Reading Shakespeare
I am reading the play, Henry the Eighth. This play is included in the Shakespeare opus but there is much doubt about whether he authored any of it. The edition I am reading traces the story of the play directly to Holinshed’s Chronicle of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1577).
The editors say that it, along with Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, is not only the source for most of the play, but that a great deal of the play is simply Holinshed’s prose put into verse and cite copious amounts of the source inviting reader’s to compare themselves.
I decided to read this play because I was unaware that Shakespeare had included the story of Henry the Eighth in his historical plays. Now I understand why. But I am still enjoying it.
My Friday
I do enjoy chatting with my therapist, Dr. Curtis Birky. I feel a bit sheepish because my conversation with him compares to conversations I have with anyone willing to listen. Again at the end of the session yesterday I said that we continue to solve the problems of the world together and that I felt a bit embarrassed about that. He smiled and said it was fine with him. It seemed like he thought it was appropriate.
We talk a lot about current events. I keep him up to date with my activities and interactions with people. What’s not to like?
After I returned to Holland, I stopped off at Grace to pick up some music. My violinist and I have decided to learn (relearn actually) a movement of a Mozart Violin Sonata. I wanted to get the score so I could add it to daily practice. In addition, I printed up Barry Jordan’s organ piece that he wrote for Rhonda I mentioned here recently.
Then I drove to the Methodist church. It was after 11 AM, the time I was told the secretary would close up the building and leave. But there were cars in the parking lot so I walked up to the entrance. The sign on the entrance said that Friday hours ran to noon not 11 AM. I went in and frightened the secretary. She had not been informed that I had permission to practice and was uncomfortable with leaving me in the church alone as she was just about to close up.
I quickly agreed and left. It might be that I will only be able to practice there while the secretary is present. That makes sense.
I walked across the street to Hope Church where I have been practicing. With a little help from one of the many construction workers who are refurbishing many areas of the church I got past wet cement and construction zones to the organ.
I have as yet to respond to the Roman Catholic dude who asked for my “schedule” for practicing so he could check the church calendar. I’m not sure what to tell him since I have had the luxury of pretty much practicing when i want and haven’t developed much of a pattern other than doing it daily as much as possible. I need to email him today. I am wondering if I will be able to find a place to practice on Saturdays since most churches are locked up on that day. We’ll see.
PressThink – PressThink, a project of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, is written by Jay Rosen.
This guy was interviewed in this Week’s On the Media.
Speaking of “On The Media,” I thought the best part of today’s show was when they applied George Lakof’s ideas on how to report President Trump’s false tweets.
First – begin by telling the truth and giving the evidence for that truth
The truth: This past November the USA held a free and fair election in which Donald Trump lost the vote by nearly 2.9 million votes but won the electoral college by 74 votes thereby winning the presidency.
“On the Media” cited an expert who said there were only 31 credible instances of fraud out of 1 billion votes cast.
Next step is to talk about what kind of Tweet it is. That’s when you present the Tweet. Online reports love to do it like this:
Ask yourself what is the framing? These three techniques seem to apply:
Pre-emptive framing. Calling for an investigation, induces us to discuss the investigation but ignore the actual votes.
Tweet of diversion. Look at the fake fraud not the large loss of the popular vote that Trump suffered.
The Trial Balloon.
See how people react, so he will know what to do in the future.
Keep going back to substance and the truth.
The other fact I wanted to remember from today’s show was the idea covered in a later section. Labeling mistakes as fake news. Like President Trump did when one a recent pool reporter reported that Trump had removed the bust of Martin Luther King from his office (Trump did not do this). This was a mistaken report. The reporter didn’t see it and thought it had been removed. When he realized his mistake, he corrected it. But it fed into the propaganda machine of the administration and became “fake news.”
This was an example also of salient exemplar which is using one instance to generalize to a trend.
So much to remember these days.