Who Co-stars in Alan Cumming’s Macbeth? The Set!
If Stanley Kubrick had directed Shakespeare for the stage, it would have been this show: Alan Cumming’s quasi-one-man Macbeth at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.
Warning: Spoilers ahead! The warning’s not for the plot – which you would be well advised to have under … (read on)
Quoted: An Appetite for Sendak, Advice from Didion, Non-prostituted Punk, and Meaning in Science and Religion
“Quoted” is my weekly collection of quotations from articles, books and blogs, read in the past week. The entire archive is housed at my Commonplace Book on Tumblr.
It was from a little boy. He sent me a charming card with a little drawing. I … (read on)
Quoted: Neurodiversity, Marlowe’s Unimportance
Quoted from highly recommended articles, read in the past week:
The heart of the matter of neurodiversity is not the hypothetical question of how we might use genetic testing in the future, but the very immediate question of how we are to regard and treat … (read on)
Angel vs. Devil: Who wins Milton’s face-off?
At the end of the fourth book of Paradise Lost, the Archangel Gabriel faces off against Satan, whom his lieutenants have just discovered in Eden whispering “phantasms and dreams” into sleeping Eve’s ear. They spar verbally over their respective powers, until Gabriel dismisses the … (read on)
Star Trek Into Darkness. Or Into Distraction. Or Something.
I loved Benedict Cumberbatch’s villain. I thought the whole cast was great. I found the references to the old shows and movies terrific, and the clever twists and switcheroos too, scattered as they were like a trail of breadcrumbs left for adoring Trekkies hoping to … (read on)
Oblivion: Scifi That Evokes 20th Century Optimism, Then Buries It Under 21st Century Pessimism
Oblivion has been criticized as “lifeless”, and I can understand why. But I’d like to turn that notion on its head. The depiction of a cold, distant, utterly unknowable alien intelligence and its impact on humankind calls for a certain lifelessness, and in doing … (read on)
