My devices seem to be failing me this morning. My tablet refuses to charge. It tells me I should use the original charger for better charging. It tells me it is slow charging, but it doesn’t seem to be. I will take it to the Verizon store today to see what could be done.
So I attempted to listen to music with Spotify web player. However my browser forgot my logon. I attempted to logon with Fakebook but apparently I entered the wrong password. This is frustrating because what I wanted to do was simply do the dishes with a little company of music or radio or something.
Finally I looked on YouTube and found a very interesting Library of Congress video called “Justice for Shylock.”
I have often wondered about Shakespeare’s presentation of Shylock and how it fits in with the history of anti semitism. Plus bonus: I noticed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the judging panel. Cool. So I set up my laptop and plugged it into speakers. Of course it wasn’t long before it failed. It continue to fail intermittently.
Here’s a link to the Library of Congress recording. I plan to eventually listen to the entire thing. Very interesting to me.
Afternoon post script
Eileen pointed out that I was not using the original cord with my tablet. I found this cord and the tablet began to recharge. So that’s good. I discovered that Huw Lewis wanted to come by sometime today to finalize his selections for the Oct 18 dedication recital. I have given permission for John Deppe, a Hope College grad, to come today at 5 PM to check out the organ. Huw emailed me a bit ago that he teaches until 4 PM. I emailed him back and told him Deppe was planning on being there at 5 PM. Would that give him enough time?
No reply yet. Church seems to be getting to me.
The silly “Stewardship the Musical” sung and performed by parishioners has been meeting without me. I promised them one rehearsal and one dress rehearsal. Last week one of the cast texted me and asked me if I could be at a rehearsal last night. I texted her back that I had promised one rehearsal and one dress so it was fine with me if it would count as the one rehearsal. She said she would get back to me. of course she didn’t.
I was expecting a frantic call last night about this. When it came, instead she asked me if I could play one more rehearsal. She was confused. She seemed to think I had only said I would be at the dress. By the time we hung up I had agreed to an extra rehearsal next Monday night plus a rehearsal after church on Oct 15th AND a dress on Oct 22.
Then I received a text from a Worship Commission member asking me if we were meeting in a few minutes. I checked and the meeting was not on the calendar. It was, however, in an old email. Long story short. I ended up jumping up and driving over for a meeting.
After turning in the music for this weekend’s bulletin and my Oct 18 recital bio and pieces I went over to church this morning to get in my own daily rehearsal.
At this point I didn’t know when Huw was planning to drop by. I cut it short so Eileen and I would have enough time to eat and treadmlll before the cat had to go to the vet for a shot.
Now I am grumpy. Eileen offered to take the cat to the vet without me and I took her up on it to write this post.
At least my tablet worked so I could read while treadmilling.
When I was teaching at Wayne State, one semester the Hillberry was performing the Merchant of Venice so I assigned it to my classes to attend. I was appalled by the antisemitism of the work and went to Marty Herman to ask how he taught about it. Marty suggested that, if he were staging it today, he would go full on and have Shylock played with all the stereotypes – hook nose, flaming red hair, etc. He also said that, given that the Jews were expelled from England in 1290 and not allowed to resettle there until after Shakespeare’s time (1655), he doubted that Shakespeare had ever seen a Jew let alone known one.
Harold Bloom does a good job of discussing all this in his Shakespeare: the Invention of the Human a book that I know you have read but might go back to to refresh yourself on his take of it. Or not as you see fit.
I just finished Hillary Clinton’s new book and am about to start on Ta-Nehesi’s new book (published today): “We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy.” I suspect that Coates will have better insights into What Happened (the title of Hillary’s book) than she.
I’m reading the Clinton book as well. I turn to it treadmilling after finishing the days news. I expect Coates to be more about the Obama administration than the election from the title. Clinton’s book hasn’t grabbed me yet but I persist. I will have to pull out Bloom again. Good suggestion.