the dummy sweats......Lord of the Rings

Museums can be pretty stuffy sometimes, especially with all that talk about billions and billions of years ago there was this cosmic mud and then presto... chango.... You know what I mean?

But recently four of us went to see some real fantasy come to life with the Lord of the Rings exhibit in the Indiana State Museum in Indy. 10,000 square feet was devoted to displaying 649 objects, such as costumes, swords, spears, a cave troll, some hands on displays and lots of behind the scenes information.

The workmanship that went into each tiny detail was truly remarkable considering you don't get that close of a look at 95% of these things when you're watching the movie. I've heard the saying, "The devil is in the details" but I didn't see anything very devilish, just a lot of really hard work and careful thinking.

If you love the books, and if you love the movies, this exhibit is worth the 14 bucks for an adult admission. We spent over two hours there and had to leave because it was 11 pm and the museum staff wanted to go home.

All of the items in the exibit except two were actually used in the movie. They have the deceased Boromir, stretched out on his back in the elf canoe, with his weapons, exactly what we saw in the move. If I remember right he's made of silicon or some such thing and he looks so lifelike it is uncanny. We were told that when the exibit arrived in Houston, a few months ago, because of cold and heat, there was condensation that had formed on Boromir's face. When the museum staff unwrapped him, it looked like sweat and they screamed.

If you have a chance, check it out, but do it before January 3 because then it's headed back to New Zealand.