Asleep, my love? What, dead my dove?!?

I just found this on David Grover's blog and had to share it with those of you who don't know Grover. This pretty much made my entire life.
The Beatles present the play within a play from A Midsummer Night's Dream: Pyramus and Thisbe. The picture you see below is George as the moon.

In my defense...

So yesterday I definitely forgot to call the twins and wish them a happy birthday. I thought about it Tuesday night, and then forgot until I got a funny text from Ty this morning asking if I remembered when I used to love him, and wondering whether having the new Format CD would get him birthday wishes. (Answer: yes.)
In my defense, yesterday was pretty crazy. I had class, work, an impromptu pizza with some high school friends, a couple of hours spent working on my Hitchcock paper on campus, a trip to IC to see As You Like It (with sumo wrestling! Kenneth Branagh really is my hero.) a trip to the gelato place, a fun stint helping a friend with the MLA format of his Italian paper (first time I've worked with another language, but apparently MLA is just as ridiculous no matter what language you use) which all came to an end at about 11:15. It was an exciting day, but I never once thought about the date. Sorry Spence and Ty. I still love you.
A word or two about As You Like It: I know that a lot of people have issues with non-traditional interpretations of Shakespeare. I say, there are hundreds of traditional interpretations going on all the time, and they have been going on for hundreds of years. Since every production is an adaptation anyway, why not make it more fun? I absolutely loved the creativity involved in setting this play (one of my favorites) in 19th century Japan. Instead of sword fighting we got sumo wrestling, and samurai warriors banished the old duke - how can you go wrong? I also love Bryce Dallas Howard, and I am increasingly impressed with Romola Garai (even though she was a little obnoxious in the forest. I suppose she's supposed to be). I liked Alfred Molina as Touchstone, but I didn't feel like there was enough of him - he's by far my favorite of all of Shakespeare's fools, and his presence was scanty in this film. I enjoyed Kevin Kline as Jacques (is he really that old??) and I really liked Orlando even though I didn't know the actor. Patrick Doyle's music was as glorious as ever - so yeah. I thought it was fun. Kenneth Branagh remains amazing in my eyes. (Are we surprised? No.) Side note: it takes a serious suspension of disbelief to really think Orlando doesn't know that Ganymede is really Rosalind, except when you remember that he fell in love with her from seeing her eyes above a fan. But really? She's not even wearing a hat for half of it. She just has shorter hair and is wearing what looks like a sport coat. If he can't figure it out from this, he needs to reevaluate his love.
Tonight - Billy Joel. Hurrah!

Because I forgot how much I love the Animanics, and I will always love Shakespeare.

Hamlet Takes Out the Trash!

Blow Winds, and Crack Thy Cheeks!!

So The Fray concert was amazing. I'm pretty sure they did all of their songs and then some, and I'm looking forward to their next album. The highlights of the show were, for me, the cover of Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" - if you don't think that song is hilarious when sung by a group of men you have no sense of humor - and the final encore number, "Look After You." At the end of the song they broke into Oasis - "Maybe you're gonna be the one that saves me.. and after all, you're my Wonderwall..." Amazing. It went so perfectly with the song and I love "Look After You" anyway. Additionally, the band was true to the front they present on their CD. They're uplifting and clean in they're songs, and they were the same way in concert, which seems to be rare in the concert world and was very appreciated.

I spent the rest of this week in beautiful Cedar City, where I finally got to add King Lear to my list of Shakespeare plays I've seen in person. The rain stopped long enough for the production to start outside, but we got to watch most of the play through a drizzle, which was actually a lot of fun for that particular play. I was never quite sure whether the thunder I was hearing was real or coming out of the speakers. Twelfth Night was also fun, as always, and I enjoyed the other plays we saw. We avoided Coriolanus, partially because I didn't think the parentals would enjoy it, and partially because I'm afraid no one will every measure up to Jonathan Cake as dear Caius Marcius. Sigh...
One of the highlights of the festival was finding a Shakespeare bobble head in the gift shop, which I bought to put on my future teacher desk. Pictures to follow. The other was putting the hurt to the candy seller I call "Lonely Hand Man." When I graduated from high school, my friends and I went down to the festival to see all of the plays, and there was this obnoxious candy seller who guilted my friend Hollie into buying chocolate from him every night. He made such a nuisance of himself that she'd buy it just to make him go away. One night, he asked her out on a date because she had a beautiful smile. It was beyond ludicrous, but became more so when she said yes. While they were walking around the festival grounds, legend has it he told her that his hand was lonely, and she held it for him. Really. When my friend Mariann heard about it, she said, "I would have told him that's why he has two!!" So on the night we went to see Twelfth Night, my parents went to the orientation and I went out on the green to save a spot. (Two live productions and a movie later, I feel pretty confident in my grasp of that particular plot.) Lonely Hand Man sits down next to me, and in his fake Irish accent he says, "What's a beautiful lass like yourself doing sitting all alone?" Okay, first, it's a mistake to interrupt me while I'm reading when you're a complete/unwelcome stranger and you want to sell me something. Second, I had a score to settle with him. I told him I was waiting for my family and he said, "Well, would you like to buy something that might be almost as sweet as you are?" Ugh. "No, thanks. I'm fine." He put on a very unconvincing puppy dog face, "You're breaking my heart!"
"Well," I said, finally looking up from my book, "that's what I do."
"Nobody likes me," he whimpered. I ignored him and let him crawl away. He really needs to learn that not everyone goes for empty flattery delivered in a cheesy accent. I was doing him a favor.

Finally, I remembered my favorite romantic Shakespeare line when I was looking through the merchandise down there. From Much Ado About Nothing: "I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?" I think I love this line so much because I can hear Kenneth Branagh's Benedick saying it, but it's certainly a good one, cheesy as it is. If I were to put a cheesy quote on my wedding invitation, that would definitely be in the running (more so than the ones that repeatedly show up on the wedding announcements showing up on my fridge every five minutes.) I think I could do cheesy a little better if it were Shakespeare (or a lyric to a really awesome song, but we won't get ahead of ourselves here.)