As You Like It--2 (I like this place/ and willingly could waste my time in it)

Jackie got a mysterious phone call tonight, asking her to meet in Grant Park, during something called "Movies in the Park." It was a friend of hers, with important info that couldn't be discussed on the phone. This is exactly my kind of thing. She did Woodward, I did Bernstein. Or, she did Smiley, I did Guillam. This was totally unjust because my temperament is way closer than Smiley's than hers. But, it had nothing to do with me, so I couldn't very well take the lead.

Instead, I took the opportunity to stroll through Grant and Millenium Parks. These are areas that I am badly under-utilizing. Grant Park is where Obama gave his speech on Election Night. If you're a Republican or just not that interested in Obama, it's basically our Central Park. It's also a great place to read As You Like It, becauset in Grant and Millenium Parks there are beautiful--and I mean really wonderful--gardens. Especially the one in Millenium. This is good because As You Like It is pastoral and it's tough to get into the pastoral mindset when you're totally surrounded by concrete.

Act One basically just gets his people on the move. The old Duke has already been kicked out into the forest by his usurping brother, Frederick. Old Duke's daughter, the sublime Rosalind, is kept behind because she's friends with Frederick's daughter, Celia. This doesn't last long. Shakespeare valiantly holds out for three scenes, but then he can't take it anymore and has his heroine start cross-dressing. This because Frederick has kicked her out and she and Celia are taking off to the forest to find Duke Senior. And everyone knows you can't take a road trip without binding your breasts and changing your name to the overtly masculine "Ganymede."

Meanwhile, a young man named Orlando is also hitting the road, accompanied by his old servant Adam. Orlando is younger brother to an asshole, who plans to burn down his house while he's asleep. So, time to go. Orlando can't hope for protection from Frederick, because earlier that day he was in this wrestling match with Charles, the new duke's pal, and seriously won. New Duke hated Orlando's dad (but loves his brother) and so isn't best pleased. Rosalind, however, is and strangely falls for the good-natured and apparently strong but essentially dull Orlando.

Got it?

And so off they go, separately, into the forest. The girls are accompanied by the fool, Touchstone.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I want to read As You Like It in the gardens.

As You Like It--1

Jackie and I just got back from two weeks in MI, in which we got married and took our honeymoon. I took Othello with me, but after two acts I realized this was a horrible play for nuptials. Read it, and I think you'll agree with me that the "murder-your-wife" theme is quite prominent.

I should have taken As You Like It, for several reasons: it has a ludicrously happy ending; it ends with a crazy, LSD wedding; it features several successful, if somewhat uneven, couples; most of it is set in a forest; all of it is set in France. For those last two I should explain that for our honeymoon we went camping at the very top of Michigan, in the woods. Oh, and the very top of Michigan is very close to Canada, which has some people who speak French.

The forest of Arden is, in a way, Quebec in reverse. As You Like It is supposed to be set in France, but the forest of Arden feels really English and they even talk about Robin Hood (nod to Bloom, who says the same thing). And we all know that Robin Hood was a fox who lived in England in a time when cartoons were still drawn by hand. Quebec, however, is officially Canadian which is kind of maybe English, but they speak a weird French and have all those fleur-de-lis everywhere.

Well, I think I've shed some real light on As You Like It and on our humorous neighbors to the North.

Kenneth Branagh deserves our thanks for continuing to make Shakespeare movies, even if they are getting weirder and less successful. Hamlet was set in some sort of Victorian or Georgian-looking Denmark. Love's Labour's Lost was baffingly turned into a musical and had that guy from Scream and Hackers in it. And now, I find out that he did an As You Like It, but set it in feudal Japan! As soon as I can trick Jackie into watching it, I'll fill you in.