Charmed Sister writes: I was in Washington the past 2 weeks, and imagine my surprise when I happened to be staying at the same hotel as Viggo Mortensen. This was a stroke of luck. I bumped into him at the lobby of the hotel, and he was very gracious and polite. Knowing how he is about stardom, etc., I refrained from asking for a photo (although I had my camera on me) or an autograph. I merely approached him and told him that it was an honor to meet him and that I loved his work. He smiled, said thank you and wished me a great day. He looked great, as usual.
Since my stay in Washington coincided with his Miyelo exhibit at the Addison/Ripley Gallery in Georgetown, DC, I made it a point to see his photos in person. The gallery is a little out of the way, but it is definitely worth the trip. The pictures are visually stunning. The colors jump out at you, and the stories and poems that accompany them are thought-provoking and fascinating. The exhibit is a wonderful way to see another side of Viggo, along with getting to know a little more about this wonderful culture of native Americans. For those of you who will actually get to see the exhibit, my personal favorite was Miyelo 12 (going for 3,200$). The prices of the photos range from 585$-5,820$ and they are definitely worth that much (if someone has that kind of money to spend). They also sell a book of all the Miyelo photos. The hardcover is about 60$, and the softcover is 32$.
The exhibit runs through to October 23, 2004. If you can, make the trip … you won’t regret it.
wmchichiri: Last Night at the Meyerson Center, the Dallas Orchestra performed the Lord of the Rings Symphony, and I had a very precious seat for the performance. Words will never be able to fully convey or express my immense enjoyment in the performance. The vocalists who had solo performances were truly a great treat to listen too… and to hear the music performed live, with the clarity that a live performance can give you was truly astounding. When the evening came to an end, the place was rocked by a standing ovation that lasted well beyond 5 minutes. I know I kept clapping hoping against hope for an encore, but no such luck.
I actually had tears glimmering in my eyes during the soaring call to arms for Gondor (when Pippin lights the fire signal, and it sets off a chain reaction to all of Gondor’s men and allies). This reaction took me utterly back, for I had never gotten so emotionally invested when watching the films or listening to this music before… but there was something about the sound of it, beyond the meaning of it in the film, that was truly awe-inspiring that left me dumbfounded to attempt to even minutely understand my reaction to it. And that my dear hobbits and elves, is the mark of not just a moving piece of music, but something ethereally transcendent and infinitely precious beyond any material value… a truly rare occurrence that is the earmark of musical masterpieces.
The performance was accentuated by color gel lighting that helped set the major themes of the music in a more visual way. For instance, music reflecting the shire had the orchestra bathed in a deep bright emerald green color, the lights went to a yellow, and darkened to a yellow orange, and then an orange red color when dealing with the main themes of the “enemy” forces, be they Balrog, Nazgul, Orc, Goblin, Uruk-Hai, or man. In addition to the lighting, there were screens showing storyboard art and illustrations that advanced the story with the music. It was meant to be a visual roadmap through the journey of the story as the music followed the story.
Unfortunately for us within five minutes of the onset of the performance the screens went black, and this was not fixed until we returned from intermission to here the selections from The Two Towers and Return of the King. As a compensation, every purchased ticket will be receiving a voucher which will allow free admission to one of the Dallas Orchestra’s classical series performances later this year. So my ticket has, like Frodo, gone on an unexpected journey. Though in my case, I fear the only Balrog I will have to face, is the poor signs in downtown Dallas that never direct you properly to any of the major highways. (For those unfamiliar with Dallas, there will be a sign that has an arrow pointing straight ahead for I-30, you follow it, never see another sign, and eventually end up dead-ending in a parking lot. I spent 20 minutes trying to find a sign correctly followed by other signs to navigate me to the proper road. )
My only disappointment in the evening, came not from the performance itself, but rather from the lack of certain musical pieces I had been anticipating: May It Be, Eowyn singing at Theodred’s funeral, the arrival of the elves at Helm’s Deep (I so adore the instrumentation of the Lothlorien theme there!), Pippin singing as Faramir goes on a kamikaze mission to Osgiliath. But if my only disappointment, is something not included, and not something that was included. well I’m quite content. Except I want to kill the people who sat in a section near me who arrived decked out in jingling homecoming mum’s, I kept hearing them throughout the performance.
So for those who have yet to experience the fun. you should try to catch a performance yourself! This evening has only increased my appetite for the anticipated release of Howard Shore’s multi-volume box set of the Lord of the Rings score next year.
The folks from FACTS 2004 write: This weekend FACTS 2004 will take place, the biggest science fiction, fantasy & anime convention in the Benelux. Last year’s edition, the fourteenth already, (which was attended by John Rhys-Davies) drew nearly 5.000 visitors, a number we sure hope to beat this year again.
This year we will be welcoming quite a few guests again, amongst which David Carradine, Dirk Benedict, four Star Wars actors and Lawrence Makoare.
We will be having four PS2 consoles with the new game ‘The Lord of the Rings : the third age’ (courtesy of E.A.).
And of course the Belgian LOTR fanclub Elanor will be attending our show, as will many dealers with lots of LOTR related merchandise.
FACTS 2004 will take place on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th, both days from 10 AM till 5 PM. Entrance is 7,- € per day, cos’ players get in at 4,- €. (children under 10, accompanied by an adult, get in for free).
The fun will happen in the I.C.C. (Internationaal Congres Centrum), Citadelpark in 9000 Ghent. The convention room can easily be reached by car, by train (the station Ghent St-Pieters is only a five minutes walk) and by bus.
For more info, you can always visit our site at facts2004.com
The site I’ve photgraphed is new in the last 3 weeks and is located on Queens Drive in Lyall Bay across from Wellington airport on the south coast. I literally live on the street next door, and less than 300m from the construction site. (I also look across the bay to the airport where I can still see the massive Gollum on the roof of the airport terminal reaching for a ring, but that’s another story!)
Back to the site. The land was empty until shipping containers starting being stacked a few weeks ago, after which the framework started going up. One of the workers there just this morning confirmed that they are indeed building a film set for King Kong, “constructing rock walls”, and the blue screen is plainly obvious.
The site is fenced with “chicken wire” as you’ll see in a couple of the shots, and only small scrub and trees separate it from the main coast road. I took the shots from across the road, well on public land in case you’re wondering.
Photo “1” is looking south at the entrance to the site. The airport and Lyall Bay is off to my left, the road also heads past the set to the left and a steep bank flanks the site on the right side, which you’ll see in photo “2”. The rest are reasonably self explanetory.
The photos were taken yesterday – Wednesday 6 October here in NZ.
Just thought I’d drop you a line to let you know about a “Tolkien Event” that took place this past Monday evening at The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility here in the Hampton Roads area of Southern Virginia. The lecture was entitled: “Moon Runes, The Light of Earendil, and Durin’s Crown: The Astronomy of Middle-Earth”, and was delivered by one Kristine M. Larsen, Ph.D., Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Central Connecticut State University. The event took place in a large lecture hall at the Jefferson Labs facility described above, and the good professor (a true Tolkien Geek BTW) was playing to a packed house.
Dr. Larsen very clearly delineated the pains to which JRRT put himself to get the phases of the moon to be consistent with the timeline of the novel and talked at length concerning Middle Earth/Endor/Arda/Aman Cosmology, the Silmarillion’s creation myth, and: the creation of the ‘lesser stars’, The Two Trees of the Valar, the ‘greater’ stars and finally the Sun and Moon (Aran and Isil); illustrating with a well turned out slide-show presentation the relationships of all these things to our ‘real world’ night skies.
We learned for example that The Big Dipper is analogous with Tolkien’s “Sickle Of the Valar”, Menelvagor (Sindarin name, Menelmacar in Quenya) – ‘Swordsman of the Sky’ = “Orion the Hunter”, The Star of Earendil = Venus, and “red Borgil” = Aldebaran – NOT Betelgeuse as I had always guessed. An assertion very well supported by the passage in the text from FOTR: “Away high in the East swung Remmirath, (The Pleiades) the Netted Stars, and slowly above the mists red Borgil rose, glowing like a jewel of fire. Then by some shift of airs all the mist was drawn away like a veil, and there leaned up, as he climbed over the the rim of the world, the Swordsman of the Sky, Menelvagor with his shining belt…”. Borgil CAN’T be Betelgeuse because it rises BEFORE Menelvagor/Orion.
It turns out that the ‘identity’ of the constellation depicted in the “Crown of Durin”, that the Father of Dwarves saw reflected about his head when first he gazed into icy ‘Mirrormere’ – Kheled Zaram, is a subject of much debate among ‘Astronomically savvy’ Tolkienites. I could be meant to represent “Corona Borealis” – the “Northern Crown” (seven stars in approximately the same arrangement depicted on Durin’s Door) or possibly “Cepheus the King”, another famous circumpolar northern constellation, lying next to both Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper – a circumpolar group of stars and would, theoretically, be visible all the times if one could see stars during the day. The main difficulty with such an identification is that Cepheus only contains five prominent stars. Heck, to me “Durin’s Crown” looks most like “Corona Australis” – the “Southern Crown”, but that would mean the Misty Mountains and Moria would have to have be in the southern hemisphere, oh well. But then again, are we talking flat Arda? Round Arda? Pthlblt! Now my head hurts.
Funny thing though, no mention was made of “The Southern Cross” – “Crusis” (Crux), that I could have sworn was mentioned in some essay or other I remember reading years ago, as having a Middle Earth analogue. Oh well again.
Professor Larsen lectures frequently and apparently travels extensively doing so. So keep an eye out for academic lectures and events in your area, and catch this excellent presentation should you get the opportunity. Highly recommended for all Tolkien geeks, erm, SCHOLARS, of every stripe. AND you can check it out on-line @: physics.ccsu.edu or physics.ccsu.edu Please see attached photos and feel free to use them on TORN if you like.
The folks from specialsignings.com write: Further to our recent JINNAH promotion in Liverpool we have now negoatiated a full weekend event for CHRISTOPHER LEE. This is a 2 day event, held on November 13th & 14th, and is available on 1 day or 2 day tickets.
Mr Lee will be signing memorabilia from his many films LOTR, STAR WARS, JAMES BOND, WICKER MAN, JINNAH, HAMMER movies EXCEPT for DRACULA. MR LEE WILL NOT BE SIGNING ANY DRACULA ITEMS.
People are able to bring along their own items to be signed or purchase items at the event – so for all those people who have LOTR or Star Wars cast items this is your chance !
We have confirmed Mr Lee today and have approached some other actors from his various films and will announce them if and when they confirm. [More]
