Wm. Shakespeare v. Taylor Swift

If you know me, and I know you do dear reader, you know that I have an unreasoning weakness for a well-crafted pop song. And true to my caddish male nature, that goes double for one sung by a cute girl. So, for better or worse, I was bound to be a sucker for "Love Story" by Taylor Swift.



The song is interesting though, because for 85% of it, it's a pretty faithful retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, including Juliet's moment of doubt towards the end. Taylor sings:

I got tired of waiting,
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading,

But instead of the tragic ending Shakespeare wrote, Juliet's forbidden love arrives:

When I met you on the outskirts of town, and I said

Romeo save me, I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head, I don't know what to think
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said

Marry me Juliet, you'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress
It's a love story, baby, just say yes

Nice enough, sure. But this rewrite of the story leads me to wonder, "Does a pop song have to have a happy ending?" And if Taylor Swift wanted a song with a happy ending, why pick Romeo and Juliet at all? Maybe it's a statement that even the most famous of star-crossed lovers deserve a happy ending, suggesting that Taylor believes that Shakespeare treated his most famous characters poorly.

Or maybe ... it's just a pop song.

One more dig ...

And then I'll quit, I promise.

But Adam Lucas of TarHeelBlue.com nails it:

The biggest fallacy about this whole Carolina-Duke rivalry is the 8-mile thing, as if proximity somehow indicates similarity. It's like assuming East and West Germany must be comparable since they were close to each other.

Duke fans believe spending 196 hours in a tent indicates passion and devotion. Carolina fans believe 196 hours in a tent indicates a telling lack of other social engagements.

The undergrads inhabiting Tent 1 in Krzyzewskiville staked their claim on Dec. 26, 47 days ago. Added over four years of college life, that's 188 days--over half a year--in a tent to watch four losses. The good news is that all that time in a tent did enable them to have a great view of history: Carolina's 101-87 victory was the first time an opponent surpassed 100 points in a regulation game at Cameron since the Tar Heels did it in 1983.

Duke has 6,340 undergrads. Assuming a fourth of them are seniors, that makes a class of 1,585 that will graduate in May without ever seeing a home victory over Carolina.

The rest of the article (http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/021209aaa.html) is good too. Now I'll go back to leaving Dookies alone.

Too good not to share ...

Thanks to TarHeelFanblog reader: “Yo mama sleeps with Teague” for this.

Oh and thanks to 101-87.

Money in misery ... and stolen kids.

An interesting article from a GREAT magazine about a problem near and dear to my heart (especially the part about children and international parental child abduction).

It's probably a topic for another post, but I think with The Economist you probably get the most unbiased and thoughtful reporting on the American political front.

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13057235

Afro Samurai: Art for art's sake?

Got around to watching "Afro-Samurai: Resurrection" the other night and was almost completely blown away. It's out on video and if you have the slightest enjoyment of anime, or action cartoons, or samurai movies, you owe it to yourself to see this film as soon as possible. Uncle Skippy flat out loved it. I have nits to pick, of course, but for the vast majority of the 90 minutes or so that the movie runs, I was in total awe of the cinematic experience.
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For me, the best part of the movie was not the plot, which was a little draggy and repetitive, or the characters (not Lucy Liu's best work), but the art. Oh, the glorious art! The beauty of drawings and the ink and the coloring in this film reminded me of how my love of comic books transcended from just being enthralled by the great heroic stories and developed into a more mature relationship where I appreciated each panel for the work of art that it could be. For me, way back then, it was examplified by my love of the X-Men and having my taste develop beyond the John Byrne X-Men and into more heady stuff like the Wolverine graphic novels. The art from Afro Samurai reminded me of high school friends and the hours we spent pouring over each panel and arguing about who the best comic book artists were. It didn't matter who won, of course, because we were appreciating art for art's sake. Afro Samurai reminded me of how I grew to love comics in the first place.
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Pretty heady stuff for nerdy 15 year olds.
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Anyway, Afro Samurai not only transported me back to those times, but also wrapped me in a compelling storyline and entertained me with over-the-top gory cartoon violence. Samuel L. Jackson's work on this series continues to be excellent as he voices both the title character and Afro Samurai's interior monologue personified in the outrageous Ninja Ninja.
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I had been looking forward to getting enough time to sit down and watch this movie and, for once, I was not disappointed.
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Did I mention I also saw "Hotel for Dogs?"

I like to think I'm pretty liberal ...

But some days, the thinking of conservative economist makes a lot of sense to me. Consider this Wall Street Journal opinion piece on the downside of a foreclosure "bailout." http://http//online.wsj.com/article/SB123336541474235541.html

I don't think that politically the current administration will be able to avoid providing foreclosure relief. But the author of the WSJ piece thoughtfully considers the long term effect of being trapped in that house, that really, you couldn't afford before the credit market crashed, and you won't be able to afford even once housing prices stabilize again.

I know, I know. I'm just bitter because I didn't buy a huge house that I couldn't afford and now I won't be getting any help from the government keeping it. I have a heart of stone.