POLL TIME! Plus Some Notes & Early Reaction to The Hobbit

[eldritchhobbit]

I've seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey twice now, and I'm planning to work up a proper review shortly. Nutshell version: it's definitely a flawed film (mostly related to the writing and special effects), but the positives far outweigh the negatives, and I enjoyed it more than any of Jackson's adaptations since The Fellowship of the Ring. The acting, in particular, is fantastic. Martin Freeman is J.R.R. Tolkien's, Ian Holm's, and his own Bilbo Baggins, all at the same time, brilliantly. Richard Armitage's Thorin Oakenshield and Ken Stott's Balin are both exactly how I always imagined them, only better.

A few notes:

* The Call for Papers is now available here for "The Future of Harry Potter: The 2013 PotterWatch Conference" at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (April 6, 2013). I was the Keynote Speaker for the 2012 PotterWatch Conference, and I had a fantastic time at the event. If you're interested, I highly recommend taking part. (Thanks to gods_lil_rocker.)

* Great news for fantasy lovers: G.L. Gregg's wonderful novel The Sporran is now available for Kindle.

* My narration of Jeff Carlson's novel The Frozen Sky is now available not only on Audible (where it's currently $12.97 for members as part of the site-wide sale), but also on Amazon and on iTunes.


POLL TIME! What new Spring 2013 TV programs (if any) are you going to watch?

[Poll #1885008]

We're planning to give The Following and Ripper Street a try in January.

For Fall 2012, we "test drove" several disappointing "clunkers" (Elementary, Revolution, 666 Park Avenue, and Copper), but we've ended up enjoying Last Resort thus far - which, of course, means it was cancelled.

(After living in Nashville for seventeen years and knowing so many people in the industry and locations where it's filmed - including my alma mater - we also have to watch Nashville. It's particularly fun to see the talented Kimberly Williams-Paisley in an interesting role. Her husband, Brad Paisley, not only graduated from and supports Belmont University, but he's also said publicly lovely things about the experience and impact of having my husband as his professor, so it's no surprise that I have a huge soft spot for him!)

Comments

[sittingduck1313.livejournal.com]

BTW for those wondering what my contribution to the poll is, it's a show about a guy whose girlfriend is Nyarlathotep. In the first season we learn some unusual things about the Cthulhu Mythos, such as:

1. Nightgaunts got nards.

2. R'lyeh's full name is The Cthulhu Corporation Theme Park Earth R'lyehland.

3. Cthugha is a stalky lesbian (which shines a completely different light on August Derleth's The Dweller in Darkness).

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

OMG, I am dying of laughter here. Your descriptions are absolutely priceless.

I still need to see this, obviously.

[sittingduck1313.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, the first season can be legally streamed from Crunchyroll. The actual TV series episodes will be the ones with titles. The ones without episode titles are some Flash animated gag shorts which are okay but nothing special.

Also you might notice how the number three will crop up semi-frequently. This is because the Japanese word for three is san.