To Kill a Twelfth Night

The prom wasn’t as bad as Haley suggested.

For those of you who live in Florida, I’d like to let you know that your tax dollars financed my trip to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. The English department of Gulf Breeze High met in Montgomery at the Residence Inn and enjoyed two days of excellent food and performances. We saw a stage version of To Kill a Mockingbird on the mainstage and Twelfth Night in a smaller theatre called the Octogon.

I didn’t realize that ASF is the largest Shakespeare Festival in the world. The facilities are magnificient, and the whole thing is nestled in some of the most beautiful acreage Alabama has to offer.

To Kill a Mockingbird was a solid performance, with the child actors (except Dill) really showcasing talents beyond their years. The stage itself was adorned in a well-done, minimalist style, with the Radley tree acting as the focal point. I felt that the decision to perform the play in a representational style was a wise one; the set demands for realism would be ridiculous. The real weakness of the production, though, was in the decisions made by the man who played Atticus. According to thie actor, the character of Atticus was a jovial, almost Barney Fife-like man, who, although he was very wise, was not really bothered by the conflict in Maycomb county. Overall, though, the production was slick and magical, and it really communicated the childish perspectives of Jem and Scout.

Twelfth Night was a gem of a performance. The Octogon is a theatre-in-the-round, and the blocking was masterful and subtle. The actor who played Sir Toby was very, very solid, and I especially enjoyed the jester, who interacted with the audience and sang several exquisite solos with his minstrel band. Viola’s character was beautifully and hilariously played. I have to say that before this production, I had never read Twelfth Night, and I didn’t feel lost in the language (as sometimes happens during the first time seeing or reading a Shakespearean play).

Later this season, the Festival will be performing the musical Man of La Mancha, as well as The Trojan Women by Sophocles (or Euripidies, can’t remember which). I plan to attend. *sigh* The biggest Shakespeare festival in the world, in Alabama?! Oh, well, it’s kind of like the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame being in Ohio. Every state’s got to have something, I guess.

“Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins

You need to buy this man’s books. He is the current American poet laureate. Here’s a clever example of his poetry. Click on the title so see what I mean

“Introduction to Poetry”

The Privileged Planet

You’ve got to see this site and the documentary. I am going to get the book. This is the cutting edge of Christian validation. Aslan is on the move!

privilegedplanet.com

Haley

My wife is definately a match for me that I never would have expected. I don’t remember meeting her; as with many of my friends, I just always knew she was around, and we kind of travelled in the same social circles in college. When things blossomed in our relationship, no one was more surprised than I was.

I think Haley and I keep each other vital through the sheer contrast of our character. I don’t think that we ahre one common interest. Her tastes in music, art, and even food are starkly different than mine. It seems that this contrast has made us vital for each other. She is constantly challenges my way of thinking.

To my knowledge, the typical marriage relationship is characterized by the man being a very concrete thinker and the wife is a typically abstract thinker. I have found in my marriage that this is reversed: I am typically not the practical thinker in our relationship, and I am so glad that God gave me an intellectual tether to keep me from flitting around in the clouds with no thought of reality. Although our differences produce frequent conflict, I realize that this conflict keeps us vital and alive.

My wife has to love living and laughing more than anyone else that I have ever met. She is a great balance for my self-indulgent, morose personality. I also think that her love of levity helps her put up with my insanely silly side–maybe some of you know what I am talking about, but for those that don’t, I have a very immature and juvenille sense of humor (not gross or anything like that, just silly). Thank God Haley is more bubbly than I am.

I really like my wife’s hair. I think that she has one of the greatest heads that I have ever seen.

I never thought that I could love someone like I love my wife. She so clearly teaches me how Jesus loves me. Thanks, Hal-o. I love ya.

A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.
by John Donne

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
“Now his breath goes,” and some say, “No.”

So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
‘Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers’ love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, ’cause it doth remove
The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix’d foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’ other do.

And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam,
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th’ other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.

Ring of Fire

Chris Daughtry ate my soul last night.

I don’t have much to tell…actually, I do, but I’ve decided to remain mysterious about the goings-on in Killianland, so I’ll just ask a few unrelated questions to try to get some arguments going.

1.Is beauty objective or subjective?
2.Do you believe in the Rapture?
3.Were the founding fathers of the United States any fun to be around?
4.Who is the greatest modern poet?
5.Would you purchase seamless clothing?
6.Do you have a sit-down dinner at home?
7.Is there something about mushrooms that frightens you?
8.Is the Bible literature?

Have some fun.