Category Archives: News & Reviews

In case you are looking for a Shakespeare movie on DVD or video, or
books, spoken word audio, teaching materials, or toys with a
Shakespeare theme, check out:

Poor Yorick Shakespeare Catalogue
at bardcentral.com

On this web site you can even play “As You Like It Acrostics” in honor of the
re-release of Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet on DVD and his new film
As You Like It in theatres this fall.

Poor Yorick is where
to buy Kozintsev’s King Lear, based on a translation by novelist Boris Pasternak with score by Dmitri Shostakovich (made in 1970 in the Soviet
Union with the largest cast I have even for this play), most of Olivier’s
Shakespeare, the BBC play sets, newer releases like Michael Radford’s
Merchant of Venice (2004, with Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and
Joseph Fiennes), plus older classics.

Poor Yorick does not have everything: the 1935 Midsummer Night’s
Dream with young Mickey Rooney as Puck, James Cagney as Bottom, and
Olivia de Havilland as Hermia is sadly missing but the inclusion of the 1968
MSND with Peter Hall directing the Royal Shakespeare Company (including
Diana Rigg, David Warner, Ian Richardson, Ian Holm, and shapely Judi Dench
as Titania dressed in just paint and a few leaves) makes up for it.

I have been sorting through the photos we took in India last month.
Here are some that are just interesting or pretty.

I took a series
of pictures of flower arrangements because this seemed a good
local business – managing all of the vases and other floral display
paraphernalia centrally. Many of the larger businesses (including
Sun) had impressive, fresh, and elegant bouquets which were delivered
often enough to be worth looking for.

Panaji, Goa Lawn Elephants:

Panaji, Goa House Crow on our balcony:

Panaji, Goa plantings:

Panaji, Goa schoolboys in uniform:

Panaji, Goa Kingfisher roadside store:

Bangalore, up inside Divyashree Chambers:

Bangalore – Cauvery store wooden toys for sale:

Bangalore – Cauvery store wooden toys in bins:

Bangalore – Cauvery store toymaker:

Bangalore flower arrangement:

Bangalore Sun flowers:

Bangalore basin of flowers:

Bangalore flower arrangement:

Bangalore flower arrangement:

Bangalore John and hotel doorman:

Bangalore desk flowers:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

I wrote a blog about

Women’s Day in India on 8 March 2007 but I did not post any
photos. Here are some encouraging images relating to the status of
women from my brief travels in Karnataka and Goa, India.

Bangalore, Karnataka Anti-Dowry Store Sign:

Goa road to Panaji scooter showroom “Just 4 Her”:

Panaji, Goa Women’s Co-operative Bank

Panaji, Goa Barbie in India:

Goa and Bangalore Airports Women’s Day Luggage Labels from 3 Different Airlines:

Bangalore Airport, Vijaya Bank “Women Entrepreneurs! We are Proud of You. Welcome!”:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

My 14-year-old son Paul wanted to see the new movie
“The Last Mimzy” as
one of his Spring Break special activity requests. John and I saw it last
night with him, along with Jessica and her boyfriend Matt (both 18). Paul’s
movie choices are suspect (“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was
his alternative) but surprisingly everyone enjoyed “The Last Mimzy”
very much. It had the charm and flavor of the 1982 movie
E.T.
Common elements include: innocent genius kids living on the U.S. West Coast,
space aliens, psychic themes, parents who are less in control than they
think, scary U.S. government bullies, and excellent and interesting
computer graphics.

“The Last Mimzy” is based on the 1943 short story “Mimsy Were the Borogoves” by Lewis Padgett. The title of course comes from Lewis Caroll’s poem
in his 1872 Through the Looking-Glass which starts and ends with:

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:


All mimsy were the borogoves,


And the mome raths outgrabe.

Jessica and I recited the whole poem for Matt on the drive to the theater.

During our visit last month to India, we stayed in Panaji, the capital of
Goa, and over a weekend watched a great many boats and ships
from the bank of the Mandovi River. Our hotel was right on the river
delta at the Arabian Sea.

The most common traffic element
was the red iron ore scows, usually going upriver empty and downriver full.
There were also tugs, sailboats, yachts, party boats, a floating casino,
and other boats. The scows were so big that we could hear their low
rumbling motors all day and much of the night. When fully loaded, the
long scows were very low in the water.

I wished I had brought Huckleberry Finn along. Panaji would be
the perfect place to read a story of river life. Or, maybe The
Wind in the Willows in which the Rat says to the Mole in Chapter 1:

“`Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING–absolute nothing–half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,’

`Look ahead, Rat!’ cried the Mole suddenly.


It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The dreamer, the joyous oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels in the air.


`–about in boats–or WITH boats,’ the Rat went on composedly, picking himself up with a pleasant laugh. `In or out of ’em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it…”

Upriver scow:

Upriver tug:

Upriver scow:

Downriver sailboat:

Downriver unloaded scow:

Downriver loaded scow:

Downriver party boat:

Downriver yacht:

Downriver party boat:

Kids on beach:

Beach shells:

Sunset in the Arabian Sea:

Loaded and unloaded scows:

Sunset party boat:

Scow at sunset:

Images Copyright 2007 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher