By J.R.R. Tolkien
The King beneath the mountains,
The King of carven stone,
The lord of silver fountains
Shall come into his own!
His crown shall be upholden,
His harp shall be restrung,
His halls shall echo golden
To songs of yore re-sung.
The woods shall wave on mountains
And grass beneath the sun;
His wealth shall flow in fountains
And the rivers golden run.
The streams shall run in gladness,
The lakes shall shine and burn,
All sorrow fail and sadness
At the Mountain-king's return!
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I have seen The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. I know I've been calling it The Battle of the Five Hours, but that was unfair. I should have called it The Battle of the Fifteen Hours. Honestly, Insurrection felt considerably shorter. In the interests of not saying too many negative things, I will add that 1) I love Tauriel (and want to make clear that I don't care when a filmmaker diverges from source material, but completely overrunning the source material with orcs is something else), 2) Richard Armitage is a wonderful actor who deserves better than me snickering at the bad dialogue during his biggest scene, and 3) my entire family burst out laughing aloud at the best dramatic Stupid Elf Trick.
In short, I feel that I owe George Lucas an apology, because I joined in all the bashing of Star Wars Episodes 1, 2, and 3, but given a choice between watching those or watching The Lord of the Rings Episodes 1, 2, and 3, I would choose Star Wars every time. Everything I loved in the original (meaning LOTR) was repackaged in a watered-down manner in The Hobbit, while the things I loved about the actual The Hobbit were only barely visible between preparations for battles, battles, and aftermaths of battles. Call me when someone has edited the whole mess down to one two-hour movie about the characters and their quests. Meanwhile, have some photos from the Rawlings Conservatory yesterday:
My family in the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory...
...along with Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake with her family, since the conservatory is named in honor of her father.
Denise came with us too!
The conservatory is in the midst of its annual poinsettia show and sale.
The holiday theme this year is It's a Wonderful Life, which is reflected in the props.
A peace sign wreath made of air ferns...
...and Denise being a Christmas elf!
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