William Shakespeare’s Star Wars from tor.com

Jun 10 2013 10:00am

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William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is Exactly What You Need For Your Next Geeky Houseparty

Emily Asher-Perrin

In my experience, geeks are often an incredibly theatrical bunch. It’s hardly any wonder—we love epic stuff. We go for the larger-than-life, we’re prone to dressing up, we enjoy imitating what we find inspiring. As a kid, I found most of my friends in the greenroom of our high school, rehearsing Sondheim musicals and the occasional Martin McDonagh or Nicky Silver play. (Yeah, you read that one right.)
So you know what’s a perfect idea? Star Wars as a Shakespeare play. Because as party tricks go, who wouldn’t be into this?
Considering that there are a multitude of Star Wars plays running across the convention circuit on any given year, from musicals to one-man shows to condensed 30-minute trilogies, it’s amazing that Ian Doescher had to point out this gaping chasm to the world with William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. His treatment of Star Wars as a Shakespeare play covers just the first film (that’s first in our chronology, not in theirs,) and encompasses every scene therein.
In true Shakespearean form, there are hilarious asides that make it clear how each character truly feels and what they’re plotting. Observe—

C-3PO: Anon, anon, R2! Where dost thou go?
O prithee, patience, leave me not alone.
[Aside.] Aye, even though I mock and injure thee,
I’ll surely die if e’er thou leavest me!

Truer words, you guys. (R2’s lines are written as beeps and squeaks, but his asides are in English. It’s kind of genius.)
There are great illustrations to add character, including all your favorite people sporting Elizabethan additions to their costumes. Well, the Jawas look the same, but Tatooine fashion has that friar kind of vibe anyway. (Jabba’s hat, though. Hutt hats. There are hats for Hutts.) There’s a chorus when the plot needs furthering, and soliloquies galore for all the appropriate moments of resonance, even songs that need melodies! In addition, Doescher sprinkles in fun references for longtime fans that are a treat to pick out; there’s a great shout out to whether Han truly does shoot first, for instance.
What shouldn’t be surprising at all is how easily Star Wars seems to break itself down along Shakespeare’s typical structure, with five acts and emotional exclamations over every betrayal and character archetypes that fit the bill without breaking a sweat. Chats between stormtroopers become whole comedic side scenes in their own right, and knowledge of the prequels inform the ways in which characters monologue about each other where they couldn’t in the film proper.

Flash mob in front of Philadelphia's Museum of Art!

The book has already prompted some celebration, as Shelf Awareness reported that a flash mob appeared on May the 4th at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in its honor! But all I could think while reading the play was what a great late-night party game it would make. Assign roles out to your guests (costumed or not) and spend the next few hours indulging your sci-fi and classics-obsessed friends! Pick a favorite word (I recommend “anon” or “forsooth”) and have everyone drink when it comes up! Just don’t say it was my idea....
Unless you have a great time. Then it totally was.

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher is available July 2 from Quirk Books.

William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is Exactly What You Need For Your Next Geeky Houseparty | Tor.com

pfalzgrafenstein castle ( Ship of Stone) Part one.

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle

  pfalzgrafenstein castleThe early ears
 

Google Satellite view 

Dock and wooded area

 

 

Castle with breakwater 

         

PfalzgrafensteinCastle

Burg Pfalzgrafenstein with Burg Gutenfels in the background, about 1900

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle (German: Burg Pfalzgrafenstein) is a toll castle on the Falkenau island, otherwise known as Pfalz Island in the Rhine river near Kaub, Germany. Known as "the Pfalz," this former stronghold is famous for its picturesque and unique setting.
The keep of this island castle, a pentagonal tower with its point upstream, was erected 1326 to 1327 by King Ludwig the Bavarian. Around the tower, a defensive hexagonal wall was built between 1338 to 1340. In 1477 Pfalzgrafenstein was passed as deposit to the Count of Katzenelnbogen.^[1] Later additions were made in 1607 and 1755, consisting of corner turrets, the gun bastion pointing upstream, and the characteristic baroque tower cap.
The castle functioned as a toll-collecting station that was not to be ignored, as it worked in concert with Gutenfels Castle and the fortified town of Kaub on the right side of the river. A chain across the river forced ships to submit, and uncooperative traders could be kept in the dungeon until a ransom was delivered. The dungeon was a wooden float in the well.
Unlike the vast majority of Rhine castles, "the Pfalz" was never conquered or destroyed, withstanding not only wars, but also the natural onslaughts of ice and floods by the river. Its Spartan quarters held about twenty men.
The island of the castle was used for the Rhine crossing by 60,000 Prussian troops under Blücher in the winter of 1814 in his pursuit of Napoleon.

"A ship of stone..."

The castle was acquired by Prussia in 1866, and toll collections ceased in 1867. It continued to be used as a signal station for the river boat traffic for about another century. In 1946, the castle became property of the State of Rheinland–Pfalz.
The State eventually turned "the Pfalz" into a museum and restored the color scheme of the baroque period. The museum reflects the conditions of the 14th century, and the visitor will not find modern amenities such as electricity or a lavatory. It is accessible to the public via a ferry service from nearby Kaub as long as river conditions permit.
The area is part of the Rhine Gorge, a World Heritage site

                                                           

Castle description

 

Burg Pfalzgrafenstein

 

The Castle forms an elongated scalene Hexagon in plan view, the three-storey Bering on the basic form reminds a downstream vessel of 47 m long and 21 m maximum width, which rises about 13 m above the Rhine, with five round, above such th. polygon Eckthürmchen of Lord 2.2, partly 2.8 m clear span, which does not advance outside holds in its top, triangular with large sandstone blocks and cross braces at the end-the Castle House.

 

In the open galleries surrounded (25.1 m long, wide up to 12.4 m) inner court rises the exterior symmetrical five sided, inside the rectangular keep with its approximately 37 m above the Rhine Ronan hood, his sharpest corner, which is a spiral staircase connecting the 6 floors, the Burghause turning on the top floor with a, fitted with round-arched barrel vault in the previous two.

 

Castle Pfalzgrafenstein House

The Castle House contains a bottom 3 pressed round Lancet arcades with squares open columns against the Court Hall with three rectangular rippenlosen vaulted ceilings and a trowel Council a trapezoidal space with barrel vault that is accessible and illuminated by 2 slots only by the Hall. An in the wall thickness, driven down into the rock well shaft is located at one end of the Hall.

 

On the second floor, the space above the Hall at 2.9 m wide 4 rippenlose cross vaults, against the Court in the Middle has a fireplace between coupled Windows, separated by a rectangular pillar opposite 2 Arcaden convey a connection with trapetzförmigen space lit by two narrow Windows and covered with a vault of stitch Cap.

 

The third floor is updated. The spiral staircase contained within an Eckthurm connects the floors of the Castle House and the Court be ring.Wall Pfalzgrafenstein

 

The wall contained deep stitch sheet panels, which are smaller aperture with slanted side walls for the shooting holes in 2 floors.

 

On the ground floor a pillar carved from a single piece is set up later (such as in the 16th century) each diaphragm pillar opposite rothem sandstone, which in the middle of octagonal, top and bottom is being placed under an outline in the square formed by platelets and ogee and has a cube-shaped bottom off nestled head. These pillars carry the wooden galleries of the second floor, which lie with their shelters on the ramparts on high Stichbogen of slate. These are above both reinforced after the Court and externally and by raw projected arched frieze to take the Battlement parapet forming the third floor.

 

Thürme Pfalzgrafenstein

 

The related to the galleries in connection Eckthürme with monastery vaults rise above the roofs of the Wehrganges and wear pyramid roofs. The located at the bottom of the Castle Tower, in which the left above contains a fourth Holy cross vaults. Wood be fabric Bay window are the Eckthürmen in the 17th century above been submitted. A wooden Bay window protects the downstream the needle Lancet entrance to the Burghofe, which, accessible, can be kept only by a ladder through a Portcullis, which was lowered by a winch mounted in the Bay window.

 

The keep was accessible by a train and Schiebebrücke and, as Merian's view shows still 1645 with Wehrgange vorgekragtem fries arch and 5 Eckthürmchen provided, which gave to the curved roof.

L. of [cracks and description of architect of Peter in Wetzlar in the Palat. Yearbooks 46, op. cit., pp. 50-54 and table 6-9. Views by Simrock, the picturesque Rhineland P237 (West side); Albert, Rhine album; Sachs & Rossel, no.3 (North side).]

Illostration of  medeval ship of stone

Floor plan

                                              Interior Hallway showing narrow access stairs

                                                         Interior Courtyard from level 2

                                                        Panarama view of  bow room

High waters on The Rhine

                                Unknown  dateed photo of city walls and ferry garrison tower

 Interior room view with person for scale

 View from upper castle to ferry

 Hilltop Castle that protects the vally. (Now a Hotel)

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More detailed photos

 

Next blog to be a system neutral fantasy setting based around the Ship of  Stone.

 

The Wrecks of Homebush Bay

The Wrecks of Homebush Bay

SS Ayrfield
SS Ayrfield (originally launched as SS Corrimal) was a steel-hulled, single screw, steam collier of 1140 tonnes and 79.1m in length. It was built in the UK in 1911 and registered at Sydney in 1912. It was purchased by the Commonwealth Government and used to transport supplies to American troops stationed in the Pacific region during WWII.
In 1950, it was sold to Bitumen and Oil Refineries Australia Pty Ltd and in 1951 sold to the Miller Steamship Company Ltd and renamed Ayrfield. Under the Miller flag, it operated as a collier between Newcastle and Miller’s terminal in Blackwattle Bay. Here is a description of the collier entering Blackwattle Bay:
As a teenager I went to sea on the Ayrfield, one of R. W. Miller’s colliers. It took great skill by the helmsman to steer the ship through the opening of the Glebe Island swing bridge in the darkness of night.
The ship had to have a reasonable speed to negotiate the opening as there was only a few metres clearance on either side. As we swung to port to berth in Blackwattle Bay, the vessel would slow ready to berth, and if the tide was low with a full cargo on board, the hull would scrape the muddy bottom. Skipper Ron Archer would carry out this manoeuvre effortlessly.” 1
The registration of Ayrfield was cancelled on 6 October 1972 and the old collier sent to Homebush Bay for breaking-up. The hull is located near the mouth of Haslams Creek with the bow pointing towards the shore.

                                   

Meroe Pyramids

These Nubian pyramids are strange and unique, even by pyramid standards

Cultures and Civilizations , Lost Tribes, Incredible Ruins

                      

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Slowly being reclaimed by the sands of time (literally), the pyramids of Meroë hold the fragile footprints a mysterious and long-forgotten civilization.
Meroë was an ancient city in the Kushite Kingdom, and the sheer number of its still-standing pyramids indicate that it was a massive city, once bustling with traders and everyday inhabitants. (And, most obviously, a booming tradition of masonry.)
Archaeologists have identified that the numerous pyramid structures are very clearly in the Nubian style. The structures' sharp angles and relatively narrow footprints carry all the hallmarks the former Kushite Kingdom, meaning Meroë was a pinnacle location in one of history's greatest and least well-understood civilizations.
The kingdom stretched throughout this region in ancient times. But now, little more than the dusty pyramids that stand solemnly in the desert remains of the city, and by proxy of the Kushites it belonged to. But with more than 200 of them to mark the location, they are quite enough to astound visitors and historians alike.

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