And the Trilogy Saturday party is over! :) (Just a little under 13 hours after it began.)

We had nine guests total (or maybe ten? I’m not sure) at one point or another, plus me and Becky, of course. Not bad, methinks, for such a specialized, nerdy event. :) Thanks to everyone who came! Special kudos to Alex, who stayed for the entirety of all three movies, and Patrick, who arrived less than an hour into Fellowship and stayed till the end. Dmytro wins the bronze medal, having missed Fellowship but watched all of the Two Towers and Return of the King.


Alex and Patrick, left picture, and Patrick and Dmytro, right picture, watch the climactic scene of Return of the King.

There are three audio posts below. The first is a recording of our reaction to a funny line in the Mouth of Sauron scene, the second is Aragorn’s “Stand, Men of the West!” speech, and the third is Sam’s “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!” scene.

For me, this was the second time I’d seen all three movies in a row (the first was Trilogy Tuesday in Albuquerque, of course), and the first time I’d done so with the Return of the King Extended Edition. I really enjoyed it, and it gave me a great opportunity to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses (mostly strengths) of all three films as I saw them “as they’re meant to be seen,” consecutively, as a single work of cinematic brilliance.

Here, tentatively, is my top five list of favorite scenes from the entire trilogy:

1. Gandalf-Nazgul confrontation followed by Rohirrim charge into battle (Return of the King; Gandalf-Nazgul confrontation only in Extended Edition)
2. Frodo-Gollum fight on Mount Doom, Ring destroyed, Mordor destroyed (Return of the King)
3. Theoden’s last stand and the sounding of the horn at Helm’s Deep (The Two Towers)
4. Gandalf vs. Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-Dum (Fellowship of the Ring)
5. Frodo-Sam conversation on Mount Doom slopes ending with Sam’s “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you” speech (Return of the King)

Anyone else want to offer their favorite scene(s)?

UPDATE: Alex: “Yes, I’m a big dork. But it was a lot of fun.”

audio post powered by audblog

audio post powered by audblog

audio post powered by audblog

We’re watching The Two Towers Extended Edition right now. We’ve got six people over right now (plus me and Becky… and the animals :), with more probably to come a little later.

I was going to have a Trilogy Party webcam, but I didn’t have time to set it up. Oh, well. Trust me, we’re having a good time. :)

Noxious speech, yes. Hate speech, probably.

That’s what the First Amendment is there to protect. Uncontroversial speech needs no protection.

“Littering”, my eye. Brattleboro “liberals”, beware. Someday They will come for Us.

By CATE LECUYER
Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO — Chestnut Street resident Kelley Mulhall came home Thursday to find a small, orange plastic bag in her driveway. It was full of pebbles and a two-sided pamphlet with a graphic, anti-gay message.

She was upset on many different levels, she said; the pamphlet was promoting hate and discrimination and was full of sweeping generalizations about gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

She was one of many residents in the central part of town who were disturbed when they found the pamphlet on their property Thursday. A few called police about the incident, prompting officers to respond.

Police said they found Christopher Gearhart, 25, of Torrington, Conn., distributing the fliers around 2 p.m. He was issued a civil traffic ticket for littering.

“Basically he was charged for littering because it’s not illegal to hand out pamphlets,” said Lt. Chuck Aleck of the Brattleboro Police Department, adding Gearhart was dropping the pamphlets on the sidewalk as well as the street.

The pamphlet is titled “Is Homosexual Activity Normal?” and it includes a warning that its material is explicit and not appropriate for children. It was produced by a group affiliated with a newsletter called The Truth At Last, a known Ku Klux Klan publication. A mailing address on the pamphlet is in Marietta, Ga.

Despite police interception Thursday, the pamphlets still concerned Mulhall…

…In a telephone interview Thursday, Gearhart said he came to Brattleboro with the pamphlets because of the state’s civil union law. He said a friend gave the fliers to him because he knew he was opposed to gay marriage. After his run-in with the police, he said he would probably would not return to town…

…”It’s regrettable that people have these point of views [sic],” [Curtiss Reed, director of ALANA Community Organization] said, but added that everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Yes, regrettable; and yes, entitled however odious the opinion ~ AND entitled to Express it without police harassment, too.

Read the whole thing. Evidently it’s a David Duke outfit that Cranks (pun intended) Out (pun suspected :) the rubbish, and has come to town before, with Racist junk, not surprisingly. Bad business. Bad people. Too Bad. Constitution of the United States of America. No Law Means No Law.

There’s an interesting proposal circulating among law professors calling for term limits on Supreme Court justices, imposed in a way that wouldn’t require a constitutional amendment. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but it’s worth reading, as is this debate on the issue.