Voting for the first annual One Ring Awards is almost at a close. At Midnight (PST) tonight, we will officially end the voting period and if you haven't taken the time to make your voice heard, your chance will be gone. Thousands have streamed to the ballot box to cast marks for the best works in greater the Tolkien culture so don't miss your chance. Winners will be announced at the official awards ceremony taking place as part of the One Ring Celebration in Pasadena, California on Saturday, January 15. Some of the categories are tight races so every vote counts! [VOTE]

The entertainment mandarin Bob Shaye is probably the most relaxed and self-effacing mogul in show biz -- provided that you get him in the kitchen. I've been in meetings with Bob, president of New Line Cinema, and there's no question of whose decisive and sometimes brutal thumbs up or down can green-light films ranging from ''Hairspray'' (box office: $3 million or thereabouts) to ''Rush Hour 2'' ($100 million or thereabouts). But as he commandeers his well-appointed New York kitchen on the 17th floor of a duplex that overlooks all of Central Park, his shoulders relax; his feet bounce and shuffle. And when a smile inflates his apple cheeks and his hair curls down his forehead, he looks like a kid. [More]

Ju Li writes: Gollum is listed seventh on the SFX list of best special effects in a movie. SFX magazine recently did a poll to find the greatest ever special effect. The link to the article can be found here. [More]

TheOneRing.net and Creation Entertainment are proud to announce a Blood Drive on Sunday, January 16 at our event, The One Ring Celebration. This event is in response to the American Red Cross's emergency plea for blood donations in the Southern California area. [More]

The voting booth is open! Unlike the 'Academy' you don't need to be a member of TORn, or even be attending ORC to vote! The only requirement is that you are a Tolkien fan. Winners will be announced at the official One Ring Award Ceremony, taking place January 15th 2005 at 9pm PT from The One Ring Celebration in Pasadena CA. Don't delay, award those people that have made a difference in the world of Tolkien last year! [VOTE]

Footsteps through overgrown grass have worn an irregular path around the north Portland home of Sam Mowry and Cynthia McGean, leading to their backyard garage. This space, originally designed for two cars, has been partitioned and converted into a quirky sound studio, with mustard walls, crimson curtains and audio gear stacked against just about every wall. The founders of Willamette Radio Workshop are preparing for their latest performance, an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," which will be featured in the second annual Tolkien Festival on Saturday afternoon at McMenamins Kennedy School. [More]

St. Charles the Martyr Episcopal Church will host a five-week course entitled "The Best of C.S. Lewis: Part Two." The course is open to the public and attendees need not have attended part one last year. C.S. Lewis, who died in 1963, was a scholar at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. During World War II he was heard weekly on the BBC radio as a voice of comfort and encouragement. [More]

Images from Billy Boyd's latest film 'On A Clear Day' are now online. The film debuts at the Sundance Film Festival. [More]

Turgon writes: I'd like to note the passing of Guy Davenport, a distinguished writer and teacher at the University of Kentucky? He was a student of Tolkien's, and in the Tributes section of Green Books we have his brief recollections of Tolkien. [More]

Sideshow/Weta Collectibles has posted their first photos of the much anticipated, Sauron, the Dark Lord Statue. Besides being the coolest thing we've seen in a while...it is 2 ft tall! Check it out, and eventhough it is sold out, you can try to get on the wait list. [Click Here] [Wait List]

ProLiteracy Worldwide is giving you one last chance to get a pair of sold out Wizards Circle tickets to the One Ring Celebration. All proceeds from this auction go to ProLiteracy Worldwide to promote worldwide literacy. [More]

"Then Ilúvatar said to them: 'Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music… But I will sit and hearken, and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song.'" (AINULINDALË)

In all of Tolkien’s created world, no power is greater or more evident than the power of music and song. [More]

The January issue of "Satellite Direct" a magazine for DirecTV subscribers features an interview with Dominic Monaghan on "Lost" and life after LOTR. [More]

The Shakespeare Society, which has hosted film retrospectives of the Bard-related work of Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom and Derek Jacobi, will give Ian McKellen the star treatment on Feb. 7. Actor and director Roger Rees and theatre critic John Simon will provide commentary on McKellen's work. The evening will boast clips from Macbeth, Richard III, Othello and McKellen's solo Shakespeare film. [More]

As stills from his latest movie Kingdom Of Heaven are released, hunky Lord Of The Rings actor Orlando Bloom looks set to further expand his enormous fan base. In the Crusades epic the 27-year-old star plays a man who finds himself thrust into a war in a strange land, defending the city of Jerusalem and falling for a forbidden queen. It's a role which perfectly combines the actor's legendary thirst for action with the romantic scenes which set hearts aflutter across the globe. [More]

For the third year running, The Lord of the Rings ruled supreme on DVD in 2004. The four-disc Special Extended Edition of The Return of the King faced fierce rivalry for its home video throne, including the 10-disc Matrix Collection and the four-disc Star Wars trilogy. But the winner of 11 Oscars couldn't be matched for the brilliance of its audio and video, and the breadth, depth and architecture of its extras. Director Peter Jackson was among the first film-makers to recognise DVD's potential for maximising revenue, promotion and creativity. [More]

Jef writes: Andúnië, the newest Atlanta-based smial of the Tolkien Society, will hold its inaugural meeting this coming Sunday, January 9, from 6pm until 8pm. Ours is a discussion group dedicated to exploring the theological, literary, and artistic underpinnings of JRRT's legendarium. To join our listserv and/or learn more, please see our website or email Jef.

Franz Ferdinand are among a host of celebrities donating items to a Scots fundraising auction. The Glasgow group have given a signed guitar to the event, to be held at the city's Oran Mor venue on Saturday. Scots actors Billy Boyd and Rory McCann have also supported the auction, to help victims of the tsunami. Other donations have come from pop star Kylie Minogue and Bond actor Pierce Brosnan. [More]

Badali Jewelry Specialties, Inc. will have a booth at The One Ring Celebration on January 14-16, 2005. They have created a card of authenticity for their trademarked rings and have sent the following announcement for all ORC attendees. [More]

Despite its immense popularity, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings has long been criticized by feminists who say that there are too few female characters and that those who do exist are most notable for their conventionality. The first charge is irrefutable: there are only three major and six minor feminine roles in the three fat volumes that comprise Rings. Even the numerous horses in the story all seem to be male! [More]

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - New Line Cinema, under the leadership of co-chairmen Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne, couldn't have begun 2004 on a higher note. Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," the culminating 2003 installment in his magisterial trilogy, amassed $377 million domestically -- $86.6 million of that accrued to New Line's 2004 accounts. More importantly, the movie scored a clean sweep at the Academy Awards, winning all 11 categories in which it was nominated, including best picture. But that left New Line facing a question: What to do for an encore? The studio's answer was to hunker down, release some movies and begin planning. [More]

They changed the face of movie making forever, and now the incredible beloved quartet of LORD OF THE RINGS' hobbits (Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd and Sean Astin) are headlining an amazing weekend coming *January 14-16, 2005* to The Pasadena Center in Pasadena California. [More]

The 16th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will honor Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman with the distinguished Chairman’s Award and Academy Award winner Howard Shore with the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing at the Festival’s Annual Awards Gala, announced Chairman Earl Greenburg. [More]

The Northwest Tolkien Society's is holding Tolcon in May. They've just confirmed that Ted Nasmith will be attending. [More]

In my continuing effort to get the entire universe to watch Lost on ABC every Wednesday night, I post this reminder to...watch Lost on ABC tonight! Dominic Monaghan's breakaway smash hit of the year Lost is about castaways of a plane crash on a mysterious island where nothing is what it seems! It is an all new episode tonight..so be sure to watch! [Lost]

Ain't It Cool News is reporting that Peter Jackson and his producing team of Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyes and Jan Blenkin are looking to adapt the Alice Sebold novel 'The Lovely Bones' as his post-Kong project.

'Bones' tells the story of a young girl who is murdered, she then watches her family from the afterlife. PJ and Boyens were both quoted in the latest (and I think last) issue of the Lord of the Rings fanclub magazine. [More]

Pick up a copy of 'The Lovely Bones' from Amazon.com today!

Ostadan writes: Los Angeles's noncommercial classical radio station KUSC ran an ad this morning for this coming Sunday's "Record Shelf" program, to feature an interview with Howard Shore. Svejda's program can be heard on KUSC in Los Angeles, streamed from their Web site, and also can be heard in syndication. [KUSC.org]

A Birmingham nature reserve that provided JRR Tolkien with much of the inspiration for his classic fantasy novels is to be renamed in his honour. The city's Millstream Project will now be called The Shire Country Park. The park links a four-mile, wooded walk along the River Cole and the Chinn Brook. It includes Moseley Bog, one of Tolkien's favourite childhood haunts. [More]

This sad news about Humphrey Carpenter was submitted by Ringer Thranduil Elvenking. From Telegraph.co.uk: "Humphrey Carpenter, who died yesterday in Oxford aged 58, was an accomplished and often controversial biographer..." [More]

From The Scotsman: "Children’s author and broadcaster Humphrey Carpenter has died after suffering heart failure, it emerged today. Mr Carpenter, 58, wrote the successful Mr Majeika series of books as well as biographies of JRR Tolkien and Benjamin Britten." [More]

From BBC News: "The writer and broadcaster Humphrey Carpenter has died aged 58. Carpenter created the Mr Majeika children's books, turned into a TV series starring Stanley Baxter." [More]

Anon writes: "Just got my preliminary Nebula ballot notice. ROTK will be one of the three finalists for a script nebula. I imagine it will make for a LOTR clean sweep with three nebulas for three movies in three successive years. Of course, the nomination won't be officially announced for some time yet ... this year I got in early enough that my name is down as one of the nominators, so I get a little reflected glory for doing something I heartily elieve to be a good idea."

Word reaches us today that EA Games will be sending game designers Chris Tremmel and Michael Becker to The One Ring Celebration next week in Pasadena CA. Electronic Arts will also be showcasing The Battle for Middle-earth video game as well as a world exclusive debut of their brand new game trailer! [Click Here] [ORC]

Millions of people around the world have been swept up in the excitement and intrigue of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings since its debut in the 1950s and subsequent movie release in the last three years. And while many immerse themselves in the story — perhaps even learning the language of Elvish and reenacting the fantasy as a pastime — few would say we actually inhabit Middle-earth. [More]

Brian writes: The Extended Edition of Return of the King has hit #1 on the Billboard DVD Sales chart, it has been announced. In June, the original 2-disc theatrical edition went to #1. In late 2003, the Extended Edition of The Two Towers went to the summit.

Mike writes: There will be a FREE exhibit of "The Invented Worlds or J.R.R. Tolkien", including works, sketches, naote and original manuscripts of The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit. It will be at the Haggerty Art Museum from Jan 3rd to the 30th. [More]

Many surprises are in store for Ringer fans attending TORn’s big ORC event next January! The filmmakers behind Ringers: Lord of the Fans will be hosting a panel at the upcoming One Ring Convention (ORC) in Pasadena, CA. The panel will be held on Friday, January 14th, and will include an in-depth discussion, as well as sneak peaks at various clips from Ringers: Lord of the Fans. This will be the first and last opportunity to catch a glimpse of Ringers before the film has its World Premiere in Park City, Utah the following week. [More] [Ringers Site]

From The Indiana State Museum: You’ve seen the movies. Now see the exhibition. The Indiana State Museum is proud to announce it is the last international venue to host The Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition Oct. 6, 2005 through Jan. 3, 2006. You can experience the land of Middle-earth, as brought to life by New Line Cinema. Journey inside the sets, costuming and technology that made the movies famous. [More]

From cbc.ca: It's not quite J.R.R. Tolkien's North Pole, but the 5th season of Quebec City's Ice Hotel will feature the work of a British sculptor and commercial artist best known for her work on Lord of the Rings film trilogy. [More]

113 years ago today, the late great Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born. On behalf of your fans around the world, male and female, young and old, we raise our mugs and toast your spirit, your life, and your great good works.