Stratford-Upon-Shakespeare

Stratford

Shakespeare's hometown isn't actually (quite) as commercialized as you'd expect. Of course, there are ungodly expensive exhibits, such as Shakespeare's house. But you can see it from outside and that's pretty enough. Honor Shakespeare by going to his grave, which is free...not counting the guilting church employees asking for donations, of course. There are also some nice statues of four Shakespeare characters (Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Henry V, Falstaff) by the river Avon. And Stratford itself is a cute and nice small town on its own.

I was going to write thoughts on some recent Shakespeare performances...but I have suddenly lost the will. That for later, maybe.

Happiness and Social Workers

Wales and review of Glasvegas are below.

Wales

Despite reports from some Englishmen, the Welsh are not in fact mutated zombies. They are perhaps disturbingly happy people; the hostel I stayed at in Cardiff being the cleanest and friendliest I have ever had the pleasure at sleeping in. I can think of an analogy to Canada. The Welsh can be happy and clean because they're irrelevent. And only sort of their own people anymore. Perhaps they're happy nihilists? But what do I know. I visited several parts of the National Museum of Wales - which was lovely, really. Part of it is outside Cardiff in the countryside and recreats medieval and later Welsh culture. Interesting stuff I suppose, but no longer alive. Cardiff has a cool castle and a nice park.

Glasvegas - The best album so far this year! Considering the only other one I've heard is Merriweather Post Pavilion, that may not be saying much - but I mean it as quite the complement. Glasvegas have a big reverby sound and they lay it on thick - but its not mawkish, even if it threatens to be so. The cheesy stuff is on purpose and it always fits. My favorite one right now is the second song about how your social worker will help you out of depression. Also the creepy one about how if you stab the lead singer his family will make you regret it. And its all in a Scottish accent.

Germany

I am now out of order and will doubtless remain so. Anyway,

Germany

Germany is amazing. It has been speculated that I only think this because the beer is a) better and b) cheaper than England. But this is totally not! (entirely) the case. Germans also make great (and often hilarious) bars and clubs. They've continued on despite the war (shhh!). Oh also...Steins and Schnitzel.

Cologne

Apparently Cologne isn't romantic. I beg to differ! But only b/c I was with Joe. Actually Cologne is pretty ugly, except for their cathedral which is about the size of America's national debt. Fo' serious. Bruhl, where you can find an 18th century German "castle" (les Franch call them chateaus) or giant house with a spooky German wood, is a short ride away. Just stay in the Black Sheep Hostel and you'll have fun.

Hamburg

Hamburg is bigger than Cologne but still not generally a tourist hotspot. Its red light district is much lamer than Amsterdam's. We still found a hilarious disco club though. There is a tower from which one can see the whole city, including a couple of old Nazi bunkers. There are waterways everywhere, which makes for nice atmosphere. And um...Steins?

Shakespeare and London

Brief Review: Twelfth Night, Wyndhams Theatre, London.

Derek Jacobi as Malvolio is plastered all over the Tube, inviting all Londoners to this show. And it is a good one, and Jacobi is one of the standouts, as is whoever acts as Olivia. The taut sexual tension of the play is drawn out excellently. The Duke is even shirtless, which was a bit much for me but it worked. The movements of the actors were physical and drew the audience in to the action. The production was fairly simple, and the bit of effects and music were not severely overdone...

This takes us to the second part of my post, which concerns the recent talk (as in, ended half an hour ago) at UCL by the notable Shakespeare scholar John Russell Brown (he edited my version of Merchant of Venice), concerning how Shakespeare is received all over the world.

The first notable thing, of course, is that Shakespeare is played all over the world, and usually in the local languages of the people. In India it is played in Hindi, not English. And according to Brown, Shakespeare is not lost in translation. How can this be, if Shakespeare is all poetry, a product of Elizabethean language, culture and society, and bound only to that context? How does he speak meaningfully to people in Delhi, Seoul, Munich, Shanghai, etc?

Brown things it has something to do with Shakespeare's magnificent direction of movement and plot. Even if you don't understand the actor's words, you can feel their transformation into Shakespeare's well crafted characters. You can still, in Brown's words "share the sensation of being of perons in play." Shakespeare can take us into lives and situations we would not otherwise have the experience of. Words do not possess knowledge and experience, but Shakespeare's plays seem capable of occasioning them regardless of the specific words used. The essence of Shakespeare translates into all cultures and across time.

What does this tell us?

America, **** Yeah

This post is a reaction to Obama's inaugural address.

I was moved. President Obama hit all the right marks...a return to the founders, a reference to the Declaration of Independence.

Even if you don't believe God gave us the rights upon which our nation is based, Obama reminded us why we love liberalism. Labor brings prosperity and freedom. Technology solves problems. A solid market is the "surest route to the common good." These are the real ideas behind our nation...and perhaps they are not worn as thin as some of us might think.

Obama talked about those important political attributes: prudence, humility, restraint.

He put forth the criteria on which liberal states are judged and let it ring loud for the unconvinced to hear: the resisters are on "the wrong side of history," you are judged by "what you can build."

Most importantly, though, Obama affirmed that the nation stands for and upon eternal truths and virtues and that we "can find meaning in something bigger than ourselves." As he said, there has been a crises in confidence...and I think it often stems from doubting this.

It may be possible that liberalism makes it difficult to focus on the good. President Obama made the case that all faiths and those of no faith are welcome contributions to our country. It is still not entirely clear if those with faiths in something "bigger than themselves" who contradict others of such faiths can all live together in harmony.

President Obama reminded us why we keep trying.

Bath

I must first thank my friend Chris Ruffles and his family for hosting my Bath expedition.

Bath is one of those places that the guidebooks highly recommend - and this one is for good reason.

Tourist-wise the city has, well, baths, or natural hot springs. You can pay to see the much-intact ruins of the old Roman baths, which I must grudgingly admit is worth the price of entry. You get to see the still-steaming baths, old statues and writings, and, if this matter, you can photograph all of it. They also have a "free" audio-tour if that's your thing...

There's also a lovely cathedral which is "free" except that you'll have to pay a few pounds because of the horrible guilt-inducing power of old ladies. I'm sorry I don't go to church, CHRIST! oh...oops. There's also a nifty older church ruins under the cathedral.

Oh, there's a Jane Austen thing and some old buildings, too.

As a town to hang out in and a community, Bath seems to have the advantage I've noticed in a lot of smaller European cities - namely, even if you live on a hill in the pretty suburbs, you can still walk anywhere in the city given half an hour. There are plenty of green spaces for chavs (sp?) or miscreant youngsters to hang out in. English hooligans are a lot of fun, we even had a bottle thrown at us!

We went out to a couple bars...pretty standard British fair - fine atmosphere, overexpensive beer, although I recommend the local Gem bitter.

Chris's bar hosts a number of fascinating locals. Not to say that they're an exhibit! Their ancient wisdom will stay with me always, although I can't say I remember much of it...it being obtained in a bar and all.

Anyway, Bath gets a end-of-history/eternal recurrence.

Music, Travel

I am back from Europe! There will be 7 travel entries based on the past month (Bath, Wales, Stratford, Dublin, Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam) appearing over the next month or so. But first, a bit of reflection on 2008 is important. I could comment on the crash of the economy or Obama, but instead I'll comment on music.

Nothing this year blew me away quite like MIA's Kala last year but there was a lot to like. The common theme I can find this year in my favorite albums was an ability to manipulate meaning using apparently simple lyrics and song structures - I'm thinking here especially of Distortion or Conor Oberst, hell, even Kanye West's 808's and Heartbreak does this pretty effectively much of the time. On the later, an apparently self-involved jerk manages (at least I think) to say a lot about weakness, loss, and the dangers of fame. And he does that using fairly simple beats and autotune - and it seems to me that's the point (see the title of the album).

Then of course there are this year's amazing rap albums. The best rap albums don't just spew sick lyrics for the hell of it, they manipulate the context of the song and they bluster, creating a complex space to say something. Lil Wayne's laugh makes us think he's not serious, but then again, sometimes he is, and sometimes the truth is somewhere in between... And of course, he's hilarious.

But I should really do some work, so I'll just list my recommends, roughly in order of how much I found in them.

1) TV on the Radio - Dear Science

2) Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III

3) Conor Oberst

4) Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark

5) Randy Newman - Harps and Angels

6) The Roots - Rising Down

7) The Magnetic Fields - Distortion

8) Girl Talk - Feed the Animals

This isn't to say none of the other albums I heard this year weren't any good. These are just the best.