Christopher Tolkien Centenary Conference

 So, I'll be busy this weekend, attending the Celebration for Christopher Tolkien, who wd have been a hundred years old this week.  It's an online conference (webinar) hosted by the Tolkien Society via Zoom.

I'll be taking part, first as a member of a Q&A / Roundtable talking about editing Tolkien (e.g., my work on THE HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT).  Then I'll also be giving a talk whose official title is "Editing THE HOBBIT" but which might as well be "Christopher, Taum, and Me".

The list of speakers is impressive; pity that time zones mean some events starting as early as 3.a.m my time.  Fortunately they'll be recording presentations for folks who miss out to catch specific speakers later via recording.

My events, for those interested, are at 11.30 to 12.30  ROUNDTABLE with Dimitra Fimi, Peter Grybaukas, Andrew Higgins, and JDR.

EDITING THE HOBBIT, my other event, is at 1 pm and lasts for thirty minutes.

I know I'll be attending as many events as I can fit in and can stay awake for.

If you're interested, drop by and give it a look-see.

--John R.

Ghost Posts

So, here's a piece in The Guardian that explains a lot: 

Ghost jobs: why do 40% of companies advertise positions that don’t exist?

"A survey has revealed that the practice is widespread, with many companies going as far as fake-interviewing too"

This syncs up with a lot of anecdotal accounts but places it within a context and rationale:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/oct/30/ghost-jobs-why-do-40-of-companies-advertise-positions-that-dont-exist 

Thoroughly reprehensible, but no solution presents itself, at least in the short term.

--John R.

Breakdowns in the system

So,  the past few days there have seen a few unrelated but similar events.

First up the Internet was down for the day, apparently due to theft rather than sabotage (that is, thieves cut the cables for the copper).

Second was the forty-five car smash-up on I-five between Seattle and Tacoma. No one killed, thank goodness,  though there were a lot of cars that needed towed away (seventeen I fotget).

Third, and most sinister of the three, someone tried to set fire to two ballot boxes, one in Portland and the other in Vancouver, Washington. No one hurt and only minimal damage, but distressing nonetheless.

--John R. 

We See Dracula (on stage)

So, today we traveled down to Tacoma to see a live preformance of DRACULA.  We'd seen it before, this being our third time, but it's  been a long time. 

The first was in the Milwaukee Public Library: a staging of the original stage play famously filmed a few years later starring Lugosi. It was by far the best of the three. It cleverly had the heroes suspect Count Dracula but rule him out because they're in England: his 'native soil' wd be hundreds of miles away; it's a real breakthrough for them when they realize he brough the dirt with him.  The mirror-smashing scene was also impressive.

The second was an amateur perforance in Elkhorn in which one actor --I think the one playing Van Helsing-- dominated the whole show, to its detriment. 

And the third was this one in Tacoma, more than twenty years later.  Renfield and Mina were really good, with Dr. Steward not far behind. Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, and Miss Lucy did pretty well as well. In fact the only one I thought was lacking was Dracula himself. The actor had clealy seen LOVE AT FIRST BITE, and his slightly campy performance didn't fit particularly well with the rest of the cast.

So: well worth seeing, especially for the Renfield. Also, they combined Lucy's four suitors into one (Dr. Steward) and made her less the flirt in Stoker's novel and more the victim of fate.

--John R.

--current (re)reading: LADIES OF GRACE ADIEU by Suzanna Clarke

https://www.tacomaartslive.org/events/dracula/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD05WzRwcd0gXLbqXeZbfj53kaNW9&gclid=CjwKCAjwyfe4BhAWEiwAkIL8sD5J7fXK8MlxmhfzPBJQ0oEjgkJxdlbrq_6T55xCdrwvZF279rRl_xoC0asQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

P.S.: and, I shd add, we were fortute on the drive up to avoid the forty-five car pile-up 

forty-five cars i-5 washington

Our Ballots Have Arrived

So,  our ballots have now arrived; just have to go through them, mark them up, and get them either into the dropbox or mail by the fifth.  I already know who most of the people I'm voting for are (president /vice president, senator, Congressional seat, govenor, &c) because I've been paying attention.

But there are down-ballot candidates, such (as judgeships) and initiatives and the like --including our state Secretary of State, who's an avid D&D player (i.e., one of Our People).* There's the candidates' self-descriptions of who they are and their qualifications for the job. A lot of crackpots emerge at this stage, who can be interesting in a horrifying sort of way. But there are shortcuts that eliminate a lot of the not-worth-considering from the rest and shake some apples from the tree. It's my rule of thumb not to vote for anyone who boasts about his or her lack of qualification to do the job --e.g. anyone who's never held office before. Or tax deadbeasts (governments cost money to run; those who pretend otherwise need not be taken seriously). Those who wd mandate term limits also get the hairy eyeball. And so forth.

It's a lot to go thorough, but being able to vote is worth it.  

--John R.

*I was invited to a meet-and-greet with Hobbs at a game store, but cdn't make it.

Salmon Run in the Cedar River

So, today we took a walk along the Cedar River in downtown Renton  to see if the salmon run was underway. It's quite a sight, on years we get it right (the fish being unpredictable).

We've found a good spot last year, just down stream (north) of the Renton Library, which is right over the river. The viewing was even better this year. Whether the timing was right or this is just a better year for the fish I don't know. Maybe both.

I don't know how many fish there were --dozens and dozens--mostly grey with some golden, almost as bright as koi. A few were purple, which I suspect were either grey fish turning purple or contrarywise purple ones turning grey.

It helped that the day was beautiful, with sunbeams to shine right down to the river bottom (the Cedar being a fast, shallow little river).

All in all, a good outing. We'll see if we have such luck again next time.

--John R.

currrent reading: Tolkien's poem on Tea.

TOLKIEN AND LEWIS PLAY

So, the Taproot Theatre, a local theatrical group we enjoy getting to occasionally, has announced they'll be staging a  Tolkien / Lewis themed play, called simply LEWIS AND TOLKIEN. 

Written by Dean Batoli, whose work I don't know (apparently BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER scripts figured in largely), it imagines a chance meeting between CSL and JRRT at some point after the Inklings towards the end of Lewis's life. Sounds like it has potential. At any rate, I plan to go, so here's hoping it's good.

DATE: January 22nd through February 22nd, 2025

THE SEASON: just to give a better idea of what Taproot's like, the four other plays that make up this season are 

A RAISIN IN THE SUN (not my kind of thing), 

The Patsy Cline Story (likewise), 

MURDER ON THE LINKS (Poirot stories can be fun, but I'm doubtfull about their choice of a murder mystery play set on a golf course), and 

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (which I've seen more than once, and read several more times; the problem here is deciding how many times I want to see the same play). 

I guess we'll find out

--John R