More Infrequently Asked Questions

Time to dip into the Infrequently Asked Questions file…

Question: What is the Shakespeare project and why does it become important in December?

Answer: The Shakespeare project is my quest to a) read every Shakespeare play and b) read one Shakespeare play a year. This has been going on basically since I was thirteen years old and has taken on a life of its own. Here is the list so far

The Comedy of Errors (the first play I ever read)
Romeo and Juliet
The Merchant of Venice
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
Macbeth
King Lear
Richard III
Othello
As You Like It
Measure For Measure
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
The Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Twelfth Night
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Cymbeline
The Winter’s Tale
Titus Andronicus

(This list isn’t meant to make me sound smart. It’s honestly the first time I’ve listed them all and I needed it for reference.)

Admittedly, only four of these were read for a class and the rest were read with varying degrees of understanding. For example I really need to reread King Lear, Macbeth and Richard III because all I remember about them is that one had a daughter named Cordelia, one had a lot of people named Mac in it and one involved either a whore or a horse, I can never remember which. But over time I’ve been able to learn how to read Shakespeare and I have to say that I do enjoy it.

This year I’ll be reading Henry IV Part I as I think I’ve gone through all of the comedies and now will start to tackle the histories. It’s become part of the tradition that I read Shakespeare in December partly due to the fact that I wait until the end of the year to meet this goal and partly because its seems kind of poetic to curl up on a cold December night and read the greatest playwright’s works. See, even a cynical bastard like me has a soft side.

Question: Speaking of cold winter nights, what were you listening to while driving through a snowstorm?

Answer: Jack Johnson and Nina Simone. Jack Johnson is probably not recommended as it is entirely about surfing and in this instance seems to be an entire album made to remind you that you are an idiot for living in the Midwest. (By the way, Brushfire Fairytales has not aged well. That’s not a shot at Jack because I love his stuff. It’s just that you can see how much he has improved over time. He might be one of the few people where I prefer his later work.) Listening to Nina though while watching people spin in the snow is a wonder. Cool jazz for a cool night.

Question: If, oh who am I kidding, when you build your time machine where is the first place you are going to go?

Answer: For the longest time the answer to this question was that I would go back in time to meet Isaac Newton and then kick his ass for inventing calculus and making my life a living hell in college. Though that would probably invalidate the entire universe so there are some risks, though I could totally take him in a fight. However, I read something today that made me really want to visit the Australian outback 50,000 years ago. Apparently at that time there was all of this mega-fauna roaming around like eight foot tall kangaroos and wombats the size of cars.

I don’t know about you, but I think an eight foot tall kangaroo would be the coolest thing ever. Could you imagine a herd of those guys hopping past you. Were talking Yao Ming with good hops here. Your reaction would be “Aw, aren’t they cute…oh my Science they’re headed this way. Run for your life.” Plus, I just like the idea that wombats exist, and car sized ones would be like really furry cattle. Or buffalo with a softer side.