Wrapping Up the Year/ Soundtrack Review

    

     So, once more I find myself standing upon the threshold of a New Year. I'm not too excited. Despite my affinity for odd numbers 2013 looks gross. I don't like the number 13. It's too orange. 2014 is green so that's better and 2015 is blue so that will be pretty, but 2013 is just ugly (that probably made absolutely no sense to anyone but me, but this is how I think about these things). That's not to say I'm not excited about things that will happen in 2013, how could I not be?  By May I will officially be halfway done with my college career. Next fall I get to take a Lord of the Rings class. The Hobbit pt. 2 comes out next December. I have an important birthday coming up (albeit an 'anti-climactic' one since I don't drink and have no intention of starting). I don't know though, 2012 felt more exciting for some reason. It's been a good year. I've had this little blogging thing for about a year now and that's been fun. Maybe I'll be better at it next year... maybe. Lots of great things came out this year: The Hobbit, Sherlock season 2, Avengers, Les Mis (which I still need to see), Life of Pi (which I also still need to see), I discovered Doctor Who, got to take a class on Narnia (NARNIA!), got a dog, etc. I've been incredibly blessed this year, it's a little sad to let go.Even my Birthday and Christmas was wonderful and unspoiled by the exam induced panic attacks! I got the Lord of the Rings extended editions (and they look pretty. I've never said that about DVD cases before...), The Faerie Queene, clothes that actually fit my Amazonian frame (hey, when you're 5'10" and skinny as a rail you'll understand the joy of having pants that don't end at your ankles and skirts that actually reach your knees. It's a novelty really). I also go to see some friends who I love and miss dearly. Ug, I don't want tomorrow to come! But I also do, because It is always fun to have a year set out before you that's a brand new clean and shiny slate. My calendar pages (my pretty fairy calendar pages) are mostly blank. Nothing's been done yet, no mistakes have been made. Beginnings always amaze me. They're my favorite part of everything. There's so much promise in a beginning, so much to be discovered and explored. All that to say I'm incredibly happy that we have opportunities like years.

    

     Now, everything I just said notwithstanding, I will now use this space to make an incredibly abrupt transition to an entirely different topic. I've been meaning for awhile to write about this, but I never did for some reason... THE HOBBIT SOUNDTRACK! I bought the day it came out and I was far from disappointed. Most people I know have and love the Lord of the Rings soundtracks, and it's generally acknowledged that Howard Shore has done a first rate job with those. There was a lot of pressure, then, for the Hobbit to be of the same quality, and I can honestly say that it was. Howard shore wove in enough of the themes from the original soundtracks into the Hobbit to make Middle Earth feel familiar and like the Hobbit belonged with the other films, but also added enough new themes to make it its own distinctive work. The result is beautiful. In there are many things that I like a great deal more about this soundtrack than I do about the others. Instrumentally I think that the Hobbit is on Par with the others, although Fellowship of the Ring might still win that contest, but what Howard Shore did here, that I thought was necessary, was include some of the lyrical songs that Tolkien had written. This is a much more lighthearted adventure than LOTR and the songs help reflect that. The song I was not expecting at all but was most delighted to hear was the song that the Dwarves sing to taunt Bilbo in his house as they clean dishes (it was pretty cool in the movie too). The Dwarve's song was also an element I felt was necessary and well done. Obviously they couldn't sing the whole song (Tolkien wrote really long songs), but they picked the verses that were most important. The song at the end of the credits, however, was my favorite. Tolkien hadn't written that one, but I almost felt like he had. It was a very Dwarvish song and I loved Neil Finn's contribution. I'm not really a musicy person, so my analysis of quality is really limited, but I would give this soundtrack a 5/5 for sure.You can listen to the credit song here.

       So, this is the last day in December and this is where I would normally put a new theme for the next month, but I'm a bit stumped. I have some ideas, but I'm finding it a bit hard to choose between them. Really I'm waffling between a Sherlock theme, a Doctor Who theme, or a Disney Princess theme. Clearly I will get to all of them eventually, but which one should I do next. pbffffff. Ok, we'll do a Sherlock Holmes theme, mostly because I just finished season 2 of Sherlock, Martin Freeman was Bilbo, and I like Mr. Home's hat. Good bye Mr. Tolkien. Hello Mr. Doyle. Hello New Year.