it started to turn into a generic D&D thing.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Bring it.

Thank you for sharing it here.

That was beautifully done.

I've sometimes thought about what Frodo's inner life would be like after carrying the ring, losing his finger, and coming so very close to losing his soul. I've thought about what a very kind person might do about Frodo's condition, and the best I could come up with was a woman who was very, very, very kind everyplace else and very cruel in the bedroom, but it seemed so inadequate to the burden of carrying The Ring.

Has it occurred to anyone that we're all carrying the The Ring now, in one way or another? There's not much innocence left.

"It's Quiet Uptown" isn't rap. It is, in fact, delicate, gentle and melodic, full of sadness. I think that's why I thought of elves as the chorus.

And I think that the Ring is something that all adults carry or have carried. I look at my kids and see that there are still unshadowed hearts in the world.

I should be packing for a trip to London tomorrow, but instead I got thinking about other points of crossover and then this happened.

[SAURON]

You say -
The price of my power's not a price you're willing to pay.
You cry -
In your tea and you hide in a tree when you see them ride by.
Why so shrill?
Remember my little refinement when I made the rings:
They're bound to my will,
And though I've been radio silent,
I'm here still …

You'll be mine.
Soon you'll see
How much better you could be with me.
You'll be mine:
Time will tell -
Sheer persistence always served me well.
Oceans rise. Empires bow.
Ask the Dúnedain where they are now!
And when you think
The coast is clear,
I will send the nine who stand behind you
To remind you
I'm still here.

You say the ring is draining and you can't go on?
You'd be the one complaining if it were gone.
And no, don’t change the subject!
One day you’ll be my subject!
My sweet, submissive subject,
My numbered, undead subject -
For ever. And ever. And ever and ever and ever ...

You'll be mine.
Like before,
I will fight the fight and win the war.
For your heart. For your soul.
Try to fight it and you’ll pay the toll.
If it’s gone - soon you’ll rot.
So don’t throw away this ring you’ve got!
And when you think
You're in the clear -
I will kill your sworn companions
To remind you
I'm still here.

(see here for the original.)

Woohoo! That's fantastic.

And Abi, so well done. Congrats!

I may have to tackle one of these at some point... only 46 songs left to go...

I've been working on another on the train today. This has definitely sparked something (thank you for starting it, abi, and for setting the bar so high.) I had a moment earlier where trying to Hamiltonise a LotR episode gave me an unexpected new perspective on the original version, that wonderful thing transformative works can do sometimes.

That's the hardest part of being a parent, isn't it? Watching them gradually lose their innocence as they encounter the real world. Going back to Tolkien, it's easy to make LOTR into a metaphor for growing up - but that's the nature of a classic, supporting so many interpretations - and Tolkein's journey into manhood was worse than most.

And it holds, albeit with a very different mood, for Craft(alchemy)'s contribution.

It also shows that I may have seen The Blues Brothers too many times.

One and two and three and four:

It's the orbit mechanics.
It's the orbit mechanics.

Number one!
The space ship: it goes round the station.
Unless you're docking there's no need to match rotation.

Number two!
Now the moon, that's a focus of the ellipse
That the station falls in accompanied by its free ships.

Number three!
A rock ain't a moon if it's stranded
Motionless in space
Not in motion round a planet.
It orbits farther out: a moon can't get too near
Planets 'cause they have atmosphere.

Number four!
The planet orbits too; it all goes around
The sun, that's the source, where the power is found.
So massive that there's fusion deep within its core bit
Its pull balances velocity keeping things in orbit!

This time it's @leeflower's fault for looping me into a Twitter conversation about Babylon 5. Because she's currently got her name as Analees Mulligan, and, well...earworm gotta earworm.

It's the B-A B-Y L-O N
Station reconciliation
Aliens, of every race,
Come together in one place.
You ask us what we want,
What we are, what we're meant to be.
All we want is to live independently
We know that we're sharing our dependency
But when PsiCorps agents are incend'ry
And Earth allies with an entity
That wants to kill
Wants space to be filled
With its dominance and will
We'll unite to fight, to do what's right
We'll occupy the space between dark and light
Cause without our might we'll be out of sight
All alone in the night.

#Ham4Bab5, home of "Ivanova, Delenn, and Na'Toth..."