Category Archives: LOTR

One Time-Turner to rule them all

Posted on October 31, 2005 by Katie

I keep calendars displaying both the current month and the next month up in my cube at work. I figured I’d better post this configuration before it stopped being what I got to look at every day:

hermione, that thing's got a hold on you

Posted in Harry Potter, Humor, LOTR | 1 Comment

Viking Catering

Posted on October 3, 2005 by Kelson

Here’s an interesting storefront window:

Sign: Viking Catering

Just what kind of food would vikings serve? Mead, I suppose. Probably with “roaring fires, malt beer, [and] red meat off the bone!”

Posted in LOTR, Signs of the Times | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

News from Comic Con

Posted on July 15, 2005 by Kelson

Ah, Comic Con! The show doesn’t seem much bigger than last year (and they’ve already filled the convention center floor), but there are more people. Last year, Friday was quite comfortable, but this year it was more crowded than I remember.

Let’s see… News from panels so far. Serenity and Mirrormask are apparently opening the same weekend (September 30), so I’ll be spending an entire day at the movies. Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier are working on a script for a CGI Groo the Wanderer film. They apparently held out for years for a deal that gave them enough creative control to satisfy them. And early next year they expect to release the 4-part comic book, Groo vs. Conan.

The Jim Henson Co. 50th anniversary panel was great fun. In addition to seeing some early experimental muppetry, we learned that they will be producing a sequel to The Dark Crystal that takes place several hundred years later, and a prequel anime series.

Katie went to the big Warner Bros. movie panel, featuring Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, V For Vendetta, The Fountain (from Darren Arenofsky), and The Corpse Bride, all of which look promising.

And if you have a chance while in San Diego, don’t miss Fellowship!, a musical parody of The Fellowship of the Ring. With the exception of one running gag that got old very fast, it was a great send-up of the movie (and it was also fun looking for tropes and in-jokes from musicals).

This year is absolutely crawling with Jedi costumes. So many that we didn’t bother to take pictures, except for one Anakin & Obi-Wan pair where the former actually looked like Anakin. There’s also a booth selling high-quality light sabres with removable, light-up blades that are sturdy enough you can duel with them. The cheap ones run for $120.

Posted in Comic Con 2005, Comics, LOTR, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Star Wars | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gondor Found!

Posted on September 25, 2004 by Kelson

After four drive-bys, I finally managed to get a picture of the Gondor street sign. It was far enough away that it’s barely readable (this is the native resolution on a 5 megapixel image — it’s not shrunk, it’s just cropped). Eventually I ought to turn onto a side street, park the car, and walk to a nice vantage point instead of just holding the camera with one hand while zooming by and hoping I get an image.

Gondor Street Sign

I’ve updated Living in Middle Earth.

Posted in LOTR, Signs of the Times | Leave a comment

Living in Middle Earth

Posted on September 2, 2004 by Kelson

A few years ago I lived in the city of Lake Forest (formerly El Toro) for a bit. One of the interesting things about Lake Forest is its collection of streets named after characters and places in Lord of the Rings. (And yes, these were around long before the movies were made.)

I still drive past Gondor Drive on my way back from the comic store, and I’ve been meaning to get a picture of the street sign for a while. It turned out to be too hard to shoot without actually aiming, so I turned onto a smaller street where I knew I could catch Elrond Lane:

Corner of Elrond and Ridge Route

Other Tolkien-inspired streets include: Buckland Lane, Bywater Road (and it is at least near water), Rivendell Drive, Shadowfax Drive and Brandywine Lane.

While checking the Thomas Guide for some of the ones I missed, I just discovered a neighborhood with Sesame Street, Muppet Lane, Big Bird, Oscar, Grover, and Cookie Monster. And Kurmit [sic], though I suppose that could be a typo.

And then there’s Dana Point, which has the Street of the Green Lantern. Of course, it has about 20 named Street of the fill-in-the-blank Lantern — Blue, Amber, Golden, Silver, Violet, etc. [Update: Here are some Green Lantern Street photos.]

Update Sep. 24: Here’s a blurry picture of the Gondor street sign:
Gondor Street Sign

Posted in Comics, LOTR, Signs of the Times | Tagged | 2 Comments

Hobbit Center

Posted on April 27, 2004 by Kelson

On our way out of Laguna Beach, we ended up on a side street parallelling PCH. Fortunately, we spotted this gem of a corner shopping center:

Just an ordinary corner shopping center - with a name out of Middle Earth

Now, the nearby city of Lake Forest has had Tolkien-named streets for years (Gondor, Elrond, and others), and of course UCI has its Middle Earth dorm complex. I have no idea how long this one has been there, but it’s interesting to think that we never would have found it if we’d been able to make a left turn out of the hotel parking lot!

Posted in LOTR, Signs of the Times | 2 Comments

LOTR caption madness

Posted on March 15, 2004 by Katie

For those of you who haven’t seen these yet:

Green screen and Mr Bean

Hooray for time machines

Obscure My Fair Lady reference

Maybe elves aren't perfect

No RPS intended

Feel the burn

For the Making-Of junkies

Feel free to copy and distribute/re-post these so long as I get the credit.

Posted in Humor, LOTR | 4 Comments

An interesting proposal from the folks at the IMDb

Posted on January 8, 2004 by Katie

IMDb screencap

Now I can’t get “The Scotsman” out of my head.

Posted in LOTR, Strange World | Leave a comment

Must…control…poinging

Posted on December 16, 2003 by Katie

J. Michael Straczynski likes ROTK. Kenneth Turan likes ROTK. If I bounce off the walls much more, I’m going to leave dents.

Posted in LOTR | Leave a comment

What’s my line

Posted on November 13, 2003 by Katie

In The Matrix: Revolutions, when Smith asked Neo why he kept fighting, I thought he answered, “Because I’m too stupid.” It wasn’t until I went to the IMDb discussion forums that I figured out he said, “Because I choose to.” I can’t decide if this is better than thinking that, in The Two Towers, Sam said to Gollum, “You’re a wuss.” (Actual line: “You’re hopeless.”) Anybody got others?

Posted in LOTR, Sci-Fi/Fantasy | 4 Comments