The "Hunt for Gollum" LoTR Fan Film

At nearly 40 minutes, this amazing Lord of the Rings fan film cost only $5,000 to make. It's 100 times better than I was expecting. The titles, music and cinematography are quite similar to the original series. The effects and makeup are top quality - and Aragorn gets to slice through loads of orcs! The clever use of CGI and an 'Elven sack of holding' means your imagination does most of the work filling in the Gollum details. Tricksy filmmakers!

The Hunt For Gollum (HD version)

If you can't see the video in this post, you can watch it at the Hunt for Gollum Movie website. And keep up with more Middle Earth news at theOneRing.net - The Hobbit is still yet to come!

Virtual Easter Egg Hunt!

It's that time of year again, to bust out our sleuthing gear and search for the latest crop of virtual Easter Eggs. But I'm not talking about the colored, dyed, painted made-by-a-hen variety. The Easter eggs I'm interested in now are the hidden goodies in games, websites and movies! One of the largest websites devoted to this craft is Eeggs.com, who have a huge archive and a very informative FAQ page. You could spend days there, finding out what treasures your favorite movies and games hold for you.

Some of my favorite DVD easter eggs are the ones hidden in all of the Tolkien Ring movies. These clips are vulgar entertainment at its best, created simply to drive sales up. But now, with the magic of the internet, one only has to search YouTube for copies of the eggs that some other enterprising geek has found.

These easter eggs are not suitable for children, and should you wish to view the Dom/Elijah interview, Gollum at the MTV awards, the Peter Jackson interview by Ben Stiller/Vince Vaughn, or the Jack Black/Michelle Gellar MTV promo, I will not be held responsible for any ill effects upon your brain. Especially the Jack Black one. Not safe for work! You have been warned.

But I also love the Firefly stuff like Adam Baldwin singing "The Hero of Canton" or the "Fruity Oaty Bar" commercial from Serenity! And these are clean, safe and child-friendly.

Maybe you are a Star Wars fan. Yoda hiphop is pretty cool, and the only one I could find a video clip for online. Eeggs.com lists several Star Wars finds, but I cannot vouch for their content or entertainment value.

Lately, I've been stumbling across some NPC's in World of Warcraft whose names I thought must have some 'special meaning'. Turns out there are hundreds and hundreds of pop culture references in the game, most of which you can find on this fine list of EasterEggs by Blizzplanet. They've also got a page of Burning Crusade eggs, but since I don't have that expansion yet, I cannot claim any firsthand experience with this new area.

And now for something completely different: Monty Python has easter egged some of their material as well. Here's a funny skit about a glassblowing factory that is hidden in the BBC compilation of Flying Circus episodes:



Hooray Easter eggs! I'm going to go out to the store and see if all the chocolate bunnies aren't gone yet. Mmmmm......bunnies.

Got Filk?

Filk is a genre that I only discovered by accident, while at a RenFaire long ago. I heard a wandering minstrel singing some Beatles song, only it definitely wasn't their lyrics. Someone had re-written the song to be about buxom wenches or something.

WOW! Now this is music I can really appreciate. I love parody. No, really, I love it. There needs to be more humor in music. The SCA is a breeding ground for Filk, most of which can only be heard around a fire. Most of us learn them by memory, (which is easy because they are based on popular songs) but a few inspired musicians have recorded their filks for your listening pleasure.

**RTM, are you listening? Dude, you really need a website with your CD and lyrics. Like NOW. You funny man.

Anyway, here's a few links for your filking pleasure. Man, it's even funny to say it.

If I had a Million Ducats

Crazy Knights

Fairytale of Middle Earth

We are the Knights of NI!

Living in a Fantasy World (Lord of the Rings Medley)

My Name is Arwen

Rogue

(Vikings Are) Unwanted Dead or Alive

In Camelot!

This Book Is Way Too Long (Lord Of The Rings Trilogy)

You can pretty much take ANY song and give it a medieval/SCA/LOTR makeover.

I would have included some Star trek ones, but I think that Blogger has limits on the amount of data I'm allowed to post.

What a festive weekend!

As I mentioned earlier, I had a pretty full social calender this weekend. Saturday night was spent at Bantaba Dance studio in Boulder, at thier monthy Baladi night. A bunch of different dancers performed, there was live (and canned) music, and some really great vendors.

This is a fun event, especially if you are just getting into this type of dance, because it allows you to express yourself without worry of petty comments or the all-too-common "pro" attitude.

Sunday night was Lupercalia at Cervantes in Denver. Pretty Pagan-heavy crowd, but the music, courtesy of Khalil al-Tarab, was awesome. And for those of you who missed it, our favorite local dancer/artist with the two ravens tatooed on her back danced one of the best performances I've ever seen. Saucy!

The theme was a pagan/roman feast, so I got a chance to wear my handmade linen toga (over a tunica, of course), roman sandals, bronze fibula pins, replica earrings, bracelet and amber necklace. There were several bedsheet and sarong style togas there, and even a couple made of vinyl (eeek!) but honestly, mine was the most historically accurate. Not that it matters. Really.

Oh, and a couple dressed as Gimli and Arwen won the costume contest. But I'm not bitter. How "Lord of the Rings" costumes have anything to do with a pagan/roman feast is beyond me, though.

At least I got to buy a pretty necklace from one of the vendors.

Return of the King Extended DVD

My friend who works at Blockbuster got an advance copy of the Extended edition DVD "Return of the King", and I must say I'm pretty impressed with all the extra scenes. They certainly fill in some of the story I thought was 'hurried through' in the theater version.

Another fun thing is the 'easter egg' scene which is a faked interview with Elijah Woods. Only he doesn't know it's fake. Gotta love those saucy Germans.

We only made it through the first disk of the movie, and haven't touched any of the other special features yet.

I'm going to have a LOTR party sometime this spring, and we'll watch all three extended versions in a row, back to back. Then for those who can make it all the way through, we'll watch all three easter eggs. We've decided to serve mead, Hobbity food and make a version of lembas bread out of cornbread and honey.