Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Tom Tuerff and I played Fiddler's Dream on Friday; we sounded really good together and despite the usual, smaller Friday audience, the tips were quite generous. (Thanks guys!) I felt on top of my game for the first time in ages. As an experiment, we devoted the entire middle set to covers and actually filled the time without exhausting our setlist. I don't know why we don't perform together more often - oh yeah, Tom lives halfway to Flagstaff.
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The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVD boxset arrived yesterday; I haven't cracked the shrink-wrap yet because I got home late late after Lumenarias at the DBG and dinner at Udupi Cafe. Excuse me while I switch into uber-geek mode.
Some of the reviews I've read criticize the film version of Gandalf's confrontation with the Witch-King, because Gandalf is technically a Maia and should've been able to kick the ass of any mere servant of Sauron's. If this a weakness, however, it's not a weakness of the film. LOTR the film is based on LOTR the book, not the Silmarilian, and there's nothing in the book's story (or appendices) to indicate that Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast the Brown (aka Sir Appearing-on-Pages-336-38) are equals of Sauron. In fact, in the passage with Radagast, Gandalf himself says, "..even the Wise [wizards] might fear to withstand the Nine, when they are gathered together under their fell chieftain." The concept of the wizards as Maiar, only one step below the Valar in power, has the feeling of a late addition meant to better fit the LOTR story into the Silmarillion - much in the same way that Tolkien re-wrote the Hobbit to make it a better prequel to LOTR. Bilbo still slips the One Ring on and off with impunity, and the wood-elves and goblins bear only a passing resemblance to the Eldar and the orcs.
If you consider Gandalf as Maia, then the entire storyline of LOTR unfolds differently; would, for example, a semidivine being really only barely survive a fight with a Balrog? The discrepancy is there, but it's Tolkien's, and Jackson shouldn't be blamed for going with the characterization given in LOTR vs. the Silmarillion.
1 comments
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The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVD boxset arrived yesterday; I haven't cracked the shrink-wrap yet because I got home late late after Lumenarias at the DBG and dinner at Udupi Cafe. Excuse me while I switch into uber-geek mode.
Some of the reviews I've read criticize the film version of Gandalf's confrontation with the Witch-King, because Gandalf is technically a Maia and should've been able to kick the ass of any mere servant of Sauron's. If this a weakness, however, it's not a weakness of the film. LOTR the film is based on LOTR the book, not the Silmarilian, and there's nothing in the book's story (or appendices) to indicate that Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast the Brown (aka Sir Appearing-on-Pages-336-38) are equals of Sauron. In fact, in the passage with Radagast, Gandalf himself says, "..even the Wise [wizards] might fear to withstand the Nine, when they are gathered together under their fell chieftain." The concept of the wizards as Maiar, only one step below the Valar in power, has the feeling of a late addition meant to better fit the LOTR story into the Silmarillion - much in the same way that Tolkien re-wrote the Hobbit to make it a better prequel to LOTR. Bilbo still slips the One Ring on and off with impunity, and the wood-elves and goblins bear only a passing resemblance to the Eldar and the orcs.
If you consider Gandalf as Maia, then the entire storyline of LOTR unfolds differently; would, for example, a semidivine being really only barely survive a fight with a Balrog? The discrepancy is there, but it's Tolkien's, and Jackson shouldn't be blamed for going with the characterization given in LOTR vs. the Silmarillion.
1 comments
1 Comments:
You really did sound great, Nancy -- I was commenting to Jan on the way home that whatever you've had to do for throat reasons has certainly been working!
We definitely do need to play together again soon. I'll keep my eyes peeled for possibilities in 2005.
TT
