when i waked, i cried to dream again
Last night, innie_darling and I went to see Helen Mirren be interviewed at the New York Public Library. The line to get in was tremendously long - I think the only other time I've seen it that long was for Neil Gaiman on Halloween (and maybe not even then).
She was fantastic - funny, smart, gracious (but willing to shut down the interviewer when she thought he was wrong), and just a little bawdy. A true queen. #there is nothing like a dame
I don't think all that highly of the NYPL interviewer - he tries too hard to be witty and profound and often misses his mark, though I can understand why he'd want to be when he interviews so many amazing people, but he needs to be quiet more and just get out of their way. Nobody cares what you the interviewer think is the answer to your question! Just let Helen Mirren speak!
At the very end, they showed a clip of her as Prospero, and she recited the speech along with it:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
And then she read Caliban's speech to us:
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.
(That should count as today's poetry, I think.)
So that was a great experience. I highly recommend the live programs at the NYPL and if you're a 'friend' of the library you get discounts (though there was no discount on these tickets for some reason, but it was totally worth the $40).
Then I got home and my fear of not being able to unlock the new door on my apartment building was, alas, realized. I panicked a little and called Mean Super's Nice Wife, and she was like, "They installed it wrong! Everything is wrong! But if you turn the key to the left instead of to the right, and pull while you turn, it should work!" and it did, so I didn't have to show up at L.'s door like a vagrant with no place else to go.
Whoops, hit post too soon!
umadoshi pointed out that you can buy a Murder Squash T-shirt from Stiefvater's Society6 page, and the thing is so ugly it's charming, so I have ordered one. I am weak. Squash one, squash two. Sigh.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/837648.html.
people have commented there.
She was fantastic - funny, smart, gracious (but willing to shut down the interviewer when she thought he was wrong), and just a little bawdy. A true queen. #there is nothing like a dame
I don't think all that highly of the NYPL interviewer - he tries too hard to be witty and profound and often misses his mark, though I can understand why he'd want to be when he interviews so many amazing people, but he needs to be quiet more and just get out of their way. Nobody cares what you the interviewer think is the answer to your question! Just let Helen Mirren speak!
At the very end, they showed a clip of her as Prospero, and she recited the speech along with it:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
And then she read Caliban's speech to us:
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.
(That should count as today's poetry, I think.)
So that was a great experience. I highly recommend the live programs at the NYPL and if you're a 'friend' of the library you get discounts (though there was no discount on these tickets for some reason, but it was totally worth the $40).
Then I got home and my fear of not being able to unlock the new door on my apartment building was, alas, realized. I panicked a little and called Mean Super's Nice Wife, and she was like, "They installed it wrong! Everything is wrong! But if you turn the key to the left instead of to the right, and pull while you turn, it should work!" and it did, so I didn't have to show up at L.'s door like a vagrant with no place else to go.
Whoops, hit post too soon!
umadoshi pointed out that you can buy a Murder Squash T-shirt from Stiefvater's Society6 page, and the thing is so ugly it's charming, so I have ordered one. I am weak. Squash one, squash two. Sigh.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/837648.html.
people have commented there.