Granted the season and show ended a while back, but I finished the last episode of the final season tonight. I have to say overall it was a good season, and even the last episode was played out well. Granted the very, very, very end was a little anti-climactic, but from a writer's perspective a good choice. I personally would have written it out very differently, but it wasn't as bad as I heard it rumored to be. I started watching this show back in the fall of 2010 so I was fortunate to come along when I did so that I didn't have suspense building up for ex-amount of seasons. It was a good show with excellent writing and excellent characters, but once again I would have ended it differently. This is was what I write about, now that I do barely any writing, and seem to delegate myself to only watching re-runs of television shows no potentially interesting films; how ridiculous. I suppose that's what happens when you get typical full time job and do graduate school at the same time, of which I had two rather large projects due today, and I was fortunately able to complete them without pulling too much of my hair out. The "Ave Maria" is one of the great, and splendid Christmas songs ever written. It is haunting yet beautiful; I read up on it a little bit and it is often used for weddings and funerals, so not certain how it got lumped into Christmas, but there you have. Here is some info from www.wikipedia.org:
The Hail Mary, or Ave Maria in Latin, has been set to music numerous times. Among the most famous settings is the version by Charles Gounod (1859), adding melody and words to Johann Sebastian Bach's first prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier; and Franz Schubert's Ave Maria (Ellens Gesang III, D839, Op 52 no 6, 1825), Ellen's third song in English, as part of his Opus 25, a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's popular epic poem "The Lady of the Lake," loosely translated into German. It has become one of Schubert's most popular works under the title of Ave Maria. Antonín Dvořák's version was composed in 1877. Another setting of Ave Maria was written by Giuseppe Verdi for his 1887 opera Otello. Russian composer César Cui, who was raised Roman Catholic, set the text at least three times: as the "Ave Maria," op. 34, for 1 or 2 women's voices with piano or harmonium (1886), and as part of two of his operas: Le Flibustier (premiered 1894) and Mateo Falcone (1907). Settings also exist by Mozart, Byrd, Elgar, Saint-Saëns, Rossini, Brahms, Stravinsky, Lauridsen, Franz Biebl, David Conte and Perosi as well as numerous versions by less well-known composers, such as J. B. Tresch. Anton Bruckner wrote three different settings.In Slavonic, the text was also a popular subject for setting to music by Eastern European composers. These include Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Bortniansky, Vavilov (his version often misattributed to Caccini) and several others.This text was also very often set by composers in the Renaissance, including Josquin des Prez, Orlando di Lasso, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Before the Council of Trent there were actually different versions of the text, so the earlier composers in the period sometimes set versions of the text different from the ones shown above. Josquin des Prez, for example, himself set more than one version of the Ave Maria. Here is the text of his motet Ave Maria ... Virgo serena, which begins with the first six words above and continues with a poem in rhymed couplets.Ave Maria, gratia plena,Dominus tecum, Virgo serena.
Ave cuius conceptio,solemni plena gaudio,celestia, terrestria,nova replet letitia.Ave cuius nativitas,nostra fuit solemnitas,ut lucifer lux oriensverum solem preveniens.Ave pia humilitas,sine viro fecunditas,cuius annunciationostra fuit salvatio.Ave vera virginitas,immaculata castitas,cuius purificationostra fuit purgatio.Ave preclara omnibusangelicis virtutibus,cuius fuit assumptionostra glorificatio.
O Mater Dei, memento mei. Amen.
There you have it. I believe it is now 17 days until Christmas, and very soon it will be about a month until I turn the grand old age of 28. Twenty years ago I was my nephew's age; wow! Where did all of the time go? Have an excellent week everyone.
The "Ave Maria" in German, sung by Maria Callas
Pompeii latest trailer (still not certain about how this will turn out)
Michael C. Hall interview
