On The Hobbit:
Overall, I liked it. I’m not really much of a Tolkien fan, but I don’t mind that this got lengthened and split into three movies. The Silmarillion, Lost/Unfinished Tales, and Appendices stuff isn’t popular or well-known enough to ever get movies of their own, but they are the glue that holds The Hobbit to the greater, grander histories of Middle Earth. I’m grateful Jackson took this opportunity to weave in stories that might otherwise never have seen the light of a projector.
That being said, the 3D seemed pretty pointless, the HFR made me feel like I was watching a 1990’s BBC miniseries on fast-forward, and not even the hotness of Thorin and Kili could quite make up for the complete lack of female characters, which is kinda why I’m not a Tolkien fan in the first place. I mean, the only reason we even had Galadriel was because of the additions Jackson made. Okay, Tolkien. Females don’t matter in your world. I get it. Let’s move on (and let’s not even talk about how the production company turned away PoC extras to maintain the white racial purity of Middle Earth, because it’s like beating a dead dwarf pony in a Laketown barrel.)
I mean… seriously… they could have made half those dwarves female and/or PoC and it wouldn’t have affected the narrative one bit. AND we would have been able to tell them apart. And all the purist Tolkien fans would have fallen on their own axes over the atrocity of it. Win all around. I’m only half-joking here. That would have delighted me so much if they’d actually done that.
Alyc Helms 
I succeeded, I think. Oz may have me on quantity, but I know I’ve got him on quality. And oh yeah… I was sober enough to remember it all. Great party, guys. I love you all. And yes, I could have danced all night to that dj… very good. Must remember castanets. And belly wear. And I did miis the tall fox.
mE
I was not having an argument with gravity and sobriety! Neither were really around to do much arguing. 😉
The concrete and I, on the other hand, spent a great deal of time together – I feel like the sidewalk and I know each other much better now, and I’m pretty happy about that.
I feel that way about some other people, too. 😉
All your links are to Democracy Now.
The first four are meant to be Democracy Now. The one titled “A Valentine’s Day Picture Fest” is the one that has the pictures.
I’m not sure there are female dwarves in canonical Middle Earth. Don’t the dwarves reproduce by parthenogenesis or something? (Which would mean that Thorin and Kili’s hotness is all show and no go. Damn.)
I read and fell in love with Tolkien’s work at an age when the gender issues mostly went over my head, but yes, The Hobbit does look painfully white and male even by current Hollywood standards.
Just to make it painfully obvious that I am a Nerd, I was stupidly bothered by the fact that Orcrist and Glamdring don’t glow in the presence of orcs/goblins, and that Sting’s goblin/orc detection radius seems wildly inconsistent.