyrics, and the audio and video editing, were also my doing; REAPER for the audio editing, GNU Image Manipulation Program for the meme making, Shotcut for the video editing.

🖖

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

you've talked about a lot of people your age are risk-averse homebodies; do you put that down to just helicopter parenting, or is everyone being broke also a factor?

Oh jeez is that post going around again.

Listen. Helicopter parenting is one of many factors. And I think that Helicopter parenting is only as common as it is because of Reagan era moral panics still having hold on society because of complex factors that have a lot to do with American exceptionalism and the cold war and American hyper individualism.

I don't think that being broke has much to do with it actually, I'm not saying it isn't part of it but it's kind of negligible in the specific problem of people refusing to touch grass. Like people are much poorer than their parents generally and it's a huge problem but it is possible and even easy to go out and hang out with people when you have no money. Literally go out and fuck around in the woods with your friends. Do it. It is easy and free and people have been doing it since the beginning of time.

No the issue is that the third space is being completely removed and part of that is manufacturing consent for it. For example community centers, if they haven't closed down altogether, have a lot fewer things for adults. You used to be able to go take a pottery class or some shit like that at a community center and it might cost you some money but those sorts of things were always intentionally affordable. Now everything is ages 5-12 if it exists at all. And as for spaces that aren't meant to be third spaces but which people use that way, loitering is being prosecuted way more now, especially in racially marginalized communities, but not just in marginalized communities. Like think about shopping malls for instance. In the 90s and 00s there used to be roving gangs of teenagers in those things now they're ghost towns. A lot of those stores will ask you to leave if you're not there to buy something. Those two things are directly connected. Bathrooms in coffee shops didn't used to be for customers only. When I was a kid I could walk into a coffee shop and sit down with a book and no one would tell me to buy something or leave as long as I was unobstructive, it's not like that anymore. Obviously COVID is a factor but that was happening before COVID.

Also people are wayyyy less religious than they used to be, which I think is good, but one side effect of it is that another third space disappeared. You used to go to church or temple or whatever once a week and Idk what non church places are like but usually you would sit for an hour and listen to some guy talk about God and you'd sing some songs and then you would go into the church basement and have coffee and food and talk to the other people who were there getting coffee and food. And the churches would have food drives and things of that nature on days other than Sunday. That stuff still happens if course but young people aren't there because we don't believe in that shit. Which yeah the church is a pretty bigoted institution and I think organized religion gives too much power to the leadership. If you connect god with some human guy that human guy can take advantage of your faith it happens all the time. But we have to replace that ritual of gathering somewhere and getting coffee and food with people once a week or we're gonna have a poorly socialized populace. And you can't really replace it with coffee shop because you have to buy your food there and you're not really encouraged to talk to other people you don't know that well the way you are at a church.

And yeah there's the financial aspect of it but it used to be easier to jump the fence and get into a concert, the bar didn't always have that cover charge, there used to be a public bathroom there, there used to be a public water fountain, there used to be a 30$ craft class, that used to be a public park and they'd do block parties and Shakespeare in the park there and now it's a parking lot, and so on and so forth.

Frankly one thing I find shocking is that even places that are expensive are getting less friendly to adults seeking activities. My town has 4 dance studios and not a single one of them offers beginner level dance classes for adults. And I'm not just talking about ballet either, they don't teach any classes to adults. I'm a drag queen that's a thing id be interested in paying for with my tip money so I can get more tips in the future. They don't have it.

Idk it just feels like "I'm broke :/" ok well being broke didn't used to mean that you had to stay in your apartment all day.

[lady-jane-asher]

Jane Asher and Gawn Grainger as Juliet Capulet and Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet” presentation while being on tour in the USA, 1967. Part 2. 🩶

Previously posted pictures with my old username, updating it with the new one.

Old Vic Brings First Spoken Drama to The Music Center. By Cecil Smith. Los Angeles times— March 5th, 1967.

It seems a curious bit of scheduling to have the Bristol Old Vic in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of The Music Center, opening a three-week season of Shakespeare Tuesday night.The company is doing the first spoken drama ever performed in the new complex and it arrives on the threshold, the very eve, of the twin openings of the new theaters designed primarily for drama next month. Not that the spoken word is a stranger to the Pavilion. Some of the more interesting musical plays produced there, notably "Fiddler on the Roof," have been as dependent on their dramatic as on their musical structure. And if the Pavilion is fundamentally a music hall, still the verbal music of Shakespeare can be as stirring and compelling as any instrumental or vocal music ever devised. No one plays this music better than a British ensemble and among the great companies of England the Bristol Old Vic is considered one of the best. No less an authority than Sir Tyrone Guthrie says it is among the world's finest acting companies and that its managing director, Val May, is an immensely vital force in the English-speaking theater.

Suited the Action

Sir Tyrone suited the action to the word by staging the production of "Measure for Measure" that opens the BOV season here. May directed the production of "Hamlet" that enters the repertory Thursday and the "Romeo and Juliet" that will open next week. The three plays will rotate through March 25. The Bristol Old Vic was initially formed in 1946 as an offshoot, a sort of farm club for London's justly celebrated Old Vic. When the latter was melded into the British National Theater three years ago, the BOV became an independent entity.

It is supported by an annual grant of 40,000 pounds from the Federal Arts Council, plus a grant from the city of Bristol and its thriving box offices in two theaters-the legendary Theater Royal and its new Little Theater. But even in its days as m the outpost of the London company, the Bristol Old Vic had an individuality and a spirit all its own. I remember when the parent organization was in the Philharmonic on one of its tours some years ago, I asked John Neville, who was playing Hamlet, what his plans were after the tour, and he said he was leaving the London company to return to Bristol. I asked him why. "It's more adventurous, more experimental, more daring and," he smiled, "more fun."

Although the BOV is only doing Shakespeare on this first American tour under the sponsorship of S. Hurok, the Bard is not its primary product in England. The company is known as an innovator, launching new plays and new playwrights, trying new areas of stagecraft, new methods and new approaches. It was in the vanguard of the new wave of British drama that spawned Pinter, Shaffer, Osborne, Arden, Wesker, and others. It was the first company to produce an English version of Erwin Piscator's "War and Peace" (later staged with immense success in this country by the APA) and it first provided a stage for such plays as "A Severed Head" and "The Killing of Sister George." ⠀⠀⠀

The company has a vigorous acting school and training program that has a spawned a legendary crop of stars, among them Rosemary Harris, Peter O'Toole, Dorothy Tutin and Paul Rogers. m Although the concentration is on youth, many an established star has played at Bristol, including Wendy Hiller, Moira Shearer, Pamela Brown and Neville.

The Hamlet of the current company is one of England's brightest young stars, Richard Pasco. He's little known in this country, though he was in the movie "Room at the Top" and played Broadway with Laurence Olivier in

"The Entertainer." Pasco, who also plays the key role of Angelo in "Measure for Measure," told a Times correspondent in Bristol recently that he sees Hamlet as "a fish out of water." "He's plunked right in the middle of all this political intrigue and violence and that's what he hates most— violence," Pasco said.

He approves director May's decision to set the play in the Napoleonic era-"lots of conspiracy and blood around in those days." Pasco said his first West End job as an actor was in "Hamlet"-playing Fortinbras to the prince of Paul Scofield. He feels Scofield saw the character as "an angry young man." "Yet," said Pasco, "he's really pretty cool. He likes to think about things-in a world that likes to act. Not that he's unable to take care of himself—he learned that as a soldier. But he's a scholar who knows that violence only leads to more violence. It's not in his nature to do the things that have to be done.

That's the terrible part." Pasco was the original angry young man—he played Jimmy Porter in the English Stage Company's famous production of "Look Back in Anger" in 1956, which launched the new wave of British drama. Most of his career has been in classical repertory though he's also starred in British television and movies. He joined the Bristol Old Vic in 1964 for its first tour of Europe, which extended as far as Israel.

Famous member⠀⠀⠀

Actually, the most famous member of the current troupe is its Juliet, 20-year old Jane Asher-particularly with the miniskirt set. The fame that preceded her had nothing to do with her acting but her fan magazine reputation as the girl friend of Beatle Paul McCartney, which has brought out swarms of teenagers on the cross-country tour. In proper repertory fashion, she balances Juliet with the tiny role of Julietta in "Measure for Measure." There are other players quite celebrated in Britain among them, John Franklyn Robbins, Frank Barrie, Madge Ryan, Frank Middlemass, Gwan Granger, Barbara Leigh-Hunt. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

But as in the National Theater, the Comedie Francaise, the Moscow Art Theater, one goes to see an ensemble, not an individual. This is a new wrinkle in this country but with the success of such ensembles as the APA, ACT and others, it's gaining momentum. There's an immense sense of pride in the Bristol company and in its homebase theater, the 200-year-old Theater Royal in cred Eritain on a heater where Sarah Siddons played and Edmund Kean, William Charles Macready, Jenny Lind, Henry Irving and Ellen, Terry-the ghost of Mrs. Siddons is said to stalk its stage.

Some feel it prophetic that the Blitz, which levered much of Bristol, spared the theater. Val May accompanied his players to this country and stayed with them through their highly acclaimed New York openings, then returned to Bristol to prepare his spring season, which includes such varied offerings as "The Hostage," "The Taming of the Shrew," Galsworthy's "Strife" and Pinter's "The Homecoming."

Among three new plays to be produced is one by American author Robert Rich, "Message from the Grassroots," a play about Malcolm X with an all-white cast.

Dr. Guthrie met the troupe in Philadelphia to brush up his initial staging of "Measure for Measure," that blackest of black comedies, which was much condemned in Victorian England for its outspoken attitudes on sex and morals and its cynicism. Dr. Guthrie told me later he was quite pleased with the production and it was greeted in Philadelphia, Boston and New York with warmth and a goodly share of critical hosannas.

The play is out of Shakespeare's middle period when he was at the height of his powers, written at about the time he wrote "Othello," after "Hamlet" and prior to "Lear." Although labeled a comedy, it is quite a serious work and tragedy is narrowly averted and then only through good fortune. It's easy to see how it shocked the Victorians, dealing with the stern enforcer of a Viennese law holding fornication illegal and punishable by death.

When a young man gets his girl with child, he is sentenced to die, and his sister, a novice in a nunnery, offers her own chastity in exchange for her brother's life. What particularly upset the Victorians was Shakespeare's straightforward appraisal of humanity, as when he has the wry Pompey ask the young governor if, to enforce the law, he plans "to geld and spay all the youth of the city?" Eras change. The candor that delights one age shocks another and can delight a third. But what endures is the essential truth in the poet in his evaluation of man for all his vice and folly.

When he has Angelo say: "They say best men are moulded out of faults, and, for the most part, become much the better for being a little bad," it's downright comforting.

[ladiesoftheages]

I hate when I'm trying to find good historical fiction centered around the wives and I have to go through all the Allison Weir novels to find decent stuff

On a semi-related note, do you have any recommendations?

Yeah, for some reason the Tudor period attracts a lot of trash (both fiction and, frankly, non-fiction). I honestly have no idea why this is. I don’t know maybe because I’m American so I didn’t learn about the Tudors in school growing up (in the World History class I was required to take in high school our textbook had a single paragraph that mentioned Henry VIII and the Reformation and then Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada: even when we studied Shakespeare we only read his plays as works of literature and learned nothing whatsoever about the time period he lived—for the longest time I actually didn’t know that Shakespeare lived in the Tudor period)…so maybe it has something to do with how the Tudors is taught in British schools (from what I’ve heard, apparently history in British schools is basically just Romans, Tudors, Nazis)

If you’re looking at fiction about the wives, specifically…shockingly there actually isn’t that much.

Jean Plaidy is always a good way to go. All of her novels were published in the 40s and 50s and they can be a bit overly romantic at times but they’re pre-when Tudor fiction started to get really trashy. The upcoming film Firebrand is based on a novel called Queen’s Gambit. I haven’t actually read the novel, but it’s one of the few that focuses on Kathryn Parr.

There are others not directly about the wives but that feature them like Adrienne Dillard’s The Raven’s Widow which is about Jane Boleyn post-May 1536.

Dead Queen’s Club is underrated.

Here are some others that are on my list (but I haven’t actually read them yet so can’t attest to their quality):

Anne & Henry by Dawn Ius

Anne Boleyn by Evelyn Anthony

The Kiss of the Concubine by Judith Arnopp

[thealogie]

are you familiar with the production of hamlet at the american shakespeare center starring meg rodgers as hamlet?

I looooved Fat Ham. Highly recommend it to folks if it comes on tour and/or they start screening it. I haven’t seen the Meg Rodgers hamlet but hopefully they recorded it fingers crossed