Current mood:	chipper
Current music:	Leonard Nimoy on Crack

Sir Ian's Virtual Shire
Today's Shiny Blog review is devoted to Ian McKellen's blog. Sir Ian McKellen's blog, I should say. You know, Gandalf. (And, ironically, he played Hitler in 1989, so it's fair to say the man has range.)

You might be wondering how it is that I managed to go from my thoughts about Jillian Ann's site (and, of course, bosom) to a foraging for McKellen journals, and, to be honest, so am I. As best I can tell, I moved from Jillian Ann to Sir Ian in three ways (actually, five now that I pause to note the nomenclative similarity between "Jillian" or "Ann" and "Ian". (<--pause to note and note, and now move on).

First, I had a Kate and Leopold reference in my post about jillianann.com, and, as you ought to know, the "Leopold" of Kate and Leopold was played by the great Hugh Jackman, who is, if you ask me, just as great as Wolverine in X-Men and X2, in which movies Sir Ian provides a captivating Magneto. (Actually, the Magneto is Rogue-ishly captivating in the first, and himself captive in the second, but the performance is captivating in both.)

Second, ironically, I was referring to Leopold's stirring defense of rich, creamery butter--which the slender Jillian Ann could clearly get away with ingesting--in response to Jillian Ann's veganism, which denies her such pleasures. Oddly enough, Sir Ian, though not a vegan, has a short essay on his website about his recent conversion to vegetarianism. (Vegetarianism, like veganism, still strikes me as a form of culinary Paganism, but with less goat, but I suspect my meatatarian God-made-cows-out-of-steak-for-a-reason philosophy is best left to a t-shirt instead of this blog).

But third, and longest of wind, was a rumination about what this journal is to become. I joked in my last entry that, with its initial focus on a musician/model and its subsequent elation at minor scraps of exchange with her, this blog might be little more than "a blog written by a fellow who sits around webgawking at hot women who he'd be too timid to approach in bars, and then tries to figure out ways to chat them up online." A trajectory which, were I to follow it, would make me on my best days a bit like the Lester Bangs of model/musician weblogs (at least as played by Philip Seymour Hoffman), a fellow dazzled by the virtual minglings of the "cool", but not quite cool enough (in his own eyes, anyway) to participate as an equal. And I'd rather be more like Patrick Fugit's William Miller--catching these moments of inspiration at a point of personal awakening (for all moments are fraught with personal awakening if we weigh them properly)--or perhaps like Kate Hudson's Penny Lane, inventing a "blog aid" to promote the sites that are, or should be, "almost famous." These last references, by the way, have been to the film, Almost Famous, and if you haven't seen it, you should rush out right now to rent or buy it, watch it, and then come back. We'll wait for you at the upper left-hand corner of the next paragraph.

Ah, there you are. Now, thinking about Almost Famous and the nature of "meta-blogging" made me think about Ian McKellan in a couple of ways. First, Almost Famous features the lovely Anna Paquin, who also plays Rogue opposite Sir Ian's Magneto in the X-Men movies. In the first film, Magneto abducts poor Rogue and transfers to her his powers of magnetism. It struck me that there was something obviously silly about that, as Ms. Paquin had already become rather attractive in her own right, albeit in a different way. But it dawned on me that, in real life, Sir Ian has had a knack for surrounding himself with attractive people lately. In the X-Men and LotR films alone he's managed to surround himself with Hugh Jackman and Viggo Mortenson, as well as Orlando Bloom for you youngsters, and, for those who prefer the fairer sex, Ms. Paquin, Halle Berry, Fammmke Jannsen, Rebecca Rommmijn-Stammmos, and Mmmiranda Otto. (I really must fix, by which I mean neuter, that "m" key if I'm to get any typing done.) He's even managed to work with a rather handsome horse, if you swing that way, but I'll leave that sort of discussion to others, because, well, ewww (not to be confused with a sheep, you pervert).

And, like Magneto to Rogue, Sir Ian seems to have imparted to his co-stars a bit of his power. Consider, for example, Brendan Fraser's performance in Gods and Monsters, which seems far richer, to me, than his earlier work. Consider the nuance of Sean Astin taking Elijah Wood's hand in Fellowship, a detail I believe Sir Ian discusses in the extended DVD commentaries.

And so, my mind having formed these connections after musing away from my last blog review, Sir Ian's blog seemed like a logical enough progression from Jillian Ann's website. It's also possible, I suppose, that repeated viewings of Return of the King have, as Cartman might say, "warped my fragile little mind." Perhaps, were my hair longer, I would braid it to give fair notice to the world that there's a bit of twisting in the mind beneath. But it isn't, so I won't.

Instead, I'll discuss Sir Ian's blog.

Except that I can't find it.

And that's a source of some sore disappointment. I could have sworn I read something somewhere saying that Sir Ian McKellen kept a blog. But, if he does, its location is a mystery to me. So, instead, I have simply sworn a bit.

But Sir Ian does have a very likable site fettered with journals and other entries about his various projects, sort of tossed about the site like books in Bilbo's Bag End home, for you to stumble across. It's really a rather fascinating site from an architectural standpoint, because you could navigate it in more ways than one, if you stumble upon it the right way. (The site, by the way, is designed by Keith Stern of CompuWeb, who also designed sites for Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave and Spinal Tap. The Spinal Tap page, alas, is down. Perhaps it's being upgraded to go to eleven.)

The closest approach to a "bloggystyle" experience, as it were, would be to pop over to The Grey Book, which chronicles Sir Ian's experiences filming (and later promoting) Gandalf the Grey for The Fellowship of the Rings. This is, I suspect, what people talk about when they say Sir Ian keeps a blog. It's a journal, arranged in chronological order, and you can click helpful arrows at the bottom of each entry to move back and forth from post to post. The journal continues into "The White Book", a less easily navigable journal (for lack of helpful arrows) of Sir Ian's experience as Gandalf the White.

However navigated, the books of Gandalf make for a wonderful read. You would expect a bit of warmth and wit from the man who plays Gandalf the Grey, and Sir Ian does not disappoint. But what I find most compelling about Sir Ian's writings is his attention to the little things, and I mean this not in the sense that Sir Ian frets over details but rather that he takes the time to notice little things and pay them respect -- a fitting trait indeed for a Gandalf. This is a man who writes not only about his human co-stars but also pauses between the blue screen stages and the mountain tops of New Zealand to tell us about
horses and ponies, and even to ponder the character arc of a tennis ball. There's an extraordinary humanity and humility in Sir Ian's writing, a sense of wonder at the people he meets (from ordinary locals to Sir Edmund Hillary and his wife June) and of self-deprecating humor at his own moments of Hobbit-induced recklessness (like sliding down a fireman's pole with Billy Boyd or dancing to hip-hop spun by Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan). Interwoven with the texts are personal photos and images borrowed from others, and it's all quite fun to see. These journals have probably already gotten an enthusiastic reading from the hardest of hard-core hobbit fans, but they would also appeal to anyone interested in the craft of acting, the beauty of New Zealand, or just the musings in general of somebody thoughtful. Of course, in reading them, I couldn't help but wish that Sir Ian had narrated them aloud, in the voice of Gandalf, as livejournal or blogger would now permit him to do. (And, with a livejournal blog, we'd get to see Sir Ian's "friends" lists, which would be quite fascinating and likely quite large.) For that matter, I wouldn't mind hearing Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan read them out loud, irreverent though they would no doubt be, for, like tears, not all irreverence is an evil.

Speaking of live readings, as speculation mounts over whether The Hobbit will ever be filmed, I can't help but wonder whether Sir Ian, Ian Holm, and Andy Serkis could read some passages of the book. I suspect the world would be a better place if the Ians graced it with a reading of An Unexpected Party, or if Messrs. Holm and Serkis read Riddles in the Dark. Maybe with Christopher Lee as narrator. Or Jim Dale (whose reading of the Harry Potter books is astonishing, if you ask me, which I note you have not). Or John Rhys-Davies, but not in his Treebeard voice. ("In a . . . hole . . . in the . . . . burrarrum . . . ground . . . there lived a . . . hmm hom . . . hobbit -– sounds like orc mischief to me.") Honestly, what were the four hobbits on the set thinking? Had I been a member of the Lord of the Rings cast, I would have single-handedly made the film suck, which is really saying something. But I'd've convinced the Ians to read The Hobbit together, if only over lunch. Perhaps some day, someone in London will have the sense to invite both Ians to a dinner party and "accidentally" leave a copy of the book lying about. I'll cook, if it helps.

But let us not pigeon-hole ourselves in hobbitry, for, enjoyable though it may be, there is more to Sir Ian, his career, and his website. Sadly, once we leave the Grey and White Books it's a bit harder to find all of his writings in one spot. There is, thankfully, a page called "Writings" which links to a good many good things Sir Ian has written, though, amusingly enough, not to the journals we've just discussed. I actually find that a bit endearing, by the way. To find the "writings" page, you have to find the link within the text of the home page, rather than simply rely on obvious links at the top of every page. It hearkens back to an older style of surfing and design, when details were for those who bothered to find them, and content could simply develop on its own, without concern over whether it would fit into this category or that. No Amazon-style trees at the top showing the branches of category to subcategory to microcategory. And that's fitting for writings about life, about details, about the nooks and crannies of experience. This is a personal site, not a commercial one. On the other hand, it means I haven't managed to read everything yet, let alone find it. But what I have read, I commend to you. Sir Ian's tributes to other actors like Sirs Nigel Hawthorne, Alec Guinness, and John Gielgud are memorable, I think, and it's interesting to see him weave issues of sexuality and acceptance into his reminiscences, which will perhaps ease the passage of younger men from their respective closets. (Sir Ian, if you didn't know, is both gay and refreshingly open about it. It is, by the way, fantastic to me that, in the months after September 11, one of history's starkest examples of hatred, one of the most cathartic acts of love came from Ian McKellen's Gandalf, an unconditional twinkling-eyed hug of a performance from a man who, himself, has been exposed to the unreasoning hatred of homophobia.)

Other writings are also quite enjoyable. In particular, I commend to you his musings on tobacco and on the turn of the millenium. I haven't had a chance to do more than glance at the screenplay of Richard IIIyet (which Sir Ian himself adapted from the Shakespeare play), but it was a promising glance, so you'd best give it some attention (as should I).

Other briefer bits of writing sprinkle the site, often interspersed with images of playbills or other mementos. A substantial "e-post" collection gathers responses to fans' questions on a variety of issues over the last few years, and well, there's just a darn big lot of stuff on the site to read. Go surf about. But bookmark as you go, just to be sure you can find Sir Ian's treasures again.

It is a tad frustrating to not have the time to fully indulge in roving Sir Ian's site, let alone review it, but that is often the way of things. For now, I'll leave you with Sir Ian's own response to a gripe about leaving things out when working with literary Marvels (as it were):

Q: How come [insert favorite X-Men character here] is not going to be in the movie? He/She has to be.


A. If everyone's favourite character were to be in the movie, it would have to be as long as the comic. Are you prepared to sit through a 35-year-long film?

Well, usually not. But if it had intermissions for snacks, a lot of you in it, and a supporting ensemble cast like you tend to attract, then yes, Sir Ian, I'd love a 35-year-long film. Perhaps you'd be kind enough to blog about it during filming?