#william shakespear

[stingrayextraordinaire]

Another year, another group of my delightful ninth graders trying to spell the word "tragedy" for their Romeo and Juliet assignment.

Last year's collection

[rolandrockover]

Something for the Innocent This Way Comes

Fancy a high-concentrated load of never-ending nightmares with a nasty hint of end-time feeling, naturally chased through an amplifier with a generously long drop of desolation, as a double punch in the pit of the stomach, so to speak? And all for the unbeatable price of one?

If this is indeed the case, you can count yourself lucky, because with that you could be at the right address with me.

For today we would like to devote ourselves to variations on ominous themes, in which neither witches nor fairgrounds or even 80's Mel Gibson movies are to play a weighty role, but much more likely two songs from the pen of Mr. Simmons himself from Kiss' unmasked era, which are best suited to hold their own with his glorious demonic feats (1). One of those originates on Kiss' Lick it Up (1983), and the other is somewhat hard to miss on Doro Pesch's 1990 solo debut, an album that Gene also happened to produce.

Paradoxically, I came into first contact with Something Wicked This Way Comes (1990) a little earlier than with its partner in crime, Not for the Innocent (1983). I still remember how in 1992 my older brother drew my attention to Gene's participation on an Doro album, which he had bought shortly before, and which I had completely missed at the time. Do I need to mention that this CD came into my possession very soon after? Anyway, the song that stood out the most to me, and certainly the one I liked the most, was Something Wicked This Way Comes.

1993 was the year I heard Lick It Up in full-length for the first time. Outside, winter was snowing in all its harmony, and inside my craving Kiss heart warmed itself with joy at the heat that Kiss' apocalyptic Heavy Rock suggested to me. And now take a wild guess which song Not for the Innocent reminded me of the most right away? Jackpot!

I wouldn't even consider Something Wicked This Way Comes a rip-off or something similar of Not for the Innocent, but simply as a more elaborate version of its atmospheric foundation, thought two steps further - At least until it seems to slip out of Gene's hands in the second half, which is even more noticeable in the 1988 demo. But what I mean is, if Not for the Innocent conveys a straightforward rock it attitude within an ominous ambience, Something Wicked This Way Comes is the atmosphere itself. The materialized and heavy unconscious energetic longing for it, a veiled dreamwalking like vision that extends to a whole picture. And what a picture it is.

I, for one, am still just wondering what wicked something must have possessed Mr. Stanley to deny the first strong Gene Simmons image-song since Lick It Up access to the, to put it politely, not exactly strong Hot in the Shade (1989).

It's always the same, but I can't explain.

Side Note:

(1) One of them would have to be the co-work of a certain gentleman who was given a golden nose as his trademark during his not very long lasting "cooperation" with the band.

No highlighted links this time, but I offer Gene's demo as an encore:

Not for the Innocent (1983)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1990)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (Demo, 1988)

[claraoswalds]

Oh, is that who I am now? Well, it was never that far from the surface, mate.

[mysharona1987]

[insidecroydon]

Open air Shakespeare is coming to Crystal Palace Park in June

Another outdoor arts experience is coming to Crystal Palace Park this summer, when touring company Shakespeare in the Squares rolls out its stage and backdrop for their 2024 production of All’s Well That Ends Well. Shakespeare in the Squares – patron: national treasure Dame Judi Dench – is a not-for-profit touring theatre company that stages a Shakespearean play across London for one night in…

[britneyshakespeare]

I'm curious about people's levels of familiarity; I intend no judgment or elitism and it's absolutely fine not to be a completionist, btw. I didn't think I would've intended to have read them all at age 25; it just sort of happened that after I passed the halfway point in the middle of 2023, I came out of a reading slump and was motivated to finish. Fwiw I consider myself a hobbyist (I am not involved in academia or professional theater) but I realize that that label is usually attributed to people with less experience.

I also have always loved seeing other bloggers' Shakespeare polls where they put certain plays or characters up against each other, but I'm often left wondering if it's really a 'fair' fight all the time if you're putting up something like Hamlet or Twelfth Night against one of the more obscure works, like the Winter's Tale. It's not a grave affront to vote in those polls if you don't know every play, but I am curious about it.

Please reblog for exposure if you vote; I would appreciate it a lot. Also feel free to elaborate on your own Shakespeare journey in tags, comments, reblogs, because I love to hear about other people's personal relationships to literature.

[mrs-starkgaryen]

MORE PRECISE POLLS:

Comedies

Tragedies

Histories

Please say why you chose, I'm interested and please share for bigger sample

P.s: I chose to do this poll cuz after r&j, hamlet, macbeth and midsummer's night's dream, I didnt study any of the others.

I was curious to see which one I should read first (as I want to expand my reading and I'm getting shakespeares works for christmas which I wanted after I went to see Tom Holland's r&j which blew me away and made appreciate shakey a lot more)

I'm sorry I failed you 'much ado about nothing' fans 😭

[offonaherosjourney]

Last night I dreamed that someone invented a new version of chess called Rookmeo and Juliet where two rooks are in love and trying to run away together. To achieve this they have to make it to the other side of the board, but these rooks don't have any visible signs to differenciate them from the rest, just a small mark in their base. Neither of the players knows what rook from the other side is in love with their rook, so they have to play a regular game of chess, fully aware that they might unknowingly kill the lover of their rook. If they kill it, the game keeps going, but their rook betrays them, switches sides and turns into a second queen for the other player. People wrote a ton of essays about the symbolism and metaphors of that version of chess and the creator didn't have the heart to tell them that he simply invented it because he thought Rookmeo was a great pun

[bodhrancomedy]

In King Lear (III:vii) there is a man who is such a minor character that Shakespeare has not given him even a name: he is merely 'First Servant'. All the characters around him – Regan, Cornwall, and Edmund – have fine, long term plans. They think they know how the story is going to end, and they are quite wrong. The servant has no such delusions. He has no notion how the play is going to go. But he understands the present scene. He sees an abomination (the blinding of old Gloucester) taking place. He will not stand it. His sword is out and pointed as his master’s breast in a moment: then Regan stabs him dead from behind. That is his whole part: eight lines all told. But if it were real life and not a play, that is the part it would be best to have acted.

- CS Lewis on King Lear.

[princeimrahils]

Man's life is cheap as beast's.

King Lear

[paholaisnainen]

do you see the vision?

[macrolit]

Giveaw@y: We’re giving away these 12 vintage paperback classics! Won’t these look lovely on your shelf? =) Enter to win these classics by: 1) following macrolit on Tumblr (yes, we will check. :P), and 2) reblogging this post. We will choose a random winner on 28 February 2025. Good luck!

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[nipuni]

Sweet prince Hamlet 👑🗡️���

[reallybadblackoutpoems]

hamlet (1623) - william shakespeare

"polonius, behind the arras: o i am slaying!"

[thecollectibles]

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Anastasia Shutova

[a-j-s-the-only]

“…make death proud to take us.”

-Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra