A Vindication too Late

Way, way back in my last year of secondary school, P, the head of English, proposed staging As You Like It. I auditioned. I was offered Celia. The one and only time I've ever done this, I left the procution after one rehearsal. (No great problem, there was a far better substitute.) I couldn't play/be Celia: I wanted to be Jacques or Touchstone. But P wouldn't cast female for male. Period. (I did go to watch the production and lent costume (my little brother was in it) and it was lovely.

Around the same time I auditioned for the NYT and annoyed P by using, along with a soliloquy from A Phoenix Too Frequent, Edmund's "bastard" speech from King Lear. (Nope. I didn't get in. Really, I'm not good at acting: too self-conscious, too stiff. Nor did I ever wish to do it professionally.)

I've now watched (online obvs.) the NT Twelfth Night with a female Feste (somewaht of a letdown) and Debbie Aldridge as Antonia! I just wish P were around to see it--mostly because Antonia was a standout performance, but also because a little bit of I told you so. (And I know this is not by any means the first example of gender-blind casting, but somehow a pertinent one....)

Actually, this is also the first production Twelfth Night I've seen (and I've seen quite a few) where Antonio/Antonia's suffering (tragedy?) is proerly played out, foregrounded. And wehre the ending reminds us that with O/S, V/O, M/Sir T paired off, there is one prominent character who is not.

I've always wondered what A's revenge would be.

2020: Watched

(Since I slacked off on monthly read (et al) post a while back, I'm going to post 2020's various reads and watcheds as a series of posts, which may be slighlty edited until the end of the year.)

Watched:

• Andy Serkis read The Hobbit
  
• Megson in concert — three  four five times! online—and once live.
• MIDNIGHT YOUR TIME by Adam Brace with Diana Quick from the Donmar
  
• Fantasy in Times of Crisis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-zAP47fi24)
• Burnaby concert online
• Iestyn Davies & Elizabeth Kenny live from Wigmore Hall 
• Hamilton (courtesy of Disney+)
• Valentino Winter 2020
• Fibre East Online
• My Light Shines On by the Scottish Ballet Company
• Mandy, series 1 (BBC)
• Open Cambridge: Behind-the-scenes of the University of Cambridge Library Storage Facility (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH_rmdeTCWY&feature=youtu.be)
• The Red Shoes (Matthew Bourne) (online)
• Twelfth Night (National Theatre) (online)
• Royal Ballet All-Star Gala (BBC)
• Don Quixote (Royal Ballet) (online)

From which I learn, I ought to go and see more ballet live (when it's possible) and there's never too much Megson!

2020: Read (non-fiction)

( Non-fiction )

edited to finally fix the cut text

2020: Read (poetry)

I loved DRAGON QUESTIONNAIRE BY LESLEY WHEELER (http://strangehorizons.com/poetry/dragon-questionnaire/).

Rhubarb!

meme via hilarita (via legionseagle)

1. Comment on this entry saying Rhubarb!, and I'll pick three things from your profile interests or tags.
2. Write about the words/phrases I picked in your journal and link back here. Spread the love.

The topics I got were: mornington crescent, ou, dictionaries

So, mornington crescent... Actually, before I talk about it is this with the "Sunwise on Sundays, Widdershins on Wednesdays" rule? Is Kings Cross? What about south of the river? As a kid I hated this game on episodes of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (the ones with the classic line-up of Barrie Cryer, Graeme Garden, Willie Rushton, Tim Brooke Taylor and Humph). The whole no rules/arguing about the rules thing gave me that fearful sinking in the stomach feeling (but then so many things did). Now I entirely embrace the skill of it. And its longevity. And did you jusyt say "Rotten Row"? I'm not sure the right-hand rule allows it, but anyway "Mornington Crescent"!

The ou. My mother signed up in its second year, Did S100 (the science foundation) and the summer school. My dad took over childcare and cooking: we still remind him of the minced beef stew with brussels sprouts. My first memories of serious science were posters of the mid-Atlantic trench illustrating plate tectonics and later lots of pictures of Darwin's finches. Mam started the next courses but dropped out to sell our then home and get us moved. Later she went back and started the humanities route, and I think got as far as some 2nd level courses. I signed up for my first 10-point course nearly 20 years ago. Took more than enough to claim my Certificate in Contemporary Science. Failed to claim the lowest level Maths certificate before it was phased out. Dropped out of some courses (was aiming for a BSc to balance my BA) and when the costs went up, turned to MOOCs. My DH got his MSc from the OU: didn't enjoy it, but helped him on with his career. The world's best self-teaching materials and the most beautiful textbooks. An institution as important and precious as the BBC. The greatest TV shows, especially for the Mathematics and Sciences.

And finally, dictionaries. Words on the page are two dimensional. The dictionary shows you the roots below with etymological info. And the glorious growths above with examples of usage. Add in a thesaurus and you get an entire forest! And the different species of dictionary: the ones that translate between languages (Collins Rob-air, Langensheidt); the specialist ones (I still treasure my dictionary of computer terminology from the late 80s: quaint now, a twisted stump of obsolete terms); and, speakingif computers, data dictionaries, keys to another kind of understanding, pilons striding through the wordy woods. Dictionaries, for me, are the most dangerous rabbit hole, especially as they're online, out there, all of the time.