...And in the darkness spellbind them

2003-12-23T13:48:00.000-08:00

Well...

This time, I did forget to eat my popcorn. It went on the floor just a couple of minutes into that electrifying Smeagol/Deagol intro, and wasn't touched since. Everyone who has been reassuring me that RotK would bring me back around (thank you all), you were right. Yes, there are flaws, I have gripes, but I put most of them down to my own sorry state at the moment...and what could you possibly say against this movie that wouldn't be overridden by the handling of the Shelob scenes? John Noble's chilling, stone cold Denethor? Pelennor Fields? Billy Boyd dragging poor Pippin all the way around the emotional circus ring? (Where supporting performers are concerned, this is Boyd's movie--he was responsible for making me cry this time. And who knew he had such a lovely voice?) Astin and Wood fiercely defying the "thankless good-guy role" cliche, and forcing me to question my preference for character actors? Miranda Otto, equally convincing whether she's crying or kicking ass? Andy Serkis, making us wonder where the hell we've been pointing our attention for the past ten years or so? The Mûmakhil, at once gobsmacking entertainment and sharp reminders of Tolkien's hatred for the inhuman war machine made possible by industrialism? Gandalf explaining to Pippin about death (word-to-word the book's description of Frodo reaching the undying lands, btw)? "It still only counts as one"? The armies of the dead? Theoden's last stand? Merry and Pippin reunited on the battlefield? The list goes on and on, but I STILL can't wait for the further triumphant moments we'll undoubtably be getting with the special edition.

And I am motivated to revive this site again, when it becomes technically possible. Definitely in a simpler, less time-consuming version, but I won't let it die. You can't pass up material like this...

2003-09-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

Just to fill you cool & very patient guys in: I moved to a new city (Wonderful Copenhagen) seven weeks ago, but am still netless at home, thanks to a laffable software problem that seems unsolvable in my current financial situation...and as for that, it's really more "permanent" than "current". But I'm working on it...always working on it...

2003-07-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

Welcome, all new readers! Wow, 800 hits so far today...Viggo should come by more often. :) The "Ephëmeris" opening report is right below this entry. But now that you're here, why not swing by the main site as well and have a look?

I'm seeing mixed reactions to my report across the web: Some find it condescending and hypocritical, which is understandable. I anticipated that while writing it. It might look like I'm back-pedalling, but I'd like to clarify a few things:

I have no beef at all with autograph seekers, as long as they
A: Are actually fans, and don't just descend on the famous guy--any famous guy--because he's available. There were a lot of genuine fans present, local and foreign, but to my eye also a good deal of opportunists. Most of the autographed items will probably become prized posessions, but I'm also expecting to see some on Ebay.
B: Pick their moment with some care. I don't think the opening reception of a photo exhibit is the right venue for getting your LotR stuff autographed...that sort of thing belongs at a LotR-related event, or an actual autograph session such as the book signing. So sue me.

I'm not out to ruin anyone's fun, or belittle what may for some have been the experience of a lifetime; I wouldn't mention this at all if I didn't feel it detracted from everyone's experience--ours and perhaps Viggo's too. As I said earlier, it might have been a more interesting and rewarding evening, had he been given the time to do other things than write his name. But we'll never know.

C'est tout.

2003-06-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

Big-ass post coming up.

Viggo Mortensen is stalking me.

Pleasant surprise! The "Ephëmeris" opening was a quite civilized and relaxed affair...to begin with. The zoo behaviour came later.
As for Thursday's predictions (see my last entry): Surprisingly few kaftans (in fact there was a pretty good cross-section of the population, both age- gender- and typewise), and the white wine had a perfectly acceptable temperature. :) I was right about the canapés, but even those had been adapted to the local cuisine: Smoked cheese salad on pumpernickel. It's a lot better than it sounds.

Museet for Fotokunst occupies the first floor (second, if you're American) of cultural centre Brandts Kl?defabrik which towers over the middle of Odense, my adopted home town. The old converted cloth factory, where my great-grandfather worked for 50 or 60 years at the same loom, now contains a modern art museum, the photographic art museum, a rather dull press museum at the top, an arthouse cinema and café, a gallery, a restaurant and an artbook store. Right across the square is the old warehouse Magasinet, which houses concerts as well as Mortensen's poetry reading Saturday night.

There was time to study the many photographs on exhibit--more about those later--before Viggo and the museum executives appeared, or draw some fresh air on the balcony; it was a very warm summer evening, the room was filling up fast, and I wasn't the only one fanning myself with my programme. After milling about a bit I ended up at the edge of the growing crowd by the podium, where I suddenly felt someone coming up behind me. Viggo nodded as he passed, flanked by museum staff, but I was so startled I didn't even have time to smile.

The first to speak was...I'm ashamed to say I don't remember his name, and never really found out what his position was. He spoke first in Danish then English, and brought up the massive attention bestowed on the exhibition among other things (as he dryly remarked, "Some of you might remember that the museum has a past...") Many people were thanked including staff, Viggo, and Viggo's son Henry for being so patient during the creation of the exhibit. Then came curator Lis Steincke who, in keeping with the pleasant and informal atmosphere, had forgotten her speech; a staffer was sent to find the other staffer who had it...when a third staff member finally carried it through the crowd to the podium, it was followed by laughter and applause. The speech was given in dodgy English and, to my surprise, brought up LotR: Turns out Steincke wasn't even aware of Viggo until her son convinced her to see TTT, and a subsequent websearch brought up some of Mortensen's art, sparking her interest. Which I think reflects very well that though Viggo was there as an artist, no-one this side of the atlantic would probably know Viggo Mortensen the photographer, painter and poet if it wasn't for Viggo Mortensen the actor--which he also seems to be well aware of. It made me feel a little less guilty about being there mainly as a LotR fan.

More people were thanked, including Henry, and then the flashlight blitzkrieg started as Viggo rather bashfully took the stage...and thanked a lot of people. Such as Henry, for his patience. And the staff. He spoke (or muttered) in hesitant but flawless Danish first, then switched to English for the benefit of those who had come from abroad; among them were four American fans whom I had seen on local TV earlier. Yep, these ladies had flown to Denmark just to see their hero, and practically squealed when he mentioned that some had come from the States. I considered telling them that he does in fact make regular appearances in the US, but I suspect they would just as happily have followed him to Jupiter.

He left the podium but then went back up--to repeat the part about Henry in English, so Henry would understand it too! After all that thanksgiving and the heat, most people headed straight for the refreshments afterwards, and only a dozen or two gravitated toward our protagonist--but that crowd quickly grew when people realized he was willingly giving out autographs, which is what he ended up doing for the next hour and a half. I turned my attention to the works on display.

I don't know a thing about art, and I don't even always know what I like, so you'll just have to do with my unclear impressions. First of all, his photographs are beautiful--sometimes almost too beautiful for my taste; a lot of them pleased the eye but didn't linger in the mind. But you can't deny that he has a poetic eye and a great gift for composing without arranging. And a handful of pictures really pulled me in, especially the one that is partly seen on the cover of "Signlanguage": A hand held by another strangely bandaged hand in an unreadable gesture. The owner seems to be wearing a kakhi uniform. A woman's torso on the left, at once anonymous and exposed; she is wearing a corsage, and the angle allows us to see one naked breast underneath it. It's the kind of image you shouldn't attempt to deciphre or analyze...it simply lives in your mind, as undigested as the moment you are occupying right now. Evidence of how thrilling the unresolved can be. Not all things carry meaning.

"Ephëmeris" is a retrospective covering most of Mortensen's photographical oeuvre, going back to 1978; and so the styles are different and the motifs without obvious connections. Most of the works are in black and white, but one series features startling, flaming colours, and borders on the nonfigurative...Mortensen the painter paints with his camera too. The only New Zealand/LotR set images I recognized were "Son of Gloin" and "A song for BK"; One I hadn't seen before seemed to be of Dominic Monaghan in a forest, wearing costume and ears but not the wig. I guess the rest will either have been sold or weren't picked out. I'll be going back one of these days to take a closer look at all the photos.

Stepping out on the balcony for air I realized Viggo was coming out right behind me, looking for the same thing, and trailing autograph hunters. Most were having their tickets signed but there were also photo and poetry books, LotR novels and even a FotR box set. A staffer suddenly went behind another and held his arms while Viggo kneeled in front of him; when the man turned I could see that what might look like a brawl had in fact been the signing of a "War is not the answer" T-shirt, with a big peace-sign sketched on his ample belly.

I was one of the few who didn't approach VM for an autograph, not out of shyness but because I honestly find the whole thing a bit silly. It's a great pleasure to meet people I admire, but having their name on a piece of paper doesn't really heighten the experience for me. And having your photo taken with them seems even lamer...they're artists, not the Manneken Pis. I can understand that people will want to take something home, a memento of some sort--I just wish they would realize that they might bring home even more if they weren't so focused on obtaining proof that they were there. If Viggo hadn't been writing his name all night we might have heard him talk about his works, or maybe had actual conversation. But we don't trust our own memories; we need something we can touch, look at and show our kids and coworkers, or it didn't really happen. Always the tourists, ruining the moment in our frantic attempt to capture it for posterity.
It may seem ironic that I gripe about this since Mortensen's photos serve much the same purpose for him, as a sort of visual diary (which is what Ephëmeris means) or souvenir collection; but he also describes them as an attempt at communication. And I hate the idea that the public's response to it is "That's Niels with an ie, and could you sign this for my sister?"

Furthermore, some people were blatantly ignoring the request that we only take pictures during the speeches, and snapping away all evening. A couple of dozen women were standing in the square below the balcony with their cameras, acting like it was a royal visit (I considered giving them my Queenly Wave); if Viggo noticed them he didn't let on. They can't have seen much more than his back anyway, but they stayed put, even long after he left the balcony. When the throng started to thin out, I considered going over to shake his hand and say hi...but before I had figured out what to say the staff were milling about, asking everyone who wasn't family (some of Viggo's Danish family were present) to leave.

By a complete fluke I ran into him again Saturday night. Having just returned a video I wandered the streets for a while, enjoying the Mediterranian atmosphere that sweeps over Denmark on our few warm summer nights, and passed through the square by Brandts: I knew Mortensen had given a poetry reading, but as it was almost midnight I was a bit surprised to see a gathering of excited fans still outside the museum. As I passed a glass-covered staircase leading down from Magasinet, the door at the top opened and Viggo came out, followed by a veritable army of staff in bright yellow T-shirts. He reached the bottom of the stairs but couldn't get the door open--and neither could the yellow people or a helpful passer-by; after struggling for a few minutes they finally reached freedom and headed towards the fangroup, who broke into polite applause. I'm not quite sure if they were celebrating Viggo or the miraculous escape...

What's left? A general impression of the man, maybe. Not that I have much of a basis for one, but I can say this: Whereever the words "brooding" or "dark" appear in my mental Viggo Mortensen file, I will scratch them out and replace them with "shy". He seemed to be kind and pleasant to fans, and simply gave the impression of an introvert who isn't very comfortable around strangers but has learned to set his unease aside when necessary. Like so many of us. Why such a private person would choose such a public career I can't say, and he may not even have the answer himself...nature works in mysterious ways.

2003-06-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

What do you mean, "where were you"?

No time has actually passed. I've never left this desk. What you think was three months without updates has in fact been an extremely elaborate illusion, planted in your mind by a monstrous corporation bent on...
Well, yes, and summer came really abruptly this year, okay?

Ah, screw it. Let's just admit that sometimes--a lot of the time--Real Life is not just a time-stealing annoyance, but in fact a lot more interesting than the online version; and whenever that happens, I grab it and run with it until my lungs hurt and blue dots flash before my eyes. I fear I will never be a true, fullblooded nerd...some day I may even face the ultimate shame, and get a tan to prove it.

There are several shitloads of things happening in my life right now--I'm more or less starting over--but I'll save that for another time. The reason I chose to come back from the dead at this time is that something interesting is finally happening in my half-comatose provincial town...and moreover, something LotR-related: Viggo Mortensen is opening a retrospective exibit of his photographs at our local art temple tomorrow night, and I managed to get myself invited.
That was before I knew it was going to turn into a circus of Barnumesque proportions, which I will probably feel a bit uncomfortable taking part in. Kaftans, clunky jewelry and lukewarm white wine are one thing (or three), but now it seems all of Northern Europe and her Strider-smitten cousin are coming to town for what I guess is Viggo's only public appearance on the continent at the moment. The museum has practically collapsed under the workload (and their server crashed), a poetry reading has had to be arranged as well to accomodate the fans, and I think it's going to get ugly.

I've actually considered not going, especially since my reasons for attending are as frivolous as everyone else's; curiosity, LotR-passion, and the excitement of someone cool coming to Blahville for once. Has absolutely dick to do with the man's art, though it is interesting. I could see the exhibition any day I like, and I'm not sure I'll enjoy watching Viggo squirm under the stares of 200 starstruck hillbillies like myself...but hey, he chose it. And now that I have the ticket it would be a great shame not to use it. Waste not, want not. There are children in Africa who can't even get tickets to Dogstar concerts. Etcetera.

And before you ask: No, I can't sell you my ticket--they are personal, and IDs will be checked at the entrance. Sorry. So I'm going to go, and I'm going to have fun...at the least I'll get canapés and a show, and something to tell you guys about.

2003-03-15T14:54:00.000-08:00

I'm not even going to start accounting for all the network and computer disasters that have struck me for the past few months. Let's just say that not much will happen around here until I get a new PC, which will hopefully be soon. Absolutely nothing will happen as long as I have no FTP (=can't upload new stuff)--and all I have to go on is "They're working on it". How reassuring.

I can, however, still post to this blog, and will try to do so regularly: I can at least promise you some righteous anger and unnecessary cattiness around Oscartime. Many thanks to you who keep coming back. I'm sorry I can't give you much to come back to at the moment.

Also a big thank you to the people at Naur Gwae Nen for the Best Movie Site award, which I will put up as soon as I can!

Oh, and my email is working properly again. There's something to be grateful for at least.

2003-01-12T03:43:00.000-08:00

I wish I could tell you what's going on, but I'm as clueless as you. It seems like all of the servers on our LAN have folded (including the mail server, so don't send me anything important), and there's no word on when they will be functional again. It's out of my hands, folks...sorry.

2003-01-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

The new picture of the month is up.
And now you must excuse me--I have a foot of fresh snow to go and roll in. When real winter finally comes to Denmark, it takes no prisoners.

2003-01-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

It's terribly nice of people to wish me a happy new year, but do they have to do it so loudly? Make the bright lights go away, mommy...

I'll very quietly wish you all a great 2003, and thank you for a marvellous first year at SpellbindThem.com. And now me and my hangover are going back to bed to wait for the pizza boy.

That didn't come out right.

2002-12-30T13:19:00.000-08:00

Cassie is writing Secret Diaries again! WHUZZA! (Is that a word? Well, it is now.) Not quite piss-yourself funny, but definitely has its moments:

He muttered something in Elvish that could have been "You're late" or could have been "Throw me down and shag me rotten."

*Grnnff*. I'm never growing up.

2002-12-24T06:19:00.000-08:00

Well, the excitement about TTT is certainly showing...my hits have doubled over the past week! A very happy Whatever-You're-Celebrating to you all, old visitors and new. See you again in a few days.

2002-12-21T09:23:00.000-08:00

I'd like to thank everyone who has mailed me or left guestbook comments in response to my Two Towers reaction. I still can't answer mail and don't know when I'll be able to, but I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can.

I did give the movie a second chance last Thursday, as many of you have urged me to do. And it did come together a little bit the second time around; with all the expectations and other baggage out of the way, I was able to enjoy it more and get into the rythm of it. But I'm still not forgetting to eat my popcorn. Only one moment makes the tears well up ("Don't you know your Sam?"). And my heart doesn't skip a single beat for those 2 hours and 59 minutes.

I plan to see it several times more, hoping that it will grow and ripen in my mind; Maybe, as reader Carole so eloquently wrote to me, it's an aquired taste, like a complex, rich wine--overwhelming and strange at the first few sips, until the many different notes and impressions start coming together. And I intend to drink as many mouthfulls as it takes to appreciate all layers of it...but in my heart of hearts I know that I'll never love this movie the way I love Fellowship of the Ring. I'm not exactly sure why yet, but that's how it is.

2002-12-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Please note that I can't send email at the moment; I can receive them, but not reply. You're welcome to write me, but don't expect an answer for at least a few days.

2002-12-18T13:16:00.000-08:00

Here's the make-shift review I submitted to TORN. I'm giving TTT another go tomorrow, and hoping I'll be more open to the experience the second time around.

*Minor spoilers!*

OTTT

Oh PJ, PJ, PJ...and co.

We could have avoided this, you know. If only you hadn't touted it as "better than the first" since day one--or if you had at least added (By better, we mean bigger)--I could have lowered my expectations and spared myself a disappointment. Not that there's anything wrong with big; Hey, this is epic moviemaking! But what made me fall hopelessly in love with FotR, enough to spend a large part of the past year building a website around it, was not the epic scale alone--or the character development or performances or writing or desing details for that matter, but the perfect balancing of all these elements. And last night I watched that delicate balance get trampled by 20.000 berserking uruk-hai and several billion rampant pixels. Tragically and unexpectedly, TTT makes all the classic Big Movie mistakes that FotR didn't, and gives in to the temptation of piling on the spectacle until there's nothing left to top it with. Someone please take the toys away from that man.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not about to shut down the site, tie my special edition box set to my ankles and jump off a pier. There's much to love in TTT. The Three Hunters storyline works beautifully (Mortensen is much improved, and Rhys-Davies really comes into his own); The humour is emphasized more, and at the same time less intrusive--the writers are not afraid to insert comic relief into the bleakest of moments, and somehow IT WORKS; The Frodo/Sam/Gollum relationship has some fascinating and thought-provoking twists and turns (and while he has some awkward moments, Wood also gives us electrifying glimpses of the madness and despair to come); There are terrific performances from the newcomers--the scenery-chewers (Serkis, Douriff) and the understated (Otto, Hill) alike; I absolutely loved the wonderfully expressive orcs in Grishnak's gang; And the essence of Ent culture survives, even though the details are lost. Those are things to be thankful for.

And then of course there's amazing imagery to savour. Gandalf and the Balrog tumbling into a colossal cavern, furious Ents sacking Isengard, stampeding oliphaunts, massive Massive armies on the march, gallopping Warg packs, a siege ladder covered in uruk-hai falling on more uruk-hai...I could go on. And very impressive it is. But all this eyecandy still left me starving for something more substantial, and I desperately longed for the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction I left the theatre with last year.

The large amount of CG characters and beasties is part of the problem. They are, of course, masterfully created, in the most painstaking detail imaginable, state of the art; The trouble is that to my mind, the state of the art is just not advanced enough yet. Gollum and Treebeard may be the most convincing CGI characters to date, but they are still not convincing ENOUGH. It doesn't matter how subtle and exquisite performances they were based on; every frame is a reminder that I'm watching a digital character. And since at least 50% of the movie features prominent CGI, that makes it extremely difficult for me to suspend my disbelief and let the story swallow me up.

I'm not going to say much about the narrative structure itself, since TTT is born with the incurable handicap of being all middle--not a sequel but a second act that is forced to stand alone. It was destined to be a tangle of loose ends. Taking it out of the context and trying to evaluate the story composition would make about as much sense as taking the wheels off a bike, and then standing around yelling at the middle parts for lacking personality and not working properly. I won't even make the attempt until I've seen all three parts together.

In the meantime, I'm hoping that repeated viewings will make me warm to it more; Maybe when the initial disappointment has worn off, I can just sit back and enjoy it for what it is...a boys' movie with the occasional hint at deeper layers. It's a bit ironic that it should be called The Two Towers, since it is in fact the opposite: A shaky and uneven bridge between what will, hopefully, be two towering achievements. Next year...please.

2002-12-17T19:16:00.000-08:00

I'm back. And since I have to be up again in four hours, I think I'll write comments in my sleep.
I will say this, though: This is so much a middle movie that it's impossible to judge on its own; I don't even think I can appreciate it properly until I'm able to see all three back to back. It certainly hammers home the fact that we are not watching a trilogy in the making, but one nine hour movie, and this bit is all middle.
G'night.

2002-12-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm off. It's the night for double- and triple-checking the ticket in your wallet. For standing in the lobby trying not to bounce up and down too much (lest I be taken for a geek, heh!). For not buying popcorn or candy because you know you'll forget to eat ten seconds into the opening credits. For running to the loo three times before the movie starts, out of panicky fear that you'll have to go during the movie--and then feeling a treacherous pressure mounting in your bladder after half an hour anyway. For being late because you've spent too much time prettying up and writing longwinded musings for your site. Bye.

2002-12-17T09:08:00.000-08:00

*bouncebouncebouncebounce*
5½ hours to go. Not that I'm counting, or anything...that would be pathetic.

2002-12-17T06:08:00.000-08:00

Remember yesterday, when I promised no more showtunes?

I lied.

Tooniiiiight, tooniiiight, I'll see my loove toonaaaaait...

2002-12-17T03:54:00.000-08:00

*bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce*

2002-12-16T17:47:00.000-08:00

*bounce bounce bounce bounce*

2002-12-16T17:45:00.000-08:00

Tomor-row, tomor-row, there's aalways tomor-row, it's only a daaay aaawaaaaaaa...

*ahem* Sorry. That's it for the showtunes, I promise.

2002-12-16T16:17:00.000-08:00

*bounce bounce bounce bounce bounce*

2002-12-13T16:08:00.000-08:00

The new stills store is up! 21 gorgeous full-colour 8x10s from AllPosters, at only $4.99 a pop--a LotR present to suit even a student economy. No reason to pay nosebleed prices at Ebay.
(Gift idea for the financially challenged--like me: Buy a cool second-hand picture frame, or a dime store one, or even make one yourself, and give your buddy a still of his/her favorite character or scene. Popularity is guaranteed, especially if you splash out and stick a gift certificate for a Two Towers ticket in there as well...)

2002-12-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

The new Picture of the Month is up. Sorry if you couldn't access the site yesterday--the domain provider was down again. So actually the site was up, but SpellbindThem.com wasn't. Confused? Watch the next episode of "The Life and Trials of a Webmistress."

ONE WEEK TO GO! "Wha?", you mumble and look at your watch, "isn't it eight days?" Well, maybe it is for you, but I'm going at midnight on the 17th. Which, BTW, is six to eight hours earlier than midnight in the States. So not only do we central Europeans get Christmas a day early--the same goes for The Two Towers. Who's Eurotrash now? Eh? Eh? :p

2002-12-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

There be pictures! The quality is beyond shitty, I know. Look at it this way: If you people actually started shopping in my stores, I could earn a commission and buy a new camera. :p

1: It's one thing getting a youngster into a chainmail shirt... 2: A sword-wielding Richard Taylor sends a video greeting from the Weta workshop. 3: Poor Warren Mahy and Ben Wootten, trying to hold an audience that can't hear them. No, that's not Ian McKellen to the left. 4: The Weta workshop stand had the entire Sideshow FotR line there, as far as I could tell. Even this merchandising sceptic had to do some serious covetting...

1: They may be all latex and foam, but these roleplaying weapons cost an arm and a leg--even before you start swinging them. 2: Off goes the facial airbag...see below. 3: "War! It's faan-tastic." 4: A pathetic attempt to photograph the talking Treebeard toy through the box. As someone said on TORN, the voice is very Gimli-ish. 5: I just had to get a pic of this adorable couple. But...elves fraternizing with orcs?? This is all wrong. 6: A...uh...dude in some armour. I proffered a site flyer on this guy, but he had nowhere to put it.

A sampling of the impressive miniature scenes on display (Gandalf's last stand, Moria lake attack, Balin's tomb, Helm's Deep).

1: You can take the man out of the troll... 2: I'm pretty sure these moves aren't in the international rules of fencing. 3: "Can I take a picture for my website?" never seems to get a no, and it's a great excuse to push a SpellbindThem.com flyer on people. Sweet pair of elves, eh? 4: The Weta guys could barely get off the stage before they were surrounded by more questions. Sound on day two was much better, almost as loud as Ben Wootten's shirts!

1: A handful of the many drawings entered into the contest. 2: An attempt to get a bird's eye view of the room. 3: You wouldn't think these guys could get any shorter...(or fuzzier. Blame my antique plastic camera.) 4: Con boss Jonas swings the auction hammer.

1: Not sure if I should blame my cheap camera for the red eyes on this nasty creature. 2 & 3: Back home: My new Witchking votive candle holder didn't seem to like his new home much. The old fart really lit up when I let him try on my cool Weta shirt, though.

2002-12-08T07:21:00.000-08:00

Happy 26th birthday to Dominic Monaghan!

26? Holy bovine, he's a baby! :)

God, why am I always all chins on pictures??? I swear, I don't really look like this! It's like my face has a built-in airbag that activates whenever a camera flash goes off.
And just look at the stupid grin I'm wearing...not to mention the coffee stains on my loincloth, and the Bad Chain Day I was having. No lustre, no volume, just hanging about me like overcooked spaghetti. Blah.
Speaking of the loincloth--does suede make my ass bigger? Be honest now.

2002-12-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

As promised, here is part I of my report from the Copenhagen con; It turned out rather long. Part II should be ready in a couple of days, hopefully with pictures.

"RINGENES HERRE MESSE" (LORD OF THE RINGS FAIR), NOV 30-DEC 1, KB-HALLEN, COPENHAGEN

First let me say this: Denmark has absolutely no history of doing conventions--at least not on any scale larger than 30 homemade Klingons watching videos in a rented school cafeteria. So whatever I may say in the next few paragraphs about this weekend's Copenhagen LotR fair, the initiative itself is extremely admirable, and I applaud it wholeheartedly; It's wonderful, and actually quite groundbreaking, that a handful of enthusiasts take so many months out of their lives to arrange something like this...and they did a very good job for first-timers. If only they had been less ambitious in their advertising...

Well, when you make promises of "Europe's biggest LotR event" and "an unforgettable experience", and encourage people to make a pilgrimage of it, they tend to expect more than a cosy medium-sized family fair. I do, anyway.

Not that I was very disappointed; I had suspected as much, knowing that Danes simply cannot stage massive events. We're unable to think big--it's just not in our blood. All attempts* invariably end up feeling like slightly soggy Christmas bazars supervised by doctor's wives, who present it with the pride and confidence of someone running a World Expo. Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with a good country fair--unless you've given people reason to expect more. ("But what about the vikings?" says the observant reader. "Conquering England was a pretty fecking massive event, if you ask me." Well, yes, but it probably didn't require any bigger thinking than "AAAAAAAARRRRRHHH!!!", or any coordination skills beyond running, yelling and waving a sword at the same time.)

*except rock festivals--we've gotten fairly good at those after 30 years' practice.

DAY 1:

I had arrived Friday night after a two-hour train ride and was staying at a youth hostel; top-tuned with all modern facilities, and dumped in the middle of nowhere on the urban island of Amager. As mentioned before I didn't have very high expectations for the LotR event, but I was happy with the opportunity to spend a weekend in Copenhagen, sucking up the atmosphere of one of the loveliest capitols in the world. The old girl looked glorious in her bright Christmas gown, and I had trouble remembering why it is I don't live there. Staying on the outskirts of town also gave me plenty of excuses to ride the brand new high-tech subway that opened this summer--it has big panorama windows on both ends and no driver, so sitting in the front seats is rather like riding a rollercoaster through a tunnel. Agaaaain!

KB-Hallen is a small, ageing indoor stadium, and every square foot of the floor was occupied by either the stands or the bustling crowd. There were about a dozen stores represented, including a Weta Sideshow stand; nicely detailed miniature landscapes consisting of 15 Fellowship scenes and an impressive Helms Deep display; a rather tacky full-scale Weathertop tableau; a make-up table where small and big kids alike could be painted as orcs, elves or uruk-hai and have ears applied; a duelling ring for swordfighting; Playstation consoles with the new PS2 game; an RPG stand with game setups and figurine painting; and for the youngest, Bilbo's hobbit hole with a vegetable throwing contest, drawing contests, and birthday cake served once a day.

I was a bit of a difficult customer since I'm over the age of ten, not into RPGs, not much of a collector and didn't have a lot cash to spend on merchandise, so I got bored pretty fast...I was going over the last stand in the row and had more or less decided to leave, when I turned around to find myself cornered by a drooling, chain-dangling seven foot cave troll, seemingly determined to squash me into jelly against the table behind me! My screaming drove it away (whew), and it lumbered off to scare some other hapless visitors. I decided to stay and investigate.

The next I saw of it was as an empty shell of a troll, slumped over a chair by the stage; the contents were nowhere to be seen. So later when I spotted a young man in black underwear being helped into the thick foam-rubber legs, I couldn't resist taking a snapshot of the scene...which the "filling" didn't take kindly to. He yelled a sarcastic comment about being photographed in embarrassing situations ("You'll probably post it on the web!"), so I quickly apologized without really meaning it and took off. Feeling a bit guilty about the whole thing, I returned once he had finished putting on the enormous suit (a gruelling process that took at least twenty minutes and two or three helpers) and told him he could strangle me in return--I figured it would make a great photo-op. But noooo, trollboy insisted on kissing me instead! A word to the wise: Never get kissed by a troll. They drool (courtesy of a water-bottle-and-hose system in the suit). What's more, they're frisky buggers: Wiping the slobber off my cheek I told him never to give me a wet smooch like that again, and his reply was: "Well, then feel how wet it is under my loincloth." The nerve! He could at least have bought (or killed) me dinner first...

I drifted into an adjacent hall with a big fireplace where a Tolkien lecture was taking place, and placed myself by the large hearth next to a reporter who was sleeping in his chair, pen and pad in hand. The lecture was well-attended and interesting enough, though mostly for the academically inclined, and quite a few people left in the middle of it. Then it was time for the presentation and Q&A with the two Weta chief designers and only guest stars of the con, Ben Wootten and Warren Mahy, on the stage in the main hall. The original headliner was Richard Taylor, but he had to pull out; worse, the con arrangers never announced this on their website or anywhere else (to my knowledge), but simply moved Wootten and Mahy to the top of the bill. Frankly, that sucks. But Taylor sent a video, which was nice, and the two chief designers gave a very entertaining and informative show--or it would have been, if anyone could actually hear what was being said. The stadium's utterly hopeless sound system (which was of course designed to be heard in the stands, not on the floor) combined with the quick banter in thick Kiwi dialect and the noise from the stands made it utterly unintelligible. The poor Weta guys tried to speak slower and clearer, but to no avail--I pride myself in my grasp of English, but I only got about one word in ten. During the Q&A I got a question in, and asked them about the look and creation of the Mumâkhil...wanting to ask something specific, as most of the questions were either very silly or very general and had little to do with their work; The answer was long and apparently very interesting, but all I could do was nod and smile and then go over to their autograph table later and ask again. I'm glad I did, because they gave away some intriguing facts.

I'll save all I learned from the Weta guys to Day Two (now with sound!), just to keep it all in one place, but I'll give you this little tidbit: The Oliphaunts are inspired by the AT-AT walkers from The Empire Strikes Back! The idea was to have similar gigantic, slow-moving creatures in the background. Moreover, the AT-ATs were in fact taken from Tolkien's Oliphaunts! So: George Lucas borrows from Tolkien, PJ & co borrow back. Poetic justice or what?

I managed to corner the convention head honcho Jonas Færing long enough to say a quick hello and apologize for not having mailed him back six months ago (He approached me about writing an article for the con paper--I actually wanted to do it, but it became one of those "I'll mail him tomorrow" things.) Poor bloke had no voice left at all, having barked orders all week. I don't envy him. And I don't feel good at all about giving such an cynical review to such a worthy and well-intended effort--but as I made clear at the beginning: I would never have judged it by international standards if they hadn't asked for it. Being a low-key, family-oriented affair is fine--in fact it could become a tradition and a trademark--but if that's what you're going to do, don't lead the fans to expect anything else. And if you're really going to, well, Messe with the big boys, you'll have to think bigger...and get cast. Hell, if they can come to Germany, they can come to Denmark.

Around five, an hour before closing, I wandered off to find a netcafé and some dinner; the rather scathing report I took three hours to write was swallowed by a Boomtown PC before I could post it, which was probably for the best, as things got better in most respects on Sunday. More about that in part two.

2002-12-02T11:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back from Copenhagen--and I have to say that even though all my reservations and fears about this event came true, I ended up having fun anyway.

Hey, it's not every weekend you get a dirty proposition from a cavetroll...

Report to follow soon, and hopefully there will be pictures up by the end of the week.

2002-11-28T14:20:00.000-08:00

Time to start packing for my Copenhagen trip...yep, the big LotR event is this weekend. (I'm hesitating to call it a con since, apart from a handful of Weta folk, no-one involved with the movies will be there.) I'm very much hoping to bump into some of you guys! So if you see a tall, svelte blonde with a dazzling smile, an air of confidence and a Prada handbag...tell her the PR convention is on the other side of the road. Should you, on the other hand, see a roly-poly chick with long brown hair in need of a trim and a tendency to overdress, strewing SpellbindThem.com flyers all over the place and looking like she would be wearing an ADST shirt if she had remembered to order it in time, pop over and have a chat. BTW I'll be in town from Friday afternoon, so if anyone wants to meet up and do something tomorrow evening, drop me a mail! (See below.)

NEW E-MAIL ADDY: Hollywood.com mail is now officially defunct. (Unofficially, it has been for months.) You can now reach me at mail@spellbindthem.com. Or webmaster@spellbindthem.com. Actually you could type in cluelesslardass@spellbindthem.com, and it would still end up in my inbox...I'm trying not to feel offended by that.

See you all Monday--or in KB Hallen!

2002-11-22T14:43:00.000-08:00

I'm adding new daily TTT pics again--well, I'll try. Bear with me if one or two days slip out. The temporary pictures I put up will stay until Monday, so grab'em if you wants'em.

2002-11-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

Tuesday's long downtime was, for once, planned: Our network got a new radio uplink, which should be more stable and less susceptible to weather changes. Yay!
The drawback is that you're loosing a free international weatherservice--before, whenever the site was down, you knew it was either raining, snowing or storming in Denmark! Neat, huh? No? Ah, there's no pleasing you guys.

The guestbook is back up too, the poll is working, Dotster seems to be back on track and the temporary Cafepress issues are resolved. So currently there is, as we say around here, no cow on the ice. *Deep, quivering sigh of relief*

Me? I finally got my Special Edition Collector's Box Set yesterday, dead polystone dudes and all. See you in a few months--last person to leave turns off the internet...

2002-11-15T12:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, things seem to be back to normal...I guess that very irate mail to Dotster costumer support did the trick. :) *wipes brow* Dreambook (my guestbook provider), however, is still down as it has been for two days--and Hollywood.com (where I have my site mail account) have announced that they are closing their mail service. Though calling what they've been providing for the past six months "service" is beyond creativity.
Why is every web *cough* service I use bailing on me at the same time? Why am I having the Hellish Hell-day from Hell? Why did I spend 40 kroner I really don't have on renting Queen of the Damned when I knew it would be trash? The questions are mounting. Exactly who or what they're mounting is another question, one I'm determined not to find the answer to. Ick.

2002-11-15T03:07:00.000-08:00

HNNNYARRRGH!!!
Smegging Dotster have stopped forwarding my URL without any kind of warning! Hang on while I resolve this. You can use the old addy in the meantime.

http://www.rrk.kollegienet.dk/~gryster/fotr

*grumblegrumble* I do NOT need this...

2002-11-12T12:46:00.000-08:00

Today the ten thousandth LotR lover pointed his/her/its browser to www.spellbindthem.com (or www.rrk.kollegienet.dk/~gryster/fotr, as it was to begin with. God, how did anybody ever find this place?). PARTAAAAY! Enjoy the 10.000 Hit Special, and contribute with your own bits of binary insanity. Please! I know what levels of inspired silliness you're capable of. :) Here's your chance to prove it...

In celebration of this massive event of international proportions, AllPosters have marked down all their Two Towers posters save the theatrical ones to $6.98! (Will you have me believe it's a coincidence?) That includes character posters for Legolas, Aragorn, Frodo, Sauron and the Eye, among others. Hurry over to the store!

2002-11-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

New Two Towers posters again--a full thirteen of them. Check out the poster store!

2002-11-10T07:50:00.000-08:00

The pictures I promised you yesterday are up. (TTT Countdown.)

2002-11-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

I'm back...ish. I still have a lot of issues (including my screen being pink most of the time), but it looks like I've postponed the inevitable a little while longer. What a nightmare! I think I spent 30 or 40 hours wrestling this thing. I came very close to hocking my soul so I could buy a new PC.

I can't promise you updates every day, at least not until I find an affordable used monitor, but I'll do my best. Oddly, my daily visitor numbers suddenly rose by at least a third right when my Squareheaded Boyfriend crashed, and stayed there. The logical deduction from this would be that the less I update, the more hits I get! Maybe this site is just better off without me. ;^)

I'm just going to give you a big jumbled pile of TTT pics now, to make up for lost time. Welcome new surfers! I hope you'll stick around.

2002-11-05T15:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of Two Towers newness; I had a fairly major breakdown yesterday. That is, my computer had one, but I'm not far from it myself. Basically, Explorer went kerflooey and took the email program and most of my file associations with it--and refuses to let me uninstall it. So far I've spent two days battling this thing, with nothing to show for it except high blood pressure and keyboard imprints on my forehead. At least now I have an internet connection of sorts, via an oldish version of Navigator that freezes or crashes whenever I blink...but I'm not even close to solving the problems, and I wouldn't expect an update tomorrow either if I were you. *sigh*

2002-11-03T15:44:00.000-08:00

New Adorable Pic of the Month! (Pictures & Captions section.)

Got an unexpected birthday present: I had heard that the TTT trailer would be showing with Red Dragon in the States, and figured that Europe might follow suit--but somehow I had managed to forget all about it when a friend and I went to see RD on my b-day after a fine Indian meal. So I wasn't just psyched but genuinely surprised when the familiar music kicked in. (As regular readers might remember, I've never actually seen the trailer due to an archaic PC.) I think Anna had a little trouble understanding my wild enthusiasm...what's so exciting about a trailer? Well, nothing, except that it's the trailer for what a member of the MPAA ratings committee reportedly called the best movie he had ever seen. People, I am not even gonna try to keep my expectations down for this one.

2002-10-31T15:08:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER JACKSON!

Very fitting that he should place his birthday on Halloween...and, coincidentally, the day before mine. Tomorrow is All Saints Day; which, as I realized a few years back, is not the day of all saints but of all the saints who don't have a day of their own. Meaning that once again, I get the leftovers.

And once again I've managed to steer the conversation back to...ME! It's a gift. Happy trick-or-treating, everyone, if that's your thing.

2002-10-28T12:50:00.000-08:00

A new week is upon us, so don't forget to vote! Thanks.

Yes, it's a new main menu AGAIN. It's not that I'm sick of looking at the old one already--it just took up too much space. And, to be honest, the graphics never looked the way I wanted them to...but then, I'm never satisfied with anything. Anyways, this design has room for news and incidental stuff, which is definitely a Good Thing.

2002-10-26T02:59:00.000-07:00

Just have to take a LotR-out here to say goodbye to Richard Harris. What saddens me the most isn't his passing per se (Lord knows he had been working on that for decades), but the fact that a whole generation will be mourning for Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter! He never even wanted the role, but took it on to please his grandchildren. *sigh* Not the epitaph you could have wished for an actor and personality of his stature...he was, in every way, 100% proof.

All TTT posters save the teaser seem to have been suddenly pulled from the market! Worse, AllPosters never announced it in any way, making me and everyone else who featured them prominently in their stores look like morons. God knows how long I've been linking to unavailable posters. I'm sorry if any of you have tried to order them and couldn't.

2002-10-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Been here? Seen that? Well, then get the T-shirt!

Only one design (in two variations) so far...more is on the way. Ideas and requests welcome. spellbind@hollywood.com

2002-10-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Ballot Box moved servers, and all my survey results from the last week or so have been lost in the process. Bummer. If you took the survey in the last few days, you can take it again--if you have the energy.

R.I.P. pop-up welcome. Don't know if any of you got sick of it, but I know I did! Good thing I had an alternative solution on file. It's a simple status bar message thing, which will cycle a number of messages in your status bar (lower left corner of the browser window): News, tips on navigation, etc. It shouldn't be too intrusive, but if you get sick of looking at it, just choose the "View" menu in your browser and uncheck Status Bar (or Status Line, or whatever else it's called).

2002-10-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIGGO MORTENSEN!

44 today. Boy, we Danes do keep well, don't we?

Finished thumbnailing/size-reducing the image archives. Just the rest of the cast, Memorable Moments and Places & Locations to go. *sigh*

2002-10-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

You asked for it, you got it: New pictures and captions. (Just a small handful, though.) At the same time I made thumbnails of most of the image archives--I'll try to get the rest done this weekend.

Let me know if the front page pop-up is driving you mad. And don't forget to take part II of the survey! Plug plug nag nag bother.

2002-10-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know I said I'm the sworn enemy of pop-ups. I meant pop-up ads *cough*. This is different...I had to let new visitors know that ADST is very much alive. I suspect a lot of people load the splash page, see the date "January 18th 2002" on the editorial and assume that was the last update. No wonder I'm not getting hits if they think it's a ghost site! The info pop-up (which, BTW, closes after 12 seconds) is one of several solutions I'm working on.

Part II of the survey is up. I had to wait for Ballot Box to fix a code bug, that's why it took so long. This time you get to influence the coming Two Towers site, among other things...go have your say!

2002-10-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

YESSS! That mindblowing TTT preview (the one attached to FotR prints this February) is included as an Easter Egg on the special edition DVD! Instructions follow:

"Disc Two: To access The Two Towers sneak peek trailer that was shown briefly in theaters at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring (4 min, 16x9, DD 5.1), go to the last page of the scene selections menu area and select the number "48" on the far right-hand side of the screen. Then navigate "down" to reveal a hidden Two Towers symbol. Press "Enter"."

I'm expecting to reach 9000 hits later today. But for some reason my visitor numbers have taken a nosedive in October, and I'm stumped for an explanation...is it a back-to-school syndrome? Is the web really dead? Do I smell? If you know something I don't, I'd be grateful if you would tell me in the guestbook, drop me a mail or, better yet, take the survey and leave your input in the comments box! Thanks.

2002-10-17T14:08:00.000-07:00

Still going through the dreary task of reducing file sizes and making thumbnails to make the images load faster: Today it's the splash page, Awards, and Aragorn page, which should run a lot smoother now. Fixed a couple of dead image links in the process--I was shocked to find them, as I've always reckoned the one thing this site could boast of without any doubt was no dead links. Rrrright. Maybe I should just turn down my ambitions a notch or two.

Hey, don't forget to take the visitor survey! It's free, good exercise, and does wonders for your skin. Plus it will help make this site better and me a happier woman, which I know you all want. So what are you waiting for? The return of Morgoth?

2002-10-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

Hmmm...having abdominal surgery was a lot less fun than I thought it would be. Probably because they didn't find a bloody thing. (Well, hopefully they found my insides, but outside of that, nothing.) Getting sick as a sickly sick thing from the anaesthetic, and passing out in the hospital hallway the next morning because I hadn't been eating and spraining my ankle in the fall, may have something to do with it too. As my mom says, it takes good health to be hospitalized.

The upside is that I've spent all week indoors, with little to do but work on the site. As usual, there have been lots of changes big and small going on here, even though I haven't recorded them in this log. The most significant are:

--A new survey section where you can tell me what you really think of this site (ouch), tell me a bit about yourself, and get your say in how the Two Towers site will look and feel! Part I of the Big ADST Survey...Poll...Thing is now up, and deals with this site, your set-up and your surfing habits. You can take it through the link above, or go there from the main or pull-down menu.

--The 640 x 480 version I promised you is up! No excuse not to visit now!

What else? Let's see...I removed the mouse trail clock from the Two Towers Countdown page again. Let's face it: It was mindblowingly cool, but probably a pain in the ass to a lot of you. Oh, and I moved the web rings back on the main page, now that it's possible to display just one rather than the whole damn stack. So now everyone who suspended me will add me again--I hope...

Keep coming back for your fresh daily Two Towers fix, and take a look at the rest of the site too--it's not bad. ;) Happy browsing!

2002-10-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

Who solved the resolution problem? I solved the resolution problem! :D Now even people with big fancy screens can visit the site without getting massive headaches. 1024 x 768 users, bookmark this page or click the link at the top of the page. 640 x 860 version coming soon...

2002-10-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

Just spent a couple of hours completely rebuilding the poster store with all the new Two Towers goodness! Take a look at the goodies below. And some of the Fellowship stuff is on sale now, so you might want to check that out too. BTW, AllPosters is currently featuring free shipping in the US for all orders of 30$ or more, so this would be the right time to shop in bulk!

Added a new pic of the month yesterday (more new pictures & captions to follow soon), and of course there's the daily new Two Towers picture(s). Enjoy.

2002-10-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

How would you like to see brand new Two Towers pictures every day, without having to go to the four corners of the web to find them? Well, you got it! The Two Towers visual countdown launched today, and will be featuring new TTT images DAILY from now and until December 18th. You can access it from the splash page, main page or the pulldown menu.

Who hasn't seen the new trailer yet? ME! I spent all of Tuesday downloading it in different formats and sizes, all of them playing in spasmodic one-frame-per-five-seconds jerks, rolling back to older versions of Quicktime better suited to my operating system, rolling forward again, trying to stream it, yelling at the firewall, uninstalling this, upgrading that, and still not seeing the trailer. I guess I'll have to wait until it hits Danish cinemas. Curse this prehistoric 90 mhz monolith of a PC! The cabinet would probably make an excellent doorstop, or if I had a dozen of them I could build a lovely mini-Stonehenge, but it's bloody useless for anything that actually involves computing. Grrrr.

Removed the "Tell me your thoughts, get politely ignored" mouse-over from the email button--because people stopped mailing me! I was kidding, you know...

2002-09-29T15:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's a brand slapping new graphic menu page! The text links just looked too jumbled and messy. I'm sort of doing a test run now...complaints to the usual address, please. :) (Yes, I know the button graphics aren't top quality, but I had to compromise a bit on the colors to get the files small enough. Working on it.)

2002-09-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

Wow.

"There was a great eye in the Dark Tower that did not sleep. (...) A fierce eager will was there. It leaped towards him; almost like a finger he felt it, searching for him. Very soon it would nail him down, know just exactly where he was."

That reminds me--I should call my mom.

Here are some more screenshots from the new theatrical Two Towers trailer which will premiere on the official site at midnight Monday. For some reason it will be available exclusively to AOL users from midnight tonight...well, I guess they deserve something special for putting up with Always OffLine.

2002-09-27T05:17:00.000-07:00

I won no less than three prizes at the No No, The Big One Awards! Go them! The "Funnest Site" award (okay, I was the only nominee), best movie tribute, and the "Elrond Approves" award for serious content. I guess it says something about the schizoid nature (Schizophrenicness? Schizophrenity?) of this site that it won for both most fun and most serious--and something about me and my schizoid ambitions for it that I applied for both. :)

No major updates lately...but that doesn't mean I've been lazing around, oh no. There are tiny adjustments going on all the time. Currently it's the long and tedious task of making thumbnails of the largest image files in the cast/characters section, so you won't have to load them every time you access the pages--I had to face the fact that there are still people chugging away on modems at 56kbps. (But if you're on 36k or even less, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE BROADBAND, BUDDY! Christ, you get a 56k modem free when you buy a lollipop these days.>g<)
I most likely won't be doing this in the image section, though, because A: people accessing a picture gallery will probably be expecting heavy graphics anyway and B: it's just too much bloody work. I'll try to make future additions smaller in size, though.

BTW, if anyone is wondering why I made no mention of a certain special day in the fandom last weekend: We all have to set a limit for our geekiness somewhere (hopefully), and I've chosen to draw mine at celebrating the birthdays of fictional characters. :) I'm glad others are having fun with it, it's just not my cup of cake.

2002-09-23T02:55:00.000-07:00

Rounded 8000 hits and cleaned up a couple of bad image links in the Elrond section.

I know I've fallen way behind on answering e-mail (for a *cough* change). To be honest with you guys: I lost my grandmother last week, two days after my best friend left for France for a year. I'm just not feeling terribly communicative (or creative) right now. All I can tell you is that you'll get a more cheerful reply when you get one! Your mail is important to us, please hold...

2002-09-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

Heh. Very apropos of this months Aren't-They-Adorable pic:
Latest Dork Tower comic
I smell a(nother) merchandising cash machine!

2002-09-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

Finally got an Elrond page up; Just pictures, no quotes or article at this time. Watch out, those images may take a while to load.

2002-09-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

I won no less than two new awards: The LotR Site Award for best movie site, and the Elvish Dream Award for Excellence. Thanks, guys!
My never-ending game of FTP whack-a-mole continues: The Nenya Awards have gone on hiatus, the Tolkien Awards are changing hands, and the Grey Haven Awards are starting up. *Thwack* Gotcha!

If the content updates are far between, it's because I'm busy trawling the web looking for the exact right set of graphics for the Two Towers site. Yes of course I'm making one, you silly people! ;) And you all get to help me shape it, so keep coming back.

2002-09-12T15:56:00.000-07:00

I won Planet Doom's Cool Site Award! What can I say but...cool!

So what else is new? Well...there are some tiny changes in the Writer section, and I am a zombie after packing jam jars in an ultra-fast assembly line for nine hours last night, coming home at 4 am. My hands and arms ache so much from lifting glasses and boxes of marmelade that I can barely hold a cup of coffee today, let alone type long updates, so I think I'll just go and crash...and not look at strawberry jam again for several months. Look for more ADST updates in a few days.

2002-09-12T05:33:00.000-07:00

Seventy-one years is far too short a time to turn in such excellent and admirable performances! I haven't seen more than half of them half as many times as I should like, and I've praised less than half of them half as much as they deserve...or something.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY IAN HOLM

Speech! Speech!

2002-09-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

Speaking of older PJ/Walsh, I got my hands on Meet the Feebles a few months back; I just haven't gotten around to reporting on it yet--I've been too busy laughing myself sick. And sicking myself sick...this is definitely one of the top five most disgusting movies I've ever seen, and this is puppets we're talking about! And in the wake of LotR, Blockbuster has picked up Forgotten Silver of all PJ movies. I'll rent it soon and then give the Director section an overhaul, but I need to finish the DVD section first.

You'll never guess: The Tolkien Awards closed down after two rounds! Meanwhile I've joined two new award sites, Immortality Forgiven Awards and No No, The Big One! Awards. This is getting to be quite a challenging game of Sign-up-with-all-the-LotR-award-sites-before-they-vanish. Like Whack-a-mole with FTP.

I also joined another voting/rating site, Planet Doom, an excellent genre portal. You can rate me there the usual way, by clicking the graphic in Awards & Voting.

2002-09-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

A heads up to all Danes reading along: PJ's (and Fran Walsh's) The Frighteners airs tonight at 22.15 on TV3--under some ridiculous Danish title, so you might have missed it. It's Jackson's most mainstream work prior to LotR, but definitely worth a look! Highly entertaining with a dark edge, as I recall...it's been several years. Oh, and you get to see Sean's dad John Astin appearing as The Judge, and spot the usual cameo by PJ himself.

2002-08-30T16:42:00.000-07:00

I won the Critical Mass Award! Yay! And it came with a very nice review that false modesty will only allow me to hint meaningfully at. >g< Looks like my baiting tactic of building a seperate page for awards is working. If you code it, they will come...

You may have had problems accessing the site in the past few weeks. Unfortunately there's not much hope of it clearing up in the near future. The network I'm on is having major radio uplink trouble, and making the decision (and finding the money) to replace the sick antenna could drag on for eons. Furthermore, since my net connection as well as the host server's depends on that uplink, I can never be sure if the site is down or I'm just having trouble accessing it myself due to local network problems. To put it in another way: IT'S NOT MY FAULT!

If this goes on much longer I'll start looking for alternative hosting, but since I can't really pay anything and am the sworn enemy of pop-up ads, I don't have high hopes. :/

2002-08-29T03:55:00.000-07:00

7000 hits as of last night!

I found some better pics of Lothlorien, so most of the images in that section of Places & Locations have been replaced. Most of the old ones are in use in other parts of the site though, so they're still around in case you miss them. :)

Great Scott, I missed Billy Boyd's birthday yesterday! Sorry, luv.

Happy (belated) 34th, William!

2002-08-28T02:41:00.000-07:00

The entire rating system at One Ring has been reset due to cheating. Please take a few seconds to rate me again! Thanks.

2002-08-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

Part one of the DVD section is up! Finally. (Well, I did say no promises.) It's not a review per se, just some assembled notes.

Okay, I give up. Now The Ring Awards are back, just a week or two after they closed down! I don't know if I'll even sign up for it this time--the site might blow up in my face while I fill out the nomination form... >g<

I'm currently number five on One Ring's top rated list, after several weeks in third place! Again, thanks to everyone who rated me.

2002-08-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

There's a new Pic of the Month up in the Images section.
The DVD section is coming along nicely, and part one should go up sometime this week. No promises, though.

2002-08-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's a commercial, but it slays me:

60 second theatre does FotR

You have to give this a listen...Frodo's voice alone keeps cracking me up. A Beautiful Mind and Harry Potter are pretty damn funny too. But I find it extremely unsettling that they have to tack "Celebrity voices impersonated" onto them all. Gee, I really thought that was Russell Crowe! (Actually it's a pretty great impersonation, but still...no-one can be that stupid, right? Right?)

I'm not gonna brag, but...okay, I'll brag. ;) ADST is currently the fifth highest rated site on One Ring, which is probably the most extensive directory of Tolkien sites on the web. Smooches to all who rated me!

2002-08-14T03:11:00.000-07:00

Got back from my trip Sunday evening to a new flatmate with a cat, the FotR DVD, and issue 3 of the LotR fanclub mag. That's quite a homecoming. :)
Knackered as I was, I of course decided to take a peek at the DVD before turning in (just the first couple of scenes), and of course I ended up watching the movie end-to-end. That's rather telling: Normally when I buy a movie I've already seen several times, I'll start playing with the extra features, but this time I headed straight for disc 1. That makes eleven viewings.
Of course it's not the same movie on the small screen, even a 28" letterbox TV, but it was still a very happy reunion! And the extra stuff is very, very interesting in places. I've started gathering a few notes on the DVD--they'll probably get a section of their own in a little while.

Awards and voting have been moved to their own section as well; I was commenting on the endless coming and going of award sites the other day, and now the largest of them, The Ring Awards, has shut down without warning because it's "no fun anymore". *sigh* Of course there's a natural out- and influx of sites in a fandom this large, and I can understand that someone becomes a bit overwhelmed by the success of their pet project, but they might have thought about that when they started out. Opening an ambitious website is rather like buying a kitten...okay, not quite for life, but still a responsibility of sorts. I bet these kids killed off all their Tamagotchis too. >g<

And that concludes the lesson for today. I've joined three new award sites...it might be fun if these stuck around, grew and flourished with the fandom.

2002-08-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

The good news is that my DVD shipped today. Huzzah! The bad news is that it shipped from Amazon UK, and won't arrive for another 3-7 days. Of course I could have just bought it in a store tomorrow, but A: Ordering it from England is actually cheaper(!), B: It comes with free stuff, and C: I thought someone should shop through my links. >g< Ah well...I'm off to visit my parents up north for a few days anyway (beeeeeeeach!), so hopefully it'll be waiting in my mailbox when I get home. I just can't get over the tragic irony of the fact that practically everyone will be seeing the DVD before me...but hell, it's worth waiting for. It's LotR:FotR, ferfuckssake!

2002-08-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

Yay! I finally got a nod in The Ring Awards--first runner up for Best Site Name. Of course I get it the month they decide to stop giving out actual awards to second and third place winners. Typical. >g< Next round winners will be decided by vote, so I'm relying on you guys!
The new Naur, Gwae, Nen and Nenya awards are both coming up within a few days, should be interesting...and the Fellowship Awards went out with a whimper, un-announced, before they had given out a single prize. Good going, someone.

DVD in three days!

2002-07-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Well, TORN FINALLY updated their links section and added me. I probably shouldn't talk when it comes to update procrastination, but eight months is really pushing it. I was actually slightly miffed over the remark about my "groanworthy captions" for several hours--until I remembered that I probably wrote that description myself when I submitted the link back in January! Oops. >g<
I took the opportunity to freshen up my own link section. A bit of summer cleaning to pass the time until (DV)D-day...eleven days to go!

2002-07-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

New pictures up!

I just realized that the DVD is only a couple of weeks away! WHEEEE! It's not too late to preorder and get the discount and/or bonus items, you know. (Plug, plug.) Details on the main page.

Hopefully having the movie to watch over and over at home will inspire me to fill out some of the missing/empty sections of the site. It's infinitely easier to write about something you have fresh in memory. In the meantime I'll be wiping every mote of dust off my widescreen TV, getting my notepad ready and testing the Zoom and Still functions on the DVD remote. Come to momma, shiny little discs...

2002-07-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

Hello, possums! I'm back from eight days in Mud-fyns hell, with a nasty cough to show for it. I've never experienced nights so cold in summer, and my discount tent did an admirable job of keeping the constant rain in. Still, I had some awesome music experiences, and as for the rest...well, every festival enthusiast will have to admit that it's partly what we come for. But I guess some people will simply never understand the glory of wearing the same mud-stiff pants for a week, brushing your teeth in diet Coke, and defining "dressing up" as a change of underpants and new gaffa over the holes in your sneakers...poor sods. Maybe some day I'll even advance to the hardcore crowd, and earn the right to start every day with a pint and a cheeseburger...

And waddayaknow, ADST passed 5000 hits while I was away! Maybe I should make a habit of leaving and letting you guys do all the work. ;^) Again, I have to thank you good people for your great support--you're all goodlooking, intelligent and sexy, especially the ones who shop in my stores.

Speaking of which, I can now offer you THE AWESOME TWO TOWERS TEASER POSTER TO OWN AND KEEP! Click this link or the one on the main page for details.

I hate to pester you with salestalk, but I very badly need to cover my expenses for this site, and have yet to sell a single item through any of my stores--just in case you thought I'm getting rich from this. So if you wish to support this site (and keep it free from annoying, irrelevant ads) and will be buying items from Amazon or Allposters anyway, I would be very grateful if you shop through my links. It means no extra cost and minimum hassle to you, but a great help to me. Thanks. (You won't have to buy the products I've linked either, or the ones in the special Tolkien stores; if you enter Amazon through my site, any item you buy will earn me a small commission.)

Quote for the day: "When you can buy a plastic Gandalf with kung-fu grip and rocket launcher, you know fantasy has broken through." *smirk*. Terry Pratchett, of course. The inimitable Pterry finally won the Carnegie Medal, and according to Ananova he took the opportunity to aim a few potshots at the current fantasy wave in general, and LotR and Harry P in particular [ ARTICLE ] . My opinion? The man has been instrumental in keeping the genre alive in the past 15 years, both in terms of quality and booksales--he has the right. (Okay, so the quality is dropping steadily these days, but did we really expect him to deliver a 40 book winning streak?) Besides I have the feeling it's done with a healthy dose of love, given how much he has borrowed from/spoofed on Tolkien.

Later, all! To those I owe email: Please have patience, I'm getting there.

2002-06-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

Well, new content will have to wait another week, because I'm off to the Midtfyns festival tomorrow. I actually can't afford it, but I couldn't bear the torture of one more year sitting at home knowing that names like Coldplay, Muse, Doves, Gomez, Turin Brakes, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Rival Schools, Kent, Baal, Junior, Kashmir, C.V. Jørgensen, Sort Sol, Tim Christensen and Mew are playing practically in my back yard--especially after missing out on a mindblowing Roskilde line-up that included Starsailor, Bob Hund, Travis, the good old Chili Peppers and pretty much every interesting new band on the planet. The bad news is that I'm packing woolly sweaters and wellies instead of sundresses, but hey, it wouldn't really be a festival without kneedeep smat anyway. See you all next Monday--I'll bring you back a nice cup of authentic Danish mud!

And what does all this have to do with LotR, you ask? Uhh...uhh...oops, gotta go.

2002-06-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

The Two Towers teaser poster AND trailer are here! Feast your senses...

The poster features...well...the two towers. Not very imaginative perhaps, but extremely impressive. Click the image for a larger version:

The teaser trailer, which you'll find here, is basically the special theatrical preview recut into a shorter and more traditional form, and furnished with a Galadriel voice-over linking the events of FotR to what we're seeing. So it's mostly aimed at newcomers and casual fans, where the preview was more for the hardcore crowd. Not quite as exhilerating of course, but really, really nice to have around until the full brain-melting 3½ minutes are officially released, as I very seriously hope they will be soon. And you do get to hear Gollum's voice again, which still makes every hair on my body stand to attention. Sooo perfect. I may have to start an Andy Serkis appreciation society ahead of time...

But no sign of Pippin clinging to Treebeard, which was my favorite moment in the preview. Damn.

(NB: If you're tempted by the bootleg of the special preview on offer at the download site, I should warn you that it is A: illegal, B: huge and, if that hasn't scared you off, C: so choppy it's unwatchable. Or so I'm told.)

2002-06-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

Massive thanks to Esme aka GrannyAmy for sending me the three rather cute pics I just put up, of EW greeting OB at the London premiere. Any Weatherwax is a friend of mine! :) (I'll get back to you, girl, promise. I just have a lot on my plate right now.)

2002-05-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

Ouch! I missed Christopher Lee's 80th birthday yesterday! It's raining wizards this week.

Happy birthday, mr. Lee!

Meanwhile, ADST reached 4000 hits today. Again I thank everyone who contributed, mailed me, left guestbook comments or just keeps coming back. You know...after four months I have yet to receive a single flaming, or even a rude remark? So far it's pretty much all been constructive criticism, wellfounded dissenting opinions, polite corrections, praise, "me too!", encouragement, useful info, suggestions, questions and offers of help--the majority of it accurately spelled, and all of it deeply appreciated. Careful, guys...if you keep this up, you'll give online fandom a good name!

2002-05-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

There is only one birthday boy, and he does not share cake.

Happy birthday, sir Ian!

2002-05-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

Over a week since the last update. Ouch! Sorry about that. My only defense is that the weather has been absolutely glorious, and I've been out showing off my new and considerably smaller self in new and considerably smaller clothes. Weight loss gooood. I may not quite be elf queen sized yet, but by Luthien, I'm getting a bikini this year! Watch out Denmark--it's D-day, and I'm taking the beach.

Speaking of elf queens, happy belated birthday to Cate Blanchett! New content soon, I *cough* promise...

2002-05-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

Saruman page up. Only Elrond to do, and I'll be finished with the interimistic cast pages--then I just have to write articles for all of them. Holy crap! I'll be lucky if I'm finished before it's time to start on the Two Towers site...

2002-05-08T05:01:00.000-07:00

Added Arwen section. Just pictures, no quotes, because...well, to be completely honest I have yet to hear Liv Tyler say anything interesting about the film, or her role in it.

2002-05-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to adding new captioned pics. Yeah, I know, not much has been happening here lately--but I really needed to go and do some things that weren't LotR for a while. >g<
Oh, and I missed John Rhys-Davies' birthday Sunday! Sorry about that.

2002-05-03T04:25:00.000-07:00

You read it here first--that is, if you haven't already read it at the IMDB, or somewhere else, or heard it from your hairdresser: Elijah Wood is "likely" to star in a Tarantino-produced adaption of the cult Marvel comic "Mort the Dead Teenager"...which I've never heard of, but I guess that's what makes it cult. (Never was much into serials and superhero stuff anyway; I'm more of a graphic novel girl. Sounds interesting, though.) Check out the news blurb.

2002-04-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

SMEG! They pulled FotR from theatres when I wasn't looking! And the first DVD is still THREE BLOODY MONTHS away! But...but...I must have my fiiiiix... *taps vein manically*

This is turning out to be the kind of day that can really ruin your day.

2002-04-28T03:16:00.000-07:00

Well, that was relatively painless; My connection returned after a day or so. Still have the server switch coming up next weekend, though...

Boromir page added.

2002-04-26T02:28:00.000-07:00

Our entire local network is getting replaced--network components this weekend, main server next weekend. Which means the site will probably be blinking on and off for a couple of weeks *sigh*. And so will my net access, so don't send me any important email.

If you want to stay up to date, I suggest you bookmark this newsblog (http://fotr.blogspot.com). It's independent from the rest of the site, so I can post news here as long as I can get online.

2002-04-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

Finally finished adding pictures to the Moments section. I know the updates have been few and small lately--I've been working. Signed up with a temp agency that calls me out to all kinds of odd jobs with short or no notice, and this and last week I've spent some days and nights weighing and bundling junkmail in a warehouse on the docks. Terribly nice people, but the work is hard, dirty and incredibly monotonous--after a few hours of repeating the same three motions over and over, your brain has no idea what the rest of you is doing. The wages are lousy too. But hey, it pays for my acting classes. Just...noone send me any spam right now, okay?

So, updates will depend on how much I'll be working. Don't expect big things in the near future.

Lots of awesome FotR wallpapers here, and you'll find some of Viggo Mortensen too if you click the Index link at the bottom of the page. Vin Diesel and Oded Fehr too, I see. Hmmm, I might have to look further into this site...thanks to Starbuck for the link!

2002-04-21T14:16:00.000-07:00

My first award! *sniffle* You like me! YOU REALLY LIKE ME!

2002-04-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

Whoops, nearly missed Andy Serkis' birthday. Gollum is 38 today! Happy birsssday, our precious. You got your present a long time ago, but the nassty hobbitsses sstole it...

2002-04-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Added four items to the banner section. I figured it was about time I got some of them newfangled 100x35 and 88x31 banners all the kids are using these days. What the hell kind of size is that anyway? Who decides to make something thirty-ONE pixels tall? No, when I started surfing the web way back in the good ol' days, summer of '96, we had banner sizes that made sense. And none of those fancy-schmancy Photoshop java tools and HTML editors either--we wrote our own code, we did. By hand. And then we etched it onto the server drives with hammers and chisels! It could take weeks just to set up a simple link.

(Of course, back then there were only three other sites on the web to link to, so noone cared.)

2002-04-18T05:04:00.000-07:00

Rebekka asked for it, and it WAS about time for a new one--ATA Pic of the Month, that is. More new pics and captions will be added soon, hopefully; I've been adding images to the Memorable Moments as well, to illustrate them and fill out the blank spaces. What can I say? I've always suffered from a bad case of Horror Vacui. (Noone do a Freudian analysis of THAT statement, please.)

2002-04-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

Added a couple of links and a handfull of webrings. Search engines are starting to index me and traffic is picking up a bit. Welcome, new surfers!
It's a new week, so don't forget to vote: Click here to vote for me at TolkienWorld (just click once and your vote is counted) or here to vote at Tolkien Top 100 (you have to click on the "Complete your vote by clicking here" banner for your vote to count).

2002-04-13T14:09:00.000-07:00

Galadriel page added.

2002-04-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

Made some minor cosmetic changes--and finally got around to giving Emily proper credit for her work on the navigation system. *blush* Sorry it's taken me so long!

2002-04-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

Hmmm, didn't win any Ring Awards...ah well, there's always the next round. And you can nominate someone for Popular Site or Rocking Webmaster at any time, nudge nudge! ;)

2002-04-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

Posted a Bilbo page, and added a couple of pictures to The Basics. There'll be more images popping up in various sections--the site is so text-heavy, it needs a bit of eye candy!

2002-04-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

Gimli/John Rhys-Davies pics and quotes up.