You must be lost

( Oh, why don't I just lay down and die! )

I'll definitely have to get some better ones. A scan of an already poor quality pic. But aren't Janice and Sarah's costumes great?!

Saw that episode last night, "Homer's Odyssey, is this about that minivan I rented?"

( It had the biggest cupholders )

I don't want to talk about the trip at all. Let's just say, all plans fell through with exception to the visits with my family. Long story short, I'm planning to try to go back up there for the overnight on Dec. 26th. I didn't go in costume, had some last minute problems with it and no one else was showing up (Janice got the stomach flu at the last minute and I didn't know anyone else was showing up so I didn't bother, good thing too, my train would be destroyed by now). So yeah, no pics to share. Yeah, an hour of sleep on Thursday night for no reason.

I only spent maybe an hour in the exhibit on Saturday instead of Friday. We couldn't get in until the 11:30 spot because it was so crowded (some children's choir thing going on that day). I felt bad spending much time in front of any one piece, so I really didn't get to ponder over anything like I wanted to. That combined with the fact that I really needed to be headed to Richmond totally screwed any chance of much observation.

We did go to the IMAX showing of The Two Towers Friday night though. Janice is right. Projected on a larger screen like that does take some things away from the resolution, but you can see so many details that I've never noticed before while watching the movies.

I watched some of the scenes intently looking at costumes. I'm thinking the Dream gown printing might be something like a sari under layer or something. The printed pattern on it really only looks to be on the edges. Maybe it's a sari they found or maybe its something they printed themselves. It's white and very faint.

Chris was fascinated by how much they did with scale models instead of CG. He was convinced most if not all of those things were CG (like the towers, Treebeard, etc.). He was also impressed with the detail that went into the Haradrim armor that we never ever see (like tiny skulls and such, really amazing work, and we only ever see them from afar).

I, of course focused, on the handful of weapons, costumes and jewelry that I was really interested in and made the best of the short time we were there.

( Observations )

And that's about all I could look at while I was there. I tried not to repeat things I've already heard a million times about this stuff, but I'm sure I did. I'm surprised I still remembered that much without taking any notes at any point. Really there were just a few key things I wanted to remember, and I fell asleep Saturday night envisioning the exhibit, so I guess it all really stuck in my mind.

I think I've pretty much decided to go back up for the overnight on Dec. 26th. It's $50 which is cheaper than a hotel room AND includes entry into the exhibit ($14 otherwise), the IMAX showing of FOTR ($7 otherwise) and breakfast. I'm off on the 26th anyway, so no vacation needed, or at least if I do need vacation it'll just be one day instead of two. If I can find a fair price on rental car for Chris to drive in town for two days, then I'm going. I'm looking for them today but a lot of the local places are closed on the 26th (unless we want to drive all the way out to the airport, which wouldn't be that bad, I pass it to leave town anyway, it would just be a pain for Chris since he's not going to work that day to drive to the other side of the county and back for a car). But looks like it'll cost anywhere from $45 to $70 for a rental for two days.

Some of you may have already seen my post to the LR_Cos yahoo group, but for those that didn't or aren't over there. . .

I've set up a syndicated account for the Indy exhibit blog that's on blogspot. I noticed the post on Wednesday was talking about details on Gimli's costume and Boromir's boat and "dead body". And all of the posts have been talking about how everything is just so exquisite. The costumes apparently came already on their forms. All they had to do was unpack them and attach them to their bases to get them set up. Therefore, there aren't as many details as a result of dressing as I expected. But good stuff none the less.

So far, the rss hasn't picked up anything. I'm assuming they'll have to post again to blogspot for it to update the feed (if my limited knowledge of how rss and atom feeds work is correct). But anyhow, if you want to add it to your friends list in the meantime so you can easily keep up with updates when they come, the account is indylotrexhibit.