It's the Arts, Tolkien Edition

Some of you may be aware that I am an enormous Tolkien geek, though not nearly as enormous as Stephen Colbert:



Nevertheless, I was intrigued to find out, via io9, about The Silmarillion Project, in which an artist is illustrating each chapter of Tolkien's version of the New Testament.

These do not necessarily correspond to my envisionings of the beings and places of early Middle-Earth but they are neat to contemplate.

Potpourri - Now with 50% More Smeagol!

I used to be concerned that no one, not even myself, was blogging here but as long as fine readers like Powaquattsi keep sending me these Silmaril-quality gems I'm fine with that:



I think my favorite part, aside from the sketchbook, is the inability of the performers to keep it together during an ostensibly dramatic section, although Gollum, 500-year-old pro that he is, recovers.

Tearses for Fearses, Yes Precious!

This came to my attention some time ago but I have been wandering in far countries where the stars are strange. OK, not really but that's a cool quote.

Behold:



The accompanist is probably not this guy.

One Little Plastic Block to Obsess Them All

Bryan and I popped Lego Lord of the Rings for Wii into the machine today to give it a go. It was tough sledding even though Bryan ended up as Elendil and his shiny sword Narsil in the intro battle at Mount Doom (I got Elrond whose only apparent power is, um, nothing.) As we were both males we did not bother with reading any of the instructions, so that's probably part of the problem. The other part was that despite being a seven-year-old boy, Bryan has an unusual and not necessarily unwelcome respect for age restrictions on toys and games. His first question, as waves of Orcs ran us down repeatedly, was "What is this, PG-13 or something?" He then checked the box, discovered it was for kids 10 and up (I qualified, barely), then asked Fiona if she would play with me instead, once she turns ten. We then went back to Mario Cart which is slightly more intuitive and does not have to be played in a room upon which a second darkness has fallen.

I think I will need to return to this solo, then assist Bryan through the tough parts. I owe it to him from his holding of my hand through Lego Star Wars for Wii, in which I stand behind him with a blaster while his Obi-Wan Kenobi does the heavy lifting via lightsaber.

One Gift to Rule Them All

Five gold rings? Forget it. My mind is now consumed with LEGO Lord of the Rings for Wii! I shall send forth the Nine Shoppers in their fell minivans, etc.

Based on my experience with LEGO Star Wars for Wii this should be great, and perhaps I may not have to take a back seat to the admittedly better-practiced Bryan. Assuming, of course, that Santa gets the Red Arrow.

Talkin' Tolkien, at least at first

Lest anyone is thinking that academia has descended into irrelevance, note that at least one scholar has been hard at work calculating the speed of the fire-beacon chain in The Lord of the Rings.

All well and good, but it also allows me to slip in this great scene from the Ricky Gervais series Extras, in which Sir Ian discourses on the craft:



In case you have not seen Extras, do check it out. Each episode features a different well-known actor playing a slightly (presumably) off-base version of themselves, as in this clip with Patrick Stewart:



The initial link was unMiddleEarthed by erstwhile gamer BeastyBunny, who claims she got it from a friend of hers as a birthday present following a fishing trip.