Twas the night before Yuletide and all through the hole
Not a creature was stirring, not even a Dhole
Aldebaren hung at the right place at nine
In the hopes that Great Cthulhu would come out this time

The Fungi from Yuggoth, all snug in their caves
Were plotting to turn all the people to slaves
The Deep Ones in Rlyeh, the Ghouls in their graves
Were dancing and singing and acting depraved

When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But a moldering sleigh and eight corpselike reindeer
With a horrible driver so leprous and reeking
I knew right away that my fear was unspeaking

The reindeer were gross, as they flew up from hell
And It hoarsely whispered and chanted a spell
Ia Shub Niggurath! Cthulhu ftagn!
Nyarlathotep! Dagon! I summon you on!

As decomposed flesh before the charnel stench rise
And met with the open air polluting the skies
Up to the housetop the horror it rose
And the gangrenous odors assailed my nose

And then in a slopping noise heard on the roof
The lumbering clomping of octopoid hoofs
As I drew in my head and was turning around
The horror lurched into my room with a bound

Its eyes how they pulsate
So bulbous and gory
This blasphemous creature
So noxious and hoary

I was frozen by fear, my feet wouldn't run
I threw up my cookies, this wasn't much fun
It whispered my name and said ``You come with I''
I tried to refuse and it said ``Then you die.''

It came at my throat with its grim claws extended
But a miracle saved its victim intended
I had three Elder Signs in a slot in the floor
It screamed with a fiendish sound and went out the door

It sprang to its sleigh, and its team gave a surge
And away they all flew to the sound of a dirge
I heard it exclaim as it flew out of sight

19 DEC 2001

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

<NO SPOILERS, Just my thoughts>

It is 4:30 AM here, I just got back from a midnight viewing of the film (I live an hour away from the theater).  I feel like I need to put something down...to try and express the emotions I am feeling.  But it is hard.

I first read The Hobbit in fifth grade as part of an English assignment.  The teacher told us if we liked it that there were more books.  I discovered and devoured The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Book of Lost Tales I and II, etc.  You get the idea.  I must've read LOTR around twenty times, certain parts of it, more times than I can count.  Tolkien's tale sits as the paramount example of epic storytelling in my mind, and because of this I bear one of Badali's silver replicas of Tolkien's ring on my right hand; a poignant reminder of my, as of yet, unfulfilled aspirations as a storyteller.

My thoughts on the film...  Well, when I walked out of the theater, in kind of a daze, I felt sad.  Sad?  This is not the emotion I should be feeling.  I should be elated.  The film was a masterpiece, the performances flawless.  I couldn't figure out why?  Small clumps of other viewers huddled outside the theater, discussing the film in hushed tones.  No one was exuberant, no one was hollering out, "Man wasn't it great when......!"  Everything was kind of solemn.  Now, maybe it was just because it was 3:30 AM for crying out loud.   But I had an hour to reflect on the drive home.

Well, the first installment  doesn't really end on an upnote, no surprise to Tolkien fans.  But I came to realize what it was.  Even though I had read these passages over and over again, there was still something incredible about seeing it.  Even though I knew everything, every word.

I stood against the Nazgul at the Ford of Bruinen.  I marveled at Dwarven ingenuity in the Mines of Moria.  Why, I even faced down the worst Barad Dur had to offer, alongside the Last Alliance.  I glimpsed the White Citadel (a complete and welcome treat of things to come).  How could the mundane world compete with that?

But worst of all....I saw vistas of beauty in Rivendell that broke my heart the first second I saw them, yet I could not look away.  I fell under the spell of the White Lady of the Wood, and stared in disbelief.  Indeed, the emotion I'm feeling is one of loss.  Like when you see something that reminds you of a lost loved one....I can't explain it.  Maybe I'm the only one.  But now I pine for something that can never be and perhaps never was.....save in our minds.  But now thanks to Peter Jackson...some major risk-takers at New Line, and an army of craftsman, actors, and artists...we can glimpse maybe the tiniest sliver of what Tolkien saw and tried to pass on to us, through the feeble medium of language.

Whether the films are commercially successful or not remains to be seen.  Either way, we owe the film's makers a debt of gratitude.  Thank you.

And for the future...

Eowyn...I await you with unmetered anticipation.

Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli.....I've got your back at Helm's Deep.

Allright...now I've got to get some sleep.

[EDIT] Just to clarify.....I loved the movie...it's just I have a pang in my heart....like staring at something so beautiful it hurts because you know you can never have it.

18 DEC 2001

1 More Day until the Lord of the Rings!!!

Anyway....got bored and did some new FX work.  You can see it here.

I am also working on the "Making of Sith Apocalypse" featurette.  It might be up later today or maybe tomorrow (well not tomorrow since there's a fair chance I'll be spending 6 hours at Lord of the Rings.  Yes, I do know it is only a 3 hour movie.)

[EDIT]  "The Making of Sith Apocalypse" is done and ready for download.  It is 5.8 Megs in Windows Media Format.

Watch it here.

7 DEC 2001

Not a whole lot of good news this time.

Well, I have no more job.  So on the upside, plenty of time for FX tests and stuff.  I plan to have a "Making of Sith Apocalypse" little featurette up soon.  Maybe by the end of this weekend.

On another note.  The SWL Fan Films server, where we were hosted, seems to have gone the way of the dodo.  I spoke with Anonymous Jedi, who runs it and it looks like the site is going to be down for the foreseeable future.  He told me he would be able to keep the forums up, but that's about it.   This is really unfortunate, because the site was shaping up nicely.

As far as "Sith Apocalypse" is concerned, I will be hosting a 17MB WMV version here.  I apologize in advance to the Mac users but I just can't get the compression with Quicktime that I can get in Windows Media, well, not for free anyway.

I am having an incredibly hard time trying to get the domain name for www.story-base.com, migrated over here.  And more changes to come on the Storybase side of the house soon.

I'll leave on a happy note and say...only 12 more days until Lord of the Rings.  That's all that matters for now.

3 DEC 2001