John -- did you get it with giftie? Or plain?

Went whole hog. For the last time. ::sniff:: I did for FotR (loved the ARgonath), hated the bride of chucky gollum fig, so didn't get that, and for this, had to get it.

Okay, it's NOT a music box, right?

Also, heard from a friend whose PREECIOUSSSS supposedly left for Chicago on Sunday night -- only just arrived in Chicago over the noon hour.

But she went UPS.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Okay, it's NOT a music box, right?

Oh, you mean, did I open it? Not yet. I had to come back to work. It says keepsake box. I can't answer the music box debate, sorry. I think they would have been promoting it as a music box if it were, but I have no idea (for another hour and twenty minutes, when my precious and I will be together again AT LAST! ::ahem::)

Okay, here's a weird little bit of worlds colliding, (for me anyway) tell me if I'm crazy, please. (I have no other reliable diagnostic evidence). At the same time as I was picking up the ROTK CE EE, I also got the Seinfeld S1-3 dvds to give to my brother-in-law for Christmas. (Sorry for the spoiler, Dave, if you are reading this). Dave is not a geek. I mean, he's an accountant, but not geekly like we are. Now, HMV was also selling a collector's edition of the Seinfeld dvd. It has salt and pepper shakers which look like the ketchup and mustard from the diner they hung out in, a Seinfeld playing card deck and a facsimile script with Larry David annotations.

So, I'm looking at this stuff (mind you, with my ROTK CE EE under my arm) and totally unselfconsciously, but at the same time, totally self-aware, I'm thinking to myself, who would want that crap? Now, I accept that there are Seinfeld fans who are extremely obsessive about the show, but Dave isn't, and he isn't a clutter guy. He works pretty long hours and has a 4 year old daughter who bogarts the dvd player for endless replayings of Finding Nemo anyway, so I have no idea when he is going to get to watch these dvds, but still. I picked up the vanilla Seinfeld dvds, looking at the collector edition with a pang of something. It didn't help that the guy at the cash ringing up my gluttony ROTK CE EE (with free poster) helpfully reminded me about the Seinfeld collector's edition, but I told him it wasn't for me and he immediately understood. Plus, I have to travel with it, and the dvd box is much less clunky than the SE box.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Crazy?

Uh -- no. You made your choice based on a firm knowledge of your brother-in-law and the extent of his Seinfeld obsession and need/tolerance for clutter.

Also, Seinfeld's just not as cool as RotK.

Which I still need to buy -- Costco didn't have the collector's edition, and this time I'ma go for it.

Easter eggs? Gimme a clue?

From here:

check out an "Easter egg" on Disc 2's final scene-selection page. Click down to the bottom to highlight a hidden ring, then press enter. That reveals...

Wait -- there's more.

Danke!

Opened the box. The piece is gorgeous (heavy), but not a music box, as far as I can tell. And now, a new dilemma (or at least one I hadn't been thinking about for a while). Minas Morgul.

No music in Minas Tirith (at least the giftie version--the movie version has a few songs sung there!). My cat's been sniffing it rather suspiciously, and trying to nibble on the side of one of the houses. Very cool giftee!!

Movie is faboo, of course, except for one thing: the character assassination of Gimli. Boy, did they ruin him with the added footage!! I liked the TE-RotK Gimli, all morbid battle humor. Now, he's back to the TTT-era clown, this time adding farting to his repertoire. And, even worse IMO, he's not frightened at the Paths of the Dead, but treats the spectors as if they were a cloud of gnats. Considering his reaction was the reason the book Paths were so damn scary, that's blasphemy that I hadn't seen Jackson commit before. Very disappointing.

Most of the added scenes were great--loved the Mouth of Sauron, Houses of Healing, and the conversation between Faramir and Pippin, as well as a wonderful added beat to the Green Dragon song that Pippin and Merry sing at Edoras . Denethor is more vividly drawn as broken down by grief, not necessarily just an asshole.

I've seen the Cameras in Middle-Earth doc--make sure you have Kleenex at hand for the last scene of Elijah's final shoot in pickups. Jackson just loses it, which made me lose it, too !