The LOTR night was absolutely ahhh-may-zeeen! It was totally worth the sleep deprived night (which is was not for all attending; during ROTK the guy next to me was snoring during the slow parts!) It was great for a couple of reasons: (1) The IMAX screen was incredible! It was still shown in 35mm, and not the huge IMAX format, but the size was still probably about twice the size of your average movie screen. I've been watching those movies for years on my little 27" at home, and had forgotten the overwhelming impact they have at that size. (2) They moved us around for each movie, and for the first and third I sat in the first five rows. The screen was so big and I was so close I actually had to turn my head to see from one end of the screen to the other and that made me feel like I was in the movie! Especially the battle scenes, where it's happening so fast, and the quick edits made me dizzy and intoxicated. It had quite a powerful effect on me! (3) To see them all at once with hardly a break in between was I think how Peter Jackson designed and wished the movies to been seen. They are not three different movies, but actually one movie, I've heard him say that many times. I went into that theater at 7:45pm, and came back out eleven hours later. I was immersed in Middle Earth for so long that I actually felt I was there; there was no coming up for air in the real world to take me out of the setting. It also made each movie much more significant to see the arc come into full realization and each storyline dealt with within the 12 hours. You remember each conversation and detail that matters, and it all makes so much more sense.... (4) For my money, there is still no better time at the movies than the last two hours of TTT, mainly due to Helm's Deep and PJ's masterful editing between that, Treebeard, and Frodo at Gondor... I was on the edge of my seat, and I must have seen it at least 50 times! (5) Sleep deprivation for that long makes you really emotional, and I cried like a baby at the end! (6) I got to see a pretty bitching sunrise on the walk home.



So to anyone living in London who's a fan of the movies, I DEFINITELY recommend it. They're doing it again next weekend.

I spent the rest of the weekend in bed (no, I haven't magically acquired a boyfriend.... not ...even ... close) but I did get a Mattress Reviver. It's this big padded thing that goes under the fitted sheet for only 15 quid. I got it online, and it was even better than I imagined. For the first time, I woke up late Saturday afternoon without any back pain. Hurrah! I spent the rest of the weekend and my two month anniversary of moving to London in bed, watching Dawson's Creek Season Two and reading skin delivery patents.