About my mini-moot and meeting ALAN LEE! ;)
Quite eventful weekend for a change, I must say.
Meeting Alan Lee and seeing slightlytookish again was awesome~ I was so glad to do something LotR-related. =D Even though Saturday started out rainy, it was a good day because I got to meet ALAN LEE~!!!
So yes, after many emails later, slightlytookish and I met at the bookstore in downtown NYC... first we went to Starbucks for coffee and tea... ST doesn’t drink coffee so we really went there for an early breakfast (and perhaps elevenses)... I had in mind brunch somewhere but there weren’t any places so we settled for Starbucks which was near the bookstore anyway.
And yes, I guess I took my big backpack so I could bring my Centenary illustrated Alan Lee edition of LotR. :D (so he can sign it~!) Also brough Tolkien’s Letters... (I’m a dork and love Tolkien, what can I say?) And bought one of my ficlet mathoms to be edited as well as a tender h/c ficlet which I liked quite a lot. I guess slightlytookish WAS right in my bringing a bookbag of goodies. ;) So we talked and talked about hobbitses and more hobbitses and LJ, fanfic and especially Pippin and Frodo. Fun-ness indeed. :D
We departed Starbucks at 11:30 so we can get to the bookstore to grab a copy of the Lord of the Rings Sketchbook by Alan Lee. It was a very cute bookstore-a bookstore mostly for children and teens. The first bookstore we saw was full of LotR books and we agreed that we had most of those books already. ;)
It was really crowded in the back of the store already so I’m glad that we didn’t get there later~ All participants had to sit on the floor and ST and I had trouble finding a spot until we found one towards the right side of the giant pillar from Minas Tirith next to these very... umm.. difficult people who thought I was taking their spot which I was not. (I later found out through www.theonering.net that they’re from the New York Tolkien Society in which I JUST joined that morning by sending in membership dues. :P... so as ST said, they’ll remember me by the girl who wanted to take their seat! Hehe ;)) Alan Lee came from the back so took both ST and I by surprise and we had to relocate after he came and there he was met by enthusiastic applause by the participants of the book-signing and presentation.
. First, Alan did a very cool Powerpoint presentation, presenting his ideas about the conceptual design for Minas Tirith and other places from ROtK.
As slightlytookish mentioned, the powerpoint presentation had a mind of its own and sometimes skipped forward or went backwards. :p There were lots of cool conceptual design attention to sets of RotK. I remember the one in which he photo-shopped a puppy next to Denethor when he was looking out of Minas Tirith to see the armies of Mordor at his doorstep- that was really funny.
We had tickets that denoted the number in which it was our turn to get our autograph from Alan Lee. Alan is such a nice man~!!! He allowed questions from the audience while he was flipping through his slideshow~ Many q’s that were asked were really good... I don’t remember many of them but I know that I prepared a question or two but found that mine really paled in comparison to the others that were asked. However, I DID have a little conversation with Alan when he signed my book.
So after the presentation and the Q&A, everyone lined up to get their things signed. ON the flier, it said that they only allowed 2 items to be signed, but the book handlers and the coordinators of the event were really nice and lax about that policy and allowed many to be signed. SOOOO much better than ELF ever was in that aspect. Even the person who introduced Alan Lee was better than the person at Creation.net... wow... that guy at Creation.net was a total mean nasty bully.... This one who introduced Alan was very familiar with Tolkien and Alan Lee’s work which I was really glad for. Even the handlers were nicer, didn’t have strict time limits. (But I guess that can also be attributed to the fact that this was a smaller crowd... though I was pleased by turnout... must’ve been around 50-60 in there... :)
So slightlytookish was #26 and I was #29... ST got hers signed first and I was like squee-ing for her... hehe it was soooooooooooooooo exciting!!!! Alan is such a nice, patient, gentle man. :) When it was my turn, ST let me use her digicam and one of the handlers helped me take a pic... I was wearing sneakers that day so... I was positively very short compared to Alan... :P (I will show pic... if I ... have the guts to...I didn’t turn out so well but I think I will soon... heh)
And then Alan signed the Sketchbook and my Centenary edition personalized. :D :D I was somewhat babbling/asking about how it felt for him to win an Oscar, but I guess he didn’t hear me (or it’s a q that you can’t answer other than say “it was great!) :P so I asked about the travel blog that he has on www.theonering.net and asked if it was authentically his, and he said it was. It can be found here for more details and such: http://www.theonering.net/alanleeblog/wordpress/
It is cool that he’s keeping a blog like we all are. ;)
One of the best parts was that he wrote “best wishes to me” ... he thought my name was someone else’s though because I told him to write another name on one of the sketchbooks.... heh >=)
And then... after my extreme anticipation and excitement of meeting Alan Lee, it was done...
And then I went broke at this store. :P I bought two sketchbooks (I have ulterior motives ;) and Sam Gamgee’s A Hobbit’s Travels journal (I think I got mochness this , right?) And also the “Seven Chinese Brothers” book for my sister. Thus... I became broke. :P
I love this store-I’m going to go there again to get some more reading material for my sister to read.
And then ST and I left the store... and went for lunch since it was after my lunchtime and I was very hungry like a hobbit. We went to... McDonald’s since I was in a rush to get to Boston before it got dark.
SO yes, very very very fun 3+ hours with slightlytookish and meeting Alan Lee. :D I wish I could’ve chilled longer with ST but I had to meet my family in Boston... (and looooong four hour drive was upon me. :p ugh... if more want to know details about my drive and my just... randomly guessing at how to get to Boston ... email me. Lol) actually very easy to get to Boston from NY.. two straight highways... dunno why my mom made a big deal out of it. :P) ... though the HEAVY RAIN pissed me off majorly. :p :/
And yes... I think I’ll post my pic... but only if slightlytookish does. ;) (I’m sure it wasn’t that bad, dear hobbit~!)
And now...
I need to do several more tasks before bed...
And yes, LotR/Tolkien fandom lives on~!!!!
Lord of the Fans: Ringers in 27 days~!!!
Movie soundtracks FotR EE versions in 27 days~!!!! :D :D :D
Meeting Alan Lee and seeing slightlytookish again was awesome~ I was so glad to do something LotR-related. =D Even though Saturday started out rainy, it was a good day because I got to meet ALAN LEE~!!!
So yes, after many emails later, slightlytookish and I met at the bookstore in downtown NYC... first we went to Starbucks for coffee and tea... ST doesn’t drink coffee so we really went there for an early breakfast (and perhaps elevenses)... I had in mind brunch somewhere but there weren’t any places so we settled for Starbucks which was near the bookstore anyway.
And yes, I guess I took my big backpack so I could bring my Centenary illustrated Alan Lee edition of LotR. :D (so he can sign it~!) Also brough Tolkien’s Letters... (I’m a dork and love Tolkien, what can I say?) And bought one of my ficlet mathoms to be edited as well as a tender h/c ficlet which I liked quite a lot. I guess slightlytookish WAS right in my bringing a bookbag of goodies. ;) So we talked and talked about hobbitses and more hobbitses and LJ, fanfic and especially Pippin and Frodo. Fun-ness indeed. :D
We departed Starbucks at 11:30 so we can get to the bookstore to grab a copy of the Lord of the Rings Sketchbook by Alan Lee. It was a very cute bookstore-a bookstore mostly for children and teens. The first bookstore we saw was full of LotR books and we agreed that we had most of those books already. ;)
It was really crowded in the back of the store already so I’m glad that we didn’t get there later~ All participants had to sit on the floor and ST and I had trouble finding a spot until we found one towards the right side of the giant pillar from Minas Tirith next to these very... umm.. difficult people who thought I was taking their spot which I was not. (I later found out through www.theonering.net that they’re from the New York Tolkien Society in which I JUST joined that morning by sending in membership dues. :P... so as ST said, they’ll remember me by the girl who wanted to take their seat! Hehe ;)) Alan Lee came from the back so took both ST and I by surprise and we had to relocate after he came and there he was met by enthusiastic applause by the participants of the book-signing and presentation.
. First, Alan did a very cool Powerpoint presentation, presenting his ideas about the conceptual design for Minas Tirith and other places from ROtK.
As slightlytookish mentioned, the powerpoint presentation had a mind of its own and sometimes skipped forward or went backwards. :p There were lots of cool conceptual design attention to sets of RotK. I remember the one in which he photo-shopped a puppy next to Denethor when he was looking out of Minas Tirith to see the armies of Mordor at his doorstep- that was really funny.
We had tickets that denoted the number in which it was our turn to get our autograph from Alan Lee. Alan is such a nice man~!!! He allowed questions from the audience while he was flipping through his slideshow~ Many q’s that were asked were really good... I don’t remember many of them but I know that I prepared a question or two but found that mine really paled in comparison to the others that were asked. However, I DID have a little conversation with Alan when he signed my book.
So after the presentation and the Q&A, everyone lined up to get their things signed. ON the flier, it said that they only allowed 2 items to be signed, but the book handlers and the coordinators of the event were really nice and lax about that policy and allowed many to be signed. SOOOO much better than ELF ever was in that aspect. Even the person who introduced Alan Lee was better than the person at Creation.net... wow... that guy at Creation.net was a total mean nasty bully.... This one who introduced Alan was very familiar with Tolkien and Alan Lee’s work which I was really glad for. Even the handlers were nicer, didn’t have strict time limits. (But I guess that can also be attributed to the fact that this was a smaller crowd... though I was pleased by turnout... must’ve been around 50-60 in there... :)
So slightlytookish was #26 and I was #29... ST got hers signed first and I was like squee-ing for her... hehe it was soooooooooooooooo exciting!!!! Alan is such a nice, patient, gentle man. :) When it was my turn, ST let me use her digicam and one of the handlers helped me take a pic... I was wearing sneakers that day so... I was positively very short compared to Alan... :P (I will show pic... if I ... have the guts to...I didn’t turn out so well but I think I will soon... heh)
And then Alan signed the Sketchbook and my Centenary edition personalized. :D :D I was somewhat babbling/asking about how it felt for him to win an Oscar, but I guess he didn’t hear me (or it’s a q that you can’t answer other than say “it was great!) :P so I asked about the travel blog that he has on www.theonering.net and asked if it was authentically his, and he said it was. It can be found here for more details and such: http://www.theonering.net/alanleeblog/wordpress/
It is cool that he’s keeping a blog like we all are. ;)
One of the best parts was that he wrote “best wishes to me” ... he thought my name was someone else’s though because I told him to write another name on one of the sketchbooks.... heh >=)
And then... after my extreme anticipation and excitement of meeting Alan Lee, it was done...
And then I went broke at this store. :P I bought two sketchbooks (I have ulterior motives ;) and Sam Gamgee’s A Hobbit’s Travels journal (I think I got mochness this , right?) And also the “Seven Chinese Brothers” book for my sister. Thus... I became broke. :P
I love this store-I’m going to go there again to get some more reading material for my sister to read.
And then ST and I left the store... and went for lunch since it was after my lunchtime and I was very hungry like a hobbit. We went to... McDonald’s since I was in a rush to get to Boston before it got dark.
SO yes, very very very fun 3+ hours with slightlytookish and meeting Alan Lee. :D I wish I could’ve chilled longer with ST but I had to meet my family in Boston... (and looooong four hour drive was upon me. :p ugh... if more want to know details about my drive and my just... randomly guessing at how to get to Boston ... email me. Lol) actually very easy to get to Boston from NY.. two straight highways... dunno why my mom made a big deal out of it. :P) ... though the HEAVY RAIN pissed me off majorly. :p :/
And yes... I think I’ll post my pic... but only if slightlytookish does. ;) (I’m sure it wasn’t that bad, dear hobbit~!)
And now...
I need to do several more tasks before bed...
And yes, LotR/Tolkien fandom lives on~!!!!
Lord of the Fans: Ringers in 27 days~!!!
Movie soundtracks FotR EE versions in 27 days~!!!! :D :D :D