jeudi, décembre 27, 2007 Potter Puppet Pals - Sing Song! Libellés : harry potter [Potter Puppet Pals - Sing Song!] |
samedi, octobre 20, 2007 In a shocking revelation, JKR reveals that Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald.Libellés : harry potter [DUMBLEDORE IS GAY!!!] |
 Libellés : art, harry potter [Introducing Sally Avernier] |
lundi, août 20, 2007  OMG OMG OMG for those of you fellow Potter Hermione-Ron fans who have not seen this, YOU HAVE TO GO CLICK ON IT AND RELISH THE AWESOMENESS NOW. Marta has illustrated almost every important Ron/Hermione scene from the series, and like the rest of the work, is so excellent that words fail me. (Of COURSE Ron and Hermione get their freak on; you didn't think it would have been HARRY and Hermione, did you?) ETA: ZOMG there's ANOTHER AMAZING ONE which is yet another storyboard of the R/Hr kiss, which runs in parallel with the other "Several Sunlit Days" storyboard of the H/G kiss. Yes, I'm a sucker for the ships, but I'm sure my friends all love me anyway. Libellés : art, harry potter [Big Damn Anvil by Seviet] |
vendredi, août 03, 2007  To those who are anticipating my review of Deathly Hallows, I'm sorry. All I can say is: not yet. I'm not ready to revisit it a second time just yet. Nor a third.Anyway, for what's it's worth, my mother has stolen my book from me. She's even skipped line-dancing tonight just so she could stay home and read it. Fancy that. Libellés : harry potter [Harry Potter: Not yet] |
dimanche, juillet 22, 2007 Harry Potter: Seven Points for The End of the Affair  (spoiler-free... mostly)1. Yes, I queued up outside Borders from 5am till 8.15am, when we finally managed to procure the book. 2. Year: 2007, Birthday: 27th, 2 beloved friends, 7th book as a present. 3. Yes, I cried. At many points while reading the book. Tissue casualty count was quite large. No, I'm not a wimp, you just don't understand. 5. I feel vindicated about a certain controversial character. 6. Mrs Weasley is my hero: "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" rocked my socks off. (Don't worry, this is not important to ANYTHING, just funny.)  7. I want to say that some of my favourite characters died, but really, they're all my favourites, even the baddies.With the end of the series, it feels like the ending of a very long-term friendship... not exactly death, but the parting of ways with a long-time, close friend who's migrating permanently somewhere where you can't visit or call to. I wish I could say that this was my first time, but I feel like that for some of my favourite books - Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence made me cry at the end, Pullman's His Dark Materials made me bawl a few years ago (it really tore me up inside), and so did Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. And - to my great embarrassment - Lackey's The Last Herald Mage series - specifically in Magic's Pawn when Tylendel is Repudiated by Gala. Massive tissue casualty count there. To a certain extent, it feels like an amicable breakup: it hurts, but you accept it, and wish it could continue, but it's not possible, and you know you have to let it go, but you keep going back and reading old letters, and relive the good (and bad) times, and you're afraid to go out and invest that same time and energy into someone (or in this case, something) again... but I hope kids will keep reading after this. The bittersweet taste of a series ending (or relationship) never really fades, but the pleasure that it brings while living it... better to have loved, some say. I concur. Libellés : harry potter [Harry Potter: Seven Points for The End of the Affair] |
lundi, juillet 16, 2007 Transformers: More Than Meets The EyeGuns! Destruction! Explosions! General mayhem! Stupid pseudo-philosophical commentary! Guns! Destruction! Explosions! Cars! Trucks! Ships! Robots in disguise! Die Hard 4.0 Bruce Willis! Justin Long! Bruce Willis! Justin Long! Guns! Destruction! Explosions! Domestic terrorism in the USA! Explosions! Guns! Techno-speak that I actually comprehend! Guns! Explosions! Sinister French (not Russian!) assassins! Shooting! Bombs! JUSTIN LONG AND BRUCE WILLIS! Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix It's Harry Potter. 'Nuff said! Libellés : harry potter, movies [Three Movies] |
mardi, mars 06, 2007 Drawing and Painting Fantasy Beasts by Kevin Walker  A while ago in May 2006 (that's what the camera dates it as), I was browsing through the art section at Kino, and I was fascinated by this book by Kevin Walker."Bring to life the creatures and monsters of other realms", the subtitle proclaimed. In it was a comprehensive how-to on drawing stuff like dragons, wraiths, trolls, elves, fairies, right from line-drawing to full on oil-on-canvas instructions. The funniest thing I saw in the book was this section on how to draw "completely imaginary creatures". While this meant creating a non-conventional monster, it looked out of place beside drawings on other imaginary creatures, like trolls and fairies.  My favourite section? The dragons, of course. Always the dragons. (The pic on the right is by my favourite HP artist, Marta of ArtDungeon.)Libellés : art, harry potter [Drawing and Painting Fantasy Beasts by Kevin Walker] |
samedi, février 10, 2007  Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc. Libellés : harry potter [Just for fun] |
mardi, juin 27, 2006 CharityWank: MsScribe, FermatoJam, CharlotteLennox and Bad_Penny I've been following, with morbid fascination, a sudden eruption in the Harry Potter fanfiction community. (Fanficion: stories written by people using the characters from a book/ movie/ play/ cartoon etc)A lot of fiction is being written and archived on livejournal, instead of on the usual places like fanfiction.net, simplyundeniable, checkmated, or fictionalley (amongst others). This is due to the various levels of filters (or checks and balances) that each website community imposes on its authors. Some examples of filters include things like: 1) not archiving fiction which does not adhere to 'canon' information and pairings (e.g. Harry-Hermione romance fictions will not be archived); 2) not archivingfiction which does not adhere to certain pairings (e.g. Portkey does not archive anything with Harry-Ginny, or Ron-Hermione, as it is a pro-Harry-Hermione site. Ron gets paired with Luna.) 3) not archiving fiction with less than 1000 words; 4) requiring all authors to submit their stories to be 'beta-ed', or checked over by an author before it is archived (basically an approval system), 5) not archiving fiction above or below the NC-17 rating (e.g. fanfiction.net doesn't accept anything NC-17, prompting another site to spring up in protest, archiving ONLY NC-17 fiction.) 6) you get the idea. Anyway, the fanfiction community is large, and the Harry Potter fanfiction community is gigantinormous. Pairing-preference is political allegiance in this community: just like the Democrats and the Republicans are never going to agree on certain issues, and the Tories and Labour are always going to be at loggerheads, so the "orange-crush"-ers (Ron-Hermione) and "good-ship"ers (Harry-Ginny) disagree fundamentally with the "ashwinders" (Snape-Hermione) and the whoever-else-ers. It's this that creates interesting tensions within the community. But it's all in fun and jest... mostly. What happens when mental instability and sheer diabolical genious meet the Harry Potter fanfiction community? Welcome to CharityGate. The basics: there was this woman, Dionne (real name), who wanted to play with the "in" kids over at Fiction Alley. (There's a whole bunch of other political site-rivary that I won't bother with, but you can read it on charlottelennox's amazing history of CharityWank.) She creates her profile, called msscribe, on livejournal, then creates what is called a "sockpuppet" to "fangirl" herself. What this means is that she created a fake identity to tell HERSELF that she was great, and that she should write more fiction, and that she's the best thing since sliced bread and that she wants to marry her and have her children, etc. She created about a zillion of these sockpuppet journal identities, and succeeded in stirring up many hornets' nests on many issues. She did this by artifically creating crises: having SOME of her sockpuppets take on the personas of Religious Fanatics, condemning NC-17 sites, or having SOME of her OTHER sockpuppets (get the idea that she's got MANY?) condemn HER msscribe writing. This was all done so that other REAL people would jump to her defence, and say that msscribe's writing isn't bad, that she is great, and basically give her a lot of time and sympathy etc. To cut a long story short, she really was made a moderator (a BIG THING in a large community like the HP one) within a very short time, and she still contined to manipulate people with her sockpuppets. charlottelennox has pretty much cleared everything up, along with some other stories from other perspectives, but everything I've read so far (and there's a fair bit of real detective work going on behind the scenes) points to msscribe being an absolute tool with her friends. She lied about EVERYTHING, from who she was to what she did to who she hung out with... she told everyone that she was sick and travelling and a huge PR/Media executive, and also a mother etc etc. Nobody knows where the lies end and the truth begins anymore. The diabolical liar in her also said that she had pressed charges against a student, Louis Movello, a student in the University of Dayton, for stalking and threatening her I think. UD people did cross-checking with the University, as well as the state/region/town police, and there was NOTHING. No such person even exists, much less charged with anything. There are spin-offs from the Amazing History, of course, with mikkeneko's "The Woman Who Sued Herself" (as in, Mary-Sue-d" herself) is a brilliant summary read of everything, and bad_penny is keeping an eye on EVERYTHING. I don't think many people will be very interested in this, but as someone who has been in fandom for a while (started waaaay back with X-Files in 1995?), this is a fascinating event in the HP fandom. I'm also writing this as a sort of record, because this really is a rather huge event in the HP ff community. But it's a subculture (of fanfiction writing) within the larger subculture of Potterheads, so it's really hard to understand if you're not in it. Sorry if you've read so far and feel unfulfilled. :) Oh, and Michelle, this is for you:  Libellés : harry potter [CharityWank: MsScribe, FermatoJam, CharlotteLennox and Bad_Penny] |
jeudi, mai 11, 2006 In a perfect blend of Star Wars and Harry Potter, I present to you an icon from LJ: I died laughing when I saw this. Libellés : harry potter [Harry Wars] |
vendredi, avril 14, 2006 Libellés : harry potter [Harry Potter: XIX] |
jeudi, avril 13, 2006 Harry Potter, translated.Harry Potter: 哈利.波特 Ronald Weasley: 罗恩.韦斯莱 Hermione Granger: 赫敏.格兰杰 Rubeus Hagrid: 鲁霸.海格 Lord Voldemort (Tom Marvolo Riddle): 伏地魔 Professor McGonagall: 麦格教授 Professor Severus Snape: 斯内普教授 Albus Dumbledore: 阿不思.邓布利多 (and this isn't even his FULL name, which is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore) Hogwarts: 霍格华兹 Gryffindor - 葛来分多 Hufflepuff - 霍夫帕夫 Ravenclaw - 雷文克劳 Slytherin - 史莱哲林 Forgive me, but I am very tempted to make "Harry(哈利)" up jokes now. Libellés : harry potter [Potter XVIII: 哈利波特] |
mardi, mars 28, 2006 Potter XVII: Two songs that I can no longer sing with a straight face after Harry Potter 1. The Potter's Hand2. Within the Veil Libellés : harry potter [Potter XVII: Two songs that I can no longer sing with a straight face after Harry Potter] |
lundi, mars 06, 2006  And really - I am Snape? Hur. I liked doing this test; easier to choose when you've only got two options to choose from. Libellés : harry potter [Really. INTJ?] |
mardi, février 07, 2006 Potter XVI: Harry Potter and Friends in 风云！  Come see Oh, also featuring DUMBLEDORE as... some bearded guy who's probably really wise and brings up the protagonists but who unfortunately dies after imparting all he needs to know to the one protagonist who stays loyal white the other allies himself with his mortal enemy, and probably sleeps with his daughter too. Libellés : harry potter [Potter XVI: Harry Potter and Friends in 风云！] |
samedi, décembre 24, 2005 Boarding school is kampong.*thinks about Harry Potter in a kampong* Libellés : harry potter [All Aboard] |
mardi, décembre 20, 2005 Potter Part XII: Clocks, anyone? Continuing my Harry Potter roll... The Microsoft Whereabouts Clock It is not known if there will be settings for "prison", "hospital", or "mortal peril". Wouldn't it be cool if it did? Improbable, but cool.  The Weasleys' Clock Libellés : harry potter [Potter Part XII: Clocks, anyone?] |
samedi, décembre 17, 2005 Harry Potter: Part XII - the Sensibility Connection After a night of Potter Pow-Wow with 'rie, we have come to the conclusion that There Are Too Few British Actors/Actresses.Love, Actually Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) Emma Thompson (Sibyl Trelawny) Sense and Sensibility Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) Emma Thomson (Sibyl Trelawny) Gemma Jones (Poppy Pomfrey) Elizabeth Spriggs (The Fat Lady) Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge) Gosford Park Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall) Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore) I'm not going to include the long list of names which will appear if I take into account The Black Adder series, because that's just pointless. Suffice it to say that there are a LOT of people in Harry Potter who have been on The Black Adder at one point or another. I love the Sense and Sensibility connections. Looks like the UK really is One Big Happy Family. Libellés : harry potter [Harry Potter: Part XII - the Sensibility Connection] |
mercredi, décembre 14, 2005 Goblet of Fire: Harry Potter Part XI  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Considering that there are seven books, and probably as many movies (or more - look at the number of pages there are in the books now!) I think I shall start off by counting the number of posts which I have which feature the Potter, and there - this is the eleventh post in the history of this blog to feature something on JKR's amazing series. This post has nothing to do with the fact that I have just returned from watching GoF with my mom. (Yesss! Managed to catch it before it ran out on me...) Fast-paced, and including every major plot detail, the movie somehow managed to thrill and disappoint me at the same time. Rebonded Hairy/Harry Theory Rebonded hair is a Sign That You Are An Evil Character. Look at Saruman, from Lord of the Rings - beautifully rebonded hair - that is one evil customer. And hey, looky here! Lucius Malfoy, with his Luscious, Long Lovely Locks of EVIL. And we all can see that Snape is on his way there - although he seems to be wavering on the cusp of rebonding. Perhaps that's an unconscious clue given to us by the movie people! Perhaps JKR whispered something in the ears of the hairdresser! We all know that Snape's always had oily locks of hair (courtesy of the books), but we can see clearly now, that he is on the brink of a decision! We can see now, that he is standing at the front of the hair salon, just waiting for A Sign! We can see, that perhaps, the oily hair wasn't because he doesn't wash his hair, but because he always puts on anti-frizz non-rinse conditioner in an attempt to become evil! We can see his anguish! His desire to have rebonded hair! He hates his hair, which has reduced him to punish it by not washing it for whole semesters! We can see him, on the cusp of decision! We can see him on the lip of the soupbowl! We can see him on the edge of the frying pan! We can see... as much as Trelawny sees. :) (but it's a fun theory anyway right?)    Locks of Longing: Saruman, Lucius, Severus Snape When Voldemort (Voldie, Morty, Tom, Tommy, Riddle, Mouldy, and whatever other nicknames I've seen for him) grows out his hair, I certainly hope it will be long and sleek and nice and shiny as well. BEWARE THE SHINY LOCKS OF REBONDING! (There has to be a reason behind the name, right? Re-BOND? Eh.)  Draco Where Are They? a) Speaking of Draco... I missed him in this movie! He had three lines at the most - we see him at the Quidditch World Cup boasting to the Weasleys about their great seats, then again when Harry's name is pulled from the Goblet of Fire, bouncing ferret scene, then again at the first challenge with the dragons, where he, Crabbe and Goyle have "KRUM" on their foreheads, and then...  Jar Jar and Dobby Where's the sexy Slytherin we all love to hate? b) No Dobby? Thank God. Just like Star Wars went without Jar-Jar Binks after Phantom Menace. I rather wanted to see Winky though. And the whole Bartimus Crouch Snr/Jr plot would have been a nice addition to the movie. c) Where's Wally? I mean, Molly? Where is Molly Weasley? (Where is Billy Elliot's ballet teacher?) She's such a lovely character to have around, and she gets lovelier by the book. Where is she in the movie? Couldn't they have shown her stuffing breakfast into the boys' hands when they were off to the Quidditch World Cup? I liked seeing her, plus she gets more important as the books go on. She's got to appear in the movies. d) Show Me The Money! Where were the winnings? Those 1000 galleons were to be the Startup Fund for Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley's WWW franchise, otherwise known as the Dumbledore's Army surplus store. I suppose its importance wasn't really shown until HBP, but still, Fred and George left Hogwarts in OotP because they had the shop to support themselves! Shouldn't that have been worthy of some mention?  Harry & Hermione Hermione certainly does love hugging Harry. (I love hugs - I think they're a much better gauge of how much a person likes you rather than the all out-kiss, and they look a lot better on screen. And Hermione hugs well - the whole body, grab-and-hold-on that she does is excellent.) I rather enjoyed watching her looking for Harry at the start of the Tri-Wizard Cup Competition - the look on her face is what I would have imagined on Hermione's face in the book when she was but between Harry and Ron's quarrel. It looked out-of-place in the movie though - everyone else was so excited, but she was so scared for Harry. All of which contributed (if you haven't read the book) to a sense that she was choosing between Harry and Ron. That's just wrong, wrong, I tell you, wrong. Improper handling of the romantic situation also manifested itself in the Yule Ball scene. Why linger on Harry's face when Hermione comes down the stairs in her gorgeous outfit? He looks gobsmacked, but that's not what we're supposed to see. Even in the GoF novel, we can tell that that's not the canonical pairing that JKR had set up. Yes, Harry does that goggly-eyed thing with Cho Chang, but he spends a lot more time looking at Hermione. They should have played up the Ron-jealousy thing a little more. Adding on to Harry-Hermione was that scene on the crossing bridge, when they're discussing her date with Krum, just before Cedric comes to give Harry the clue about the egg. She's concerned, but without the balance that Ron gives their trio, it really does look like she's just trying to make Harry jealous by talking about Krum, except that he doesn't react. (Although I loved the bit where she makes the faux pas with "he's more of a physical kind of guy"... then blushes as Harry smirks. Excellent piece of acting there.)  Ron & Hermione This will obviously sort itself out later, but I'm just unhappy with the way that the Ron-Hermione situation was handled. They really could have gone for a better conflict there. Conflict? What conflict? I really, really, really wanted to see Ron jealous, and jealous properly. There wasn't enough of it, I felt. I liked the way that JKR had written it in the book, and I really, really, really wanted to see it acted out on screen the same way - with Harry and Ron making up without words, and Hermione hugging both of them and running away crying. It was perfect in the book - very much how guys operate, I think. (Which is to say - unfathomable, and I emphatise with Hermione's bawling after hugging them. Harry and Ron's reaction to that is perfect as well. "Starkers," I believe they said.) (There is a rather alarmingly accurate prediction of how that relationship will progress on mugglenet, entitled: Ron Loves Hermione and He Will ____ Her. It's a very good read, and I agree with most of the points raised. Use and Abuse and then Disabuse, please.)  Where Art Thou, O Dumbledore? Or rather, what's up, Dumbledore? They should not have shown us the Teachers' Conference when Harry's name was pulled out of the cup. They should not have shown Dumbledore angry at Harry when his name was pulled from the cup. They should not have had Dumbleore SHOUTING in his school. Not when all the books take pains to remind us that when Dumbledore stands up, the hall quietens, and students listen. They also should not have had Dumbledore admit that he was unsure to Harry, when Harry was in the room looking into the pensieve. I hated GoF's Dumbledore. He was weak. He was familiar. He was (and imagine me spitting this word out) common. He showed weakness. He moved too fast - and in the wrong direction. There is NOTHING in the novel that shows Dumbledore as accusing Mr Potter of putting his name in the cup in the horrible fashion that Michael Gambon did - NOTHING. He was flustered. He meandered. He was on the verge of a hem and haw session. And what is with the doofy bathrobe that he was wearing? And the HAIRBAND FOR HIS BEARD?! If the beard bothered Dumbledore, HE WOULD HAVE CUT IT OFF, NOT TIED IT WITH A BLOODY RUBBER BAND! It would have gotten the snip, or he would have braided it - here's the headmaster who eats Bertie Bott's All-Flavour-Beans, and holds his position on Chocolate Frog Cards in higher regard than his Order of Merlin! Where is the stately Dumbledore of PS? Where is the nobility that Richard Harris gave the character? Where is the slow step, where is the sureity, where is the GRAVITAS? What happened to Dumbledore? Where's Dumbledore? I miss Dumbledore. Michael Gambon, YOU HAVE KILLED DUMBLEDORE in this movie. (Oh, and by the way, dumbledoreisnotdead.com is an excellent piece of detective work, one which I would have replicated, given more time and inclination. This guy's amazing. Read it!) Excellent spot of casting... Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort. Brilliant. Stroke of genius. Amazing. Have you seen his eyes? Clear. Gorgeous. Gemma Jones as Madame Poppy Pomfrey (in CoS), aka Bridget Jones's mother, aka Mrs Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, which incidentally... Alan Rickman, aka Severus Snape also acted in, as Colonel Brandon, whom Marianne Dashwood eventually married. Adding on to the Sense and Sensibility connection is... Emma Thompson, who played Elinor Dashwood, who marries Hugh Grant, who is (sadly) missing from the Potter Franchise. I hold a small hope in my heart that he'll turn up as one of the minor Aurors in Book 5. Sirius and Lupin are out, maybe he could do a small part as Horace Slughorn in the 6th movie? I wonder who will play Tonks? (Perhaps Marianne Dashwood, aka Rose, aka Kate Winslet?, to complete that pesky S&S connection? Might as well make it a full set... although I imagine a more offbeat character playing Tonks, although I cannot imagine who.) Oh, er Emma Thompson plays Professor Trelawney. (ETA: I just watched Love Actually, and there's a connection there as well - where Snape is married to Trelawney! It is SCARY to see a moderately attractive Snape - which Alan Rickman is. And the Hugh Grant Cluetrain is there as well... this proves one thing: there are too few British actors and actresses that are getting their time on screen.)  iCovet Hermione's gown was perfect - not over-the top princess-like, yet dressy enough to be lovely. A little cold, though - wasn't it winter? The boys look all nice and snug in the tuxes, but the girls - bare arms! Legs! Necks! All exposed! Brr. The things we girls do. Harry looked like a little boy playing dress-up in his tux. They could have made it slightly more proportional to Daniel Radcliffe's body-type; it just looked like it didn't fit. What fit though, was the jacket-jersey thing he wore when fighting the dragon during the first Tri-Wizard Tournament task. I love that jacket. It's fantastic. I love it. It looks like nothing I've ever seen in sporting arenas - like a cross between a long trenchcoat and a soccer jersey. I love the jacket. I want the jacket. If I were my boyfriend, I'd get hold of that for my christmas present. I love the jacket. Love it. If it were a guy, I'd want to marry it. It's the sexiest piece of clothing in the whole movie. The desire for said jacket is probably a tribute (or a throwback) to my X-Files days. I love trenchcoats. *contented sigh* Ron's dress robes were perfect. Perfectly horrible, that is. Exactly as I imagined them to be when I read the book. Gross and yet, perfectly suited for the occasion.  Bad Hair No, seriously. Even Harry. Especially Harry. I just watched all three movies before heading out to see GoF, and oh my goodness, Harry was so cute when he was in the first movie! So short! So adorable! So want-to-pinch-his-cheeks! Now, we see a guy with a pretty good physique, not overly muscled, all in all, very normal, and very hot. No wonder Moaning Myrtle wanted to... peek. Hermione's gorgeous. She looks beautiful, but not in a total-knockout way - her front teeth are a little too pronounced for her to be really drop-dead gorgeous, and she looks like she's in that rather awkward stage where clothes don't really seem to fit right from anywhere, but it's perfect for the role. Ron's also hot, but in a different way. Singlet in his first (hilarious) scene with Hermione waking them up for the QWC - those arms! are growing mighty fine. Pity about the hair though - what is with the long, bedragged look with the Weasleys? Fred and George are also going the way of the dogs.  Cedric Diggory (right) channels Voldemort (left) [You couldn't tell, could you?] Actually, come to think of it, Cedric Diggory looks like Tom Riddle from CoS. Now THAT'S scary. The movie sufficed. Two and a half hours of entertainment. PLUS! Snape in a comic scene! Who would have thought that it could be managed? Libellés : harry potter [Goblet of Fire: Harry Potter Part XI] |
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