Hooray! I've finally finished through the letter L in my alphabetic list of possible duplicate bibliographic records in the MassCat catalog.
Last week I began on the letter M. Believe it or not, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, was not that bad. Yes, there are lots of versions of the Scottish play and lots of copies of each, but I found no duplicate records. I must have cleaned that section out while working on something else.
The bad news, however, is that I did a search on the single word "Macmillan" and got nearly 5,000 hits. Since the software only sorts the first 1,000, titles, that means I'll have to use a different strategy to get to the title Macmillan encyclopedia of ...
And as I perused those first 1,000 titles, I began to wonder what I've been doing these last five years. I found several duplicates beginning with the letters A and B. And lots of incomplete records (though some of them were new). And lots of other stuff that needed fixing.
I can see it's going to take a while to get through this section.
On a related notes, M and I spent the weekend in Lenox seeing Shakepeare plays, including Macbeth. I've seen lots of Shakespeare. There's a company here in Hampshire County that puts on two performances each summer - a comedy and a tragedy - and does a great job with both. M and I saw Twelfth Night on the 4th of July. We're planning to see Othello later this week. But this was my first performance of Macbeth.
Shakespeare & Co. always does an amazing job. The staging is often unique (like the comedy - I forget which one - set in 1950s New Jersey complete with women with big hair and boobs and men with lots of gold chains) and always very professional. It's such a pleasure to watch their productions and Macbeth was no exception.
There was one minor disappointment, though. I kept waiting for the witches; they were not there. :-(
Showing posts with label Shakespeare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shakespeare. Show all posts
Monday, July 16, 2018
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Where did the Summer go?
It's happened again. Summer has sped by in a matter of what seems like minutes.There were so many things I had hoped to do. Actually, I did many of them, but not all.
During June, I took a Spanish class. It met every Tuesday and Thursday evening for 1 1/2 hours. I would have like to continue during July and August, but M. and I had plans to go away and I would have missed 2 classes (1/4 of the course) each month.
In July, we had a mini-vacation in Lenox. We stayed at the Cornell Inn. It was lovely and the service was great as well as the complimentary breakfasts. Many of the rooms are named after First Ladies and we were in Grace (as in Coolidge). We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream performed by Shakespeare & Co. outdoors at The Mount. Outdoors is an ideal setting for this play as the performers run in and out of the trees.
The next day, we toured Chesterwood, the summer home of sculptor Daniel Chester French. Then headed back to see Cymbeline, Shakespeare's (probably) last play. While the story was confusing (so much going on) it was spectacularly performed.
August meant another mini-vacation, this time in NYC. August is a great time to go to the city since so many residents go away. Hotels have special (cheaper) rates and things are not nearly as crowded as they usually are. We saw Michael Moore's Broadway show The Terms of My Surrender. It was very much like watching a Michael Moore movie, but it was only him talking and a few simple sets that slid on and off the stage as needed.
Basically, it was a series of anecdotes, things he (and a few other people) has done throughout his life that have actually made a big difference. Like when at age 17 he entered an essay contest sponsored by the Elks. He was upset that the application form said "Caucasians only". This was 1971 and the Elks did not allow Blacks to join their fraternal organization. His essay pointed out the error of that policy and ultimately the Elks were integrated. Of course, when he told the story, it was a lot funnier.
The whole point of the show was that if a schmuck like him can make a difference by getting involved, anyone can. Throughout the 2 hours he periodically encouraged people to get involved, run for office, SPEAK UP.
Tomorrow is September 1. In a couple of weeks, M. and I are heading for Chicago to Expo Chicago at the Navy Pier. This is an international show of art and design and one of M.'s galleries will have a booth with pieces of his furniture. He has to be there to install a large cabinet and then we'll have a few days of "free play" before spending time at the show. It's been many years since I've been to Chicago and that was for a conference. I didn't really get to explore on my own.
I guess I can't complain about not doing things during the summer. But I do wish it were MUCH longer.
During June, I took a Spanish class. It met every Tuesday and Thursday evening for 1 1/2 hours. I would have like to continue during July and August, but M. and I had plans to go away and I would have missed 2 classes (1/4 of the course) each month.
In July, we had a mini-vacation in Lenox. We stayed at the Cornell Inn. It was lovely and the service was great as well as the complimentary breakfasts. Many of the rooms are named after First Ladies and we were in Grace (as in Coolidge). We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream performed by Shakespeare & Co. outdoors at The Mount. Outdoors is an ideal setting for this play as the performers run in and out of the trees.
The next day, we toured Chesterwood, the summer home of sculptor Daniel Chester French. Then headed back to see Cymbeline, Shakespeare's (probably) last play. While the story was confusing (so much going on) it was spectacularly performed.
August meant another mini-vacation, this time in NYC. August is a great time to go to the city since so many residents go away. Hotels have special (cheaper) rates and things are not nearly as crowded as they usually are. We saw Michael Moore's Broadway show The Terms of My Surrender. It was very much like watching a Michael Moore movie, but it was only him talking and a few simple sets that slid on and off the stage as needed.
Basically, it was a series of anecdotes, things he (and a few other people) has done throughout his life that have actually made a big difference. Like when at age 17 he entered an essay contest sponsored by the Elks. He was upset that the application form said "Caucasians only". This was 1971 and the Elks did not allow Blacks to join their fraternal organization. His essay pointed out the error of that policy and ultimately the Elks were integrated. Of course, when he told the story, it was a lot funnier.
The whole point of the show was that if a schmuck like him can make a difference by getting involved, anyone can. Throughout the 2 hours he periodically encouraged people to get involved, run for office, SPEAK UP.
Tomorrow is September 1. In a couple of weeks, M. and I are heading for Chicago to Expo Chicago at the Navy Pier. This is an international show of art and design and one of M.'s galleries will have a booth with pieces of his furniture. He has to be there to install a large cabinet and then we'll have a few days of "free play" before spending time at the show. It's been many years since I've been to Chicago and that was for a conference. I didn't really get to explore on my own.
I guess I can't complain about not doing things during the summer. But I do wish it were MUCH longer.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
July 1 and the word is SMOOTH
It feels (as it does every year) that summer is whizzing by. There are so many things M. and I want to do while the weather is warm; and there are other things I want to do while the weather is warm.
There is great theater around here during the summer. We're planning to see The Foreigner at New Century Theater; Hamlet and then Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at Hampshire Shakespeare Company; and Midsummer Night's Dream and Cymbeline at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox.
We want to invite some friends for dinner and also to have a big party, or maybe two. We have a beautiful yard with a pond and patios and decks that we love to share. It's a great place to mingle or just sit peacefully. The pond has about 19 fish (it's hard to count them, they don't stay still for long) and I saw a turtle a couple of days ago. There are lots of frogs, too.
I want to take a trip to the Berkshires (in addition to Lenox) to the Clark Art Institute and MassMoCA. I have a gift certificate to the latter.
During June, I took a Spanish class at the International Language Institute. Even though I've taken Spanish before, I signed up for the beginner's class. My Spanish is very rusty and I didn't want to feel overwhelmed in a more advanced class. The other people in my class (there were 4 others) also had some Spanish, so we were pretty much even. The teacher was great. She may be one of the best teachers I have ever had EVER. She was very young, but experienced and, obviously, very talented.
As someone who has taught a variety of subjects (including cataloging and exercise), I know that the first few times can be rough, no matter how well you are prepared. Smooth is the best way to describe her. She transitioned smoothly from one topic to another. She introduced new topics smoothly. On the rare occasion she did not know a word, she smoothly looked it up on her laptop. She was fun and friendly and the class was fun and friendly. We talked a lot (the whole point of learning a new language) and she was very fun and friendly - and yes smooth - as she corrected our pronunciation or verb endings.
Because of so many other things going on during July and August, I am not going to register for Spanish, but I am looking forward to another class in the fall. While I'm looking forward to taking Spanish again, I hope fall does not come soon.
There is great theater around here during the summer. We're planning to see The Foreigner at New Century Theater; Hamlet and then Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at Hampshire Shakespeare Company; and Midsummer Night's Dream and Cymbeline at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox.
We want to invite some friends for dinner and also to have a big party, or maybe two. We have a beautiful yard with a pond and patios and decks that we love to share. It's a great place to mingle or just sit peacefully. The pond has about 19 fish (it's hard to count them, they don't stay still for long) and I saw a turtle a couple of days ago. There are lots of frogs, too.
I want to take a trip to the Berkshires (in addition to Lenox) to the Clark Art Institute and MassMoCA. I have a gift certificate to the latter.
During June, I took a Spanish class at the International Language Institute. Even though I've taken Spanish before, I signed up for the beginner's class. My Spanish is very rusty and I didn't want to feel overwhelmed in a more advanced class. The other people in my class (there were 4 others) also had some Spanish, so we were pretty much even. The teacher was great. She may be one of the best teachers I have ever had EVER. She was very young, but experienced and, obviously, very talented.
As someone who has taught a variety of subjects (including cataloging and exercise), I know that the first few times can be rough, no matter how well you are prepared. Smooth is the best way to describe her. She transitioned smoothly from one topic to another. She introduced new topics smoothly. On the rare occasion she did not know a word, she smoothly looked it up on her laptop. She was fun and friendly and the class was fun and friendly. We talked a lot (the whole point of learning a new language) and she was very fun and friendly - and yes smooth - as she corrected our pronunciation or verb endings.
Because of so many other things going on during July and August, I am not going to register for Spanish, but I am looking forward to another class in the fall. While I'm looking forward to taking Spanish again, I hope fall does not come soon.
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