Jane Birkin, Swan Song, and the Golden God

Jane Birkin reflected in our "Sunshine" candle, and, related, happy birthday to the golden god Robert Plant, whose Swan Song Records logo coincidentally is the inspiration behind our golden butterfly's pose. 

And, on heavy rotation at our house since high school, The Song Remains The Same:

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Hobbit t-shirts, 1976

One of each in all colors, please

. From the back of a Rolling Stone magazine, 1976

...(don't expect the Prompt Delivery)

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There and Back Again

J.R.R. Tolkien's design and artwork for The Hobbit dust jacket, 1937

From the book J.R.R. Tolkien, Artist and Illustrator

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Over Hill and Under Hill

Where I read The Hobbit: Greti di Greve in Chianti, Italy. I spent a year here in 1988. This was the view from my front door. 

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Happy Year of the Hobbit Dragon!!

It's both!!

Conversation with Smaug, watercolour by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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Misty Mountain Hop

Beautiful and intense Images De L'Himalaya by legendary Italian photographer and mountaineer Vittorio Sella (1859-1943).

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Adventure of the Three Colors

 

The tops of Lord of The Rings, 1978 edition.

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Where is this place?

And what does it have to do with my story? And what are those pink bulbs?

All questions J.R.R. Tolkien asked when he saw Barbara Remington's cover painting for The Lord of the Rings.

In her defense she hadn't had time to read the books as the publisher was rushing out the paperbacks to squelch the sales of a pirated version. (see here also).

Anyway, the question I asked an indifferent Linda when we found the giant poster in the basement of an estate sale was "Oh my God! Can you believe it?????!!?"

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The Ghost and Mrs. Snowblood

Squeaky-voiced 1930's actress Jean Arthur's house in Carmel California, 1976.
Equal parts Lady Snowblood and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,
with a little helping of the Mines of Moria and Fangorn Forest.

And that's just the living room.

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He's a nice cat

	tyrannosaurus rex - stacey grove .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Older Allen & Unwin paperback of The Hobbit- with Tolkien's Death of Smaug cover art- from a yard sale; and from a garage sale a Tyrannosaurus Rex claw for the boy's room. Relatedly, Steve Peregrin Took and Marc Bolan of Tyrranosaurus Rex with two of their best.

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Dragon and Mountain

Smaug and Erebor

What's neat about the dragon is it's cut from one slab of clay and then folded up. 

The "mountain" is an awesome Max Ernst-ian print we found at a yard sale. 

A perfect pair.

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A Wonderful Time

Today for a change we just drove around looking for signs, as nothing stood out in the newspaper listings, and it seemed pointless trying to decide which ad had the most promising version of "something for everyone". Turns out we drove luckily, as the first was really good- a moving sale of a former ad man, and we picked up some old Art Directors Annuals and some other cool odds and ends. The middle was a few hours of driving around from toys to Nascars to baskets and the usual nothingness, but it was sunny and fun. However from that we came to a really great moving sale in Cape Elizabeth. This was our last stop of the day, at around 1 o'clock. Why these fantastic books were still there is a mystery. Being an easy mark for any old Tolkien, I got all punchy when I saw these -geek alert- pirated LOTR Ace paperbacks and the rare "lion" cover of The Hobbit, along with old hardcovers of Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham, and Tom Bombadil- Nice! Also a ton of James Thurber, which is always fun to paw through, some old Wyeth family books and catalogs, and some 60's and 70's bohemian stuff, among which was this Ecology/Earth Day silkscreen from 1970. Balancing all this was the rare find of a nice first edition of Slim Aarons' 1974 book 'A Wonderful Time', his photographic journey through the backyards and playgrounds of the rich, jet-set, and favored few. We grew up with this book, a gift from Commander Whitehead to my grandfather Meyers, but I haven't seen it in years.

Definitely a wonderful time, Saturday.

(Commander Whitehead)

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Locd of the Rings

Keep on Tolkien!

I can't even explain why I have so many of these.

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