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January 9, 1999

The Bard is My Muse

When I snapped this picture of Mr. Lake, I thought he was attempting to do an imitation of Joe Fiennes. A pretty bad one. He then indicated to me that he was actually posing as the smaller figure in the middle of the poster. Do you see it? Today was supposed to be pretty mild, not doing too much and dinner and a movie later today. Well, I was hustled out through my sister's longing eyes to watch her perform at the library today. There was quite a crowd gathered (a much larger number than I had expected). They weren't particularly on today. The only two really good songs were "When the Night" and "Always" (by Erasure). When the Night was reasonably okay, but I've heard their dynamics better. None of their other songs had any dynamics. They had no passion. They had wrong notes quite frequently. Mike couldn't stop flinching during their version of "Lollipop". "Always" was good, but I think that's because Els really puts a lot into the song. After their performance, I took several photographs of them, especially for their website. Some of the images weren't bad. Not only was I impressed with some of them, pa was too. That's very reassuring: I think that my father has a very good eye and it's always nice to think that I have inherited some of that great eye as well. In the evening, Mike and I decided to go out for dinner. We also wanted to see a movie and we decided to see Shakespeare in Love. I've wanted to see it from the minute I heard that Tom Stoppard co-wrote the screenplay. I have read and seen a number of his works and have admired all of them. They require a bit of intelligence to really get to the meat of the work, but it's worth it. Shakespeare in Love was playing at a theater near to Mexicali Rose, so we went there for dinner. We had poppers again. Yummy. Mike and I both really love the cheddar-stuffed poppers over the cream cheese-filled ones. We walked to the theater that was showing Shakespeare In Love. It wasn't too far from the restaurant (just down the block). We passed by a basement Italian restaurant and I made a mental note that we should go there sometime. Mike and I love eating at new restaurants... but I think that we tend to get afraid when we have favorites. We are both creatures of habit: we want the familiar and consistent. We should start taking more risks. Go with the flow. Yeah, baby. Anyway, the movie was excellent. I think that Joe Fiennes is my new actor obsession. He is wonderful as the Bard. I believe that he is the younger brother of Ralph Fiennes, another yummy specimen of manhood. His comic timing was excellent. However, I couldn't help but notice his grimmy fingernails. He had grimmy hands throughout the entire movie, ink stains everywhere. I don't know why I noticed it, but I did. It made my uncomfortable. Gwyenneth Paltrow (sp?) as Viola, the Bard's Muse, was quite good, especially knowing that she is pure American. Her accent was quite good. I didn't think that she had particularly good comic timing and I felt that the comedy was carried more by the other characters than her. Geoffrey Rush was hilarious as the producer and Dame Judi Dench was excellent as Queen Elizabeth. I admire the Queen so much. She's an amazing character in real life and I think that Dame Judi did a good job in portraying a woman full of wit and intelligence. She also has a great ability to have the presence of one that should fear. Her posture said, "I've got power and I command respect." I was moved by the few seconds she was on screen. The movie was excellent. It was definitely everything that one could expect from a great cast and a brilliant screenplay. It shows how the every day trials and tribulations can end up becoming the influence for great works. I want to draw from that. Observe my world. Soak it up. The Bard is my muse.

© Copyright 1999, Eileene Coscolluela
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