Rugby League and the Shakespeare Meme
For those that don't follow the rugby, St. Helens Saints are my hometown team. I support them with a certain frothy madness, as does most of my hometown. Recently, they sacked their coach, Royce Simmons, after their worst losing run for 25 years and a horrible loss to Bradford (see also, things up with which we shall not put). No one was particularly surprised because the team had been playing utterly pants. No one (at least not amongst my friends) had any vitriol for Simmons, he just wasn't the right man for the job. To quote one of my oldest and dearest friends K, he looked lost at half time against Bradford.
Now several media types and one RL friend who is a Southern jessie and therefore would not understand, said we'd rushed into it missing that the next run of games after Bradford went Leeds (our greatest rivals atm in terms of winning things), Warrington (near neighbours) and Wigan (our local derby, quoth Shaun McRae, a man who really got it, 'Saints fans could cope with bad seasons as long as they beat Wigan). These are not matches you want to go into with a dithery, uncertain coach and on a downswing.
So, Saints got rid of Simmons, immediately beat Leeds (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/17447663) and Warrington (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/17526485), and now go into the derby match on an upswing, if missing our club captain due to suspension (the RFL, they're against us. /Saints fan paranoia).
Simmons has temporarily been replaced by Mike Rush and Kieron Cunningham who seem to have been doing alright and will be replaced at the end of the season by Nathan Brown who were pinching off Huddersfield.
The best part of this saga has been the players randomly leaking things to the press, which has provided hours amusement with the guess which player leaked what. After the Warrington game the Times had an article about how the players didn't want rid of him and it was all the board and how they dedicated the Warrington win to Simmons, and it was like 'hello, the Aussie faction'. Two days later there was a different one that was all how much more the Saints players were enjoying it now, and with that one I do feel like telling one senior player who shall go unnamed because I'm not 100% sure and believe in libel laws, that if he's going to write columns for newspapers, I am going recognise his voice when it comes through other journalists. As I said, hours of fun.
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Shakespeare Meme - Day 11 - Least Favourite Play
I have to admit to not having seen all the plays performed. I know the basic plots of most of them because I read up on them as part of my University Challenge revision (not that it did any good, bloody music round on engine noises), but I may well have missed out on subtle nuances (and a lot of the pretty language that I like Shakespeare for). That being said, unless I do a Shakespeare-a-thon like [info]nwhyte (starting here - http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1081694.html), I have no interest in ever seeing either 'The Noble Kinsmen' or 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona'.
Day #1: Your favourite play
Day #2: Your favourite character
Day #3: Favourite hero
Day #4: Favourite heroine
Day #5: Favourite villain
Day #6: Favourite villainess
Day #7: Favourite clown
Day #8: Favourite comedy
Day #9: Favourite tragedy
Day #10: Favourite historical
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line
Now several media types and one RL friend who is a Southern jessie and therefore would not understand, said we'd rushed into it missing that the next run of games after Bradford went Leeds (our greatest rivals atm in terms of winning things), Warrington (near neighbours) and Wigan (our local derby, quoth Shaun McRae, a man who really got it, 'Saints fans could cope with bad seasons as long as they beat Wigan). These are not matches you want to go into with a dithery, uncertain coach and on a downswing.
So, Saints got rid of Simmons, immediately beat Leeds (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/17447663) and Warrington (http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/17526485), and now go into the derby match on an upswing, if missing our club captain due to suspension (the RFL, they're against us. /Saints fan paranoia).
Simmons has temporarily been replaced by Mike Rush and Kieron Cunningham who seem to have been doing alright and will be replaced at the end of the season by Nathan Brown who were pinching off Huddersfield.
The best part of this saga has been the players randomly leaking things to the press, which has provided hours amusement with the guess which player leaked what. After the Warrington game the Times had an article about how the players didn't want rid of him and it was all the board and how they dedicated the Warrington win to Simmons, and it was like 'hello, the Aussie faction'. Two days later there was a different one that was all how much more the Saints players were enjoying it now, and with that one I do feel like telling one senior player who shall go unnamed because I'm not 100% sure and believe in libel laws, that if he's going to write columns for newspapers, I am going recognise his voice when it comes through other journalists. As I said, hours of fun.
~~~~
Shakespeare Meme - Day 11 - Least Favourite Play
I have to admit to not having seen all the plays performed. I know the basic plots of most of them because I read up on them as part of my University Challenge revision (not that it did any good, bloody music round on engine noises), but I may well have missed out on subtle nuances (and a lot of the pretty language that I like Shakespeare for). That being said, unless I do a Shakespeare-a-thon like [info]nwhyte (starting here - http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1081694.html), I have no interest in ever seeing either 'The Noble Kinsmen' or 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona'.
Day #1: Your favourite play
Day #2: Your favourite character
Day #3: Favourite hero
Day #4: Favourite heroine
Day #5: Favourite villain
Day #6: Favourite villainess
Day #7: Favourite clown
Day #8: Favourite comedy
Day #9: Favourite tragedy
Day #10: Favourite historical
Day #12: Your favorite scene
Day #13: Your favorite romantic scene
Day #14: Your favorite fight scene
Day #15: The first play you read
Day #16: Your first play you saw
Day #17: Your favorite speech
Day #18: Your favorite dialogue
Day #19: Your favorite movie version of a play
Day #20: Your favorite movie adaptation of a play
Day #21: An overrated play
Day #22: An underrated play
Day #23: A role you've never played but would love to play
Day #24: An actor or actress you would love to see in a particular role
Day #25: Sooner or later, everyone has to choose: Hal or Falstaff?
Day #26: Your favorite couple
Day #27: Your favorite couplet
Day #28: Your favorite joke
Day #29: Your favorite sonnet
Day #30: Your favorite single line