Randomness

[Asso]

Senior rebellion huh? If you knew how I understand you, Linda!
I, too, lately I have some problems with Photobucket.
Either way it should work like this: copy the link of the image and paste it on TrixianSilk by using the IMG tool. This way: [IMG] link [/ IMG].
I think it should work.

[Weeble]

Thanks for the tip Alelou, maybe I'll take a day off fishin' and see if i can get it on Apple TV. I read the Canterbury Tales in College. The only way to get an "A" in the class was to take a verbal exam in Middle English. Lots of study got me....the B.... which was all but automatic. Still and all it helped quite a bit in my reading and understanding of Shakespeare.
I highly recommend the Canterbury Tales for anyone. Only the Holy Bible gives a wider view of the human experience. And the CT is certainly more entertaining reading.... . Imagine if the Enterprise traveled the galaxy with TnT taking the roll of the narrator....

[Asso]

It's been so long. I was a young lad who was sweating (so to speak) in the classroom. Our literature teacher introduced us to the Canterbury Tales.
I remained fascinated.
And the charm has never waned.

[Alelou]

Linda, I hope Asso's tip was enough to help you. I find Photobucket is different every time I go, but if you just keep heading back to your albums it's still the same copy img thing that allows you to get it here.

Weeble, that Joss Whedon movie is still in theaters, so I don't think you'll get it on Apple TV any time real soon. It's probably mostly at small independent theaters. I'd be tempted to go see it again, honestly, but I guess I'll wait for the DVD.

[Weeble]

Hmmm...

Well i may have to wait then. I haven't set foot in a theatre for better than 20 years. I know Apple TV has the trailer anyway....

[Alelou]

Wow, twenty years without a movie in a theater? I usually only go once or twice a year, but ... wow.

I need to find a movie/theater friend. My husband never wants to go out. I'll go to movies by myself, but I don't enjoy the intermissions on my own at plays. But it's embarrassing to have a play in production and to have to admit to all the theater people that I haven't actually gone to see more than a couple of plays a year for the last decade.

[Transwarp]

But did you learn to make an argument about the text, whether it was Heinlein or The Scarlet Letter? (Sounds like you did.)

I clearly learned to argue from somewhere! My english classes probably helped some, but I don't really know.

I think it's a mistake to teach as if the classics are the only books that matter or have ideas in them.

I wish you (or someone like you) had been my English teacher! I think I would have learned a great deal more.

Actually, my opinions have mellowed over time, and I share your belief the classics should be and need to be taught. I enjoyed reading Twain (who was assigned in one of my English classes) and Dickens (who--inexplicably--was not); I tried to enjoy Shakespeare as much as I was able, given the archaic Engliish. I had to have a heavily annotated and foot-noted version of his works to gain any appreciation for his meaning or intent; so it was more an exercise in study and academics than reading for pleasure.

[Alelou]

You have to SEE Shakespeare. I honestly believe that reading him is an exercise only historians and serious readers can enjoy. In fact, these days I would never try to teach Shakespeare without a good performance available.

You also have to match the play to the students. Teaching tragedies to high school students is of questionable value if you ask me. A romance or a comedy is much better. Romeo and Juliet might pass just because it's about two teenagers, but the others? Hamlet is my personal favorite, but I'd hate to teach it. When I was teaching high school The Tempest was a pure joy to teach, but I had to haul out some old textbooks from storage so my honors class could do it. The other classes got stuck with Julius Caesar, the 10th grade play in the textbook, and I felt sorry for ALL of us. It CAN be done, but it's so much harder.

[Distracted]

As You Like It is fun, though. So is Midsummer Night's Dream. And the boys all like The Tempest. Monsters are always cool.

[Alelou]

Yep, I taught As You Like It to the drama class, and we had fun with that.

I'd do Midsummer Night's Dream very happily, too. That one usually makes me laugh so hard I cry.

The honors students and I really had a lot of fun with The Tempest. I wish I could teach that one again.

The Winter's Tale is another one -- romance, not comedy -- that I'd love to try teaching sometime. (Patrick Stewart did a very nice job in that one in the BBC's fairly clunky old series of Shakespeare's plays, unless I'm getting it confused with an old series about acting in the Royal Shakespeare Company that he was in -- could be that.) Maybe not in high school, though. I think that one works better for older folks.

[Weeble]

Hmmm.....this may irritate a few....

Actually Romeo and Juliet is great for HS students, but not the first play they read. The comedies are better with a Midsummer's Night Dream or The Taming of the Shrew as some of my choices. PLus you can get the Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor movie easily enough.

Okay here we go. Romeo and Juliet if properly understood and viewed in context is more of a tragic comedy. REmember its a 14 year old girl and 16 year old guy who are the main attractions. Their actions are nothing more than teenage stupidity run amok with an unfortunate ending. But some of the lines that play to the front row are marvelous IF taken in context.

MacBeth is one that can also be taught, and presented in its purest form that of the descent of the soul caused by sin. Lady Macbeth reduced to murmuring and washing her hands is a marvelous dramatic moment. Polanski's movie version is terrific if not a bit overdone, but i think presents the most haunting version of the play I ever saw. Note: i am not generally a Polanski fan and think he should be in prison.

[Transwarp]

Hmmm.....this may irritate a few....

Darn. i was all set to be irritated but couldn't quite figure out what was supposed to irritate me. Damn you, Weeble!

[Alelou]

Oh, it irritates me. The Scottish Play is probably my least favorite (at least of those anyone knows). The witches are fun, and yes there are some good lines, but I've yet to see a performance that can make me stop wishing it was just over already. I can never buy that someone as viciously ambitious as Lady MacBeth really has any subconscious guilt or piety or whatever that is to make her wring her hands over at all. And most of the exciting action seems to take place off stage and then get narrated to us.

But that's why we're all different. I perhaps could see it being used as a text in a political science course.

[Linda]

Well, as far as photobucket is concerned, I already tried the img and copy thing. That doesn't work for me like it used to and I am not sure why other people seem to be able to use it. So frankly, I give up. I will just stick with things that are less frustrating. Maybe the techs for this site will someday fix it so we can load photos directly from our computer photo files to this site.

[Alelou]

Before you completely give up, can you post the code in the way that's not working? Chances are that someone here might be able to see what needs fixing.

I can't speak for the tech guys, but I think one of the reasons they avoid uploading images is that it can really slow down loading on a site. Not sure if this is still a problem today with most people on broadband, but it would be for anyone with a slow connection.