DON PEDRO Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour. BEATRICE No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born. Much Ado About Nothing, II.i
It’s challenging to breathe fresh new life into interpretations of this stock summer production. Even the innovations director Nicholas Hytner introduces, like swapping Oberon and Titania’s lines, aren’t quite enough to make this play feel a part of our present moment. The ‘millenial’ musical interludes and dance moves chosen to show the production is down … Continue reading
Gentle reader, if you subscribe to these pages it will not have escaped your notice that I have been absent for some little while. The good news is that I’ve been doing a lot more writing as part of my day job. The curse of doing what you enjoy for a living is that you … Continue reading
Dance Hack Day is a global celebration of technology and the choreographic arts. Participating in this year’s Amsterdam sister site event with an evolution of my light-up motion-responsive Arduino costume was a joy and a privilege. My biggest learning from the weekend is that with the right kind of supportive and open environment, even someone … Continue reading
Yesterday I collected some boxes which had been in long-term storage at Curmudgeonly Former Housemate’s new place. (Note: CFH has in the past vainly protested me calling him a curmudgeon, and now that he will soon be moving to a different country I might be willing to grudgingly admit that he’s really not a curmudgeon … Continue reading
A year ago today I released my first twitter bot, an entity called bellydancebot who tweets simple belly dance-themed dance instructions. Since then bellydancebot has tweeted over 4,000 times. What she says is often wacky, but I find these flaws (which could be fixed with a little more diligent programming on my part) give her … Continue reading
There is a bridge in Edinburgh over Cowgate, the George IV bridge, that drips constantly even when it hasn’t been raining. I got to know the underside of that bridge very well earlier this week when I visited the Edinburgh Fringe Festival again. Every time I visit the Fringe I’m captivated by the creative ingenuity … Continue reading
The highlight of my week (and possibly my year) has been finally releasing Duologue, a chatbot that rescues you from uncomfortable silences by prompting you with questions to ask when the conversation starts to dry up. You can check out this Facebook messenger bot on the Duologue Facebook page. Duolouge is also open source, so … Continue reading
To expand my readership and to keep up my rigorous standards as a writer by getting editorial feedback, I started blogging for an outfit called Vocal Media. Follow the link and you can keep up to date with my posts there. So far I’ve written about losing a tooth, best-practice tips for creating your post-apocalyptic … Continue reading
I think there is no greater power on this earth than creativity: the freedom to forge, even in a small way, the world in the way that it should be. And I knew that my world needed a new creative fabric-and-programming project in it. I’m not sure exactly when I got interested in learning to … Continue reading
I’ll always remember the condescending smile on the face of my interlocutor as I finally walked away. The argument was, unbelievably, about the continuing need for feminism, which my adversary contended was out of date. “Can you name a single instance in your life where you’ve been discriminated against?” My failure to come up with … Continue reading
In a Merry Hour: Caitlin E McDonald 