Lindsey and Teghan
12/31/03
Happy New Year everyone!

Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

(I'm writing this at halftime -- so far, so good!)

Cool! See you Monday! --Gary

Wow, nothing but good news in the newsletter! :-) Way to go, everyone! --Gary

I would have gone to the first showing, but I waited too long and couldn't get tickets! :-) Actually I just barely squeaked in to the second showing on the second day. --Gary

Also, I've got the Two Towers Extended Version, so before we all go we can buzz through it just to catch the new stuff (30-40 minutes worth!) you haven't seen. Some of the new stuff will really enhance your appreciation of the Return of the King. --Gary

Hey Hatgidakis's, thanks for the stuff you sent. (Thanks, Sam!) And Nelsons: great picture of Emily and Erika! :-)

Nope. But isn't the coffee at Barnes & Noble from Starbucks? --Gary

Ooops. Forgot that part. Fixed now. --Gary

I'm back, and was at work yesterday, though I took Tuesday off -- the day of the snow. (Sometimes ya gotta make your own snow day!) And I know school is back in session today. But the streets are still dangerous: On my bit of driving this morning, I saw four separate accidents -- no injuries, but lots of crumpled metal and broken glass. Yuck. --Gary

PS: Teghan told me to pass the message that she would like to have 10 to 12 loaves of banana bread a maybe a few cranberry loaves for Christmas. Oh yeah, she also wanted to know if you have any other "berry breads" that may tempt her pallet.

I'm making chili! --Gary

And not only that, my internet connection was down for most of the afternoon. Sorry about the delay in getting these latest newsletter items posted! Campus webcam is working again, too. --Gary

Man, Tristen, I wish you still lived here too. ;-)

So far seven people are on board for the movie: me, you, Grandma, Donna, Amanda, Ryan, and Shelby. If we had two more we could make it a Fellowship! :-) --Gary

Time Magazine loves ROTK, BTW; go here for a non-spoiler review.

What's that, you say? You want to see some actual footage from the movie? Well, how about ten minutes worth! A Scandinavian television station acquired (legally!) a ten-minute clip of cool scenes from "Return of the King," and that clip is now on the internet. That's 4.7% of the entire movie! :-) Unfortunately, you can't download it -- you have to view it as streaming video. Meaning the more people watching it at any given time, the worse the lag-time and quality will be. (I recommend viewing it late at night; worked fine for me last night!) This will really whet your appetite for the movie. Click here or here! If one link is slow or not working, try the other. It does work, but it can be frustrating if you get a lot of lag or "jerky" performance. It's worth the trouble though!

Snow heading this way, too, I just heard: 1-4 inches by morning. --Gary

That's cool. As it happens, I just now checked with the theater and learned it's not quite as tight as I was thinking. There are two theaters in town where you can buy advance tickets -- East Park and Southpointe -- but I think it's also being shown at the Edgewood with no pre-sold tickets. The guy I spoke with said he thought the first day's showings were all sold, but tickets are still available for later days. So, especially for an after-Christmas showing, tickets should be no problem at all. --Gary

In two weeks, on Tuesday the 16th, "Queer Eye" is doing a "straight guy reunion" show, where they go back to some (or all?) of the guys from the first batch of shows to see if they've followed through on all the QE advice. And next week, on Tuesday the 9th, the cast of "West Wing" is appearing on "Celebrity Poker" -- not a bad show, though if you're not a poker player it might be a bit dry.... And tonight on ABC at 9 pm ("Primetime") there's a look behind the scenes of "Return of the King."

Which leads to my movie note: If you want to be surprised by "Return of the King" -- and I highly recommend it! I envy you if you don't know the story yet! -- then be very careful not to read early reviews of the movie. I've seen a few already, and secrets are spilling out everywhere. So I guess I would say avoid all reviews until after you've seen the picture.

I haven't read "The DaVinci Code" yet either, though I have read the books that novel is based on: "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" and "The Messianic Legacy." Here's a website that sketches in that story.

Also, to Karen: re: your book review, here's a cool site from last June. Did you see it then?

Get well, Emily (and Teghan, who I hope is all over it by now). And everyone else, stay well -- Christmas is coming!

We got about 2 inches of snow Tuesday night and more to come today, beginning to look a little more like Christmas.

I haven't read the DaVinci Code yet, but it is on my list. I did watch the show on tv a couple of weeks ago, very interesting......

Ooops, that was my fault. Your previous message (12/1) did arrive and was posted here, but yesterday when I removed the November posts to the "old news" section I guess I clipped your message. My apologies! It is now restored, below. --Gary

A couple of items in the "Why Doesn't He Shut Up Already About The Lords of the Rings" Department: 1) New Line Cinema announced they are definitely going to do a "Hobbit" movie (which, in case anyone doesn't know, is sort of the prequel to LOTR). Peter Jackson, who directed the LOTR film trilogy, said he is "keen" to do it. 2) One of the people playing a cameo role in the 3rd film is the great-grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien himself, Royd Tolkien. 3) Several years ago, a lot of people thought New Line Cinema was crazy to invest $300 million in the LOTR films, an amount which would have bankrupted the studio if the films weren't successful. Well, so far the films have earned $4.7 billion, and the third film isn't even out yet. 4) The 3rd film opens on December 17, but last night there was a special premiere in Wellington, New Zealand, which was the first time the complete film has been seen by anyone -- including Peter Jackson. Some New Zealand movie critics attended, though they were asked not to publish any reviews for at least a week. Here is how one of those critics started his column this morning: "The Return of the King is ... sorry about this, but we're not allowed to tell you what we think of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King until next Tuesday. It was a stipulation by the film's distributors that to see the film, you weren't allowed to review it just yet. So we can't actually say whether it was the single most amazing cinema experience of our recent memory or not. Neither can we say in which bits we may or may not have got more than a little weepy, or whether we were emotionally affected at all. And we certainly couldn't even hint at which film is clearly the best in Peter Jackson's trilogy now that we've seen all three. We probably need a second look at The Return of the King to decide for sure. Or maybe a third or a fourth ... " Two more weeks! Can't wait! :-)

Thanks! --Gary

Changing the subject: The Advent Calendar went up today. Hope you like it! I couldn't get the crawl to work -- something to do with the snowflakes. It came down to a choice of either the crawl or the flakes. I chose the flakes! So no crawl until after Christmas. Also, let me know if the little "music notes" button doesn't work for you; I can make some changes that will fix it (I think!). And may I be the first to wish you all

a Merry Christmas!