Today's Friday Five

Yes, I realize I'm posting this on Monday. It was a bad week...

1. What are your hobbies?
God, I barely have a LIFE when I'm working both jobs, let alone a hobby. I guess getting back into fandom is a hobby, eh? Fanfiction (writing and reading), congoing, picture taking, webpage making. Figure skating stuff is falling further and further behind.

2. Do you collect anything? If so, what? Started collecting Barbie dolls about 18 months ago--escalated from the original, very reasonable attempt to get a doll like my own original barbie (1963 brunette bubblecut). Now I have some vintage, some recreations, some contemporary, and most of the newest silkstone line. Also collect vintage and handmade Barbie clothes. Newest collecting revolves around Lord of the Rings (quel surprise)--cards, autograph cards, movie of the actors, etc. Obsessive, but not yet a completist... Of course, now that I've photographed Billy and Viggo, and hope to catch Ian in June, I'm guessing I'll want to photograph the rest of the fellowship, too.

3. Is there a hobby you're interested in, but just don't have the time/money to do? I always feel like I'm slighting the ones I already have, especially the webpage stuff. There's just SO much more I could be doing if I didn't spread myself so thin. But trying to decide which to give up is just beyond me.

4. Have you ever turned a hobby into a moneymaking opportunity? Well, I'd like to do that with the photography, but 1) I'm just not all that extraordinarily good, 2) not willing to make the investment of time, effort and money that would take me to the next level, and 3) don't really live in the right part of the country to make a go of it in figure skating photography.

5. Besides web-related stuff (burbs, rings, etc.), what clubs do you belong to? Anissina & Peizerat fanclub, several Lord of the Rings related things, official photographer for Ilia Kulik fanclub.... That's all I can think of at the moment.

I'm finally getting a few more of my Billy photos posted, although FTPing to my webhost is slower than molasses in January. I took over 250 photos last weekend, but I'm not going to post more than a quarter of them, I think. I shot at a very slow speed to maximize light, and the graininess and lack of focus is driving me crazy. I did get the majority of the best Viggo ones uploaded last night. Now I want to add a few of the line, just around the time it started raining--and one I was granted permission to use, that I found on another site, of ME photographing the line! Hope I can get some photos of the bbnet "loons" up tonight, too, but I have to work a double-header tomorrow (well, later today, actually) and I really should get to bed!

However, as spur-of-the-moment decisions go, I can't fault myself for this one. Going to ICON was pretty much the highlight of my year so far. Things really can't have gone any better than they did, either at the signing, the con, or with my room-mates. I was extraordinarily lucky! Maybe it's a sign that moving back into fandom is a good thing.

A few more notes from the Sunday Q&A with Billy:

The Edinburgh Tattoo re-enactment apparently ended with the guys trying some kind of slide (water slide, maybe?), which wasn't necessarily a good idea in a kilt...

What does "evil" mean to you? Evil is a normal man who pushes himself to have something just to have it and doesn't learn from his mistakes.

Favorite characters other than Pippin: Sam, Boromir, Treebeard

What would you be if not an actor? A professional surfer

Visit to the Star Wars set--Funny moment, when overheard on a crewmember's walkie talkie the announcement: Tht hobbits are on set.

Billy's double's name was Vaughn.

Favorite weapon among several named by a woman obviously familiar with weapons: Claymores are HUGE. He can swing one but can't imagine fighting with one. He also talked a bit about William Wallace's huge, 8-foot sword--they must just take a swing and hope for the best! He liked Pippin's short sword, and he has fenced epee in competition.

Pip's scarf, in a way, WAS Pippin. It was his connection to the Shire, which he missed and would have happily returned to if not for his friends. It was his security blanket, and often hung next to him when he rested (as in Lothlorien).

Does he have a girlfriend? Not one with a ring on her finger...

I hope someone else transcribed the story about trying to teach Dom guitar. Apparently that particular guitar of Dom's did not last long and that was the end of that.

I am SO dead. I haven't had more than 4 hours of sleep in over a week now, and with 16-18 hour days today and tomorrow, that situation is unlikely to get better any time soon. I do SO want to get caught up on my ICON notes and photos!

At any rate, I *did* get a few photos posted last night, and you can see them at: http://www.lilithofsherwood.com/Lij/icon/

Sunday Q&A.Billy is wearing a white open-necked shirt with stripes of blue, purple and green, a pendant which might have been his NZ greenstone, and jeans. Billy talked a bit about the script that he and Dom are writing. It involves two bad guys ("who happen to be British...") whe end up running a scuba diving school and know nothing about it. They get involved with the mafia.

What person, living or dead, would Billly like to meet? John Lennon (he's brilliant), Peter Sellers, Spike Mulligan

When did he decide he wanted to be an actor? After being in a school production of "Oliver!" at age 10, wherein he played the Artful Dodger.

There were a couple of guitar references, one Saturday and one Sunday. Saturday he had talked about teaching Dom guitar, only to have Dom almost immediately inadvertently destroy the guitar. On Sunday, he said that the guitar is his favorite instrument.

Hobbit feet? Generally OK, and their size and springiness made you feel like a hobbit. Downside: they weren't *that* thick and you could feel stones, etc., through them, and in the scene where Sam chases after Frodo in the boat, Sean Astin actually had a stick go through his foot and he had to be helicoptered to the hospital. He also talked about how they absorbed water, and during filming of the scene outside Moria they filled with water and then froze. Nothing crew tried, from furry boots to heating pads, seemed to help the problem.

Edinburgh tattoo: a group recreated the Edinburgh Tattoo in Wellington, complete with a scale model of Edinburgh Castle. Dom and Lijah had planned to attend with Billy, and Billy hired kilts for them and Dom also got a red beard. Viggo showed up unexpectedly with nothing Scottish to wear, so Billy lent him a sweatshirt--I didn't catch exactly what it was, something like a 1972 football jersey. And they had a great time.

Yes, I'm behind, but I WILL catch up!

I think I messed up reposting Viggo, so here it is again.

Saturday morning, and I'm all checked in and waiting in the Cyber Cafe for the bbnet meeting to begin. Still thinking about yesterday. Everyone has a Viggo story, but my favorite one was the girls who asked if Viggo was seeing Billy at all, only to be told that he hadn't realized Billy was in town. He instructed them to put on red lipstick and kiss Billy all over from his slave and his king... *sigh*

Of course, I'm still kicking myself over not doing the two things I had intended to do--not being any particular huge fan of his, I thought I'd be plenty calm enough to remember. That was pre- the excitement of the event in general and the wonderfulness of Viggo in particular. Needless to say, I didn't remember either. The two things were: get a good look at the color of his eyes for myself, since they have been described so variously; and to ask about the line of his they cut at the end of Boromir's death scene. Oh, well, maybe there will be another time.

What else can I say about it? I met a lot of wonderful people (some from bbnet and more not), several of whom had brought really thoughtful gifts. My favorite two gifts were Shelagh's (a gorgeous matted presentation of music she had written for "The Riddle of Strider," and another person who had bought him a wonderful box for storing fishing flies (from a store near Yellowstone that, as it turns out, he has frequented). Viggo seemed to make a point of trying to connect with everyone, find something to talk about with them, whatever it took. I had mentioned, while he was signing a collage I made for a friend, that Photoshopping photos was the closest I could get to "art" photographs, that my sports photographs were nothing like what he took. He asked what I photograph (which is figure skating) from when we got into a discussion of the recent Olympics.

Billy Boyd's Q&A was lots of fun. He was escorted in by a squad of storm troopers, to much delight. Looking delightfully scruffy (he is growing a beard for his next role), Billy was dressed in dark jeans and a black open-necked shirt with sleeves rolled up above his elbows. He was absolutely charming, although a lot of the younger fangirls took advantage of that fact by insisting on giving him gifts and/or asking for hugs during the panel, thus seriously cutting into the Q&A time. Unfortunately, the con didn't cut off that behavior until the panel was nearly over, so Billy's percentage of hugs to questions was weighted fairly heavily in favor of hugs. I didn't take any notes because I was photographing pretty extensively, but I tried to audiotape--if any of that turns out, I will transcribe. Some of what I *do* remember is a question about injuries--while he was not injured on the set, he *did* break his little finger surfing. The WETA workshop guys put on an invisible splint for him, but he couldn't swordfight correctly with it on so he had to go without, and his finger is crooked because of that. The other story I remember the most was about the Ents--it was such a struggle to hoist Billy and Dom up, wire them in, etc., for their scenes with Treebeard, that more often it was easier for them to just remain in place and have tea handed up to them. Billy said that, quite often, everyone else would wander off for their tea, leaving Billy and Dom up in the tree--which after a while, they would start to talk to.

Stories I remembered later: when asked if he wanted to do more Shakespeare, Billy said that he likes Shakespeare and mentioned a certain company, somthing like the Original Shakespeare Company(?), that did Shakespeare like it was done at the time--the actors only get their own sides and cues, and do not know what the other actors do or say (no rehearsal either). He said it was great fun--I imagine it must be exhilarating when it works.

I don't remember the actual question about the different ways to interpret the story, but I remember Billy saying that at first, it struck him that the movie was about Sam: his loyalty to his friend, etc. Then he decided it was about Aragorn, the man who was born to be king but must find his own way to it. But mostly, he said, he thought it was about Pip.

Asked about his tartan, Billy said his family was part of the Clan Stuart, making his tartan the Royal Stuart.

More stories if/when I can transcribe the tape. As I type this, I am sitting in a long line waiting for Billy Boyd's autograph session, which promises to be pandemonium. I'm hoping the con staff makes an attempt to limit the time per person (since I'm sure Billy won't), because the line is pretty huge.

Update: despite appearances, I did manage to get to up to Billy in the autograph session. I had the photo of Pippin laying on the pillow in Lothlorien and I asked him if it was a still photo only or if there had been a scene that was deleted. He said that it was a scene, and between us, it would be included in the DVD. Yahoo!

That is the autograph session in a nutshell (well, that and me taking a million more photos). Then we all ran immediately over to the Javits auditorium for the "Inside the Actors Studio" panel. So, another one where I will have to hope to transcribe the tape--the part you absolutely have to hear is Billy's answer to his favorite sound, which was some loan moans a la Meg Ryan. Needless to say, the audience fell about in hysterics. On the subject of injuries, Billy alluded again to the fact that he wasn't injured, but also told the story of Viggo breaking the tooth and insisting on getting it superglued so he could finish--because he was Viggo. He then told the story of Dom getting his foot run through when Sean Bean tried to put his sword in his scabbard and missed. The final line of that story was: and Dom, being Dom, took three weeks off. Other answers I remember: the other character he would like to have played - Aragorn, and words of actor wisdom imparted to him - If you don't have to move, don't.

It's now technically Saturday, and Friday turned out much better than I had expected. After two hours sleep, I somehow managed to get to work *nearly* on time, and pretty much did everything I had to before leaving at 10AM. So I decided to make a stop at Walgreen's walked to the train (carrying my 40 pound backpack plus a purse and my large telephoto) and still made the plane on time (albeit without a lot of time to spare). And next my plane actually arrived half an hour early, meaning that my cab dropped me off in front of the Photography Center before 5PM, for the 6PM signing. It was obvious that I was in PLENTY of time, for once.

I won't go into too many details yet, but I'll try to type more tomorrow during the day. Viggo was wonderful: laughed, talked, chatted, touched everyone, signed as many things as you wanted, posed for endless photos. I, the least Aragorn besotted person I know, was smitten. And I took upwards of 70 photos...

My favorite part (hearsay only) when told Billy was in town, fans were told to put on red lipstick, and cover him in kisses from his slave and his king.

Today's Friday Five

1. What's your favorite TV show and why? Boy, I so rarely watch TV anymore. If I could get the computer and the TV in the same room, maybe... The only things I watch with any regularity are Buffy, West Wing, and occasionally ER. I worship Allison Janney, btw!

2. Who is your favorite television star? See above. I do think it must be Allison Janney.

3. What was your favorite TV show as a child? Had a few. "Man from UNCLE" sticks in my head, especially the time when I came down with Scarlet Fever, was taken to the ER by my dad, and then we both waited impatiently for the doctor, glaring at the clock, because we were afraid we'd miss MUNCLE. Also loved "The Outer Limits" and "Combat."

4. What show do you think should have been cancelled by now? I can honestly say that I don't watch enough to know, and I sure haven't taken the time to watch enough of anything that I *think* is awful, to confirm that it is.

5. What new show do you hope escapes the axe this season? Definitely "Greg the Bunny." Sounded like a stupid concept, but it's been funny and Seth Green is wonderful (as always).

Yippee!

I can't believe I'm pulling this off, but it looks like I'm going to I-CON at SUNY Long Island this weekend. Festivities should begin (airlines and cabs cooperating) with me hitting a Viggo autograph session in Manhattan on Friday evening. And then Billy at the con on Saturday and Sunday. Happy Happy, Joy Joy!

It's still not all worked out, but with TONS of help from Shelagh and bbnet, I think it's going to happen. Fingers crossed!

I'm Frodo!
I'm blue ba da ba di....

Which LOTR Character are you?

Wednesday, 17 April

Happy Birthday, Mr. Bean!

Sean's 43rd birthday is today. I've done a page to commemorate it. Love ya, Sean. Just wish more of your stuff was available in the US. Still holding at 17 movies plus the Sharpe's.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my query about doing a "Friday Five" style group discussion. There was more than enough interest for me to proceed, so proceed I will! Everyone should be hearing from me within a day or two. In the mean time, if you think of any potential topics, do send them my way.

There's a strong possibility I may again do the not only unexpected, but the nearly impossible: I think I'm going to I-Con this weekend. Would have been simple had I decided to do so when I first thought about it, but NO. I have to decide I can't, then change my mind 4 days before I need to go. Fingers crosssed I can still pull this off, because now that I'm actually planning it, it would break my heart not to make it.

I made it to viewing #24 on Sunday. Can't imagine there will be too many others, as our list of theatres grows decidedly thin. I only took a few notes this time, and in their place, I will repeat one from Shelagh: If smarty-pants Gandalf had just read the elvish inscription at the gates of Moria in it's original language instead of translating immediately, he would have said "friend" and the gates would have opened!

"Friday Five" -style discussion for Lord of the Rings?

Anyone with a weblog, blog, or LiveJournal interested in doing something like “The Friday Five” on LOTR-related subjects? I'd like to get something like this going--if you're interested, read this.

Today's Friday Five

1. What is your favorite restaurant and why?
Hmmm, don't know that I really have one. I love the Ruth's Chris chain of steakhouses--does that count? I guess if I have to name one, I'd list Nicola's on the main drag in Lake Placid, NY. Love the restaurant, love the town, love the people I usually dine with there. On the other end of the spectrum, I love my local IHOP. I know what I'm getting, it's always open, and what a great place to go after a skating event or movie.

2. What fast food restaurant are you partial to?
This one is easier. My current favorite is Arby's, although when I'm at a skating event or convention I tend to look for a Subway, because it's easy to take their stuff out, and they're quite often open 24 hours. The one a block from my hotel in Vancouver, BC was a godsend.

3. What are your standards and rules for tipping?
I'm a pushover, mostly. The server has to be obviously rude before I tip less than 15%. And I tend to give the benefit of the doubt... I know the "word" is that women, and women dining alone in particular, are poor tippers, and I want to make sure I don't fall into that statistic.

4. Do you usually order an appetizer and/or dessert?
Almost never. Unless I'm with Karen, of course, who *always* orders dessert. Then it's about 50/50. If everyone else is having dessert and I'm not interested, there's always coffee.

5. What do you usually order to drink at a restaurant?
For breakfast, usually coffee, no juice. Any other time, a cola (preferable Pepsi). Not a wine or beer drinker, so the lighter alcoholic beverages are out for me. If I've time before dinner, I might have a vodka collins or vodka sour, or a screwdriver if I'm somewhere that can't make blender drinks.

More and more fun quizzes!

What's your FOTR slash pairing?
Where in Middle Earth would you live?


You're Casey the nerdy kid at school, who is always getting beat up by the jocks. Life takes another unpleasant turn as you and Delilah (your crush, who wants nothing to do with you) discover your teachers are aliens. All's well, that ends well, though: in the end you save the day and get the girl.

Take the Which Faculty Member Are You? Quiz made by Cora Black

A great weblog: Dancing about Architecture's LiveJournal

Another day, another site to take a quiz on: Who's your LOTR love? I refuse to answer who I got the first time I tried this, since I don't even much LIKE Aragorn, but the second time I got Frodo (hooray!).

Went to LotR Viewing #23 on Saturday night, on an IMAX screen in Addison, IL. Yowza, Frodo eyes are even more deadly on a big screen. Can't say I'll be able to tolerate that for TTT or RotK, but for FotR it was nice. The screen was actually very slightly wider than my eyes could easily see--I rather liked the feeling of "choosing" to watch a certain part of the screen.

And I also chose to watch the number of times Frodo could eat, but doesn't (as opposed to should sleep, but either doesn't or is woken up): He packs all that food in Bag End that we never see him eat; Sam hands him water when they first set out and are still in the Shire (but we don't see him drink it); we see them smoking and laying a fire in the Shire but no meal in evidence; he holds a tankard in The Prancing Pony but I didn't see him drink from it (and he's not eating, although Sam is); he is helping the other hobbits set up for second breakfast after they leave Bree (but of course Aragorn makes them move on); he passes on the offer of tomatoes, sausages, and nice crispy bacon in favor of putting out the fire on Weather Top; Sam brings him a whole plate of food while they are watching Boromir teach swordfighting to Merry and Pippin (he takes it but doesn't eat anything). Any more that I missed?


I'm making a lot of progress on updating my Sean Bean video collection. I'm up to 15 movies now, with two more on the way, plus the Sharpe episodes. I even re-watched Scarlett this week (see photo), which I think should count as "above and beyond the call of fandom." How can they make such an awful movie with such a fantastic cast?

I joined crappy blogs! (See link at right.) I just love that name. I've gone on a binge lately of reading at least a few new blogs and/or LiveJournals each day, so why not join a ring?

Today's Friday Five

1. What are the first things that you do in the morning to start your day?
On a workday? Why am I asking... this time of year every day is a worday for me. Turn off the alarm, assuming it has rung. Usually it doesn't, no matter how little sleep I've gotten--and these days, a "night's" sleep is 4-5 hours. Feed the cat and clean her litter box. Shower, wash my hair, and dress. Pack a lunch. Then off to the CTA train station for another wonderful morning's commute. I really, *really* miss working on North Michigan Avenue where the office was one pleasant bus ride away from home.

2. What are the last things that you do at night before going to bed?
I've normally spent the early evening either working, scanning, or taping, and updating webpages (much less often than I need to). So it's quite often midnight before I can check e-mail and ftp any webpage changes. FTP usually gets done first, the personal e-mail, then list mail. I'm mostly ignoring my skating lists these days in favor of LotR lists. While I'm downloading mail and/or FTPing, I usually start my ritual of checking the cat's box, taking my vitamins and melatonin, undressing and washing my face. If I have any large downloads scheduled in Star Downloader (a program I highly recommend), I will usually do those while I am reading listmail since it takes up pretty much all my bandwidth. If there's a new installment of the latest Lily Baggins story, I try to save that for last so I turn off the computer with a smile on my face.

3. What daily routine have you recently added to your day?
Boy, that depends on how you define "recently." I suppose the newst thing is doing the Friday Five, although that's only once a week. I would *like* to start updating this blog daily instead of several times a week.

4. What routine do you wish to get rid of?
Well, I think this will be my last cat for many years, as it's too worrisome and expensive to travel as much as I do and find decent catsitters, etc. But I don't begrudge the routine for now. I wish I didn't spend so much at Ebay, and so wouldn't have to check my bids, but since I don't want to stop buying what I'm buying, that really doesn't work either. I guess the one thing I do on a daily basis that I hate the most is that part of my commute that sees me scurrying through a dark, smelly, damp underground tunnel in downtown Chicago, when I change train lines. I loathe that.

5. What's the one thing that makes you feel like something is missing if you don't do it some point within your day?
Checking my e-mail. Sometimes when I work 16-18 hour days, I just can't bring myself to do it, knowing that even if I ignore almost all of it, it will still take over an hour. And then all the next day I wonder what I've missed, and dread seeing those hundreds and hundreds of messages waiting for me when I *do* log on.

More notes from #21-22

Sir Ian talks about what he has learned from other actors in the "Face to Face" interview on Ovation (which I highly recommend--great interview). It's not a great deal--he has consciously learned more from directors than from actors. But he does admire Gielgud for his ability to speak difficult prose quickly--and I think he's adopted this. I have to remind myself sometimes, when he says something more quickly than one is expecting a line to be read, that it actually sounds *more* natural that way--it's just that we're used to some types of movies NOT sounding natural. In Moria, his enunciation of "Gimli!" when Gimli runs away from the fellowship into the area of Balin's tomb, not only reminds me of Gielgud in its speed, but he actually looks a bit like Gielgud there. I saw the resemblance a couple of times--must be the beard and nose.

I have to say, after Boromir's death, I start anticipating the trailer... It was nice to see it with friends this time. I noticed us all leaning forward, watching intently, determined to miss not one shot. Then the collective sound of held breath being released, and applause and shouts. Fantastic job, PJ.

For trailer viewing #3, I arrived WAY too early and decided to go watch "Time Machine." Made it through 15 minutes before I got antsy and left, so saw LotR from the boat landing on. Sat in the last floor row, far right end. The screen is HUGE from down there. If I don't get to the IMAX, I'll have to do a viewing from that row, more center, next time--if I can focus.

For viewing #22, I decided to mostly watch Elijah and Ian, not so much critically as just to enjoy their performances. Yeah, hard job, but after that many viewings, you can do yourself some favors. Unfortunately, my pen was acting up, so in addition to my usual "I can't write in the dark" scrawl I have the no-ink problem. I obviously wanted to make some comment about Ian's "there are none who can" line concerning the palantir, but I have no clue what it was...

I remembered to watch Viggo's face in Moria again. It's fine at the beginning of the scene, so it must only have been the fight sequences in Balin's tomb that they filmed after he tried to take out a cheekbone. It really looks bad. I ended up noticing odd things in Moria, like the way Boromir was so close to catching Gandalf's hair on fire with his torch when they're surrounded by the orcs.

Back to my Galadriel fixation. Does she try to separate Frodo from the fellowship? It seems like it to me, although she must have known Sam wouldn't be left behind that easily. She doesn't just warn him about Boromir, or they might leave Boromir behind and proceed with the rest. She has to go on to say that the ring will take them ALL, so that Frodo will feel that he must even abandon Aragorn in order to save him. I really do think that's as much of the motivation as the success of the quest is--he is thinking at *least* as much about sparing the others as he is that they might endanger the quest. IMHO, of course.

Really hoping I can see The Movie on an IMAX screen this weekend. Fingers crossed it works out one way or another. Of course, I especially want to see THE TRAILER on an IMAX screen, but that goes without saying. After 22 viewings, I don't think there's TOO much I will see in the movie itself that I haven't noticed before--although I'm still wondering whose boots those are that we see in the foreground when the fellowship is asleep in Lothlorien. Aragorn?

I guess since I found my notebook, I should type up my notes from #21-22. Won't bother much with the trailer since Harry's notes are so complete. I went early on Friday to try to make sure to see the trailer *before* I saw the movie, if possible, so that I wouldn't be so much on tenterhooks for the entire 3 hours. Got antsy waiting in the lobby for the rest of the group to show, so I went in a bit early--just in time to see Boromir die. Goody. Unfortunately, Karen was a bit later than she expected and I heard the door open behind me JUST as the final shot of the trailer (Frodo's eyes opening) faded out. I still had goosebumps. SO amazing. The mood PJ creates with that trailer is just fantastic. I could hardly wait to see it again--so, in effect, seeing it before the movie didn't really keep me from anticipating it at all! I did decide to sit on the right side of the theatre this time, so that different things in the soundtrack would be emphasized (for example, Boromir's "Frodo! I'm sorry!" is much clearer on the left side).

Now, back to your regularly-scheduled musings and dumb questions.

• Ian does a lot of acting with his eyes in this film--an incredible amount, considering the percentage of time he spends doing work in the theatre. I wonder if this took him a bit of time and feedback to learn, or did he immediately realize what he could do differently on the screen?
  
• Gandalf saying to Frodo "the name Baggins is not safe outside the Shire"--duh, it's not safe IN the Shire either.
  
• Was Boromir infected with ringlust when he cut his finger on the shards of Narsil? I don't think so, but it's an interesting concept. I think Boromir wants the ring totally aside from any ringlust: he truly believes that it is the last hope for his people. How could he possibly abandon that hope unless he has total faith in their ability to destroy the ring? Which he doesn't, of course. When Galadriel speaks to him in his head, and tells him that there *is* still hope, does she mean the ringbearer's quest? And does he know that? Or does he think that his taking of the ring is that last hope? Yeah, I'm still stuck on that "Galadriel precipated the crisis" thing.
  
• I love the way Orlando aims his bow as Legolas. That little head cock. It somehow makes it more believable that it's a slightly idiosyncratic way to shoot.
  
• Frodo immediately goes to Gandalf when he spots what turns out to be Gollum. Even though Gandalf is "thinking" and any of Aragorn, Boromir, or Legolas might be better options if the intruder turns out to be an enemy that needs to be eliminated. So I guess their bond hasn't been *too* much weakened by Gandalf's minor cases of "clay feet."
  
• As Karen and I have discussed many a time, Boromir is definitely the champion hobbit-catcher of the fellowship. He catches Frodo twice in Moria alone. Legolas gets to catch everyone else...
  

woo hoo! Found my notebook. v good

This photo of Pip is from TTT, but not from the trailer. I like it anyway. So there!
UPDATE: I thought the pillow here looked like the ones in Lothlorien, and Pam confirms this. Go, us! So the photo is not from TTT after all. Guess it's a cut scene?

I really should have posted over the weekend, but between the two viewings of LotR and four viewings of the trailer, working at Wrigley on Saturday, and then trying to get caught up on three days worth of e-mail on Sunday... It just didn't happen. And now i'm all depressed because I may have lost my LotR notebook--I hope it's at the Evanston Cinema and they saved it. But OF COURSE they don't have any phone number that is answered by humans, as I found out when I left a credit card there, so I'll have to taken an extra hour out of my evening and go there in search. **sigh*

Anyway, those are viewings #21 and #22, and trailer viewings #1-4. My movie notes will have to wait for my notebook to turn up (if that happens). I know that for #22, I tried to just mostly watch Elijah (yeah, I know, but *someone* has to do it) and not be quite so analytical. So, I was amazed all over again at the performance, which was JUST fine.

Thanks to Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News for the wonderful, complete notes on the trailer. It didn't rush by as fast as I expected it to, but still--knowing what I was seeing, and was about to see, was incredibly helpful. My overall impressions: More David Wenham than I'd have liked (still not the prettiest...), and an awful lot of Miranda Otto, too. Lots of Legolas and Aragorn--but that's just FINE. Sam and Gimli were nearly nonexistent. Not enough Frodo, but I expected that. Gandalf the White looks FANTASTIC. (Maybe Ian will WIN next year???) One shot of Karl Urban, and yet the New Line release about the trailer doesn't mention his name at all... Brad Dourif as Grima. Does he hold the patent on this kind of role now? I'm sure he'll be good, but most of the other casting was so original and often unexpected that it's a bit disappointing to get Brad here.

My favorite bits: for heart-clutching -- "The ring... it's getting heavier" (Frodo); for gorgeous -- Legolas fighting with his knives; for 'what does it MEAN?!?' -- The one of Arwen in the bier looking dead; for YES, I have two -- Aragorn fencing with Eowyn and Pip climbing Treebeard. I can hardly wait. Although I wonder if I'll be able to see TTT as many times as I have FotR, and as for RotK--boy, that will be hard to sit through.