Peter Hollens - Cappella cover versions of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movie theme tracks...

I am not normally one for cover versions of songs, usually the originals are the best, and these are Cappella versions too.

But I thought they were very cool, cleverly done, and well worth sharing... hope you enjoy them...

Song of the Lonely Mountain...

I see Fire...

Into the West...

May it Be...

Gollums song...

I See Fire...

I just had to blog this... I have heard the song a few times now, having downloaded the movie soundtrack from ITunes...

 Found this video on Youtube... Hauntingly beautiful song with wonderful backdrop of MiddleEarth for the video...


 

 Yes I realise all the video sequences are from first movie, but that doesn't affect my enjoyment of this song nor simply seeing, and briefly feeling immersed in, MiddleEarth...

 Hope you enjoy it...

It's one of the great things about gaming MiddleEarth, there's all the movies to watch for inspiration, both model painting and terrain making, and soundtracks to play when gaming - wonderfully 'immersive'...

Getting clever with Blogger? An appeal for help!

Guys, and Gals, in the wider blogging community, I am looking for a little help in ways to jazz up my blog posts a little...

One thing I would like to do is to be able to use more interesting Fonts on my blog posts.

For example, how would I add more options to the Font drop down menu in New Post, see pic below:

More Fonts wanted!

I am aware of Google Fonts but can't figure out how to add them to this...

Another thing I would like perhaps, is to create a little 'mood' with certain blog posts, via musical accompaniment. I don't just mean a Youtube video clip in the post you have to click on, but something a little more automatic, such that once a blog post is clicked on to view, its accompanying music will start to play automatically...

I've got a bunch of movie soundtrack stuff on my Ipod, and for example having an excerpt from say Sherlock Holmes playing alongside a Empire of the Dead post could be quite cool I thought...

Any clever people out there who can help please, comment below, or email me ( Email link in sidebar below Pirate picture).

Cheers and happy blogging!

Scott

Technology saves my Painting space.

I have always enjoyed listening to music while I paint. Usually through headphones connected to my mini-portable cd-player thingy perched on the edge of my painting table or on a side table.

However I recently caught up with technology (in some ways I am a bit of a technophobe). I bought an Ipod Shuffle. Wow, how things have changed!

For $60NZ I have gone from something the size of a couple of housebricks that plays one CD at a time, to something not much bigger than a large postage stamp that holds about 20 CD albums and will randomly play tracks from all the albums endlessly without stopping or me have to change discs or anything.

Amazing!

And it takes up a fraction of the space as before, so my side table can hold refreshments or other modelling paraphernalia!

Plus I got a set of Skull Ink’d canal-phones. These fit in the ear canal, so effectively block out background sound, like an ear plug, and obviously plays your tunes too. The nice bit is it stays quiet between songs and I don’t get intrusions of SWMBO’s ‘pap*-TV’ breaking through. They're also more comfy than the standard earphones that come with the ipod. Bliss!

I’ve dug out all my old 80’s & 90s rock albums and uploaded them. A trip down musical memory lane indeed.

The only problem now is getting a thick ear from SWMBO when I can’t help break into song at the best bits, as I listen along. ;-)

Oh and it works equally well under my ear defenders when I’m doing the garden – riding lawntractor or using weed-eater (strimmer for you UK types).

So for any of you technophobe-grognards like me out there, go get yourself an Ipod shuffle – it's the ‘Sony-Walkman’ you always wanted ;-)

*pap: “pathetic and puerile!” ;-)

Update 13/11/11

I just went and bought some new ear phones, after getting a recommendation on kiwibiker forum:
Sennheiser 30mmi

I got them from Dick Smiths for $110. Ok thats more than I paid for the Ipod, but these ear phones are smaller fitting, yet better sound quality than the Skull ink'd ones I'd got, and they fit comfortably inside my tight fitting Shoei helmet, so my bike riding has become blissful. I can now ride for hours without stopping, because my ears are sore, or the disc needs changing... just fuel stops and toliet breaks ;-)
I've waited years to be able to enjoy this music and biking combination properly.

Music that makes the paint flow...

A little diversion to my more normal blog posting:

Reading a fellow gamers blog recently had me thinking about favourite music to paint to. Obviously being a huge fan of Tolkien, and having spent about the last two years painting GW's LOTR figs, I have nearly always had the one of the three movie soundtracks playing in the background, and indeed when having a game too. I can happily paint for hours with this music in my ears.

Of all the pieces from the movies, the one track I love above all is "Concerning Hobbits", from the Fellowship of the Ring. From the warbling wind instruments, to the strings and harp, and patter patter of the drums, quite simply, it always moves me, as I remember the scenes of Hobbition, and brings a smile to my face.

Beautifully shown here:



Enjoy