The Rabbit Room

Keeper of the Word: A Review of The Door on Half-Bald Hill

I make the sign for birch in the gray soil of thought.

A tree springs up, its trunk white and straight, its leaves small and rounded.

“The birch is the tree of beginnings, of purification, of fire. Let the birch stand in honor of the Bard, who summons the inner flame. The Bard will be poet, musician, and prophet. He will learn the history of our people, all our laws and our lore. The Bard will be Keeper of the Word.”

—Helena Sorensen, The Door on Half-Bald Hill

The Lost Art of Listening, Part 7: Can I Get a Witness?

Several weeks ago when we began this series on the “lost art of listening,” I don’t know that any of us knew exactly where it would end up. But it’s been a delight to watch the topic develop and gather steam.

Andrew, Chris, Drew, Jennifer, Shigé, and Leslie have all articulated valuable facets of why and how we listen to music and carry it with us. It’s my turn now, and I came into this weekend, challenged to write something but honestly having no idea what I might be able to add to such a rich conversation.

Rabbit Trails #23

Click through for this week’s edition of Jonny Jimison’s Rabbit Trails.

Bilbo’s Garden

“Inside Bag End, Bilbo and Gandalf were sitting at the open window of a small room looking out west onto the garden. The late afternoon was bright and peaceful. The flowers glowed red and golden: snap-dragons and sunflowers, and nasturtiums trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at the round windows.”
—The Fellowship of the Ring

The Habit Podcast: Karen Swallow Prior

The Habit Podcast is a series of conversations with writers about writing, hosted by Jonathan Rogers. This week, Jonathan Rogers talks with Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well and Booked.

The Second Muse: Don Chaffer

In Season 2, Episode 9, Drew Miller talks with Don Chaffer about the song “Be Invisible” from his musical, The (Almost) Unforgettable Edwin Booth.

Fixed In Post: Quarantine Edition

We’ve got a new episode of Fixed in Post—our podcast for the moviegoers among us, wherein co-hosts John Barber and Pete Peterson discuss films they love and what they would have fixed in post-production to make them even better. Except this time, John Barber is not joined by Pete Peterson. He is instead joined by the Rabbit Room’s Director of Sales & Event Programming, Chris Thiessen, who himself wields a sharp pop cultural eye.

Hero-worship, Humor & the Harrowing Rescue of Jojo Rabbit

The montage that runs under the opening credits of Jojo Rabbit is one of the most insightful moments in a movie full of insights. Newsreel footage of Nazi youth rallies is accompanied by The Beatles’ “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” (a German language version of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” that The Beatles recorded in 1964). Frenzied, dewy-eyed teenage girls scream “Heil Hitler!” But if you weren’t watching their lips closely, you might think they were screaming “Paul!” or “Ringo!” Arms wave frantically in the air, like those of excited fans at Shea Stadium. It is only after the second or third shot that you realize that the hands are extended in a Nazi salute. Likewise the hysterical cheering running along in the background might have been recorded at the Nuremburg rallies, or it might have been the crowd at the Ed Sullivan Theater (“Ladies and gentlemen . . . The Beatles!!”).