So we went to the Chapters Harry Potter party tonight it was really fun. Pallas enjoyed it, though she really didn't know what was going on. She got some candy and was sorted into Slytherin House, and waited for the Hogwarts Express and was even thrown into Azkaban! Stupefying. Also she sat in the Teacup of . . . uh, Horcruxes? Oh yeah and I got A Dance of Dragons. Sweet! Michelle got a cookbook, which doesn't sound that exciting but they are like comic books to her. If there was a San Diego Cooking Con she would want to go!

I know we are very far behind in movies, but slowly we are catching up. We went and saw Harry Potter the other day. I was pleased with it but I haven't read Half Blood Prince in four years, whereas Michelle reread the whole series this summer and didn't like some of the changes. One of these days I will reread them all too. Just no time. Says the guy who started rereading the 800-page A Game of Thrones today. Not my fault! I brought it to work to lend to my friend who requested some good fantasy and then I was stuck in shovel 10 all day with nothing to do in between trucks. Anyways.
Other movies we have seen lately, courtesy of the library's DVD collection:
Kung Fu Panda- surprisingly good. I had zero expectations though and those are not hard to surpass.
Darjeeling Limited- I know, how can I admit I don't own it? But Michelle does not share my love for Wes Anderson. My favorite scene- when the brothers are walking along being their normal screw up selves and then they see the raft in the river and Peter (Adrian Brody) yells "Go!" and they do. Though I've never saved, or failed to save, someone from drowning I kind of know what that feels like.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off- stands up surprisingly well. The caricature characters were silly and dumb even to my 20-years younger self.
The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford- I thought Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck and Fort Edmonton Park all turned in great performances!
From my own DVD collection I rewatched The Royal Tenenbaums (an annual event) and that scene where Chaz tells Royal he's had a rough year gets me every time. And I finally finished Avatar! The real Avatar, not the James Cameron thing. Or the M NIght Shyamalan thing which I am frightened of, but also hopeful for. I had just the last episode to watch for eons and ages and I finally got around to it. Good ending- unlike all the deviantArt fangirls I was never a Zutara fan.

Today is Harry Potter's birthday. I think he'd be 27 if he hadn't been cruelly struck down by Voldemort in the prime of his youth. Oops, sorry. No spoilers here! And actually it's also JK Rowling's birthday, so happy birthday to her and thanks for the great birthday present- I really enjoyed The Deathly Hallows. Loved it, even.
Anyways, here is a video interview with her in which she reveals a few things that weren't in the book. And a print interview where she talks about what she's up to now, post-Potter.
And of course, deviantArt is full of HP fanart right now, here are two of my favorites, neither of which are spoilers: Bellatrix Lestrange, and some headshots of a whole slew of characters from all seven books- can you name them all?

Summer Camp!
Technically I'm at work this week, but since the mine is in a two-week shutdown we are just running a skeleton crew so it is a lot like summer camp, only at MY summer camp you get to go and play with machines that are not quite Transformers. Yet. Get me one of those cube things or whatever it is they did to zap that cellphone to turn it into a transformer and we'll be good to go. Seriously, I'm pretty sure one good whomp with this bucket would give Megatron a headache, to say the least:

Anyways, because I'm out here it means I won't get to read my copy of Harry Potter which will be arriving on my doorstep tomorrow morning courtesy of Amazon. So no spoilers okay! Or I'll whomp YOU with my bucket. Although I'm pretty sure I know what will happen- it will be revealed that Voldemort is a Decepticon.

I was sure the new Harry Potter book was coming out this month- June 21st. Turns out it's July 21st. Oh well, I choose to display the glory that is my new Quidditch Bear anyway, done for me by a talented deviantArtist called Stonewalker. Note the HB on his collar, and the salmon-shaped snitch.
Want to be in the movie version of Half-Blood Prince? I don't think I would want to since I would always be punching Alan Rickman in the nose. And I'm sure Alan Rickman is a perfectly nice guy and doesn't deserve to have me punch him in the nose all the time. Uh, but if YOU want to be in the movie, in the roles of either Lavender Brown or Tom Riddle, check out this article to learn more about the open casting call.

More Digging



I took some more grainy video at work yesterday- I need to point out that there's no zooming whatsoever- Michelle thought I was zooming in on the bucket when it comes so close but that is just how it works- it has to come in real close to the house so it can dig from the bottom. The other one shows what it's like from inside the cab.
Some other stuff I'm digging today: this cool Flash animation of the Hogwarts campus. No one is playing frisbee but it knows what time of day it is and changes accordingly!
And some emoticon movie trailers:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Fifth Element
Alien VS Predator
And I'll tell you what I'm not digging: winter. Enough already! There's been snow on the ground since September and it's still snowing! Argghhhh!
I just had to get that out of my system.

The new Harry Potter book won't have any quidditch in it, as apparently Harry and Voldemort have taken up frisbee.
And the Battlestar Galactica guys are having a fan-film contest! They're providing music, sounds and even some visual effects for you to do up your own episode. I should talk my friend Crogdor the Baltar-lookalike to learn a London accent so we can enter. Who do I know that looks like Tricia Helfer?

I was excited to read Endymion Spring, since the author, Matthew Skelton, grew up in Edmonton and is a fellow U of A alum. As much as I'd love to tell you that I've finally found a great YA novel that everyone can enjoy, this one didn't quite get there for me. But at least the writing wasn't too bad- not nearly as bad as some I've encountered lately. The story was just a little too . . . unexciting. Not boring exactly. Just average, I guess. My bet is that Skelton has some great books in store, so he'll be worth keeping an eye on.

I know lots of you read Young Adult fiction (which actually means children's literature). Where are the good titles? Harvey, I know you have the goods on what's going on in New Zealand and Australia, I definitely want to look into some of your recommendations. I liked Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, His Dark Materials, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and of course the classics which stand on their own (Tolkien, Lewis, even Beverly Cleary). But I didn't care for Artemis Fowl, Septimus Heap or the Edgewood Chronicles (though the beautiful art almost made up for the writing). What are you guys reading that you recommend? My criteria are first and foremost a good story, but I am also fairly discerning regarding the writing as well.

I realize a 10 or 13-year-old won't necessarily have the same standards as I regarding what makes good writing, but at the same time I think it is very unfair to give these young readers subpar writing with the attitude that it's okay because they won't know the difference. I believe it does matter- because an excellently written story will be a pleasure to read, and young readers will be motivated to seek out more great stories. Whereas a clumsily written story will be hard to read and will therefore have the opposite effect- some readers in that age group will encounter bad writing and think the difficulties they are having are their own, and hence they will be less inclined to read more. Haley-o, do you have some inside insight?

I read The Sword of Shannara in grade 4. My teacher saw me reading LOTR, and thought I would enjoy Shannara. And I did, but only because I was pretty motivated to get through it, and I was already reading at pretty close to an adult level at that point. I still remember how painful the first twenty-some pages were when the main character is just walking through the forest- a less skilled reader likely would have given up on it. By the way, I went back to that book last year to see if I could recapture the magic of youth and was appalled at how terribly written it was. No offense to Terry Brooks, I'm sure he has improved a lot in the last 25+ years since Sword was written.

I took advantage of the fact that I had the day free since I am working tonight to take in a matinee of Harry Potter. I have to admit, the first 20 minutes or so I was really thinking I was going to be disappointed (lots of slapstick for the kids which is fine, just not my thing)but then it settled into a nice, just-tickling-the-edge-of-your-perception foreboding atmosphere. I thought the Dementors were really cool and they managed to avoid being too Ringwraithy. Oh yeah and I liked Buckbeak too. And mostly you have to say that Gary Oldman kicks ass.

Getting back to the children's literature, I am reading CS Lewis' Voyage of the Dawn Treader right now, and really loving it. I'm not finished yet, so I don't have too much to say but I will mention that I loved the thing with Eustace and the dragon (I won't delve into details in case you haven't read it). That's exactly the sort of whimsical thing I try to capture, not always successfully, in my poetry and stories.
And, I am getting more excited for the Prisoner of Azkaban movie every day. To be honest, the first two Harry Potter movies didn't really grab me that much- I liked the books fine, I just found the adaptations to be kind of lifeless, somehow. But the fact that Alfonso Cuaron is directing this one has me paying a little more attention. And Gary Oldman as Sirius Black- yeah. Dracula/Zorg/Rosencrantz/corruptcopfromtheProfessional- the guy is a genius.
Oh yeah, I found JK Rowling's personal official site, and it's pretty cool. Flash intensive, so if you don't have Flash don't even bother.
Rounding off this week's survey of children's lit, let me just say that I got the new Slipknot disc and I really like it so far. Not as brutally heavy and violent as their other stuff, though more melodic and still compelling.