High kicking hobbits

Picks of the Week

Adam Thirlwell: Politics: A Novel (P.S.)
One would think this book is about sex, And while it is, since the characters have so much about it, some of it is kinky, and threesomes play a big role in the narrative. mostly POLITICS is about everything else: the mechanics, the logistics, the emotional minefields, the awkward questions, the moral dilemmas, and, well, the politics of what it is to be with someone you love or someone you don't, and how an act that should be simple is anything but. Thirlwell was disgustingly young when he wrote this but he absolutely understands that to make this book work, there must be an underlying sweetness and sincerity to the entire story. Now I want to see what he's up to more recently. Amazon | Indiebound | B & N | Borders | Powell’s
Jennifer Mascia: Never Tell Our Business to Strangers: A Memoir
Years ago I was blown away by Mascia's Modern Love piece describing her parents' secret past: her father was a mobbed-up convicted murderer, and her mother not only knew all about it, but aided and abetted her husband when life required being a fugitive, selling drugs, and living at great highs and crushing lows. Mascia's book tells a more whole story about her peripatetic life, and even with every new shocking revelation what remained consistent was how much she loved her parents, no matter how deep those lows went, and how much she misses them now that they are gone. Unconditional love never goes away, no matter if those who receive it deserve it. Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N | Powell’s
Juli Zeh: In Free Fall
Give me a novel of ideas and if the story is good and the characters are believable and entertain me, I am there. Give me a crime novel of ideas, where two physics professors, friends and rivals, opposites but startlingly similar, do emotional battle on an intellectual canvas, raise the stakes through betrayal, the possible kidnapping of a child, and embroil a romantic-leaning police detective in the complicated machinations of quantum theory, and holy hell, I think I have myself one of my favorite books of the year. Powell’s | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | B & N
Simon Lelic: A Thousand Cuts
It appears to be a crime with an easy solution: a disgruntled schoolteacher shoots up his place of employment and kills several students in the process. But really, Lelic's novel is about the catastrophic consequences of bullying, and how this act is hardly limited to kids turning on other kids, but burrows deeply into adult relationships as well. He evokes empathy for the killer and sympathy for Lucia, the investigating officer who has to fight for every scrap of dignity as she pieces together the far more complex truth of what really happened at the school. Powell’s | Amazon | Borders | Indiebound | B & N
William Lindsay Gresham: Nightmare Alley
I cannot stop raving about this book to people. The circular narrative structure, the demented feel of a traveling carny troupe, and the extraordinary rise and precipitous fall of Stan Carlisle give off the persistent, raging feeling that hell is always with us, and success is basically a sucker's game. No matter what the biographical evidence on Gresham's state of mind leading up to and after the book's bestseller (and movie basis) status in 1946, I don't think we can really know what demons plagued him to produce this marvelous noir gem. B & N | Indiebound | Amazon | Borders | Powell’s

March 16, 2005

I must be an ostrich or something, because I totally managed to miss this news until now:

TORONTO -- One ring to rule them all - and it's starting in Toronto. David and Ed Mirvish are expected to announce at a news conference today that Toronto will host the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings, the $27-million stage musical based on J.R.R. Tolkien's world-famous trilogy.

The plan is to open the show at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre with a largely Canadian cast on March 23, 2006. The Mirvishes will be joining forces with producers Kevin Wallace, Saul Zaentz and Michael Cohl to stage the musical. Wallace confirmed the news yesterday in London.

A report by The Associated Press said Wallace had hoped to open the show in London in the fall, but no theatre large enough to accommodate the technically complex production was available. The musical is now slated to open in London in autumn 2006.

Rumors that the musical will include numbers like "Kill the Hobbit" and "Springtime for Hobbits (and Middle Earth") have not been confirmed at this time.

Posted at 10:30 AM in Absurdities | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451af9169e200d83438cc6953ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference High kicking hobbits:

Comments

No no no no no! They just had to milk it. Great books. Great films. But a mega-bagillion dollars just wasn't enough.

I don't have high hopes for this.

Victor

Posted by: Victor Gischler | March 16, 2005 at 10:39 AM

"Kill the Hobbit? How will you do it?"

"With my spear and magic helmet."

"Your spear and magic helmet?"

"Spear and magic helmet!"

(Skeptical) "Magic helmet."

"Yes, ma-gic hel-met! And I'll give you a sam-ple!"

Posted by: Gerald | March 16, 2005 at 10:48 AM

i can't...no, no no, they aren't really doing this, are they?
I'm having a hard time imagining Gandalf dancing around singing "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!!"
they can't do this. I'm appalled. Tolkien is currently rolling in his grave...

Posted by: christin | March 16, 2005 at 11:40 AM

The word on the street is that Spinal Tap will be collaborating on the music with Andrew Lloyd Wanker.

I am totally psyched. Hand me down my staff and my mithril tuxedo, baby.

Posted by: Jimmy Beck | March 16, 2005 at 12:43 PM

Do you hear the Hobbits sing?
Singing the songs of little men.
It is the music of a people
who have gotten drunk again...

Posted by: George | March 16, 2005 at 12:46 PM