True-Hearted Easterling writes: I have just returned from the superb Lord of the Rings conference held at Marquette University in Milwaukee this past Friday and Saturday. The conference commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Lord of the Rings and paid tribute to Dr. Richard E. Blackwelder, who donated his large private Tolkien collection to Marquette in 1982.
The biggest names in Lord of the Rings academic research were among the 21 presenters, including Tom Shippey, who sang his old school song for a group of us Saturday night while we were sharing drinks and conversation; John Garth, who signed his book Tolkien and the Great War for me and was presented with a Mythopoeic Society Award at Saturday night’s banquet sponsored by Beyond Bree; and Michael Foster, who expressed a sentiment I share when he noted in his presentation that, despite the faults and virtues of The Lord of the Rings movie, it has brought a lot of new readers to the books.
S. Gary Hunnewell, an independent Tolkien scholar and collector, stayed on the same hotel floor that I did and had a sign on his room door written in Elvish that, according to him, read “Speak Beer and Enter.” Although he was not a presenter but just a “regular” attendee, Ted Nasmith graciously signed copies of the beautiful new Silmarillion containing his artwork at every break throughout the two days.
This conference was about the smoothest I’ve ever attended. I honestly can not find one thing to complain about. The facilities were good, there were plenty of refreshments, the presentations were outstanding and kept to schedule, and the total attendance was small enough (250 paid registrations) that it was very easy to have a conversation with any of the presenters that you wanted.
The conference proceedings are scheduled to be published in 2005, and I would recommend that every fan of Tolkien read them when they are available. I also recommend that anyone who can get to Marquette’s Haggerty Museum of Art to see “The Invented Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: Drawings and Original Manuscripts from the Marquette University Collection,” which will be on exhibit until January 30, 2005. The original handwritten text and artwork from Mr. Bliss alone is worth the trip.
http://www.marquette.edu/haggerty/
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Cat writes: I just thought I would write up an little report about the event I went to this weekend. Master of the Ring. I had been looking forward to this event for an long time and although there was no huge guests accounced I like talks and workshops and it promised to be by the fan for the fans. [More]
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Cat writes: I just thought I would write up an little report about the event I went to this weekend. Master of the Ring. I had been looking forward to this event for an long time and although there was no huge guests accounced I like talks and workshops and it promised to be by the fan for the fans.I started to go wrong the very first day Jed had pulled out no accouncement had been made even on the forum he was just missing from the website.
I got to the event on the saturday early to help out and was given an job all the stewards and p.a’s were not told about anything that was going on that day or what to do we were given the same programme as the normal ticket buyer. After this the people who oragaised the event disappeared I rarely saw them and was left to wonder at times why an 15 year old was left by herself at times to deal with passes and money.
All the guests were great as normal but all looked worn out. Craig Parker seemed to be holding the show together and on the saturday while we were all queuing up for the autography session to start he came out to tell us what was going on even though many people had to ask the people on the door what was going on and of course they did not know.
I heard any reports of the hotel rooms being dirty and a lot of disappointed people. From the promised workshops and sessions only one was there that of an costume workshop done on saturday by an fan on stage.
To be honest the main reason I’m writing this is as an warning to other fans these people are doing an event called Ring Fest in the u.s please don’t go you will be wasting your money.
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Cel writes: The Annual Bay Area Baggins’ Birthday Picnic was later this year than usual, but still had enthusiastic attendance from all of Bilbo’s friends, and a few former enemies. The picnic draws over 50 fans from a hundred mile radius each year. [More]
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Shadow at West of the Moon sends along her Dragon Con interviews with Craig Parker, Bruce Hopkins, and the Brobdingnagian Bards, as well as fan reports from the Supanova Pop Culture Expo and Sean Astin’s book signing tour. They all can be found [Here]
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The 2004 People’s Choice Awards Nominees have been announced. Viggo Mortensen has been nominated as ‘Favorite male action movie star’ along with Matt Damon, Hugh Jackman, Tobey Maguire & Will Smith.
Meanwhile Dominic Monaghan’s new TV series “Lost” has been nominated as ‘Favorite new TV drama’ alongside “Boston Legal,” “CSI: NY,” “Desperate Housewives,” & “Jack and Bobby.” Follow this link for the full list. [More]
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