The author takes no responsibility for the offense that some may take to his hubris, but he does apologize beforehand for his flippant ways.
Well, hello good people. I suppose the BBC Shakespeare 1978-1985 could be considered ambrosia for humanists, but I'm curious how this set is incorporated into your overall accumulation of videos of Shakespeare plays. Is the BBC Hamlet "THE ONE" that most of your faculty members turn to in their classes, or do you, as many of us do, have a veritable Rijsttafel of video smackerels for their delight? We've got a bunch too -- Olivier, Gielgud, Brannagh, Gibson, Hawke, et al. -- and I would certainly go for a streaming copy of this play, offered by Ambrose now. But are these Shakepeares out of date in the contemporary classroom? -- there, I said it! i.e. Or to reverse engineer Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire , "Did they have you at BBC?" What are the approaches that we take with this classic set in our hoppers now? I might add, with this possibly-mostly-VHS classic set in our hoppers. Perhaps I am lazy, but I haven't updated Coriolanus and Richard II into DVDs. On the other hand, given the way streaming works, I could cherry pick particular productions on yearly licenses if I knew what was being taught in the coming semesters. It sure was easier in VHS days to have a box set of 37 videos and just have them there if anyone wanted to take the plunge. As we all know, students go running out of the classroom to watch Gielgud video cassettes on the weekends. Let a thousand Cymbelines bloom ! ** Randal ============== Randal Baier Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197 (734) 487-2520 rba...@emich.edu tweets @rbaier – skypes @ randalbaier "Don't laugh, this is a foreign movie!" ** [Now, don't get me wrong about Cymbeline . Probably my first live Shakespeare. In 19xx I saw this at American University -- it had a trippy spinning spiral as a dream scene a la Rod Serling. Also once at Stratford in post-modern WWI costuming with the occasional Roman helmet -- marvelous production. Well, the game is up, I visually remember the techie stuff and find the memorable lines on Google now. Roll tape.]
VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
