?I must have written dozens of memos about Mordor?s air superiority, but would they listen, oh noooo! Just like every other year, the whole goddamn budget was blown on horses, silver filigree and whitewash.?

HA!

I was too busy thinking, "Eagles. Carrying people in and out of Mordor. They couldn't have come up with this idea 2.5 movies ago?" Yes, yes. Flying wraith thingies and the power of Sauron and etc. would have made that impractical. But still.

I believe that Bob the Angry Flower already thought of that one. Of course, there might be a few problems with that solution, too...

[link]

Nah, I'm sure it'd be fine, in the end.

I don't know if it's been posted before, but this is pretty cute - Frodo's MapQuest to Mordor.

Really brief Village Voice interview with Philippa Boyens on the appeal of Tolkien to girls, homoeroticism, and (lack of) female characters in the trilogy. Her take on Shelob:

Fran and I loved Shelob. She's overweight, she can't get through the tunnel the way she used to. Men flee from her. She's got hairy legs. She really is the focus of this abject male gaze?this hairy creature that lives in the tunnel. The way Gollum says 'tunnel' makes it sound like the rudest thing ever! You know, it's the most terrifying thing for men. We did have a bit of fun with it.

I've never been with a more restless audience-- I actually had to shush a guy three times.

When I saw it, the audience was rapt throughout-but that was the Saturday after the opening when it was probably still almost entirely fans of either the books, the previous movies, or both, so I have no idea how the film plays with a "normal" audience.

When I saw it (for the fourth time) on Sunday at the Cinerama in Seattle, I have never heard 800 people more quiet (in the appropriate places) in my life. Shelob got big gasps (my sister leaned over to me and whispered, "Now THAT'S one big-ass spider") and cries of "No!" when Frodo got stung (I'm assuming no more white-font, right?). A huge difference from my third viewing in a multiplex in Joliet the previous Sunday, where the crowd could not have been ruder.

I don't deny that the audience Christmas afternoon at the multiplex may have been less invested than at some other places. They may also have been less washed.

Since I'm more than 4000 posts behind in Natter, I'll put my holiday wishes here. And to make it on topic, instead of "Auld Lang Syne," I'll give you another drinking song:

You can search far and wide
You can drink the whole town dry
But you'll never find a beer so brown
As the one you'll find in our hometown

You can keep your fancy ales
You can drink 'em by the flagon
But the only brew for the brave and true
Comes from the Green Dragon!

t kicks a beer stein over, soaking all Buffistas

Happy New Years, everyone!

Saw the movie last night! I think I actually liked it better the second time.

(Even though I whispered to my seat neighbor "It's the Emerald City -- gone horribly wrong!" when we first see Minas Morgol. And realized that when Sam carried Frodo that made him the Ring-bearer-bearer.)

Also, in front of us was a woman in a white sweater who -- I swear -- moaned the whole time Shelob was on screen. Like, not one gasp and then rapt silence, but true moaning of the loathing phobe. She tried to cover her eyes with her sweater at one point.