Mallorn, a Hall of Fire regular, is gathering content ideas for a new “Teaching Tolkien” subsite under consideration with TORN. The proposed subsite will be a resource of ideas, research and discussion for both teachers and non-professionals who want to share their love of Tolkien and entice new readers through teaching Tolkien in the pre-high-school, high school and college/post-college classrooms, as well as outside it.

Mallorn asks for teachers of all gradelevels to email experiences and suggestions on teaching Tolkien to cdfletch@optonline.net. Please include the country in which you teach and the grade levels involved in your experiences or suggestions.

Our good pal Lawrence Makoare (Lurtz) writes: Just thought I would pass on some useless piece of information if you wanted to use it on the web. I’m presenting an award for The 2003 New Zealand Music Awards on the 30th April 2003. It’s for “Outstanding International Achievement Award” Which is for a solo artist or group who have achieved Outstanding results on a global platform. Results will be published on www.nzmusicawards.co.nz. Might even have some pics of the night in there. Cheers, Lurtz.

The folks from Best Of Both Worlds Conventions writes: We are organizing the first Australian Lord Of The Ring event. Our line up now reads: Bruce Hopkins aka Gamling, guardian of Helm’s Deep & Sarah McLeod aka Rosie Cotton. [More]

Henrik writes: Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) is attending the opening of his own photo-exhibition at “Brandts Klædefabrik” in Odense, Denmark. The opening takes place on the 27th, and on the 28th he will be reading some of his poetry to the audience. If any of you understand Danish, look at this article from a local newspaper. [More]

Frodo Baggins writes: Figwit a.k.a. Bret McKenzie and his partner Jemaine Clement just performed at the Aoteaora New Zealand TV2 International Laugh! Festival as the Flight Of The Conchords. [More]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know you can catch Ian McKellen (Gandalf) as master of all metal Magneto this Friday in ‘X2: X-Men United’. But if you can’t wait that long to see Ian or any other LOTR star on the small screen, take a look at our weekly cast watch! [More]