It would have been the late JRR Tolkien’s 120th birthday today, and with the film of The Hobbit on the horizon, the great man has been on our mind a bit of late. So much so, in fact, that we dug out our battered old copy of The Lord of the Rings and started thumbing through it again over the holiday season. It’s one of about a gazillion different editions of Tolkien’s books that have been published around the world since The Hobbit first appeared in 1937 — so to celebrate its author’s birthday, we’ve put together a gallery of some of the most beautiful and/or weird cover artwork that’s adorned Tolkien’s work over the years. (Many of these come from the exhaustive gallery of covers here and/or from the Tolkien Library, both excellent resources for Tolkien completists.)
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Last week, your author was charged with working up our most anticipated movies of 2012, and I must confess, it’s an assignment I was dreading. Not because there weren’t movies in the upcoming year worth anticipating (as we saw, there are many), or that it would be difficult to explain why they were worth looking forward to. No, it was because I knew I was going to have to deal with The Hobbit.
I anticipated it, even, noting in the call for comments that there would certainly be hoots and catcalls for the exclusion of Peter Jackson’s return to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. And there were, sure enough. But here’s the problem, as briefly noted when discussing the release of they eagerly-greeted-by-everyone-but-yours-truly trailer: I don’t like The Lord of the Rings. I just don’t. It’s one of my pop culture “cold spots.” We’ve all got them. Right?
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Brooklyn-loving Tolkien fans, prepare to have your day made thanks to our friends over at io9. “The Broship of the Ring is Lord of the Rings interpreted as a modern-day buddy road trip story,” writes Noelle Stevenson, an illustration major at Maryland Institute College of Art. “It started as a half-formed idea and a doodle while watching The Two Towers and very quickly escalated to ridiculous proportions. The internet seems to approve and I’m having way too much fun with it! To be honest I’m not really planning on stopping anytime soon.” Click through to see the amazing work that she’s done so far.
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So, we heard a rumor that we’re going to live forever — yes, that’s right. If we want to. The Maximum Life Foundation recently held a “Longevity Summit” to discuss recent anti-aging findings, and the current goal is to be able to achieve “full age reversal” by 2029. Hmm. First of all, is this even possible? Or is it a Scientology-type scam to solicit our dollars?
Well, to answer that question, the Maximum Life Foundation’s website offers lots of extra information on our impending immortality, including one article entitled “How to Enjoy Unforgettable Sex on Your 120th Birthday.” Well, of course we clicked on that, and FYI, three out of four ways to enjoy unforgettable sex on your 120th birthday include buying something. We thought so. In the MLF FAQs they also answer burning questions like “When do you expect aging to be cured?” and “What will we do with all the old people?”
We aren’t convinced, but to work through our immortality anxieties, we’re taking a look at six of our favorite immortals to weigh the pros and cons.
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