Happy New Year

In what has become something of a Christmas/New Year’s tradition in the Blog o’ Stuff household I watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy. As much as I love the movies, and know how the story ends, all those fade to blacks at the end of Return of the King set one up to think the film has ended. To keep the Tolkien theme in mind, I read The Children of Húrin yesterday. The story reminded me of a Greek Tragedy, in both style and theme Tolkien employed to tell the story as well as the grandeur and power. Though I read it over a day or two, the story is still resonating with me.

Yesterday, aside from the first day of 2008, was also the first NHL Winter Classic. Even though I probably would have had a difficult time seeing the game from the stadium seats, it would have been very cool to be there. It was a solid game with an ending the NHL couldn’t have scripted any better, with the Kid scoring the winning goal in a shootout. I would love to see this become an annual tradition, with perhaps a game in New Yankees Stadium in 2009 or a game in Pittsburgh, or in RFK Stadium with some rotating teams. Maybe the previous Stanley Cup champion being involved in the game, though having the Anaheim Ducks as the host tem would kind of defeat the purpose.

The first day of 2008 was a busy day, as it turned out; I posted my latest review, The Solaris Book of New Fantasy edited by George Mann. I liked the majority of the stories and may pick up their New Book of Science Fiction. In addition, we jiggered up the front page of SFFWorld yesterday.