Paramount LOTR Line Party

When I joined TheOneRing.net's Paramount LOTR Line Party, I did it more for fun and out of curiosity than a real expectation that anything would come of it.

This afternoon, however, our virtual line party had an actual face-to-face meeting this afternoon at Chapters, in the Starbucks coffeeshop.

And you know what? It was actually pretty fun!

Probably fueled by our mutual admiration of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as well as well as anticipation of the movie, our group seemed to bond immediately, with none of the usual first-meeting preliminary awkwardness. It was also very cool for me to see my friends Allison and Luisa meet each other for the first time...unsurprisingly, they hit it off right away. :-)

But Allison says it all in her report of the event (see later on this page).

Hey, I GOT A SNAILMAIL LETTER ON FRIDAY! Handwritten and everything...thank you, Lyanne! I've pinned it up on my bulletin board (I love the bright red envelope, the coloured ink, the stickers) and am looking forward to answering it later this week. :-) :-)

Links

Spam poetry contest: SatireWire is hosting its second annual contest in which contestants see who can compose the best poetry from phrases lifted from spam e-mail.

Lord of the Special Effects: article about Weta Digital.



Toronto LOTR Line Party Gathering
Sunday, December 2, 2001
By Allison Durno


Location: A back room in Starbucks in a Chapters bookstore in downtown Toronto

Attendees: Luisa, Allison, Vlad ("Phoebus"), Lorelei, Anna ("Goldenar"), Guillermo ("Guille"), Steve ("Water Hot"), Leigh ("Mouth of Sauron"), Khamla, David, Michael, Debbie.

I should start by saying that I tend to be a shy person. Usually, I'd rather eat nails than spend an afternoon trying to make small talk with people that I've just met. Despite that, I was motivated to attend the first gathering of the Toronto LOTR Line Party because of my love of "Lord of the Rings" and my growing excitement over the first movie and because of a chance to talk to people who would understand how I feel. But I was nervous at the thought. The only person I knew from the group coming to the gathering was Debbie.


I arrived at Starbucks early and found myself walking around rather aimlessly, unsure how I was going to hook up with the rest of the group. Luckily, Deb and Luisa were among the first to arrive, so we stood around and admired our almost identical shirts- "Waiting For Frodo" comic strip shirts with graphics designed by Debbie. Shortly after that, some others from the group started arriving and we headed into the back room provided for us by Starbucks to get acquainted. With lattes and coffee and cider in hand, we sat down and began to talk.

And the moment was electric, the synergy between the group was instant, I didn't have to fear at all a distance between us or awkward pauses. As each new person arrived they were immediately drawn into the enthusiasm of the conversation as we discussed everything from casting to the FOX TV special to comparisons (both pro and con) of LOTR with Star Wars and Harry Potter to making firmer arrangements between various people for meeting to see the movie on Dec. 19th. There was just an exhilaration in talking to a group of people as excited about LOTR as I am. We were all on the same wave-length, we understood each other's in-jokes and obscure Tolkien references, we had an instant connection.

I was very happy to finally get a chance to meet Luisa as we've been talking on and off in e-mail about our enthusiasm for Tolkien for several months. Her son, Michael, is partway through ROTK now and he had fun playing with the Saruman and cave troll Burger King figures lying around on the table (David has fun playing with them, too ;)). Anna's enthusiasm for LOTR was contagious and we all admired the gorgeous self-made hand-painted Beatle shirt she was wearing. Guille, who has only been in Toronto five months, told us stories of his home country of Peru. David kept us amused with his mixed-up twisted LOTR/SW/HP stories. We all had stories to tell and opinions to give and it seemed the afternoon flew by. By the end of the gathering I was no longer thinking "Will I be OK for an afternoon with people I don't know?", it was "How soon can we do this again?". Beyond December 19th we're discussing the possibility of getting together to see the movie together again (since many of us can't join a single line on Dec. 19th), but it would be great fun to do the coffee thing again, too, so we can hash out the movie together. Hopefully, that will happen.

We need to give a few thank yous. Thank you to Steve and Luisa who organized our line and co-ordinated this first event. Thank you to Starbucks for providing us with a room and giving us pitchers of ice water and a free plate of cookies late in the afternoon. Thank you to Debbie for taking photos of our first gathering. And lastly, thank you to theonering.net Line Party site, who gave us the opportunity to discover each other and have the fun that we had today.

Let's do it again soon.



A few links of interest mentioned during the gathering today:

Debbie's Waiting For Frodo comic strip

The Silmarillion: A Community Reading (moderated by Allison)

and

Lord of the Rings: Movie Discussion (moderated by Allison)

Paramount LOTR line-up discussion (moderated by Luisa)

(All links above hosted on Debbie's electricpenguin.com message boards. Please add any links I've forgotten to the line party discussion!)

Aside: Anyone outside Toronto reading this report, please report any LOTR gatherings you're involved in on this thread, too! Anyone in Toronto reading this and interested in further events, please sign up here.

-- Allison

Today's pics:

From the Paramount Line Party gathering today, and dinner at Swiss Chalet (dinner with Luisa, Allison, Michael, Jeff, David, Guille).

Today's Poll: (Courtesy Andrea)

Do you prefer tea with or without caffeine? YES for caffeine, NO for no caffeine.