two towers again

So I saw The Two Towers again last night, this time with Ruth at the Silver City Famous Players theatre at Yonge and Eglinton. Ruth's first time, my second. In tenuous connection with the movie, there was also a martial arts exhibition going on in the theatre, so we kept passing people fighting with wooden sticks and swords in different areas of the lobby.

Some of the movie theatre staff were dressed up as characters from Lord of the Rings. My favourite was Gollum, mainly because he spent most of the time in character, crouching and hunching and speaking in a Gollum voice as he helped shepherd those lining up for the movie. They even gave a short skit a few minutes before the movie was to begin, though I suspect that most people in the audience thought that it wasn't quite short enough. :-) Ruth and I cheered for Shane at the end of the movie, of course.





The Waiting For Frodo cheer list continues to grow. Very cool to hear about all different types of people from around the world cheering for Shane! Here are some of my favourite comments so far:

From Amanda and Michelle in Illinois, USA:
(Dressed up in costume and were first in line at the Woodstock Theater.) "Michelle and I pulled out the sign we had made the night before, which said: 'Line starts here! Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.' It was followed by the pic of Sam sitting by his sign with Pippin and the adress www.waitingforfrodo.com and Rosie's pic. We taped it to the door of the theater ans stood outsid in the wind as it started raining and people started arriving. A bunch of people were interested in the sign, so of course we told them all about Waiting for Frodo! We called ourselves the offical WFF delegates to Woodstock, IL....(hope you don't mind!) We also had Go Weta and We Love You Shane posters. We got many looks, dressed up as elves, but hey, they were just jealous!"

From Peter in Ashleigh, Florida USA:
"hey,just wanted to let ya know that i cheered for Shane in the credits :D all the theatre people were standing there waiting for me and my dad to go out..........its not often that you see an 11year old clapping and cheering at the credits"

From Lyanne Quirt (yay, Lyanne!) in Ancaster, ON, Canada
"I tried to cheer for Shane when I went to The Two Towers in Ancaster (ON). The problem was, I'd forgotten his last name. So I made my friends sit through to the very end of the credits, while I clapped and cheered for every Shane. I think there were only three. Still, we were the last people to leave the theatre, and I think the movie theatre staff thought I was a little weird."

Allison is sick with the Norwalk virus. :-( Ironically, the media media has been announcing that the Toronto outbreak of the stomach virus is winding down. The virus is highly contagious, and nearly a dozen health care facilities in the city are still shut down. My sister's family all caught it several weeks ago, but Ruth somehow escaped catching it. It sounds like Allison must have caught the virus from some of the sick students in her school.

Hope you feel better soon, Allison!





Links/News:

Figwit Lives: Thanks to Robin (ElectricLandlady) for letting me know about this great link (I had accidentally credited Ray for this instead a couple entries ago, but Ray sent me e-mail letting me know it wasn't him).

One year ago, I ranted about obnoxious movie crowd behaviour.

Three years ago, Andy Barrie aired my "Technonerdboy" song on his CBC Metro Morning show!

Four years ago, I explained why I quit karate.

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Today's Blatherpics:

These photos were taken at the Silver City Famous Players theatre at Yonge and Eglinton.

armenian kitchen

Yay, finished my Christmas shopping! Just need to finish wrapping gifts now. I'm a terrible gift wrapper, by the way. I don't use the proper tape or take the time to fold corners exactly, so my gifts always look as though a somewhat uncoordinated child has wrapped them. But then again, I unwrap gifts in a similar fashion, taking joy in ripping off the paper.

A poll: Do you unwrap the same way, or do you fold/save your paper? I do save the ribbons if they're especially pretty.

Jeff and I had dinner with our friends Bonnie and Georges at the Armenian Kitchen last night. I've never had Armenian food before, so was pretty excited about this. We shared a bunch of appetizers: baked tomato, foule (fava beans), baba ghanouge (eggplant spread), hummos with chicken, fatouche (salad with mint, sumach, lemon, tomato, cucumber, onion). I liked everything, but especially the baba ghanouge. I could probably have eaten a vat of it for my meal, along with pita bread.

I ordered chicken shawarma for a main course, but was so full of appetizers by that point that I had to take most of it home. Did have enough room for some anisette tea and mhalabia (custard with rose water) after dinner, though. I had no idea that rose water was edible; Georges told me that many Armenian desserts use rose water.

For those in Toronto who want to try the Armenian Kitchen, the contact info is 1646 Victoria Park Ave. in North York, 416-757-7722. They do delivery, but unfortunately not in our area. :-(





Links/News:

The list of people who have cheered for Shane is growing.

I mistakenly attributed the Figwit URL to Ray yesterday. Who did send me this link? I deleted the original e-mail, sorry, and would like to properly credit you; please let me know.

One year ago, I ranted about the Lord of the Rings sneak preview. I was glad to see that the theatres openly advertised the midnight showing this time around instead of delaying announcement of the extra showing until the last minute.

Three years ago, I received a message from God.

Four years ago, I talked about Frank Mrowka, a young penpal I befriended through a red balloon many years ago. I recently heard from a relative of Frank's; apparently Frank's all grown up now, but still remembers our correspondence. :-)

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Nutcracker at Ginny's place.
	A Christmas ornament I made for Ginny years ago. I used to make one-of-a-kind felt Christmas ornaments and fridge magnets for friends, back when we lived out in the country. Allison still has two of these on her fridge, a crazed-looking mouse and a Christmas cat.

lining up for Two Towers

So I saw Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers yesterday! Don't worry, no spoilers in this Blatherings entry. If you've seen the movie and want to discuss it, please do visit this Two Towers thread (be prepared for spoilers!) that Allison's set up on the Tolkien boards.

As I've mentioned before, I opted for the first day showing instead of the midnight showing because I wanted to stay conscious through the movie, and I generally go to bed around 10 or 10:30 pm; I am definitely more of a morning than night person. Jeff and I had also been up much of the night before, waiting in the hospital for the birth of my new nephew.

Jeff, Parki, DavidB and I met in front of the Paramount theatre around 8 a.m. yesterday morning to line up for the 11:40 a.m. showing. No one was lined up yet, so we went for breakfast at Shopsy's, came back to find three people in line.





One of the main reasons I enjoy seeing a movie with an opening day crowd is the whole lining up experience. Let me clarify: normally I hate lines. Lining up for hours for a much-anticipated event on opening day is different. There's a frenzied excitement in the air, a knowledge that we're all there suffering (it was pretty cold!) for a common cause, and that cause is a movie we've been looking forward to for an entire year. The guy at the front of the line told me he had been looking forward to it since he was five. :-)





Within a few minutes of breaking out our camp chairs and settling in line, we found ourselves chatting to the people ahead of us as if we had already met. Here are the two guys who were at the front of the line:





The fellow on the left knew a LOT about Tolkien, maybe even as much as or more than our friend DavidB. He had a cool t-shirt which he had hand-screened himself, with something written in Elvish or another Tolkien language (sorry, I forget which one). I immediately challenged his cool shirt with MY cool Weta Eye of Sauron t-shirt, of course!





While we were waiting, a familiar-looking fellow visited with us (he was waiting further back in line). He was someone we had chatted with LAST year while we were waiting in line for Fellowship of the Ring! Here's a photo I took in last year's line; Ben's the one in the middle, with the cloak. You can see a photo taken yesterday at the top of today's Blathering.

"You're the Waiting For Frodo people, aren't you?" he asked. He asked if we had brought a compilation of the Waiting For Frodo comic strips again, which we had passed around in line last year. Unfortunately I didn't.

JBR (Jeff's dad) and Lindsay joined us around 9:30 a.m. Around 10 a.m., the media started trolling the line for interviews. I was interviewed by CFRB radio, but opted out of a CITY-TV interview because I was feeling shy. They interviewed Ben and also the guy with the hand-screened Tolkien t-shirt, as well as others in line. The guy doing the interviewing looked nothing like CITY-TV's Windy Wendy in my comic strip.

"Are you skipping school to be here?" I heard the CITY-TV guy asking Ben (he's a high school student). I didn't hear his answer. :-)





The theatre let us in about fifteen minutes before official box office opening time. Unfortunately because of an e-mail mix-up, Lindsay hadn't bought his ticket yet and found out that the showing was sold out. :-( He did get into the 12:20 showing, however.

There was a mad rush for seats, but we managed to get great ones near the centre of the theatre. How I wish we had a more civilized movie seating system, like the one in Britain where you can buy specific seats instead of general admission. But then we'd miss out on the opening day line-up, wouldn't we? ScottM and his girlfriend's two daughters arrived after we found our seats.





I don't usually sit through the ending credits of movies unless I've especially enjoy the movie. I've sat through the end credits in the theatre pretty much every time I've seen a Lord of the Rings movie (I saw the first movie seven times in the theatre). Partly because I want to cheer for Shane, but also because I figure it's the least I can do in appreciation of all the hard work that those involved in the project put into a movie that I got so much pleasure out of.

For those interested, I've set up a list of people who have e-mailed to let me know they've stayed through to the end of the movie to cheer for Shane McEwan, whose credit as Systems Manager appears in the left-hand column under Weta Digital. Great to see all the different geographic locations, including Sweden, Finland, England, New Zealand, and Norway. Only three from Canada so far: my group yesterday, a couple from Quebec who saw it in French, and a couple in Yellowknife. Some say they cheer for Evan Fraser as well (a coworker of Shane's who recently appeared in Rosie's travel photos), some say they've practically been the only one in the theatre after everyone else has left, some say they've had to explain to the others in the crowd why they're clapping at that particular spot in the credits.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not going to discuss The Two Towers here for fear of giving away spoilers, but I will say that I LOVED this movie. I've already made plans to see it twice more over the holidays, and probably at least several times after that.

Anything to shorten the wait until Return of the King next December. :-)





Links/News:

One year ago, I was in line to see Fellowship of the Ring! (also photos)

Figwit Lives: a pretty funny site about a non-speaking character that appears in the first Lord of the Rings movie. Must work this into my Waiting For Frodo strip somehow. Thanks to Robin (ElectricLandlady) for letting me know about this link.

The Toronto Paramount line party had fun last night, according to one of its organizers. Toronto Star article about them here.

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Me and Ben.
	The line-up at 9 a.m.
	The two guys at the front of the line. The guy on the right said he hadn't read Lord of the Rings yet.
	Line-up at the Paramount about an hour and a half before the movie.
	JBR (Jeff's dad), Lindsay, Parki.
	DavidB.
	Jeff, playing with Parki's Christmas present.
	Movie line-up shortly before they let us into the theatre.

two towers today!

Going to line up for first daytime showing of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers at the Paramount this morning with Parki, Lindsay, JBR, DavidB, ScottM and ScottM's girlfriend's two daughters. We all have our tickets already. If any of you are planning to see the movie and also read my Waiting For Frodo, please do clap and/or cheer for Shane McEwan (Systems Manager, in the left-hand column) when his name comes up under the Weta Digital credits at the end! And then let me know, along with your location. A poll: What's your opinion on the whole saving seats/saving places in line thing? As someone waiting in line, I always hate it when a few people save places in line for a much bigger group that shows up later, especially when I've been waiting for a long time, or one person that saves ten or fifteen seats in the theatre. If it's only a short wait or relatively few latecomers, I don't mind as much. (Click for bigger image) It's so bizarre to think that I can be so excited about a movie based on books that I hadn't read until last year (not to mention my comic on the subject). Many thanks to Allison for providing the gentle prod I needed to read Lord of the Rings. Links/News: An amusing link from Ray Vankleef: YouAreMyFriend.com. Just put a two-word name in front of YouAreMyFriend.com. Here, try it out at http://Debbie.Ohi.YouAreMyFriend.com! (make sure your speakers are turned on, but be warned that the music is pretty loud) One year ago, Brittany came to visit. Four years ago, I went skating with Sara and Annie. Five years ago, Urban Tapestry was planning a joint concert with Ookla the Mok at Confusion. Today's Blatherpics: Japanese Lord of the Rings DVD that my father got from Japan. Comes with a "Middle Earth passport". Japanese Middle Earth map that came with the DVD. Click to see a larger version. Very cool promotional Two Towers tattoos from my friend Michelle.

new nephew!

I'm very pleased to announce that Jeff and I have a new nephew! Jeffrey Donald McKay was born at 12:43 a.m. this morning, much to the delight of parents Larkin and Rick, and weighed 9 lb 5 oz.

We drove up to Orangeville yesterday afternoon. Jeff's brother Case and Olivia, Ginny (Jeff's mom), JBR (Jeff's dad) and Brittany (Larkin's daughter) were at Ginny's house, passing the time until the big event. We drove to the hospital after dinner to visit briefly with Larkin and Rick. I brought my laptop, and Olivia and Brittany watched movies on it while we waited for news. When we found out it was likely going to be another few hours, we opted to go back to Ginny's and have naps. I fell asleep right away, vaguely aware of one of Ginny's cats licking my toes as I dozed off.

Rick called us shortly after midnight, and we drove back to the hospital. The girls were still groggy from being woken up, but still excited about the impending birth of their new brother/cousin (waiting room photo - Jeff is holding Brittany on the left, Case is holding Olivia on the right):





When the baby was born, we all stood or sat in the hallway just outside Larkin's hospital room, waiting for permission to be allowed inside, and being careful to stay out of the way of the doctors and nurses.

Here's Brittany's first glimpse of her new baby brother while he's being weighed:





When we were allowed in, Brittany immediately climbed into the bed with Larkin (who was fine and looked great) and started reading a picture book to her new brother. The hospital sights and commotion around her didn't seem to faze her; she was just happy to be back with Mommy. Rick looked tired but ecstatic.

Amazing how much has happened today, and it's not even 9 a.m. :-)

Many congratulations, Larkin and Rick!





Links/News:

One year ago, Sara had her piano recital.

Two years ago, I was home for Christmas from Philadelphia, having packed up my belongings in my Philly apartment, VERY eager for my move home in January.

Three years ago, I posted my typical daily schedule.

Four years ago, I celebrated Christmas with Allison and Jodi.

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Today's Blatherpics:

These were taken early this morning. Click on any photo to see a bigger version.