Next year marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death (an eerily dramatic full circle since it fell on April 23 which is also the accepted day of his birth) and there some projects in the works to mark the occasion. First, please see this link http://www.shakespearelives.org/ and check out every tab within in. Do it now. It may change your life or the life of someone you love (they really ought to change that damn pink background; it'll just incite violence. Dreadfully aggressive colour). William Shakespeare: Anniversary project set for global stageBy Sean CoughlanEducation correspondent29 October 2015 Shakespeare Lives will reach a global audience: Michelle O'Neill in Macbeth at the Guthrie Theater in the US. (Photo: Michal Daniel) The 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare next year will be marked by a major global cultural and educational project in 140 countries. Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said the playwright was "one of our greatest literary exports". The initiative will include working with young people without access to school in developing countries. The British Council's Sir Ciaran Devane said the project would reflect Shakespeare's "global impact". Speaking in the Houses of Parliament at the launch of Shakespeare Lives, Mr Whittingdale emphasised the playwright's cultural significance and international influence. Globe to global"Shakespeare is a major driver of tourism and also an important player in our export market. And the creative industries which he towers over are a huge part of our economy," said Mr Whittingdale. "It is very hard to overstate the scale and scope of his reach." "Full of sound and fury" - Sakha theatre production of Macbeth in Moscow (Photo: Sergey Petrov) Partners in the 400th anniversary project include the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe and the BBC. There will be performances, publications, films, broadcasts, online events and festivals. Schools in the UK and around the world will be given resources and video clips, exploring themes such as "global citizenship". 'Soft power'But there will also be an alliance with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) to use the Shakespeare events to reach those young people who are excluded from education. Despite a millennium pledge for universal primary education, there are about 58 million children who have no access to school - mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. There are an estimated 250 million young people around the world who are unable to read or write. Shakespeare was buried in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616 "When millions of children cannot read, they become cut off from learning those lessons that literature can offer," said Philip Goodwin, VSO chief executive. The exercise in cultural "soft power" will include events in the United States, Bangladesh, Malaysia, New Zealand, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. Sir Ciaran, British Council chief executive, said the playwright was "one of the most enduring examples of cultural impact and relations". He said the "genius" of Shakespeare's language had given "people from all walks of life a platform for self-expression". http://www.bbc.com/news/education-34667189 And look, lucky people of London, what'll be happening in your back yard. My heart is filled with joy that it's happening and pain that I can't be there to see it. I got a tour of the Globe before it opened officially way back when. They were putting on the finishing touches, but missed a spot on the bench I sat on. Splinter. Incredible feeling being in that space, sort of enclosed and enveloped yet open and communal. I will once day see a play in this theatre. Anyway, here's what they'll be up to: A film for each play to mark 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's deathShakespeare’s Globe project to show 37 new 10-minute films on 37 screens laid out along Thames path between Westminster and London Bridge Director Dominic Dromgoole, who is leaving Shakepeare’s Globe in April, says the 400th anniversary celebrations will be his ‘last great adventure’. Photograph: Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian Shakespeare’s Globe theatre is to mark the 400th anniversary of the bard’s death by turning London’s South Bank into a huge pop-up cinema showing 37 new films – one for each of Shakespeare’s plays. Some 2.5 miles (4km) of the Thames path between Westminster Bridge and London Bridge will be given over to 37 screens placed in order of when the play was written. Although each film will only run for 10 minutes – repeated on a loop throughout 23 and 24 April – viewing the entire collection would take over six hours, not counting coffee breaks and walking from one screen to the next. The new scenes will be filmed on location: Hamlet will be shot in Elsinore (Helsingør) in Denmark, Cleopatra in front of the Pyramids in Egypt, and Romeo and Juliet in Verona in Italy – though Shakespeare almost certainly never set foot in any of these countries, and may never have left England. The films will also feature archive material, animation, and shots from Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born in 1564 and died in 1616. The outgoing director of Shakespeare’s Globe, Dominic Dromgoole, said the events planned for the St George’s Day weekend which traditionally marks both Shakespeare’s birth and death – as “the last great adventure of my time here at the Globe”. The 37 films have not yet been cast, but Dromgoole is already eyeing potential locations, including Hampton Court Palace. He said the project was looking for “actors with great Shakespeare chops – fortunately we’re not short of them in England”. The cast and crew of the ‘Globe to Globe’ touring production of Hamlet prepare for a show in the Zataari refugee camp on the Jordan-Syria border. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian Dromgoole conceded “some spurious connection” between Shakespeare and Stratford-upon-Avon, but insisted that London made him a playwright and was threaded through his life and work. There may be problems, however, with a few of the potential filming sites. The forests of Arden and Windsor will prove no trouble, and locations for the Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Merchant of Venice are self-evident; but scholars still argue whether there ever was a “sea coast of Bohemia” – part of modern Czechoslovakia, which may have had a sliver of coastline centuries before Shakespeare’s day – where part of The Winter’s Tale is set. Dromgoole said several actors in the frame for parts are already strongly arguing for sun-drenched Barbados to stand in for the island in The Tempest. He described the London’s South Bank, the setting for the 400th anniversary project, as one of the greatest cultural walkways in the world,running not just past the Globe’s doorstep, but that of of a string of venues, including the Royal Festival Hall, the BFI, the National Theatre and Tate Modern. Back in the Globe theatre itself, the record-breaking production of Hamlet will be returning from its completist world tour for four performances over the St George’s Day weekend. Hamlet still plans to visit every country in the world, although North Korea is still refusing to let the production in, and the company’s tour of some African countries was postponed to next spring due to the Ebola outbreak. http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/nov/19/a-film-for-each-play-to-mark-400th-anniversary-of-shakespeares-death

The flopping, whining Clippers lost to the Raps today. They were down by close to 30 points at one point. At home. They are a hot mess right now and in the deep West they don't have much time to put it together. Third highest payroll in the league, they are built to win now and aren't close to looking like they can do it consistently.

It's just a few posts up, but that's ok. A couple of the threads here are overlapping topically rather closely at the moment, so it's easy to get confused. Agreed about Jimmy - sure is great to see him happy and playing. Well that's gracious and kind of you, lif, thank you, I appreciate it. I like your insights, too, and feel we'd benefit from more of them (hint hint... ). Agree completely about other paths, though to clarify, the two I mentioned are the usual responses here to Jimmy's proclamations of playing again. Certainly Jimmy has other interests which we aren't privy to that take his time. There's a fascinating article interviewing Jimmy about art and he was knowledgeable and articulate about the pieces and their contexts, making connections to influences on music, too. da Vinci was the ultimate Renaissance man, and his accomplishments make him seem a freak of nature: painter, drawer, inventor, cook, athlete, musician, all around discoverer, and ambidextrous. He took life in and took the most out of it. Just staggering achievements and ingenious ways of looking at things. With so many interests, its no wonder he put painting aside, though I had no idea it was for so many years! Jimmy was such an innovator as a producer and seeker of new sounds that we probably take it for granted because we've been listening to Zep for so long. There's no doubt that he cares deeply for the remastering project; Zep and exacting music production are in his heart and what he's passionate about and brilliant at. Still, we know him as a musician, and given that this is his primary public means of artistic expression, and given his statements, it feels as if he wants to create the conditions for a new path. Undoubtedly, that creative path also has its own ways and agreements with the artist. I just heard a Spanish proverb that seems fitting: "More grows in the garden than the gardener knows he has planted." I enjoyed Jimmy's performance with Roy for those exact reasons, truth and beauty. Although Seattle is a good sign, when I watched the 2011 performance again recently, it was striking how comfortable he felt in that context where he was free to really get inside the music and enhance it with his unique touches without the interfering pressure of expectations (different focus - it was Roy's night) and without having to show off chops for expectant Zep crowds. Very insightful and beautifully played moments.

This thread seems tailor made for woz70. If he doesn't see this thread, you may want to PM him.

Loved hearing about how Peter went all on guts for what was best for the band, how he believed in them, and the stories with Ahmet Ertegun, when you could talk with the top guy in those days, and when deals were solid based on a handshake. Kudos to him for being forthright about his addictions and how he kicked them. The last bit about how he thought the Who shouldn't have gone on without Moon as they weren't the Who without him and they just did it for the money says it all. That clip should be included in the 'should Zep have gone on' thread. I remember listening to Q107 when they said something to the effect of sad news from the Zep camp... and then they went to commercial. They. Went. To. Commercial. All the while my heart was in my throat. Assholes. Then they announced that Peter Grant had passed away. Sad news indeed. It was nice to see Jonesy acknowledging him at the R&R HOF induction. Haven't listened to Q107 since.

^ Yes, and yet... I must admit I chuckled. Thought you'd go that ranting guitarist route. Just don't say you knew it all along when he comes out with a great new project...

^^^^ OK, so I've figured out that when you add square brackets around a letter within a text, it creates strikethrough lines that you can't get rid of fyi... and partly in response to your top two lines, but also as they relate to the word of the year as chosen by the brilliant people at OED, because it's not even a word, but... wait for it... an emoji. This is surely a modern sign of the apocalypse: the four horsemen and an emoji "that best reflected the ethos, mood, and pre-occupation of 2015." What in the holy hell?! http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/oxford-dictionaries-word-year-emoji-tears-joy-1.3322428 Anyway, I've been critical of tech for reading, but here's a unique way in which it very much helps us appreciate great worksof the past. Many fragile writings are being digitized, and because of it, we now have unprecedented access to Beowulf! The original manuscript of Beowulf is available online It's the bottom one in this link: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Cotton_MS_Vitellius_A_XV LOOK you can zoom in and see the texture of the parchment and examine the beautiful writing and see where the scribes pressed firmly and lightly! It's exquisite I love it! http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_vitellius_a_xv_f094r

Ghosts in the machine...

sigh... sorry not sure what's going on or how to fix it...

Fourth post down... it was a whole weird ordeal...

Thanks for the links, enjoyed them Agreed, and kind of ironic you're being called a Page apologist. It seems there are two paths about Jimmy's proclamations of creating new work and playing live again: either he's lying or he's trying to work himself up to it, kind of like repeating a mantra to manifest the intent. And while I too expressed frustration before with his repeated intentions, once I thought of it in these two terms, it's harder to believe that Jimmy is simply lying, and the simpler answer is that he's trying to figure out how to get about doing it. Also, Jimmy seems like the type of person who as a musician, at least, not so much needs but maybe feels more comfortable with a strong other presence whose role could be in the forefront, sort of like slipstreaming in a peloton. His lead singers weren't exactly the wallflower types. It's not so much only for creative purposes but there seems to be something in that dynamic that makes Jimmy feel more comfortable to create. That's at least a contributing factor, I think... And this is another contributing factor, too. The creative process is not a rote list to follow to get through easily to the other side. It's messy and uncertain and has its own time and rhythm and cycles. It was great to see Jimmy on stage again, however many others it took to get him to feel comfortable to get up there. This and the Roy Harper acoustic pairing effort some years back (which I thought was more interesting to hear) show that he needs to feel the situation fits his musical camaraderie ethos and his signature musical voice is intact. You could actually hear the latter more in the Harper pairing. So even though Jimmy's chops may not be the blazing speed they were before, it's actually far less relevant than making music that expresses Jimmy's unique voice. I'm intrigued about how it'll sound...

Jonesy does a guest performance on Rokia Traoré's new album: Nonesuch to Release Rokia Traoré's Album "Né So" on February 12 Friday, November 20, 2015 Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rokia Traoré's sixth album, Né So (Home), will be released by Nonesuch Records on February 12, 2016. The album was produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, Tracy Chapman), who also produced her 2013 record, Beautiful Africa. Né So features guest performances by John Paul Jones, Toni Morrison, and Traoré's labelmate Devendra Banhart, along with Burkinabe drummer Moïse Ouattara, Ivorian bassist Matthieu N'guessan, long-time collaborator Malian ngoni player Mamah Diabaté, guitarists Rodriguez Vangama and Stefano Pilia, and backing vocalists Bule Mpania, Russell Tshiebua, and Stefy Rika. The album, which features 10 original songs and a cover of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," is available to preorder at iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store, where the title track may be downloaded immediately. Traoré has released a video of that track, directed by Romain Carciofo, which you can watch below. Traoré will tour in support of Né So this spring, with shows in New York on March 23, Washington on March 25, and Savananah on March 26 (more to be announced soon); details and at nonesuch.com/on-tour. http://www.nonesuch.com/journal/nonesuch-release-rokia-traore-album-ne-so-february-12-2015-11-20 The links above and below also include background info about the artist, with the latter mentioning Jonesy playing live with her previously: http://www.nonesuch.com/artists/rokia-traore

Gina and you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers, redrum. I hope she wakes and progresses to health. Strength and peace to all in getting through this trying time.

So this is from a couple of years ago, but somehow just recently made its way to a FB page. Thought it might be of interest as Burroughs has been mentioned recently It's fascinating to see the humanity behind some of humanity's great figures. Here are a couple of several excerpts of letters you can read in the link at the bottom. Love him to bits for explaining his fluid grammar in the post script. I know the feeling. Then there's his advice in a letter to Billy Burroughs Jr. 'to anyone contemplating a literary career'. Bet you know what it is without reading it. You're right. Selected Letters of William S. BurroughsJanuary 26, 2012 | by William Burroughs WSB [Paris] to Laura Lee and Mortimer Burroughs [Palm Beach, Florida][ca. November 17, 1959] Dear Mother and Dad,I am sorry.. Can only say time accelerated and skidded—No time to eat as you see in the photo—(Taken by my friend Brion [Gysin] the painter, certainly the greatest painter living and I do not make mistakes in the art world. Time will bear me out.. Brion used to run The 1001 Nights, restaurant night club in Tanger but at that time we barely spoke disliking each other intensely for reasons that seemed adequate to both parties.. Situation and per­ sonnel changed.. The 1001 Nights closed for dislocations and foreclosures and Brion woke up in Paris.. And I, stricken by la foie coloniale—the colonial liver, left the area on advice of my phy­ sician.. “You want to get some cold weather on that liver, Bur­ roughs. A freezing winter would make a new man of you,” he said.So when I ran into Brion in Paris it was Tanger gossip at first then the discovery that we had many other interests in common..Like all good painters he is also a brilliant photographer as you see.. A curious old time look about the photo like I’m fading into grandfather or some other relative many years back in time..)Rather a long parenthesis.. It strikes me as regrettable that one should reserve a special and often lifeless style for letter to parents.. So I shift to my usual epistolary style.. When my correspondents reproach me for tardiness, I can only say that I give as much atten­ tion to a letter as I do to anything I write, and I work at least six and sometimes sixteen hours a day..I am considering a shift of headquarters from The Continent— or possibly England—All we expatriates hear now is: “Johnny Go Home”and may be a good idea at that..Terrible scandal in Morocco.. Cooking oil cut with second run motor oil has paralyzed 9544 per­ sons.. The used motor oil was purchased at the American Air Base and was not labeled unfit for human consumption .. The Moroccan press holds U.S. responsible not to mention 9,544 Moroccans and a compound interest of relatives.. “Johnny stay out of Morocco.”I want to leave here in one month more or less a few days and make Palm Beach for Christmas if convenient.I was sorry to hear that Mote has been ill.. Take care of your­ self—Dad—and get well. I will see you all very soon —LoveBillPS. If my writing seems at times ungrammatical it is not due to carelessness or accident. The English language—the only really adjustable language—is in state of transition.. Transition and the old grammar forms no longer useful..Best.Bill WSB [London] to Billy Burroughs Jr. [Savannah, Georgia] Sept 6, 1973 8 Duke Street St James Flat 18 London SW1 England Dear Bill: Enclose check for 500 dollars. It is indeed difficult to make a living as a writer and my advice to anyone contemplating a literary career is to have some other trade. My own choice would be plumb­ ing, but I suppose they have a tight union to keep this twenty dollar an hour with two lazy worthless assistants to hand the head man his tools good thing from being swamped. I have a friend in New York who is a painter and can’t make a living at that, who makes 50 dollars per day fixing up lofts . . . (very hard work but he gets all the jobs he can handle and works when he needs to.) I never heard of sucking lemons to keep awake. Ice tea, Coca Cola in hot weather, coffee in cold weather, work well enough sup­ plemented with no doze caffeine pills. Caffeine is by far the safest stimulant doesn’t louse up coordination and appetite. Just back from a holiday in the Greek islands. Great swimming. Even fell off a horse. All right for a visit. Still looking for a reason­ able place to live. All the best to you and Karen Love Bill Rub Out the Words: The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1959–1974 edited by Bill Morgan will be published by Ecco on February 7. Final letter from Cursed from Birth: The Short, Unhappy Life of William S. Burroughs Jr., edited and compiled by David Ohle, published by Soft Skull Press. You can read the remaining excerpts here: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/01/26/selected-letters-of-william-s-burroughs/

lol well that's not the worst habit I've heard teenage boys engaging in... As for your Hawks, I wish them the best of luck by which I mean I will not cheer for them unless, of course, when they play my Raps, in which case I will cheer for your Hawks heartily Wasn't paying attention to NOLA but I just checked their record 1-11 yikes! That's Nets and Philly territory. Did a little digging and injuries are going to cost them the season. They've had 11 different starting line-ups in 12 games because of it. In the tough West, short of a miracle, they're likely already out of the playoffs this season. You know what's funny in a sad, cruel way? Kings fans thinking their problems were solved when those D-bag brothers who owned the team were finally strong-armed into selling. Trouble is, they sold it to Vivek Ranadive, who is as bizarre and hands on as he is rich. SAC town is cursed. What a circus.

LIVIN, how did you get a seven year old thread when you were the last one to post in the one we've been using? Perhaps these can be merged somehow to avoid confusion?

I don't know about some better than none. It has to be the right way for the right reasons, which is why they could no longer continue without Bonzo. Besides the personal issues that were tearing them apart, like Jimmy said, they were so cohesive live, who could you get to come in and play all those intricate improvised parts? And memorizing another's part went against the essence of Zep anyway. They were each integral in bringing out the musical creative best of the other, and to that end, they were one. It's like the principle of irreducible complexity: you take away one essential part, the whole doesn't work. Best for each to go on a new path, and should they converge now and again, only in that same genuine spirit. I think it's an interesting ride to get to see who they are musically outside of Zep.

Really? Wow that one went right over my head! Maybe I should light one up again lol Thanks, J ^lol at the toothbrushes and dentites.

Well well well... Looks like Jimmy 'handled' his guitar and his detractors in one fell swoop! Oh yeah! BRAVO, Jimmy!!!

^White Chocolate was something, wasn't he? Man, I'm telling you, I'm friggin kryptonite, Sath. After praising the Raps for a historic 5 - 0 start, they're 2 - 5 (I think). Hey, if anybody needs a team hexed, just ask me to cheer for them. $5 This is also the 20th anniversary of the Raps in the NBA and we have the AS game this year, too. We desperately need a new coach as I believe Casey has lost the team (except for Pop and maybe one or two others, coaches have about five years before teams tune out) but we have to get by with the devil we know because the optics would be bad to suck with the world watching. If the GM Masai Ujiri does nothing, though, we may be the mediocre product of treadmilling anyway. It's eerie how McHale looks like one of my uncles who passed away. Every time I see him I do a double take. I loved him on the Celtics with Bird and Ainge and the Chief back in the day - that was my favourite team. Great, crafty player. My heart ached for him when his daughter passed away. Here's the thing about teams with an assertive character - Rockets just signed Kevin to a 3 year contract after they won their division in the tough West and made some noise in the playoffs, and yet this early in the season, he's gone because the team did not play like the sum of its parts. Contrast that to the Raps who got swept in the playoffs last year and almost swept the year before and the same coach is still there. Hey Masai, Kevin McHale's available! I hope KM ends up on the Cs. That would be a nice full-circle homecoming for him. I'm always sentimental about the Celtics Fun fact: Toronto had Drummond slip to them in the draft, but selected Terrence Ross instead. Ross has played his way out of the starting role while Drummond is averaging 19 points and 19 rebounds (!!!) per game for Detroit. FFS. Never a break, man. Never. A. Break. Kobe needs a mental adjustment and accept a complementary role on the Lakers. Trouble is, they don't have a prime star to take over that role. It's a vacuum so it'll be interesting to see who they get to fill that void. GSW are humming. The only thing they have to be careful about is not burning out in time for the playoffs. It's an entirely different game being the hunter then and now the hunted. And as always, never count Pop's Spurs out.

To be honest, I don't really get your reference, but if it's something we can fight about, let's do it!

You're welcome, Trey, and I hope you enjoy the movies, although I should say that the Imaginarium on e in particular is not the linear realism kind of film. I loved it, but can see why not everyone would find it accessible. Thank you for your insights and the interview above. I watched it yesterday and really enjoyed it. It's such a pleasure to hear a conversation at length and in depth as opposed to just brief cuts of a talk that have to fit within a short time slot you more often get on news or entertainment channels. This is more like what Charlie Rose does (except he interrupts A LOT). I like the tone of both their voices, too, which stand out because usually you hear dramatic music in the backgrounds of heavily edited interviews. I loved hearing details about the challenges of getting all the info needed for the doc, the challenges of putting it together, and how Amy grew throughout her time making it (eight years!). The part you mentioned about the letter is heartbreaking. Such a talent, such a light, dimmed by the devil that is heroin. If you think about all the people we've lost who thought they could use it just one more time after getting clean, we are so lucky that Jimmy still with us. Nobody saw it coming with her, after all, because she got clean. But as you mention, she was a complex mix of contradictory impulses and seemed like a sensitive soul who sometimes had a hard time balancing them. I love history, but here's something off putting, especially in this day and age of over-sharing, and cameras everywhere and evil selfies, about people feeling they need to or have a right to know every detail about someone famous. Do we really need a grainy photo of what jam they select in the grocery store or book they choose in the bookstore? Look I get it, and am sometimes guilty of it, but it's also mitigated to the extent that I'm aware of it. With current musicians or actors I love, for instance, I'd rather get impressions of them from their work or maybe interviews. The point being that while I love Janis's music and know peripheral parts about her life, many more personal details are new, like the part about the letter. There was some info about her in a Jungian book by Clarissa Pinkola Estes which got into more the reasons behind some of excesses, not the least of which was the rigid conformity of Port Arthur of the 1950s. It's a bit petty, but there's something satisfying about Port Arthur being a barely existent dust town today after all the cruelty she endured. There doesn't seem to be TIFF presser for this doc, but I'd like to add a link to the film's website http://www.janismovie.com/ and there's also this recent Rolling Stone write up about it http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/janis-little-girl-blue-inside-the-new-joplin-doc-20151117 Amy Berg deserves praise for her choice to focus so much on Janis's life rather than her passing which has gotten a disproportionate amount of attention for the various reasons she mentions in the video interview. Really looking forward to seeing this documentary.

Tsk Tsk on two counts - black's not a colour, and it's COLOUR for Canadians and civilized people

You've gotta be kidding me... there's a reason this thread hadn't been touched in THREE YEARS. If 'you've gotta be kidding me' could be synaesthetically translated into a colour it would be...