What I'm Watching
The BBC Shakespeare continues with Henry IV Part 2. I think I underrated Anthony Quayle as a too-harmless Falstaff last time: in this one he develops the character with more menace and more corruption.

Jon Finch cracks up nicely as Henry IV, definitely a big contrast with the preternatural calm he started with in Richard II. David Gwillim seems a bit bloodless as Prince Hal, but that again might be a deliberate contrast with what he's going to do in Henry V. Have that next in the rental queue.

Definitely makes a difference watching them in order. While Shakespeare's plotting is often maligned, I think he manages the long-term storylines very deftly, like Jim Butcher in some ways. Every play has it's own satisfying storyline, but there are longer-term themes and character developments that extend across them. So he manages to resolve things nicely, but still end with little teasers about what's in store next time.

I will lay odds that, ere this year expire,
We bear our civil swords and native fire
As far as France: I heard a bird so sing,
Whose music, to my thinking, pleased the king.
Come, will you hence?

What I'm Reading
Rivers West by Louis L'Amour. Another Western, this one set in the 1820s, with a French-Canadian shipwright (and skilled wrestler) getting involved in protecting a young lady from a sinister plot.

Not quite as good as the last one I read, Fallon, but nice easy reading. This was one was written in the first person, so there does seem to be a bit of variety there. Similar plot structure though: man forced to coexist uneasily with a potential enemy, eventually defeating him and getting the girl without any effort at the end.

I've got the first Sackett book "in delivery" from amazon. I think if there's a common formula that one will probably be enough L'Amour for the moment.

Museums
Had a very quick run through Street and Studio: an urban history of photography at Tate Modern. Was running late so just glanced around. Pretty crowded for a minor paying exhibition, maybe because it's so new. Had some interesting-looking stuff in the early sections, especially of Parisian street life, but the later portraits seemed a bit bland.

Web
Acapella Galactica

Software: Singleton sucks.

Ugliest dog contest via UO.

Take on the tough classes like algebra (MeFi).