China Miéville on why Tolkien rocks
I saw China Miéville speak at a forum at Book Expo a few weeks back. Smart, articulate guy. Re His take on Tolkien is one often forgotten: Tolkien built the world --- mountains, forests, seas --- and made up languages, THEN wondered who might live there to speak those tongues.
"The order is reverse: the world comes first, and then, and only then, things happen--stories occur--within it. ... So dominant is this mode now (as millions of women and men draw millions of maps, and write millions of histories, inventing worlds in which, perhaps, eventually, a few will set stories) that it's difficult to see what a conceptual shift it represented."
Plus, get this note by Miéville: "Tolk gives good monster. Shelob, Smaug, the Balrog...in their astounding names, the fearful verve of their descriptions, their various undomesticated malevolence, these creatures are utterly embedded in our world-view. No one can write giant spiders except through Shelob: all dragons are sidekicks now. And so on."
Indeed.
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
http://www.omnivoracious.com/2009/06/there-and-back-again-five-reasons-tolkien-rocks.html
Q&A with Hobbit Director Guillermo del Toro
Great Q&A with Hobbit Director Guillermo del Toro on the Future of Film, in this month's WIRED. Like a lot of future-thinking folks, he's got grand ideas of the way we'll consume content and narrative in the future:
In the next 10 years, we're going to see all the forms of entertainment—film, television, video, games, and print—melding into a single-platform "story engine." The Model T of this new platform is the PS3. The moment you connect creative output with a public story engine, a narrative can continue over a period of months or years. It's going to rewrite the rules of fiction.
Check out his LA lair-------->
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Harry and Potters video
here's the direct link, in case you missed it
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
a D&D commercial
Yes, geeks, the time is the 1980s, and your parents really really don't want you to fall prey to the satanic ways of D&D... so here's a cartoony, *fun* way to look at that weird "game with dice" that no one seems to understand. Not even your sister gets it ... "Wait, what's this ... g-g-g-girls play?"
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/61/
"use your lightning bolt!" ...."victory is yours!" ....and the best tag line of all, TSR's slogan "products of your imagination." Yuk yuk.
Dig the sweaters and lapels. And note the split second snippet from the previous commercial for an NFL-sanctioned Wilson football. Trying to covert geeks, one jock at a time. Did no one do their market research?
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
"dwarf"and "elf" are out, "dyslexic" and "database" are in
A friend of mine wrote me that in the new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary (for kids), in order to make room for new-fangled words like "celebrity," "tolerant," "vandalism," and "negotiate," certain nature words that define many kinds of plants and animals had to be taken out.
Dwarf and elf got the ax, too! What does that say for the next generation of fantasy freaks?
Words out: golblin, beech, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, canary, chestnut, cowslip, fungus, gooseberry, ivy, lavender, leek, minnow, mint, nectar, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow. and also: altar, bishop, chapel, christen. hmm....
Words in: Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate.....
The ultimate irony? One of the new words added is "endangered."
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Harry and the Potters 500th show
If you haven't seen Harry and the Potters, here's a good introduction. Two brothers -- Paul and Joe DeGeorge -- who are the sweetest guys you'll ever meet. And they can rock. Here's them playing their 500th show in their own hometown of Norwood, Massachusetts. As their website puts it: "mere blocks from our boyhood home, in the very elementary school that we attended so long ago, in the same cafetorium where Paul sang the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” theme song in the 5th grade musical and where Joe witnessed Ellen Greely throw up through her recorder (@vomitwords) during the 3rd grade recital."
I profile them in my book (chapter 9, in fact).
Lyrics to "Dumbledore"
You were the best we ever had
You were the best we ever had (you were the best)
I wish that we could go down to the Room of Requirement
And we could go bowling just like you used to
Back when Hogwarts Bowling Club was cool
You were the best we ever had
You were the best we ever had (you were the best)
Dumbledore
We're here with you tonight
We'll carry on the fight
Everything will be alright
And everyone is fine
You were the best we ever had (you were the best)
I wish we could have shared more together
But now you're off on your next adventure
Dumbledore
We'll fight for you tonight
Dumbledore
We all fight for you tonight
In our hearts we'll never let you die
Your love is keeping us alive
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
We'll carry on 'cause there's nothing to fear
Dumbledore
We'll fight for you tonight
Dumbledore
We all fight for you tonight
In our hearts we'll never let you die
Your love is keeping us alive
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
We'll carry on 'cause there's nothing to fear
Dumbledore
We'll fight for you tonight
Dumbledore
We all fight for you tonight
In our hearts we'll never let you die
Your love is keeping us alive
Dumbledore
We'll fight for you tonight
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
This is the direct URL for the Harry and the Potters movie I shot -- apparently amazon.com does not allow you to embed videos ...
A blog begins
And lo, and the creator spoke, and there was a blog. And it was good.
Or we hope so.
Welcome to the "Ethan Freak" blog. Where I'll try to keep tabs on some of the fantasy and gaming activity out there. Whether it's D&D, other games, Dragon*Con and other cons, Tolkien and Lord of the Rings rumors, Harry Potter fandom, or why this d20 (above) is so worn down (have I been rolling it THAT much lately?), our interest and reach is wide, wolfish and wistful. Here goes...
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks