the hobbit

In the Blink of an Eye

| mlatimerridley
 
What do you mean... wasn't it?!
What do you mean… wasn’t it?!

Latimer: I don’t want to alarm anyone, but the 90s wasn’t 10 years ago… No, seriously, the naughties really did have its first decade… 3 years ago…

From time-to-time, I remember this and get scared.

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This post is where I float in the ether of feeling old because of a youtube video!

Recently I’ve learned there comes a point in life where you start to feel a real, proper, disconnect with younger people. It’s inevitable and normal, but when you start to notice it, it does take a minute to orientate yourself (in between screaming; ‘what happened to us!’).

I know I’m not that old, not really, but technology and entertainment moves so fast that if you take a break, you come back and realise that the craze you experienced what seemed like yesterday, was in fact another generation ago…

Let me show you – look at this youtube video; it’s one of the ‘kid’s react to…’ videos – about The Hobbit trailer. Listen to the people behind the camera asking the kids; ‘what age were you when lord of the rings came out?’…

Although I knew it already, the full force of being closer in age to the people behind the camera than those in front hit me. Usually my people are the ones in front, but now they are the ones making the shows.

I nearly choked on my tea. The kids were… 1 year old… not born… NOT BORN when Lord of the Rings came out? What?! (They don’t remember a world before Lord of the Rings!) I was older than they are now when I first saw Lord of the Rings.

My head is spinning at this point – this series just doesn’t feel like it was that long ago!

Then I realised that even most of the ‘youtubers’ are actually, I blush… younger than me. In some ways I don’t feel as old as them, but then I think I suffer from distorted perceptions of my place in time and space!

This post in some ways harks back to the fact that last week was my birthday…I am now 27! There! Oh I said it.

When I went to get my haircut at the weekend, the hairdresser mentioned dye to me and initially I smiled thinking ‘sure, that’s cool, I was thinking of flaming red or something’ then a few moments into the conversation she mentions my Dorian’s (my code for the greys) and that’s why she was talking dye…

 Again I am forced to say in my mind; look I have very dark hair, those Dorian’s have nowhere to hide…. And they aren’t Dorian’s – they’re Gandalf the White’s actually… argh!

There are lately lots of things to remind me of my passage far away from teenager-hood (okay it was a long time ago at this point– but still!).

I look at my dog for example. He’s managed to live far longer than anyone could have expected, but even he’s starting to show the strain of age… you know intolerance to the younger generation and general exhaustion..

My poor dog Levi, sweetest creature in all of creation - FACT
My poor dog Levi, sweetest creature in all of creation – FACT

He’s 17 years old.

He’s older than the kids in the youtube video.

Let’s put it this way, my dog remembers Lord of the Rings… 

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An Unexpected Feeling

| mlatimerridley

Last week we went to see The Hobbit.

Latimer: It’s very strange to think on this, but I have – sort of – a long history with Peter Jackson.

He made a movie called ‘Bad Taste’ many, many years ago. When I was a very, very small Latimer, I often saw the cover of this movie in an old video shop in our little town. It was back in the VHS days to put it in perspective.

I have the cover image of Bad Taste imprinted in my mind; really weird white alien-type creature in a black suit giving the finger.

This still scares me!!! WAHHHH!!!!

And… I remember watching it, a little, when my older siblings rented it. It’s a dark comedy; but not really when you are a kid; it’s actually a nightmare that plagued me for many nights afterward!

I never thought then that I would come to love Peter Jackson so much!

Myself and Ridley have a long tradition of going to see Lord of the Rings.

It was a sad thing to realise that the first movie is now 11yrs old! And I guess, so its Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Honestly, I haven’t thought about Middle-Earth in a long time. I started to forget how much I loved it. I remembered I loved it, but I didn’t feel that love anymore. Time passed, obsessions came and went, as they do.

So, when they announced Hobbit; I wasn’t very interested.

When they released the trailer, I didn’t think much of it and when they said, it’ll be three movies, I rolled my eyes. It’s true. Sounds harsh, but don’t get me wrong, time had just passed, and well, I didn’t care so much anymore.

When I sat down in the cinema; which was more or less empty, I thought back on how myself and Ridley used to arrive early to a packed cinema in the Lord of the Rings days; we would queue;we would get jumpy, trying to organize everyone; myself and Ridley would race for the best seats, glancing back to make sure the rest of our fellowship had made it.

This time it was just me and Ridley and the cinema was pretty empty. And, we had 3D glasses (that’s new too, and not sure I’m sold on it at all).

Then it started. Then I started to remember…

The music; the props; New Zealand… I smiled; I had missed middle-earth! It was wonderful to be back.

So although I was apathetic before, I’m now really happy to be back in Middle-Earth and I’m looking forward to travelling more with Thorin Oakenshield’s company! 🙂

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