So it's hot and sweaty in Brooklyn right before a big rainstorm.

I guess that isn't news, is it? I knew going to Brooklyn for this Shakespeare seminar in July would be uncomfortable, and yes, it was. But there was a ton of good information for teaching Shakespeare to the youngsters, and the people were nice, and I got to see my little sister and her family, which was magnifique.

We also went to the Transit Museum and got a tour from a grizzled volunteer named Phil. So cool! I recommend the subway museum to anyone who likes that kind of thing. We got to see a switching tower in actual use, with lights on the board and signal switching and everything.

Subway people call subway fanatics "foamers." My sister and I think there are a lot of little boys with possible Asperger's Syndrome who might fit that category. The transit museum is the perfect place for little obsessives.

We also had a superb lunch at Pacifico near Brooklyn Heights. Better and more sumptuous guacamole I have not had here in Southern California! Not to mention killer quesadillas.

My sister lives in Park Slope, which gets written about often in the New York Times as being a very groovy place for up-and-comers who can't/won't/don't want to live in Manhattan. There are strollers galore, mommies breastfeeding like crazy, a policemen's bar (Farrell's) on the corner, and insanely succulent bagels (Terrace Bagel). I love visiting my sis there. Hustling for the screaming subways and dodging pedestrians reminds me of my younger days when I spent more time in New York, back in college when I might have entertained the fantasy of living there for about two seconds.

But I am getting older now, and all that hustling and jostling and hot, steamy, grimy air in the subway stations is kind of hard to take.

Still, I have new respect and admiration for the people at the Folger Library in Washington, D.C. (the largest collection of Shakespeareana in the world) and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. That was a cool event. Thirty hand-picked English teachers (most from the northeast) who were taught how to better teach Shakespeare to their high school and middle school students. With tons of performance and acting exercises--yay! My favorites!

The Folger experts say that if you want to teach kids all about the characters, plots, and themes in Shakespeare, point them to any Cliff's Notes or Sparknotes and it's all there. But! If you want them to really get the feeling for the words, the language, and the beauty of it, you must get them off their butts and onto their feet and beginning to act out passages. You have to get the students to use their frickin' mouths and heads and bodies, to open up and use the text for the rich resource it is. That means playing lots of theater games that allow kids to all act like fools together, so they won't be as self-conscious when you ask them to stand up and recite the Queen Mab speech from Romeo and Juliet all alone in front of the class.

More later.