Shakespeare Archivi - Keep Calm and Drink Coffee

THE BARD AND THE QUEEN

Oct 5, 2024 | BOOKS, BOOKS

The Bard and the Queen is the book I received as a gift from my aunt and uncle, written by Paola Zannoner, known for writing many books for children, and published by DeA Planeta.

Paola Zannoner has a WordPress blog and the first thing she says about herself is that she lives in Florence.

I imagine that living in cities of art can confer the privilege of having an immense source of inspiration.

And it is the subject of inspiration that I would like to put to you, starting with this book.

I would say that there is no need to explain what a story entitled The Bard and the Queen could possibly be about.

I don’t know about you, but I have a particular fondness for Shakespeare.

I started reading the bilingual books, remember them? Every page had the text in the language opposite.

Il Bardo e la Regina

Back in the glorious days, which as you know I often quote, finding ways to learn languages was not a click away, and these books offered the possibility of having the translation available simultaneously, a bit like today’s online translators, and I point out ‘just a bit’ 🙂

Given that it is certainly not easy to choose, do you have a favourite work among all that Shakespeare has left us?

The book The Bard and the Queen mentions some of them in the course of our William’s life, explaining how they came about, that is, from the events that one day after another make up what is a person’s journey.

Do you think this is necessarily so?

I mean: can one write well about something one does not know?

Did Shakespeare live in the shoes of his characters?

Reading this book I visualised all the time the faces of the performers in the film Shakespeare in love.

But while my imagination did not particularly run to the faces, this book has in my opinion the merit of being sensory.

Smell.

The writer’s meticulous research focused my attention on the olfactory sense, succeeding in describing the atmosphere of a London that is not usually considered in this respect.

Have you ever read a book that was able to materialise one of the five senses?

WEST SIDE STORY

Apr 16, 2022 | MOVIES, MUSIC

West Side Story is history, let me play on words.

History of cinema even for those who are not fond of musicals.

Do you like musicals?

They are perhaps the most controversial kind of movies: either you hate it, or you love it.

I love it.

In case you have any doubts, I suggest you to read this post on the blog Come cerchi sull’acqua.

West Side Story was born as a play on Broadway and Jack Gottlieb tells us how it was conceived by drawing inspiration from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and how Jerome Robbins had initially imagined Juliet as a Jewish girl and Romeo as an Italian Catholic. The action, set during the Easter / Passover season, was supposed to take place on the Lower East Side of New York City. So the title could have been EAST Side Story or Gangway.

I find it totally understandable that Steven Spielberg said it was the toughest film of his career.

I started looking at it together with all the positive assumptions, and with all the curiosity to find out how the arduous challenge had been solved.

The beginning shows the imminent demolition of the neighborhood and, personally, I interpreted it as the metaphor of a breaking wrecking ball but not about the past.

Time is to be demolished.

Because despite all the years that have passed, studded with dramatic events, it is as if history had been written today.

And Rita Moreno becomes like a fulcrum of human suffering, around which the repeated cyclically recurring pain manifests itself despite the passage of time.

In this video she receives the Oscar for the interpretation of the character of Anita in 1962

And following is the post with which she congratulates Ariana DeBose for the recent victory for having played the role of Anita, differently and yet with equal effectiveness.

For Rita Moreno in Spielberg’s film the role of Valentina was created: Doc’s widow, who helps and supports Tony after his misadventures with justice, but in various interviews she has been defined as the “mother” of West Side Story for how she advised, assisted, supervised tirelessly.

And obviously all of this entered my heart.

Not to mention her iconic joke for me: Tony asks her to translate “forever” because she wants to declare herself to Maria in Spanish and she, frightened by that tragically unreal idea of absolute, replies something like “why don’t I just say I’d like to have a coffee with you?”

Eh!

Undoubtedly, it is still an important statement, right!?

And while drinking your coffee, I once again recommend you the detailed and professional analysis of Matavitatau.

Is there a particular song you prefer from the West Side Story soundtrack?

They are all songs destined to stay in your mind once you listen to them, but, just to name three sensationally super famous, are you more for Tonight, Maria, or America?

CHRISTMAS WITH WHO?

Dec 29, 2021 | BOOKS, MOVIES

Who did you spend Christmas with?

Thanks to Luciana’s gift, I spent it with Agatha: and with Poirot’s Christmas.

A reading that takes you back to the classic situation typical of the riddles to be solved: room and windows closed, inside only the victim, no one enters, no one leaves …

Agatha dedicated this story to her brother-in-law, James, according to whom her murders “were getting refined.”
“You yearned for a good violent murder with lots of blood…so this is your special story – written for you.”

Among other things, there is also a quote from Shakespeare: “Yet who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him?“

The one who pronounces it is not Lady Macbeth but a member of the Lee family, reunited for Christmas at the behest of the elderly father, despite divisions and disputes of various kinds.

“And families now, families who have been separated throughout the year, assemble once more together. Now under these conditions, my friend, you must admit that there will occur a great amount of strain. People who do not feel amiable are putting great pressure on themselves to appear amiable! There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c’est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy.”
Hercule Poirot

What to say?
Sadly true.

In the film version, Poirot was played by David Suchet.

Speaking of cinema as well as family reunions, as well as with the Lees, I also spent Christmas with the Colardo and Marinelli families, do you know them?

I saw the first time Every cursed Christmas by chance, without knowing anything about.

So its main feature: the duality of all the performers, for me it was an unexpected surprise as much fun.

If you haven’t seen it yet, you can retrieve it here: together with laughter which he will give you.

And you, who did you spend Christmas with?

PRACTICE RANDOM KINDNESS AND SENSELESS ACTS OF BEAUTY

Nov 13, 2021 | WORLD

Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty Anne Herbert’s popular precept has been expanded by Margaret Pavel into a powerful message for our era, and for all ages. Combined with Mayumi Oda’s watercolor art in the playful style of picture scrolls from 12th century Japan, offers delight and timeless wisdom.

I don’t know about you, but these days I really feel the need to re-share this sentence.

It is said that it was written on a restaurant’s paper placemat and I believe exactly that all the best inspirations are born more or less like this.

So I would like to write it wherever possible, but especially on the heart.

I would like to write keep calm and spread random kindness.

I hear and read too much hate.

I don’t care one side or the other, I don’t care above, below, sooner or later, because when hatred spreads, no one is right.

Yet we have a lot of history behind us, and we certainly do not lack examples.

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy…
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.

These are words that we all know practically by heart.

They are “ancient” words, but only because they were written in 1595 but sadly they could be from yesterday.

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion, people must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite..

Another creepy example, you don’t even need to write about who these words are.

We remind them, let’s spread them.

If mine are too stupid, use those of The Great … precursor of the concept of spreading goodness:

We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

MORNINGS ARE FOR COFFEE AND CONTEMPLATION

Jul 13, 2021 | MOVIES, MUSIC, ROCK

Of course I couldn’t help but go crazy for this scene

David Harbor has a long filmography even if before Stranger Things probably many had that famous feeling of “I’ve seen him in which movie?”

Undoubtedly Hopper is a character!
And undoubtedly the step from Hopper to Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian is a bit of a caricature compared to the features that made Hop so loved.

Regarding Black Widow, I would especially mention the cover of Smells like teen spirit

And speaking of covers: David Harbor proposed American Pie in one of the opening scenes to give more emotionally engaging depth to his character.
Good job.

But most of all, I really enjoyed this visit to his Manhattan home

Books and books among which he was keen to show two copies of Don Quixote.

And then guitars, plants, and the memory of “Shakespeare in the park” in New York with Meryl as Juliet and Kevin Kline as Romeo I can’t believe I’ve been missing so far!

You knew it?
See here what I found! To me it’s like One-eyed Willy’s treasure!