We have sound. And now we have color and how to put color and sound together! In the extras section, some instructions on how to use the features of mIRC are provided. They explain how to use color, how to make preset phrases, and how to make that all important lightsaber. As you remember, each Jedi had to construct his/her own lightsaber as part of their training. Here is your opportunity to begin your own training as a mIRC Jedi. Check it out in mIRC Instructions and Scripts.
The instructions will help you to use some of the common commands in mIRC like color, sounds and scripts.
Coming soon, some instructions on how to set your mIRC program to use sounds.
Day: November 20, 1999
There be DRAGONS…
and goblins and elves
The Hobbit
Theatre Royal, Sydney
There’s nothing to beat the thrill of a shivery, skin-prickling fright when you’re a kid. My childhood fascination with scarifying literature ranged from the sadistic cautionary tales of Strewelpeter, which make the Grimm Brothers’ stories look like the work of a pair of sissies, to the Victorian Gothic of Edgar Allan Poe.
And then there’s nutty, Norse saga-loving John Tolkien and his gang of dwarfs (sic), elves and trolls. “Warning,” runs the tongue-in-cheek advertising for this stage adaptation of Tolkien’s The Hobbit, “parental guidance is recommended. Contains giant goblins, scary spiders and dangerous dragons.” Woo hoo!
As much as I enjoyed this visually stunning production, which combines superb puppets (small, large and extra large) with amazing lighting effects and a strong musical score, the highest praise I can offer is that I wish I could see it again through the eyes of a 10-year-old.
Not that I had difficulty being transported to Tolkien’s Middle Earth (sic), Henri Szeps, hidden behind a lengthy grey beard, plays the wizard Gandalf, who narrates the story as well as proving to be quite handy with a “goblin cleaver”
Bilbo Baggins, pint-sized Hobbit, is recruited by Gandalf for his band of crotchety dwarfs (sic) and they’re off in search of Smaug the dragon, a huge pile of gold and along the way some “nasty, disturbing, uncomfortable” adventures.
If this rough outline sounds overly familiar, then it’s because the same mythology Tolkien drew on continues to be reworked by his imitators, In the space age Bilbo would be Luke Skywalker, Gandalf Obi-Wan Kenobi and the dragon’s lair the Death Star. What’s missing, regrettably, is a princess, because there’s no much in The Hobbit to temper all that masculine energy.
Guest reviewers for the evening, Joshua (nine) and Eliza (12), loved it. Josh couldn’t decide whether he like the dragon (which is spectacularly huge, has fiery red eyes and belches smoke) the best or the lumbering, dim-witted trolls. Eliza was particularly impressed by the fine detail in the look of the dwarfs (sic) (Philip Millar designed the puppets).
And as their mother pointed out, when the 11 puppeteers step forward to take their curtain call after two-and-a-bit hours of goblin bashing and giant spider slaying, this is one fantasy that’s clearly over. There’ll be no need to check what’s hiding under the bed when you get home.
Director Christine Anketell, playwright Gilly McInnes, set designer Mark Thompson and lighting designer Philip Lethlean have crafted a seamless piece of imaginative entertainment.
At $140 for a family of four, parents may hope they too had a share of the dragon’s gold: a special pre-holiday treat perhaps.
Playing to December 18
(Sun Herald, Australia. Sunday November 21, 1999)
Thanks to Trufflehunter for the article!
Trufflehunter has sent in a review of ‘The Hobbit’ Check it out, in The Spy Reports.
Want to talk some serious Tolkien? Why not join our ‘Hall of Fire’ chat, where serious Tolkien fans talk serious Tolkien topics. This weeks topic:
Tom Bombadil?… Arguably Tolkiens most complex mystery, Tom Bombadil should provide fuel for a wild, and invigorating chat!. Join Gamgee, PipeSmoke and Gandalf in the Hall of Fire, today at 3:30 EST and try to help us solve this enigma of Middle Earth.
Joining the ‘Hall of Fire’ chatroom is easy, go to our chatroom registration page, and make sure you enter the room ‘TheHallOfFire’.
Don’t live in the EST time zone? Want to make sure you don’t miss it? Click here for a timezone map. EST is the same time zone as New York.
Well this is something we haven’t seen in a while. Casting news! Well rumors, Ain’t It Cool News is reporting that good ole Canadian boy Donald Sutherland may be tipped for the role of Denethor. More info as I get it.
Wet Ringer Spy Ian sends more on the flood waters which have been a problem for the production. Fom my sources, I hear at least one set may be washed away.
ust to clarify – the slip on the Queenstown-Frankton road hasn’t actually covered the road (yet) but serious cracks have developed in the road and the slip still threatens to carry the road into the lake. 11 houses have been condemned, their owners prohibited from ever returning to them. Other houses remain evacuated, with owners allowed to temporarily return to gather important possessions. As a precaution the residents of another 13 properties were evacuated around midnight last night.
Until “geotechnical tests” have been completed the roading authorities do not know if the road can be fixed or if it needs rebuilding completely. Until then it remains closed, and Queenstown remains pretty much cut off.
A shot on the TV news last night of a guy on the other side of a very flooded street holding up a bag of money outside a bank: “They must have been laundering the money – it’s all wet.”