Weta letter

So in response to my most recent Waiting For Frodo comic, I received the following e-mail from Rebecca at Weta Digital (New Zealand company working on the special effects for Lord of the Rings):



Your strip caused much hilarity in the office today (I sit next to Shane, who mailed you a while ago). I thought that you might like a photo of Shane with the rest of the crew. :-)


Sorry about the image quality. I was in a hurry and couldn't be bothered cleaning the scanner. :-)


Cheers

-rebecca


-ps- Shane is the one at the right hand side of the photo in the yellow shirt. I'm the girl in the black t-shirt at the front. Otherwise, on top of the renderwall there's Tomek (at the front) and Ben (at the

back). Paul is standing next to me and Nik is sitting behind him. James is looking very cool in his sunglasses and orange shirt, and Cam is standing on a box behind him. Our team is bigger these days, but this is the most recent photo. :-)



Rebecca said it was ok to post her letter and photo, as long as I didn't present it as "official Weta/LOTR publicity".





For those of you who would rather not read about the Casa Loma exhibit, "Journey to Middle Earth", until after you actually see it, feel free to skip the rest of this Blathering for now.


Trick or Treating


Jeff and I went out trick-or-treating with Sara and Annie last night. It was the first time I've ever done so...every year previous, I had been in Ohio at OVFF. Lots of fun, hanging out with the parent-types on the sidewalk, watching our nieces and nephews and children meandering up the various sidewalks and driveways in the quest for sugar.


There seemed to be a lot of animal costumes last night, perhaps in anticipation of the colder weather. The kids looked darned cute, though tended to tip over more often. Saw the usual princesses, some white-clad Ninja warriors, firemen, three Darth Mauls, a very cute bumblebee, Winnie the Pooh. No one seemed to know what Sara's costume was, even when she told them she was Arwen. We encouraged her to add "from Lord of the Rings", but she didn't seem to care about it that much. Clasping her tin foil-wrapped cardboard sword in one hand and the neck of her cardboard tube horse in the other, she galloped gleefully across lawns and sidewalks. Annie trailed along beside her, carefully lifting up the hem of her Ariel dress as they clambered up and down sidewalks. Sometimes a house would be so enthusiastically decorated that Annie would be too scared to go up and ask for candy, so Sara would take her sister's bag and go up for her.


When the girls got tired, we went back to their house to admire their loot and for their parents to check it over for any unsafe items. Everything got approved this year, though some hand-wrapped homemade fudge was an iffy item until Kaarel recognized it as something from a particular neighbour. The girls always get a chance to have a snack just before bedtime, usually fruit or cheese. Tonight, their parents said they could have some of their candy instead. To my surprise, both Sara and Annie opted for slices of cantaloupe first. Jeff and I were both stuffing our faces with some of the leftover chocolate and candy, go figure. :-)


A poll question for all you adults: what was your favourite Hallowe'en costume as a child? Answer in Blatherchat.







Journey to Middle Earth

(Alliance/Atlantis exhibit at the Casa Loma)


Jeff and I went to the Casa Loma exhibit yesterday afternoon. It had more stuff than I expected (the tickets were relatively inexpensive...I had figured one big room), so I was quite pleased. There were about nine rooms of varying size, and a hallway lined with framed b&w photos of the cast. Lots of large stills from the movie everywhere as well as pre-production sketches of characters and scenery, filming location maps of "Middle Earth in New Zealand". Effort was made to maintain a certain atmosphere with careful use of lighting and recorded sound effects. Several rooms had Elvish runes projected on the floor in a circle (a la The Ring) in glowing red or orange, some projections slowly rotating.


Cool stuff included:


BAG END ROOM - hobbit furniture, invitations to the party, books and papers, framed paintings of Bungo and Belladonna Took, Bilbo's party outfit.


ELVEN AND GONDORIAN ARTIFACTS ROOM - orc banners, Elven and Gondorian flags, wraithworld witch king outfit, Elrond's armour, Gigalad's armour, orc costumes.


HOBBITON & BREE ARTIFACTS ROOM - ringwraith saddle, pre-production sketches of the Green Dragon, hobbit house, realistic-looking ledger from the Prancing Pony, complete with registrations and ink smears, hobbit tools, furniture from the Green Dragon, costumes, Tolkien book display.


THE MINES OF MORIA ROOM - dwarven mining tools, wooden buckets, bags, orc sword, chest, Gimli's weapon and clothing, dwarf skeleton, rune letters. I was accosted by a Ryerson journalism student in this room, who interviewed me for her radio project. :-)


THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF BARAD-DUR - "Creepiness" factor enhanced by low lighting, flickering red lights, sound effects. Otherwise, isn't nearly as scary as the room name implies.


THE GATES OF MORIA - When light hits the rock, you can see the silver-traced outline of a door. The room after this one doesn't seem to be on the map, and contains a number of colour sketches and paintings.


THE HOBBIT BEDROOM IN BREE - Creepiest display, as far as I was concerned. The room had four hobbit-sized beds that had obviously been ripped apart, feather stuffing scattered everywhere. The beds were empty. In the middle of the room is a realistic figure of a hodded Black Rider, clearly up to no good. Nearby is a display of the hobbit carrying packs, and Gandalf's cart.


ORTHANC - dark, sound of running water, creepy! Orc theme with tools, banner, furniture, Saruman's outfit and a model of his study, Orc candelabra, incense burner.


LOTHLORIEN - This and Rivendell were my favourite rooms in the whole exhibit. The Lothlorien room, not surprisingly, had all sorts of Elvish things, including Galadriel's vial, ring, brooch, crown, jug, bowl (the Mirror, perhaps?), shoes, a variety of her costumes (exquisite beadwork on the Silverlode dress!) and Celeborn's. Elven pillow, shoes, bed, bows & arrows, glassware, Elven boat.


RIVENDELL - All kinds of very cool costumes worn by characters in the movie, including the hobbits, Boromir, Strider, Arwen and Gandalf. Celeborn's furniture, Gandalf's staff and hat (his hat appears to be made of a textured stiff grey felt), weapons, jewelry, crowns, hobbit swords including Sting (whose blade is engraved), Aragorn's hunting knife (runes on the blade), Gandalf's sword (blue ridged handle with blue scabbard), Elrond's healing herbs, Bilbo's book (calligraphy on first page reads "There and Back Again...A Hobbit's Tale, by Bilbo Baggins"), Elven cutlery (long and elegant, just like its users), Rivendell forgery tools. Centerpiece: Elvish telescope, as well as a large bow hanging from an Elvish-type chandelier from ceiling.


Most of all, I was impressed by the quality of the craftmanship of the items, how realistic they all looked. The sword handles were appropriately worn-looking, for example, the kitchen tools looked as if they were used regularly. When I commented on the workmanship to Rebecca (see Weta Digital letter at top of this page), she agreed that the Weta Workshop people had done a wonderful job, saying that Weta Digital was lucky to have some of the movie props hanging on their office walls.


Anyway, if any of you happen to be in Toronto between now and November 11th and are even moderately interested in the Lord of the Rings movie, I highly recommend this exhibit!


Links:


- Interesting article about Weta Digital, from Digital Producer


- Another Casa Loma Report (from TheOneRing.net)


- Casa Loma report from Canoe


Blatherpics:


- Weta Digital group photo.


- Program book for "A Journey To Middle Earth", a Lord of the Rings exhibit at the Casa Loma.


- My ticket to the Casa Loma "Journey to Middle Earth" exhibit.


Today's Poll: (Send a poll suggestion)

Did you give out Hallowe'en treats last night?

happy hallowe'en!

Update 2 pm EST: For those of you who haven't heard, Mary Ellen and Ed's baby was born October 19th. Jacob Arthur Corwin Stauff, 3:20am 10/19/01, 7lbs11oz, 5.5 hrs of labor total, no complications or interventions, everyone's healthy.

---

So today starts my first official full day as a freelance writer since Inkspot was shut down by Xlibris. My home office is in chaos, mainly because I've been away so much during the past months, and partly because I've never been particularly organized when it comes to my office space. :-) One of my goals today is to start getting my office into a semblance of working order.


Another is to establish a formal work schedule. I'd be very curious to hear from you other freelancers: how to organize your work day? I already have assignments and e-mail accumulating, some due in a few weeks. My goal is to figure out a rough schedule that keeps me on track, but not so anal that I have to have lunch from 11:53 to 12:22.





A Thank You To Filk Concoms


The focus of today's Blathering is on concoms, particularly planning committees for fannish conventions whose goals are mainly to provide a venue for people to have fun rather than a focus on profit. Filk conventions are a good example.


I've been attending filk conventions for a number of years; I was at the first OVFF and the first FilKOntario. I enjoyed some more than others, and some were better organized than others. Overall, however, it became more and more clear to me how much work was put into planning these events.


Concoms (nickname for "convention committees") are a sorely under-appreciated group in general. Sure, they get to make speeches and get attention at the convention itself, but 99% of a concom's work is done before the convention, behind the scenes and out of the limelight. Concoms bear the brunt of the politics in a filk community, have to deal with artist egos, have to learn to be tactful and polite in all kinds of awkward circumstances as well as dealing with high-pressure crises while trying to insulate those attending conventions from internal workings. It takes an enormous amount of time to plan a good convention.


Concoms tend to hear more complaints than praise. People take well-run conventions for granted. And if anything does goes wrong, some people tend to forget to look at things in context. Whenever I start to get my nose out of joint by some quirk in convention programming or concom activity, I remind myself that these people are volunteers, and that I wouldn't have to privilege of being able to attend these venues without them. And I also ask myself: Would I be willing to do what they're doing?


A challenge to all of you who attend filk conventions: Sometime during the next year, why not make it a point to *thank* a concom for their efforts? Perhaps in person, by e-mail, a thank you card by snailmail...anything to show these generous folks that we do appreciate what they're doing.


(For those interested, I've posted a full version of the above in my Dandelion Report article).





Some Links:


- Garcia Family website: Find out what Alisa, Luis, Hailey and Tommy are up to. :-) I've added Alisa's online journal to my links page.


- Lovetron 5000 (link courtesy Andrew P.): Ask a robot from the future questions about your love life.





Blatherpics:


- Sara and Annie in their Hallowe'en costumes. Sara is Arwen (as portrayed in the most recent Lord of the Rings movie trailer) and Annie is Ariel.


- Frank's surprise gift to me (see his recent posting in Blatherchat).


- Steve Simmons at OVFF.


- Mike Stein at OVFF. Mike was the first person I ever recorded anything with in a filk venue...I added flute to a piece of his for a very early OVFF convention tape.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy David Alway)

How many folks with cameras have a digital camera (yes) vs. a photochemical camera (no). If you have both, answer 'yes' -- if none, don't answer.

going home

12:30 pm, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport


So I'm typing this while sitting cross-legged on the floor of the Check-In area, waiting in line so that my luggage can be hand-inspected. There are four people in front of me, and each person takes about a half hour to search. The woman behind the counter is going through every bag in detail, removing and inspecting every single item. I'm glad I showed up three hours early! Even so, timing may be tight. A guy two people ahead of me has his flight in an hour and is worried he's going to miss it.


My first impulse is to be impatient, and wonder why the airline couldn't have more than a single person doing the bag inspection, to help speed things along. But then I remember that most airlines are already feeling financial stress and have had to lay off a large number of employees. And the fact that they're being so strict about inspection is reassuring in terms of security issues.







3:07 pm, on a United Airlines plane bound for Chicago


So United Airlines knows a lot more about me than they did before.


When I finally got to the front of the security inspection line, a serious-looking skinny guy went through my checked luggage in minute detail, looking for explosives and weapons (I asked). It took half an hour for him to examine every crevice of my suitcase, pat down every piece of clothing. He even went through the small "Burt's Bees Sampler Case" I bought in Cincinnati last night with Andrea, squeezing each tube, shaking every small cannister.





I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing as he went methodically through my bag of percussion instruments, especially when he scrutinized my newest acquisition (a gift from Paul and Beckett), a lemon-shaped shakey thing. Good thing he didn't decide to try out my plastic lip whistle, or I would have lost it for sure.


When I got to my boarding gate, my carry-on was searched and I was wanded. Every person who did the searching apologized for the inconvenience (especially the woman who had to search my purse) but I told them that I understood completely, and that I'd rather go through the inconvenience if it meant knowing that my flight was more likely to be safer.





3:02 pm, waiting in the Chicago airport


It's raining in Chicago.


I'm sure that line is in a song somewhere, but I can't remember the title. Well, my flight landed about 8 minutes before my connecting flight was supposed to leave Chicago. I would have missed the latter had it not been for the fact that the Toronto flight is 40 minutes delayed.





Quite the stressful few minutes, though, racing madly down the hallway, dodging passengers. The Air Canada agent who had re-booked my cancelled flight on the phone must have made a mistake when giving me my itinerary since the flight number she gave me DIDN'T EXIST on the flight status boards.


Really looking forward to getting home.





6:47 pm, Toronto


Home, woohoo!!! More tomorrow.


Blatherpics:


- Cacie Sears and Talis Love at OVFF. I had to do a doubletake when I saw Cacie at OVFF...I've never seen her blonde before! :-)


- WorlDream cake at the closing party, before and after. Dave Weingart asked me to take a photo to make sure Beckett Gladney could see it (Beckett designed the WorlDream logo).


- United Airlines security guy going through my percussion bag. He was very serious and thorough, and apologized to me about the inconvenience.


- Military police at the Cincinnati airport.


- Erica Neely, Jodi, and me.


- Andrea cooking dinner (a yummy frittatta) on Monday night, with Nicholas observing.


Today's Poll: (Submit poll question)

Can you burp on demand?

ovff (sunday)

Back at Andrea's now. OVFF was fun; many thanks to the concom for all their hard work! As I mentioned in my previous Blathering, I didn't attend as much of the programming this year. I still have a cough lingering from my California bug...the effects of which are worst when I had to talk. And at a convention, that tends to happen a lot. :\





Since the news was announced with the rest of the convention updates at the end of the Pegasus Award Ceremonies, I figure it's official enough to post here: Urban Tapestry is very pleased to announce that we've been invited to be GoHs at Conchord in California next August! I was also surprised/delighted to hear that Dandelion Wine is going to be GoHs at Contata next year! I might just have to make a trip to the New York area in June... :-)


Anyway, I'll also be updating the OVFF site with information re: Pegasus Award and songwriting information...Best Filk Song: Strangers No More by Brenda Sutton, Best Performer: Talis Kimberley, Best Writer/Composer: Talis Kimberley, Best Computer Song: Tech Support by Jeff Hitchin, Best Creature Song: Least of My Kind by Cat Faber. I need to confirm the songwriting winner info, but I believe that Randy Hoffman took first place, Seanan McGuire took second place (does anyone know who won third place? please e-mail or Blatherchat, thanks).





I'm sure others will post detailed convention reports this week. For now, here are a few more of my personal highlights of the convention. I'll be including more over time. And if you couldn't attend OVFF but have attended in the past, please do post your own memories in Allison's "OVFF Memories" message board!


In random order:


- The Three Weird Sisters. They made -wonderful- Guests of Honour...all immensely talented, friendly, fun to watch in performance.


- Seeing Rand with Nicholas Dale. Nick took a real shining to Rand, gave him a big smile, and immediately grabbed his finger. Very amusing to see Rand go into marshmallow mode as a result.





- Seanan's concert. What a voice! Seanan was kind enough to help Jodi and I debut my new Harry Potter song ("Obsession") in open filk since Allison wasn't able to be there this year.


- Hearing Joe G. AMAZING guitarist. He's new to filk and delighted by the community, saying that it's wonderful to play in a venue where people are there to have fun (rather than just show up just to promote themselves and push merchandise).





- Hearing Terence Chua perform again. He did the "Guy" voice for Jodi and me in an open filk rendition of "Cuz He's A Guy". (THANKS, TERENCE!).


- Impromptu get-together in the bar area on Friday night.





- Singing "Ode To Kathleen Sloan" beside Kathleen at one of the Saturday night filks. Kathleen sang Paul Kwinn's parody of her "Catalog Queen" song as a follower. :-)


More highlights later.


Jodi and I both really missed Allison during OVFF. Perhaps because people were used to seeing three of us together all the time, some kept mixing up our names. Jodi was called Allison four times, and I was called Jodi three times. :-)


Hanging out with Andrea tomorrow, home on Tuesday.





Blatherpics:


- Guests of Honor concert: Three Weird Sisters -- Gwen Knighton, Brenda Sinclair Sutton, and Teresa Gibson Powell.


- Joe G., Rand, and Jodi. I was -really- blown away by Joe's performance in open filk, especially the way he sometimes uses the guitar as a percussion instrument.


- Robin and Frank. I was lucky enough to hear Robin play flute later in the convention!


- Ookla The Mok (Adam English and Rand Bellavia) with Andrea, just before Andrea and I took off for Cincinnati.


- Some of our tablemates at the Pegasus Awards Ceremony.


- Andrea and Jodi practising in our hotel room.


- The Weird Sisters invited Jodi, Erica Neely and me up on stage during their last song, a fun tribute to Terence Chua (written by Rob Wynne).


Today's Poll: (Submit poll question)

Do you put your socks on -before- your pants/trousers? Choose YES for before, NO for after.

ovff

At The Ohio Valley Filk Fest in Dublin, OH (near Columbus). 'Twas a shaky beginning yesterday when Andrea and Tom discovered that their van had a flat tire. :-( They ended up renting a car for the weekend and we drove down in two cars.


Jodi and I are really missing you, Allison! And of course everyone is asking where you are. I'm considering doing the same thing that Rand did last year when Adam had to drive up later, when he pasted a note on his membership badge in response to the automatic question ("Where's Adam?") he was asked countless times: "ADAM IS DRIVING UP LATER." :-)





Partly because Allison's not here and partly because I'm seeing friends I haven't seen in a long while, I'll likely do more hanging out with people than attending regular programming this year. So if you're looking for good coverage of programmed con highlights, you'll have to wait until a more official con report is posted by someone else in the Dandelion Report message boards or rec.music.filk next week.


For now, however, here are my Friday highlights of the con, in random order:


- Finally meeting Gwen Knighton of the Three Weird Sisters. I was supposed to get together with her at Gafilk a year or two ago to talk harps and writing, but ended up not going. :-(


- Hearing the Three Weird Sisters: Brenda Sinclair Sutton, Teresa Gibson Powell, and Gwen Knighton.


- The hall filk last night. Way fun. :-) I put in a request to hear Bill Sutton's first filk song from his early days.


- When Andrea and I were "Madeira"ed by Bill Sutton and Steve Simmons.


- Seeing Ellen Weingart again! I e-mail and Blatherchat with Dave, but haven't seen Ellen for a while.


- Performing "Lullaby for Gustavo" for Diana Huey in the hallway last night. Diana had purchased an Interfilk package I donated last year with an offer to write a children's song. I also promised her a version with harp accompaniment (I had originally written the song on my harp, but didn't get the song completed in time to record a harp version)...I'm hoping to get Jodi and Allison to work up a version for Urban Tapestry. Anyway, she seemed to quite like the song!





Blatherpics:


- Hall filk last night. I did check out the regularly scheduled filks, but ended up in this one because the first room I checked was Too Full and the other was Too Quiet.


- Kathleen the Catalog Queen at last night's Mad Hatter's Party.


- Seanan organized a group whose name I am afraid I can't remember at the moment (something to do with Ose Bunnies?). They surrounded me at the party last night, so I made them pose for a photo.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy Jodi)

Have you pierced one or both of your ears?