November 23, 2008 is when the Celebrity Millennium will set sail with a group of your fellow Ringers for the Cruise to Middle-earth. One set of our Fellowship are already down in New Zealand right now doing a pre-cruise tour as part of the Wizard’s Journey. They are currently in Queenstown and will then transition to Wellington in the next day or two. The rest of us, on the Hobbit’s Journey, will join them this weekend. TORn’s own Tehanu is leading the Wizard’s Journey, showing everyone Rohan and Amon Hen, Rivendell and Ithilien, among other locations. I leave the US tomorrow evening and will make the occasional post from the ship so you will know what our Fellowship is up to. And yes, there will be pictures too.
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Check out this great prank at the University of Illinois. Eye of Sauron
New Hampshire Ringers interested in learning more about the sources of Tolkien’s inspiration should check out the Poetry Society of NH’s celebration of the Kalevala on October 11. There’ll be poetry, music from the Maine Kantele, and Runeberg’s tarts and other Finnish pastries. It’s at 6PM at Artstream, 56 North Main Street, Rochester, NH. The event is free and open to the public. For more information contact poetrysocietyofnh@gmail.com


Today is Ian Holm’s birthday! Sir Ian Holm was born on September 12th, 1931 in Essex, England. That makes him 77 years old today! Happy Birthday Ian!
Doug Adams, author of the upcoming book, “The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films”, has posted an update on the book’s progress: the book cover is still a work in progress, he’s hoping to include some of Shore’s pencil sketches, and numerous examples of notated music passages will be provided from throughout the score. Perhaps the most unexpected news was this:

While perusing the official website of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a particular winner just happened to catch our eye:
So to what has become a daily glut of gold medals for host China. The place to start has to be gymnastics, where 23-year-old Chen Yibing, the co-called “Lord of The Rings,” won China’s first gold medal in the Men’s Rings since the legendary Li Ning shared gold with Japan’s Gushiken Koji at Los Angeles 1984. Chen scored 16.600 to win.
Just thought it was wonderful to see Professor Tolkien’s creation mentioned in a way that reminds us all of it’s place within a worldwide community culture. It continues today due also in no small part to Peter Jackson’s movies and fan websites like TORN that have readers spanning the globe. Official Website 2008 Beijing Olympic Games