Since I watched a lot of Premier League soccer on TV back in South Africa, I do miss the chants and crowd noise. The vuvuzela pretty much drowns that out and some of my friends in South Africa are getting frantic because of neighbours, passers-by, etc, blowing the things at all hours. I do smile to think that this World Cup will definitely be talked about for years to come - precisely because of the vuvuzelas. They're nothing if not memorable.
I had never heard or heard of vuvuzelas before, and I think it's fun to discover something widely known and commonplace in another culture that is utterly new to me.
That said, when I watch on television, I'm awfully glad I'm not actually there.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
And yeah, I feel sorry for him. On the first day I remember him asking if I had any ear plugs...then saying how his friend described them sounding like 'a swarm of two ton bees'.
Didn't realize the vuvuzelas had come up in this thread! I've posted a similarly-themed offering in the World Cup thread in the Golfimbul forum!
There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.
~Diana Cortes
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Both of those are magnificent (and magnificently on topic).
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Those are the real thing, at least in terms of constriction. How did ladies do anything?
Well, I guess they didn't.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Did you notice the name of the lady who makes the corsets?
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
I hadn't clicked out of the gallery. Yes, indeed. WWTT?
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Glad to know Tolkien readers are paying attention. 'D rather not be called a nerd, though.
I wonder if they called R. A. Dickey a nerd in the original article? Not if he had Orcrist handy, I'd guess.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Even though he got it wrong, I still thought Dickey's comment was cool.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Maybe that's exactly what screenwriter Jonathan Aibel was going for when he announced what his epic board game movie would be like:
"We envision it as Lord of The Rings, but set in a world of candy."
That's the sort of statement that is just so odd, so incomprehensible, that it sticks in your head for days. Aibel does go on to explain what he means, though:
"We don't see it as a movie based on a board game, although it has characters from that world and takes the idea of people finding themselves in a world that happens to be made entirely of candy where there are huge battles going on. We are going for real comedy, real action, and real emotions at stake."
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
The Lego Barad-dûr: 50,000 pieces, 2 months to build, pure awesome
By Ben Kuchera | Published about 20 hours ago
"I can't exactly tell you how many parts are in the model, but I ordered about 25,000, and the same amount of parts came from my own stock," Kevin Walter told Ars. "My final guess is more than 50,000." I first saw the images of his Lego model of Barad-dûr when another member of the staff posted images while we talked about stories we were working on. It's a huge construction, and without detailed source material to build from, the creator had to go by eye as well as trial and error.
Walter began work on the model in late 2010, and the actual construction took around two and a half months. Unlike other Lego builders who use computer programs to plan their creations, Walter just relied on images of a Weta collectible model of the tower. "I tried to capture as many details of it as possible, under the conditions of parts—form and size, and I'm confident of the result." Each of the eight panels that make up the upper tower is unique, and he says he spent a lot of time working on the craggy shape of the foundation to give the structure the appearance of floating on its base.
"But the ultimate challenge was just a small part of the tower—the two small towers on the corners with their hexagonal shape—I needed over two weeks of continuing tries and fails, before I got the final solution for it," he said.
The tower was actually part of a larger effort between 15 people from five different countries, all for a community website where people share their Lego creations. You can see the other models on the page.
Walter was happy with his choice to create the Barad-dûr. "I liked the tower since I saw Lord of the Rings the first time and it was an instant point on my to-do list for the future, but our collaboration gave me the chance to build it earlier, bigger than I would have built it for my own, and set it into a greater context than just building it and share it with the community."
He showed the model at Brickworld 2011 and won a judges award... after spending two days and nights repairing the damage done to the finished model during shipping from Germany. His plans for the model? He's going to dismantle it. Lego bricks are expensive, and right now the majority of his stock is locked into this one design.
We'd like to thank Kevin Walter for sharing his creation with us, and for taking the time to answer our questions. You can see more images of the model on his flickr account.
The texturing is what I find most impressive. Anyone with money to burn can pile up Legos, but giving a good visual impression like that requires something bordering on artistry.
