My first experience with Shakespeare was a good one. It was Hamlet. As a fifth grader much of it was over my head, but the ghost carried the day. Black and White, the film adaptation starring Lawrence Olivier sparked my interest. Recently I ran across video about Shakespeare, the first having to do with original pronunciation (OP) and the seconds having to do with Shakespeare in Asia. Having grown up in the West in an English-speaking country, Shakespeare is expected....
Life is a journey, not a destination. —Ralph Waldo Emerson A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. Joseph Campbell The journey of 1000 li begins beneath one’s feet. Lao Tsu And so, beneath my feet, the first words I write go down on the printed page:...
What if? What if I had super powers, could fly, and bullets would bounce off of me? What if I solved crimes that stumped the police? What if I had a lavish expense account, stayed at the top hotels, had a lot of hot sex, and a license to kill? What if I was on a spaceship full of people who traveled faster than light and every week I encountered a new civilization and boldly went where no one had gone before?...
In 1961, author Irving Stone wrote a fictionalized biography of Michelangelo called The Agony and the Ecstasy. He was making the circuit to promote his book. He appeared on an afternoon talk show where he described his research into the life of Michelangelo. His aim, he said, was to be as historically accurate as possible and he wanted the setting to be correct. He said: I want to know the color of the bedspread in Michelangelo’s bedroom....
A genre is an expectation. Certain things are supposed to happen. Take the romance genre–there’s suppose to be love, lust, and seduction, and a happy ending. Won’t work if at the end a bunch of vampires appear on the scene and kill the happy couple. “The end.” Some friends suggested I join them at a “healthy” restaurant in Santa Fe. I ordered a pizza. What arrived was a flattened bed (crushed) of lettuce covered with fresh tomatoes slices and a few flakes of shredded cheese....