Last time, I swear.
Nov. 30th, 2003 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielJust to finish my Ring*Con report and put up the last fotos while my mom and grandmother and cousins are in church (can you believe it?) and I have some quiet time. And afterwards, I'll never do one again. Until Ring*Con '04 is over.
So just ignore this if you aren't interested.
Sooo... we had two hours of sleep before we forced ourselves to get up again. Breakfast, packing, loading Wolvie's car (Wolvie, Pala and me) or bringing the stuff to the wardrobe (Katha, Michi and Rib). And then, back to the convention centre for the last time. Up to now, I hadn't bought anything except for that Gondorian silver coin, so I at least thought about getting one of those necklaces and a t-shirt. The necklaces were already sold-out, and the t-shirts... well, they had Aragorn on them, so if I wore it, I'd always be staring at my own chest. Not so smart. And I have t-shirts enough as it is.
For now, there wasn't so much to do because the higher numbers, Rib among them, were still waiting for their autographs. Several didn't get any Lawrence (who was still sleeping or drunk or both) or JRD (who again talked a lot and took his time) autographs and were real pissed off. Of course, I did not mention to them that I'd gotten both...
After a last course through the merchants' area, a final visit to the DTG (thanks for the sweets ;)) and another great half hour with Schelmish (you try dancing in chainmail...) we returned to Valinor for the final panels. It started with Bruce Hopkins, who seemed to have spent a lot of time with JRD, because he, too, started to ramble on... it was great, though. In between, he explained about the "Gambling Department" t-shirt he wore, and also told us that Bernard Hill had signed his shirt to "Gamling the Silent". In the movie he hardly says anything, but as we could see, usually he'd really rather talkative...
Then came the Maori Masters of Mischief and Mayhem. Sala and Lawrence were really funny, though it was sort of obvious they were suffering from hangover... But when they tried to teach three curious guys a Maori clapping dance (after hugging them), they did not get mixed up - unlike their victims. They explained that usually that dance is a drinking game, so whenever you make a mistake, you have to drink. And of course, the more you drink, the more you fail... one of their victims actually made it to the end, though. They were ever so proud of him. More hugs.
Afterwards, we had the lovely, brilliant John Rhys-Davies again. Just as the day before, every question was answered by a long story. Again, he told us that he'd bought some real estate in New Zealand to prevent the usual actor's problem of never returning to the beautiful places were they'd shot. It was an olive plantation, so he advised us to buy dwarf-farmed olive oil in a few years... Asked about his relationship with the other actors and what he expected from the future, he said there probably were some tragedies but also wonderful things ahead. A book about the further ways of the "dearly loved" Fellowship, he mused, would probably be a great idea. He also expressed his worryings about Orlando, because usually teen idols tend to drown after their time of hype is over, and he certainly hoped that Orlando would not have to go through the drug abuse and broken existence thing, because he "loves him to death". You could hear all the little slashers sigh happily... And he said that if ROTK doesn't get the Oscars it deserves, we should all write angry letters. Although he as a member of the Academy isn't supposed to be partial...
Afterwards, the Con drew to its end. After the last trailers and music videos, the Closing Ceremony started with a special collectible card game. The two Decipher guys in their Fierce shirts got onstage and started battling each other, each of the cards reenacted by a fan in costume. The Ugluk card even was represented by Nathaniel Lees himself, who stormed on stage with a scimitar. The good and the evil side then started fighting, with the good loosing until only Frodo was left standing. When the poor little Hobbit had to fight all the others, the "good" player finally played the winning card: Marc B. Lee! He stormed to the rescue and whacked all the bad guys with his Rohan flag, then making room for the Air New Zealand people who gave out a flight to Wellington, 5 nights in hotel AND tickets to the world premiere of ROTK on December 1st for two. While the lucky number was drawn, you could hear a needle drop... the winner was the number 1146, who was greatly envied and greatly congratulated by everyone else.
Then Eve and the Breeze played a sad closing song before Marcel, Cirdan and Dirk had their thank yous. The "Intellectuals" and the stars came on stage again to say goodbye and thank you. Mark and Craig practically promised to come back for the next Con. JRD again said how wonderful it had been to meet so many interested, loving, caring people who didn't mind listening to an old man's boring tales. Then we got a first look at the filmed material of the weekend, sort of a trailer for the Ring*Con DVD due in April. And that was it.
Now all that was left was taking group pictures (and lo!, I'm even smiling), getting everyone's luggage, saying farewell to those who left and chilling out in the lounge with theelf evil princess Aditu a.k.a. Gil-galady and her dragon Mr. Smauky, rehearse the Maori clapping dance (and yes, she's a Gryffindor)... Aditu proved how a real Gil-galady can phone (in French) and assemble a hookah at once, but just when she was finished, Wolvie, Pala and I had to leave. By the time, it was 8 pm already, which was late but not too late for traffic jams, obviously. Still, I got home on time for supper (because they'd waited for me... awwwww!) after my mom had made embarrassing fotos of Dernhelm. And that was it.
*g* Had to try and explain the difference between DVDs and video cassettes to my grandmother yesterday. No, a video player cannot play DVDs. No, we only have "Angela's Ashes" on DVD, so you either have to watch it here or get the video. Well, then watch it here. Which we did until my mom suggested we should drive to Remscheid to look for a Christmas present for me. Which we did as well. The Christmas market in Remscheid is a nightmare, you either get kitsch and garbage or food (including Reibekuchen, of course). The Lennep markets are much better, but they only take place on the second and third Advent weekend. The only good one in Remscheid itself is the Medieval Market, but that won't start till next week. *sigh* But we found some nice clothing. In the evening, my brother and I took our oldest cousins to the cinema for Finding Nemo. Considering Thomas didn't even want to see it, he liked it a lot. But it was the same with LOTR. First he didn't even want to watch it and only came along because I convinced him. And now? Now he's humming Into the West and can't wait for December 16th...
So just ignore this if you aren't interested.
Sooo... we had two hours of sleep before we forced ourselves to get up again. Breakfast, packing, loading Wolvie's car (Wolvie, Pala and me) or bringing the stuff to the wardrobe (Katha, Michi and Rib). And then, back to the convention centre for the last time. Up to now, I hadn't bought anything except for that Gondorian silver coin, so I at least thought about getting one of those necklaces and a t-shirt. The necklaces were already sold-out, and the t-shirts... well, they had Aragorn on them, so if I wore it, I'd always be staring at my own chest. Not so smart. And I have t-shirts enough as it is.
For now, there wasn't so much to do because the higher numbers, Rib among them, were still waiting for their autographs. Several didn't get any Lawrence (who was still sleeping or drunk or both) or JRD (who again talked a lot and took his time) autographs and were real pissed off. Of course, I did not mention to them that I'd gotten both...
After a last course through the merchants' area, a final visit to the DTG (thanks for the sweets ;)) and another great half hour with Schelmish (you try dancing in chainmail...) we returned to Valinor for the final panels. It started with Bruce Hopkins, who seemed to have spent a lot of time with JRD, because he, too, started to ramble on... it was great, though. In between, he explained about the "Gam
Then came the Maori Masters of Mischief and Mayhem. Sala and Lawrence were really funny, though it was sort of obvious they were suffering from hangover... But when they tried to teach three curious guys a Maori clapping dance (after hugging them), they did not get mixed up - unlike their victims. They explained that usually that dance is a drinking game, so whenever you make a mistake, you have to drink. And of course, the more you drink, the more you fail... one of their victims actually made it to the end, though. They were ever so proud of him. More hugs.
Afterwards, we had the lovely, brilliant John Rhys-Davies again. Just as the day before, every question was answered by a long story. Again, he told us that he'd bought some real estate in New Zealand to prevent the usual actor's problem of never returning to the beautiful places were they'd shot. It was an olive plantation, so he advised us to buy dwarf-farmed olive oil in a few years... Asked about his relationship with the other actors and what he expected from the future, he said there probably were some tragedies but also wonderful things ahead. A book about the further ways of the "dearly loved" Fellowship, he mused, would probably be a great idea. He also expressed his worryings about Orlando, because usually teen idols tend to drown after their time of hype is over, and he certainly hoped that Orlando would not have to go through the drug abuse and broken existence thing, because he "loves him to death". You could hear all the little slashers sigh happily... And he said that if ROTK doesn't get the Oscars it deserves, we should all write angry letters. Although he as a member of the Academy isn't supposed to be partial...
Afterwards, the Con drew to its end. After the last trailers and music videos, the Closing Ceremony started with a special collectible card game. The two Decipher guys in their Fierce shirts got onstage and started battling each other, each of the cards reenacted by a fan in costume. The Ugluk card even was represented by Nathaniel Lees himself, who stormed on stage with a scimitar. The good and the evil side then started fighting, with the good loosing until only Frodo was left standing. When the poor little Hobbit had to fight all the others, the "good" player finally played the winning card: Marc B. Lee! He stormed to the rescue and whacked all the bad guys with his Rohan flag, then making room for the Air New Zealand people who gave out a flight to Wellington, 5 nights in hotel AND tickets to the world premiere of ROTK on December 1st for two. While the lucky number was drawn, you could hear a needle drop... the winner was the number 1146, who was greatly envied and greatly congratulated by everyone else.
Then Eve and the Breeze played a sad closing song before Marcel, Cirdan and Dirk had their thank yous. The "Intellectuals" and the stars came on stage again to say goodbye and thank you. Mark and Craig practically promised to come back for the next Con. JRD again said how wonderful it had been to meet so many interested, loving, caring people who didn't mind listening to an old man's boring tales. Then we got a first look at the filmed material of the weekend, sort of a trailer for the Ring*Con DVD due in April. And that was it.
Now all that was left was taking group pictures (and lo!, I'm even smiling), getting everyone's luggage, saying farewell to those who left and chilling out in the lounge with the
*g* Had to try and explain the difference between DVDs and video cassettes to my grandmother yesterday. No, a video player cannot play DVDs. No, we only have "Angela's Ashes" on DVD, so you either have to watch it here or get the video. Well, then watch it here. Which we did until my mom suggested we should drive to Remscheid to look for a Christmas present for me. Which we did as well. The Christmas market in Remscheid is a nightmare, you either get kitsch and garbage or food (including Reibekuchen, of course). The Lennep markets are much better, but they only take place on the second and third Advent weekend. The only good one in Remscheid itself is the Medieval Market, but that won't start till next week. *sigh* But we found some nice clothing. In the evening, my brother and I took our oldest cousins to the cinema for Finding Nemo. Considering Thomas didn't even want to see it, he liked it a lot. But it was the same with LOTR. First he didn't even want to watch it and only came along because I convinced him. And now? Now he's humming Into the West and can't wait for December 16th...
