I had to share this..... I happened upon some stories about Prince Harry and his paramour (her name escapes me) she does dance in the UK apparently. Pretty young lady, Anyway, I found this rather neat modern dance piece on Youtube, said paramour is in it somewhere .... very Fokine-ish. A couple of things occur to me, one is that the dance world has suffered no loss if she gave up dance for Harry. And I really enjoyed the piece. Hope you do too. I like a little weird art occasionally. Best wishes to Harry and friends, I rather like him. He's military too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....VcB1gx6rKE

I'm VERY far behind on recent movies, Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi and Lone Ranger ALL on my list... just haven't found time,

I DID find time tonight to watch Iron Man III. The first Iron Man made me a confirmed Robert Downey Jr fan (me Mum liked him too) she gave me all the smut about him being a recovered alkie and all. Anyway, his personality fits Tony Stark SOOOO well... it's scary. I'm a Marvel fan from like 1980, and love the entire Marvel Universe. Alas I didn't find time to see the latest Thor movie on the big screen....

ANYWAY Iron Man III is complete techno geek heaven. Gonna have to watch it again, 'cause they hauled Miguel Ferrer off at the end in cuffs, and I missed why (he's also a favorite of mine, he's younger than me, and looks like he's been dragged through a wringer!!! gosh what happened?) The movie moved very very fast.... violent too if you don't care for that. (Just a little ketchup IMHO). ALL the acting was outstanding. Directing a little messy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....A7b28MBBXo

Getting through some stacked up movies....

Just watched *The Great Gatsby* 2013 edition. I was blown away by Toby Maquire's performance.... amazing how DeCaprio always takes the focus, but Maqure was the real star of the show. If you haven't read the book or seen this movie, you should... especially if your world revolves around "unrequited love"............... like a few on this board do.... you know, old lost loves, that sort of thing....... the foolish things we do for love......

I liked the version with Robert Redford too (about 20 years ago), I think they did a better job technically, but this new version gets at what the book was about a lot better.

Look into the green light...................
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....aBVLhcHcc0

HA!

Got the second Hobbit movie on DVD.... had to take a break, too much incoming visual! The scene where they're riding the barrels out of bondage.... AHAHAHAHAH really watch the details! What masterful editing, truly!!! Those appear to be the rapids that were used in the Olympics (?) and watch Bombur carefully how he does battle!!!!

Hey Sphinx I hope you aren't too disappointed in this Hobbit, I was a tad irritated that they added so much subplot that wasn't even hinted at in the book. But it was enjoyable. I think the best part of the movie is how comfortable everyone seems in the roles and the clothes. Also how really believable the sets and such are.

They outdid themselves on the spiders too. LOTR wasn't that bad, I usually don't mind spiders, but they took it a few notches beyond in this movie.... ICK.

Oh, I want to go! It's 46oF here, and we've got the AC blasting its freon-induced, power-grid-sucking influence that triggers my psychosomatic illusion of pain in the knees.

Well I'm glad someone's a Muse.

I've been going back and reading the original Hobbit, then reading the Appendices in LOTR, lots of of the "back story" to this new Hobbit series is in there, amazingly. The last movie should be very interesting........... the Dwarves have quite a family history I had forgotten. Thorin Oakenshield was the last of the House of Durin.

Also.................. did or did Bilbo NOT pick up the Arkenstone in all that wild chasing they did around in the Mountain halls? (I think he did, but it's a question up in the air right now)

Oh dear someone IS bastardizing the original............ I sure hope not!

The Starlight gems would be total fabrications. In the First Age of Middle Earth, there were three Silmarils. Yes they had starlight in them, and I think the Dwarves and Elves collaborated on them (my mind is fuzzy on the First Age, not sure Tolkien even had it all nailed down). The tradition is that the Great Enemy, of whom Sauron is but a servant, somehow captured the three Silmarils and had them set in his iron crown. Long story (see Luthien and Beren, Lay of Lethian) but that couple managed to tear one of the Silmarils from the crown and passed it down to their children. (The other two gems were lost in deep water, and in a fiery pit, so water and earth claimed them). The third gem was lost in the air, as we shall soon see.

The last Silmaril came to an Elf maiden named Elwing, and she used it to fly to her husband in the guise of a seagull, who was a mariner at sea (again a long story that has a lot of gaps in Tolkien's writing) with the Silmaril. Together they (with the power of the gem) were able to sail to the Eternal Lands and ask for help in defeating their enemy........... Elendil and Elwing in their ship, were set in the heavens as the Evening Star (with the light of the Silmaril on their masthead) Thus ends the First age.

The second age involves Elrond and his brother.... Elrond we know (yes he set up shop in Rivendell) his brother also half Elven became the king of Numenor (also known as Atlantis). Aragorn is the heir and last in the line of kings of Numenor. Thus he and Arwen (daughter of Elrond) are super distant cousins. The rings of power (all of them) were made in the Second Age. As were the palantir, they were made in Numenor.

The Third age begins with the downfall of Numenor..................... the events of The Hobbit and LOTR are in the Third Age. I think Bilbo turns the Arkenstone over to the Elf king to try and get the armies to stop fighting. The Arkenstone is a great gem, but "possession" of it does not mean "kingship" that's erroneous in the movie.

OK you keep hitting my geek button................... enjoy the reading!!!