Linett's Lore

Blogger Master List

Magistra Bush — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 19:17:19 +0000

At the Blogmoot a few weeks ago I volunteered to compile a list of all the LOTRO blogs out there, sort of a replacement for the Featured Bloggers list that the main page of my.lotro used to have. But alas, I’ve been able to find neither the time to work on this nor the platform to set it up as I’d like…i.e. some sort of easily maintained database from which to generate a searchable/sortable list of blogs, with a picture to go with each link, and maybe with a Featured Bloggers list at the top and even links to the interviews of bloggers done by Tuiliel as well as Turbine’s featured players. I am nothing if not ambitious when it comes to html…and I just haven’t the time to set this up properly, so I am afraid it’s fallen by the wayside. Maybe a wiki format would be best? I thought about setting up a rss bundle in Google Reader too but…no matter *how* I would do this project, I just don’t have time to, what with the Ales and Tales podcast starting up and soon the school year too.

So, if perhaps there is anyone out there who would like to take on the project…please do!

Busy Weekend

Magistra Bush — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 03:45:31 +0000

It has been a busy and fun weekend in game! Saturday’s highlight was the Summer 2011 Blogmoot, at which we had a dozen or so bloggers gather to chat about our craft – including some newly begun bloggers (Hi Locney!) and at least one who attended in hopes of starting one up soon. Our main topic of discussion was the splintering of the LOTRO blogger community that resulted from the troubles with My.LOTRO after the release of the beta community sites in September. So many bloggers have departed to wordpress or other platforms and it is hard to maintain an audience the way we could when My.LOTRO was so vibrant with activity. We considered that when My Middle Earth launches its 2nd beta with wordpress platform, it might be a good place to re-form the LOTRO blogging community. We will hope it works out! In the meantime, I’m going to be compiling a web page listing LOTRO blogs from My.LOTRO as well as other sources in an effort to publicize the writers who are in need of audience. So leave a comment if you have a blog, or know of one, that should be included on the list!

The weekend fun continued with Book Club today. We’ve just begun reading The Silmarillion and today we had a great discussion on the “Valaquenta” chapter! It was delightful to hear the Three-Word Epithets folks came up with for each of the Valar, and to hypothesize which Vala would be each person’s patron if we were elves in Middle-earth.

Last thing tonight was a special Old Winyards gig. We play at Ales and Tales every Monday and did some performing or Weatherstock too, and it seems our fame has spread, for we were asked to play at the wedding of Lifebringer and Pengurion! We put together a wedding playlist (including me converting midis to abc for the bridal chorus, wedding march, and some other songs) and some matching outfits and had a blast playing for the ceremony as well as the reception afterwards. Hurrah for the creativity that LOTRO’s music system inspires!

Blogmoot returns to Nimrodel for Summer 2011!

Magistra Bush — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:39:23 +0000

Well, Weatherstock is over and it was a huge success…now what to do? Hm…how about…BLOGMOOT!

Yes, it is again time for bloggers to gather for one of our delightful Moots, and this time it will be hosted by Linett’s kinswoman, Tuiliel of Nimrodel! See the details on the forum thread:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?399398-Spring-Summer-Blogmoot!

Date: July 2
Time: 4pm Eastern
Place: Home of Tuiliel on the Nimrodel server, 7 Haven Way, Iavasant, in Falathlorn

Many thanks, Tui, for adjusting the date so Linett can attend. I have so been looking forward to this! Er…I should probably pick up the blogging pace so I have a blog to talk about, shouldn’t I? But…hm…sudden urge to go create celebratory Summer Blogmoot promotional graphics…

Weatherstock is coming up!

Magistra Bush — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:46:28 +0000

Hello blog. Long time no see.

Right, now on to the news: Weatherstock returns this Saturday! The biggest show in Middle-earth! Nine bands competing for the crowd’s approval!

But there’s more…

Fortunately for those who can’t attend the big show on the 18th…or those who wish they could hear MORE than a 20 minute slot from their favorite bands…This week also features the Weatherstock Concert Series! Read all about it on the Lorebook:

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Weatherstock#Weatherstock_Concert_Series

The Green Hill Music Society will play at their usual time on Tuesday.

Thursday features the Hobbiton Philharmonic and the Eriador Music Society.

On Friday, Old Winyards will play for the first annual WEATHERSTOCK DANCE CONTEST! And to top it all off, the evening will end with the Ingolemo Experience from Mar Vanwa Tyalieva.

So, warm up your dancing shoes for the dance contest, and come out to the concerts for a fine preview of some of the bands who’ll be battling it out at Weatherstock on Saturday!

A Day at the Races

Magistra Bush — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 14:32:55 +0000

This weekend features Landroval’s first Spring Racing Carnival. On Friday, qualifier races were held in Gondamon, Duillond, and Michel Delving. The winners (top three places) of each of those races will race again today for the prestigious Bree Cup and a prize of 100 gold! It will be a grand festival, with music, fashion, betting, everything that goes along with the idea of a “Day at the Races.” Friday was just a warm-up for the main event, so let’s have a look at how that warm-up went, shall we?

At the starting line for the Mithril Cup in Gondamon:

Some opening music from Old Winyards:

What would a Landroval event be without Tinki vending the ale? Perhaps it was a bit sloshed about after she placed second in the first race, but still drinkable!

Starting line for the Moonstone Cup:

And they’re off!

The Eriador Music Society provided music at Duillond before and between the races.

A resident of the refuge of Duillond provided sound advice for all the nervous riders…

But really, who needs a horse when you have your own two feet for dancing?

Duvelon, organizer of this event, prepares to lead the racers in a pacing run to show the route.

Locney’s elegant Anniversary Horse seemed to be slowing him down, so Finnson offered some advice.

The starting line for the Beryl Cup in Duillond…

And they’re off!

As EMS entertained the crowd again and the riders were registering for the next race, someone hinted to Rosiee that there would be pie at the finish line…a bit of motivation for a hobbit!

It was a lovely spring day in Duillond, a beautiful time for a race!

It seems many of the riders had spent all they could afford on the entry fees by this point, for only three remained to race for the Mallorn Cup.

Off they go!

One more race took place, at the final race course in Michel Delving. The Hobbiton Philharmonic performed before this race, to the delight of the crowd.

At the starting line for the Mathom Cup…a course so complex it required two pace runs to make sure everyone knew the route!

After the winners of the Mathom Cup had been announced, the crowd made its way to the Founder’s Statue where Old Winyards waited to open the concert that would round out the evening’s festivities.

That was followed by some wonderful songs from both the Eriador Music Society…

…and the Hobbiton Philharmonic; but apparently by that point I was too tired to remember to take a picture! They did a marvelous job, nonetheless!

The Racing Carnival continues tonight – Saturday April 30 – with opening events at 7pm EDT and the big race for the Bree Cup at 9pm. So break out your fanciest hats and finest race day outfits and come enjoy the show! Besides the Bree Cup there will be some smaller races leading up to it, a fashion show with prizes to the best race day attire, a parade of horse breeds, and more music from Old Winyards, the Eriador Music Society, and the Hobbiton Philharmonic! All this and more in old Bree-Town!

Ales and Tales at Tham Gelair

Magistra Bush — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:57:35 +0000

Locney and I are becoming quite attached to our role as Ales and Tales co-hosts, filling in for Harperella again this week up at Tham Gelair, home to an astonishing number of wolves and rats. Of course – Harperella’s return next week just means we can return to playing in Old Winyards as usual! Win-win, yes? Still, it’s been fun running things for a while!

Casinthelion played a song that was not “Swordsman of the Sky”! So great was my amazement that…my client crashed just as Locney and I were heading up on stage to announce him, and not till just as he had finished his song did I get logged back in. Alas! No pictures!

Nor did I get much of a picture of the act that followed this week’s Gondolin tale (for which see below), a solo by Dringil.

I made up for it with pictures of Rosiee on a lute solo, though…

But failed to get any without nametags for a duet of Madaelin and Dringil…*sigh*

Likewise for Daevic…

But our final soloist, Ivylene, fared slightly better in the screenshot department.

Moral of the story: Um…I don’t take as many pictures as I would like to when I am hosting A&T, what with all the attention I must give to the chat window. Surely someone out there would like to be taking screenshots at Ales and Tales and reporting on it too? Join me in the lively world of LOTRO social reporting!

Raddar (a.k.a. Travisimo, Doldaegr, et al) told the next chapter in the Gondolin story sequence.

Gaiagil and Tamroch formed an Old Winyards duet; even such a small manifestation of the house band puts on a great show! We had a circle dance or two:

And a pair of partner dances too!

Ales and Tales on Two Tree Hill

Magistra Bush — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:26:17 +0000

It doesn’t have a name, really. It’s just a nice tall hill in the Green Hill Country (so, ipso facto, one of many such hills). But we started calling it Two Tree Hill when we held Ales and Tales there last night. It does get tedious to repeatedly explain “You go south out of Frogmorton, through the apple orchard across the road, and then up the hill till you find the spot with two trees standing alone. That’s the stage.” In other words – one of our more rugged and obscure Ales and Tales locations, but as beautiful as only the Shire can be!

And as you can see from that picture, with Harperella on vacation, Locney and Lennidhren acted as hosts again. This is fun!

Guess what song Casinthelion played?

Dringil played “Morning has broken,” if I remember correctly (I really ought to write down song titles and not just take screenshots for these reports…), fittingly, just as the sun was rising after Lennidhren’s tale of doom and gloom!

Laerlenn and Gaiagil played a beautiful duet on harp and flute.

(…and I’ve totally forgotten the importance of taking pictures during the actual song, haven’t I?)

The Book Club Band presented a song of the dwarves from The Hobbit, chapter 15.

We had a lovely solo from Hanniel…

And guess what I forgot to take any pictures at all of? I’ve transcribed another song from The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle: a setting of Tolkien’s poem “Errantry.” It’s a fast and furious, merry and quirky tune that took me quite a bit of practice with the solo version to manage to time the singing of the lyrics just right. And as a result, when Lennidhren sang “Errantry” at Ales and Tales this week, with Old Winyards providing the music, not a single snapshot did I grab! Oh well, we shall just have to perform it again sometime. But maybe not in a week when I am also singing for Book Club Band *and* telling a story. Lennidhren needs throat lozenges after last night…

At the Fall of Gondolin storytelling event on Elendilmir, we discussed how much fun it would be to have the tales of our little epic told at Ales and Tales – as a serial story, one chapter or partial chapter a week. So this week Lennidhren started it out with the tale of Rog and the Fall of the Hammer.

Gaiagil directed Old Winyards this week, with a beautiful dance set to which we set a circle dance…

A line dance…of varied sort; I fear my directions to arrange the lines were not as clear as they needed to be in such a grassy spot.

And we finished with a pair of partner dances!

Here’s Tinki passing out the ale and pipeweed at Nibbles and Nobs, near the apple orchard, while Rosiee plays a tune for the crowd.

And finally, I hear there was some incident with my co-host while Lennidhren was down the hill a ways organizing the musical mentoring (for which, where have all our minstrels gone? We only had three available to teach last night…). Alas, of this I have no screenshots. Someone hopefully got a few? Or can at least tell me the story?

Belated Ales and Tales Pictures

Magistra Bush — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:41:01 +0000

For the two weeks whose writeups I missed, here are the photo albums:

March 21 at the Nos Morel kinhouse

March 14 at The Oak and Elm

Perhaps I will yet get the writeups done, but don’t count on it…

Also. Is it just April Fools’ Day hallucination, or is the My.LOTRO global feed working again?! I see a new post there today!

Ales and Tales at the Fairgrounds

Magistra Bush — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:26:57 +0000

I’m behind on my Ales and Tales reports again! So here is this week’s, and then we will see about the weeks I missed…

Harperella is on vacation, so Locney and Lennidhren are hosting in her absence for a few weeks. Yesterday we gathered at the Bree Fairgrounds.

But is the presence of a dance instructor so near the party an advantage – or a hindrance? More on that from Melanie, later in the program!

Ghingeriel and Billabub of the Hobbiton Philharmonic performed two songs, one about a group of adventurers and another about Forochel.

The dwarf Dringil performed two songs as well…

And Lyonardo and Kaleigh played a duet!

Melanie, having heard Ada Musgrove muster her dance classes not far from our stage one too many times, performed a little dance lesson song of her own…

And lastly, Old Winyards performed In the Willow-meads of Tasarinan, one of the songs I recently transcribed.

Hammino had a short tale of adventure…

Arangilthurin recited a brief Elvish poem called “Elendil’s Oath”

Aldekim’s poem was a toast to the Lonely Mountain Band, celebrating its 3rd anniversary this past weekend!

The barrels beside the stage served as a platform for Old Winyards, while we set up group dances on stage, starting with a square dance…

A line dance or two…

And lastly, a partner dance!

A couple of important announcements: The Fall of Gondolin Storytelling event coming up on April 2…

And on April 29-30, Landroval’s Spring Racing Carnival!

Ales and Tales Returns to Gondamon

Magistra Bush — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:22:48 +0000

I liked this week’s corner of Gondamon much better than the last time we held Ales and Tales here, though! (Then, it was on the steps in the main courtyard. Steps are tricky for screenshots.)

Rayana Rabbitfoot opened the show with a tune she wrote when she was a young Minstrel, just learning to Minstrel, right here in Ered Luin, inspired by the mountains gleaming with snow and warmth at once!

The Book Club Band revisited a favorite song from chapter 1, “Far Over the Misty Mountains”…as the current chapter lacked a poem to set to music. Shocking, I know!

Old Winyards joined Lennidhren in “Upon the Hearth the Fire is Red” – the first of my transcriptions from “The Road Goes Ever On” to be performed at Ales and Tales. Someday I want to do an Old Winyards concert of the whole song cycle…once I finish transcribing the last few songs, that is!

And as the evening finished with musical mentoring, Harperella played one of her lovely harpsongs.

Merenda’s poem “The Ballad of the Pie,” accompanied by Harperella’s music, was well received by this pie-loving crowd!

Ingolemo, with Fionnuala and Schezar as back-up musicians, told a cautionary tale of his early adventures at the Forsaken Inn. (Of course, one might say that any tale of Ingolemo’s adventures is going to be a cautionary tale, whether he intends it or not…)

Old Winyards provided dance music for some line dances of the dwarves and elves.

A nice little lore tie-in from this wandering Gondamon Guard – especially for the Book Club folks about to read of the Battle of Five Armies!

Our usual crew of vendors were absent this week. So Harperella sent riders off to nearby towns to purchase the ale of the dwarves and wine of the elves for the crowd’s merriment.

Lastly, a public service announcement from Lyonardo about the Bounders of the Shire’s celebration – TONIGHT! – for Fat Hobbit Day!

9pm EST at the Bird & Baby in Michel Delving. See you there!