The Daily News

1   Well. TEEYEWZDAY. Fancy that.

2   Hope you had a jolly good Monday.

3   How'd you do?

4    Ahhhhhhh, wonderful.

5    Me too.

6    I did. 

7    I wanted to kick myself for giving deadline essays, but I still loved the time.

8   

9   I'm lying. 

10  Not gonna lie.

11   

12   Actually I did.

13    Granted I graded papers like a madman.

14    But...

15    Ah, TCM just had Julie Andrews sing "These are a few of my favorite things!" I love when things in life interrupt my train of thought, things that are better than my train of thought by miles to begin with.

16   Loves me some Julie Andrews.

17   Loves me My Favorite Things 

18    Loves me everything right now.

19    Thanks, week off. 

20     Ah, but it was epic.

21     It just was. It was also a time. And it was a good one. 

22   I've news, and then more news, and then news, but I can't report a lot of it.

23   

24

25   <explosively laughing>

26   It's GREAT news, and a merry.

27    I'll keep it quiet. I can be quiet sometimes. In fact, there was a time when these wonderful Korean people who owned our Tahoe lodge thought I was quiet, just because I didn't want to make a ton of noise, and I always tried to respect their place. They never knew my loud side, so they at one point dubbed me "Quiet George" to the utter delight of my family. 

28   So I guess this is coming to you affectionately from "Quiet George."

29   

30   That would be me.

31    I wish to move on now.

32

33   Moving On, Part One: I am in the midst of teaching Midsummer, and over the break I stressed, because Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream seems to follow me and further, to beguile me. 

34   Last week I became lost.

35    Honestly.

36    We closed house sales, opened ourselves to realtors, and searched buying a new house.

37    Not gonna lie. AND it is rockin'. Lots of irons in lots of fires.

38    I'm ready.

39    And then there was this version of Midsummer I watched.

40     It came to me through Shakespeare/Globe, a performance group who makes DVD's of their shows that come to audiences LIVE from the Globe.

41   At first I was put off. Theseus and Hippolyta had crossovers with Oberon and Titania, and it began with major anger, which  if you are a Midsummer nerd would seem inconsistent with Hippolyta's character.

42

43   We're talking the Globe actors and actresses. 

44   In THE reconstructed Globe Theater in London, just a few hundred feet from the original.

45   It has England's respect as the proper new home of the Globe, and has an entire history of its fires and subsequent reconstruction, but I won't bring that up in here. 

46   Listen to me. All you need do is Google it and then there it is in all its glory and wonder.

47   It is magical. It is mystical. It enchants.

48    And you wake upon watching confused, bewildered and enchanted, as though YOU had fallen into the spells, dreams and enchantment that explodes into purple and velvet rain in this production. 

49   AND not to disappoint...

50   I went online and found that the Barnes and Noble at Eastridge had a DVD on sale.

51   I quickly set my desks up for testing and then buzzed over to B and N. I asked the guy in the DVD area if he could look up A Midsummer Night's Dream DVD Shakespeare Globe,

52  And he was happy to.

53   

54   "It doesn't come out 'til June!" he said.

54   

55   Plan "B" is to see if I can crack the blocking of You Tube that hit a LOT of us mid-season.

56   I'll be back. Gottago and get to work early so that I may administer a test in my classroom. 

57   The year has its own plans. I can't wait to see where it all heads. Fun ride.

58    Gottago.

59    Peace.

~H~