Tolkien's Arthurian Poetry

You know what one of the great things is for Tolkien fans? Despite it only being forty years since the Professor's departed this world, we already have a great deal of his writings in publication. This past year, I was reveling in all the Charlotte Brontë writings that had been published only in fairly recent years, even though she died over a century before Tolkien did.

So while things like The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún may not always appeal to the casual reader, for a hardcore fan or semi-scholar, they're treasures. This is apparent simply in the way that The Fall of Arthur, published earlier this year, is put together. Although the unfinished poem is only forty slim pages, the book is a hardcover filled with commentary on the poem's writing, context, and meaning. In these writings, Christopher Tolkien not only describes when Tolkien was working on this poem and such, but also how it relates to his Middle-earth writings. Note that I did not read all of this commentary, only glanced through it. I'll save a more thorough reading for later.

For myself, the value I gained was in connecting imagery and language to Middle-earth. Although this poem concerns the world of King Arthur, that subject material is not wholly unlike Tolkien's own legends. There is still much imagery of Nature and its power and beauty. The flow of poetry, rich but not heavy with alliteration, is reminiscent of the poetry that fills the pages of The Lord of the Rings. What scholarly treasures the Tolkienians continue receiving.

Atwood Alley

Often it's the stories that include imagination that I enjoy most--however imagination manifests itself. And given my multitudinous piles of neatly stacked books and ever widening Netflix queue, stories have incredible value in my life.

It took a few extra days for me to learn about the newest video from Keychain Productions because, being an entry in the Virgin Media Shorts contest, it debuted on the contest website instead of on Keychain's YouTube page. While I would have preferred a video with less voiceover/exposition, I do like the subject material. The character is a nine year old girl who values imagination even when others do not understand it--and that is important.

Once again, there is pretty use of color contrasts. Does anyone else think the shot of the umbrella against the snow is reminiscent of Narnia and Mr. Tumnus's umbrella?

To watch the short film, Atwood Alley, click here.

July Favorites

1) Flower Necklace - If you're familiar with Prescott, you know that they often hold art/craft fairs and other events at the square. I got this necklace there from Ataggirl Creations, which is based out of Prescott, as well. I liked that it has a Western vibe that isn't too overdone, that it has green, and that it's some sort of metal instead of plastic.

2) Disney Train & Dinosaur Print - When I was in Disneyland last month, I saw this print on Main St. during the day; after thinking about it, I rushed in at midnight to buy it on my way out of the park. A collision of dinosaurs and Disneyland, how could I not? It's the perfect blend of absurdity.

3) Hair Clip Set - These are from Anthropologie, which means they're on the pricey side--but you can tell the difference. They're jewelry for the hair.

4) Framed Chalkboard - Chalkboard paint is rather in right now, but I promise that I have always liked chalkboards. They're more old-fashioned, don't smell terrible like dry erase markers, and are friends with wonderfully-edible-looking chalk (you know, chalk resembles the candy in Fun Dip, Necco Wafers, etc.). I still think I'd like to paint an entire wall someday, but this board will do for now.

5) Fairy Soap - Another local product, this soap comes from Clarkdale. It uses wildflowers, lavender, mint, and lemon to create an aroma that is soft, floral, feminine, and just slightly candy-like. The packaging is beautiful and the soap itself pretty in pink and white. It's also an alright soap with a soft feel. I'll probably buy from this brand, Pie Town Soap and Candle Co., again.

6) Magnifying Glass - A World Market find, a magnifying glass always provides an accent for a bookshelf or desk. Wood, brass, glass, and mystery.

7) Cocoa Perfume - Yes, yes, here we have another item I chose just because of its relation to chocolate. I may do an individual post on this perfume later, describing my mixed feelings about it. Right now, though, it's simply another little bottle decorating my perfume tray.

8) Dinogami - Two dinosaur items in the same list? Goodness. This set was on sale for $3. The last time I tried origami, I was terrible at it, but that was several years ago; for $3, I thought it was worth it to try again. My first dinosaur turned out rather unwell, although you can at least tell what it's supposed to be. I'll keep at it.

9) Green Earrings - Another Sedona jewelry find, these earrings reminded me of the vintage-esque flower earrings floating around these days. Why are they sitting in a shell, you wonder? Well . . .

I had been keeping shells in this box until I decided that it would be nice to use the box for small earrings. Instead of moving the shells out, I just flipped them over to create individual spaces for each pair. Well, except for a couple that share spaces.

10) Rose Pin - A little antique store find, I know nothing about this gold-colored pin except that it's a rose--which is like Beauty and the Beast. I can picture it clipped onto a scarf, purse, jacket, or collar.

Hammond's Candies: Malted Milkshake Milk Chocolate

Although I don't too often find one I'm entirely satisfied with, I do enjoy shakes. Usually I choose chocolate, or some sort of flavored chocolate. And then I entertain myself by complaining about how it tastes too milky or is too thick or not thick enough or whatever the case may be. So to find a chocolate bar called Malted Milkshake, well, I was happy about that. 

There are a few more flavors in stock at World Market right now. If I think well enough of this one, I'll try those, as well. But it's best to sample new lines slowly, lest I buy them all at once and hate them all. What I'm finding disappointing about this bar is that it isn't quite what I was expecting. The packaging is plain and vintage, but chic enough that I imagined Hammond's was a fairly new company. Instead, they have been around since 1920, with some more recent changes that have greatly increased the company's size. It's also a candy company rather than a chocolate company. Candy and candy stores are wonderful, but I usually like chocolate best when it is a company's only focus. 

Whatever expectations I built up on my own, however, this is not a pretentious chocolate bar. "Milk chocolate with malted milk" sounds casual, something that can easily come from a candy company. The bar is in six pieces. There is, naturally, no cocoa percentage listed nor anything about the type of chocolate used. It's a light and milky variety.

The bottom side of the chocolate shows all the pieces of malt balls that are added in. When seeing the bar, I didn't expect that it would necessarily have malt balls in it, just that flavor. What's nicer about this bar than traditional, chocolate-dipped malt balls is that there is much more chocolate than malt and the malt balls have an airier texture because they are in smaller pieces. Just these differences of proportion and size are worth seeing.

I'd classify this as a candy bar, or a confection; somehow "candy bar" seems only to apply to grocery store candies from the likes of Hershey's and Mars. It's the same type of thing, just a little cleaner cut. It's sweet and a tad nostalgic. I didn't fall in love with it as much as I would have liked, as hardly ever happens with milkshakes, either; the malt balls had too much of an artificial taste for that, and neither was the chocolate significant enough. But it's a pleasant sweet to nibble on and I do like the wrapper design. I wonder how they would be as party favors . . . 

The Density of Xenocide

Click for my thoughts on the first two books: Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.

I really enjoyed the first book in this set and really liked the second. The third, however, became a little bit much. Xenocide is much longer than they were and I found it even more dense than Speaker for the Dead. If I'm honest, I'm a little disappointed that I didn't like it the way I liked the first two books. But let me explain why.

It was dense. Wonderfully so at times--I still found lines that I could have underlined, concepts that were well-worded, conversations and ponderings about ethics and life. Nothing is, at its center, simple; yet everything is so complex that, in the end, it is rather simple. Much more philosophical questions are in this book and also much more of a sci-fi feel--at least I thought so. The first books were about anti-gravity, space, and aliens, but this book included the long-winded descriptions of such things as philotes and computer communication and viruses and interplanetary travel. Not that any of this is bad; I certainly don't mean to say that.

I'm just pointing out that, after enjoying my foray into sci-fi for the first two books, I'm getting a little bogged down by the setting now. This is more the type of thing I would have expected, in some ways. So now that I've finally gotten through its pages, I think I'll give it a longer wait before I read the last book in this set (not the entire series, I know). You can tell how I felt about this book from the fact that I have so little to say on it: neither much praise nor much criticism. Maybe I'll finally get to the new Tolkien poem and some others that have been lying in wait. There is always much to read.

A Reflection on the Comfort of Loneliness

You see, the multiplicity of people surrounding you can in fact increase your sense of isolation. If you are in a crowd and feeling great connection to everyone in it, then the oneness is amazing; but if you are in a crowd and do not feel that oneness, then you become very alone. If, however, you are within Nature, uncovered and wild, then your connection is instantaneous and with the earth. 

Being so near to one of my favorite places, the Painted Desert, the surrounding area of Sunset Crater easily lends to such a feeling. The volcanic land is black and red. The landscape is open with scrubby bushes in one area, mountainous and piney in another. Everywhere, life meets death: sky meets earth, leftover lava meets green plants, and your eyes meet all. Everything is at once open and enclosed, silent and loud. The land tells a story. . . and it wants you to be a part of it.

Being alone with the land is never lonely.

Trader Joe's: PB&J Milk Chocolate Bar

Trader Joe's shoppers should know this, but let me reiterate. The quality of chocolate and candy products can vary greatly since the store likes to provide quality for decent prices. So sometimes you'll find decent items for low prices. And sometimes you'll find uppity products, disguised in Trader Joe's wrappers, for low prices--like the time they had undercover Pralus chocolate bars. Because some of their chocolates can in fact be made by well-respected brands but Trader Joe's doesn't tell you who made them, I can't always tell the quality of something until I try it. I didn't look too closely at the PB&J bar; even just as as a reversion back to childhood thing, it was worth picking up.

Although the use of raspberry jelly is, I imagine, designed to give it more of an adult feel, I don't care too much for raspberry. And since I can't remember ever having a regular peanut butter and jelly chocolate bar, I would have preferred the more basic strawberry jelly. It isn't, after all, as if the colorful wrapper of this bar markets itself as very serious. 

I'm getting to that point now where I still like the candies and sweets, but they have to be good to be worth it. If I'm eating sugar, I want it to taste good. It only took one bite to decide that, no, this bar wasn't worth it. The milk chocolate is alright, if a little slippery in texture. But the filling is more buttery than I wanted and much more peanut butter than jelly. Maybe I shouldn't complain about not tasting the raspberry more, but I felt that it needed more presence. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich has equal parts peanut butter and jelly. Here, the jelly is more prominent in some bites than others. As you can see from the picture, my first piece hardly had any jelly at all; it looked like the raspberry flavor must have just been mixed in with the peanut butter.

No, that isn't the case: other pieces do have a dark jelly sitting on top of the peanut butter. It tends to hang out in the middle of each piece. Sometimes you taste it quite strong; other times it's barely there. More consistency, please. And that's my problem: the details. While there are no added oils in the chocolate portion, the peanut butter has palm oil (I guess most peanut butters that most people buy do have oil added, though, don't they?) and the bar also has corn syrup. At least the raspberry flavor comes from raspberry juice concentrate and organic raspberry flavor instead of artificial flavorings. It might all be good enough for a casual candy bar, if that's what you're looking for when you go to pay at Trader Joe's. But for me and my more thoughtful approach, it isn't quite enough.