I went to see The Man Who Invented Christmas. I liked it. It is a highly fictionalized account of how Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, which is one of my favorite books. The drama of the movie comes from the fact that Dickens only gave himself six weeks to complete the book so that…
Yesterday, I went to see my daughter perform in The Nutcracker. The past few years I have brought her to watch The Nutcracker, but this year she got to be onstage. She was a reindeer, a trumpet playing angel and a bon-bon. Technically she wasn’t the star of the show, but why get hung up…
I’m of the general opinion that song lyrics don’t matter. A song is good or bad because of the music. If I want poetry, I’ll get a book of poems. Songs are all about the melody, rhythm and harmony. That being said, it can be enjoyable to notice the lyrics. Good lyrics can elevate an…
I’m not the type to know much about, or care much about, famous people. But I care very much about the things that some famous people make. I love to read. I love television and movies. And I need a stronger word than love to describe how I feel about music. Every once in a…
Tom Petty holds a very special place in my musical life. I have been music obsessed ever since I can remember. However, I have almost never liked popular music at the time of it’s popularity. I love a lot of popular music, like the Beatles and the Stones, Motown and Aretha. But all of them peaked in…
Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Puff the Magic Dragon” is the saddest song. It’s a wonderful song, but it is just so sad. If sad songs really say so much, it says more than any other song. I’m not sure when I realized just how sad the song is. It’s a song I’ve known my whole…
Here we are at the final chapter. It’s a short chapter, but it is broken into three parts. First, Bilbo and Gandalf go to Rivendell and spend about a week with the elves. Bilbo (and Tolkien) love elves, so they spend more time here than might be expected. It’s all very pleasant and relaxing, but…
One of the nice things about Tolkien is that he lets his stories end naturally. Of course Bilbo can’t stay with the dwarves. The story isn’t finished until he goes home. It might seem a little anticlimactic, but I like the fact that we get to see the true end of the journey. Although, I…
Here we have the Battle of Five Armies. If you’re keeping track, it’s the dwarves, the men, the elves, the goblins and the eagles. That is unless it is the dwarves, the men, the elves, the goblins and the wargs. Both the eagles and the wargs are involved, I’m just not sure which one constitutes…
A Thief In The Night is a short, but crucial, chapter. The action is really straightforward. Bilbo, you may remember from Chapter XIII – Not At Home, is in possession of the Arkenstone. Thorin has basically lost his mind. He is completely obsessed with the treasure, and the Arkenstone in particular. He will not listen…
