Elizabeth S writes: HAMBURG, N.Y. – Dressed in the likeness of infamous characters from the popular The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien’s final book in the series will be brought to life at an all-night reading marathon Oct. 15-16 at Hilbert College.
Kick-off reader for the marathon, an event the college has held for each of the trilogy books, will be WGRZ-TV anchor Maryalice Demler. She will read from the first chapter of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King from 7:30 p.m.-8 p.m. Friday in the Palisano Lecture Room in Bogel Hall. Half-hour readings by Hilbert students, faculty and staff throughout the night and morning will conclude at about noon Saturday.
With the stage decorated to simulate Mount Doom and the Black Riders’ city of Minas Morgul, Lord of the Rings background music and a presentation featuring images from the movie will help set the mood for Middle Earth. Trivia questions for prizes will also be displayed on screen.
Elvish writing master Jasen Cooper will be available to write names or short messages in the Elvish language Quenya.
A Lord of Rings book exhibit by Barnes and Noble will be displayed. Also, raffles will be held throughout the event, and t-shirts will be available for purchase.
The event is open to the public and attendees are encouraged to dress in costume. Rings will be distributed to the first 50 in attendance. A $2 admission will include buffets, snacks and beverages.
In keeping with the theme, a medieval dinner will precede the marathon from 5:15-7 p.m. Friday in the Campus Center Dining Hall, which will be decorated in a medieval castle setting. Magician Garrett Thomas will perform at the dinner and later during the reading marathon.
Entry to the reading marathon will be included in the cost for dinner at $10 for the general public, and $2 for Hilbert faculty, staff and alumni. A costume contest will be held at the dinner.
Information on the dinner may be obtained from Jason Enser, student activities director, at 649-7900, ext. 335, or jenser@hilbert.edu.
Proceeds from the reading marathon and dinner will benefit Hilbert Horizons, the college’s literary magazine, which is a co-sponsor along with the Hilbert Society of the Fine Arts, Student Government Association, and the Office of Student Activities.
More information on the reading marathon is available by contacting Charles Ernst, Ph.D., chairperson of arts and sciences, at 649-7900, ext. 315, or e-mail cernst@hilbert.edu.
After a somewhat rushed, middle of the night posting about the first day of Armageddon, I though I’d send in a much more thorough telling of the second day along with some pictures.
But first, back to Saturday, since I have included a picture of part of the k’lexia cast. There was a presentation about k’lexia a new sci-fi show being shot out of Christchurch. They consider themselves somewhat akin to Babylon 5. The series has a set amount of shows (4 seasons worth I believe). They have backing to make the premiere and in a few weeks the creator of the show is headed to LA. With a trailer to try and secure a spot on the sci-fi channel. For more info check out http://www.klexia.com
Sunday I returned to Armageddon and started out by ordering my v. own fellowship cloak from stansborough fibres (http://www.stansborough.co.nz). I then headed up to the bleachers for another day of talks.
At noon, Sean was back. He spent some time chatting about stuff before he took questions. He talked about his love for reading and history (hence the reason why he studied English and history in school). He spent a long time talking about his new book (there and back again: an actor’s tale of which I am a proud owner of a copy) and why and how it happened. It was really interesting to hear about how he wanted to give folks a bit of his experience, as well as give a more balanced view of the whole thing. He loved it and it was hard and rewarding and more. He realized that folk wanted to know about what it was like, so he found an author to help him (Joe laden) and set about doing a brain dump so Joe could write about his NZ adventure. I can’t do justice to his explanation of it, so you will just have to all go get the book when it is released next month. He talked about how much he loves west wing (he finds it almost Shakespearian), about 50 first dates (he and drew have long wanted to act together) and about his role on Jeremiah. When asked about upcoming stuff, he said he would like to direct an episode of dead zone and that he is developing some movies. Someone asked Sean about whether he was aware of some of the fan fiction and had he read any of it. Sean was v. supportive of fan fiction and fan art (he saves any fan art he is given). He talked about how great it was that the movie inspired so much creativity, and that Tolkien wanted other writers to help expand the mythology he was creating. He also told a funny story about being given a rather explicit drawing of Sam and Frodo. He obviously takes it all in stride. By the end of his talk I really wanted to go find a nice quiet corner to read his book because I am v. interested to learn more about him.
At one, Andy took over. As with the day before, he immediately opened the floor for questions. Again he was asked about several of his past movies, as well as King Kong. He attempted to answer the questions so that both the new listeners and folk like me, who had seen him the day before, were entertained. He talked about the fact that a good director in his view is a collaborator. He told us that peter Jackson gave him one of the original rings from filming lotr for his birthday. [*snicker*] he was asked if his current look with beard was for the filming. (“yes,” he said, “this is for lumpy.” who is the cook on the ship in King Kong) he talked a bit about Gollum and the gimp suit. He confirmed that the Gollum MTV acceptance speech was Peter’s idea. I was most interested in his tales of studying gorillas for being King Kong. He started by watching the gorillas at the London zoo. There are 3 females and a male. One of the females took a shine to him. This resulted in the male making threatening sounds and banging on the cage when Andy came to visit. Also, once Andy took his wife along and the female threw a water bottle at her. I wonder if she is back at the London zoo pining for him now (the gorilla not his wife). He then told us about his trip to Rwanda, where he followed around and observed a family of 23 gorillas. He said it was pretty amazing. They just live in a giant salad bowl and our so peaceful and live in such harmony. He also had the chance to observe a dominance shift as one of the younger males began to take over from the current dominant silverback. Again he left us with the Sméagol Gollum scene to everyone’s delight.
It was now two and john was back. Again questions started. He spent some time talking about his attempts to define the voice of Treebeard. He confessed that he suggested to Peter that they eliminate the ents from the story all together because he wasn’t sure they would be able to pull it off. In john’s research he talked to several Tolkien scholars and they all had different answers about what they thought Treebeard would sound like. He admitted that he would not give himself full marks for the end result, and shrugged. At the crowds pleas he did Gimli for us a few times. I asked john about the scene in raiders of the lost ark (yes, he alluded, they may make a 4th, they are working on it, but they will only do it if it will be great) where Salad is saying goodbye to Andy and gets kissed by Marion and breaks into a Gilbert and Sullivan song. I wanted to know if it was in the script. He told us a story about shooting that scene, the first he shot for the movie, and how Steven Spielberg told him right before they went to film it that Sala breaks into Gilbert and Sullivan songs when he is happy and to work it into the scene. Someone asked if Gimli wanted the ring, and john talked about how he felt that Gimli figured out at the council that the ring was evil and didn’t really think on it past that. Not that he was impervious to it, but that he knew it was his job to protect Frodo and that was what he did. He talked about safety on sets. And said a bad director thinks they are god. He also said that lotr has smarter fans and they are also v. forgiving.
After john was done I took a break and headed back up to see the lion, the witch and the wardrobe panel at four. It consisted of Richard Taylor (special effects), Howard Berger (prosthetic design and application), dean Wright (visual effects supervisor) and some suit whose name I didn’t get. [*sheepish shrug*] they talked a bit about the cast (4 relatively unknown children from the UK) and the effects. They started shooting here in NZ on 28 June 2004 and hope to wrap in December. They talked about the influence of the kiwi director (Andrew Adamson, the guy who did shrek) on choosing NZ, along with the economy, the skill, and a great location for the final battle scene. Richard and his team at weta did all the design work, as well as all weapons and armor. Howard’s team is taking care of creating creatures, both from people and animatronics (as well as stand-in’s for the all-digital characters, referred to as ‘stuffies’). And dean’s team does all the digital stuff. The weta guys researched all of the books in order to flesh out Narnia into a real world, inventing 23 species’ looks and cultures. And Howard and dean are turning those designs into reality. Aslan, who will be their biggest challenge, will be about 99.5% digital with a few animatronics stuff. Dean said they were thinking of trying to motion capture a real lion (like to see that!). Mr. Tumnas (James Mcavoy) is makeup on his top half and digital goat legs. He wears green-screen pants for his costume and they are doing live motion capture on the set, something that they were just starting to perfect at the end of the work with Gollum. His makeup takes 3 people 3 1/2 hours to apply. They talked a lot about how much technology has improved in such a short space of time. The weta sculptures sculpt a maquette in ‘Leonardo pose’, get it 3-d scanned, and then animators can manipulate the creature in the computer and send a pose to be cut out of polystyrene with the push of a button (which is how they are getting the statues for the witches stone garden). All in all I was blown away and am really looking forward to the movie.
Well, I’m being a bit more cautious naming the sets that are springing up around town here in West Auckland, New Zealand. The first one HAD to be a Narnia set– it was sticking out above the fence around the Lion, Witch &Wardrobe lot where the soundstages are. And to make doubly certain, I asked their publicist Ernie Malik about what you see in these first two pictures, and he confirmed that it’s the London house that the Pevensie children lived in before going to their uncle’s house in the country where their adventure started. In one photo it looks like a very ordinary house with a few roses peeking over the fence. In the other photo it’s a bit clearer that only the front half of the house exists, and in the background are the warehouses that house the soundstages for the production. It looks grey and drab and wartime-y.
As for the other mysterious and exciting set that’s out in the country a few miles away, it’s developed a lot in the past week. I was doubtful that it was a Hercules set because it looked like generic medieval European architecture. But suddenly this week it’s sprouted some vaguely classical and pre-classical Greek features — pillars and pediments and so on, and so it does look very likely to be a Hercules set for the new mini-series that Sean Astin is involved with. Also there’s a set-locator sign with a big “H” on it pointing towards it.
The wall with the tower is the right-hand wall of the courtyard, the steps form the centre, and the pillared wall with the upper gallery is the left-hand wall. The tower wall, with its different colour and its arched windows, actually looks like a different building from a different period of history entirely, but maybe when it’s finished it’ll be clearer what’s intended. History buffs can help us all out here — was Hercules a legend from before Homer? Are those Doric columns from after that period? Did the classical Greeks even invent arches? Who cares? I do, but then I care about stuff like the correct use of apostrophes as well.
frodosgirl writes: I had a lovely time at Armageddon today in Wellington. It had increased in size by quite a bit, and the organizers are having some growing pains, but are managing to more or less pull it off. Walked around all the booths first and was pleased to come away with two finds. First off, the publishers allowed Dymocks special permission to sell Sean Astin’s new book at the conference even though it isn’t due out for more than a month. I snatched up a copy. I also discovered that Stansborough Fibres, the company that made the elvish cloaks, is now selling exact replicas of said cloaks. Before they were only allowed to sell scarves and shawls and a different version of a cloak, but Newline has given them exclusive rights to make and sell the cloaks from the movies. You can order online at stansborough.co.nz. The cloaks are really beautiful (I’m ordering mine tomorrow) and the people from Stansborough are so nice. You should all go buy a cloak as they are a steal for $795NZ.
Had the chance to sit through talks with Sean Astin, Andy Serkis and John Rhys-Davies. Sean talked of a number of things, from how much he loves NZ to his experiences on the lotr set to what his Daughter Alexander thinks of Goonies to his latest project, Hercules. Andy talked about Gollum (of course) and a bit about King Kong, including his recent trip to studies the gorillas in Africa. John talked of Gimli and the makeup difficulties plus thoughts on many of his various movies he’s been in, as well as giving us all advice on potential husbands and wives. All of them were very warm and courteous. They each dealt with the diffuculties with the current facility like the professionals they are. Before and after they signed many, many autographs. I had the pleasure of getting to talk to John a bit as things were closing up. He is such a gentleman.
‘A land was made for the Edain to dwell in, neither part of Middle-earth nor of Valinor, for it was sundered from either by a wide sea; yet it was nearer to Valinor … And they called that land Elenna, which is Starwards; but also Anadûnë, which is Westernesse, Númenórë in the High Eldarin tongue.’ So bright was the dream — so bitter the waking.
AKALLABÊTH. The very name sends chills through the heart of men and elves. The Island kingdom of Númenor was intended to be a blessing and a gift for the Children of Men. From their first king Elros sprang the line of great Kings, the Dúnedain, Lords of the West. But evil and corruption eventually infested the island like a plague.
What went wrong? Was this similar to the Valar bringing the Elves to Valinor? Were the Valar foolish or innocent to bring Men so close to what they most desired, but couldn’t have? Were they negligent in allowing Sauron, servant of Morgoth, to have free rein? Was Sauron alone responsible for the downfall of the Dúnedain?
What was Tolkien trying to say through this tragic story? What ancient myths and legends might have inspired him? If you are the least curious of the origins of such heroes as Elendil, Isildur and Aragorn or interested in the history of Gondor, you will want to join us this week in #thehalloffire as we discuss ‘The Downfall of Númenor’.
See you this weekend!
=== Upcoming topics:
10/2/04, 10/3/04: The Hobbit: Chapter 15: The Gathering of the Clouds 10/9/04, 10/10/04: Tom Bombadil 10/16/04, 10/17/04: The Hobbit: Chapter 16: A Thief in the Night 10/23/04, 10/24/04: Political Systems in Middle Earth 10/30/04, 10/31/04: The Nazgul/Ringwraiths 11/6/04m 11/7/04: The Hobbit: Chapter 17: The Clouds Burst
=== Place:
#thehalloffire on theonering.net IRC server. Need instructions? Go here: http://www.theonering.net/barlimans/instructions.html
=== Chat Times:
Saturday Chat: 5:30pm EST (17:30) [also 11:30pm (23:30) CET and 7:30am Sunday morning AEST]
Sunday Chat: 8:00 pm (20:00) CET [also 2:00pm (14:00) EST and 4:00am Monday morning AEST]
EST = Eastern Time, USA’s East Coast CET = Central European Time, Central Europe AEST = Australian East Coast
___________________________________________ Hof-announce mailing list Hof-announce@theonering.net http://www.theonering.net/mailman/listinfo/hof-announce
“One Concert to Rule Them All: A Review of the Lord of the Rings Symphony
September 21st is just an ordinary day to most people; but to legions of fans known as “Ringers,” this marked the eve of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins birthday. It also marked the premiere event in Hollywood for The Lord of the Rings Symphony: a six movement piece for soloists, mixed chorus, children’s chorus, and orchestra. The gala event took place at the world’s largest outdoor theatre: the Hollywood Bowl. John Mauceri, a man who collaborated with Howard Shore to transfer the award-winning movie score into concert format; conducted the evening’s performance. Performing were the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Chapman University Choir, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, and the Hollywood Bowl High School Honor Choir. Performing soloists included boy soprano Eugene Olea, vocalist Susan Egan, and soprano Carolyn Betty.
As the concert began, a welcoming speech from Howard Shore appeared on the video screens. When the message ended, the conductor took his place at the podium and began with “The Prophecy,” the opening music implemented during Fellowship of the Ring and the first in line with Movement One. While the music lingered throughout the sold-out crowd of 18,000, the video screens displayed drawings from conceptual artists Alan Lee and John Howe. Each drawing appropriately fit the pieces without distracting the audience too much from the music.
Movement Two marked the introduction of the soloists: only Olea and Egan performed for this movement. Egan, who played the original Belle on Broadway in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast; sang the haunting “Gandalf’s Lament” with superb Elven-diction. Olea sang during “The Breaking of the Fellowship,” marking the end of Movement Two.
After the intermission Movements Three and Four were performed; spanning the Two Towers segment of the trilogy with ease. Soprano Carolyn Betty now joined her comrades on stage. Her performance of the “Evenstar” rivals that of the original singer (Reneé Fleming). During “Forth Eorlingas,” both Betty and Olea sang together. Egan ended Movement Four with an eerie rendition of “Gollum’s Song.”
In contrast with the previous four movements, the Return of the King segment was short: Movement Five contained five songs while Movement Six contained only four. Betty sang during the “End of All Things” and “The Return of the King.” A baritone from one of the choirs sang a short solo during “Return of the King,” and his splendid performance embodied the true spirit of Aragorn. Movement Six concluded with Egan performing “Into the West” and the orchestra building to its finale with reverent power.
The concert as a whole was very enjoyable; but was it really one concert to rule them all? It was definitely not a perfect concert; in comparison with the film score, several of the songs seemed much slower than usual (whether this was a directing choice or if it had something to do with the acoustics in the theater I have not the slightest), Olea, while having a decent voice probably wouldn’t have been my choice to pick as the “boy soloist.” You could see the nervousness of the situation through his eyes and the decision not to sing “out.” Although Egan’s voice was perfect for “Gollum’s Song,” it did only little to help “Into the West;” a song I believe only needed a better singer than Annie Lennox to do the job properly. Betty was perhaps one of the best soloists at the concert. Her voice gives proved her reputation as “upcoming opera soloist.” Her voice transcends a mystic quality essential to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Granted, there were a few notes she did not start on correctly.
The choir itself seemed to drag some of the pieces and in some cases, either missed the entrances, or due to a technical sound issue; it sounded as if the choir started too softly on pieces that begin with authority. Nevertheless the choir’s sound was reminiscent of the films, if but sounding a bit underdeveloped.
What really made the concert for me was the brass and strings section. The brass is found heavily in the themes of man that are implemented throughout the movements. The swelling richness of the brass ringed throughout the concert and was a joy for my listening ears. The strings and especially the concertmaster knew how to play good Celtic style music when introducing the theme of the hobbits. In fact, the concertmaster took it upon himself to embellish some parts during “The Return of the King.”
Its amazing how nine hours of a movie-music masterpiece transformed to two and a half hours. As the program indicates, “Together with Mauceri, Shore worked on the form and transitions from the longer film scores, transforming them into manageable instrumental movements: a series of tone poems free of the specific visual linkage with the films and adhering more to the traditions of the programmatic orchestra works of Strauss, Liszt, Smetana, and Sibelius.” This is what makes the Lord of the Rings symphony an epic of a larger scale: anyone can be moved by its haunting themes and resolutions-even those who haven’t seen the movies.
———- Hurricane Kailin
Here are a few pics from the Bowlmoot 2, held yesterday at the Hollywood Bowl and Camrose park. There was a picnic from 3pm till 7pm at the park, and then we all wandered over to the Hollywood Bowl to hear the Howard Shore soundtrack music for the LOTR films. I’ll let someone else write the review of the whole day, picnic and concert, I just wanted to pass along a few pics.
The first pic shows the Eye of Sauron pinata we had, which was mighty clever. The White robed figure next to it is Saruman-ella, aka Kristi from Tolkien Forever. She seemed an appropriate figure to be controlling the ropes for the Great Eye.
The second pic is the rather dead and defeated Eye of Sauron.
The third pic is two dead people. Err, rather, it’s Haldir and Mini-Boromir, as played by Danielle and Veronica.
———-
Diane Shearer
I see you don’t have a review of the Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl yet. Shall I tell you about it? My 45th birthday was yesterday, the 22nd. My husband surprised me with tickets to the LOTR Symphony on the 21st. He’s always been good about presents and he’s pretty understanding about my LOTR obsession (Aragorn standee at the foot of the bed, every shelf filled with action figures, every wall covered with posters, etc.) but he totally outdid himself this time! The Bowl is over 2 hours from our home, depending on traffic, but we still arrived in good time to get one of the highly coveted parking spots. They have 1800 parking spots for 18,000 seats. For those not familiar with the Bowl it is an open air theater. They allow you to bring picnic baskets before the show. It’s very relaxed. In the box next to us a family was celebrating their daughters’ 20th birthday and everyone around them sang to her. A lot of people dressed up. I saw many Return of the One Party T-shirts among the capes and wigs. There was a Gandalf the Grey who looked so good people stopped him for autographs afterward. When people in Hollywood do costumes they do them well! There was an Arwen sitting right near us in the red and black gown from ROTK. On the other side there was an Aragorn in the Gondorian battle armor. He was perfect, hair, beard, the right size; you had to look twice to make sure it wasn’t Viggo! Eventually those two were brought together and posed for pictures. There was a really great Legolas and a Gandalf the White, though it was a woman so the spell was broken. We spotted several celebrities. In fact, I literally bumped into Amy Ackerman from Angel! As is usual with LA audiences the place was only half full until nearly 8:00, but then they came streaming in. Having listened to the soundtracks hundreds of times I thought I knew what this music sounds like, but hearing it live in the open air with crickets in the background was a whole new emotional high. I was brought to tears several t imes throughout the performance. The high point for me was the fifth movement, starting with Hope and Memory which is the lighting of the beacons, then going into The White Tree and The Steward of Gondor which is Faramirs’ music. Absolutely breathtaking. It was conducted by John Mauceri who worked directly with Howard Shore to develop the Symphony, finding two hours of performance music within the 11+ hours of the score. He said that he was directly responsible for the Symphony being ready for it’s first performance at the World Premiere of ROTK in Wellington, which Howard Shore conducted, then he conducted the second performance the next night. He was very excited that on the 22nd he would be conducting in Hollywood while Howard conducted in London simultaneously in honor of The Birthdays. The soloists were wonderful but the Soprano, Carolyn Betty, was particularly spectacular. Afterward they received a good 10 minute standing ovation, something you don’t see often with LA audiences who have seen and heard everything and are very hard to please. My interest in LOTR has given my many wonderful memories with my family over the last few years. This was a night I will always treasure.
