Lee's Journey from the Stars to Fellowship!

We're going to call this the summer of the Fellowship.

It all started when I was sent by Life in L.A. to see and write a review of Fellowship! the Musical, the hysterically funny Fellowship of the Ring parody last month.  We were invited back to see the show again by the lead producer after my review was published, and we took the kids.

Peter Allen Vogt, played Sam, and Abi recognized him from her Hannah Montana days as a little girl.  Sorry about the smudge across his belly.  I touched the camera lens.  Gah!  I SUCK!

Seeing the show together will be a summer highlight.  We're so sad that the show has closed already.  We're rooting for another LA venue to pick it up.  We laughed hard during the performance, and we have laughed together ever since, as we sing the songs or remember the lines.  Even Lee.

He was in the back yard jumping on the trampoline, and I could hear him singing one of the songs from the show.  The main lyrics are, "The Nazgul.  Black Riders.  The Ringwraiths.  The Same thing."  Of course, I couldn't get to my camera fast enough, so we had to recreate it.

Lee was so into the play, that we thought we should bring out the extended DVD version of The Fellowship of the Ring movie, and give 'er a spin.  To the amazement of the rest of us, Hugo had only seen the ring movies once, years ago, and Lee was too young to watch them before.

It was a total hit.  Especially for Lee.  He has watched it over, and over, and over again.  Now, when he is playing, he's humming Howard Shore's Fellowship, or Shire themes, over John Williams' Dual of the Fates, or Imperial March themes from Star Wars.

Before, he would ask, "Why did Anakin decide to join the Dark Side?"  Now, he's asking, "Why would Saruman decide to join Sauron?"  I suppose it's the same compromise for greed theme, either way, and a good life lesson to discuss, whether we're in the stars, or Middle Earth.

While I painted my bedroom, he watched the Fellowship of the Ring Special Features.  There aren't that many 7 year-olds who would want to sit through the cast interviews or video coverage of the creation of Hobbit feet, but Lee took it all in.  I swear, he's going to be a film maker when he grows up.

He had long ago decided that he was going to dress up as Darth Maul for Halloween.  In fact, Hugo bought him a double light saber, and Darth Maul mask.  Well the Sith Lord can move over.  As of a couple of weeks ago, Lee has declared that he wants to be a Ringwraith, instead.  Guess we need to buy lots, and lots of black fabric, and get to sewing.

Why do I see treks to Comic-Con in our future?!