journal features

Anonymous and Shakespeare

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2011.10.28

I met my friends Geoff and Mariko-san and two of their friends in seeing the movie "Anonymous" tonight.

It was excellent. I don't know much about the era, but I'd read a play that Geoff wrote on the same subject (the true identity and life of the Bard) a decade ago, and really enjoyed this movie. It was brilliantly made. I understand that the director usually makes mindless action films, incredibly.

I had a long cycle trip up to Yonge and Eglinton and then down to the Beaches that I can only describe as "bracing". It couldn't have been ten degrees Celsius.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force