Cambridge Shakespeare

I would like to catch the tail end of the Cambridge Shakespeare festival this week. Anyone want to join me? There is Measure for Measure in Robinson, or The Tempest in Trinity, both 7:30 pm on Saturday night. MfM also has a charity matinée, 2:30 on Saturday afternoon. Tickets cost £14, which is a little steep but the Shakespeare festival have been pretty good in the past. Plus, outdoor Shakespeare in college gardens in period costume is always fun.

Film: Star Trek

Reasons for watching it: I was never exactly a Trekkie (or a Trek fan, in modern parlance), but I did watch TOS and especially TNG fairly regularly when they were on TV. On top of that, it seems like absolutely everybody is talking about this film, so I was quite keen to see it and be able to join in the discussions.

Circumstances of watching it: Delta showed it on the flight back from New York. Since it was an overnight flight I probably should have used the time for sleeping, but hey. It seemed to sit in the absolute sweet spot for watching on a plane. It's a film I had some interest in seeing, but not one I was passionate about and would be disappointed to watch on a tiny screen with cheapo headphones and a lot of background noise and interruption. Also, exciting but not too scary, entertaining but not intellectually demanding.

Verdict: Star Trek is everything I was hoping for from this film.

( detailed review )

And I've been going back over all the intelligent analysis of the film around various blogs. rawles' IBARW post has some really excellent thinky stuff on racism and sexism and how they interact, for example.