The Hobbit Hole XVII - A new road or a secret gate...

See our freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net home page! ^

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

A new road or a secret gate...

• First thread: New Zealander builds Hobbit hole
• Second thread: The New Hobbit Hole
• Third thread: The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads! (Congratulations, we filled it up!)
• Fourth Thread: The Hobbit Hole IV - The Road Goes Ever On...
• Fifth Thread: The Hobbit Hole V - Where Many Paths and Errands Meet...
• Sixth Thread: The Hobbit Hole VI - And Whither Then? I Cannot Say...

• Seventh Thread: The Hobbit Hole VII - But not yet weary are our feet...
• Eighth Thread: The Hobbit Hole VIII - Still round the corner we may meet...
• Ninth Thread: The Hobbit Hole IX - A sudden tree or standing stone
• Tenth Thread: The Hobbit Hole X - That none have seen but we alone.
      Eleventh Thread: Wedding Edition: The Hobbit Hole XI - No One Admitted Except on Wedding Business!
• Twelfth Thread: The Hobbit Hole XII - Tree and flower and leaf and grass
• Thirteenth Thread: The Hobbit Hole XIII - Let them pass! Let them pass!
• Fourteenth thread: The Hobbit Hole XIV - Hill and Water Under Sky
• Fifteenth thread: The Hobbit Hole XV - Pass them by! Pass them by!
• Sixteenth Thread: The Hobbit Hole XVI - Still round the corner there may wait...

New verse:

Upon the hearth the fire is red, Beneath the roof there is a bed; But not yet weary are our feet, Still round the corner we may meet A sudden tree or standing stone That none have seen but we alone. Tree and flower and leaf and grass, Let them pass! Let them pass! Hill and water under sky, Pass them by! Pass them by!

Still round the corner there may wait A new road or a secret gate, And though we pass them by today, Tomorrow we may come this way And take the hidden paths that run Towards the Moon or to the Sun. Apple, thorn, and nut and sloe, Let them go! Let them go! Sand and stone and pool and dell, Fare you well! Fare you well!

Home is behind, the world ahead, And there are many paths to tread Through shadows to the edge of night, Until the stars are all alight. Then world behind and home ahead, We’ll wander back to home and bed. Mist and twilight, cloud and shade, Away shall fade! Away shall fade! Fire and lamp, and meat and bread, And then to bed! And then to bed!

See also: http://freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net

Web page for our moot reports and troop support information!

[ariamne]

I checked out Godawful.net and saw the worst of the fanfiction; most of it is pretty bad; but supposedly there are some LOTR sites with decent fanfiction. I'm afraid I'll get there though and then need mind bleach to rid myself of the purple prose. Actually, I am not a big fan of folk music, I do like some of it but my taste is fairly eclectic--but I am a fan of the Hudson River and was interested in groups who wanted to keep it clean--that's how I got involved with Seeger's group. I can well imagine you were a bit outnumbered at a folk concert, knowing the people who populate the scene!

[JenB]

Hehe, "ick" is the best way to describe a lot of fanfiction. Personally, I always thought LotR fanfiction was just wrong... nobody writes like Tolkien, after all.

[RosieCotton]

It seems a bit heretical to me...obsessed fan that I am... ;-)

It's like writing additional books for the Bible or something.

[RosieCotton]

Mmmm...pie and ice cream...

[JenB]

Hehehe... yeah, actually that's sort of exactly what I've said - "that's like writing Bible fanfiction, almost".

[RosieCotton]

Which I suppose is a rather heretical thing to say...

[JenB]

Probably... sigh... oh well.

[SuziQ]

I need a real suitcase.

You shoulda asked for one for Christmas! David called yesterday morning, while packing for his flight, wondering if he could bring his computer box on the plane as a carry on. I didn't think so, so I asked if it fit in his big suitcase and he said it was too wide. I told him to find the box it came in, put it in there, seal it with duct tape and check it as baggage. He was worried it would get hurt, but it came through just fine.

He and Paul have set both their PCs up in the basement, and they're spending their time playing "World of Warcraft" online with each other and some other friends. They say it's a game that is more addictive than crack!

[SuziQ]

Heh, that's one of my favorite movies!
"We're never going anywhere without this luggage!"

[JenB]

Heh... I have a nice laptop so getting it home is no problem!

I'm hoping to get gift cards to B&N for Christmas. Then I don't have to spend money there. I won't need a suitcase again until Shootmoot, after all.

[SuziQ]

Here are the two wreaths I decorated for the Parish. This one on the brick wall is above the patio that leads to the Parish Hall. That wall is the outside wall of the Sacristy, and there's a stained glass window above it. It is a fresh balsalm wreath.

This one is on the wall behind the statue of Mary that stands outside the Pastoral Center. That one is a 60" silk wreath! It's HUGH, but at least it's not too heavy.

[HairOfTheDog]

Somebody always has to be so individual.... Lukewarm as he was with the original 'crap' version of RoTK, he likes the Extended.

Return of Return of the King
The Extended Edition DVD of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is bigger, but is it better?
by Jonathan V. Last
12/17/2004 12:00:00 AM

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A YEAR AGO TO THE DAY, I stood, alone, on the banks of the Brandywine River, and raised quiet voice of criticism against The Return of the King. Suspecting that it would win critical praise overdue from The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers--as well as the Oscars those movies deserved--I predicted that down the road Return of the King would be the least loved installment of the series.

Love is difficult to measure, but dollars are not. Look, for example, at the box office returns for the trilogy. Fellowship began by earning $315 million in the United States. The Two Towers saw a modest increase to $342 million, which is what sequels are supposed to do. Return of the King saw only a similar increase, to $377 million. Make no mistake, $377 million is a healthy number. Most movies would cry to do such numbers. But with $342 million as a baseline and two years of pent-up expectation, it probably should have done better. Particularly considering Oscar: Traditionally, winning big at the Academy Awards has been thought to add anywhere from $10 million to $50 million to a movie's box office gross. (Last year a group of professors at Colby College analyzed data for Academy Award nominees and winners prior to 1987 and found that the true benefit of a Best Picture win was an average bump of $16 million. As movie inflation has skyrocketed, box-office take has been front-loaded, and the Academy Awards have become

a more omnipresent event, it is likely that the average boost for a Best Picture winner today is significantly greater.)

DVD sales of Return of the King have been more promising. The trilogy's distributor, New Line, declined to release sales figures for the various DVD editions, but the trade magazine DVD Exclusive reports that Fellowship sold 11.7 million copies (it's Extended Edition sold another 4.3 million) and Two Towers sold 10.8 million copies (plus 4.2 million Extended Edition copies). By contrast, Return of the King has sold 12.5 million copies. Good numbers, but not what you would expect for the most heralded edition of the franchise. You may have talked yourself into loving Return of the King when it first came out, but for most people, grubby reality has finally set in.

The grubby reality is that Return of the King was a deeply flawed enterprise. It was, by leagues, the weakest of the three movies. The pacing was poor, the timeline condensed. There were plot holes and characters who suddenly became passive. There were dramatic deformities aplenty. And yet there is good news: This week the extended version of Return of the King comes to DVD. The four-disc set is loaded with features and commentaries and, most important, 50 extra minutes of footage which has been woven into the film. This extra footage addresses, I'm happy to say, nearly every defect which I reported on a year ago.

THE FULL EXTENDED EDITION of Return of the King now runs a staggering 250 minutes. Yet, if anything, it moves more briskly than the theatrical release. The new footage is sprinkled in fairly evenly throughout, with large clumps gathering here and there. In the first large-scale addition, we get the confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman at Isengard. Peter Jackson strays from the text in order to avoid another coda from the book. This deviation is not entirely unwelcome.

[ExGeeEye]

but--but--but--

No Bombadil!

and

No Scouring!

Boo!

(/purism)

It ain't the Bible. No, really.

[JenB]

Who cares what Scrooge McScrooge thinks, anyway? Not that I remember his original complaint...

[Argh]

Thank you, Miss Hair. It would be nice if mine arrived today, but what with the Canaduh Post I'm not holding my breath.

[Ramius]

Evenin' evellybody... [sip]

I'm starting my weekend a little early. Too bad I'm still in da hotel though. :-(

[HairOfTheDog]

Are you in town? Are we set for movie tomorrow?

[Ramius]

I dunno... are we doing the movie? I'll be home around five-ish. I'd love to. :-)

[HairOfTheDog]

You'll be home tomorrow evening at 5 ish? Want to do it then or on Sunday-day?

[Ramius]

Tomorrow night is better for me if you can arrange for horses that late. I'm gonna have to use Sunday to do the shopping thing. Still have items to get.