Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare

Today is both William Shakespeare's 449th birthday, and it is National Talk Like Shakespeare Day here in America. Apparently, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel formally recognized the occasion at city hall today.

There are plenty of Shakespeare productions going on domestically (and, assuredly in England and other parts of the world as well).

The American Shakespeare Center (we still like to call them Shenandoah Shakespeare, their old name) in Staunton, Va.,  is performing both "Twelfth Night" and "Love's Labour Lost," right now.

Just down the road in High Point, NC, the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival is holding auditions for "MacBeth" or the Scottish Play from April 29-30th.

And, the Reduced Shakespeare Company will be performing throughout the United Kingdom as well as well as performances in Urbana, Ill., on April 27th and in Columbia, Md., on June 22nd.

We are told that they can do "Romeo and Juliet" in 14 and a half minutes!

http://www.talklikeshakespeare.org

http://www.amerianshakesperacecenter.com

http://www.ncshakes.org

http://www.reducedshakespeare.com

Remembering Rogert Ebert- the Great American Movie Critic

With an image of the Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City, Utah, we are honoring Roger Ebert. He was an inspiration to all of us 'movie people,' and his show "At the Movies" which he hosted with his fellow Chicago film critic the late Gene Siskel gave attention to many small films such as "The Brother from Another Planet," "Paris, Texas" and "Roger and Me."

He also championed films such as "Aguirre, Wrath of God," "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "Monster" while remaining  equally outspoken about movies he despised, such as the infamous rape revenge movie "I Spit on Your Grave!" (1978; amazingly enough, it was remade just a few years ago).

I had the chance to meet Ebert at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville some 20 years ago, and I am very thankful I had a few minutes to tell him how much I admired him.

Here is one of his more famous quotes:

"No good movie is too long and no bad movie is too short."

Let the final credits roll for this remarkable man.

http://www.virginiafilmfestival.org

http://www.saltlakefilmsociety.org

Silly Picture to Fill Space- A Costa Rican Frog

Yes, since Costa Rica is one of my top countries to seek political asylum in should Mitt Romney become president of the United States, and today is Leap Day, I thought a photo of a Costa Rican frog was in order.

When I went on a cruise to The Bahamas last month, our version of "The Love Boat" captain told us when the sun would set each day.

So, with that it mind and given that the sun has already set in places like Eskisehir, Turkey, as of this posting (it is 1:00 p.m. on the U.S East coast, so I presume it is either 19:00 or 20:00 in Turkey), I will include sunset times for various American cities, some are suburbs while others are college towns, and we have included both Fairfax, Va., and Fairbanks, Alaska, to be cheeky.

Sorry to our Canadian followers, we are snubbing you today, but we hope to post the sunset for Calgary, Alberta, one day real soon.

Here are the sunset times for the following eight American towns, cities and 'burbs (all times are local times); the earliest sunset is for the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Ill., and the latest, as one might expect, is for Honolulu, Hawaii:

Fairfax, Va. 6:01 p.m.

Akron, Ohio 6:16 p.m.

Skokie, Ill. 5:40 p.m.

Boulder, Colo. 5:52 p.m.

Tempe, Ariz. 6:24 p.m.

Palo Alto, Calif. 6:02 p.m.

Fairbanks, Alaska 6:06 p.m.

Honolulu, Hawaii 6:35 p.m.

Bonus Road Trip (9 of 10)_ Should-Be Ivy League Schools

Today, we are looking at the destinations between two major conference schools which might just be better off in the Ivy League. Here in the United States, major conferences are expanding and dissolving to the point where West Virginia University, located in Morgantown, WVa, might be joining the Big-12 where they would meet teams from the likes of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. To put this in perspective, Istanbul, Turkey, where West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball Deniz Kilicli hails from, is probably closer to Paris, France.

The two schools were are choosing are Big Ten Conference team Northwestern University, located in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, and Southestern Conference member Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee.

Both schools made it bowl games, but both teams lost. On New Year's Eve, Northwestern fell to Texas A & M 33-22 at a bowl game in Houston, Texas. Similarly, the Vandy Commodores lost to the Cincinnati Bearcats by a 31-24 score at the Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn., on that same day.

For our two points of destination, we are choosing two coffeeshops: The Brothers K Coffee Shop in Evanston, Illinois, which might well elude to a certain famous Russian novel, and Ugly Mugs Cofeeshop in Nashville, which blogger Nate Baker is one of the best places to write in the city.

So, how far apart are these two zip codes?

Is the answer?:

A) 6 hours and 30 minutes

B) 7 hours and 30 mintes

C) 8 hours and 30 minutes

D) 9 hours and 30 minutes.

Of course, we are not including construction and accident delays.

SIDEBAR: The answer to yesterday's Bonus Road Quiz is C) six hours. Hans from Hamburg, Germany, is the winner of the Oak Ridge Greatest Hits on eight-track cassette!

And, for those of you in Riga, Latvia, who were not able to watch the Orange Bowl, which we mentioned in an earlier entry, West Virginia won that game handily over Clemson University by an amazing 70-34 score.

Bonus Silly Photo to Fill Space- Mr. Potato Head (Our 750th Entry)

I suppose if one gave a child in Eskisehir, Turkey, a Mr. Potato Head doll for Christmas (hopefully, you're smart enough to get the joke), you have the tell little Ali or Ayse that the toy's name would be translated to ' Mr.Patates Kafasi'

But, closer to home, one can presumingly find Mr. Potato Head who is now over 50 years old at an independent toy store like Building Blocks, which has two locations in Chicago.

This item was feautred on our Top 10 Silly Things to Buy Me for X-Mas list last week.

Today, happens to mark the 750th entry of "The Daily Vampire" and we are celebrating here at the famed Elmo's Diner in Durham, NC, (actually not where we're at, but I have driven by the place and it looks swell!). The establishment also has a location in Carrboro, NC (Chapel Hill).

We will post another silly image from that list on Tuesday (perhaps). So, there is a chance you may get to see what a Che Guevara plush-toy or a Jesus Christ bobblehead doll looks like! We have no idea if they sell those at Building Blocks (we needed to say that for legal reasons!).

Things We Learned on Twitter This Week- Chicago Sports Fans Are Loyal

Whether it is a liberal Hollywood actor like Jon Cusack or a right-wing political commentator with no sense of humor like George F. Will, Chicagoans seem to love their sports team irregardless if they are winning or not.

And, that was Reason #28 why "Chicago Magazine" said Windy City residents should love Chicago, according to a tweet posted by them on Wednesday.

The exact wording of the post was: "Reason #28 to love Chicago: Sports fans who stick with their teams (sometimes the devotion pays off).

They then linked to a photograph with several college-age Chicago Blackhawks fans painted in red (as if they were draped in blood) including Wes Zielinski and Nixon Flores.

The Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup after many, many years last season.

Well, I would write more put I've got to play the piano at Chic's Antiques in Floyd, Va., this afternoon to entertain Black Friday customers (that is a joke actually as I don't play the piano, and if I did I would certainly not be as great as Liberache!).

Besides, last night while putting the finishing touching on an entry for our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time," the computer crashed which almost made me curse like "Rolling Stone" writer Matt Taibbi who has been known to say some mean things about George F. Will, which we won't repeat here as most Republicans in the South tend to carry glocks with them to the Piggly Wiggly!

High School of the Week- Springfield Southeast (Illinois)

Though he is actually an alumnus of The Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, we are featuring a photograph of President Barack Obama with our High School of the Week entry for Springfield Southest High School in Springfield, Ill., because the state capital of Illinois is effectively where Obama's political career began to flourish when he was a member of the state senate there some ten years ago.

We must profess that Illinois offered many potential choices for High School of the Week selection process: Actor Bruce Dern, who recently turned 76, is an alumnus of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Bill Murray graduated from the private Loyola Academy in Wilmette, the classic 1985 teen angst film "The Breakfast Club" was filmed at Maine North High School in Des Plaines and my cousin Brent Gokbudak went to Niles West High School in Skokie where his teammate on the gymnastics team was none other than future Olympian Bart Conner! (All of these schools are in suburbs of Chicago).

But we chose Springfield Southeast HS, a school with an enrollment of some 1,350 students according to Wikipedia, over all of them. The school nickname is The Spartans, and there are both boys and girls hockey teams at the school as well. Elbert Kern is the football coach for The Spartans. And Jason Wind is the school's principal.

Of course, even folks in Karachi, Pakistan, know that Seymour Skinner (his 'real name' is Armin Tamzarian according to Wikipedia) is the principal of the elementary school in the fictional Springfield on "The Simpsons." There is speculation that the Springfield in the cartoon series was based on Springfield, Mass., but that has never been verified.

Quote of the Week- Arthur Miller

Those of you who just read my last entry about my Facebook page being hijacked by a cyber-pirate might be wondering if this is really Spacely Sprocket from Dayton, Ohio, and I want to assure that is indeed me and I have a memo to fire George Jetson.

In all seriousness, we are going to blog a bit to take our mind off things even though the girl I like is probably meeting a guy from Slovenia through an E-Harmony rip-of site as we speak.

Our Quote of the Week is the late, great playwright Arthur Miller (1915-2005) who left us with some great quips.

His most famous play "Death of a Salesman" will be in production at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in Milwaukee,Wisconsin, from April 12-May 8, 2011. The theatre is now performing "Cabaret," and, of course, Miller never wrote musicals!

The Eclipse Theatre Company in Chicago is currently performing a much lesser-known Miller drama "A Memory of Two Mondays." Tickets can be purcahsed by calling 773-325-9655.

Here is the quote from Miller:

"I think it's a mistake to ever look for hope outside one's self."

Here is

PSA- Save PBS (So, We Don't Have Watch John Denver Specials!)

Actually, contrary to the title of this entry, there are many songs from the late folk singer John Denver (1943-1997) that I enjoy, but let's face it a PBS special with a live performance of his song during Pledge Week is about as painful was well a Lawerence Welk PBS special (irregardless if it airs during Pledge Week or not!).

Earlier in the week, my local PBS station UNC-TV, which broadcasts all over North Carolina even though it is based in Raleigh, aired one such John Denver special. We believe it was "A Song's Best Friend," but we can not verify that as we honestly changed to channel to a rerun of "Ghost Whispherer."

Amazingly enough, I saw a copy of the John Denver record "Poems, Prayers and Promises," (pictured here) which features one of his signature songs "Country Roads" for ten dollars (?!) at Duke's Antiques Mall in Lexington, Va., a few months ago.

We do happen to love PBS and UNC-TV, which aired an interesting segment about the Charlie Poole Bluegrass Festival which is taking place in Eden, NC, this weekend. The festival featured the Durham, NC-based band Carolina Chocolate Drops a few years ago right before they made it 'big' nationally.

Tonight, WUNC-TV is airing another Pledge Week special "Change Your Brain, Change Your Body" with Dr. John Amen at 9:30 p.m. This guy is apparently very popular with PBS stations because we found out that another one of his specials "Magnificent Mind at Any Age" is airing tonight at 11:00 p.m. on MPT (Maryland Public Television). So, perhaps a person living in Kannapolis, NC, can phone their sister living in Hagerstown, Md., and compare notes.

But, Amen's shows are not airing on every PBS station in America tonight as KBDI in Denver, Colo., is not going to air any of his specials tonight. However, the same station is going to air "Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart" at 7:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. (Mountain Time, of course). So, you may want to ask your brother in Aspen to tivo it for you!

SIDEBAR: Kudos to the Chicago Blackhawks for winning their first Stanley Cup since 1961 thanks to an overtime goal from Patrick Kane in overtime last night during Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers in the City of Brotherly Love. My cousin Erroll Gokbudak, who grew up in the Chicago 'burb of Skokie, Ill., is assuredly most pleased. He can now go back to watching "Antiques Roadshow" on PBS like the rest of us!

Quote of the Week- John Belushi

Today, in honor of Second City's 50th anniversary, we are posting comments from two of their respective alumni on our respective blogs. We will quip the late John Belushi's "Blues Brothers" co-star Dan Aykroyd on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

As mentioned in a recent NPR piece, Second City has historically had venues in Chicago and Toronto, though they now have a third 'Second City' in Los Angeles.

Second City has produced an amazing amount of stars ranging from the late John Candy to Steve Carrell to Bill Murray. Mnay alumnus went on to perform for "Saturday Night Live" including Aykroyd, Belushi, Murray and the late Gilda Radner.

Along with Candy, many members of Second City's Toronto troupe went on to produce the tv series "SCTV," which became a comedy sensation which boasted the talents of Martin Short, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas and Catherine O'Hara among others (oh, I almost forgot Joe Flaherty).

Second City also tours around North America. Currently, they will be performing in Pittsburgh, Pa., and in Arlington Heights, Ill., on Dec. 17 (Thurs.).

In our region (we split our time between Virginia and North Carolina), the troupe will be performing at The Warehouse Theatre in Lynchburg, Va., on March 12, 2010, and at Wolftrap in Vienna, Va. (Washington DC suburb) on March 13, 2010.

Here is a quote from Belushi, an alumnus of the Chicago Second City, who tragically died at age 33 in 1982 after starring in "National Lampoon's Animal House," "The Blues Brothers" and "Neighbors" (well everyone makes at least one bomb!):

"I give so much pleasre to so many people. Why can't I not get some pleasure for myself?"

Quotes of the Week- Jack Benny

Two weeks ago, we quoted famous New Yorkers. Last week, we focused on two famous guys from Philly. Today (posting on Sunday instead of Monday in anticipation of a busy day!), we drop two quips from famous Chicagoans.

Here is one from Jack Benny (1894-1974), a famous comedian/actor who was always 39 years old (my age now.........):

"I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either."