As if there weren't enough things to geek out on at this coming weekend's Comic-Con, a small army of musicans will be taking the stage to perform Howard Shore's score to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Maybe "army" is a bit of an exaggeration—battalion is more like it. As the film unspools on a giant screen at Radio City Music Hall, the music of Middle-earth will be brought to life by 300 musicians forming super-group comprised of Switzerland’s 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, The Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the Dessoff Symphonic Choir and renowned soprano Kaitlyn Lusk. Keeping all of them in time with the movie is the task of Maestro Ludwig Wicki, the Swiss music director at the Palace Chapel of Lucerne, where he specializes in Georgian chants and performances of Bach, Handel, and Monteverdi. He'll be conducting this epic spectacle on Friday and Saturday night, and there are still tickets available. Be advised that some audience members attend dressed as characters from the film, so now's your chance to break out the wizard robe and long white beard.
Ludwig Wicki, Conductor
Hollywood, My Precious
You think Gollum is only about the Rings? Like the rest, you think Gollum has no career after the Rings is dust? They all think that, laugh at us, hurt us with cruel words. But Gollum does not laugh, Gollum knows this is the beginning, yes. And his agent knows this too, yes, he says we are the new Yoda, the next Steve Buscemi, yes. You are like the Master, with your cruel laughter. Sting us, it does.Bring on the interviews with the Orcs. Or get your own crawling Gollum from Amazon.
Middle Earth Shuttle
Middle Earth Shuttle
Is it a good idea to have a Lord of the Rings "Middle Earth Shuttle" in the New York City subway?
Oscar Commentary
Oscar Commentary
Oscar is celebrating its 75th anniversary, I'm celebrating my 25th anniversary of watching Oscar.
And the Oscar goes to
The evening is over, while Gothamist will be following up with extensive commentary about the actual Oscar telecast, here are the winners and some post-game analysis:
60 Days to the Oscars
Let the games begin. The Directors' Guild has announced their nominees, and they are Stephen Daldry for "The Hours," Peter Jackson for "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," Rob Marshall for "Chicago," Martin Scorsese for "Gangs of New York," and Roman Polanski for "The Pianist." The most likely nominees for the Academy Awards' Best Picture of the bunch are "The Hours," "Chicago," and "Lord of the Rings." Photos above and an article(registration required) from Variety. "Gangs" and "The Pianist" are possibilities, but Scorsese and Polanski are polarizing figures. However, as these projects are labors of love for them, especially with Polanski's personal experience with the Holocaust and Hollywood's love of reliving the Holocaust in film (see "Schindler's List" and "Life is Beautiful"), they may be nominated for Best Picture. Good will for Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks may make "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" a Best Picture contender, but I personally am done with the big fat Greek hype. Back to the directors, the DGA awards are usually good indicators of who will win Best Director at the Oscars, but more recently, there's been discrepancy: Ang Lee winning the DGA award for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," while Steven Soderbergh won the Oscar for "Traffic"; Ron Howard winning the DGA for "Apollo 13", Mel Gibson the Oscar for "Braveheart".
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