SAA

This year's Shakespeare Association conference was pretty fantastic. I don't think I made an ass of myself, on the dance floor, in the seminar room, or elsewhere; I was inculcated into a Shakespearean editorial board (with free breakfast); I got one or two new ideas for articles; and I saw baby gorillas at the San Diego Zoo.














This was also the first year I brought a date to the conference, and that went pretty smashingly, too. I think M managed to convince one or two people (accidentally, of course) that she was working on a book on Shakespeare and the law.

The preview of the new Kenneth "Zenneth" Branagh As You Like It was not a highlight. I was pretty delighted with the beginning, which involved ninjas and sumo, but the middle and end involved self-indulgent, blurry steadycamming, a performance by Bryce Howard that suggested that everyone on the set was too distracted by her impossible gorgeosity to suggest what her scenes were really about, and a lot of Brian Blessed. By the end, the score, the terrible directorial decisions, and the twee Orientalist flower close-ups made me want to hit Ken in the mouth. With a hatchet. Y'all can see it yourselves in August.