A decent (if too short) interview with Fran and Phillippa on LotR being a "boys' movie."

So what's with two girls writing a boys' film?

You could almost hear them scream.

Kathy -- thanks for that link.

Also, apparently, Sean Astin is supposed to be a presenter on the Grammys tonight.

(That was from TORN -- they also say that Ian Holm remarried recently.)

I must admit, I am a complete sap.

Annie Lennox makes me cry when she sings, "why do the white gulls call?"

::sniffle::

Is Annie Lennox singing that tonight?

I have no idea, it's just on the soundtrack I'm listening to.

I got halfway through the song on my soundtrack, and then couldn't listen to it again. I'm hoping, now that I've heard it over the credits that it won't bum me out as much.

"...turns to silver glass..." gets me. It brings back the Pippin-Gandalf scene. And "here in my arms, just sleeping" breaks me. Still, every time.

I like that line (the veil rolling back, and all turns to silver glass, and beyond a far green country). I like even better that it's not actually a description of death -- it's a description of the Undying Lands. One of the things that I especially like about Tolkien's universe-building is that he doesn't have a big answer about human souls and heaven -- even Mandos does not know what happens to men when they die. They just do, and gift or curse it's a mystery.

So yes, Gandalf's description doesn't sound so bad, but Pippin will never actually see it, or if he does, he won't be able to report back.

I do like the Lennox song -- it's grown on me. Although, taken literally, some of the lyrics imply that the moon rises in the west. Some serious cardinal direction problems throughout the trilogy. Did I mention the part where, at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, the sun rises in the northwest?

Oh, I'm so glad I'm not the only one who still cries at "Into the West"! The entire second verse kills me. "Hope fades, into the world of night/ through shadows falling, out of memory and time/ don't say we have come now to the end/ white shores are calling, you and I will meet again/ and you'll be here in my arms, just sleeping..." wah!

On edit: Nutty, yeah, I also love how Tolkein treated death in Middle-Earth. Another moment that gets me is Theoden saying (paraphrased): "I go now to the halls of my fathers, in whose company I shall know neither fear nor shame."

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who still cries at "Into the West"!

I cried when she sang it on...whatever late night show she was on on Friday. I also cried during the 10-minute Bravo Making of ROTK special - the Sam carrying Frodo clip.

Sean Astin looked very handsome at the Grammys last night.

I had to report first thing this morning on maybe the best t-shirt I have ever seen - ever. Saturday night I go to my local bar and my rather tall and adorable bartender is wearing a green t-shirt that just says

I'm All Gay About Hobbits and Shit

wanted to take him home.