Beard-length issues

Well, I know I said I wasn’t going to write any fanfics for awhile, but truthfully I have been poking around with one.  The revisions on my original fic are coming along quite well, in fact I’m almost finished with this round.  Also I finished up the digital storytelling class, which frees me up to make some goofy fan vids that I have in mind.  However, my daughters are insisting that I go on a “road trip” with them Friday, and how can I refuse?  It just means the fanfics & fanvids will have to wait until next weekend.

But in the meantime, I did find some really cool fan art on my favorite site, DeviantArt.com.  Check this one out:

Here is an idea of what movie Thorin could have looked like – a long beard is totally doable!  Funny, I remember reading that the reason PJ gave for clipping Thorin’s beard (something that some people on theonering.net are completely miserable about, apparently), was that the heavy beard & prosthetics got in the way of his acting – hmmmm.  Didn’t seem to cause Ken Stott any difficulty, but hey, I’m obviously pretty happy about the way movie Thorin came out!  But this is an interesting picture, nonetheless, although I’m not sure it’s finished.  Either the hair is supposed to be white, or the artist didn’t color it in – not sure which!

Anyway, Richard Armitage actually said the short beard bothered him, since in the original story Thorin had a forked beard that he could tuck into his belt.  He said in an interview that he came to terms with the discrepancy when he read that, after the Dragon’s attack, many of the Dwarves that fled had “singed beards.”  So, Richard assumes, Thorin kept his beard short until he could reclaim his homeland.  Only problem is, when I recently re-watched “An Unexpected Journey,” I noticed that Thorin still had that shorter, braided thing when he was asking Thranduil to help them.

I don’t seem to have a screenshot of the scene I’m talking about, but here’s a great pic of that short braided beard.  You know, some people are going to hate these movies no matter what, but it amazes me how much handwringing some book fans did over the length of the beards!  Now, I would have been okay with Thorin keeping that braided look (in fact Dori had a similar braid that was quite long – hm, maybe THAT’S why!), but as I said earlier I’m also quite fine with what we ended up with.  Quite fine indeed!

Dean’s last & Richard’s next gig

So, there was some pretty exciting tweets coming from Richard Armitage:

.@gibsonguitar Thank you. I sound amazing with the amp switched off and earplugs in. 2 announcements coming up 😎 pic.twitter.com/KriRQbz3Tg

— Richard Armitage (@RCArmitage) June 8, 2016

I’m still waiting on pins & needles for the 2nd announcement, but the first one is confirmed!  His next gig will be a movie called “Midlife Crisis,” which is apparently about 4 middle-aged men that decide to get their band back together and give it another shot.  Richard will play the guitarist – and apparently he DOES play guitar, though I cannot say how well.  Toby Stephens also stars in this movie – he and Richard worked together on Season 3 of ‘Robin Hood,’ with Toby playing Prince John.  No idea who he’ll be in this movie, though.

As for Dean, he’s starring in a remake of a Kiwi classic film “Pork Pie,” sort of a coming of age film.  I don’t have much more info than that, and in fact that’s not actually the gig I was speaking of!  Apparently the hot Kiwi took time off from the shoot to get married!  Here is a news report: http://spy.nzherald.co.nz/spy-news/a-magic-year-for-dean-ogorman/.  He married his long-time girlfriend Sara Wilson back in April.  Here he is dancing at his ‘gig’:

Yes, I’m sure he’s a fine dancer – maybe he sings, too?  Who knew?  Anyway, this is a magical, musical blog post, so I leave you with one of my favorite fanart pics – this adorned the desktop of my old computer since 2013 – hope you like it!

Aw heck, might as well add this one!

 

 

Getting close to Kiwi food!

Well, it’s not every day that I spend $3600, but today I paid off the rest of our trip to New Zealand!!!  I’m so excited I could just BURST!  But I’m also a little sad, looking at my empty savings account (sad face).  The package includes air fare from Los Angeles, eleven nights at eight hotels on both North and South Islands, tour of Hobbiton, Wellington, and the Pelorus river, plus a rental car on the South Island for about $7,600 for myself & my husband.  When you add in air fare to L.A. from Oklahoma, food, gas & souveniers, the total will likely be close to $10,000 -OMG!  This will definitely be the most expensive vacation I have ever, and likely will ever, go on; but it will be totally worth it!!!

We will spend one night at Mt. Cook village, overlooking beautiful Lake Pukaki.  We’ll be staying at the Hermitage hotel, which apparently boasts three different restaurants.  Now, generally speaking I don’t care much about the hotel rooms, since I don’t plan to spend much time in them.  A clean, comfy bed and working bathroom is all I need.  But restaurants are a totally different matter – I like to eat!  One of the classic Kiwi dishes I’ve heard about is Pikelets – a Kiwi pancake usually served with fruit.  I heard about them in the BOTFA Appendices (Peter Jackson has a pet pig named Pikelet, which was the model for the pig Dain rode), and I look forward to trying them in a few months.  Oh, wow!  Less than 4 months to go – I should set up a ticker!

Anyway, they look pretty tasty to me!  Now I’m getting hungry!  I have another post I need to work on, I might even get it finished later this evening.  But first, dinner!

Fan Art & Archery

I would be calling this post “Adventures in Archery,” but I wasn’t terribly successful today.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I spent some Christmas money on a beginner’s archery kit, and today is the first time I tried to shoot an arrow.  I made a target out of a shipping box (more on that later), and found a nail in my fence to hang it from.  I watched a couple of instructional videos on YouTube, about nocking the arrow, stance, pulling back with your back, etc.  Then I went outside to give it a try.  Well, if you’ve seen the movie “Brave,” you probably remember one of the would-be suitors, whose arrow kept swinging off the riser – yeah, that happened to me.  No, I didn’t hit the target, I hit the ground to the right of the target.  Better luck next time, I guess.

In the meantime, I did find some really awesome Fan Art on DeviantArt.com, which I’ll be uploading to my Fan Art page very soon.  Here is one in particular that I really like:

This one is called “Gold Sickness.”  The image itself is more vague, a bit blurry even, like looking through a diffusing lense; but there’s alot of emotional impact in this drawing.  Compare that to this one:

I don’t have a title for this one, I just called it “Thorin and heirs.”  The image is clear in this one, the lines are sharp.  Obviously they are in Erebor, and preparing for war, but what is everyone thinking?  Thorin is angry and determined, but also slightly monsterous – but what are the heirs thinking?  Kili looks angry, but he’s looking straight at Thorin – is he angry at Thorin, angry about their situation, or angry with the Laketowners?  Perhaps he and Fili are talking, wondering what to do – stay loyal to their Uncle and King, or try to stop this from happening?  Of course we know what happens, but maybe they did have their moment of doubt.  I’d like to think so, at least.  I’ve got more fan art to upload, and maybe even a few video projects coming up, so stay tuned!

 

Adventures in Kayaking pt. 2

On Memorial Day I was invited out to a friend’s house for a cookout.  They live near a pond, and own 3 kayaks.  I mentioned my planned trip to New Zealand, and my planned kayaking on the Pelorus, and they said “Come on out!”  So my daughter Margaret and I took them up on it.

It was a pretty nice day, not too hot, but I dosed my arms with sunblock that had bug repellant in it.  Unlike the last time, I was in a kayak by myself, and Margaret had her own.  I admit, she had an easier time steering than I did.  At least I wasn’t spinning like the last time, but it seemed like it pulled to the right (probably my paddling technique, lol!).  Now, it was a pond, so I can’t blame it on the current – there wasn’t one.  But I did outlast Margaret, she went down & back one time only.  I went down & back three times!  Of course I also got snagged on a tree root, and drifted into another tree.  I literally had to back pedal to get unsnagged from that, but I suppose it’s a good experience.

So, by the third trip I felt like I was doing well, but I was also feeling it in my arms, so I decided that was enough.  Now comes the hard part – getting out of the kayak.  There’s no dock at the pond, so my friends showed me where a rock ledge was.  They said this was the best place to push in and get out. However, I couldn’t seem to paddle in strong enough to beach myself on that rock.  There was also the issue of trying to stand up in a wobbly kayak.  I’m sure there’s a trick to that, I just don’t know it.  After the third or fourth try, I decided I’m gonna get wet.  I threw my right leg over and into the water, and tried to stand.  I fell back into the kayak.  So I tried again with the left leg, stumbled a bit, but finally got out.  At this time a considerate neighbor came running over and asked if I needed help.  I said thanks, but I’m already wet.  She still helped me out of the water, and helped beach the kayak.  My daughter was swimming in my friends’ swimming pool, so she was unavailable to assist – GRRRR!

Oh well, there’s another thing I need to learn about.  I don’t know if Eco Tours will be launching the kayaks from a dock or not, and since it’s a river there will definitely be a current.  If anyone out there is into kayaking, I’d love to hear from you!  I need all the help I can get!!!

Okay, that’s not really me – I wish, but no.  But surely I’ll get some photos of me on the Pelorus river, and those will get uploaded when I get back.  Stay tuned….