Of course. we can’t come to the city that never sleeps and NOT throw a party!  So on Thursday 10th October we will be holding our annual ‘Ringers Take Manhattan’ event!  This year, we’ll be at a different venue – the charming Oak Cellar at Jake’s Dilemma, 430 Amsterdam Avenue (just down the road from where we were last year).  As ever, we’ll have a generous finger food buffet, and your ticket will also include your first drink and two tickets into our raffle for the evening.

You can buy tickets for this party here.  Tickets can also be bought on the door that night, but will be $5 more expensive then – so it pays to buy in advance!  We really hope you’ll join us – we look forward to seeing many of our fellow fans in NYC in October!

[Buy tickets to Ringers take Manhattan]

Actor Orlando Bloom is currently making his Broadway debut (sans blonde wig, we assume) in a new production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

This is the first time Romeo and Juliet has been staged on Broadway in 36 years — and we have THREE pairs of tickets to giveaway to lucky TORn readers!

Bloom’s co-star is two-time Tony Award® nominee Condola Rashad, and the production is directed by five-time Tony Award® nominee David Leveaux. The play will open on Broadway on Thursday, September 19, 2013 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre; preview performances have been running since Saturday, August 24, 2013.

How do you enter?

To enter to win one of these three pairs of tickets, all you have to do is follow @RomeoJulietBway on twitter, then send @theonering.net a TWEET!

Simply follow ‘@RomeoJulietBWay’, then tweet:

Please enter me to win tickets to R&J on Broadway! @RomeoJulietBway @theoneringnet #TORnRJ

Tweet us by MONDAY 16th Sept – don’t delay!  We’ll then pick three winners from all the tweets received, and we’ll be in touch with those lucky folks to let them know!

The winners will be able to choose tickets for a WEEKDAY performance of their choice (depending on availability) before Nov 1st of this year.  (Which means, if you’re planning on coming to New York ComicCon, you could go and see Romeo and Juliet on the Wednesday and then come to TORn’s party in the Big Apple on the Thursday – more on that soon!)

If you aren’t lucky enough to win, you can still buy tickets to see the lovely Orlando on stage!  All details of this production can be found here.

Don’t forget the #TORnRJ in your tweet!  Good luck!

Tweets about “#TORnRJ”

TheOneRing.net is always delighted to be out and about meeting fellow fans, so the biggest highlight of the con for us was chatting with everyone who stopped to say hi, either at our table in the Hyatt hotel or after the two panels we gave over the course of the weekend.  Thanks for coming over and sharing the Tolkien love with us!

Our two panels were on Saturday afternoon and Sunday lunchtime.  The first was The Hobbit: One book, three movies – a look at why this seemingly short story may (or may not) merit being made into three films.  On Sunday we explored The Desolation of Smaug, with much speculation on what we may see when the film hits the big screen later this year.  Both panels were very well attended, with folks lining up well in advance.  Staffers deej, greendragon and MrCere were the panelists.

TORn was also delighted to help out with the Tolkien Track’s two evening events, Friday’s An Evening at Bree and Saturday’s Middle-earth goes Retro 80s dance party!  greendragon planned the fun for Friday night, with TORn favourites Emerald Rose rocking the house, as ever, and inspiring everyone to dance the night away.  Attendees were very excited when William Kircher, Graham McTavish and Sylvester McCoy showed up to host the costume contest!  They were fabulous MCs, and the entries into the contest this year were just stunning.  Bravo to everyone who took part – the judges had a very hard time picking winners!  (Big thanks to Namadriel, Soinma, MrCere and Nicole Kircher for taking on judging duty!)  The party even included a marriage proposal, as ‘Smaug the Terrible’ knelt down and popped the question to ‘Azog the Defiler’ – both amazing costumes, and a very happy couple at the end of the night!

deej revealed why her TORn nickname has been deej for all these years, as she hosted and dj-ed the dance party on Saturday night.  It was just wonderful to see everyone getting into the spirit of things!  Many folks came in amazing ‘Middle-earth in the 1980s’ costumes, including one gal who was The Eye of Sauron - complete with ‘Venetian Blinder’ sunglass lens!  Elves, dwarves and men took to the dancefloor and strutted their stuff as Saturday turned into Sunday; eventually, soon after 1am, we had to shut the party down and everyone reluctantly headed out to seek their beds – or another party elsewhere!

What with running the table all day every day, partying in the evening, and appearing on a few panels in addition to our own two, TORn staffers were kept pretty busy throughout the weekend of DragonCon!  (MrCere was of course particularly busy, wearing his two hats of being both TORn staffer and Tolkien Track Director.)  The Roadtrip gents did an amazing job of live streaming from the event, so we could keep in touch with folks at home.  By Monday evening, everyone was exhausted – but exhilarated!  Many thanks again to all who stopped to say hello, and maybe to buy a shirt or a button, and show their support for the website.  We always love to meet you all, and it’s great to see familiar faces year after year!

TORn is in Salt Lake City just now, at Salt Lake ComicCon.  Next weekend we’ll be representing at Cincinnati Comic Expo; and then our next BIG event (and party!) will be in New York City, for NYComicCon, October 10-13.  Stay tuned for news of that – we hope to see you there!  Just need to catch up on some sleep in the meantime…

We’d also love to extend our enormous gratitude and thanks to EVERYONE who has contributed so far — your support means the world to us!

Why support TheOneRing.net with a Pledge?

TORn is the largest and most-popular Tolkien and Middle-earth website on the internet. Every day, some 30,000 people visit us to read our feature articles, find out the latest movie news, to discuss Tolkien with 10,000 fellow fans on our messageboards, catch-up with each other in our Barliman’s chatrooms … and much else besides. When the big news hits we get even busier! And all that means we have some pretty large overheads.

Every Pledge helps us defray those costs — plus there’s some cool stuff that you can claim as a reward, too.

Check out our Light The Beacons auctions

Our Ebay Light The Beacons auctions are still going, too. The last lot of auction items will be active for a few more days — so keep an eye out for more cool collectibles that you can grab! 

Light The Beacons has proved so successful that we’ll be doing it again in the future.  We get to bring you exclusive, rare items to own, and you get to show your support for TORn — win, win!  So look out for more auctions in future; but meanwhile, click here to check out all the current auctions action and find something you’d like.

Our thanks to Cyryptozoic for supporting The Road to DragonCon

We also want to thank again our Road to DragonCon major supporters — Cryptozoic.  Without their help, the Road Trip would not have been possible.  Our Road Trip team is finally nearing home after a long journey There and Back Again! They had a great time at DragonCon; look out for a full report from TORn staffers about all the shenanigans and hijinks of the con, later this week!

We’ll have a table in the ‘fan tables area’ – please come by and see us!  Staffers deej and greendragon will be running the table, with expert help from staffer Thorongil.  We’ll have awesome t-shirts and posters for sale, as well as trivia to play and prizes to win!  Plus we love meeting fellow fans – so please swing by and say hello!  We’ll be in the Hyatt, Exhibition Level, across from the entrance to the Art Show.

TORn will also be presenting two panels at DragonCon: on Saturday, 5.30pm in the Hyatt International South will be The Hobbit: One book, three movies; and on Sunday, 1pm in the Hyatt Centennial 1 we’ll be Previewing The Desolation of Smaug!  Staffer MrCere will be joining deej and greendragon - and maybe a few others! – on those panels.  Otherwise, catch MrCere very busily running the Tolkien Track at the con this weekend!

Billy Boyd at TORn’s booth, DragonCon 2012

Justin and the Road Trip gang will of course be covering events and streaming from the Con!  Other exciting happenings include the Evening at Bree party on Friday night, 8.30pm in Hyatt Centennial 1, where The Tolkien Track have their annual shindig with costume contest and with our faves, Emerald Rose, rocking the house!  On Saturday night The Tolkien Track have a new event – a late night ‘Middle-earth goes retro’ dance party!  80s music all night long – come on down and party like it’s the Third Age!  80s attire optional but encouraged – what did elves wear in the 80s, anyway?  Come party with fellow fans and denizens of Middle-earth, as TORn’s own professional dj (hey, that’s why we call her deej!) spins the discs - 10.30pm Saturday, in the Hilton Grand Ballroom East.

And let’s not forget, of course, that there are some fabulous celebrities at DragonCon this weekend!  Already scheduled on panels are William Kircher (Bifur), Graham McTavish (Dwalin) and Sylvester McCoy (Radagast).  Manu Bennet (Azog) is also at the con, so we hope to see him on a panel or two, as well!  And our good friends from Badali Jewelry will have a booth in the dealers’ hall, in the AmericasMart Building 1, so say hi to them and maybe treat yourself to a gorgeous piece of jewelry!

It’s all happening; it’s going to be a whirlwind of a weekend!  We always look forward to meeting fellow Tolkien lovers at all the conventions and events which TheOneRing.net attends – so we hope to see YOU this weekend at DragonCon!

But all these good times come at a price, and TORn is in need of your help!  If you enjoy the website, please consider supporting us.  There’s always been a ‘donate’ button on TORn’s homepage; during our Pledge Drive there are specific pledge levels (and rewards!) which are listed in the top banner.  Look out for posts this week telling you more about how and why to support TheOneRing.net!

Right now, we want to let you know that we have an exciting AUCTION going on over at ebay.  We have some pretty fabulous, exclusive pieces up for grabs – and we’ll be adding to the auction over the coming days, so keep checking back for some things which, usually, money can’t buy!

Stay tuned for most posts detailing some of the items up for sale – such as a copy of ‘Children of Hurin’ signed by Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee!  Meanwhile, if you just can’t wait to snag an exclusive collectible, click the link below to check out the auction – and thanks in advance for your support of the website forged by and for fans of all things Tolkien!

Check out our full list of auction items!

What’s the most unusual location you’ve been to, on a journey to Middle-earth? Let us know in the comments!

Last Friday, on June 28th 2013, the small town of Balve in Germany became a target for a special unexpected journey. Originally I was not intending to go there, but just a day before a good friend Stefan Servos, webmaster of Herr-der-ringe-film.de, suddenly offered two extra tickets and a ride. So after work we got on a soaked wet freeway on our way to Balve.

In fact, Balve is basically famous for one thing: a great karst cave. In prehistoric times it was a settlement for Neanderthal tribes, but now it is used for cultural events: theatre plays, concerts and local festivities. So when a Cologne radio station decided to include it in their “Sektorkino” film festival (where films are screened in unusual places, e.g. a power plant or a prison), what would be more fitting for a screening of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey if not a mountain cave?

The movie did not start until 9pm, but the cave was already open since 7pm: there was a free seat selection, first come first serve. The screen was not too large but was placed relatively high, so the best seats would be rather in the middle of the seating area: it was separated into two floors by a small stairs. The seats were standard plastic chairs; the first row had sun loungers because the people sitting there would have to look up all the time. Also, there was a kind of a VIP lounge on a higher ground behind a stone wall.

Apart from the main hall, the cave has two chambers in the back which are beautifully illuminated by spotlights. One of them was empty and frequented by bored members of the audience , the other contained a mobile projection booth.

For two hours we drank beer, took photos and discussed the work on The Hobbit’s dubbing. But as 9pm grew nigh, the cave got filled, even the most uncomfortable seats were taken and the screening began.

The movie was played in a German dubbed version in 3D (no HFR though). It was actually nice to see the German title Eine unerwartete Reise and Elvish/Orkish subtitles in German, after the BluRay which contains English-language texts only. However, the sound was not really that good. There were only two speakers; and as the voices sounded way louder than the music, I can only assume that the projectionists used only two channels from a 5.1 multichannel setup. The sound quality was a bit compensated by a great acoustic in the cave, but as the film progressed, nobody seemed to mind the sound quality…

The audience’s reaction to the movie was quite a positive one. The loudest laughs were in the moment where Bilbo asks Gandalf: “Is he [Radagast] a great wizard, or is he… more like you?” At the final credits, someone even tried to applaud, but most of the audience just rushed out of the cave immediately. We however remained seated until the end, reading the credits: Stefan found an acquaintance of him working for WETA, and I showed him how many translations were used for the Russian Hobbit dub (four).

Anyway, the evening was quite enjoyable. Despite of rainy weather, a long way home and going to bed at 3am, it was quite amazing to see the movie in such an unusual cave atmosphere. Thanks to Stefan for this unexpected journey!

You can read the full list of Saturn Awards here.

Posted below the video, Jackson writes:
‘A day after saying goodbye to Gandalf and Tauriel, it was time to farewell Legolas. What a great day it was, with Orlando battling a serious Orc for all 12 hours of shooting – part of the Battle of the 5 Armies for the third Hobbit movie.’

Looks like the elf prince will fight alongside his father in There and Back Again! Not really a surprise, but interesting to know; and one can’t help wondering if he’ll encounter his future friend’s father, Gloin, on the battlefield?

Thanks for Ringer spies MrHollandsays and shoni for the heads up!

You can read Empire Online’s full article here.  Back when TORn interviewed Andy Serkis and James Nesbitt last March, they both had hopes for the Extended Edition.  Serkis was hoping to see his children as hobbits in the Shire, while Nesbitt was hoping a song he sings at Bag End would make it in to that cut.  Sounds like they just might be in luck – but we’ll have to wait and see!

Meanwhile, in the article in Empire’s Desolation of Smaug edition, TORn gets a mention!  Peter Jackson is quoted as saying, ‘This will probably get me struck off The One Ring party list but I am enjoying deviating from the book!’  Rest assured PJ – you’ll always have an open invitation from us…

A chance for Faramir, captain of Gondor, to give me a Father’s Day card…

Just wishing all our readers who are Dads – or who are the sons and daughters of Dads, so basically, everyone! – a Happy Father’s Day!  Who’s your favourite father in Middle-earth?  Sam Gamgee?  Elrond?  If only Treebeard hadn’t lost the Entwives, he could have made a great Dad!  And who can forget Denethor’s impeccable parenting skills….?

Let us know your favourite parenting moments from Middle-earth in the comments.  Hope everyone has a great day!