To Read or Not to Read?

I’ve never really enjoyed Shakespeare; the man confused the crap out of me in high school with his sonnets and soliloquies. The only thing I really got out of those classes was how the structure of a play is formed. 

Then I got to see my first Shakespearean performance a couple years back in Staunton, VA . The venue was the Black Friar Theatre and its the only place in the United states that still puts on his plays.

That night I remember throwing down a few “Festie” Starr Hill beers and having a great time seeing these whacky guys in costumes shouting at each other in old English and running in circles around the stage.

Once you witness one of his plays live, you realize it’s true what they say; they were never meant to be read. The majority of people living in England during the days of the Globe theatre were very much illiterate and thus play acting was the only way to convey such an art.

Today high schools and colleges continually push his textual presence down our throats. It’s somewhat understandable as we can’t go back in time to the 1600 London, we don’t all live in Staunton, VA, and we can’t all act. So we do the next best thing and read them; he is after all tagged as the greatest play-write of all time.

But those plays are still painstaking to read if you have no interest in literature. Even as an English major I shunned ol’ Will. I was reminded of this the other day when I came across several of his works I purchased but have yet to read. 

Books on Books

There’s Othello, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, even Macbeth. Pretty much his entire works. I read several of them in a Brit Lit class, and I was originally going to take Shakespeare for my senior capstone course but had a great opportunity to take the same credits through a Toni Morrison author course (One of the most prolific African American female writers of our generation).

Although I was happy with my decision, I still have 12 New Cambridge editions and bookstores everywhere will only take them back for a few dollars a piece. (If you are seriously interested in these books please find the contact tab!).

Still, I have a small place in my heart for the man. Amongst the confusing dialect there are a lot of easily understood lines in his plays, one of which has modernized itself into the Weezer song: “I’m the greatest man that ever lived.”

This jam recently came up on my shuffle and the following lyrics are a direct nod to his genius:

Somebody said all the world’s a stage

And each of us is a player

That’s what I’ve been tryin to tell you

In Act 1 I was struggling to survive

Nobody wanted my action dead or alive

Act 2, I hit the big time

And bodies be all up on my behind

And I can’t help myself because I was born to shine

If you don’t like it, you can shove it

But you don’t like it, you love it

So I’ll be up here in a rage

Til they bring the curtain down on the stage

Customary to Weezer and their roller coaster chord shifts, this song thrashes, lulls you down and then turns it back up again after this brief lyrical interlude. 

Next to “to be or not to be,” “All the world’s a stage” has got to be one of Shakespeare’s most recognizable lines. It’s also one of the most insightful metaphors any poet has contributed to world literature.

Thinking of our own society and the specific roles that we choose to pursue, certain jobs that must be done and even the jails that are filled, it’s pretty clever to call us all players. We’re only a single cog in the great machine, and Shakespeare was a master at exposing what it means to be that cog.

One cog example: movie actors. Situated at the upper echelon of humanity, they have taken the greatest que from Will by mastering the role of playing a role. For this, society pays handily; not many of us can turn over our personalities on a dime.

We look up to these players because they inspire and awe us, with much credit due to the director, writer, producer, cinematographer, sound guy, and the list of cogs goes on.

What we don’t consciously think about is the same stage actors get on everyday, so do we. What we do on that stage and how we convey ourselves to the audience is solely up to us.

Tight Doodle

For the time being Shakespeare’s memory will remain under my desk until I decide whether or not to sell out his plays for a few dollars a piece.

Hey, I’m just another player and I need to get paid. I think he'd understand.

What It Means To WHAM

The first “Moment” I ever had was a simple conversation on the VIP floor section at Firefly Music Festival waiting for the Red Hot Chili Peppers to come on stage. Like most conversations at music festivals, you never really remember how they start, they just kind of flow from whatever current music conditions await your ears.

This is where I met Pam, wide-eyed and musically enthused toting a drink in hand ready to share all her love for the red hots with me. Little did I know our conversation about Anthony Keidis would turn into an awakening to one of the most innovative iphone apps I’ve ever come across.

Pam turned out to be the creator of “We Had A Moment,” or more simply, WHAM, a stylish little app that lets you pin point the location and time of an interaction you had with a particular person or group on a user friendly map.

Navigation

I thought her idea was pretty clever and wanted to know more, so she continued to describe her baby and what kind of features and circumstances made the app thrive.

The first step to using WHAM is having the desire and awareness to catalog a certain moment you find entertaining, emotional or valuable. Think about the last time you met someone awesome, thought wow, this person is awesome, but I may never experience this awesomeness again because of several reasons:

1. I’m not feelin’ the vibes right now to ask said person in said moment for their number.
2. I don’t have my phone on me, in fact, neither of us do.
3. I’m at a party and the alcohol content in my body is prohibiting me from remembering any kind of name/number whatsoever.
4. I simply let an organic conversation fly and didn’t even think about gaining contact information during that moment.

Now, you my think, are all these moments related to potential romantic relationships? Why don’t I just go on tinder and swipe through hundreds of potential suitors so I can get laid that way? Well, other then the fact that Tinder is one of thee creepiest dating apps of our generation, We Had A Moment’s premise is to make of it what you want.

What the app has going for it is the amount of potential moments that occur to people everyday are endless. So to are the locations. Were you at a bar recently conversing with a potential business client but never closed or got a name? Maybe that person sitting next to you on the airplane really enjoyed swapping reading lists with you, but you’ll never speak with them again, or will you?

Peep, peek, maybe a pee?

With the foundation of a mutual happening that’s already occurred, it doesn’t seem so weird putting a moment out there and letting it develop to whatever extent the users decide. Privacy may seem like an issue because anyone can view the moments posted, but once you respond to a moment, the conversation becomes strictly private.

I’ve found from my own experience that festivals and concerts are some of the most organic locations for moments to go down. With bad cell phone receptions and people having little time or desire to remember your phone number, much less your full name (spelling for facebook!) WHAM fills the void as an easy pathway to make a simple connection that lasts long after the show.

I’d say if this is your first time hearing about WHAM give it a shot, you can create moments online at wehadamoment.com or do it the convenient way by searching the app store for “We Had A Moment”.

You may just make a moment that changes your life, or maybe you’ll just trade some hip music with an awesome new friend. You’ll never know unless you WHAM!