Weekly Obsession Wednesday - Book Documentaries, Barbra Streisand, and A Lot of Shakespeare

Hello all! It's time for this week's obsessions. Actually two of them are carried over from last week, but I forgot to mention them and I still love them so I'm chatting about them now.

#3 Watching Great Books

I discovered the 90's TV documentary series Great Books when I was looking for Arthurian Legend documentaries on YouTube. There was an episode of Great Books on Le Morte D'Arthur that I enjoyed. I thought since I liked that one I would check out some the other episodes made about other great books in classic literature. I find this series so interesting because it not only offers insight into the themes featured in the books, but it also gives you background on the authors. I even enjoy the episodes on books I don't particularly like. I wish this show was still on.  I've been watching Great Books episodes on this playlist for about two weeks before bed. It's very relaxing.




#2 Encore In Vinyl

My parents usually just let me pick something out for my birthday on September 2nd. Since this new Barbra Streisand album Encore was coming out pretty close to that on August 26th I decided to pre-order it in vinyl for my early birthday gift. Since I pre-ordered it I got the album right on the day it came out. I have been loving and enjoying it ever since. The concept of the album is that all the songs are duets Barbra does with other actors that sing. The songs also include moments of dialogue which makes the album wonderfully theatrical. Not only is all the singing excellent on this album, but the instrumentation is beautiful as well. Encore is a thing of beauty to my ears and the perfect addition to my vinyl collection. Here is a large playlist of videos that are related to this album. I love the little short interview ones they did with each actor for each song.


#1 Shakespeare In The Park

I had never been to the Nashville Shakespeare Festival's Shakespeare In The Park,but I had always wanted to go. This year they are featuring two shows Macbeth and The Comedy of Errors. One of my friends who is also a fan of Shakespeare and I decided to make the holiday weekend a Shakespeare in the park weekend because of my birthday on Friday. We went to Macbeth on Friday and The Comedy of Errors on Sunday. There was also a special late night performance of Macbeth on Sunday so we stayed to watched it again so we could sit a bit closer. Both shows were wonderful and interpreted in creative ways. I love Shakespeare so it was an excellent birthday weekend and I got to spend time with a friend which was an extra plus.