Namarië!

It's really quite sad. There's not going to be a Lord of the Rings premiere this year, no waiting in line for the tickets, no traces of the unique anticipation of completely new LotR footage - except for a lovely 50 minutes that I purchased (along, of course, the rest of the Extended Edition movie, plus a Minas Tirith statue and an extra dvd of the LotR Symphony) yesterday, without having to stand in line for it over night. Almost seemed too easy, mind you...

The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King Special Extended Edition dvd came out yesterday and quite obviously I went and got it immediately. This year, thanks to the paycheck from Nousiainen, I had the money to buy the collector's dvd gift set, which included the abovementioned extra stuff. Whee! Once again, I found happiness in material things, I admit it...

The magic of the movie is still there, most definitely. I cried, I laughed - just as I have done before with every single part of this movie trilogy. I don't know if I'm going to sound like a know-nothing-accept-all-without-criticism -kinda gal for saying the following about the Return of the King SEE, but do I look like I care? Well, if you'd see me, you'd see that I don't look like I care. So I can say this without any worries. I loved it. So sue me.

One of my favorite additions was the drinking game between Gimli and Legolas. ;) For quite some time I've wanted to see on big screen (well, small television, krhm) how the elves cope with the drink. Quite well, it seems. I remember once reading a fanfic that had a drinking game between Aragorn and Legolas and I thought it was hilarious. This scene, however, wasn't exactly a rotfl kind of scene, but very amusing nevertheless. Such dignity and poise on behalf of the elf. Simply endearing. As if he'd need to do anything but appear on screen to be endearing, but you know, even more so in this case. *grin*

There were some very touching additions, like the scene where Éomer finds his sister fallen on the battlefield. The cry of pain is truly genuine. Some of the additions, on the other hand, were there to explain a few gaps in the theatrical release. Like the one where Gandalf has his staff when he begins his ride towards the Citadel to save Faramir but has somehow lost it on the way, since he arrives without it. Well, duh. He had to fight with the Witch King on his way up and that's how the staff gets lost. Or blown into smithereens, if I'm to be more accurate. Even though this particular scene does explain one mysterious prop question, there are quite a few left unanswered for. For example the elven cloaks. Sam and Frodo misplace theirs somewhere in Mordor and clearly don't have them when they sit on the lonely rock right next to the massive lava flow. Do they get new ones from Galadriel later, when they've recovered, since all the hobbits have theirs in Grey Havens again? Oh well, I don't think I'll do any more of this nit-picking, it's best done with friends and with a glass of cider to the side - not alone by the computer.

Seeing this movie for the umphteenth time was still a fresh experience. I don't think I'll ever get bored of the Lord of the Rings. The spellbinding story and it's themes, friendship, leadership, love, good and evil are going to pull me towards my bookshelf time after time. Whether I'll grab the dvd boxes or the book doesn't really matter. It's all going to be there, all the excitement, heroics, gallantry, drama and sense of true wonder I look for in a good piece of the fantastic. So, finally, it's time to say farewell to Peter Jackson and his cast and crew - thanks for the wonderful movie experiences. I'm eagerly waiting for the Hobbit, now. (Here ends the part of this post where I have no criticism whatsoever, I hope.)

On the topic of my bookshelf, then. It got an addition of 3,6 metres yesterday! Whee! Now there's actually a bit of room for new books, which hasn't been the case in years. If there's anything I love, it's organizing my bookshelf. I couldn't even watch RotK yesterday, because I had to rethink the order of the books. (Well, I did have dance rehearsals too.) Plain alphabet would be too easy, you see. There has to be a separate shelf for favorite books, which then are alphabetically in order within that group. Then there is the section of professional literature (non-fiction, mainly history and such), alphabetically organized, the section of epic literature and myths, non-sf-literature, sf-literature and so on...

There's only one thing now that slows down the process of rearranging the whole bookshelf. I haven't yet had the time (or the patience) to sit down and list all the books in my "library database", which really is only a list of the books I have, but it's a nifty little piece of freeware I downloaded a while ago. I've listed a little under 300 books so far and I think I have at least as many to go through yet. I'd so love to have a fancy barcode reading device to ease the job, but then again, it'd remind me too much of the time I worked at the bookstore. It's not nearly as much fun to arrange the shelves in the store, because there are all those annoying customers who come and mess everything up about nine seconds after you've left the shelf in perfect order. It doesn't pay anything nearly enough to be a career for me. I'll be happy fussing about my own shelves, thankyouverymuch.

All in all, I've been about as happy as can be for the last couple of days. I got the introductory section of my thesis (the first draft of it) done late on Thursday and turned it in yesterday. It's going to be discussed in much detail on Tuesday in seminar, which may turn my mood for the worse, but hey, that's not before Tuesday. And since I know I've got some major gaps in the introduction, I'll be prepared for a public hanging. I'm such a good sport, aren't I?

A tired good sport. Nighty night.