Daily Archives: July 4, 2022

After not matching her own lofty standards at the 2019 Worlds and Tokyo Olympics she still won three gold medals the American swimmer was unstoppable in Budapest. She added four World titles to take her tally to 19, a number bettered only by Michael Phelps

After not matching her own lofty standards at the 2019 Worlds and Tokyo Olympics she still won three gold medals the American swimmer was unstoppable in Budapest. She added four World titles to take her tally to 19, a number bettered only by Michael Phelps

When you win two gold and two silver medals at an Olympics, you are entitled to indulge in a cheat meal of choice and relive memories of a legacy-establishing performance.

Katie Ledecky allowed herself a hamburger, savoured the time gainfully spent in the Tokyo water and ensured that the people who supported her knew how much she valued them.

But and perhaps this is one of the things that separate the greatest from the great she felt it was time for a reset. After a difficult World Championships in 2019, when she won just one gold and struggled with illness, and last years Games, where she was beaten for the first time in an individual event in three editions, Ledecky knew she had to evolve to reassert her dominance.

Seven Olympic titles and 15 World crowns werent enough; she wanted everlasting superiority in the freestyle.

Im starting to shift my mindset toward the future, but also just kind of trying to let these past five years sink in, and Tokyo especially, and my whole career up to this point, she told The Stanford Daily. Im planning on 2024. I think each Olympic cycle brings new and different challenges.

So Ledecky decided to shift base from California to Florida last October to work with Anthony Nesty, who won the 1988 Olympic butterfly gold for Suriname. An assistant for Team USA at Tokyo, Nesty had guided Bobby Finke to 800m and 1500m freestyle golds and Kieran Smith to the 400m freestyle bronze; his expertise in the distance freestyle events appealed to Ledecky.

Up for it: Ledecky says she enjoys the thrill of being chased.| Photo Credit: Getty Images

The move to Florida also offered Ledecky the valuable opportunity to train with competitors who would push her Americas top male mid-distance and distance swimmers.

I was training with a college team [Stanford University], and Im older than most of the other swimmers, she said. I didnt have too many mid-distance, distance people to train with. Im excited to be a part of the University of Floridas world-class programme and train with coach Nesty and the top-tier mid-distance and distance training group.

Ledecky, 25, had two specific challenges to counter. One was historic: she was seeking to become the oldest female World and Olympic champion in the mid-distance events over the next three years; these stamina events have long been a stronghold of the youngsters, which in swimming terms has been 23 and under. The other challenge was her own greatness: when you are already the best-ever at what you do, how much room do you have for progress?

We talk a lot about improvement, Ledecky told NBC. Of course, improvement looks a little different for me than some other people, given that my times are really hard to improve. Ive acknowledged that, and Ive learned that over the years.

So the interest in Ledeckys performance at the recent World Championships in Budapest was at an all-time high. She wouldnt face Ariarne Titmus, the woman who beat her in the 400m freestyle in Tokyo, because the Australian had decided to concentrate on the Commonwealth Games, but could Ledecky prove that her best domination wasnt behind her?

She did just that, showing that some old swimmers dont fade away as fast as they used to and that a few prodigies stay prodigious ten years into their career.

Unique style: Ledeckys pull underwater is exemplary: her early vertical forearm pull is efficient and less susceptible to injury.| Photo Credit: Getty Images

When she won the 800m freestyle at the 2012 Olympics at 15, Ledecky was a teenage sensation. Her 800m freestyle gold last Friday was a record fifth straight World title in that event, something nobody else, not even Michael Phelps, has achieved. It was also an eight consecutive triumph, across the Worlds and the Olympics, in the 800m freestyle!

I think back to London, Ledecky said. I made it a goal to not be a one-hit wonder and here we are 10 years later, so Im really proud of that and still excited for the future as well.

Ledeckys time of 8:8.04 was under four seconds off the world record she set at the 2016 Olympics. Im happy with that, she said. Fastest Ive been in a couple of years.

The timing, the fifth quickest ever, also means Ledecky has swum the 27 fastest races in the history of the womens 800m freestyle a sports monopoly, if ever there was one.

It was also her 19th gold at the Worlds, second only to Phelps 26, and her fourth at Budapest. She earlier helped USA win the 4x200 freestyle relay, two days after she won the 1500m freestyle, which came two days after she won the 400m freestyle.

She completed the 400/800/1500 triple for the fourth time at a single Worlds, more than all the other swimmers who managed the feat combined. Germanys Hannah Stockbauer, Australias Grant Hackett and Chinas Sun Yang each managed it only once.

At 25, Ledecky is older than any woman to win a World Championships distance freestyle race (400m, 800m and 1500m).

And shes not finished yet. This is just the start, which is tremendously exciting for me, said Ledecky, who said the changes to her approach are paying off. There have been a couple of things that are a little different training with the men, to try to keep up as much as I can and they push me. I hope that they feel that theyve benefited from me being there, and just a lot of work on my stroke and my rhythm.

Ledeckys stroke and rhythm are unique described as a gallop or a giddy-up, she has a slightly longer right stroke than left, in part because she breathes exclusively to her right. Her pull underwater is exemplary: her early vertical forearm pull is efficient and less susceptible to injury. She kicks less in longer races, only using a strong kick in the final stages and in shorter races.

In addition to focusing on her stroke and rhythm, Ledecky is also monitoring her competitive workload. When Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Games, he swam about 3,300 metres; Ledecky swam 6,200 metres at the Olympics last year. She is looking to reduce it to the mid-5,000s in major events by dropping the 200m.

It isnt merely the total distance, although that is a major factor. The more events she enters, the less time she has to recover between races, which leaves her vulnerable to younger rivals the most formidable among them at the moment being Titmus, four years Ledeckys junior.

Titmus has had the measure of Ledecky over 400m, beating her at both the 2019 Worlds and the 2020 Olympics. The Australian also recently bettered Ledeckys world record in the 400m freestyle, which the American had set at the 2016 Olympics. Titmus thus became the first swimmer other than Ledecky to break a Ledecky world record!

Ledecky, however, retains her superiority over 800m and Titmus doesnt swim anything longer.

The rivalry has pushed both women to their best, and although they arent scheduled at this moment to compete against each other this year, they are likely to go head to head in two World Championships and the Olympics over the next two years.

I cant put myself up next to her, Titmus said of her rival. What she has done for female swimming has been insane. Shes been at this level for 10 years. To be in the conversation with her, I feel completely honoured. I wouldnt be here without her. I hope this is going to keep the battle going, give her some drive, hopefully, we can see how much faster we can keep going.

Ledecky, for her part, said she enjoys the thrill of being chased as much as she enjoyed the thrill of the chase. Its great for the sport, great to have somebody like [Titmus] to race, she said. And I know that there are other swimmers as well that are coming up that are going to be very competitive over the next couple of years. So that definitely keeps me on my toes. And I think well continue to have some great races.

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Swimming | Freestyle queen Katie Ledecky closer than ever to immortality - The Hindu

BROOMFIELD, Colo., July 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- How would you like to live forever? Maybe you'd like to be stronger, faster, and more agile while on this journey of immortality. If so, plants might be able to help you get there! Here's some steps on how plants can help you reach your goals from Backyard Farming Supply.

Solutions where you might not expectWhile no, you obviously can't live forever, consuming certain organically grown foods may be able to help you live a healthier life and cut your chances of contracting serious illnesses, like cancer. With all these health benefits, it seems like getting some organic produce into your diet isn't just another craze it's a way to protect yourself against disease and illness. If you're worried about where to start, start with what's most available in your area. Apples are always abundant in fall, so they're an easy place to start adding more fruit into your diet. Eating plant-based dishes is also a great option that many people don't take advantage of but are happy when they do.

Longevity is better understood in insectsBy better understanding insect longevity, scientists hope to unlock insights into extending human life. For example, some genetic components have been discovered that extend lifespan by up to 50 percent in some species. Some research points to plants being responsible for extended life spans in insects such as fruit fliesbut whether similar plant compounds can slow aging in humans.

A plant-based diet extends lifeNew studies show that a plant-based diet can extend life by giving animals better heart health and even helping repair DNA. Specifically, there's evidence that animal-based fats (found in red meat) have a negative effect on our heart health and DNA when consumed in large quantities. In contrast, plant-based fats (found in nuts, seeds, avocados, and coconut oil) do not appear to damage our hearts or DNA. One study at Harvard University compared two groups of subjects, one with a vegan diet and one with an omnivorous diet. The study found that those who were vegan had lower blood pressure, cholesterol levels, body weight, and risk of diabetes than those who followed an omnivorous diet.

Additionally, a separate study found that following a plant-based lifestyle may also slow down the effects of aging in cellscausing them to function like they were much younger! Scientists believe this may be due to the plants' antioxidant qualities, which reduce cell damage over time. These results suggest we should rethink how we treat cardiovascular disease and diabetes as more people choose vegetarian diets over their carnivorous counterparts.

Come learn with the Backyard Farming family how to grow your own organic food! They can help you reduce costs and ensure you have access to the healthiest food for you and your family. If you are curious about organic fertilizers and learning which would be best for your garden, check out backyardfarmingsupply.com. Please follow us on Instagram and Facebook @backyardfarmingtips for helpful fun facts and tips.

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The Search for the Fountain of Youth: Can Plants Make You Live Forever? - PR Newswire

Microsoft has announced the Xbox Game Pass lineup for July, 2022, with Far Cry 5 and Matchpoint: Tennis Champions headlining the list of new games to be featured on the subscription service.

Other games to be added to the Xbox Game Pass lineup for July, 2022 include Last Call: BBS, As Dusk Falls, and Immortality.

The full list of Xbox Game Pass titles for the month of June 2022 are as follows:

The day one Xbox Game Pass release of the cooperative escape room game Escape Academy was initially planned for June 28, however it had since been postponed. Escape Academy will now launch in July, making it one of the titles that Game Pass members can look forward to enjoying this month.

As of writing, Microsoft hasnt officially revealed all of the new Xbox Game Pass titles for July 2022. However, based on early reports, four titles that are set to be added to the catalog are mentioned above along with the respective platforms on which theyll be available. Last Call: BBS will be added to Xbox Game Pass on July 5, while Matchpoint: Tennis Championships will be available on July 7. After that, As Dusk Falls will be added to the Game Pass lineup on July 19 on the day of its release, and Immortality will follow on July 26.

Far Cry 5 was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto, and released in the year 2018. It is the follow-up to Far Cry 4 from 2014 and the fifth main entry in the series. The game is set in the fictitional Montanan county of Hope County, and focuses on a doomsday cult that has gained control of the area under the direction of its charismatic leader, Joseph Seed.

Players take control of an anonymous junior deputy sheriff who becomes stuck in Hope County and has to cooperate with several resistance groups to free the area from the Seeds and Edens Gates dictatorial authority. The gameplay focuses on exploration and combat; players use a variety of weaponry to engage hostile soldiers and potentially deadly wildlife. The game has numerous components common to role-playing games, including side missions and a branching plot. A map editor and both cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes round up the games modes.

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Xbox Game Pass July 2022 Lineup Includes Far Cry 5, And More - Twisted Voxel

The Goo Goo Dolls, consisting of vocalist and guitarist John Rzeznik, bassist and vocalist Robby Takac, and drummer George Tutuska, originated in Buffalo, New York. The band, which formed in 1986, didnt see large success until 1995 with the release of their breakout single Name. Three years later, they delivered their most recognized songIris.

Iris is one of those songs that would appear on the best love songs of all time list or the biggest heartbreak songs ever playlist. The songs melancholic guitar intro makes you feel like youve really lost something and are searching to get it back.

With nearly one billion listens today, Iris, released in 1998, was featured on the album Dizzy Up the Girl, which churned out other well-known songs like Slide, and Black Balloon. But, Iris wasnt originally written for Dizzy Up the Girl.

If Iris wasnt written for the album, what was it written for? Whats the story behind one of the greatest love songs of all time? We are here to answer those questions. Lets dive into the meaning of The Goo Goo Dolls Iris.

The songs meaning largely has to do with Rzezniks journey to writing the track. Rzeznik told American Songwriter in a 2010 interview that he was going through a great deal of writers block. He struggled with his identity as they made five albums, and then all of the sudden we had this hit song, Name. I got this feeling I think a lot of artists get: that I am a complete phony, that was just luck, and I dont know how to do it again.

Rzeznik continued, I felt like I had just won the lottery and everyone was standing around going, Wow! You won the Lottery! Thats amazing! Do it again! So it really kind of froze me up. I think it was the period where I finally had to come to terms with the fact that songwriting was now my job.

With the pressures of stardom, Rzeznik felt like he couldnt produce another hit. He felt lost, not only in his musical life but in his personal life, as well.

The Goo Goo Dolls frontman told Louder Sound in a 2019 interview that in 1997, I was feeling kinda schizophrenic, Rzeznik recalls. My wife and I had just broken up, and Id met another girl who I was really into. Id moved from my home in Buffalo, New York, and was living in this hotel. So it was a really manic time in my life. I was looking for something to hold on to.

Luckily, an opportunity to dig Rzeznik out of his hole came.

The beautiful love song Iris came at the exact moment that Rzeznik needed. He was asked to write a song for the 1998 romantic movie City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. He agreed to work on it because prominent artists like U2 and Peter Gabriel were also on the soundtrack.

After an early screening of the movie, Rzeznik returned to his hotel room to work on the song that would later become Iris.

Most of the time, for me, writing involves procrastination, fear, doubt, criticism Most songs I write I have to torture myself; be a prima donna for about an hour, said Rzeznik. But Iris came so easy. Id broken two strings on my guitar, so Id started winding all the strings up and down in these weird configurations, and that song just came out. It was like a gift like: Oh, thanks God!

In LA Weekly magazine, seeing that Iris DeMent was playing in town, he liked the name and chose it as the title.

The songs meaning directly correlates to the plot of the movie, City of Angels. In the movie, Cages character is an immortal angel but throws away his immortality for love. He becomes human so he can be with the one he loves.

Rzeznik explained that When I wrote it, I was thinking about the situation of the Nicolas Cage character in the movie. This guy is completely willing to give up his own immortality, just to be able to feel something very human. And I think, Wow! What an amazing thing it must be like to love someone so much that you give up everything to be with them. Thats a pretty heavy thought.

So, when he writes, And Id give up forever / to touch you / Cause I know that you / feel me somehow / Youre the closest to / heaven that Ill ever be / And I dont wanna go / home right now Rzeznik is speaking from Cages characters point of view. He give[s] up forever, or his immortality. Since hes an angel, the true heaven isnt where he dwells, but is with his loved one. The loved one is the closest to / heaven that Ill ever be.

The track led the City of Angels soundtrack to the top of the charts in June 1998. It also landed on the bands Dizzy Up The Girl album after a five-week streak at number nine on the chart.

The song received several grammy nominations, including Record of the Year, Pop Performance by a Duo or Group, and Song of the Year. In 2018, the song went quadruple platinum.

Photo by Maxine Evans / BBgun Press

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The Meaning Behind the Song Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls - American Songwriter

Wings of Desire (1987) is an ambitious, poetic work about an angels desire to become human in West Berlin. Damiel (Bruno Ganz) spends his days eavesdropping on the thoughts of Berliners with fellow angel Cassiel (Otto Sander), looking down at teeming humanity from atop churches and walking among the despairing and the hopeful. When Damiel discovers lonely trapeze artist Marion (Solveig Dommartin) and falls in love, he knows he must exchange immortality forhumanity.

German director Wim Wenders 14th feature and the first in his home country after eight years in America, where he made films such as Paris, Texas (1984) it examines ineffable themes, including what it is to be human, love and ageing, as we delve into the average thoughts and dreams of everyday folk. A powerful, beautiful work shot mostly in gorgeous monochrome, it also has a mischievous sense of fun, largely due to Peter Falk, who plays a version ofhimself.

To tie in with the UK release of the restored film, Wenders sat down with us in London to reflect on the unscripted making of the film, how his beloved Berlin has changed, and Nick Caves part in the film. An open, thoughtful interviewee, Wenders was in good humour, having been in Oxford the night before, where he enjoyed hanging out with Lenny Henry (A good man, according to Wenders) the pair among nine of the great and the good to receive honorary degrees from OxfordUniversity.

I missed my own language. I was starting to dream in English and realised that wasnt a good thing to happen to me. So I started to read more in my own language, and what I consider the most beautiful German are the poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. Seen from the US, I really wanted to go back to Europe, and from all the possible cities I picked Berlin, which was the city closest to myheart.

As I walked around Berlin, I saw angels all over, as monuments or sculptures or reliefs in public places, more than in any other city. I was really looking for a story that could help me to tell the citys story. I certainly didnt want to make a documentary about Berlin. I was looking for a character through whom I could tell the city the best. Eventually my night reading being populated by angels, and the angels I photographed and encountered all over the city, led me to the realisation that I wouldnt find any better characters for my project. So I started to come up with a story that had guardian angels asprotagonists.

The more I thought about it, the more I thought I was crazy. You want to make a movie with angels!? But the idea opened so many possibilities to look into so many different lives, because these angels could be anywhere. They could cross the bloody wall. They could meet anybody and be perfect witnesses of life in the city of Berlin. I finally had a point of view that was all-encompassing. Not that I really believed in angels, but I liked them as ametaphor.

I loved their ability to listen to peoples thoughts. I imagined their huge love for people. I wanted a loving look at this city that in 87 was divided, suffering, quite grey, quite down. It was a place like nowhere else in the world. There was no other city with a wall running through it. And there was no city that was the capital of twocountries.

It was a unique place. There was so much history and, at the same time, so many open wounds. Berlin was one of the cities that still showed its wounds and even showed them proudly in its no mans lands, its firewall facades. History was an open book in Berlin. Most other German cities were rebuilt and had no traces of the past left. My own city, where I was born, Dsseldorf, had been destroyed by 80%. You couldnt see the past anymore. And as Berlin was divided, it was also showing the state of the world. There was still a cold war. Berlin was, in a strange way, the centre of the world a little miserable sometimes but, at the same time, an island for amazing people from all over the world. Even some crazy punks from Australia decided it was a great place. There were lots of musicians, painters and writers, and it was quite a free city; also a city without arms basically. In Berlin you couldnt have any arms; you couldnt get in and out of the city with them. You would be caught, anyway. There was not much violence in Berlin then. It was a very peacefulcity.

You slowly get used to this, 35 years since we made it. The wall is gone. They had to rebuild parts of it because tourists wanted to see it. At the time we shot, in 1987, it was a completely different place. A few years afterwards, it was different again; a complete, total mystery to us that the city of the film no longer existed. That was something we never thought wed see happen in our own lives. When the wall went down, it became the only city in the world that had a no mans land as its centre. Potsdamer Platz was a prairie, a fantastic place for birds. Children loved it, and there was always some sort of circus on it because it was empty. We didnt think that would change so drastically when the film wasreleased.

In this no mans land we wandered and stumbled around with Curt Bois, our old actor, who had lived in Berlin when Potsdamer Platz was the centre of the roaring 20s, the Times Square of Berlin of the time. Now he was looking for any sign of recognition, and he just couldnt find any. And then only a few years later there were skyscrapers and there was a city centre again. It was mind-blowing. The film is a document of a place that doesnt exist anymore. I didnt want it to be that, but it becamethat.

That is correct. The wall was two walls and a minefield of 50 yards in between. You had to climb over two walls and cross the deadly stretch in between, so the wall was off limits for us. We could shoot it from the west side, but we couldnt go into that no mans land. Thats what I was mostly interested in that open land with lots of rabbits and other wildlife. I was always attracted by the idea of crossing it. But, of course, it wasntpossible.

I also tried hard to get a permit to shoot at Brandenburg Gate, which was in the east. It was my dream for the angels to convene on top of the Brandenburg Gate, in that strange little stretch of no mans land between east and west, but of course I didnt get a permit. No way. I even went to the state minister of cinema. He had seen my films before and actually invited me a few years earlier to show Paris, Texas in East Berlin. It was one of the few German films that was shown to East Germans, because for some reason they decided it was an anti-capitalistmovie.

We wrote some of the angels dialogue, but none of the interior thoughts. Peter didnt write a script. Peter tried to help me when I told him the story and asked him if we could work together on a script. He said, Im in the middle of the process of writing my own novel. That story that you just told about the two angels and one of them falling in love with a trapeze artist, you got to handle it yourself. Thats out of my range. So, he sent me home, but a couple of weeks later I started getting letters from him and he wrote: Im so sorry that I had to let you down. I realised from the story that you were going to need a number of dialogues anyway. Peter wrote them just from the memory of the story. I told him some situations, and the rest I had to just fill up on my own, especially what people werethinking.

I stole from lots of funny conversations I overheard, and I also used The Weight of the World, for instance, a beautiful book which Peter wrote. Its just short notes and observations that I used for Marions thoughts. All over the film, you hear little pieces of peoples thoughts as the camera passes them. Especially in the library you have all these people thinking. Every person is a universe all by itself, if you listen to their thoughts. It was so much fun to come up with that part of thefilm.

I didnt know anything when we were starting because the film was largely done without a script. We did it from one day to another. The script was a huge wall in my office with all the places in Berlin I wanted to shoot. On the other side of the room, I had all the scenes that we could possibly shoot. Every night I was picking a scene, and then I was looking for the place where it couldhappen.

I didnt know much what to tell Bruno and Otto about their angel characters. Actors always want to know motivations and want to have biographies: Who am I? Whats my story? But if somebody plays an angel, he didnt have an unhappy childhood and he doesnt have a mean father or whatever, and he didnt ever want to kill either father or mother. So theres littlepsychology.

Bruno and Otto reacted so differently to that state of not having a past. Bruno really got into it and into the idea that he was all kindness and all love. Otto was dreaming of becoming a human and could finally be nasty, and curse and do bad things. He said so much goodness is too much for me. Ottos character was almost the rejection of being anangel.

Claire Denis was with me when we stood one night in front of these walls in the office and I said, Do you realise our movie is not really funny? Angels being what they are, theyre not really comedians. We have nobody whos going to make this a little more amusing. Dont you think we have to add a character? She said, Yeah. And I said: Well, dont you think the most fun would be if there was somebody who was an ex-angel and had the same experience that Damiel was having? I thought, wouldnt that make the whole film lessserious?

It was. Peter understood exactly what he was supposed to do. The part wasnt written. And thats why he accepted the role. I got him on the phone in the middle of the night, a few hours after Claire and I had said we needed to add a character. By deduction, we came to the funniest guy we could imagine as an ex-angel. I got Falks number from John Cassavetes. Amazingly, he answered himself, so I said: You dont know me, Im a director from Germany making a movie in Berlin. We need to add a character and I thought of you. Peter laughed for a while and said, You are making a movie and youre calling me to tell me that I should join you because there is an unwritten part? What is it? I said An ex-angel. He laughed for another long while and then he said, Ill do it. I did my best work thisway.

Well, hes a great singer. He is a masterful poet now, and one of the great living singers. Im a subscriber to his Q&A web-dialogue The Red Hand Files I love them. At the time, of course, he was more of a rebel. His image was quite rowdy: the Bad Seeds only lived at night, and they were heavily into drugs. I saw them so often in the middle of the night; they never played before midnight, or lets say before two oclock. If you wanted to talk to Nick, you had to go to a certain bar at three oclock at night; then he might show up. I finally got hold of him and he liked my proposition. Making a movie in Berlin at that time without Nick Cave was a sin of omission. He really symbolised the spirit of the city. Adventurous, dark, unique. That was Berlin. Nick was gorgeous, and we struck up afriendship.

Any time. I would do anything to work with Nick again and we will. Ihope.

The 4k digital restoration of Wings of Desire is currently in cinemas, including BFI Southbank.

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Every person is a universe: Wim Wenders on Wings of Desire - British Film Institute

Looking for something new to listen to? Get acquainted with these tracks from some lesser-known bands that came out in May thanks to our monthly Underground Roundup! Check out our cumulative playlists below featuring this month's edition, as well as all the previous months as well.

You can also check out all editions of the Underground Roundup here.

North Carolina's dark jangle riff-rockers ASG are back with a new EP and video for the EP's title track, "Pyramid Wheels." You can watch the video above, and you can also listen to the currently digital-only EP, Pyramid Wheels, here. It's not too often that we get new ASG material, though the spans of time between are made up for with killer quality!

Brutus has returned to us all with a new single called "Dust," which should remind you why we all need Brutus in our lives it's a perfect mix of punk fury, massive atmospheres, and huge choruses for days. The single is from Brutus' upcoming new record, which as of right now has not yet been announced. The new record will be the band's first since their 2019 effort Nest.

You wanna hear some seriously filthy sludge? Because that's what Conan is bringing to the table today in all its dripping, disgusting glory. The band is now streaming "Levitation Hoax" alongside the announcement of their first new record in four years Evidence Of Immortality. Evidence Of Immortality features ex-Conan member Dave Perry on the track "Grief Sequence," and pre-orders are available here.

Crippled Black Phoenix has announced their new record Banefyre for September 9. The band is now streaming their new single "Blackout77," which tells the tale of the New York City blackout during the chaotic summer of 1977. The single comes alongside a music video directed by Guilherme Henriques. Banefyre is available for pre-order here.

Cyborg Octopus is back with their first new record in six years Between The Light And Air, and is now streaming the debut single "Seizure Of Character." It's a progressive metal crusher that's about "a traumatic brain injury that our saxophone player Patrick suffered while he was asleep, resulting in memory loss, personality changes, fear of sleep, and an existential crisis." Pre-order the album here.

Destrage simply has a way of making a load of weird components all work together as one dissonant, frantic Frankenstein's monster of a song and "Everything Sucks And I Think I Am A Big Part Of It" is no different. The song is a part of Destrage's new record SO MUCH. too much. due out on Periphery's 3DOT Recordings on September 16. SO MUCH. too much. is available for pre-order here.

Gaerea is back with a pummeling new single "Salve" and a new record Mirage due out September 23. The band is now streaming "Salve" alongside a music video directed by Guilherme Henriques, and I'm not really sure which is more terrifying. Feels like a solid 50/50 split on this one, right? Pre-orders for Mirage are available here.

Like King Crimson rising from the grave to jam with Matt Pike, Grave Bathers is here to sludge your day up real good. The band is now streaming their new single "Tarman Cometh" off their debut record Rock 'N' Roll Fetish due out August 5. Rock 'N' Roll Fetish was recorded live-to-tape at the analog-centric Memphis Magnetic by Davis M. Shubs and Drew Robinson. Pre-orders are available here and here on Bandcamp.

Greenwitch straddles the line between hardcore and death metal, offering all the moshy bits of both in one crushing EP. Greenwitch is the latest from the rising Maggot Stomp label, so I'm sure you'll start to see their name as support on bills for brutal show traversing North America soon enough. Grab Grid Walker here on Bandcamp.

Imperial Triumphant is now streaming their new single "Merkurius Gilded" featuring composer Max Gorelick and jazz legend Kenny G. Unfortunately the Steve Blanco-directed music video doesn't feature an actual appearance from Kenny G himself, but still the jazzy shred is present and it's fantastic. Imperial Triumphant's new record Spirit of Ecstasy is due out July 22 and is available for pre-order at their website.

Kallias is now streaming their progressive-as-hell new single "The Dark Machine." The single covers a ton of ground from Opeth-related weirdness to Meshuggah-esque rhythms, and then of course plenty of Jeff Loomis-style shred. So y'know, everything you'd want from a progressive metal song. Keep up with Kallias here.

KEN Mode has announced their first new record in four years Null alongside an experimental, noisy new single "A Love Letter." The record is also KEN Mode's first with longtime collaborator Kathryn Kerr as a full-time member, contributing everything from saxophone and synthesizer to backing vocals and percussion. Null is available for pre-order here.

Locrian is back for the first time in seven years with a new single "The Glare Is Everywhere And Nowhere Our Shadow." If you're looking to be immersed in a wash of noise and hellish visuals with absolutely no reprieve whatsoever, then go ahead and hit play on the visualizer below. New Catastrophism is out August 12, as well as a new EP titled Ghost Frontiers, with pre-orders for both being available here.

Mantar is now streaming their new single "Odysseus," whose sound is much darker than its bright and flowery music video. The video was directed by Dennis Dirksen and the song itself is sludgy as all hell. Mantar will release their Metal Blade debut Pain Is Forever And This Is The End on July 15. Pre-orders are available here.

Nebula is now streaming their cosmic, sunbaked new single "The Four Horseman." In true Nebula fashion, the song is equal parts a trip through the desert and a rocket ride through the cosmos. In other words, it's exactly what you'd want from the band. "The Four Horseman" is off Nebula's forthcoming new album Transmission From Mothership Earth, due out July 22. Pre-orders are available here.

Phobophilic is gearing up to release their debut album Enveloping Absurdity via Prosthetic Records on September 16, and you need to hear the first single "Those Which Stare Back." Equal parts churning death metal and warping Death-like melodies, Phobophilic should easily catch the ear of any and all death metal fans. Pre-orders for Enveloping Absurdity are available here.

Sigh is back and they're as beautifully weird as they've ever been, thanks to their progressive new single "Mayonaka No Kaii." Sigh will release their new record Shiki on August 26 featuring bassist Frdric Leclercq of Kreator and drummer Mike Heller of Fear Factory, along with an appearance by longtime member Satoshi Fujinami on bass. Pre-orders are available here.

Shadow Academy is the new duo of Emmy Award-winning record producer and songwriter Jim Roach and Dan Avidan, co-host of Game Grumps and frontman of Ninja Sex Party. The band is now streaming their beautiful new single "The Other Side" featuring an animated music video by collaborator Simon Macko. Get lost in the Floyd-esque spaciness and stream their debut album here.

Talas was originally active from the mid-1970s to 1985, meaning their retro sound is anything but a modern throwback. Featuring incredible bassist Billy Sheehan alongside drummer Mark Miller, vocalist Phil Naro, guitarist Kire Najdovski, Talas is here to bring the impressive-as-hell rock. Talas will release their new album 1985 on September 23. Pre-orders are available here.

Outta nowhere earlier in June, Terminal Nation and Kruelty dropped their The Ruination Of Imperialism split on 20 Buck Spin and it just tore everyone's heads clean off. Both sides of this split run the gambit of mosh-inducing speed to neck-breaking sludge, and without even a second of reprieve throughout its entirety. This split might've dropped as a surprise, but the surprise hasn't worn off. Get it here.

Vented is an international supergroup featuring Sean Zatorsky (Sinsaenum, Chimaira), Austin DAmond (DevilDriver, Bleed The Sky), Gergo Hajer (Omega Diatribe), and Simon C. Bondar (Sexual Education, White Tiger). The band is now streaming their new single "Requiem For Myself," which will kick your ass clean into next week. Vented will release their new record Cruelty And Corruption later this year.

Their name is Vulture, their logo looks like it would cut you if you touched it, and the song is called "High Speed Metal" written in all caps and italics. You already know what this is going to sound like, and you're right it should be played on a boombox while you're wearing a headband and Aviators. "High Speed Metal" is a standalone single available here.

A.A. Williams is now streaming her new single "Evaporate" off her upcoming record As The Moon Rests due out October 7. The single feels like the perfect type of album to come out at the start of fall spacious, a little doomy, and just enough downtrodden to welcome in the colder weather. As The Moon Rests is available for pre-order here.

Zous is the project headed up by producer and Twitching Tongues drummer Taylor Young. The project features guest spots from vocalists Chris Reifert (Autopsy) and Brad Boatright, noise from Full Of Hell's Dylan Walker, and guest solos from Leon del Muerte (ex-Exhumed, ex-Intronaut) and Takafumi Matsubara (Gridlink). It'll kick your ass. Get it here.

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The 25 Underground Metal Bands You Might've Missed In June - Metal Injection

By Express News Service

KOCHI:According to the temple tradition prevalent in Kerala, infants are usually allowed at temples only after completing the ritual of choroonu (having rice for the first time).However, the 700-year-oldMaramkulangara Krishna temple in Tripunithura welcomes infants, as young as 16 days old, who are given a holy bath unnikulifordivine protection.

Located on the Vennala-Eroor route, the temple is dedicated to Balakrishnan(toddler Krishna). The deity protects children from dangers and behavioural issues, explains priest Rajesh Embranthiri.After the unnikuli or kunjikuli, a sacred thread is tied to the childrens bodies.

Those staying close to the temple, perform unnikuli for seven to 12 days, while people from faraway places do it for five weeks. It is believed that the bathing ritual prevents or washes off problems such as irrational fear, anxiety, adamancy, disobedience and indiscipline.

The legend traces back to baby Krishna giving moksha to demoness Poothana, who was sent to breastfeed him poison, says the priest. When Yashoda wailed, fearing Krishna was poisoned, Lord Vishnu appeared before her and poured amrut (elixir of immortality) taken from a nearby well on the baby. The water from the temple well here is considered to be divine, and used to bathe the babies.

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Bath time, with Krishna! - The New Indian Express

Cameron Frew. 18 hours ago

Hercules may be the next god to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe, according to a recent Thor: Love and Thunder leak.

When the MCU debuted with Iron Man in 2008, its world was one of warlords, megalomaniacs, and genius billionaire playboy philanthropists. Then came Thor, which introduced gods of thunder, mischief, war, and wisdom, and The Avengers, which teased a whole new breed of Titan.

Fast-forward to now, and the franchise is home to all sorts of gods and monsters, whether its the humungous, cosmos-faring Celestials from Eternals, Khonshu and the other Egyptian gods in Moon Knight, or most powerful of all, Uatu the Watcher.

Soon, were set to see the arrival of one of the best-known heroes in all of ancient mythology: Hercules.

While this leak is unconfirmed, its a major spoiler for Thor: Love and Thunder, so youve been warned

Marvel Studios

Thor: Love and Thunder sees the return of Chris Hemsworths titular god, alongside Tessa Thompsons Valkyrie, and the debuts of Natalie Portman as Mighty Thor and Christian Bale as the terrifying Gorr the God Butcher.

However, according to footage leaked online, theres another god joining the mix: Hercules, played by none other than Ted Lassos Brett Goldstein.

Apple TV+

Reportedly, its revealed in the post-credits scene, with Russell Crowes Zeus sending Hercules to kill Thor after the events of the film.

The clip floating around has clearly been filmed on a phone at a screening, and its highly pixellated with poor sound. However, it appears to have been backed by others online whove seen the film prior to its release, so Goldsteins casting seems to be the real deal.

Hercules first debuted in Avengers #10, though it wasnt until his first formal appearance in Journey into Mystery Annual #1 that he was established as a rival to Thor. Whatever Thor canst do Hercules can accomplish more mightily, he once said.

In the comics, he was born a half-Olympian god from his dad, Zeus, and his human mother, Alcmena. Hes had a long history of varying adventures, serving alongside the Avengers and taking part in the Civil War and Secret Invasion events.

Marvel Comics

As for his powers, Hercules boasts godlike strength, speed, agility, and reflexes, not to mention immortality. Basically, we can expect him to give Thor a run for his money when they inevitably face off in a fifth film down the line.

Thor: Love and Thunder hits cinemas this week on July 7 in the UK, and July 8 in the US.

The rest is here:

Who plays Hercules in Thor: Love and Thunder? MCU debut reportedly leaked - Dexerto

Justice shall be done to the memory of my Hamilton.

According to her daughter, this was the compounding yearning of Eliza Hamilton in the fifty years she survived her husband, after his tragic, and dishonorable, death in an affair of honor. In the summer of 1804, he took a duel with Aaron Burr Jr., the sitting Vice President and grandson of Jonathan Edwards. Alexander Hamilton, citing Christian conviction, threw away his shot by not firing at his opponent. Burr, however, took aim and struck his political rival. Hamilton died 31 hours later on July 12, 1804.

Not only had the controversial circumstances of his death tarnished her Hamiltons reputation, but so too had an another affair made public in 1797. And after Hamiltons death in 1804, rivals John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both lived another 22 years to strengthen their own founding legacies, and bury Hamiltons.

Remarkably, Ron Chernows 800-page biography in 2004 some 150 years after Elizas death in 1854 began the work of doing justice to Hamiltons memory in the twenty-first century. More than a decade later, Lin-Manuel Mirandas musical, inspired by the biography, and with Chernow as historical consultant, sent Hamilton skyrocketing back into broader American awareness just in time to save his face on the ten-dollar bill.

Of Christian interest, Hamilton appeared to have experienced a remarkable conversion, under Reformed teaching, as a teen when the Great Awakening came to his native West Indies in the early 1770s. Presbyterian minister Hugh Knox, who had studied at the College of New Jersey (where Edwards had been president briefly in 1758) mentored the 17-year-old Hamilton. When a hurricane passed through the Caribbean in August of 1772, Hamilton wrote markedly Christian reflections on the event. Knox read them and, impressed with the teens ability, guided them to press in the local paper. Enough readers took notice of the words from a Youth of this Island that it became an occasion for Knox to raise money to send Hamilton to New Jersey to study.

Hamilton soon left the West Indies, never to return, and arrived in New Jersey as the revolutionary spirit was fomenting. With his unusually able brain and pen, he was swept up into the Revolution and found himself at the heart of American politics from 17751800, perhaps surpassed only by George Washington in that quarter century. His Christian interests, however, seemed to cool as they were eclipsed by political ambition and zeal for his work as Washingtons aide-de-camp, then in establishing a law practice in New York, and climactically as the nations first Secretary of the Treasury from 17891795. Alongside James Madison, Hamilton proved to be one of the great intellects of the founding generation. And while being every bit Madisons match in political thought (if not exceeding him), Hamilton far surpassed Madison, and the other leading founders, in economics.

Yet in his late forties, before dying in the infamous duel at age 49, Hamilton experienced a succession of great humblings, which appear to have prompted him, doubtless with the encouragement of his enduringly faithful evangelical wife, to blow again on the embers of the Christianity of his youth. Chernow, for one, recognizes that Hamiltons late-life preoccupation with spiritual matters . . . eliminates all doubt about the sincerity of his late-flowering religious interests (707).

As the United States celebrates 246 years of independence, and Americans newly remember the ten-dollar founding father, what might Christians learn from the rise and fall, and redemption, of the wandering and reticent Alexander Hamilton?

Politically speaking, we could identify many important insights from a recovery of Hamiltons legacy, but far more important, as Christians, whether American or not, is learning from his spiritual journey into the far country. And these are not the kind of lessons we might glean even from a man who professed, say, deism or atheism throughout his life. Rather, Hamilton, by all accounts, evidenced a vibrant Christian faith in his teens and gave clear affirmations of faith in Christ on his deathbed. However, sadly, he was a prodigal of sorts captured by politics and establishing himself in the world for much of his twenties and thirties. His meteoric rise to political power appears to have eclipsed the fires of his fledgling teenage faith. Yet he did, it seems, come to himself, once humbled, and eventually return home seeking the arms of a Father.

His 1772 published letter that proved to be his way out of the West Indies viewed the hurricane as a divine rebuke to human vanity and pomposity (Chernow, 37). The storm thundered, according to the 17-year-old Hamilton, Despise thyself and adore thy God. Yet Hamilton, in his faith, found safety.

See thy wretched helpless state, and learn to know thyself. Learn to know thy best support. Despise thyself, and adore thy God. . . . [W]hat have I to dread? My staff can never be broken in Omnipotence I trusted. . . . He who gave the winds to blow, and the lightnings to rage even him have I always loved and served. His precepts have I observed. His commandments have I obeyed and his perfections have I adored.

That same year, he wrote a Christian hymn, one that Eliza would come to prize and cling to during the half century she outlived him. There he confessed, O Lamb of God! thrice gracious Lord / Now, now I feel how true thy word.

However, his way with words was soon put to other purposes. Once in America, his wordsmithing would propel him into revolutionary leadership, then to Washingtons side, and eventually to the most powerful seat in the first executive administration from 1789 until 1795.

Hamiltons long-standing relationship with Washington proved to be a stabilizing force. In hindsight, his most productive (and least self-destructive) work came when he was most proximate to Washington, leading to the first of four lessons.

Chernow observes, After Alexander Hamilton left the Treasury Department [in 1795], he lost the strong, restraining hand of George Washington and the invaluable sense of tact and proportion that went with it. Washington was magnanimous. Few were willing to stomach such personal offenses as he endured without retaliating. The fatherless and insecure Hamilton badly needed this stabilizing presence. Hamilton had been forced, as Washingtons representative, to take on some of his decorum. Now that he was no longer subordinate to Washington, Hamilton was even quicker to perceive threats, issue challenges, and take a high-handed tone in controversies. Some vital layer of inhibition disappeared (Chernow, 488).

But it was not only Washington, whose guidance was political, but also Eliza, whose influence was gently but relentlessly spiritual. As a woman of deep spirituality, Eliza believed firmly in [Christian] instruction for her children, and it would prove to have effects on her husband as they raised them together, and particularly as his great humblings came in late 1799, throughout 1800, and into 1801. She endured his wandering and, in the end, it appears, won him with her life and conduct (1 Peter 3:1).

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus tells about seed sown among thorns: They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful (Mark 4:1819).

Hamilton, admirably, was not undone by the deceitfulness of riches his financial integrity was sterling but the cares of the world and desires for other things haunted his extended season of spiritual reticence (from his seeming indifference to Christianity from 1777 to 1792, to his opportunist use of it for party purposes until 1801). Fatherless since age 10, and orphaned at 14, Hamilton seemed bent on proving himself in his new country. The flame and striking warmth of his teenage faith cooled as cares of this world began to energize him first the Revolution, then becoming a respected New York lawyer, then rescuing the fledgling nation from its inadequate Articles of Confederation, and finally trying to preserve his power once Washington left office.

Such a story is not his alone. Countless Christian youths, flames burning bright, have found themselves crashing on the hard rocks, and hard knocks, of adult life. How might it have been different? That leads to a third lesson.

Chernow notes that Hamilton had been devout when younger, but he seemed more skeptical about organized religion during the Revolution (132). Perhaps circumstances from his childhood, and particularly his mothers death, help to explain a mystifying ambivalence that Hamilton always felt about regular church attendance, despite a pronounced religious bent (25). Recently, historian and pastor Obbie Tyler Todd has written that Hamilton, from his arrival in America, was a man torn between two denominations (Presbyterian and Episcopal) while finding no real home in the communion of believers.

In Hamiltons case, the ominous absence of the church may be the clearest warning sign we can point to. At 17, Hamilton seemed to thrive under Hugh Knoxs pastoral influence. But without the strengthening and constraining influence of a local church, a faithful evangelical wife was not enough to keep him from wandering, even if she would be vital to his late-life renewal.

Hamiltons 1791 adulterous affair with Maria Reynolds showed how far he had wandered and reminds us of the delusion of power and success. There once was a great king in Israel who, as a prelude to infidelity, remained in the city when others went to war (2 Samuel 11:1). So too the 36-year-old Hamilton, at the height of his power and with so much work to do stayed in New York while his family summered upstate.

That summer a 23-year-old woman approached him telling of an abusive husband and asking for help. Later, in the notorious Reynolds Pamphlet, his extended public confession in 1797, written to vindicate his financial reputation, he would write that he came to her door with monetary assistance and, Some conversation ensued from which it was quickly apparent that other than pecuniary consolation would be acceptable. This is the first of several 1790s instances about which Chernow, even as the cool-headed biographer, appears stunned by Hamiltons folly:

Such stellar success might have bred an intoxicating sense of invincibility. But his vigorous reign had also made him the enfant terrible of the early republic, and a substantial minority of the country was mobilized against him. This should have made him especially watchful of his reputation. Instead, in one of historys most mystifying cases of bad judgment, he entered into a sordid affair with a married woman named Maria Reynolds that, if it did not blacken his name forever, certainly sullied it. From the lofty heights of statesmanship, Hamilton fell back into something reminiscent of the squalid world of his West Indian boyhood. (362)

For Christians, the stakes are far greater than political reputation. Hamilton knew better not only as a man and stateman, but as one who had professed faith in Christ. Perhaps he thought, for six years, that he had gotten away with it (politically speaking), with only the checks it took to pay off her husbands blackmail. But the whispers were proclaimed from rooftops in 1797 and threatened not only to undo his future prospects, but also his past work.

The late Adams administration held one humbling after another. Adams broke from his cabinet (and Hamilton) and sought peace with France in October of 1799. Two months later, Washington died suddenly. By February 1810, it became clear the Federalist party was turning from Hamilton to Adams. Then, by the end of April, Burr and his opposing coalition won control of New York. In a matter of months, Hamiltons political power and influence crumbled.

To top it all off, in the election of 1800, his old cabinet rival Jefferson won the presidency and with Burr as vice president. As Douglass Adair and Marvin Harvey wrote in 1955, Perhaps never in all American political history has there been a fall from power so rapid, so complete, so final as Hamiltons in the period from October, 1799 to November, 1800 (Was Alexander Hamilton a Christian Statesman? 322). Devasted, he began to consider again the God of his youth. Then it was in late November 1801 that he endured his greatest trial, when his 19-year-old son, Philip, was shot in a duel and died 14 hours later. Later he wrote to a friend that Philips death was beyond comparison the most afflicting of my life.

Yet by late 1801, as part of his late-flowering religious interests, Hamilton was taking solace in Christianity and Philips profession of faith. It was the will of heaven and [Philip] is now out of the reach of the seductions and calamities of a world full of folly, full of vice, full of danger, of least value in proportion as it is best known. I firmly trust also that he has safely reached the haven of eternal repose and felicity.

Hamiltons spiritual renewal is too pronounced to ignore, whether in a biography or on Broadway. His re-awakening appears to have preceded (and prepared him for) Philips death, even if Miranda captures it in the aftermath of his loss, in the culminating song Quiet Uptown:

I take the children to church on Sunday,A sign of the cross at the door,And I pray.That never used to happen before.

What may be a grace too powerful to name on Broadway is precisely the name we know as powerful, and we name: Jesus.

In July of 1804, on the night before his own deadly duel, he would write,

This letter, my very dear Eliza, will not be delivered to you unless I shall first have terminated my earthly career to begin, as I humbly hope from redeeming grace and divine mercy, a happy immortality. . . . The consolations of [Christianity], my beloved, can alone support you and these you have a right to enjoy. Fly to the bosom of your God and be comforted. With my last idea, I shall cherish the sweet hope of meeting you in a better world. Adieu best of wives and best of women.

Todds recent work focuses on those final 31 hours after the duel, and Hamiltons clear affirmations of (what Chernow calls) his late-flowering religious interests. Not only did Hamilton there confirm, in general, I am a sinner: I look to his mercy, but more specifically, I have a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.

His end-of-life confessions were as clear as his teenage faith was warm. But for those of us who grieve his long, tragic journey into the far country of seeming political success and pride, we redouble our resolve to live now for what matters eternally, and welcome Gods humbling hand if we realize ourselves to have cooled and wandered.

Lest Hamiltons late-life Christian faith contribute to a distorted impression of the nations founding, were wise to concede that this, meager as it is, may be one of the clearer affirmations of evangelical faith among the inner circle of the founders. You will not find such in Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, or Madison. (One exception, among others, is Hamiltons longtime friend and collaborator, and first Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Jay.) And this is not to make much of Hamiltons reticent and late-flowering faith, but to own how unevangelical was the nations founding.

On July 4, we remember a nation founded far more in step with the life Hamilton lived in his twenties and thirties, than his teenage profession and late-life renewal. However, from its dawning, the nation has not been able to shake its Puritan roots that grew up together with its deep Enlightenment influences. We do celebrate a nation that, however secular its founding, provided the soil in which the Second Great Awakening could grow and flourish in the first half of the nineteenth century and change the landscape, a nation still enduring under the worlds oldest active codified constitution, a nation we pray will again see future awakenings, even as it still today, with every new dawn, provides space for countless personal conversions to the true God, in Jesus Christ.

Link:

American Prodigal: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of Alexander Hamilton - Desiring God

Amazon Primes upcoming Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power, will bring back some familiar Lord of the Ringscharacters from JRR Tolkiens literary epic, as it dives into the extended lore of Middle-earth. Any hardcore Lord of the Rings fan knows the name Gil-galad the elven king who both Sam Wise Gamgee andAragorn mention in the fantasy movie, The Fellowship of the Ring.

Now Benjamin Walker, who portrays Gil-galad in The Rings of Power, has revealed that fans will get to see the character in full action mentoring none other than fellow elf Elrond. Gil-galad is the High King of the Noldor who chose to remain in Middle-earth after the First Age rather than depart for the Undying Lands.

During the Second Age, in which Amazons series is set, he establishes a realm in Lindon with a young Elrond by his side. Elrond (portrayed by Hugo Weaving in Peter Jacksons trilogy) is the Lord of Rivendell, who both the hobbits Bilbo and Frodo Baggins meet on their adventures, and is a stable figure in the franchise.

We are used to seeing a wise and authoritative Elrond. However, in The Rings of Power, the character is only a few thousand years old ( thats nothing in elf immortality years) and will be looking to Gil-galad for guidance. Speaking with the Nerdist, Walker elaborated on what the dynamic between the two elves will be.

Gil-galad is going to encourage him to take the first steps and the journey towards his ultimate destiny, Walker explained. But he does it in the way a loving parent would, which is to allow them to make their own mistakes or to encourage them to do things and convince them that it was their idea in the first place.

We are excited to see an Elrond with some adolescent qualities in The Rings of Power. We are also excited to see Gil-galads story come to life. He is a major part in of the Dark Lord, Saurons defeat in the second age, and was one of the three Elves who first held rings of power.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set to premiere on Prime Video on September 2, 2022.

Link:

Elrond is mentored by Gil-galad in The Rings of Power - The Digital Fix