I haven’t yet seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but what I’ve seen and read of the White Council sequence has intrigued me. Continue reading “Galadriel, political animal of Middle-earth”
Category: Tolkien
Join Kili and Fili, and a very special guest from WETA Workshop – Sir Richard Taylor, to learn how to make your yuletide as cozy as one in Middle-earth! [Happy Hobbit: Christmas Special – Episode 08]
Hobbit fans from across the US and around the World are now happily planning for a weekend of fun in Hollywood in late February. So here is your helpful guide to what is going on and how to best take advantage of the activities. On Friday, February 22 TheOnering.net will be hosting An Unexpected Art Show, featuring artwork inspired by Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other realms created by J.R.R. Tolkien to take place in Downtown Los Angeles. On Sunday, February 24 TheOneRing.net will be hosting The One Expected Party in Hollywood. Please see their respective web pages for details.
Before you ask about Saturday, we’ve decided to leave that to the Fans to determine for themselves. Suggestions would be a Studio tour, a visit to the Griffith Observatory with it’s commanding views of Hollywood and Downtown LA, or a trip to the Getty Center in the Santa Monica hills, both a wonderful museum and one of the best views of the Pacific Coastline. And if you are from a cold clime, you might consider a visit to the Santa Monica pier and then a stop at one of a dozen Pubs in the area. But if you prefer to keep the weekend focused on movies and the Academy Awards, you might consider one of the many symposiums that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hosts on the Saturday before the Oscars. Please check their website in early February, but typically they host the Foreign Language nominations at the Beverly Hills home for Oscar, while the American Cinematheque hosts two symposiums, usually either Editors or Cinematographers and then Art Directors. These symposiums are always free and very educational, offering you a view into movie making you just can’t get anywhere else. No matter what you decide to do on Saturday, there should be no shortage of other Tolkien fans willing to ‘Moot’ with you.
Here is a little checklist to help you plan your weekend:
1) Buy your tickets for The One Expected Party now. You could wait until the nominations are announced on January 10, but you risk tickets selling out. The party is scheduled to go on as planned, with or without nominations, this is a celebration of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” regardless of Hollywood’s attention.
2) Buy your tickets to An Unexpected Art Show now. For those traveling from afar, this is a great way to extend your vacation a little and see more of your Ringer friends. And for those not attending the Party on Sunday, this is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the joy of artists expressing the creativity inspired by Tolkien, and to hang with your Ringer friends from far and wide.
3) Make your travel arrangements, be it ‘trains, planes or automobiles’, figure out your travel dates and get yourself to Hollywood in time to celebrate with everyone. This includes making sure you have your hotel settled now, because they will sell out. Oscar time in Hollywood is very popular with foreign tourists, every hotel expects to be sold out. So check our Hotel and Lodging page on the hotels we’ve set up blocks with. Some have links to make booking super easy and instantaneous while others require you to call in, just make sure to use the Hobbit Oscar Party name for the group and you should be fine. If there are problems with booking into the group, contact us and we’ll get you sorted. Some of these rates are phenomenal for that time of year, and are selling quickly, so don’t delay. We do have to return unsold space in just a few weeks time.
4) Plan your attire. Most of you will find your own dresses, tuxedos or costumes, but if you find you need a little assistance, visit our Costumes and Attire page for assistance.
5) If you are coming on your own, or have never been to a TORn sponsored event or convention and don’t know many fans, fear not. You can find fans on our TORn Facebook page and here in our message boards. Those attending the Art Show and Oscar party should be able to find threads on the TORn Moots and other events, just look for the appropriate threads for each event. This will help you figure out how to fill up your Saturday and make sure you have the best possible Hobbity Weekend you could imagine.
From independent.ie: PRE-exam nerves are bad enough, but if your examiner is JRR Tolkien, then you’d really have your work cut out.
Well that was the case for students at NUI Galway more than 60 years ago when ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ author worked as an English literature examiner.
Recently discovered exam papers reveal that the creative genius was an external examiner for the summer exams over a number of years at the Galway university.
Barry Houlihan, an archivist at the James Hardiman Library in the university, said the find came about thanks to a Tolkien enthusiast who contacted the college.
“We decided to have a search and we found the volume in question. We went through all the exam papers and we found that Tolkien had been an external on four occasions. It was fascinating to see his name printed on them,” said Mr Houlihan. [Read More]
From Hollywood.com: In 1971, Jan Sterling was 19 years old, married, caring for a one-year-old baby girl, and living out of a 1961 Econoline Ford Van. She was driving around the country in a state that she describes as “quite homeless.” She says that her life was forever changed when, one day, she happened upon an old set of The Lord of the Rings books.
“I was saved by Tolkien’s story and world,” Sterling says. “It became my lifeline through those lonely, hard days and years after. It was incredible how the same story spoke to whatever life events I was experiencing.”
For the majority of the world, the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was just a simple visit to your local cinema. But for Ringers like us, one does not simply walk into…theaters. What did you do to celebrate the release of the latest adventure into Middle-earth? Did you participate in a TORn Line Party? Maybe you took the whole family out for a long overdue special night? Maybe you got together with your closest friends and dressed up like Hobbits, Wizards and Dwarves! Whatever you did, we want to hear about it. We have a form below where you can submit your Ringer Report and send us a few images. We can’t guarantee we will post all of the reports, but we will post a lot of them! This is your chance to shine in the spotlight of Tolkien fandom! We look forward to your reports…[Link to Form]
Continue reading “Send in your ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ Ringer Reports and Photos”