Robin's unscheduled, impromptu discussion in the ship library.Apologies to anyone who might have been offended when I hinted about this being a slightly "elderly" cruise. Although that was my initial impression, I realize now that there's actually another explanation: I'm on a freakin' Zombie boat! The Cruise of the Living Dead! Just like in the movies -- sloooow moving people that sorta stumble towards the cafeteria and then eat voraciously. I've also noticed that some of the oldest looking passengers only leave their cabins after the sun sets. I've been tempted to warn the two or three people on board that are younger than 60, but hey, I might need them for human shields later.
Let me be absolutely clear -- I'm not talking about the MacMania people or the Shakespeare At Sea people (people who might actually find this blog). We're all really cool. I mean all those other passengers. The Zombie At Sea people. Creepy.
I'm just kidding, for Swan's sake!
(chortle chortle)
I spent most of the day in Derrick Story's class about choosing between iPhoto '08, Adobe Camera RAW 4, Adobe Lightroom, or Apple Aperture for planning a digital workflow for photo and image editing. Very good classes. Cool stuff. No zombies.
Then I caught the last hour of Janet Hill's presentation on iWork '08 and Numbers (the new and extremely cool spreadsheet application in the iWork suite).
Just before I went to my 9 am Derrick Story class, Robin and I stopped by the Library to get a latte. Robin said she was going to hang out there for a while in case in Shakespeare people wanted to find her and get answers to the Shakespeare quiz sheets they've had delivered to their rooms every night. An hour later when my class took a break, I went back to the Library and Robin was surrounded by a throng of at least two thousand people (see photo) and was chattering away about all sorts of obviously fascinating Shakespeare stuff (judging from the rapt expression on everyone's faces). I shot a photo then went back to my class. When class was over one and a half hours later, she was still there, although the number was down to less than a hundred.
(I probably should double-check my numbers, but you get the idea.)
The Shakespeare attendees are in the Wajang theater right now, watching Hamlet with Kenneth Brannagh (that speling mite be rong). There's also a pre-movie discussion by Barry Kraft. He has been with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 20 seasons, been a dramaturg for 40 OSF Shakespeare productions, and has acted in all 38 Shakespeare plays including King Lear in 82 full productions. From what I gather he's pretty much a revered icon of the OSF.
Did I already mention that I was in two blackface minstrel shows between 6th and 10th grades? It's not King Lear, but it's pretty damn unforgettable.
I'm going to the Wajang Theater 6–7 pm for part 2 of David Pogue's Leopard presentation. Then it's another formal dinner in the Rotterdam dining room at 8 pm.
Gotta upload and run -- zombies stumbling this way.
jt
