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86 and Still Counting

 

86 and still counting. Jazz musician, webmaster, writer, journalist, cook, Gym-goer, and lifelong learner. Join me for music, conversation, creativity, and everyday adventures.

The Day I Met Tolkien: He Shared the Memory That Shaped Middle-earth

 

A memorable moment during the time I when met Tolkien, working at that time for his publisher, George Allentolkien and Unwin.

The story of Edith dancing in a woodland glade was deeply important to Tolkien. He wrote in a letter that seeing Edith dance among flowering hemlock in a woodland clearing inspired the tale of Beren and Lúthien. Lúthien's dancing in the woods became one of the central images in his mythology.

 

 

 

 

The Silmarillion   Rather than being a single adventure story like The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion is a collection of interconnected legends. The Silmarillion was...

Peter Cook, Nigel Rees, Cabbages and Kings   Nigel Rees devised the programme format, Peter Cook was a panel member for the pilot screening. Unfortunately, there was something of a gap...

John Mayall and The Blues Syndicate   Formed in 1962 in Manchester, the Blues Syndicate was the very first band John Mayall joined, it was a cooperative founded by John Rowlands, Jack...

  Four Bar Intro – The Door to Possibilities   A great four-bar jazz introduction does much more than start a tune. It Sets the mood and expectation. Draws the listener into the...

  Soho Days. Jazz and Poetry. Iris Orton. Poem "The Creation of the World". Trombone heard in the first twelve stanzas.     Iris Orton 1925 - 2019 Iris Orton, who has died aged...

  How and Why I Became a Webmaster in 1996   Using the Early Internet to Solve a Journalistic Challenge That Opened Up a Whole New Career for Me. Everything from The European Commission...

The Kama Sutra and the man from the building site   The Kama Sutra (attributed to Vatsyayana) is one of the most misunderstood classical works in global literary history. Before roughly...

Nunc Dimittis. The Setting Was Awful   I was a diffident and mentally unengaged choir boy. I did enjoy singing decants. But most hymns, musically, bored me. The exception was the Nunc...