No sooner do I arrive home than I take off again. This time for family and Thanksgiving dinner. I'll be back on Monday, and I think that the new Caro-verse story should start going up shortly thereafter. Probably to be followed by another venture into Queer as Folk fic.

Back from Mexico City. It was a great conference, though the official reception at the National Museum of Anthropology was horribly planned and therefore not at all fun. But the rest of the conference was great. I made lots of new friends, saw plenty of old friends (including, valmora, a guy who works on Sami music), heard two good concerts, and got to tour through a lovely and fascinating city. As working vacations go, this one was definitely a hit.

Heading off to Mexico city for a professional conference today. I'll be back Sunday night, and then on Thursday, it's off to the parents for Thanksgiving.

The fun never stops. It just pauses briefly to re-pack its bags.

So I had a quarter of a cabbage left over in the fridge, and I recalled that quiche is just the French for "leftovers pie." I don't think that the French usually put cabbage in quiche, but I did, and the results were surprisingly good. Much better than the dish for which I originally bought the cabbage (helpful tip: anadama bread and elderly onion salt do not contribute to the well-done cabbage soufflé).

Anyway, in case anyone else has a quarter of a cabbage lying around, here it is.

( Cabbage Quiche )

We need to talk. Specifically, about you making like California and repealing your gay marriage law. At least you had the minor-league class to do it before it was put into effect, and, yes, it was a close (52 - 48) race, but still.

You know what this means, don't you, Maine?

This means that we will have to send some Stephen King characters after you . . .

And thus ends my month of Shakespeare recs over at crack_van. I am thrilled to have had the chance to do this, and I hope that someone else takes up the reins. I've given you twelve of my favorite stories, but there are so many more good ones out there. You just have to know where to look. In the meantime, as our Star Du Jour would say, once more into the breach, dear friends!

Fandom: SHAKESPEARE -- HENRY V
Pairing: Henry V/French Herald (Montjoy)
Length: 21,000 words
Author on LJ: hyarrowen
Author Website: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1379714/Hyarrowen
Why this must be read: Oh, my. So much to be said here. Hyarrowen writes engaging, meticulously researched, lively AUs involving Henry V and the French herald. Her writing was what led me to watch Kenneth Branagh's 1989 Henry V, a modern classic. Hyarrowen's Henry is, as he should be, a highly charismatic kind of a guy, brilliant both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table. He's the sort of guy who just naturally steamrolls almost everyone in his path, but can make them think that the steamrolling was their idea in the first place if he has to. And he's utterly taken with the herald, a quiet, perceptive Frenchman much wiser than he lets on. Together, these two men are a fantastic match, and Henry's Journey gives them literally the world to play with.

It's a sprawling epic (a rare enough genre in Shakespeare fanfiction, which tends toward the short) that takes us from France to Jerusalem to India, China, and the Silk Road, still under the spell of the mysterious Tamburlaine. Henry and the herald are both changed profoundly by this journey and the people they meet along the way. To say more would simply ruin the pleasures of discovery.

( You think this is hard work? You should try getting a giraffe to go on board. )


Henry's Journey

Vidder: Civilwarchick1862
Musical artist: Gustavo Santaolalla, Brokeback Mountain
Pairing: Romeo/Mercutio, Romeo/Juliet
Vidder on LJ: N/A
Vidder's website: On YouTube
Why this vid kicks ass: This is a great example of a popular genre done exquisitely well, such that it really does seem like a fresh idea with something worth saying. Romeo and Juliet, of course, is the iconic love story of the Western world, and Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 movie of same is still the most popular version of it. Brokeback Mountain was about as popular as that movie, and its story is definitely in the same vein. A few years ago, you couldn't move on the Web for tripping over yet another slash fanvid set to the Brokeback Mountain theme, but "Brokeback Verona" stands out.

It's formatted as though it were a true movie trailer, even using intertitles just as the Brokeback Mountain trailer did. (That some of the intertitles are selections from Shakespeare's Sonnet 17 just adds to the awesomeness.) The clips from the movie are well chosen to highlight and enhance both relationships, the editing is nearly flawless, and Civilwarchick1862 weaves clips, music, and intertitles together to tell a real little story, not just revel in the pretty. Pay special attention to Juliet's role; every single bit of that is from the film, but in this context, her relationship with Romeo seems completely different.


Brokeback Verona

Fandom: SHAKESPEARE -- RICHARD II
Pairing: Richard II/Bolingbroke
Length: 1790 words
Author on LJ: shayheyred
Author Website: Today's Menu at Chez Shay
Why this must be read: Richard II is one of the Histories that doesn't get a whole lot of love. That's understandable; Richard II is sort of in the middle of the pack as far as colorful English royalty goes, and the play has a complicated plot that involves the niceties of feudal politics, and you have to know not only who the major characters are, but also how they're related to each other, who they're descended from, and a little something about the laws of medieval French succession. For people four hundred years from now, following the plot of Enron: The Smartest People In The Room will be like this.

Shayheyred neatly sidesteps all of this. She gives us two men caught up in a relationship as complicated personally as it is politically. They wrestle with love, jealousy, their own insecurities and weaknesses, and the bitterness of the way that they finally part. Richard and Bolingbroke are real, flesh-and-blood people whose attraction is almost palpable. It's also one of the very few stories written in the second person that I've ever really enjoyed. That's how good it is.

( Richard is late )

Fandom: SHAKESPEARE -- HAMLET
Pairing: Hamlet/Horatio, sorta-kinda
Length: 2430 words
Author on LJ: mod_alcyone
Author Website: http://www.fictionpress.com/~modalcyone
Why this must be read: Who would ever have thought to take the situation at the end of Hamlet and apply a coat of Latin American magical realism? Mod_Alcyone, that's who, and she does a brilliant job at it. Magical realism is a genre that tends toward the lyrical and elegiac, but also contains elements of horror and the fantastic, and that's exactly what this story does. For everyone who thinks that the most tragic character in Hamlet is not the title character (who, after all, gets to die and be released from his misery) but Horatio, the devoted friend left behind in a pile of bodies facing his country's conquest by a foreign power, this is for you. In the afterlife of death, Horatio's tragedy slowly overwhelms both Elsinore and himself as he discovers his particular kind of cruelty.

( Horatio blames no one. )



In Your Philosophy

Dear South Carolina politicians,

You know how you can avoid those embarrassing press conferences where you have to stand up and apologize for your gratuitous use of anti-Semitic stereotypes to make a completely unrelated point?

You can -- I know this sounds like crazy talk, but I think it just might work -- listen to the words coming out of your mouths so that you don't haul out the anti-Semitism in the first place. It's a radical notion, yes, but desperate times, as they say.

In the meantime, I'll thank you not to go around insulting me and mine.

Kisses,

Pargoletta

Or; The Continuing Afterlife of Proposition 8. Part the Umpteenth.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker has rejected a motion to dismiss a constitutional challenge to Proposition 8.

What this means, for everyone who just got lost in that string of double and triple negatives (dontcha just love legalese?), is that the pro-same-sex-marriage folks are trying to have Prop 8 overturned as unconstitutional. The anti-same-sex-marriage folks want this suit dismissed out of hand. Judge Walker has just said to the a-s-s-m folks, "Nope, sorry, have a nice day." The case will continue on its way to trial, and Judge Walker will make the a-s-s-m folks prove that there's something intrinsically wrong with same-sex marriage.

This means that the a-s-s-m folks have some 'splaining to do. Charles Cooper is their main attorney, and his primary argument is that marriage should be restricted to one man/one woman because that particular configuration can procreate naturally. Good luck with that one, Chas. You might want to consider your audience:

"Just last month," Walker said, "I performed a wedding in which the groom was 95 and the bride was 83. I did not demand that they prove they would engage in procreation."

He's also laughed off one or two of the a-s-s-m folks' other arguments. This could get good real fast. . .

Fandom: SHAKESPEARE -- ROMEO AND JULIET
Pairing: Mercutio/Romeo
Length: 2200 words
Author on LJ: sphinxvictorian
Author Website: sphinxfic
Why this must be read: In 1947, Paul Scofield played Mercutio under the direction of Peter Brook, and his performance prompted the reviewer for the Sunday Times to describe him as "a Mercutio who really has seen the fairies, and wishes, perhaps, that he had not." Then Dreams He Of Another Benefice is a story along those lines, with an extra little spine-tingling jolt of classic horror: Mercutio hasn't just seen the fairies -- he's dead and permanently under their spell. And Queen Mab, who loves him, is prepared to give him exactly what he's always wanted . . .

( Mab gave an exasperated sigh. )


Then Dreams He Of Another Benefice

And so the end of another story has come! Justin and Ethan finally have a chance to have a real conversation, in which old grievances are aired, and there is a possibility that closure might be had.

Ethan's musical tastes have changed over the years. On the show, he was always a devoted player of high Romantic music, not venturing much further out of his comfort zone than Ravel (though he did mention playing Bartók once; I suspected that that was his teacher's idea, because Ethan didn't seem to be the sort of person who would care much for Bartók's style). This always struck me as more a side effect of being a nineteen-year-old drama queen than anything else, so I've given him a chance to grow up and expand his tastes a little.


( 4. Allegro Vivacissimo )



( Afterword )

Fandom: SHAKESPEARE -- THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
Pairing: Implied Antonio/Bassanio, even more implied Portia/Nerissa
Length: 720 words
Author on LJ: honorbound
Author Website: Unknown
Why this must be read: There are lots of fanfics floating around the internet that come with mentions of the author having been assigned to write them in school. It's a more believable excuse for fic in some fandoms than in others, and in the case of Shakespeare fics, it's very plausible. Today is a story written to fulfill a teacher's prompt, which Honorbound includes at the beginning of the story. The assignment was to consider how the various marriages made in The Merchant of Venice under more or less deceptive circumstances might play out over the next five to ten years. In response, Honorbound gives us a series of vignettes exploring the futures of Jessica, Nerissa, Portia, and Bassanio. Some of these characters have happy futures, and some do not. Some of them have the futures one might expect for them, and some do not. But whether happy or sad, expected or unexpected, each vignette is thoughtfully and sparingly written, showing the compromises the characters have had to make with their "happy ending" over the course of the years.

( He had been there, and he had plied her with sweet words and promises of devotion. )


Today

Fandom: SHAKESPEARE -- THE TEMPEST
Pairing: Caliban/Prospero, Caliban/Miranda
Length: 500 words
Author on LJ: airgiodslv
Author Website: Airgiodslv's Memories
Why this must be read: Another short but powerful story. This one really digs into the darker side of The Tempest, exploring the controlling side of Prospero and even examining the racism inherent in a story set on a tropical island where the "natives" are somehow all either slaves or villains. The beauty of it is that it's done intensely, in a series of exquisitely crafted little snippets, rich with information and haunting in their simplicity.

( He charmed Caliban with his own magic, with books and pictures, tricks of physics, and he forgot longing for women. )

Whom Stripes May Move, Not Kindness

And Justin puts his mad stalker skillz to work! What's become of Ethan? We're going to find out.

A couple of notes: "Zayde" is Yiddish for "Grandpa."

On the subject of the two violins . . . Misha is the violin that we see in the show. By this point, it's probably close to a hundred years old, but with proper care, a violin that old can sound just gorgeous. In fact, many centuries-old violins are still in use, such as the endowed Stradivarius that Ethan mentions. This is not an uncommon thing to happen to top-grade symphony musicians. A wealthy patron or foundation will buy a famous antique instrument, usually at auction, and lend it to a symphony so that it can be played by an exceptionally good musician. Yo-Yo Ma plays one of these instruments, the Davidov Stradivarius, which is owned by the Vuitton Foundation and was previousy played by Jacqueline du Pré.

Finally, I have to admit that I've killed off Daniel Barenboim. Don't worry; he died two years before the story began, peacefully, of old age, at 79.



( 3. Andante )

Oh, man! The Birthers have gotten a truly epic smackdown -- the Smackdown of Smackdowns, one might say -- from one United States District Judge Clay D. Land.

Orly Taitz, who is what we like to refer to as "a shanda far di goyim," or just plain "batshit crazy," was representing a soldier who didn't want to go to Iraq and decided to question Obama's nationality of birth as a way of discrediting his presidency and therefore his authority to order her (the soldier) to go to Iraq. Cannon, gnat, but whatever works, you know? Only this tactic didn't work, and the soldier, who is not batshit crazy, realized that her lawyer was batshit crazy and fired her.

Did this stop Ms. Taitz? Bwa ha ha ha ha! Of course not! She had not even begun to fight! And it's a good thing for all of us starved for legal entertainment that she did keep up her work, because now we have been treated to this beautiful and glorious tale.

I've downloaded the entire court opinion, and I think I'll read it sometime when I want a good, rousing belly laugh.

Title: Giver of Gifts by Mirabehn
Pairing: Annatar/Macbeth
Author on LJ: mirabehn
Author Website: http://www.fluffhouse.org.uk/mirabehn/library.html
Why this must be read: There's not a whole lot of Shakespeare crossovers out there, and most of what is out there consists of crossovers between Shakespeare's plays. But this little snippet -- ahh! Mirabehn has pitted two British literary greats against each other, and it could not be more apropos, especially considering that Tolkien wrote the Ents into The Lord of the Rings precisely because he thought that the solution to Birnham Wood coming to Dunsinane in the Scottish Play was stupid. Mirabehn kind of goes along in that vein, using another of Tolkien's characters to explain the setup to the Scottish Play. Just how did the witches know to waylay Himself on the way home from battle after all?

Be forewarned . . . this is a dark, dark story.

( He came to me in the darkness, on the first night of the MacDonwald campaign. )


Giver of Gifts

It's showtime at Avery Fisher Hall! To the best of my knowledge, the New York Philharmonic has never yet had a female music director; I don't know how often they employ women as subordinate conductors. But since this story is set a few years into the future, I'm going to declare that Alan Gilbert's successor is a woman. Because it's about time!



( 2. Allegro Moderato )

Fandom: SHAKESPEARE -- MACBETH
Pairing: Macbeth/Banquo
Length: 700 words
Author on LJ: voorishsign
Author Website: a_strange_fear
Why this must be read: The Scottish Play is a strange one, no doubt about that, and one of its strangest characters is the title character. Himself appears to be a basically good guy caught up in the throes of ambition -- and it isn't even clear that the ambition is necessarily his. The big guilt scenes in the play belong to Herself, of course, but Himself had to have been having his own private torment, too. Voorishsign gives us just a little snippet of how dreadful that guilt could be. It's vaguely Dickensian, certainly disturbing, and a fine read.

( Everything I ever had is yours, o king. )


Miserably Afraid Of The Light