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Here are my hobbits chilling in front of the event poster after the Friday night FotR symphony. On Saturday morning, I finally got a hold of the wonderful Jan-u-wine and we made plans to come see her after the bunch of us had brunch.
My very yummy, hobbity brunch. We met at a diner I spotted a couple of blocks from our hotel that looked to be spacious enough and decently priced called the Flame Restaurant and it really hit the spot with a big menu, all tastily prepared. We then walked 5 blocks over to The Russian Tearoom where Jan was meeting a couple of friends next to Carnegie Hall. I spotted her and we pulled her out for a few minutes to meet and hug and chat. We should have gotten pics with her, but didn't think of it until after she needed to go back in.
We said sad farewells to frolijah_fan_54, aliensouldream, verangel, honeyandvinegar, and panmodal, then lbilover, frodosweetstuff, belleferret, and I went to take a stroll in Central Park before we went back to check out of the hotel. My pics there all came out fuzzy, so I will refer you to Steph and Linda's pics here and here.
After checking out, Ellen drove us to JFK airport to send Steph back across the Sundering Sea. More tearful farewells, until next time we all moot together. Then Ellen took Linda and I back to her house nestled in the wooded country in the midlands of New Jersey, with her very happy to see us sweet doggies. We chilled for the evening reading email and sitting in the Throne of Frodo Worship before the Great Banner. I got to sleep cozy in front of the fire place, and by the Great Banner, which was a real treat.
Sunday morning, we took NJ transit into NYC for the TORN event. At the parking garage, we saw a pigeon nesting in the middle of the road; we couldn't tell if it was sick or injured, but Ellen picked it up and put it in some bushes. Then we caught a train to Penn Station and the subway down to the Bowery to the Angel Orensanz Foundation--a cool old gutted out cathedral used for art events--seeing this venue was one of the reasons I wanted to go to this.
We stopped to pick up sandwiches along the way at Katz Deli, and came in during Coleen Doran's presentation on the variety of Tolkien illustrations. David Salo's talk on his work on Tolkien's languages for the film was fun--he talked about some of the improvising he had to do for the parts of the languages that weren't fleshed out.
I was impressed with Elizabeth Cotnoir’s documentary, "Journey’s End," on the making of the music for the films, mostly focused on Howard Shore's amazing work, but also with good focus on Renee Fleming, James Galway, and Annie Lennox. I especially loved how much the documentary gave us of Lennox developing "Into the West" and her working with Shore and Fran Walsh on it.
Then Doug Adams interviewed Howard Shore in person, pictured above. I liked learning that he developed themes by not rereading/listening to what he had already written/recorded, but going with his memory, which would cause him to produce variations on the themes--kind of like playing a musical game of "Telephone" with himself. (-: I got Shore's autograph on my FotR Complete Recordings cover after the talk was over.
On the way back to the subway, we took the hobbits to a playground along the way so they could ride the oliphant--you don't want to hear the sighs the Sam's make if you don't indulge their oliphant whims, nor do you want to hear the skilled unusual sounds a Frodo and Bingo can make in sympathy . . .
. . . and then they said, "Eh, why not?" and went to ride the weird frog creature.
Bingo and Sam had gotten quite accustomed to riding the subway at this point--I overheard them calling it an "armoured mobile smial caravan."
Here they are sitting with a couple of tired Hobbit Wranglers.
When we got back to the Metro Park station, we found the pigeon where we had left hir, but laying on hir back and shivering pathetically, so I picked hir up, wrapped hir in an old t-shirt, and took hir back with us, so ze wouldn't die in the cold or get gnawed on. The warmth of being held seemed to do hir good, but we figured we were just giving hir hospice care at this point. When we got back to Ellen's house, however, the pigeon drank water like a little fiend, which gave us some hope for the first time, that ze might be more lightly injured and might make it. Ze made it to morning and I called around and found a bird rescue person in Maryland who could take hir, but after Linda headed out and Ellen and I sat and talked a bit ze passed on, probably from internal bleeding. So I took an ex-pigeon, who was quite heavy by the time I got home and would have made a fine thing to hit anyone who would give me a hard time about transporting an ex-pigeon in a box in the back of my car, and buried hir in the woods behind my apartment that evening--RIP, lil Elwing. It wasn't really sad, because I didn't count on recovery but just wanted to make hir passing more comfortable, and we did that.
I sure had a lovely time with my hobbit posse that weekend. Until the next moot!
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From:
Re: of oliphaunts and hobbit jaunts.......
Yeah, you had a lovely opal in your ear, and lots of silver I didn't get to see the shape of. Remember I'm the small detail observer type--I focus on the little things and don't see the big explosion going on in front of me. (-:
Well, there's Wolftrap in September to keep in mind as well . . .
*hugses*
From:
Re: of oliphaunts and hobbit jaunts.......
Oh! *that jewelry* I am very fond of opals, and the two I was wearing I'd had from my aunty, who was A Writer. (and a lover of opals; we agreed that they must be portals into other worlds, with their changeable and changeling qualities). The other earring (marcasite) was also from her. In my left ear, I wear a silver hoop with a heart, which is from a set I bought when I found out I was pg with the first baby. My idea was that I'd learnt to truly love at last. (in some ways I must hold to that idea, since the children have taught me more of love than ever i knew before).
I have two rings, one of them a "poesy" ring (with writing on the outside) that says, in French, "you and no other". The other is a terribly overwrought cz in a vintage style.
For some Rings, there is *no* excuse. They simply *are*.
The only other piece of jewelry I wear (as if all that is NOT enough) is a necklace with a clear stone in the middle, which represented (to me) Arwen's gift to Frodo. Whereas I could never bring myself to wear a Ring-symbol due to the evil and torment it represents, the clear beauty and love evident in Arwen's gift is a comfort and a reminder that Hope truly does endure and is rewarded beyond the boundaries of what we can imagine.
In a world where goodness too frequently IS its own reward, that is a very good thing indeed.
Wolftrap 2010? I'll try!
jan~
From:
Re: of oliphaunts and hobbit jaunts.......
I love all the colors in opals, too. Is your aunty published?--not that that's required to be a Writer. Awww, on the Elvish gemstone. (-: Yeah, wearing a ring replica when not on quest is creepy.
Through my 20's and into my 30's I had one necklace I wore everyday--a lovely woman's face in the moon--my goddess necklace. I felt a need to wear it every day, which was sometimes a drag if I wanted to wear something else. I was finally able to put it into semi-retirement, and so wear amethyst, moonstone, or amber necklaces when I choose. Probably my favorites, though, are diacronic glass--human-made for going to the moon, but gorgeous as a byproduct.
I'm agnostic, and don't know if there's reward beyond, but the alternative is not trying at all, and I guess my Jewishness reaches for tikkun elam--add healing to the earth, when you can (don't stress when you can't), since you benefit from the healing others gave before you. Someone may stumble upon it and add more. That someone may take it and use it to do harm is not something you can control, and you should not strive for control by not acting, for inaction is sure to benefit no one (said by one too prone to brooding). Heee, my philosophy in a nutshell, where it belongs.
From:
Re: of oliphaunts and hobbit jaunts.......
My aunty was published in some college journal back in the 30's, but which one I no longer remember. She had a very large hand in raising me, however, and she spoke to me often in rhyme, expecting to be answered in the same manner. I think that opened my mind to words and music. She was over 90 when I told her that the Tolkien Society had published one of my works, but she grabbed me and we cried together. As far as I am concerned, that was *our* work. I have a cache of the short stories that she wrote and the last time I visited her, I read one to her. She did not remember that she'd written it. Then *I* cried. Now she is gone and the best I can do is to keep writing for the both of us. It's a good sort of a hurt. it's that "joy like swords".
I am much like you in the matter of jewelry. When I was younger, I had TONS of stuff on...but it all meant something and I would not take it off. I had to go to emergency once and getting all the jewelry off was a much bigger problem than what I was coming to the ER for, lol. I still do have all of that stuff but don't have time to put stuff on and take it off anymore. So I just find something I love and wear it FOREVER. Like you, i love amethyst, moonstone and amber as well (maybe we are reincarnated ravens).
I love what you say about the trying. The object of the trying should never be the reward, imho. We should be good people because that is what we should be. We should give because we have been given to (and have taken). And most assuredly, we should love. Always, we should love.
If you are a *nut* and this be your *shell*, then may there be an ocean of such nuts, and may all the pink-and-pearl shells wash up upon a Brooding, Sundered Shore.
j
From:
Re: of oliphaunts and hobbit jaunts.......
Yeah, about not having the time for the adornment--just trying ot get out the door and get to work on time is enough of a challenge for me.
You say the sweetest things. *hugses*
From:
Re: of oliphaunts and hobbit jaunts.......
my other name must be Butterbur...too much going on in Teh Life. Those of us who have no time to make jewelry choices (are you listening, Mr. Baggins?) must get by on Le Adornment Interiore.
My aunty and I.....well, there are some people whose leaving makes such a hole in your universe that you wonder why the world entire just doesn't *stop*. They can't POSSIBLY go where you can't follow. And then...they *do*, and you know very well that they are expecting you to bear the parting, and (more) to do them proud.
I miss her terribly.
jan