That Time Again

About ever year or so since I was twelve, I start to feel the need to visit the old friends and familiar landscapes of Tolkien's Middle Earth. So I break out my well-worn copies of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (I don't own one of these nice hardback collected versions, although I'd like to... hint hint) and settle in for a familiar journey. It's a different experience now that all the movies are finished and I've seen them several times, because instead of only seeing my own imaginings in my head, I now compare them to the movie. To Peter Jackson's credit, a lot of the scenes are pretty close, especially in Fellowship of the Ring. When people find out that I re-read these books so often, they often wonder what kind of enojyment I can get on the 18th or 19th read. I always thinking of it as going on vacation to the same place every year. It's familiar and comfortable, but you almost always discover something new every time you go. Now if only we could finish the damn September issue so that I'll have enough free time to start reading.

A Poem:
Once, I grew a mustache
and then I shaved it off.

But before I did, I said to my mustache,
"One day, my friend,
I will be brave enough to keep you.
But that day is not today.
There are still women I would like to have take me seriously."

Music: Fountains of Wayne. Their new b-sides collection, Out-of-State Plates, has rekindled my love for this band. All of their discs have something appealing: The quirky nerdiness of their self-titled debut; the sugary power-pop goodness of Welcome Interstate Managers; but it's Utopia Parkway's beautiful and haunting love songs to New Jersey that always keep me coming back.