Since I restructured my personal website/blog, I think things are starting to make more sense, as far as how I share my various interests: Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, the Bible, and other stuff. CoryHowell.net has become a home base for my disparate blogs, which seems to make a lot more sense to me than the way I used to do it. Now all I need to do is work on consistency. I tend to go in cycles: I will get interested in one of my favorite topics, and I'll blog about that for a week or two, and then I move on to the next subject I find interesting. Meanwhile, several of my blogs sit dormant, waiting for me to come back around to that subject!

I tried having just one blog ("one blog to rule them all") for awhile, but it didn't make sense to me to just throw everything into one location. Besides, I had done so much work over last few years on Bible Bookshelf, Baker Street Babble, Willy Wigglestick and the rest, that it seemed a shame to just give up on the different themes I had explored. Even if I'm the only person reading all this stuff (which may be the case sometimes), I want it to at least make sense in my own head! But, based on the stats that I've checked, there are people checking into my various blogs, so I'm trying to keep things going in a way that makes sense to others, as well.​

(The above pic is not an actual photo of my desk. I wish I had such a beautiful, organized area in which to do my blogging...)

So, moving right along, here is my current approach: I intend to share my thoughts on random subjects here on the Corybanter blog. I will attempt to check in at least weekly on my other themed blogs. If I have readers who are following any of my blogging, please feel free to share your feedback with me. Every blog I am maintaining has some sort of comment form on it, so I would greatly appreciate any of my readers sharing their thoughts on what they read.

That's it for now, so thanks for reading!

So apparently the rumors are true: Lady Gaga has purchased Frank Zappa's Laurel Canyon house for $5.25 million. This article has a clip from an interview Gaga did on the Howard Stern show. I can think of a lot of pop stars I wouldn't want living in Zappa's house, but Lady Gaga seems pretty cool, so I'm down. Not like the Zappas asked my permission...(Come to think of it, Ahmet Zappa probably didn't even ask for Dweezil or Moon Unit's permission.)

So, today I was watching a little of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1990 film version of Hamlet (you know, the one with Mel Gibson?), and I decided to look up some reviews of the film online. That’s when I stumbled upon this site that is so-not-masculine, but nevertheless, thoroughly fascinating: FrockFlicks.com! The site is a blog about costume dramas/comedies (both movies and TV shows), and some of the many mistakes and triumphs that the costume designers deliver. Some of the articles are mostly pictures of favorite actors/actresses looking either sexy or historically accurate (occasionally both); other articles are fairly detailed discussions of what period costume really should look like. I had not considered the subject all that much, although I have occasionally wondered why period dramas made in the 80s feature so many 80s hairdos, period dramas from the 70s have 70s hairdos (read: men in long sideburns), etc.

Ever wanted to know more about hose and codpieces in Elizabethan costumes? FrockFlicks will educate you! Have you wondered about the costumes on Game of Thrones? Well, FrockFlicks will remind you that GoT is not historical, but fantasy. (Nevertheless, you will find some interesting pictures of several actors from the show…) If you are at all interested in historical costumes, you need to visit this site! Do it now. You’ll thank me later…

I'm back on a little Shakespeare kick again! (Those who know me know that I get somewhat obsessed with certain topics for awhile. Shakespeare is one of those things I keep revisiting.)

I've been quite active lately on a great Shakespeare website called PlayShakespeare.com. It's a website that has the Complete Works, and a host of other features that are quite enjoyable: the ability to post videos and pictures, audio resources, discussion groups, a forum, and more. Today, I discovered that they also have XML formatted versions of the First Folio plays, with original spelling, that you can download and put on your own website. So I have a new feature on my website: the entire Folio text of Hamlet, which you can see by clicking on the "Hamlet" menu link in the upper right of this page! Give it a try.

I've got my Profile on PlayShakespeare looking like I want it, and have become active in some Groups, as well as posting a little bit in the Forum. It's hard to tell how many people actually participate on the website, and I haven't managed to have any real conversations with other Shakespeare fans yet, so we'll see what happens.

So check out my First Folio Hamlet page here on Corybanter, and if you're a Shakespeare enthusiast, give PlayShakespeare a look-see. Thanks for reading.