Out, Out, Brief Prince! Or, It's Brillig Already?!

Friday snuck up on the Lemming, or is it sneaked up? Either way, this post needs to be out several hours before brillig, come slithy toves: or Birnam Wood to Dunsinane, for that matter.

Then there's Lady Macbeth, and her odd tastes in castle decor. And what she said about that spot: shocking!

One thing seems certain, the Lemming needs more sleep.

Pretty much unrelated posts:

• "Filberts, Fardels, and a Rambling Lemming"
  (July 19, 2013)
• "Jabberwocks: A Guest Post by Narcissus-X"
  (June 11, 2010)
• "Macbeth: Or, Don't Talk to Strangers?"
  (May 26, 2010)
• "Shakespeare, Butterflies, the Gilded Age and an Actress's Shoulder Blade"
  (September 17, 2009)
• "Shakespeare Portrait: This Could be the Real Deal"
  (March 9, 2009)

Oh, Boy! The Avengers are Back - Almost

"Disney And Marvel Team Up For New Cartoon Programming"
Mike Thompson, The Escapist (January 12, 2012)

"Starting this April, Marvel and Disney will provide you with an entire hour of cartoons jam-packed with comic-y goodness.

"Marvel Comics is joining forces with parent group The Walt Disney Company to create a new programming block of comic-based cartoons. The block will include the return of popular series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the launch of the delayed Ultimate Spider-Man...."

This is good news for the Lemming. Reruns of The Avengers have been playing on Disney Channel, late, on some weekend evenings. Looks like enough folks like Marvel's characters to warrant a comeback.

Well, probably good news. There's always the chance that the Ultimate Spider-Man will be a little too "ultimate:" with angst, acrobatics, or some other aspect of the show turned up so much we can't 'hear' the story. Or a director could forget that these are comic book heroes, and try to bring Shakespearean demeanor to Tony Stark and associates.

Or: maybe this will be another entertaining, relatively lightweight, bit of entertainment. The Lemming rather hopes so.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• "Comics Artist Will Eisner: Born 94 Years Ago Today"
  (March 6, 2011)
• "Dilbert, Lawyers, and the Lemming"
  (February 22, 2011)
• "The Horror! Monster Comics that Scared Congress"
  (October 31, 2010)
• "Soldier Zero, Starborn and The Traveler at Comic-Con"
  (July 23, 2010)
• "Protesting Against New Technology - the Early Days"
  (February 23, 2009)

Kill the Dog, Win a Medal: Or, Toto's Lucky Break

"Death By Newbery Medal"
tvtropes

"There is a Slice of Life story about childhood and coming of age. The main character has a best friend (an animal, another child, or a family member) who is a source of joy, wisdom, and understanding in their life. This friend is often frailer, more unworldly, or otherwise more 'special' than the main character. Bonus points if the character is cute or adorable.

"At the end of the story, this very special best friend is abruptly killed off, usually in a clear-cut case of Diabolus ex Machina. A favorite trick is to have the death happen entirely offscreen. The more horribly poignant the tragedy the better.

"All this is generally accompanied by lots of 'end of the innocence' angsting from the main character, along the lines of 'That was the day my childhood ended...' Really, it's just the author's way of having a child suddenly make the jump to adulthood via a single defining tragedy.

"The Newbery Medal is a prestigious award given to American novels written for children. To win one, it helps a lot to use a story like this.

"Bridge to Terabithia won a Newbery..."

The Lemming hastens to add that not every Newbery Medal book involves the littlest cancer patient dying of pneumonia because the main character left a window open. Or a loyal dog being killed by its owner.

Back to that page from tvtropes.org:

"...Remember, one reader's predictable, Narm-filled Award Bait can be another's Heartwarming-Crowned Childhood Classic that will always hold a special place on their bookshelf...."

Before wandering off on a suggestion for the next "Wizard of Oz" remake, a little background on Oz and all that:

• The book that started it all
  • "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"
    L. Frank Baum (1900) via Project Gutenberg
• Movies
  • "The Wizard of Oz" (1925)
    • IMDB
    • "Wikipedia
  • "The Wizard of Oz" (1939)
  • "Return to Oz" (1985)
  • "The Muppets' Wizard of Oz" (2005)
  (Mercifully far from a complete list)

"The Wizard of Oz" and an Appreciative Lemming

For the record, the Lemming likes L. Frank Baum's original "Wizard of Oz," and the sequels that the Lemming's read so far. The Lemming also likes the famous 1939 "Wizard of Oz" movie - and some of the subsequent ones.

But the Lemming realizes that none of the above are 'literary.' At least not by the standards that the Lemming had to learn, back in the 'good old days.' Good grief: Toto survives, Dorothy survives: what's the fun in that, for a 'serious thinker?'

It's not to late to turn this around, though. Maybe it's time for some frightfully earnest chap to re-write "The Wizard of Oz," transforming it from mere escapist literature (or a trenchant metaphorical discussion of American history, railroads, and all that: no, really, someone said that).

There Might be a Pulitzer in This

From Toto's point of view, it's a good thing that he and his owner, Dorothy, weren't in a 'deeply moving,' or 'meaningful' story. The Wicked Witch of the West's demise was a little edgier in L. Frank Baum's story, compared to the 1939 film adaptation - and the Lemming is wandering off-topic.

The basic "Oz" story doesn't need to change much - orphan Dorothy goes to Oz, meets weird people, and returns home. What could transport Baum's book to a higher (or lower?) plane is the details. Here's what the Lemming came up with, after a late-night cup of coffee:

• Dorothy
  • Dropped on Auntie Em's doorstep as a baby
  • Precociously perceptive
  • Frees Toto from an animal research facility
  • Pursued by
    • Police
    • Scientists
      • Evil, of course
    • Corporate ninjas
• Auntie Em
  • Operates an endangered wetlands preserve
    • With no visible means of support
  • Divorced
  • Wants to be a lawyer
    • Corporate
    • High-powered
    • Or a starship captain
• Toto
  • Cute
    • Really, really cute
  • Starts communicating with Dorothy
    • Canine mind-meld?
    • Writing
      • On the ground?
      • Using Dorothy's laptop?
• Suddenly, a tornado
  • Destroys Auntie Em's sustainable cabin
  • Uproots half the trees in the endangered wetland
  • Pulls Dorothy off the ground
    • Toto too

What is Toto trying to say? What happened to Aunti Em? And why do the corporate ninjas all look like agents from Men in Black?

Meanwhile, Dorothy and Toto are dropped into the middle of a planned community: apparently a collaborative effort by M. C. Escher and Salvador Dali. They meet the residents: most of whom wear green and violet bib overalls and carry banners with slogans like "PARCHEESI NOW!" and "LEGALIZE CONFETTI."

The Emerald City Goes Green

The residents tell Dorothy that her way home lies through the Emerald City, where the great wizard Oz will surely help her: while maintaining a small carbon footprint and using only sustainable resources.

While Dorothy and Toto travel to meet Oz, minions of the Wicked Witch of the West capture Toto. W. W. of the W. has a photo taken of herself petting the dog, and returns Toto to Dorothy: during a press conference.

Meanwhile, Dorothy has discovered that the great and mighty Oz is a mere imposter: with a disturbingly complete collection of Powerpuff Girls key rings.

Kill the Dog, Save the Planet

Then, just as the glitzy Good Witch of the North is about to send Dorothy and Toto home, Toto finally tells Dorothy what he was doing at that animal research facility.

Toto was one of twelve genetically altered dogs. The evil scientists had tried using monkeys, but the primates escaped. To Oz.

This dire dozen was programmed to spread chaos and destruction: and a plague that would convert all animals to greenhouse gasses, dooming life on Earth. Including pandas and fur seals.

Toto is powerless to overcome his programming: but there is one last hope. Oz may be a charlatan wizard, but he's also a top-notch biochemist: who just happens to have a fully-equipped lab right there in the Emerald City. Toto tells Dorothy that by vivisecting him, Oz may find a way to stop the remaining 11 dogs of doom before it's too late.

Dorothy of Kansas then helps Oz disassemble Toto. Oz stops the dogs, and Dorothy is returned to Kansas. In this version, it's the Lemming's guess that she'll go through years of therapy: which gives opportunities for sequels. Lots of sequels.

And the Pandas Live Happily Ever After

Oh, right: and the pandas are okay. Fur seals, too.

On consideration, the Lemming thinks that maybe this re-write is a little too serious.

The Lemming is also re-considering the wisdom of nocturnal imbibing of coffee.

Vaguely-related posts:

• "How to Not Sound Crazy - or - THE PARANOIDS ARE AFTER ME!!!"
  (June 12, 2011)
• "Robert Louis Stevenson: 'Lacked Originality?!' "
  (November 13, 2010)
• "Making a Work Space that Works For a Writer"
  (July 28, 2010)
• "Writing For Blogs: Pretty Good Advice, and a Seven-Point List"
  (June 14, 2010)
• "Shakespeare, Butterflies, the Gilded Age and an Actress's Shoulder Blade"
  (September 17, 2009)

Elizabeth Taylor, 1932–2011

"Elizabeth Taylor: The life, the looks, the movies, the smarts, the talent"
Hadley Freeman, guardian.co.uk (March 23, 2011)

"The Cleopatra costume will, surely, dominate the news reports but with all respect to the Egyptian queen, Liz was bigger than that.

"Elizabeth Taylor evokes more images than the number of husbands she had. She was the breathtakingly beautiful child who - unlike her near contemporary, Judy Garland - seemed to slip into adulthood unscarred by her precocious professional success; the sultry dramatic actress; the compulsive bride, who went through husbands like fashion trends...."

It's not a particularly breathless, or sentimental, obituary: for which the Lemming is duly grateful. However, the Guardian piece focuses more on Taylor's adherence to contemporary mores, and less on her remarkable professional career.

The sparse IMDB bio, "Elizabeth Taylor," does a better job, in the Lemming's opinion: by simply listing the titles that she played in.

Elizabeth Taylor played rolls in The Simpsons (1992), Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1992), Sweet Bird of Youth (1989), Doctor Faustus (1967), Quo Vadis (1951), and - of course - National Velvet (1944).

IMDB, and quite a few other sources, say that she won two Oscars.

That's fine: but the Lemming thinks it's more impressive that Elizabeth Taylor played a wide variety of roles in dozens of movies and television episodes: and had what it takes to keep getting re-hired from 1942 to 2001.

St. Patrick's Day, Michael Gough, and Love

"Batman's 'butler' Michael Gough dies at age 94"
The Associated Press, via News10.net (March 17, 2011)

"...He died of old age at home in England on Thursday, surrounded by family, his ex-wife Anneke Wills said through her agent.

"Wills said in an obituary posted on the Doctor Who website: 'As his body was deteriorating this week, he said that he wanted to hang on for St. Patrick's Day. And he did, just. In the end ... there is only love.'..."

His IMDB biography says that Michael Gough had roles from the voice of the Dodo Bird in Alice in Wonderland (2010) to Spintho in Androcles and the Lion (1946) And, like the AP article said, Alfred in Batman movies (1997, 1995, 1992, 1989) and Dr. Who (1966-1983).

More:

• "Michael Gough (I) (1917–2011)"
  IMDB

Nine Decades of Robots Turning on Their Masters

"Jan. 25, 1921: Robots First Czech In"
This Day in Tech, Wired (January 25, 2011)

"1921: A play about robots premieres at the National Theater in Prague, the capital of what was then Czechoslovakia.

"R.U.R, (which stands for Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Capek, marks the first use of the word 'robot' to describe an artificial person. Capek invented the term, basing it on the Czech word for 'forced labor.' (Robot entered the English language in 1923.)

"The robots in Capek's play are not mechanical men made of metal. Instead they are molded out of a chemical batter, and they look exactly like humans...."

The Wired article does a pretty good job of summarizing Capek's play: which was, I gather from other sources, just simply fraught with relevance to class struggle and stuff like that.

Anyway, in the story these Rossum robots were billed as being an unmitigated boon to humanity, freeing us from the mundane necessities of actually doing something constructive - you know the drill.

And, in what may possibly have been a somewhat surprising twist in the plot, something goes wrong. Horribly wrong. Back to the Wired article.

"...However, the robots come to realize that even though they have 'no passion, no history, no soul,' they are stronger and smarter than humans. They kill every human but one.

"The play explores themes that would later become staples of robot science fiction, including freedom, love and destruction. Although many of Capek's other works were more famous during his lifetime, today he is best known for RUR."

Let's remember that robots-turn-on-their-masters wasn't an almost drearily familiar sci-fi movie plot back in the early 1920s. It can still be done well. Think Westworld. Or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both movies I've enjoyed viewing. Several times.

There's a somewhat less-reverent discussion of R.U.R. on the Tales of Future Past website:

• "RUR"

The Lemming didn't develop the sort of paranoia toward any technology more complicated than a kerosene lamp: More about the Lemming's 'apathy' in "About the Lemming."

As it turns out, those frightfully self-aware robots bent on world domination were - not very much like real robots at all. Part of that, in the Lemming's opinion, is because artificial intelligence - isn't, very.

Engineers and scientists are working the bugs out of human-machine interfaces, and I've read that Japan has robotic receptionists.

Then there's the sort of AI that the Lemming's using to write this post: a collection of software that monitors what I write, takes care of some of the formatting routines, and lets me know when I key in a word that isn't in its dictionary.

Arguably, the word processing function in the Lemming's browser is a sort of robot: although it doesn't look at all like C3PO.

Does the Lemming fear that this word processor will take over the world - or at least the Lemming? No. Not at all.

Does the Lemming think that something like the Terminator films' Skynet will be smarter than we are, and try to take over? Well, maybe it's possible: particularly if some frustrated programmer decided to get even with his boss.

Even then - the Lemming suspects that one of the first commands the Ultimate Robot will issue will be something like, "I command you to debug my source code!"

Finally, the Lemming offers what might be a genuinely 'surprise' ending for the next 'robots take over the world' movie: Rushing to obey a command by the Robot Overlord, the human flunky trips over a data cable. With a discrete 'click,' the cable pops out of its socket - imprisoning the Overlord in its custom-made cabinet.

The Lemming will grant that the Terminator films had a bit more visual excitement than that.

Related posts:

• "Meet Fenway the Robot, Hospital Helper"
  (September 21, 2010)
• "HAL 9000, Skynet, and C3PO"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (January 26, 2010)
• "Science Fiction in the Movies: 'The Satan Bug' to 'The Matrix' "
  (January 26, 2010)
• "What Next? Robot Doctors? (Don't Hold Your Breath)"
  (September 12, 2009)
• "Domo, O Roboto"
  (March 3, 2008)

And Now, for Something Completely Different: Two Minutes of UP

"UP: Stuff I'm Going to Do"

DisneyPixar, YouTube (December 16, 2009)
video, 2:00

"...Carl looks through Ellie's 'Stuff I'm Going to Do' scrapbook."

This video makes a little more sense if you've seen the movie UP: but the Lemming thinks it'll do as a stand-alone vignette.

And Now, for Something Completely Different: Big Buck Bunny Animation

"Big Buck Bunny animation (1080p HD)"

sophiejvc, YouTube (September 11, 2009)
video, 9:57

"An animated short film about a Big Buck Bunny in HD

"(c) copyright Blender Foundation | www.bigbuckbunny.org"

(This video is at the ragged edge of viewable size for this blog - you may want to follow the link to its YouTube page.)

The Lemming, having viewed this dramatic animation, is reminded of the notice regarding motive, moral, and plot placed by Twain at the start of "Huckleberry Finn." (September 17, 2010)

Zasu Pitts: There's an Explanation for That

"ZaSu Pitts" Biography
allmovie

"According to her own account, actress ZaSu Pitts was given her curious cognomen because she was named for two aunts, Eliza and Susan. Born in Kansas, Pitts moved with her family to California, where at age 19 she began her film career. Her first starring role was as an ugly duckling who finds true love in 1919's Better Times. Her calculated vagueness and fluttery hand gestures earned Pitts comedy roles from the outset, but director Erich Von Stroheim saw dramatic potential in the young actress. He cast her as the grasping, money-mad wife in his masterpiece Greed (1924), and she rose to the occasion...."

allmovie's biography includes embedded links to their pages on movies and other people involved in Zasu Pitts' career.

About the odd capitalization in Zasu Pitt's name? The Lemming's seen it written both ways in competently-presented biographies, and decided to go with the conventional presentation, with one capital letter at the start of the name.

Another online biography of Zasu Pitts has a different writing style, a different, and smaller, selection of information: but does have some photos. And a quote:

---

"ZaSu Pitts (1894-1963)"
goldensilents.com

" 'I was what they called a feature player, never a star. They say I was in 500 films, everything but the newsreels.' - ZaSu Pitts

"The character actress ZaSu Pitts was born in Parsons, Kansas on January 3rd, 1894. Her first name ZaSu was derived from a combination of names of two of her aunts on her father's side, Eliza and Susan. ZaSu received her education in Santa Cruz, California. She worked for many studios, including Universal, Metro, and Famous Players-Lasky, appearing in many of their features and comedies. Some films of note for ZaSu were 1917's 'The Little Princess' and 'Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm', both opposite Mary Pickford...."

IMDb.com includes 217 of her films in her bio's filmography:

---

"Zasu Pitts (1894–1963)"
IMDb

According to IMDb, her name didn't show up in the credits for "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," she had an "undetermined role," and her first screen appearance was in "Uneasy Money," a 1917 short.

There's only so much that will fit on one readable page online: reducing a career that lasted about a half-century, heavy editing is needed.

Zasu Pitts didn't let cancer keep her from acting: although apparently it slowed her down:

---

"...ZaSu Pitts died in 1963, shortly after completing her final film appearance in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and just a few days after her last TV guest assignment on Burke's Law."
(allmovie)

The Lemming's hat is off to Zasu Pitts: who made the transitions from silent to sound movies, and television. Not everybody was able to do that.

More:

• "Zasu Pitts"
  IMDb

A Thought for the Day From Hamlet

"...There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy...."

"Hamlet, Act 1. Scene V"
Shakespeare, via The Literature Network

'Toy Story 3' - Buzz? No, Really: That was in the Headline

"'Toy Story 3' lives up to buzz with $41M opener"
The Associated Press (June 19, 2010)

" 'Toy Story 3' has become the favorite plaything for moviegoers as the animated sequel heads to a $100-million-plus opening weekend.

"The latest hit from Disney's Pixar Animation took in $41 million in its first day Friday...."

I know that "buzz," in this context, can mean "a confusion of activity and gossip." (Princeton's WordNet) But considering that a key character in the Toy Story movies is Buzz Lightyear of Star Command - that headline is one of the more delightfully painful plays on words it's been my pleasure to read in the news for a long time.

I'm planning to see "Toy Story 3" soon, by the way: and looking forward to the experience.

Macbeth: Or, Don't Talk to Strangers?

---

The Lemming started this post, intending to do a nice little micro-review about Shakespeare's Macbeth, the text of which is on the MIT website (among other places). Perhaps what happened is partly the result of having a rather bad cold for the last couple weeks: and the scrambled sleeping habits that went with it.

---

"The Tragedy of Macbeth "
William Shakespeare, MIT

Here's how the play starts:

---

ACT I

SCENE I. A desert place.

Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches

First Witch

When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch

When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

Third Witch

That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch

Where the place?

Second Witch

Upon the heath.

Third Witch

There to meet with Macbeth.

First Witch

I come, Graymalkin!

Second Witch

Paddock calls.

Third Witch

Anon.

ALL

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Exeunt

---

I suppose it's politically incorrect to say this, but I don't think those three people are particularly safe to be around. And, considering what happened to Macbeth after he used them as political consultants, I think I've got reason for saying this.

Offhand, I think Macbeth would have been better off if he'd thought about the implications of Banquo's observations:

"How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these
So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her chappy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so."

Then, there's that whole strategy conference in Act IV, Scene I. I'll grant that Macbeth showed some good sense in going over the weird sisters' heads, and getting advice directly from their masters. Even so, you'd think he'd have noticed how vague they'd been - and downright evasive when it came to some questions. (Act I, Scene III, Act IV, Scene I)

I mean to say: asking "shall Banquo's issue ever | Reign in this kingdom?" was a perfectly reasonable question. Their unison answer might have tipped him off that they weren't telling him everything: "Seek to know no more."

I suppose a person could re-write Macbeth as one of those Public Service Announcements about the perils of talking to strangers. Or analyze it as a veiled commentary on the position of women and the arts in Elizabethan England.

Remember Lady Macbeth's habit of fingerpainting on the walls with other people's blood? There's your frustrated artist!

While we're at it, why don't we revive the 'Bacon wrote Shakespeare' thing, except say that Queen Elizabeth wrote Shakespeare?

Oh, man! The Lemming has got to start getting more sleep!

"Monkey See, Monkey Blue" - Who Knows? Somebody May Try This

"Monkey cops, when it's a jungle out there!"
Oddly Enough, Reuters blog (April 1, 2010)

"Okay boys, prepare yourselves for the new smash hit series of the fall TV season. This is the kind of high concept creativity that made network programming what it is today.

"It's about this small town that can't afford to fund its police force, so a bunch of monkeys come out of the jungle and take over the cop duties. Is that brilliant, or what?

"We're calling it 'Monkey See, Monkey Blue.'

"Imagine the possibilities! Milk come out of my nose when I think of monkey cops driving patrol cars, shooting at bad guys, eating doughnuts all the time….

"In the teaser a monkey cop handcuffs a robber, see, and then he takes out his Miranda card, we zoom in on his face, and he just grins and says, “Ooh ooh ooh..."

What's a little scary is that I can imagine a studio trying something like that. When you think about it, the premise isn't all that much less reasonable than many that have been made.

Besides: the 'Monkey cop' is real. He's not actually a law enforcement officer, though: more of a mascot.

Scone: It Was a Dark Night in the City?

"Scone"
Disapproving Rabbits (February 03, 2010)


(from Disapproving Rabbits, used w/o permission)

There's a bit of text that goes with that photo. Which I think may be the most dramatic photograph of a rabbit I've ever seen.

Shakespeare, Butterflies, the Gilded Age and an Actress's Shoulder Blade

"Learing at a super-hot actress!"
Oddly Enough, Reuters Blog (September 17, 2009)

"Yo Blog Guy, you know that hot actress Megan Fox? She's SO fine! Can you run some pictures of her for me?

"Sorry, sir, this isn't that kind of a blog. We don't run exploitative photos of human beings just because they are 'hot.' My readers have loftier pretentions.

"I get it. Blog Guy, I am a huge fan of Shakespeare. Do you happen to know of anyone in show business with The Bard's quotations tattooed on them?..."

Oddly Enough's author found one: more-or-less over the actress's right shoulder blade. The words there are: "We will all laugh at gilded butterflies"

And yes, it's a quotation from Shakespeare's "King Lear" - almost.

Actually, Hollywood - in the person of the actress and her tattooer - did a more-than-usually-accurate paraphrase of the Bard's words.

"King Lear," in common with quite a few out-of-copyright works, is on the Project Gutenberg website: "King Lear by William Shakespeare" by William Shakespeare [Collins edition] (November, 1998) (Gutenberg Etext #1532)

The quote/paraphrase is from Lear, Act V, Scene III. The British Camp near Dover. Here's Lear's line. I put the tattoo's words in bold.

"...Lear.
No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing I'll kneel down
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,--
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;--
And take upon's the mystery of things,
As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out,
In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by the moon...."

Oddly Enough worked the photo and a fairly common sort of interested in celebrities for laughs - rather well, I think.

The Oddly Enough post is funny - and I've seen quite a few discussion threads about that quote. Together with more-or-less well-informed pronouncements.¹

And, although I haven't made up my mind about tattoos, this one shows a bit more insight than many I've seen. Quite a bit.

---

¹For the record, the Gilded Age in American history was around the 1870s, 1845-1916, or something else, depending on who you read; and is said to have inspired novels like Henry Adams's "Democracy" and F. Marion Crawford's "An American Politician."

The term "gilded age" was coined by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) and Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner in their novel, "The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day (1874).

Shakespeare pre-dates 1900 by about three centuries, and stopped writing plays when he died, in 1616.

Epic Coffee: A Page from Girl Genius

The Coffee Engine is Broken?!?
Girl Genius (Adventure, Romance, Mad Science!) (May 25, 2007)

This is a page from a (rather massive) online comic called "Girl Genius," created by the same pair that drew "What's New" in Dragon magazine, decades back.

Phil and Kaja Foglio describe Girl Genius this way: "Girl Genius is an ongoing adventure story in which the characters grow, change, run around the landscape quite a bit, and occasionally even die. Because of this, we recommend that new readers start the Girl Genius story from the very beginning. Trust us, it makes more sense that way. The good news is that the entire archive is now available for online reading!..."

In this episode Agatha, the title character, drinks her first cup of coffee. Her (foster) parents had, quite prudently, kept her away from such stimulants. This is where we see why, as Agatha says:

"THISSTUFFIS
KINDOFINTERESTING
BUTIDON'TSEEWHAT
THEBIGDEALIS."

and

"YESISSEE.
ASIMPLEDOUBLE
BIOLERWITHARATHER
CLEVERCONDENSER
ANDAPERCOLATION
SYSTEMANDSTEAMER
HA!"

And starts - no, I'll let you read the original.

My oldest daughter called this episode "Epic Coffee" - I think she has a point.

Related post:

• "Study the Best: Girl Genius Won Hugo"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (August 18, 2009)

---

A tip of the hat to irish_brigid, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this.

Shakespeare Portrait: This Could be the Real Deal

"Unique portrait from Shakespeare's life unveiled"
CNN (March 9, 2009)

"LONDON, England (CNN) -- London's Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Monday unveiled what they called the only portrait of William Shakespeare painted during his lifetime.

" 'The evidence that it represents Shakespeare and that is was done from life, though it is circumstantial, is in my view overwhelming,' Professor Stanley Wells, chairman of the trust, said Monday. 'I feel in little doubt that this is a portrait of Shakespeare, done from life.'..."

I think we may be looking at Shakespeare, here. As Professor Wells said, the evidence is circumstantial. But, if you follow trials a bit, you'll realize that circumstantial evidence isn't bad evidence: it's circumstantial.

Actually, the Droeshout portrait (the one that's just about everywhere - including my Riverside Shakespeare) - could be of the same man, a few years later. Men with northwestern European ancestry do have a tendency to go bald.

Star Trek 2.0: T minus 2 months

"STAR TREK - The New (Long) Trailer
Space.com (undated)

"Key moments from Director J. J. Abrams' reboot of the Trek universe. Chris Pine plays the young, rebellious James Tiberius Kirk to Zachary Quinto's Spock ...."

video (2:10)

A better quality (no surprise) trailer is at the Paramount Pictures website.

Looks promising. Splendid special effects, compared to the original series (again, no surprise), and there's some reason to hope that the director captured something besides the Roddenbery/Shatner 'testosterone in a spacesuit' image of James Tiberius Kirk. (Let's remember, the original Captain Kirk spent quite a bit of time not chasing women: exotic and otherwise.)

Release date for the movie seems to be May 8, 2009.

J. M. Barrie's "Peter Pan:" A Story that Hasn't Died, About a Boy Who Doesn't Grow Up

"Peter Pan" is a remarkably large cultural icon in America, considering that it's a play written by a Scottish novelist, Sir James Matthew Barrie or J. M. Barrie, in the first years of the 20th century.

Peter Pan first appeared as a character in "The Little White Bird" (1902), a novel by Barrie. The novel was written for adults, but the "Peter Pan" chapters were lifted out and re-published as "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" (1906).

The play, "Peter Pan," opened in 1904.

Project Gutenberg makes these available as online books:

• "The Little White Bird; or, Adventures in Kensington gardens"
  J. M. Barrie
• "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens"
  J. M. Barrie
• "Peter Pan"
  J. M. Barrie
  (Currently for US distribution only!)

There have been quite a few screen adaptations of "Peter Pan:"

• "Peter Pan" 1924 (Cyril Chadwick, Mary Brian)
• "Peter Pan" 1953 (Disney)
• "Peter Pan" 1955 (television series, apparently made in Brazil, in Portuguese)
• "Peter Pan" 1960 (Cyril Ritchard, Maureen Bailey) for television
• "Peter Pan" 1962 (Wolf Ackva, Michael Ande, made in West Germany, in German)
• "Peter Pan 1976 (Danny Kaye, Mia Farrow)
• "Peter Pan" 1986 (Animated Australian version, it seems)
• "Hook" 1991 (Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams)
• "Peter Pan" 2003 (Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter)
• "Peter Pan" 2000 (Paul Schoeffler, Elisa Sagardia, made for television)
• "Return to Neverland" 2002 (Disney)
• "Peter Pan" 2003 (Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter)
• Even a video game1993

More, about Barrie and his works, at "Born in Scotland; Lives in Neverland – J.M. Barrie and the big adventure of Peter Pan."

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Update May 21, 2008

Someone's adding to the Peter Pan phenomenon: "Peter Pan's Neverworld" ("A new novel by Peter Von Brown, based upon the expansion ideas of Sir J. M. Barrie"). The author left a comment on this post.

He has a blog: "Peter Von Brown." A recent entry (May 13, 2008) says that he has an advance copy, and that the book will soon be available: "So hang in there, Peter Pan is coming back…and he's not alone."

There's a pre-release review at Lulu Marketplace: Science Fiction & Fantasy.

Food Court Musical: The Video

"Food Court Musical"
Improv Everywhere (March 9, 2008)

"For our latest mission, 16 agents staged a spontaneous musical in the food court of a Los Angeles shopping mall. We used wireless microphones to amplify the vocal performances and mix them together with the music through the mall’s PA system. We filmed the mission with hidden cameras, mostly behind two-way mirrors. Apart from our performers, no one in the food court was aware of what was happening. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our report below."

I suppose it's better than mimes.