Tag: the rings of power

Movies vs Books

Why am I in such a Tolkien phase right now? It’s probably due to the second season of Rings of Power, but I read The Silmarillion and I am rereading Lord of the Rings and I am watching Rings of Power and I am (finally) watching the Peter Jackson Hobbit movies. I’m about 15 minutes away from finishing the second movie. It is requiring more suspending of disbelief than I am really willing to give. I’m in a weirdly completist mode now and have to get through all three movies (even though it is laughable that Jackson took a 400 page book and adapted it into a nine hour movie).

What’s the point of this post though? The point of this post is a spoiler free comment on Rings of Power season two episode four. I saw the first two Lord of the Rings movies before I read the books. When I was done with everything I was able to look back and consider if the books were better or worse than the movies. I think they are pretty even. There are a couple of things about the movies that I prefer to the books though. First, there is a whole lot less singing in the movies. In Fellowship, especially, people are singing all over the place and it just gets tedious.

The other thing that I like better about the movies eventually became my absolute favorite thing about the movies. Literally the thing I like best. Simply, they left Tom Bombadil out. I mean… The Hobbit was a kids book. Lord of the Rings was not. Somehow it seems that Tolkien must have tried to make Fellowship a little more kid-friendly by throwing this insufferably boring, painful character named Tom Bombadil into the story. In my current re-read of the books I am in the middle of the Tom Bombadil arc right now and I cannot get out of it fast enough. It’s just awful. Jackson left him out of the movies and it makes me love the movies that much more.

I just finished this week’s new episode of Rings of Power. Season two, episode four. Without giving out any spoilers, mostly because the news has been out since we saw a trailer months ago, Tom Bombadil is in the episode.

Why? Why, Amazon Prime Video? Why are you torturing me like this? I will say that he’s nowhere near as awful in the episode as he was in the books, but all the same… why would you do this to me?

Friday Ramblings

Is ramblings the right word? Should I have called this masterpiece of literary genius “Friday Mumblings” instead? We may never know.

Has anyone else found that they have become chemically depended on GPS apps while driving anywhere? We have a meeting scheduled for 4:00 today at the funeral home to start going over the arrangements. I know where this place is. I grew up less than a mile from it (Google maps tells me it is 0.8 miles from the house I grew up in) and I could probably find it with my eyes closed in the middle of a blizzard. Why then did I just email the address to myself so that I can plug it into a GPS app on my phone when I head over there in about 80 minutes? Why can’t I just… ya know… go? Why do I need a bunch of satellites in orbit of the Earth to tell me when the next turn is coming up? What did I do to my brain?

A year and a half ago, when my mother passed away, we had a similar meeting with the funeral director booked and we all went into it without the faintest clue of what we were in store for. Now? Today? We know exactly what’s coming and somehow that makes this whole experience more depressing. It’s a little less stressful and a lot less intimidating, but it is so much more depressing. Of all the things to be pro’s at… yeah, this shouldn’t be one of them.

Complete and total change of subject… When the forth and final season of The Umbrella Academy came out a couple of weeks ago I jumped right into it. It was only six episodes (the previous three seasons were all 10 each) and as I was watching the fifth episode I declared to myself (and no one else because why would anyone else care) that when I finished the finale I was going to immediately go back and watch the whole series from start to finish.

I did exactly that, and I finished it yesterday. Just in time for new seasons of Rings of Power and Only Murders in the Building to launch. I watched the first episode of each show (there are two more Rings of Power episodes available and I’ll get to them shortly). While I was waiting for Rings of Power to come back I started reading The Silmarillion and woah babie, is that puppy a slog. I’m on chapter 19 and so far the entire book has been 100% exposition. It’s like a textbook only less interesting. I know at some point it’s going to tie into the Lord of the Rings at least a little bit, but good heavens is it tough to get through. Maybe had Tolkien lived to finish it himself it might have been more readable… then again, maybe not. Yikes.

I’ll tell you what though, Rings of Power is making me want to grab the third Lord of the Rings book and read the appendixes. I’m sure I’ve made it through them at least once before, but maybe I should pay closer attention. It’s tough to read through a couple of hundred (or however long the appendix is) pages of a book that come after the book ended, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

What else should I write about before my lunch break ends and I get back to work for an hour before leaving early to go to the funeral home? I don’t know. Retail therapy… that might be a thing. All of the sadness and stress of the last few weeks. It’s possible that some new camera gear, or a new guitar, or a trip to Manhattan or the mountains might be the only things that can straighten me out. Just a thought, you know? The punchline to this joke is that I am not joking. I’m being serious. Oh well… it will be okay. We’ll get through this together. My father would not have wanted any of us to be all sad. He’d want us to focus on the good rather than stress over the bad. Although having said that, he was an Olympic level, world class worrier himself so… yeah. I love you, dad.

NCAA Hockey and Other Random Stuff

I did something yesterday that I haven’t done since early 2003. I followed a UMass Lowell Riverhawks men’s ice hockey game. I say men’s ice hockey but I don’t know if Lowell has a women’s ice hockey team or not. They didn’t when I was there, but I am hopeful that they do now.

It was after the 2003 season that the athletics department tried to sell the school radio station out from under us and I swore they wouldn’t get a second thought from me until the athletic director was gone. Well, I found out not long ago that he is finally gone, and has been for a few years. He wasn’t fired though, he retired. He should have been fired. Hell, he should have been thrown in jain for trying to fuck us. Whatever, water under the bridge. I can follow my old school’s hockey team again.

Yesterday was opening day. They beat St Lawrence 4-0. I listened to most of the first period. I missed the first minute or two because Bellana and her roommates were visiting. It was 3-0 Lowell when the first period ended and Jen asked me if I wanted to watch a movie (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone). Of course I wanted to watch a movie with my love. Of course. Duh.

The Bruins season opener is in a couple of weeks. October 12th, I think. UMass Lowell doesn’t play again until next weekend. I guess I am now in a hockey black hole, though the Bruins probably have pre-season games this week. I checked, they play New Jersey on Monday and Saturday, and the Rangers on Wednesday. Good.

On an unrelated scheduling note, tonight is the start of the final segment of The Walking Dead. The first of the last eight episodes. I would like to watch it “live” but if I can’t I’ll catch up on the AMC site tomorrow before work. I’m sad that the show is ending, but also ready. It’s time. It was perfect for five-six years, then it slipped for a few years, then it came roaring back. Now let’s let it end before it slips back again. There are at least three spin offs coming, so it isn’t really ending ending, you know? It’s just changing. Still, the main show is a gem and the spin offs will never quite be the same.

I still haven’t watched this week’s Rings of Power so I need to get on that. I also haven’t watched That Pedal Show and that’s unforgivable. There’s just so much good stuff to watch. Really, anything I watch during the week right now is just me biding my time for the next episode of Andor. Did you catch that the woman who played Harry Potter’s aunt in the movies played Andor’s mother? Harry Potter and Star Wars are in the same universe: Confirmed.

Okay, I need to go make Jen some dinner. Wish me luck, folks!