Monday, August 9, 2021

Tangential Shakespeare in Back-to-School FoxTrot

Amend, Bill. "Pencil Test." Some Clever Title: A FoxTrot Collection Blah Blah Blah. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2016. 73. 

It's always nice when Shakespeare and math come together in harmony—even if it's only tangentially. And it's even better when it's in a FoxTrot comic.

I try to keep my eye on the Shakespeare in FoxTrot (search the blog for other moments of Bard / Amend connections), but I missed this one, perhaps because it's only tangential. However, knowing the Shakespeare part of the math question will get you a long way toward solving it (though you might, as I did, have to Google the atomic number of boron to be certain (though, if you look and read carefully, the comic itself cleverly answers the question in its own context).


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Thursday, August 5, 2021

“Only the Good Drown Young”: A Parody of Billy Joel's “Only the Good Die Young.”


kj, jk. “Only the Good Drown Young”: A Parody of Billy Joel's “Only the Good Die Young.” N.c: n.p., 2021.

Well, my voice just isn't up to recording this one, but I did want to share it with you. Grab your favorite karaoke version of "Only the Good Die Young" by Billy Joel (here's one) and impress all your Shakespearean friends—particularly those who are into Hamlet.

Come out, Ophelia, don’t make me wait.
You Danish-y girls start much too late.
Oh, insanity isn’t a character trait
From walking i’ th’ sun . . .
Well, they gave you a prayer book and asked you to pray;
They hid in the arras to watch what you’d say—
Ah, but they never thought that your brain would decay
When Hamlet said, “Be a nun.”
Only the good drown young—that’s what I said.
Only the good drown young.
Only the good drown young.

You might know that I run with Horatio, and
He ain’t strange things apt to understand,
But at least he saw the ghost firsthand,
Ah, and he told me what it done.
So, come on, Ophelia, shall I lie in your lap?
Let’s watch the play: Don’t you know? It’s a trap!
There’s one more thing that I ought to recap:
Ophelia, you’re just no fun.
Darling, only the good drown young.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I tell you, only the good drown young.
Only the good drown young.

You got a big bouquet at your daddy’s funeral oration.
You got some rosemary . . .
Mmmmm, and a few pansies.
But, Ophelia, they didn’t give you quite enough good flotation.
You said, “Any more is sin”
When you were saying your orisons.
O, o, o . . .

They say there’s a purgatory for dad.
They also say that I may go mad.
I’d rather be melancholy than just plain sad—
Must no more be done?
You know that only the good drown young.
O, baby, babe.
I tell you, only the good drown young.
Only the good drown young.

You say my mother said the willow by the brook was an invitation.
Aww, she never saw you splash.
But was the deed bloody and rash?
O, o, o . . .
Come out, come out, come out,
Ophelia, don’t make me wait.
You Danish-y girls start much too late.
Insanity isn’t a character trait
From walking i’ th’ sun . . .
You know that only the good drown young.
Tell you, baby . . .
Only the good drown young.
Only the good drown young.
Only the good . . .
Only the good drown young. [Splash.] 


Monday, August 2, 2021

Book Note: The Orchard Book of Shakespeare Stories

Matthews, Adrew. The Orchard Book of Shakespeare Stories. Illus. Angela Barrett. London: Orchard Books, 2001.

We've dealt with the nifty Shakespeare Stories (for which, q.v.), but I've neglected to let you know that the same retellings of Shakespeare are illustrated in an entirely different manner for a single-volume experience.

If you like your illustrations in color and less like cartoons—or if you just like to have all your Shakespeare stories in a single volume, this is the one for you. Here's a bit of Hamlet to encourage you (since I gave you some of the other illustrator's version of that play):




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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
All material original to this blog is copyrighted: Copyright 2008-2039 (and into perpetuity thereafter) by Keith Jones.

The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service; there resides, / To make me slave to it; and, for your sake, / Am I this patient [b]log-man.

—The Tempest