Happy Birthday, Shakespeare, wherever you are!

Shakespeare’s birthday!  (more or less; something about the day he was baptized and plus or minus a couple of days).

Roger Ebert has a nice tribute to Shakespeare on his blog, including embedding/linking to a YouTube video of the Beatles doing a Shakespeare skit. Oh those Brits.

I have to see the Shakespeare exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum before it closes on 5/1/11.

Umm… and there are probably many other things floating in the Internet and in NYC and all over the world about Shakespeare, in time for his birthday (like, say, Stratford in England).  Check them out!

(cross-posted to sswsliteratureinmotion)

The President’s Mother

I read the excerpt of Janny Scott’s book on President Obama’s mom in the NY Times Magazine preview; it’s a very illuminating article. The book will likely be fascinating.

I’ve liked Scott’s previous reporting on the subject, so I’m looking forward to one day reading it in book form. I would like it if Obama would one day write about his mom, as fascinating his book on his dad has been.  Of course, I’ve said this repeatedly… (see here, way back in 2008).

Plus, great post from Slate about the above article, concerning how interesting it is that examining the president’s mother brings some insight about his psyche and approach to matters.

If you’re curious about my previous thoughts about Obama’s own books, check out the following links to the triscribe blog: I had read “Dreams of My Father” way back in 2005(!) and had enjoyed it as very good writing (and very interesting for how it was written long before he was US Senator and President); and I remember looking forward to reading “Audacity of Hope” back in 2006 (but I don’t remember if I did get around to reading it).

(cross-posted to sswsliteratureinmotion).

More Weekend

Other items:

The latest episode of “Fringe” – that was nuts. Basically, Walter, Peter, and a certain William Bell make a trip into Olivia’s brain – and with more than a touch of “Inception,” evidently, Olivia’s brain ain’t a pretty place.

Oh, and Walter, Peter, and Bell as cartoon animated versions of themselves was funny, in a logical kind of way (and, really, can Leonard Nimoy ever not emote as a Spock-like person?).

One of the priceless moments was Broyles in an acid-tripping state. As Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly notes in his recap of the episode:

Comic relief was provided by Broyles, who, back in Walter’s lab with Astrid, accidentally consumed some LSD and spent the episode slack-jawed and giddy, tripping on the spirals in a licorice stick. Even here, however, there was a moment of grave seriousness. “I saw death,” Broyles told Astrid, “and it was me.” That is, Broyles must have seen a vision of his alt-universe, dead self.

The actor playing Broyles, Lance Reddick, played haunted and funny brilliantly all at once. As normal Broyles, he really doesn’t smile enough and he doesn’t get to be in the mix that much with the Fringe team (as the stern leader, he can’t go on the LSD or the inter-dimensional traveling as often), but his moments brought a different perspective (and, weirdly enough, Astrid being the sane one was pretty poignant too).

Got to catch up on “Community.” A separate post will probably be necessary.

Oh, and who knew that Mary Wittenberg, head of the New York Road Runners, was a lawyer? Interesting profile of her on NY1.