It delights me profoundly to greet you once more, from the comfort of this lovely blog. How are you? No, really. Comment and let me know.
As you very probably already know, Reader, I missed my last deadline in astounding style, and am therefore being punished by Reese. After this post will be one made entirely of haikus, the Devil’s personal choice of poetry.
I am so delighted, unimaginably elated, to say that this morning Senator Barack Obama was elected President of the United States of America, as I’m sure you are very much aware. To see him elected live was a tremendous honour and joy for me. Even though I am not a part of that great nation, I feel intrinsically connected to it, and I hope that we will all see a positive change in the coming months and years.
This is what msnbc.com looked like when Obama won, by the way, Reese:
I could not stop smiling for hours afterward.
My recent holiday to Stratford-upon-Avon was incredibly enjoyable, also. I saw ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’, both of which were RSC productions, and therefore astonishing. ‘Dream’ was magnificent: probably the greatest performance I have ever seen. The lighting and costumes were unthinkably beautiful. ‘Labour’ was a joy to see, too. David Tennant’s energy never faltered, which is incredible, for he did a lot of jumping around and running, as well as most of the talking.
It was an odd experience returning to Stratford in so different a season. Last time I went, it was the hottest week of the year. This time, it snowed. Last time, crowds filled almost every inch of every street (perhaps a slight exaggeration), taking delighted photographs of their delighted selves before Shakespeare’s birthplace, Anne Hathaway’s cottage, the Shakespeare Library, a café, a bus stop, a road bollard, pointing to perfectly ordinary things like phone masts and smiling at the thought that Shakespeare too looked upon that same phone mast. This time, there was less of that, but still enough to make my stomach crawl inside its cavity, and still more than enough to keep that wonderful human statue of the Bard in business.
Oh, and I met Patrick Stewart. Lovely man.
I recently purchased an old Corona 4 typewriter, for a very good price. It looks beautiful, pulchritudinous, in fact, but that’s as far as it goes. As typewriter repair services are scarce in the country, let alone a single forgotten little county like Cornwall, I have had to abandon my No. 4 and purchase another one, which happens to be a No. 3 Corona (which is far more charming, actually). Perhaps then I will actually get on with some decent writing. Who knows? (Not me, that’s for certain. Perhaps President Obama knows. And whyever not? He’s made of awesome.)
We seem to have passed something with the event of Obama’s election. It’s as though for so long we’ve been approaching the summit of a hill, and now we are over it. Everything and everyone seems to be in utter relief, and I can genuinely say that I have never seen humanity in such a wonderful state as now. We have hope now, and it’s going to be so great to witness the fulfilment of that hope.
QUESTION 9:
What are your five favourite YouTube channels? Haikus are welcome.
(I shall leave the haikus for a later time, if you don’t mind.)
1. jimmy0010. One of the best comedians on YouTube, I think.
2. frezned. Again, one of the best comedians on the site, but he is also in possession of one of the keenest minds on YouTube, too.
3. vlogbrothers. Obviously I was going to choose them. They are the kings of the nerdfighters, and idols to all.
4. cutewithchris. He’s an incredible performer, and I enjoy every single one of his videos.
5. missxrojas (my computer would rather spell that ‘miss Rojas’). Not only a very intelligent, passionate and beautiful girl, but a lovely human being.
QUESTION 10:
What is the earliest memory that you have?
My one is not particularly pleasant, and has actually had quite a large impact on my perception of the school environment (as well as many other horrid things). It is from the very first school I went to, Springfield, when I was four years old. I remember that we ate our packed lunches in our classroom, for some reason (I don’t know if that’s conventional practice or not), and when I had my lunch (sandwiches), I never ate the crusts of the bread. Instead, I would of course put them back into my lunch box. For some reason, my teacher took a dislike to this, and asked me to finish my lunch. When I refused (amiably, of course), she threatened to make me sit at the back of the class and do mathematics, which would obviously result in immense humiliation. I ate the crusts, and avoided developing a profound distaste for and fear of mathematics. That privilege went to schools in general.
Well, enough about me and my deeply unsettling childhood experiences. Onward to haikus, and I look forward to reading your reply.
With perceptible and incessant veneration and affection,
Your friend,
Adam.
P.S. I shall be going back to Stratford in January to see ‘Romeo and Juliet’, by the way, which should be spectacular. My sister is startlingly excited about it.
