Diamond_T, author of the new “Regional Cooking from Middle-earth: Recipes of the Third Age” cookbook, tells us she will be out and about next weekend in the Pittsburgh area, preparing her recipes for a good cause.
On Saturday, October 19, there is an event called the Hoot and Hollow Chili Cook-Off for the American Heart Association. From noon until-? (the wee hours), folks will be gathering at Pennsylvania?s own version of The Prancing Pony, called The Hollow Restaurant. They?ll be treated to music from a couple bands, and for the nominal donation of $1.00 to this worthy cause, can sample Diamond_T?s own Alcarinque Nahald (‘the glorious secret’ from the northern Hobbit recipes).
For those who have never been to The Hollow, it is located on Route 30 East (the historic Lincoln Highway) in the Loyalhanna Gorge, right next to the Loyalhanna Stream. It is a large wooden structure that is every bit like the Prancing Pony at the foot of a hillside in Bree. The leaves are turning and it is simply one of the most beautiful places to eat in the entire state. It’s not fancy, though, it’s a party location! Diamond_T is very honored to have the opportunity to cook for this event. She would love to meet some TORn folks and have some fun!
The Hollow Restaurant, Sleepy Hollow; is located about 40 minutes east of Pittsburgh on Route 30 in East Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
And oh yes, for those of you wondering, “Regional Cooking from Middle-earth: Recipes of the Third Age” will be published next month!
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Entwife wrote to tell us about an interview with PJ in thelatest Fangoria magazine!
“Wanted to tell you that I was browsing in Barnes and Noble yesterday and came across an apparently exclusive (and recent) interview with PJ in the October ’02 “Fangoria” magazine. Now, I am NOT a fan of that magazine, and was not about to buy it (I have 3 small kids), but I read the article in the store and it was a good one. It was fairly substantial– about 4 pages long–and had some interesting quotes from Jackson, including his sense that TTT will probably not be an Oscar favorite like FOTR (too dark, and doesn’t have a clear beginnning and end). Although he insisted that he didn’t want to speculate about Oscars, he did say he thinks that ROTK may have a better chance, since he says it’s much more triumphant, and moves from one climactic event to another (or words to that effect.) He also said that TTT is down around 3 hours now (from 4 originally) and that he felt that 3 hours is about the limit for a movie to be seen in a theater. (He reiterated that the studio did not put pressure on him to get it (or FOTR) down to 2 or 2 1/2. )
He also said that this year’s work on TTT has been more relaxed and fun (in some ways ) compared to last year’s work on FOTR, since of course the b.o. was so wonderful. The pressure to “not kill New Line” is off, though he said that since the movie was so well received that they all did feel a keener artistic challenge, to not let people down artistically with the next ones. He ‘s glad the movies were all shot before FOTR came out, b/c they might have wanted to do “more of the same” after FOTR’s success, while instead TTT has a very different feel– darker, and less fantastical, since it’s primarily concerned with the world of men , while FOTR took us to Hobbiton, Rivendell, Moria, and Lothlorien. But he thinks that a different feel is probably a ggod thing.
He talked a little about the psychological mind-games played by Gollum with Frodo and Sam and said that while Tolkien hinted at it, they’ve taken it further. Some other interesting tidbits: Helm’s Deep was the first miniature they made back in ’97, and they’re finishing work filming it now, so it’s been 5 years they’ve used it. Also, he said that while he might want to do a King Kong remake in a few years, he and Fran want to do 1 or 2 small movies first.
Thanks to Entwife for that report!
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New TheOneRing.net staffer MrCere sends in this report from Douglas Anderson’s book tour in Salt Lake City, Utah:
Douglas Anderson, author of the recently re-released “The Annotated Hobbit” spent a couple of hours with me before the bookstore event to talk about his latest work and all of his works. He knows TORN and remarked how friendly the TORN staff and patrons were during his time at Comic-Con in San Diego this past August. Doubtless, he will be a friend of TORN for a long while I suspect.
Anderson is a Tolkien fan’s Tolkien fan. While the staff and users of TORN are steeped in the lore and legend, Anderson has had deep, constant and scholarly study of all of the good professors works from his translations, to his art and his poetry. He also has contact with the almost legendary Tolkien estate and knows Tolkien’s own children and probably they call him “friend.” He enjoys the works on the level that TORNados do, but he understand them and appreciates them with a greater depth and understanding as well. Something like the good professor himself, Anderson appreciates words, and language. He applies philology to the works in order to understand what Tolkien was thinking and doing as he put words here and there or as he incorporated literary in-jokes directly into his texts.
We read a good yarn and know that it also transcends the story and delves into the power of myth and touches us in our lives but Anderson understands that Tolkien was exploring the territory of Beowulf and understands the layers of thought there that I at least, didn’t know existed.
In one of my favorite revelations, Anderson talked about Tolkien’s poetry. I have often heard the poetry in “Hobbit” and “Rings” criticized, and while I liked it and thought it served the story, I always felt that the literary critics knew a bit more than me and I never imagined it to be on par with Shakespeare or Donne. Anderson enlightened me.
Tolkien was writing in medieval meter and while I can know that as a fact, Anderson was kind enough to recite an example or two and explain how they worked which took me from knowing to understanding, at least a little. W.H. Auden, among the premier poets of the 20th century, adored Tolkien’s poetry and really understand what he was working with. Simply, he wrote on a level that worked for his story and was understandable for his readers, but for those with eye to see and ears to hear, there are many more things happening in his poems than the casual reader, and many literary critics, understand. The professor’s works were on our level and at the same time far above our depth.
“He was using medieval meter,” Anderson said. “And really nobody does it any better. It was culturally modeled on modern language using an archaic mode. That isn’t a talent that maybe anybody aspires to but he did it damn well.”
Anderson’s passion is what he called “Literary archeology.” Wow.
Anderson is not at all limited to Tolkien’s works but studies fantasy literature but is especially fond of discovering obscure authors. To explain his finds is more complicated than I can rip out tonight for TORN but for my newspaper I will explore this in a bit more depth. One thing that was interesting, to me at least, is that one of the authors he helped remember was a former staff writer at my paper in 1947. His book “Devil Drum” an horrorish voodoo novel is being reprinted by a small press and Anderson is writing the forward to the book.
Interesting to many TORNados is the strong belief Anderson has in the genre of fantasy as valuable literature, and not as escapist crap. (Although he admitted crap exists in fantasy as in every other written genre including realism.) He would and could go toe-to-toe with many literature folks and aggressively defend fantasy.
He explained that realism came to dominate culture around the 1920s and a generation adopted it as the only viable medium and taught others that all else was worthless. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and others obviously didn’t agree. Ursula La Guin addressed this in “Language Of The Knight” should anybody care to pursue if further.
“Fantasy is liberating,” Anderson said. “It allows writers to approach big questions that the very restricting realism doesn’t allow. Realism came to dominate and when that generation shuffles off this mortal coil it (fantasy) will return.”
I will comment that it is returning even now in popular culture, as witnessed by TORN, the internet and the changing face of Hollywood which is more and more fantasy oriented. “Geeks” are becoming so common that we are taking back society. In Anderson’s words, while quoting Tennyson, “The old order changeth and giveth way to the new.” He quoted that again during that night’s slide show presentation answering a question about the great theme of Lord Of The Rings.
“Fantasy rates at literature, simply. If people can’t see it, that is their problem. They fail to see what is grand.” (I bet somebody could make that their new TORN footer.)
Yes, Virginia, there was fantasy before Tolkien. Many of the folks I meet in every day life think honestly that Tolkien invented the genre. I asked Anderson to talk about it but even a short reading in “The Annotated Hobbit” will make it obvious that Tolkien has fantasy influences all around him and even as a child enjoyed hearing Faerie stories. There is a book, I missed the author, called “Roots Of THe Mountain: Fantasy Before Tolkien.”
What Tolkien did do, if I understood Anderson correctly, is help update fantasy and myth for the 20th century and leave an indelible mark on it.
OTHER QUICK NOTES: Anderson doesn’t mind the movie centered people who come on board and read the books. Perhaps we should be nicer to newbies?
He did not update “The Annotated Hobbit” for the movies but the timing was fortunate.
He feels that the Tolkien family isn’t from a Star Wars generation that loves movies the way “we” do and really fail to see the big deal about it all. The media (me) are like bloodhounds trying to get quotes from them and they really think it isn’t their place to comment. At one point Christopher had a helicopter flying over his out to take pictures.
There is more produced by Tolkien (poetry at least) that hasn’t hit the public. It might be seen “soon.”
There is a strong possibility we will see “The Annotated Lord Of The Rings.” (YES!) Anderson, after being asked by Christopher about it said, “They will be great.” Meaning he didn’t want to tackle it but looks forward to reading it someday. Christopher has very meticulously organized all his papers and eventually they will likely see the light of day. Exciting no?
QUESTIONS FROM THE AUDIENCE: Young child Q: “How do you know all this stuff?” A: “I read and read for years and years.”
Q: “What about Tom Bombadil” Anderson quotes Tolkien in a radio interview, “Tom Bombadil is a very curious fellow and we will not interfere.” Tolkien then changed the subject. Anderson mentioned that Tom, Christopher’s doll, was flushed down the toilet, prompting Tolkien to write about him years before LOTR.
Q: World War I & Tolkien A: “The War played a very central role (in Tolkien’s life.)” He has lice and trench fever and his experience was ghastly. “It was a very potent experience and I think it influenced him in a powerful manner.”
I believe dear TORN friends, that that is enough. Others will fill in their reports from Seattle and Portland, but that was my lunch and evening’s entertainment with Douglas Anderson, author of The Annotated Hobbit.
– MrCere
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Here’s a piece of news that we just HAVE to mention!
Our very own Green Books writer Quickbeam is going to appear tonight on “The Jamie Kennedy Experiment,” a hidden-camera show on the WB network. Without Quickbeam knowing, the wacky Jamie Kennedy snagged him in a very elaborate stunt!
Many of you know that Quickbeam (Cliff) is not just a writer but also works in Hollywood as a voiceover actor — he even provided the voice of Sam in the Universal Interactive “Fellowship of the Ring” video game. For the joke, Jamie Kennedy set up a fantastic “fake audition” that Cliff thought was real! As they say on the show, he was “X-ed”.
The segment will be broadcast all across North America tonight, so watch if you want to see the mayhem! Here is the info:
Show: The Jamie Kennedy Experiment
Date: Thursday, Oct. 10, 2002
Time: 9:00PM (in all time zones)
Network: the WB (in the Los Angeles area, KTLA 5)
For your local listings, please click:
http://www.tvguide.com
We guarantee it will be ABSURDLY embarrassing for old Quickie. But hey, that’s the whole point. Watch if you dare.
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Lady_Greenleaf writes: I just got a copy of Disney Adventures magazine in the mail this afternoon (they just mail it to me, I assure you I do NOT subscribe) and there’s an interview with Elijah Wood and Sean Astin about The Two Towers. I sent along some scans of both pages of the interview.
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On Wednesday October 9 the Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas) contains an article about upcoming Lord of the Rings tie-in AMC theater giftcards.
“…AMC spokesman Rick King said that to the best of his knowledge AMC is the first movie exhibition company to sell gift cards at off-site locations. Though AMC’s initial retail outlets are grocery stores, King said the company is working on deals with other types of retailers…Initially, AMC gift cards have the same design, but beginning in November, 500,000 cards featuring art from “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” will be available at AMC theaters.”
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