Category Archives: Stories & Sound

Part of the challenge of tackling Tolkien’s massive story is learning how to pronounce the names! I’m very thankful for the audiobook versions, especially readers like Rob Inglis, Martin Shaw, and now, Andy Serkis. Hearing the names read is an immense help and certainly adds to the richness of Tolkien’s legendarily… I’m not sure howContinueContinue reading “Marginalia: How To Pronounce Names In ‘The Lord of the Rings’ – Middle-earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog”

The biggest giveaways usually have nothing to do with the writing itself. https://medium.com/the-daily-draft/the-obvious-ways-to-spot-someone-secretly-writing-with-ai-f36ce8d4d715 Matt Lillywhite makes some interesting points about the current obsession with identifying AI-generated writing. His conclusion is especially relevant for those of us who’ve been around long enough to remember when good punctuation, structure, and transitions were just called good writing. AfterContinueContinue reading “Marginalia: How To Spot Someone Secretly Writing With AI | The Daily Draft”

There’s something different about seeing the first page of The Lord of the Rings in the handwriting of its author, J.R.R. Tolkien. Not the published text. Not the stabilized version we know by heart. Just ink moving across paper while the story is still deciding what it will become. “A LONG-EXPECTED PARTY…” it begins. A bright sentence. AlmostContinueContinue reading “Pages from Tolkien’s Hand”

In 1997, U2 took the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards and completely misread the room—or perhaps they gave the performance of their lives. Stripping away the technicolor irony of the Pop era, they handed a shiny industry crowd a raw, bleeding prayer for peace in Northern Ireland.

There’s a clip that resurfaced today—Anjelah Johnson-Reyes playing her MADtv character Bon Qui Qui, working the register at a fictional fast-food place called King Burger. It’s not just the joke that lands first. It’s the certainty in the performance. The character is loud, yes—but more than loud, she is absolute. There’s no hesitation in the way she speaks,ContinueContinue reading “Marginalia: Bon Qui Qui / MADtv Clip”