Welly-moot #4.2 was today - good fun meeting

This year's Tolkien Reading Day was celebrated on its usual date of March 25th, but we delayed it until our scheduled Moot day of March 29th, which was today. The Tolkien Society (UK) had announced that the theme for this year's day was to be "friendship".

The meeting began at the usual 2:00pm at the Embassy Cinema, and the regulars and a few new faces enjoyed a cup of coffee over the introductions, and joined in a recap of the excellent event last month of the opening of the Rivendell Archway at the Kaitoke Regional Park. Since most of the members present had actually attended the event, it took a little while to recount everyone's experiences. All in all, we agreed that the Archway had been opened in style.

[Picture] The fellowship returns from a quest. (c) 2015 Jack Machiela

The discussion began soon afterwards. A number of battered (and pristine!) copies of various Middle-earth books appeared on the table, and everyone read out their favourite sections. The friendships between Frodo and Sam, and between Gimli and Legolas were mentioned a number of times, as well as those between Gandalf and Frodo, and Bilbo and Frodo's special status as "Elf Friend". Also, the very equal-status friendship between Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry the River Daughter stood out to some.

All too soon, our time came to an end. I wanted to broach one other subject - this week saw the introduction of the last Hobbit movie in its theatrical edition, as well as the first Hobbit boxed sets on DVD and BluRay, so that leaves one final edition to go - the last Hobbit movie in its Extended form. We briefly speculated some of the scenes we may yet see in that - hoped for are Thorin's funeral scene properly, and we may yet see Thranduil receive his white bejewelled necklace.

However, we all agreed enthusiastically that we would like to see the last release marked with a special event - perhaps we can convince a cinema somewhere to release it with an Extended Ultra Marathon - all six movies, back-to-back, in a single sitting.

I will start talking to the appropriate people soon! [NB - if you're one of the appropriate people, drop me a line!]

Looking forward to the next meeting in a few months!

  - Jack

Next Welly-moot #4.2 in one week (on Sunday March 29th) - get ready!

Happy almost Tolkien Reading Day, March 25, to be celebrated by Welly-moot on Sunday, March 29, 2:00 pm at the Embassy Cinema upstair cafe. The theme of this year's reading day is friendship in Tolkien's works.

 

See the Tolkien Society (UK)'s announcements: 

http://www.tolkiensociety.org/society/events/reading-day/

http://www.tolkiensociety.org/events/tolkien-reading-day-2015/

So bring examples of friendship from your Tolkien library to read or make note of scenes from the films to discuss.

And Tolkien's influence isn't only found in the books. I'm sure we all have stories of how our love of Tolkien's works has led to friendly meetings with other fans in the real world. I sometimes wonder how the young sister and brother from Sweden we joyously shared a hike up Mt. Sunday with one beautiful day in 2006 are doing. A purposeful middle-aged expedition turned into a laughter-filled adventure because of their youthful exuberance.

Mount Sunday (aka Edoras)

See you all at Welly-moot, mellonea.

Kristi

 

Rivendell Archway, official opening

I'm just compiling a final list of confirmed people who can turn up to the Rivendell Archway opening on March 7th - if you haven't received an email from me tonight, but were hoping/expecting to join us, please let me know as soon as possible - I need to get back to the council in the next few days with finalised numbers. My email address is jack@welly-moot.com.

If you want to join us but hadn't let anyone know, this is your chance to get in and have a bunch of fun on the day! If you don't have a costume, we can arrange one for you if necessary. Also get in touch with me, in that case.

  - Jack

Report: Welly-moot #4.1 was held last Sunday

We had a good number of people turning up, including a few new members. It was a very good meeting, I thought - lot of fun, most people got involved in the discussion, and those that didn't, seemed to be listening intently.

We discussed two main things - briefly I talked about Rivendell (Kaitoke Regional Park), where the Elven Archway is now a permanent and beautiful addition. The official opening will be held on March 7th, and very soon I will be making formal announcements and sending out invitations.


The main event though, was the big discussion of the events immediately following The Hobbit book (and movies), right up to the start of The Lord Of The Rings books (and movies). Most of the afternoon was taken up with a leisurely reading of ROTK Appendix B, The Tale Of Years (from T.A. 2941 through to T.A. 3018). Everyone added extra information as it came to mind, and we diverged on more than a few tangents.

I've written up the main events in a tabular format - it may be useful if you're doing your own investigations.

Spreadsheet link (*)

Some of the sidetracks we took involved things like when does the writing "Sting is my name, I am the spider's Bane" appear on Bilbo's sword - presumably it happens in Rivendell but when? We couldn't find any reference in any of the books brought in (and there was a veritable library brought in by our members), so it appears that was simply a movie invention then.


The time flew by - before anyone realised, it was close to 5:00pm, and buses were leaving and cars were in danger of being ticketed, so we called the meeting to an end.

Total turnout was 16 people, a good start to the new year! A big welcome to our new members, Sam, and Wilson and Erica. We hope you enjoyed it enough to return - we certainly enjoyed your company!


  - Jack



(*) - The spreadsheet link is an experiment using Google Docs - I'd love to get feedback to say if it works or not?

The link, again, is here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11VfP3zrPnLM_hxqhHOie-BWVascQEG5gAP_kzD0lCzw/edit?usp=sharing

Heads-up: Welly-moot #4.1 is this Sunday, January 25th!

Look sharp, people - the Tolkien group meets this Sunday (25/1) at the Embassy Cinema, at 2:00pm. Theme for the afternoon is "What happened after 'The Hobbit'?".

Full details can be found on the Welly-moot website:

http://www.welly-moot.com/2015/01/welly-moot-41-january-25th-at-embassy.html

So make sure you read up on your Lost tales and Unfinished Tales lore. Also, ROTK's appendices are very useful.

We will also be discussing the March 7th official opening of the Rivendell Archway.


If you're not yet a Welly-moot member, come join us - it's free and fun. Make sure you bring a few bucks for coffee or cake. Or coffee and cake.

As always - just attend one meeting, and you'll be a member for life!



See you all there!

  - Jack

Welly-moot Event - Hobbit Costume Trail

A small group of Welly-mooters had a great day today - we managed to start and complete the Wellington Hobbit Costume Trail. Originally we thought we could do it in a few hours, that proved to be more like 5 hours instead, mostly because we were pretty relaxed about life in general.

Daniel, Jack, Cinnamon, Sarah, Alex, and Alistair posing in front of a display at Te Papa.

The day started at 11:00am, in front of the Wellington Railway Station. From there we walked to the Rydges Hotel, for Thorin's costume.Rather than walking you through the whole day (should have joined us!), I'll let the photos tell the story.

Thorin at the Rydges Hotel

Gloin at the Ibis Hotel

Bilbo at the Kircaldie & Stains shopping complex

Bilbo's Mithril coat

Dwalin at the James Cook Hotel

Gandalf at the Intercontinental Hotel

Gandalf's staff, with some secret marks

Tauriel at the iSite Information Centre

Balin at the Westplaza Hotel

Legolas at Wharewaka Boathouse

Azog at Te Papa Museum

Elf Lieutenant at Te Papa Museum

Elf Soldier at Te Papa Museum

Radagast at the Museum Hotel

Radagast's got two mismatched shoes

Oin at the CQ Hotel

Oin's warm knitted gloves

Bombur at the Embassy Cinema

Bifur at the Embassy Cinema

Bofur at the Embassy Cinema

Bard at the Copthorne Oriental Hotel

Kili (& scale Kili) at the Airport

Fili at the Airport

Gandalf on an eagle at the Airport

Gollum at the Airport

Smaug at the Airport

Dori at the Roxy Cinema

Nori at the Roxy Cinema

Ori at the Roxy Cinema

Weapons on the wall at the Roxy Cinema

Dale Market Flags at the Roxy Cinema

Welly-moot activity - Hobbit Costume Trail this Saturday! Come join us!

In honour of the completion of Wellington's trip to Middle-earth in the last fifteen years or so, the City Council has got together with a number of hotels and other venues around town, and the studios, and have hidden a number of original costumes from the Hobbit movies.

Alex and I have decided we are going to find all the costumes hidden around the Wellington CBD this Saturday.

If anyone wants to join us, we will meet in front of the Wellington Railway Station on January 10th, at 10:50am, and we'll start walking towards the Embassy end of town, hitting all the costumes along the way. You don't need to RSVP, but we will leave at 11:00am sharp, so if you're not there and start late, drop me an email (I always have my smart phone with me), and I'll let you know where to run to.

My email address is "jack@welly-moot.com".


Get your free maps from the Wellington iSite, and a few other places as well, or download them from their website.


Hope to see a few of you there!

  - Jack & Alex