To Be Or Not To Be

A wonderful start to the day this morning when I came across this beauty from Alphabeat. A live performance of their hit single The Spell in three parts, acoustic, upbeat and with a Black Box 90's twist. I have linked to the video below and I defy you not to bop along to the beat, Stine's voice is really shown off at the beginning and it is nice to know that there is a pop group out there who can play instruments and sing without having to be manufactured and virtually talentless without the help of a computer.



Also, after I tweeted about my delight, I was retweeted by Alphabeat themselves! What a privilege look!

Aside from that, I finally got round to watching the three hours of Hamlet from Christmas. It was a rather strange production in the sense that it had been partly modernised in the sense that there were CCTV cameras and modern clothing and yet the language was that of the Shakespearian era. Somehow - despite having never read Hamlet before - I was able to follow what was going on rather well so perhaps my GCSE English lessons did teach me something. The other surprising thing was how many of the lines I recognised as famous Shakespeare quotes, other than Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, I suppose this is next most famous play of his but it seems to have more famous quotes than others. "Alas poor Yorik," "To be or not to be," for example are both from this play along with countless others that sound familiar and it is nice to finally hear them in their original context. As you would expect from the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) the production was acted superbly and the modernisation actually worked really well. The CCTV cameras were also used in a unique way as a device to watch the characters performing their soliloquies. It was a bit weird to see them performing in what would be considered modern clothing although come to think of it, it was only Hamlet himself who was actually in modern dress with the rest of the cast in posh suits and regalia that could have come from any time really. Still, it makes me feel a bit more cultured watching programmes like that which I don't get a chance to do very often and it makes a nice change to the silly comedies and dramas that I usually watch.