The Rose's Grove

Professor Corey Olsen (AKA The Tolkien Professor) talks about the big Hobbit Movie casting spoiler that came out today, and why he's pretty okay with it, here at the LA Times website.

And in my continuing effort to reverse opinions from "oh god this thing is cursed" to "OH GOD THIS IS HAPPENING!" every single time some piece of news is released (seriously, the movie itself will be nothing to the roller-coaster of Serious Feelings I have had regarding the production, if the history up to now is any indication...), I am officially psyched about this most recent development. ( Spoilers! And also my Petty, Shallow Opinions, as well as the slightly deeper ones. )

More re: the announcement about Del Toro stepping away from 'The Hobbit' If necessary, PJ says he will step in as director if that's what it takes to ensure the film happens.

Assuming, that is, that the studio greenlights the project.

Full article is here.

Kitten is lounging on the couch with Theoden, on whom she appears to have a little bit of a crush. He's ignoring her. This seems to be suitable progress.

My far-too-frequent checking of the IMDB page for the upcoming Hobbit movie (hush - I'm just so damned curious who they'll cast that I can't resist checking back every week or so! They said they'd be announcing casting in spring. It's spring! Well. Almost...) has turned up...

That IMDB is the latest source to drink the kool-aid buy the rumors about David Tennant. See?

Me, personally? I have a hard time saying "David Tennant couldn't possibly play ____" for just about anything, but Bilbo Baggins? Is a definite "David Tennant couldn't possibly," in my book. Honestly. No offense to him, I love the man and think he's a fantastic actor, he's just not right for the part.

On the other hand, what do I know? I thought they'd cast Joseph Patterson as the next Doctor. So clearly I am not the one to listen to on things like this. :P

New pictures of Eleven's outfit and companion are floating around. I, personally, only find myself capable of caring that there were so many people posting bits of information out of cuts over on doctrwho that I had to go ahead and look at the pictures because, what the hell, I already knew half of it. :P

And, at the risk of restarting an old argument, they still both look about 12. The outfits are fine, although I will say... ( CUT! See, community? This is how you do it. )

Now... does anybody know what day the 'Hobbit' casting controversy was rumored to be cleared-up on? I keep right on hearing there'll be an announcement at ComicCon (although, for the record, I don't believe it'll be That Person Everyone Says It Might Be, even though that would be the most awesome thing ever... if bizarre in terms of "type" for the character), so... which day is it exactly that I should be hovering over TheOneRing.net, refreshing every five seconds? :)

Dear idiot who wrote "The World of the Rings":

Now, I'm no great student of Old English, but the last time I checked Westu hal was a well-documented, easily translated phrase in that language. I'm almost certain that it means "be-thou well." It's possible that Tolkien meant it as a bit of a punning double meaning, but you quoting it as though it is nothing more than a direct reference to the Rohirrim under Theoden's command riding directionally west is pure stupidity, and makes me want to throw your book across the room for being trivial and poorly-researched. In addition to the fact that most of your writing sucks ass, it makes me wish I'd never read this tripe you call a book, and wonder how the fuck you got published.

~ * ~

My life is reading. Endless reading. And stress. Lots of that, too.

At least when I'm reading the crap, I feel a sense of "Hell, I can do better than that!" As opposed to some of the other writers, who leave me wanting to curl up and whimper about not being worthy. More than anything, I find that I just... want to read the books again. And watch the movies. And that's it. So at least this whole thing hasn't done anything to my love of the original sources... it's just left me thinking "holy fucking shit, what was I thinking when I decided I should do something so gods-damned broad and huge????"

Also, it is cruel that Yahoo radio keeps playing songs that remind me of my fic. I do not have time to write fic.

God bless Launch radio on Yahoo. I adore their "Adult Alternative" station - it's become pretty much all I listen to. And I'm finally finding out what bands produced a lot of songs that I adore - I'd never been able to figure out who did "Blurry," (or, for that matter, what the title was) before. Good ole Puddle of Mudd. ;) Now if they'd just play "Ordinary" by Train, I would be a very happy Jen.

Had coffee with erynn_lasgalen this morning after my first class - it was great getting to visit with her again after so long. And I forgot to mention that I ran into stormwolf and jyuu_chan on Sunday night, on the way to work - that was a wonderful coincidence! I've been such a bad little hermit, living almost exclusively in my house lately. Must get out more and see more people more often. *Nods firmly*

I am a Bad Person for working on the infamous ethnography-fic in my seminar class and Modern Poetry. But notice that this does not stop me from doing it just about every day. XD Hey - at least I'm not drawing, and I do pay attention and respond to questions and stuff. I just get so boooored, I have to keep my brain going somehow.

On the other hand, writing the ethnography-fic is preferable to writing any other sort of fic that might be coming to my mind right now, and I find that reading the sagas is really adding some good depth to the ethnography idea. Very fun stuff.

Must remember to visit my professor from last quarter and get my paper back, and also to visit an English dept. advisor and... well... basically beg them for ideas about who might let me write my honors thesis on Tolkien. *Winces* I'm sure that'll be a big hit. I have this dreadful fear that pretty much any professor in the department will hear That Name and automatically lose all academic respect for me. Eeep. I hate that feeling. But damn it, that's what I really want to write on, and I have the proper background for it and... and... I can't think of anything else I could write on comfortably, either. What else would I do? Shakespeare?? As if there's anything new I can offer on that subject - there's only four hundred years of previous literary analysis to try not to copy!

Shit, I'm gonna be late for Modern Poetry if I don't leave now.

This is just a short link for those of you who can't understand why I call Amanda's Lucius "adorable." Sure, it's IB, not one of the RPs that I'm in - but that's just so wonderful.

Who could read that and not love him at least a little bit?

Also, I have been bitten by the fanfic-bug. Hopefully tomorrow I will post the first chunk of a fic I'm writing. I figure that posting it here will actually ensure that it does *something* other than just molder in my computer files, forever unfinished. It's Lord of the Rings, book canon, and set after the War of the Ring. It focuses on Eomer and, more generally, the Rohirrim, through the eyes of Lothiriel, the daughter of Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth.

No, I am not making this shit up. And no - she's not a Mary Sue. I'm actually doing my best to stick to canon... where it's possible... ;)

MMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......

http://www.theonering.net/scrapbook/view/6956

*is now extremely happy, not to mention eager for December*