Adam P. Knave, the P. stands for Ptiberius. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} murnkay) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} wee_tolkien,@ 2003-09-20 21:14:00 |
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Special Report - Bilbo and Frodo's Birthday
A Gathering of Proud ... fans
by Adam P. Knave
The trains didn't run on time today. No, I stood there in Union Station waiting for my steel chariot to wisk me away to parts far so that I could immerse myself in some Hobbit fancying but the trains, they did not show me any love.
"We are being held at the station due to a track problem uptown. We do not know when the next uptown train will depart," crackled the speakers above me. We were crammed into the train, holding our collective breath lest the sheer mass of human flesh overwhelm the capacity of the car, and at that announcement we sighed as one. Which, of course, pushed capacity over the edge. People, myself included, streamed from the car onto the platform and up back to the outside world. Cabs were being fought over, busses were packed and I knew I was going to be late. I hate being late.
My wife saved me with an idea by mistake. She suggested another train, but t didn't go where I needed. It would, however, take my close enough and far enough a cab could get me the rest of the way. And off I went.
Up to 221 East 71st street I transported myself, the sounds of the Commitments blaring against my ill treated ear drums, to a darkened glass door that asked me to enter.
"Speak friend, and enter," I thought, trying to get myself fully into the mood. Inside the lobby guards sat to direct us and have us sign in. I was preceded by a woman with a few children in tow, and by the time I got to the guard she just told me to "follow them" them to the 5th floor.
The elevator was drab and gray, neither truly imposing nor friendly. The people were a different story. Flowing dresses and flowers were the order of the day for some - genuine excitement was on the menu as well, despite the surroundings.
Off the elevator and a sign stands out against the drab wall. Handwritten it reads "Join the throng" with an arrow to our right. We went to join and to throng. At the end of a hallway sat a table. Sturdy and industrial press wood the table declared itself here, there was no mistaking it for anything else, like say a big chair. Behind it sat one of our hosts, apologizing. It was around 11:10 when I arrived, the show was supposed to get underway at 11, but things hadn't settled just yet. Somehow, she acted like this was a surprise. The best parties never start on time, the best laid plans of elves and men are always a bit behind.
Along the table were catalogs from Sideshow toys, temporary tattoos in Elvish (as opposed to Elvis, who was not there) and a word find game created by Heren Istarion. Yeah, Heren Istarion , the New York Tolkien society. Today was their day to celebrate Bilbo and Frodo's birthday, and they intended to do it with style and with love.
While we were waiting for things to get underway we were offered a chance to watch some of Spirited Away which was showing in a room that was once the Internet Center but that was already in the process of becoming so much more (and we'll get back to it).
Spirited Away huh? Made me wonder. Haven't we all been spirited away by something in our lives? Loved ones, stories, art - these things all have the power to move us and to take us places we could never find on our own. Spirited away. Apt idea. Heren Istarion's job seemed to be a process of moving us all away from what we knew into a place we could be what we felt like being.
Heren Istarion was founded in September of 2000 by Anthony Burdge, who serves as Chairman of the group. Jessica Burke serves as his Co-chair, keeping him informed and running ground level moments when Anthony can't get to everything. Their dynamic was just fun to watch. Burdge has turned Heren Istarion into one of the largest Tolkien Society's there is, and watching him you start to see why.
The people gathered slowly but continuously, and as Anthony took his place at the podium to start the day off, the room swelled from around 20 people to probably double that. A large share of people brought children with them, hopefully their own or at least ones they knew. I don't think I could condone grabbing small children off the streets just for this. The amount of children, and how excited and happy they were was a testament to Tolkien's work. Love it or not it has a power, a resonance, unto itself. That resonance lets the work be passed down from generation to generation like the stories of old, told around a camp fire.
Of course, some massively successful movies couldn't have hurt either.
A child dressed as an orc told someone else "I left my sword at home," and was then asked if he wanted to sign up to play Beet the Geeks, "Oh yeah! Yeah yeah!" He was told which paper to sign and gleefully found himself a pen.
Speaking of pens, you need to understand here, I'm old school. I was armed, armed and deadly with a small pad and a pen. My pen worked furiously straining to capture moments my ears might let me forget and it made me stand out. They stared at the pen some, watching it as it moved across paper in silence. I am more than welcome here but also somehow outside. The pen puts me outside, not the people.
Speak friend, and enter. It holds true here.
Anthony looks around from the podium: "Where are Frodo and the Ring Wraiths," he asks. Instantly I conjure in my head a heavy metal band named the same. I can see them on tour, with roadies and groupies, playing arenas with songs like "One Ring to bind my love" and "Darkness in the Shire". Time to refocus on my surroundings. I should've had that second cup of coffee. "We have a couple of Ring Wraiths," Anthony explains after asking after them. I suppose it's always a good idea to have a fully stocked compliment of Nazgul along ... just in case.
A man held up a Sauron toy, mace in one hand while the Ring gleamed against his dark plastic body one the other hand. "His finger comes off," proclaimed the man, and then he hit a button that caused Sauron to rumble something while his eyes glowed an evil red. To my memory, "Pull Sauron's Finger" was in neither the books nor the movies - but it seemed like a popular concept for a new game.
One of the Ring Wraiths was seen shortly after, I suppose the pulling of his dark lord's finger had brought him forth like a soundless call in the night. The child, or possibly Hobbit in disguise, stopped to buy a ticket for one of the raffles. Heren Istarion was giving away a replica of Sting. I wondered what need the Nazgul would have for an Elven dagger. Wily are the lost Kings indeed.
Sting was but one prize of the day, but there was a table full of things to win in drawings and raffles. Books, games, shirts, busts of Frodo and Bilbo and even passes to the Gathering of the Fellowship.
The room was settling in, people were finding seats and chatting amongst themselves, and a woman wearing a "Pervy Elf Fancier" t-shirt walked in. How I wanted to cheer her, to applaud and sing her praises for her fashion sense. I held myself back, not wanting to blow my cover too early in the game. I was armed with a pen and paper. I was serious, stern and unforgiving in my ... I envied that shirt. I envied it mightily. It wouldn't have fit me, of course, yet still ... it was enviable.
The room now full, the children not fussing but sitting attentively and well-behaved (except for one very small child who started to cry for a minute, but not much longer than that) and Anthony welcomed us all.
"My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles, and Proudfoots..." he started, reading from the book.
"Proudfeet!" the crowd gave back to him. He went on to explain about Heren Istarion, it's founding and purpose. "We don't do it for ourselves," he said, "we do it for you." They do it to bring fans together.
In December, Heren Istarion will help out with The Gathering of the Fellowship in the Sheraton Center Toronto, a staggeringly huge event, with over a thousand people already signed up. There will be academic programming of all sorts put on by Heren Istarion, hours upon hours of it, as well as showings of all three movies.
One showing, I tell only the truth here, will be back to back to back. The extended editions of Fellowship and TTT and RoTK, in a theatre with big wide screens and popcorn and such. I fear for the asses of the assembled that night, I truly do. Please, I beg of you, if you are considering attending, pack pillows to sit on. A lot of them. Maybe get up and jog during the walking scenes. There are, we all know, a lot of walking scenes.
We broke and mingled, discussing life and Tolkien and life and just being friendly and having a good time. Pippin Skywalker was there from TORN, arriving just in time to hear Anthony discuss the site itself and their new book with me. The computer center I mentioned before was being set up for Gamer's Workshop to demo their LoTR game in, as well as showing the old animated LoTR and Hobbit films. Small crowds collapsed into hypnotic stares as animated hobbits and dwarves sang songs written long ago, projecting them into the present to infect the future. Oh those songs will never go away. Then again, neither will Nimoy's song, the less said about which the better.
I noticed that the animated Gollum still looks like a midget dressed in an ill fitting frog costume, it still bothers me on some level. It becomes hard to turn away but I had to, I forced myself to. I had to see what a Book Toss was all about.
People used the Book Toss to rid themselves of books they simply didn't want anymore, from dislike or owning multiple copies. Burdge colelcted the tossed volumes to donate to the New York Public Library later on.
The first book of the day tossed was Pride and Predudice which earned an audible gasp from one onlooker. Book tossing is not for the faint of heart.
A girl tossed a book explaining to the assembled masses that it had ballet in it and she didn't like ballet, as well as the fact that the book itself was "sissy". Sissy ballet books had been given the boot and we weren't going to take it anymore. A boy tossed (hypothetically, he didn't have the book with him) the 3rd Harry Potter book. He had liked the rest but felt the 3rd was just not great. A smattering of discussion ensued.
After the Book Toss there was another short break, giving people a chance to wander about and continue being social and friendly. That really was the order of the day, after all. It was a party and the vibe was firmly in place by that point. We knew though, that geekery was soon to ensue, as a game of Beat the Geeks was about to start up.
In what I felt might be a telling move, Beat the Geeks started off with a movie related question. The Geeks themselves (Burdge, Jessica Burke and well .. my apologies to the rest of you whose names I did not get) were stumped. I thought it strange that the game was begun with movie questions and not book questions, secretly relived when deep seated fannish questions such as "What was Tolkien's wife's maiden name?" and "What were the full names of Tolkien's parents?" were asked not too long after. The younger the fan, the more likley it was to be a movie question though, as the kids come into a love for the work through cinema. Hopefully they will find the books and enjoy them as well later on.
Thankfully I thought ahead and brought two pens with me. My first vanished in a good samaritan gesture to someone so that she could enter Beat the Geeks. Charity begins at home, but it's hell on pens and reporting.
At times the Geeks huddled together protectivly as they pondered a question, eyebrows raising and lowering, laughs passed back and forth, responses sought determidly. Not many lasted through the first round, the questioner's wit was being overcome by the Geeks finely tuned brains. No, really.
At the end of round two the game came to a stop, as only two women remained. Prizes were given and given lushly, CD Card sets from New Line some books, bits from the Gamer's Workshop game and coins minted in the Shire.
Pull My Finger Sauron kept proving to be a popular game, his eyes lighting and his voice grumbling in ways that reminded me of Khan. Khan with a head cold. Kahn doing a duet with Tom Waits perhaps. But somehow, always Khan.
While Sauron stood stoicly on a prize table, having his buttons pushed, Anthony worked the floor like the James Brown of Tolkien fandom, the hardest working man in Hobbitdom, always on the move and always taking care of bussiness. The staff were all dedicated to making this a day of freindship, joy and ease. They suceeded.
Over in the game room/computer center, a guy from Gamer's Workshop helped children work out the plusses and minnuses of attacking Helm's Deep, while outside in the hall Laura worked careful Elvish caligrophy. Her pen moved in subtle winding ways along dark green paper, etching out carefully formed letters and words as if by magic. Then, a break. A bite of cookie. And the pen was lifted once more.
The vending machine in the corner hummed to itself, an onlooker only. It gave you more than water for your money though, it displayed "Vending" while it thought about your right to quench thirst, inventing new verbs for a new time. The humming of the machine somehow reminded me of the time, my time, my need to move on.
I had to leave early, saying my goodbye to Anthony for a wonderful time and leaving by the stale, lifeless gray hallway again back into the real world once more.
On my ride back, the trains ran smooth.
For more information on Heren Istarion visit www.herenistarion.com. For more information about The Gathering of the Fellowship visit www.tolkiengathering.com. Thanks to Anthony, Jessica, Laura and the whole crew of Heren Istarion, Marymount Manhattan and all attendees for making it a great afternoon. Thanks to Tanya for taking me seriously and sending mail to kick this report off the ground.
by Adam P. Knave
The trains didn't run on time today. No, I stood there in Union Station waiting for my steel chariot to wisk me away to parts far so that I could immerse myself in some Hobbit fancying but the trains, they did not show me any love.
"We are being held at the station due to a track problem uptown. We do not know when the next uptown train will depart," crackled the speakers above me. We were crammed into the train, holding our collective breath lest the sheer mass of human flesh overwhelm the capacity of the car, and at that announcement we sighed as one. Which, of course, pushed capacity over the edge. People, myself included, streamed from the car onto the platform and up back to the outside world. Cabs were being fought over, busses were packed and I knew I was going to be late. I hate being late.
My wife saved me with an idea by mistake. She suggested another train, but t didn't go where I needed. It would, however, take my close enough and far enough a cab could get me the rest of the way. And off I went.
Up to 221 East 71st street I transported myself, the sounds of the Commitments blaring against my ill treated ear drums, to a darkened glass door that asked me to enter.
"Speak friend, and enter," I thought, trying to get myself fully into the mood. Inside the lobby guards sat to direct us and have us sign in. I was preceded by a woman with a few children in tow, and by the time I got to the guard she just told me to "follow them" them to the 5th floor.
The elevator was drab and gray, neither truly imposing nor friendly. The people were a different story. Flowing dresses and flowers were the order of the day for some - genuine excitement was on the menu as well, despite the surroundings.
Off the elevator and a sign stands out against the drab wall. Handwritten it reads "Join the throng" with an arrow to our right. We went to join and to throng. At the end of a hallway sat a table. Sturdy and industrial press wood the table declared itself here, there was no mistaking it for anything else, like say a big chair. Behind it sat one of our hosts, apologizing. It was around 11:10 when I arrived, the show was supposed to get underway at 11, but things hadn't settled just yet. Somehow, she acted like this was a surprise. The best parties never start on time, the best laid plans of elves and men are always a bit behind.
Along the table were catalogs from Sideshow toys, temporary tattoos in Elvish (as opposed to Elvis, who was not there) and a word find game created by Heren Istarion. Yeah, Heren Istarion , the New York Tolkien society. Today was their day to celebrate Bilbo and Frodo's birthday, and they intended to do it with style and with love.
While we were waiting for things to get underway we were offered a chance to watch some of Spirited Away which was showing in a room that was once the Internet Center but that was already in the process of becoming so much more (and we'll get back to it).
Spirited Away huh? Made me wonder. Haven't we all been spirited away by something in our lives? Loved ones, stories, art - these things all have the power to move us and to take us places we could never find on our own. Spirited away. Apt idea. Heren Istarion's job seemed to be a process of moving us all away from what we knew into a place we could be what we felt like being.
Heren Istarion was founded in September of 2000 by Anthony Burdge, who serves as Chairman of the group. Jessica Burke serves as his Co-chair, keeping him informed and running ground level moments when Anthony can't get to everything. Their dynamic was just fun to watch. Burdge has turned Heren Istarion into one of the largest Tolkien Society's there is, and watching him you start to see why.
The people gathered slowly but continuously, and as Anthony took his place at the podium to start the day off, the room swelled from around 20 people to probably double that. A large share of people brought children with them, hopefully their own or at least ones they knew. I don't think I could condone grabbing small children off the streets just for this. The amount of children, and how excited and happy they were was a testament to Tolkien's work. Love it or not it has a power, a resonance, unto itself. That resonance lets the work be passed down from generation to generation like the stories of old, told around a camp fire.
Of course, some massively successful movies couldn't have hurt either.
A child dressed as an orc told someone else "I left my sword at home," and was then asked if he wanted to sign up to play Beet the Geeks, "Oh yeah! Yeah yeah!" He was told which paper to sign and gleefully found himself a pen.
Speaking of pens, you need to understand here, I'm old school. I was armed, armed and deadly with a small pad and a pen. My pen worked furiously straining to capture moments my ears might let me forget and it made me stand out. They stared at the pen some, watching it as it moved across paper in silence. I am more than welcome here but also somehow outside. The pen puts me outside, not the people.
Speak friend, and enter. It holds true here.
Anthony looks around from the podium: "Where are Frodo and the Ring Wraiths," he asks. Instantly I conjure in my head a heavy metal band named the same. I can see them on tour, with roadies and groupies, playing arenas with songs like "One Ring to bind my love" and "Darkness in the Shire". Time to refocus on my surroundings. I should've had that second cup of coffee. "We have a couple of Ring Wraiths," Anthony explains after asking after them. I suppose it's always a good idea to have a fully stocked compliment of Nazgul along ... just in case.
A man held up a Sauron toy, mace in one hand while the Ring gleamed against his dark plastic body one the other hand. "His finger comes off," proclaimed the man, and then he hit a button that caused Sauron to rumble something while his eyes glowed an evil red. To my memory, "Pull Sauron's Finger" was in neither the books nor the movies - but it seemed like a popular concept for a new game.
One of the Ring Wraiths was seen shortly after, I suppose the pulling of his dark lord's finger had brought him forth like a soundless call in the night. The child, or possibly Hobbit in disguise, stopped to buy a ticket for one of the raffles. Heren Istarion was giving away a replica of Sting. I wondered what need the Nazgul would have for an Elven dagger. Wily are the lost Kings indeed.
Sting was but one prize of the day, but there was a table full of things to win in drawings and raffles. Books, games, shirts, busts of Frodo and Bilbo and even passes to the Gathering of the Fellowship.
The room was settling in, people were finding seats and chatting amongst themselves, and a woman wearing a "Pervy Elf Fancier" t-shirt walked in. How I wanted to cheer her, to applaud and sing her praises for her fashion sense. I held myself back, not wanting to blow my cover too early in the game. I was armed with a pen and paper. I was serious, stern and unforgiving in my ... I envied that shirt. I envied it mightily. It wouldn't have fit me, of course, yet still ... it was enviable.
The room now full, the children not fussing but sitting attentively and well-behaved (except for one very small child who started to cry for a minute, but not much longer than that) and Anthony welcomed us all.
"My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles, and Proudfoots..." he started, reading from the book.
"Proudfeet!" the crowd gave back to him. He went on to explain about Heren Istarion, it's founding and purpose. "We don't do it for ourselves," he said, "we do it for you." They do it to bring fans together.
In December, Heren Istarion will help out with The Gathering of the Fellowship in the Sheraton Center Toronto, a staggeringly huge event, with over a thousand people already signed up. There will be academic programming of all sorts put on by Heren Istarion, hours upon hours of it, as well as showings of all three movies.
One showing, I tell only the truth here, will be back to back to back. The extended editions of Fellowship and TTT and RoTK, in a theatre with big wide screens and popcorn and such. I fear for the asses of the assembled that night, I truly do. Please, I beg of you, if you are considering attending, pack pillows to sit on. A lot of them. Maybe get up and jog during the walking scenes. There are, we all know, a lot of walking scenes.
We broke and mingled, discussing life and Tolkien and life and just being friendly and having a good time. Pippin Skywalker was there from TORN, arriving just in time to hear Anthony discuss the site itself and their new book with me. The computer center I mentioned before was being set up for Gamer's Workshop to demo their LoTR game in, as well as showing the old animated LoTR and Hobbit films. Small crowds collapsed into hypnotic stares as animated hobbits and dwarves sang songs written long ago, projecting them into the present to infect the future. Oh those songs will never go away. Then again, neither will Nimoy's song, the less said about which the better.
I noticed that the animated Gollum still looks like a midget dressed in an ill fitting frog costume, it still bothers me on some level. It becomes hard to turn away but I had to, I forced myself to. I had to see what a Book Toss was all about.
People used the Book Toss to rid themselves of books they simply didn't want anymore, from dislike or owning multiple copies. Burdge colelcted the tossed volumes to donate to the New York Public Library later on.
The first book of the day tossed was Pride and Predudice which earned an audible gasp from one onlooker. Book tossing is not for the faint of heart.
A girl tossed a book explaining to the assembled masses that it had ballet in it and she didn't like ballet, as well as the fact that the book itself was "sissy". Sissy ballet books had been given the boot and we weren't going to take it anymore. A boy tossed (hypothetically, he didn't have the book with him) the 3rd Harry Potter book. He had liked the rest but felt the 3rd was just not great. A smattering of discussion ensued.
After the Book Toss there was another short break, giving people a chance to wander about and continue being social and friendly. That really was the order of the day, after all. It was a party and the vibe was firmly in place by that point. We knew though, that geekery was soon to ensue, as a game of Beat the Geeks was about to start up.
In what I felt might be a telling move, Beat the Geeks started off with a movie related question. The Geeks themselves (Burdge, Jessica Burke and well .. my apologies to the rest of you whose names I did not get) were stumped. I thought it strange that the game was begun with movie questions and not book questions, secretly relived when deep seated fannish questions such as "What was Tolkien's wife's maiden name?" and "What were the full names of Tolkien's parents?" were asked not too long after. The younger the fan, the more likley it was to be a movie question though, as the kids come into a love for the work through cinema. Hopefully they will find the books and enjoy them as well later on.
Thankfully I thought ahead and brought two pens with me. My first vanished in a good samaritan gesture to someone so that she could enter Beat the Geeks. Charity begins at home, but it's hell on pens and reporting.
At times the Geeks huddled together protectivly as they pondered a question, eyebrows raising and lowering, laughs passed back and forth, responses sought determidly. Not many lasted through the first round, the questioner's wit was being overcome by the Geeks finely tuned brains. No, really.
At the end of round two the game came to a stop, as only two women remained. Prizes were given and given lushly, CD Card sets from New Line some books, bits from the Gamer's Workshop game and coins minted in the Shire.
Pull My Finger Sauron kept proving to be a popular game, his eyes lighting and his voice grumbling in ways that reminded me of Khan. Khan with a head cold. Kahn doing a duet with Tom Waits perhaps. But somehow, always Khan.
While Sauron stood stoicly on a prize table, having his buttons pushed, Anthony worked the floor like the James Brown of Tolkien fandom, the hardest working man in Hobbitdom, always on the move and always taking care of bussiness. The staff were all dedicated to making this a day of freindship, joy and ease. They suceeded.
Over in the game room/computer center, a guy from Gamer's Workshop helped children work out the plusses and minnuses of attacking Helm's Deep, while outside in the hall Laura worked careful Elvish caligrophy. Her pen moved in subtle winding ways along dark green paper, etching out carefully formed letters and words as if by magic. Then, a break. A bite of cookie. And the pen was lifted once more.
The vending machine in the corner hummed to itself, an onlooker only. It gave you more than water for your money though, it displayed "Vending" while it thought about your right to quench thirst, inventing new verbs for a new time. The humming of the machine somehow reminded me of the time, my time, my need to move on.
I had to leave early, saying my goodbye to Anthony for a wonderful time and leaving by the stale, lifeless gray hallway again back into the real world once more.
On my ride back, the trains ran smooth.
For more information on Heren Istarion visit www.herenistarion.com. For more information about The Gathering of the Fellowship visit www.tolkiengathering.com. Thanks to Anthony, Jessica, Laura and the whole crew of Heren Istarion, Marymount Manhattan and all attendees for making it a great afternoon. Thanks to Tanya for taking me seriously and sending mail to kick this report off the ground.
