Gloat, Gloat, Gloat

[Horst or Rebecca J. Bohner]

I don't know how many LOTR fans there are around here -- I suspect a few,
anyway -- but I don't care, I'm going to gloat anyway.

I just came back from an *awesome* exhibition at Casa Loma (a fancy
castle-like mansion built in the 1930's, located in Toronto) of props,
sketches, and costumes from the LORD OF THE RINGS movie trilogy.  Toronto is
the only place in the world that is going to have this exhibition, and it's
only there for two weeks, so I made haste to get there.  And man, was it
ever crowded... but I digress.

All I can say after seeing the exhibit is, if the acting and other
production values in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and its sequels is even
1/10th as exquisite as these incredible pieces of set design and dressing,
it is going to be *phenomenal*.  Of course, as I was looking through the
displays I was thinking, "Man, wouldn't it be cool to see a show like this
for the HARRY POTTER movie?"  Especially when I got to Saruman's laboratory
and there were lots of nasty things pickled in jars, and well, being a
Snapefan, you know...

Anyway, what struck me about this exhibition was how absolutely *authentic*
everything looked.  No matter how close you got to the props and costumes,
they really looked like museum pieces, not like recently fabricated items at
all.  If I hadn't known that LOTR was fictional and that hobbits, dwarves
and elves don't really exist, I would have been sucked in big-time, because
I have to tell you, they did an AMAZING job on this stuff.  The utensils,
bowls and pieces of furniture really looked very naturally worn and used and
broken-in, just as one would expect; and nothing looked machine-made or
fake.  And oh, the designs, especially for the elven artifacts -- just
beautiful.  Perfect.  I couldn't imagine anything better.

My husband practically had to hold me back several times, because I kept
looking in the display cases and saying, "Ohhh... I *want* that."  I wanted
Elrond's armor and Galadriel's ring and Legolas's bow and arrows, and of
course the swords Glamdring and Sting and Anduril as well... they were all
just gorgeous, and all crafted from REAL materials, no plastic or fiberglass
or rubber shortcuts here.

Anyway, I came away with a free FotR poster which I think I'll get
dry-mounted and hang in our spare room, and a rather nice tour brochure with
some lovely pictures and a nice write-up in it, and lots of cool memories
that I can bring to watching the film.

[/end gloat]
--
Rebecca J. (Anderson) Bohner
Specializing in Snape, Moody and George at
http://www.sugarquill.com/authors/rjanderson.html
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/R_J_Anderson