82nd academy awardsAnd it comes with lots and lots of water from the sky. Sorry, we’ve been in the midst of very long drought here in So Cal, so it was easy to overlook the fact that this is supposed to be our wettest month. Guess nature is trying to reassert herself here.

That being said, we are still planning to have the ‘Ringer’s Take Disneyland’ event Saturday morning. We may curtail some of the meet ups, we don’t want anyone to get sick. So we will have the 10am meet up and then a group photo upon entering, and then we will have a lunch meet up around 12:30pm in the Pizza Port next to Space Mountain. Beyond that, we leave it up to you to stay or leave as your soggy shoes see fit.

Please meet at 10am on the giant compass in the middle of the entrance pavilion halfway between Disneyland and California Adventure. For those who frequent Disney a lot, you already know this means being in the parking lot by 9:45am in order to take the tram and walk this distance. For those needing to either buy their tickets, or convert an online purchase to an active ticket, you will want to hit the parking lot no later than 9:30am, possibly earlier. If you are early and it is raining, jump into the La Brea Bakery for a coffee or croissant or something before braving the rain. It is just before the box offices.

Disneyland entranceFor more details, please visit our Facebook event page at https://www.facebook.com/events/704747639545289  including the special ticket offer, but hurry up, it expires at 9pm pacific time. I will shortly be adding a Note on TORn’s main facebook page that is the little scavenger hunt game we will be playing, weather permitting. Feel free to print and bring with you, as soon as I get it up.

 

 

On a quick note about the Oscar Party on Sunday afternoon, try to arrive around 4pm or so, just because parking will be easier on you. The Telecast begins at 5:30pm, but we will be showing the Red Carpet arrivals too. Dress code is fairly casual, just think cocktail party, business casual, or Hollywood Chic. Costumes are also welcome, or what we like to call Costume-lite. Because it may still be fairly moist and cool, most of you will probably just want to show up in sweaters and nice slacks.

party logoWe will have a few items to auction off, and there will be an Oscar Pool game, those notes will also appear very shortly on the TORn’s main facebook page. And last but not least, we will be closing down tickets for the Oscar party at Midnight tonight. Details about the party and tickets can be found on the Event page https://www.facebook.com/events/806336542716595/ As usual, we must remind you that while we have had cast and crew attend the parties in the past, their presence has never been promised or guaranteed. They all have been invited, but they also all have very busy schedules and a lot of commitments on their time with all the other Academy Award events that happen on the same night. This party is for us, the fans, to meet and hang out together and cheer them on and then go back to having our fun.

 

 

 

balrog2335 Ten facts you probably know about Middle-earth. I’m not entirely sure they make one a “super fan” (which is, frankly, the sort of exclusionary title wielded to make others feel that they’re not real fans). Enjoying Tolkien is surely not some sort of contest to prove one is the biggest fan.

Still it is a nice little list with plenty of nods to some lesser-known but important characters from Tolkien such as Celebrimbor, Feanor, Gothmog and Oropher. So read and enjoy! Minor nitpick: there are more than two Elvish languages (at least conceptually), but Sindarin and Quenya were probably the best developed. Continue reading “HuffPost: Ten facts only Rings ‘super fans’ know”

If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.

Raynor Memorial Library at Marquette University. Credit: Marquette University. Creative Commons.
Raynor Memorial Library at Marquette University. Credit: Marquette University. Creative Commons.
The Raynor Memorial Library at Marquette University in Milwaukee is home to original manuscripts and working drafts for three of the J.R.R. Tolkien’s most celebrated works: The Hobbit, Farmer Giles of Ham, and The Lord of the Rings. It also holds the original copy of the children’s book Mr. Bliss and has, over the years, grown to become one of the largest repositories of secondary works on Tolkien and his writing.

If you’ve never visited the Tolkien Collection or are unaware of the contents of the archive, this two-part report from Tolkienist and Norse mythologist Dr Karl Seigfried documents just some of the literary treasures it holds. Continue reading “A field trip to the Marquette University Tolkien archives”

If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.

The-Hobbit-The-Desolation-of-Smaug-FX-046 Digital Trends takes a look at The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and the way director Peter Jackson brought the film’s fearsome, fire-breathing dragon to life.


Building a better dragon in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

From the moment that plans were first announced for a live-action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, fans of the 1937 novel began pondering the ways in which the mighty dragon Smaug could be brought to life on the big screen with all the majesty of his literary counterpart. Continue reading “Building a better dragon in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”