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Day: July 17, 2004
TORN’s good friend William Wu (magician extraordinaire that refuses to show me how any of his tricks work whenever I ask!) will have his own booth at Comic-Con 2004 in San Diego next week. Take a look at some of the one of a kind items he will be selling! [More]
William Wu, is proud to announce a special deal with Houghton Mifflin, publishers of the Lord of the Rings books. In years previous, Houghton Mifflin has exhibited their full line of Tolkien books and related items, but never sold them. This year, in an effort to reach more fans and readers, a deal was set up with this independent bookseller to provide a wide range of Houghton Mifflin’s catalog of LOTR books.
In addition to the full line of current releases, Mr. Wu will be taking advance orders for the forthcoming 50th Anniversary Edition of The Lord of the Rings. Please visit the Houghton Mifflin booth at #2435 to get details on all the upcoming releases, and then just walk a short distance to the end of the 2400 aisle to find booth #5440. Mr. Wu’s booth is conveniently located mere yards from the Lord of the Rings pavilion, as well as being near a concession stand and lounge area along the back wall of the convention center.
However, the list of books is not limited to Lord of the Rings titles. Mr. Wu has an extensive selection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Mystery books to choose from. Everything from mainstream titles to the obscure and hard to find, with many of them being autographed First Editions. Most of the books are used, with some of them being well preserved classics from the 1930’s thru to the 1960’s, as well as more modern works. You won’t see a more eclectic selection of books anywhere in the hall.
Accompanying the books are collectibles and memorabilia, mostly imported, for such film titles as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Nightmare Before Christmas and Star Wars. But just like many of the books, most of these collectibles are not items you will see anywhere else in the hall. An example would be the Star Wars 1 year anniversary poster with the birthday cake. It is one of the rarest of all the Star Wars posters, and will be just one of many hard to find Star Wars posters for sale. Another example is the 74th Oscar Poster, with the Alex Ross artwork, that was signed by all the LOTR filmmakers who attended TORN’s One Party to Rule them All. The following year, the 75th anniversary Oscar poster was decided to be too bland, so the American Library Association’s “Moving Words inspire Moving Pictures” poster was brought and signed at the Two Towers, One Party event. There will also be lunch boxes from Australia, cellphone straps from Japan and theater programs from Germany to choose from.
frodofan writes: Looks like Elijah Wood is going to be involved in a cure for Cancer in UK. He’s also on the Emmy’s lists of Nomineess. He’s in #6 for his appearances on SNL last year. [More]
BonMothma writes: When I found out Howard Shore was coming to Pittsburgh for the LOTR Symphony at the end of July, I managed to get permission to sing with the Mendelssohn Choir for these performances. (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I have the qualifications!) We had our first rehearsal this past Tuesday. That’s right. We have 2 ½ weeks to get this learned and polished before the first concert! [More]
BonMothma writes:
When I found out Howard Shore was coming to Pittsburgh for the LOTR Symphony at the end of July, I managed to get permission to sing with the Mendelssohn Choir for these performances. (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I have the qualifications!)
We had our first rehearsal this past Tuesday. That’s right. We have 2 ½ weeks to get this learned and polished before the first concert! Dr. Page worked with only the women on Tuesday.
I was so excited to be there, but I had to keep reminding myself that I was surrounded by “muggles,” as my friend, Sally put it. Many know at least something about the movies or the books, but Dr. Page knows nothing about them. You could see that he respects the piece, though, and that means the singers will also, because they respect his opinion.
I must say this is not for the faint-hearted. We covered four of the six movements that evening.
I know a little about the Elven languages, and this actually hindered me at first, as I kept trying to force Elvish pronunciations onto the text. The words in the piece are written phonetically, not at all the way they appear in the books. Howard Shore’s note was that we should pronounce the words as if they were English. Even Dr. Page said that this would be difficult, as some of the pronunciations don’t exist in English.
For example, Osgiliath is written “awss-ghee-lee-ahth.” Fifty-four pages of this! There is a separate book, which translates some, but not all of the text, so people know what they’re singing about. It also includes a pronunciation guide, which translates the phonetics to Elvish (doesn’t specify which Elvish) and Old English. Needless to say, it is very confusing.
My sight-reading skills are good, but not so good that I can just look at a piece and know immediately what it is. So it was an evening of discoveries, as I realized, “Oh, this is the wizard fight. Oh, now we’re in Rivendell.”
You may not be aware of this, but when the choir is a part of a symphony, the music you get is not complete – just like the violinists, horn players, etc., the music contains only the parts you need to see, so there is much more for me to discover, as I have not yet seen or heard the whole thing.
There were several moments where I got chills singing through this, and I kept thinking how lucky I am to be doing it. I’m looking forward to singing with the full choir and hearing the men sing “The Bridge of Khazad-Dum.”
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Dimholt Road adds this:
I noticed your earlier post concerning another perspective on the upcoming performance of the LOTR Symphony with the Pittsburgh Symphony. I am a baritone in the Mendelssohn choir of Pittsburgh and we had our first rehearsal with just the men this past Monday. Dr. Robert Page our director mentioned the complexity of Tolkien’s text even though he himself is not well versed in the overall story.
I must admit how exciting it is to sing the “Bridge of Kazad dum”. The dwarvish text is so gutteral and pounding as the voices will act in concert with the instruments of the symphony. Needless to say, the notes sung in this passage are quite low, it is almost as if Howard Shore is paralleling the deepness of Moria with the deepness of the male voice.
I had chills when rehearsing the choral section that is heard when the Fellowship exits Moria, weeping for the fallen Gandalf, quite haunting. I look forward to the coming weeks as I get more and more intimate with scores that I have listened to constantly over these last three years.