Untitled

[bookcub]

oh i am instantly suspicious of the character named fitcher in a bluebeard retelling, i know the lore

[s-wordsmith]

Wait, what lore? I don't know the lore.

[sarah-dipitous]

April Fools day here is always funny because my dash is full of “here’s a Rick roll but it’s actually a different song” “here’s ‘do you love the color of the sky’ just kidding! It’s not the full long post!” “Here’s a drawing I made of a kitty! Just kidding! It’s two kitties and they’re best friends” and we do this unironically and completely ignoring the blood lust we all experience every year just two weeks prior

[keepcalmandcarriefischer]

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdQuxw52/

I think I found my new favorite rabbit hole. This voice actor does Shakespeare scenes in a southern accent and I need to see the whole damn play. Absolutely beautiful

[saint-batrick]

if you're not from the us american south, there's some amazing nuances to this you may have missed. i can't really describe all of them, because i've lived here my whole life and a lot of the body language is sort of a native tongue thing. the body language is its own language, and i am not so great at teaching language. i do know i instinctively sucked on my lower teeth at the same time as he did, and when he scratched the side of his face, i was ready to take up fucking arms with him.

but y'all. the way he said "brutus is an honourable man" - each and every time it changed just a little. it was the full condemnation Shakespeare wanted it to be. it started off slightly mock sincere. barely trying to cover the sarcasm. by the end...it wasn't a threat, it was a promise.

christ, he's good.

[anais-ninja-bitch]

the eliding of “you all” to “y’all” while still maintaining 2 syllables is a deliberate and brilliant act of violence. “bear with me” said exactly like i’ve heard it at every funeral. the choices of breaking and re-establishing of eye contact. the balance of rehearsed and improvised tone. A+++ get this man a hollywood contract.

[ruffboi-mags]

Get this man a starring role as Marc Antony in a southern adaptation of this show PLEASE.

[amodernjunecleaver]

This man is fantastic. 💕

[finnglas]

The thing that just destroys me about this, though -- we think of Shakespearean language as being high-cultured, and intellectual, and somewhat inaccessible. And I know people think of Southerners as being ill-educated (which...let's be fair, most are, but not the way it's said). But that whole speech, unaltered, is so authentically Southern. And the thing is: Leaning into that language really amps the mood, in metalanguage. I'm not really sure how to explain it except... like... "Thrice" is not a word you hear in common speech...unless you're in the South and someone is trying to Make A Fucking Point.

Anyway. This was amazing and I want a revival of Shakespeare As Southern Gothic.

[thornheart-needs-a-break]

One of the lovely things about this, and one of the reasons it works so well, is that from what we can piece together of how Shakespeare was originally pronounced, it leans more towards an American southern accent than it does towards a modern British RP.

In addition, in the evolution of the English language in america, the south has retained many of the words, expressions, and cadences from the Renaissance/Elizabethan English spoken by the original British colonists.

One of the biggest examples of this is that the south still uses “O!”/“Oh!” In sentences, especially in multi-tone and multi-syllable varieties. We’ve lost that in other parts of the country (except in some specific pocket communities). But in the south on the whole? Still there. People in California or Chicago don’t generally say things like “why, oh why?” Or “oh bless your heart” or “Oh! Now why you gotta do a thing like that?!” But people from the south still do.

I teach, direct, and dramaturg Shakespeare for a living. When people are struggling with the “heightened” language, especially in “O” heavy plays like R&J and Hamlet, a frequent exercise I have them do is to run the scene once in a southern accent. You wouldn’t believe the way it opens them up and gives their contemporary brains an insight into ways to use that language without it being stiff and fake. Do the Balcony scene in a southern accent- you’ll never see it the same way again.

This guy is also doing two things that are absolutely spot-on for this speech:

First, he’s using the rhetorical figures Shakespeare gave him! The repetition of “ambition” and “Brutus is an honorable man”, the logos with which he presents his argument, the use of juxtaposition and antitheses (“poor have cried/caesar hath wept”, etc). You would not believe how many RADA/Carnegie/LAMDA/Yale trained actors blow past those, and how much of my career I spend pointing it out and making them put it back in.

Second, he’s playing the situation of the speech and character exactly right. This speech is hard not just because it’s famous, but because linguistically and rhetorically it’s a better speech than Brutus’ speech and in the context of the play, Brutus is the one who is considered a great orator. Brutus’ speech is fiery passion and grandstanding, working the crowd, etc. Anthony is not a man of speeches (“I am no orator, as Brutus is; But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man”) His toastmaster skills are not what Brutus’ are, but he speaks from his heart (his turn into verse in this scene from Brutus’ prose is brilliant) and lays out such a reasonable, logical argument that the people are moved anyway. I completely believe that in this guy’s performance. A plain, blunt, honest speaker. Exactly what Anthony should be.

TLDR: Shakespeare is my job and this is 100% a good take on this speech.

[krakenartificer]

definitely one of the challenges I have with reading Shakespeare is that it sounds so weird to me. “The good is oft interr’d with their bones”?? Who talks like that?

Well,,, rednecks. Despite being Elizabethan English, none of this is really out of character for a man with that accent; southern american English has retained not only (I am told) the accent of Shakespeare, and the “Oh!” speech patterns, but also so many of the little linguistic patterns: parenthetic repetition (“so are they all - all honorable men”), speaking formally when deeply emotional, getting more and more sarcastic and passive-aggressive as time goes on, etc.

[headspace-hotel]

Someone sent this to me a while ago and I dropped it in my drafts because I wanted to comment on how RIGHT this sounded but I couldn't express why it sounded right, so I'm glad other people have picked it up

There's a theory that Appalachian English in particular retains a lot of the qualities present in Shakespearean english that are now gone elsewhere. Thinking of my Mamaw, who says "twice't" instead of twice and other things like that...

[whumpster-fire]

This is right up there with Gary's Cook's Hamlet soliloquy

[iwhumpyou]

First of all, this is brilliant acting. Second of all, the language analysis above is great for anyone interested in it. And lastly, this video, to me, does a great job of pointing out the effect of type of media on the story you're trying to tell. Shakespeare's plays work best as plays. Not as scripts, not as movies. Plays.

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[hallowedlore]

this is targeted tumblr content

[jvgsjeff]

[yahenni]

[doctor-wormm]

please reblog this i spent way too long on what was supposed to be a quick edit

[penny-anna]

i think the reason why the assassination of Julius Caesar is one of the funniest political assassinations is for this very simple reason:

1 guy stabs 1 guy: not funny. that's murder.

2 guys stab 1 guy: even less funny. that's two against one.

60 guys stab 1 guy: uproariously funny. why do you need so many guys.

[jasontoddsguns]

This implies that there is a number where being stabbed is only kinda funny. What’s the median and cutoff?

[bluebelledmoon]

the local library knows what it’s doing

[mayasaura]

I'm doing my part!!

[oof-goes-the-chicken]

[cuneiformkey]

We love the Ides of March because it’s the last example of a senate working together to accomplish something.

[stopiwanttotalkaboutcheese]

🗡️

(in case you need a knife in the next two days for reasons unrelated to political assassinations)

[riccissance]

one of my favorite leverage moments is in the lonely hearts job when nate tells parker to start a fight with one of their marks so parker walks over and decks her in the face. not only is it hilarious, but it's autistic rep in action! nate said fight so parker started a fight! and they even have nate promise to use the word argument next time instead because he recognizes why she did it that way. just a+ characterization all around

[richardsphere]

Leverage Log: the Lonely Hearts Job

Well with a name like that, im expecting this to either be about con-artists cheating people on E-harmony, or a legitimately tragic story about love and/or loss...

---

Ok so Rich man arrives with armed goons (heck of a way to make a fist impression) and is crying within 2 minutes of the episode starting... I've said before that i want to see more of the marks' humanised so this promises to be an interesting episode. Nate: "There's no evidence of wrongdoing, She left you" Sophie (to nate): "thats harsh" Wellesley the fourth: "no it isnt".

This is a guy who knows how it looks, understand that it looks that way and acknowledges it openly. Its nice to see us go from last episode's overly naive Hurley to one of the more competent clients we've seen so far. "Whatever you want... its yours. Just find my wife".

I wonder whats going through Nate's mind in this moment. Here's a guy he's been scouting as a mark begging to be taken as a client...

Gut feeling: The second wife (the one who is missing) was actually the type of golddigger it looks like, but accounting for episode name. Its gonna be one of those "the mask grows to fit you" situations where they actually fell for the guy.

---

So Hardisons analysis implies this guy is like, legit as clients go. He's inherited old money not new money, which is the difference between "evil billionaire CEO" and "Born with privilege, gonna use it how I can". Basically: His great granpa would've been a Leverage mark, but he himself is a legit philantropist.

Meanwhile missing wife may in fact be a black widow. (luckily this client has his own goonsquad to protect him, so we dont need to leave Elliot behind to protect him)

---

Parker extremely annoyed she's not allowed to steal any of the rich folks' jewelry at the auction. The Boys deciding to have an auction-shaped dick-measuring contest.

Hardison wins the bid, we are reminded that one of Sophie's aliases is a duchess.

Ok so its an entire army of Sophie's.

Need to fight the ringleader, "pick a fight with Hardisons date". Well she did what you asked her to!

--- "I promise next time, i'll use the word argument instead of fight." Clear Comunication! If only people IRL would learn this lesson.

And once more the little Parker moments "what's a Hohe Minnie?", she's consistently the only member of the Young Thieves who takes an interest in the other people's jobs in the cons they're running. She's definitly being primed as Nate's eventual replacement (wether permanent or temporary).

---

Nate's pajama's. Sophie is loving the idea of a con where Nate has to "pretend" to wine-and-dine her.

I agree with Elliot, the moment it turned out they were grifters, the bet was off. But also, like that we once again get a nod at his cooking skills. "do you want me to teach you about the wines again?" "thats hurtfull and presumptious... but yes."

--- I love the way that Elliot punching the guy out is framed as a shot, good transition. Elliot bribing the guitarist, photographers commentary is great. "I picked you", such a simple statement, Every other member of the group was recruited by Dunevich, but Nate brought Sophie.

---

They found the wife. Suprisingly she isnt dead. (Meredith seems competent enough to tie off that loose end, and i think she could've exposited on the similarity to Nate falling in love with "The Duchess". But then, without recovering the wife Nate doesnt get to have a Favor for use in the season climax)

Seeing the gifts... Im 100% certain Elliot improv'd the guitar as well, that wasnt actually a Nate plan. Just Elliot.

Final tease with Latimer, he's a bit too much of a nothing-character to be truly intimidating, which means either the showrunners are making a mistake somewhere, or he's about to take a big fall to sell the credibility of the guy who he just called. Wait.... i just got a brainniggle. The story he tried to spin to Nate: "Someone stole a guy's patents", thats the same lie used in episode 1 of season 1. This in the same episode that had a reminder about the difference with Sophie and the other members of the team (on the subject of how they joined the team)

Is Latimer working for the Episode 1 mark? Or is my brain just doing that "i've connected the dots" meme?

Guess i'll see in time.

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

happy ides of March

[psychosociogentleman-deactivate]

yo why is this on my dash its august

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

Yeah, why is this getting notes? It's August!

[dragonanarchist1155]

It's knife day

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

Oh

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

once again this has been getting notes for the past few days, and it's only knife day morning today!

[skzhhssh-deactivated20190330]

when ur reading fanfic and one character was cooking and the other comes up to them and they start making out and everyones like starting to take their shirts off and the author STILL hasnt mentioned anyone turning off the stove

[golgafrincham]

[s-wordsmith]

Or they light candles for a romantic dinner, don't eat anything and DON'T PUT OUT THE CANDLES before having sex, sometimes in the other room.

I call these scenarios "fire-hazard sex."

[snazzycicada]

Its wild that Dune part 2 was like $190 million or something and looks phenomenal, and while thats still a lot of money, these marvel/sony/ Disney flops cost $350+millions?!??! It has to be money laundering like it HAS to be. Where is that money going?? Mission impossible cost $567million. Antman cost $450 and looks as drab and washed out and forgettable as every other marvel movie. Like?!??

[liquidstar]

my brother was making fun of me and our other brother for having the same haircut, and we were immediately like "what the fuck are you talking about? you had this EXACT SAME haircut like a year ago. this is your haircut too. jackass." so we start arguing back and forth until our mom stops us and says "come here." and she brings out her ID from when she was a teenager and... its the same haircut.