Saturday

[calimac]

It was Saturday, yes. To the Last Homely House in the afternoon for the traditionally-evening, but we're changing the tradition, Reading and Eating Meeting, where my reading offering was selections from The Hobbit - the scenes introducing Gandalf and Gollum - in token of the brief remaining interval during which we still can read it, unbesmirched. (Anyone who says "the book will still be on the shelf" will be docked of their Tolkien credentials for terminally unperceptive cluelessness.)

Then rush down to San Jose for this Symphony Silicon Valley concert. Fortunately, the horrible acoustics down in the pit gave me plenty to write about, because after a hard afternoon's reading and listening and eating I was a little tired out, which lowers my aesthetic sensitivity level drastically. The other weird thing for me about writing this review was referring to the pianist as "Serkin". Though Peter Serkin is now long since a senior, respected figure in his own right on the concert stage, to me the name "Serkin" by itself still means his late father Rudolf, just as there were still people in the 1940s to whom "Churchill" by itself still meant Winston's father, Lord Randolph.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

We used to have reading and eating meetings here in San Diego. Our formula was "enough food for yourself and a hungry hobbit." They were one of the most enjoyable things we did at Mythopoeic meetings. . . .

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

If I thought you were a Traveling Jiant (as frequent peregrinators used to be known in SF fandom), I'd ask our secretary to put you on the invitation list for ours. I could do it anyway if you really want.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Would that I could. But it's hard to find budget room for travel now. Thanks for the thought, though.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

The Hobbit has already been besmirched by that awful Rankin-Bass atrocity. (Just as LOTR had already been besmirched by Bakshi.)

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Those were ignorable. These can't even be ignored by not seeing them.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

True, but I'm going to avoid the Hobbit movies anyway. (I understand why you feel you can't, but fortunately those reasons don't apply to me.)

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

To have avoided the Jackson LOTR movies, you would have had to, as just a sample among other disparate activities divorced from Tolkien fandom, not have watched entertainment news TV, visited an SF convention art show, or eaten at Burger King for three years. They weren't just mentioned, they were ubiquitous.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I've already been exposed to the Hobbit movies in that way. I simply plan not to watch the movies themselves. I'm sure I'll know a lot about them anyway. At 48 frames a second!

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

I've decided to re-read the book and skip the films, based on what I've read about them. A modest and charming book ought to get a modest and charming film.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I may quote that last line.