Two thoughts on The Lord of the Rings

Last night I watched The Two Towers, having watched The Fellowship of the Ring a couple of weeks ago. I’m watching The Return of the King tomorrow.

I have two things to say.

Thing one:
When I watched these films for the first few times, I powerfully drawn in to the stories and very emotionally affected by them. Now, having seen them a scary number of times, I am understandably less emotionally affected, but my sense of awe at the beauty and majesty of the film still increases with each watching.

Thing two:
While I could explin all the reasons why this film is the greatest ever (don’t even think about debating that with me!), I want to focus on one reason – the relationships between Frodo, Sam and Gollum/Smeagol are unbelievable. Fascinating just doesn’t do it justice.
You’ve got Smeagol, once a Hobbit who has become addicted to the ring, and has been taken over by his alter-ego Gollum. Gollum has been in control for a long time but Smeagol is gaining strength through his interactions with Frodo. Both Smeagol and Gollum still desire the ring, but Gollum wants to take it now, by force, whereas Smeagol now also has a bond with Frodo and wants to serve him. (This alone would be an amazing character). Then you have Frodo, who is becoming addicted to the ring and is turning into another Gollum, but is placing his hope in the possibility of redemption he sees in Smeagol. He is trudging toward Mount Doom, but each step makes what he has to do harder. And then there’s Sam, who doesn’t trust Smeagol or Gollum, and who is watching Frodo become what Gollum is, trying to help him but being rejected as Frodo turns to Smeagol more and more.
Many people say that the Frodo/Sam/Gollum/Smeagol scenes in TTT and ROTK are boring compared to the rest of the film. I don’t understand this. Of course there is less action and fighting, but the character development is gripping. I love those scenes.

Two ways of listening to music

It seems to me that there are two ways that people listen to music.

Some people listen to their music usually on shuffle. They also pick songs they are in the mood for to play, or to add to a new playlist. They will often buy new music as individual tracks. When buying an album, they tend to listen to the singles first.

Other people listen to their music by album. They listen to whole albums at a time and rarely skip tracks. They almost exclusively buy new music as albums, and will listen to the whole album through many times when it is new.

This isn’t a hard and fast duality, and I am sure there are people between these two extremes. I myself am much more like the second type, though I do also have a playlist of all my favourite songs which I listen to on shuffle sometimes. But in general, I listen to music as albums. For me, there are several reasons for this:

1. If I listened to music on shuffle, I would face two problems:
a. Most song transitions would frustrate me (e.g. Linkin Park into Enya, or Tim Hughes into Foo Fighters, or Holst into Anberlin).
b. I would be far too tempted to spend all my time sifting through and picking songs to listen to, which would be a waste of time.
2. The whole of an album is often greater than the sum of its parts. It is only possible to understand what an album is really about by listening to the whole thing.
3. Artists construct albums as albums, not as individual songs. It seems to me slightly insulting to the artists to effectively pick and choose parts of albums to listen to. I can’t explain this point very well, but it does seem a bit rude.

This is not to say that the second way of listening to music is necessarily any better or more valid than the first, but it’s a bit of an explanation of why I listen to music in the way that I do.

International God

We currently have a French guy called Fabien staying with us. He’s over here to work with our church for a couple of months. One of the most exciting things about this is hearing him pray in French. It’s a great reminder that God isn’t English and that he understands other languages, even if we don’t.
It reminds me of when I went on a mission to Norway to work with a church out there for a couple of weeks. I particularly remember singing Ancient of Days, with the Norwegians singing in Norwegian and the Brits singing in English. It sounded amazing. Spine-tingling. I love it when Christians from different countries unite together.

Kreuzberg

Given my love of music, I am surprised to notice that this is only the fourth blog I've written about a specific song (the others were The Weight of the World, The Cross has said it all, and In the Silence of Beginning).
Be that as it may, this blog is about Kreuzberg by Bloc Party (track 8 from A Weekend in the City).

A Weekend in the City, as an album, is outstanding. This song is just one example of it's brilliance. You can listen to the song here. Listen, and enjoy.

These are the lyrics:

There is a wall that runs right through me
Just like the city, I will never be joined
What is this love? Why can I never hold it?
Did it really run out in the strangers' bedrooms?

I
I have decided
At twenty-five
Something must change

Saturday night in East Berlin
We took the U-Bahn to the East Side Gallery
I was sure I'd found love with this one lying with me
Crying again in the old bahnhof

I
I have decided
At twenty-five
That something must change

After sex
The bitter taste
Been fooled again
The search continues

Concerned mothers
Of the west
Teach your sons
How to truly love


I love what the song is saying, and I love the comparison with Kreuzberg - very clever.

Dancing part 2

I few months ago I blogged about dancing.

This is an extension of that blog.

I've just got back from a wedding. Always fun.
After the meal and speeches, there was an opportunity to learn a type of dancing called ceroc (pronounced sur-ROCK - emphasis on 2nd syllable). It sounded like fun.
Then the instructor said something along the lines of 'everyone has to do this, no excuses, and there'll be forfeits for anyone who doesn't).
Now, I know this was tongue-in-cheek, but it still really grated with me. I get very annoyed when it is assumed that everyone will dance, and when people look at you as though you're a freak if you don't, or else try desperately to get you to join in because 'it's fun' or 'everyone else is'. It seems that dancing is the one activity that everyone is expected to do.
So, having thought this sounded like a good idea, and having been up for having a go, I heard this statement from the instructor, Stubborn-Ben reared his head and I decided not to learn ceroc.

Shame, but it really wound me up.

One other thing. Tonight, I was asked to dance by a friend of mine. When I said no (Stubborn-Ben) she said 'ok' and didn't persist. It's only a little thing, but I was very grateful that she didn't push it.