Reducto! A Fan Mashes Up Spells from All Potter Movies

Imagine watching all eight of the Harry Potter films in a row.

Now imagine reducing the movies down to just their magical spells.

That time-consuming task was taken on by a fan who created a YouTube video which was a blast to watch for your resident Potter fan. It reminded me of how very, very young Daniel Radcliffe was when he first embodied The Boy Who Lived.

Notes on Pop Culture: Harry Potter on ‘Daily Show,’ Coach Taylor’s Speechifying, ‘Julie & Julia’ Inspiring & ‘The Mentalist’s’ Freshman Season

Daniel Radcliffe & Jon Stewart

How cute-as-a-button was Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) on The Daily Show? Love how modest his is. (Amy Poehler lives in his building and he was adorable when he talked about her.) I hope his post-Potter career flourishes.



NY Magazine: The Best of Coach Taylor’s Inspiring Speeches

I’m really gonna miss Coach Taylor. Aren’t y'all?



Julie & Julia Still Inspires

The other night while flipping through the TV stations, I came across the movie Julie & Julia and decided to watch it again with my two sons (selectively muting the volume when I remembered that a cuss word was coming up or for one part of the film where Julia Child’s sex life was discussed by blogger Julie Powell). The film provided me with inspiration all over again, even on this third viewing. (I've also read both Powell’s book and Child’s memoir about her time in Paris.)

For Julia Child to create for herself a culinary and TV career from scratch in her late 30s and 40s, and to be doggedly persistent about it over a series of years, in the face of numerous obstacles and rejections, gives you hope, or at least it gives me hope for my quest to get my freshly completed manuscript published. It was sweet when my boys recognized this and said, “That’ll be you Mom!” when Julia Child, at long last, finally received that letter saying a publisher who wanted to publish her book.

The Mentalist Freshman Season

This past winter my eldest son and I happened upon The Mentalist one night when just he and I were home and we decided to give the show with the weird name a whirl. Turns out, we liked that quirky, suave fellow, Patrick Jane, and decided to give another Mentalist episode a try the following week. And we were hooked on the solved-in-an-hour drama.

After its extraordinarily tense season finale in May featuring the illusive Red John, I told my son that this summer, we’d go back to the beginning and learn Patrick’s backstory and how this Red John tale unfolded. The season one DVD has arrived, and the kid is now itchin’ to break into it. Patience, grasshopper.

Image credit: Amazon.

The Harry Potter Series . . . Lookin' Fabulous in Cartoon Form

Image credit: Lucy Knisley

These are too cute for words. The Harry Potter books . . . in cartoon form.

I discovered Lucy Knisley’s clever cartoon interpretations of the Harry Potter series via USA Today’s Pop Candy blogger. Knisley takes each book and chronicles the tale via brilliant illustrations. They remind me a bit of of Dyna Moe’s Mad Men illustrations in that they put a unique twist on the dramatic scenes she depicts.

You can see them in a larger format on her web site. It's worth the visit.

Image credit: Lucy Knisley.

I’ve Been Vacationing for a Week . . . What Did I Miss?

So the family and I trekked to Orlando this past week to partake of the glories of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the stomach-clenching thrills of the Universal Studios theme park, the splashes of the chlorinated water rides at Aquatica, the wonders of marine life at Sea World (where we sat in the back during the killer whale show, and learn about NASA history at the Kennedy Space Center where the last space shuttle, Atlantis, is currently sitting on the launch site aiming for a July 8 lift-off.

And while the kiddos, The Spouse and I enjoyed ourselves in spite of frequent rain – and despite the fact that an employee at the Three Broomsticks restaurant in the Wizarding World told me that it was “against the law” to serve me (a person with a dairy allergy) the non-dairy Butterbeer drink sans the dairy topping (??!!) . . . I partook of a delightful Pumpkin Fizz instead – I, a political junkie, was sad to have missed a boatload of news:

As my family was making its way to the airport last week, one of the top 10 Most Wanted criminals in the nation, Whitey Bulger who hails from Boston, was arrested after 16 years on the lam, in California and, from what I could gather via Twitter, it was a veritable media circus as he was taken into custody and transported to Massachusetts, topped off with a $14,000 helicopter ride yesterday taking him from Plymouth to his court date in Boston via the air. I guess my family members weren't the only ones going on pricey rides this past week.

As I was busy riding on Universal Studios’ Men in Black ride multiple times (always accruing the least amount of points compared to everyone else), news came down about the Blagojevich conviction which the Chicago Tribune described thusly: “A federal jury Monday convicted Rod Blagojevich of sweeping corruption, putting an end to a tragicomic legal and political drama that brought down Illinois’ showy and would-be populist former governor. In its 10th day of deliberations, the 11-woman, one-man jury convicted Blagojevich of several shakedown attempts, including allegations that he brazenly tried to sell President Barack Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat in 2008.” I kept thinking about the kooky Rod “The Hair” Blago going to prison as we headed over to the Simpsons’ ride, featuring one of America’s most dysfunctional families.

I was packing my suitcase to leave for Orlando when the president made his snoozy address about our troops in Afghanistan but I didn’t get a chance to indulge myself and imbibe copious amounts of follow-up news analysis. I did, however, later take my 9-year-old through the Marvel comics sections of Universal Studios park where the good guys always win and always seem confident. Hmmm . . .

As the political hubbub about U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential run escalated (from her being called a “flake” by a TV newsman and people mocking her for messing up Revolution era history, to the media’s discomfort as they once again grapple with locating the correct language to use when talking about a female presidential candidate, as one political pundit likened the media attacks on “conservative women” to “near-gynecological exams”), I was introducing my kiddos to the works of an award-winning actress named Lucille Ball. (FYI -- While I agree that all women, especially conservative ones, are savaged by the media, invoking gynecology is just . . . well . . . the male pundit shouldn’t have gone there. Seriously.)


But despite the fact that my news came mainly from my Twitter feed during the past week, I made up for the fact that I was in a family vacation bubble and wanted more news by reveling in spending way too many hours in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (buying "magical" wands for the kids, among other souvenirs), riding only the tamest of rides (I’m not an amusement ride kinda gal) and being accosted all over the place for wearing my Boston Red Sox baseball cap, mostly positively accosted . . . even when confronted (playfully) by Yankees fans.

If only the three Chocolate Frogs we bought (they're Potter-themed candy) hadn't gotten somewhat mangled by the time we got home. See how nice they looked BEFORE we attempted to keep them cool in ice as we traveled to the airport, then packed them up in a suitcase?

Who'd Win: Sydney Bristow vs Voldemort? Voldemort vs Yoda? Dumbledore vs the Emperor?

My 9-year-old son and I had just finished dinner last week and were doing the dishes when he uttered this odd question, “Who do you think would win in a fight, Voldemort or Sydney Bristow?”

The kid knows that I have a soft spot for the fictional, super-CIA spy Sydney Bristow from the TV show Alias. We’ve also, along with my husband, been reading the Harry Potter series together out loud, so his mentioning Voldemort wasn’t out of the blue.

But to combine Sydney Bristow with Voldemort in the same breath, well that took me by surprise.

I told him I thought that in a battle, Sydney would prevail, but I don’t really think she could beat Voldemort as he wouldn’t allow her to lay hands, or one of her vicious kicks, on him.

My 9-year-old then added a twist, “Who’d win if it was Voldemort vs Yoda?”

I'm not sure about this one. Yoda’s pretty quick for a little guy and he is pretty smart, smarter than Voldemort, I’d venture to guess. This one had me stumped but my choice would have to be Yoda.

His final question: What if the battle were between Dumbledore and the Emperor? Who’d win then? I said Dumbledore would but only because I like Dumbledore and want to root for the good guys. (Saying The Emperor would win is like rooting for Arvin Sloane or Bellatrix Lestrange.)

Who do you think would prevail in these battles?

(FYI – Speaking of Sydney Bristow, the AV Club is reviewing the entire Alias series, starting with its amazing pilot with Sydney Bristow’s crazy red hair.)

Image credits: ABC via USA Today, Warner Brothers via MTV.

There's a New Trailer for The End of Harry Potter . . . And Yes, I'm Pretty Sad About It

This makes me simultaneously excited for this film and disappointed because after this, there will be no more. Also, given the fabulous quality of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, my hopes for the last installment are high. I hope it doesn't let me and my fellow Potter fans down.

Notes on Pop Culture/Politics: 'Grey's' Mixed Notes, Ferraro's Passing Ignored, Paging Mr. Darcy

Grey's Mixed Notes

So, about that Grey's Anatomy major music extravaganza . . . it received largely mixed reviews, like the mixed review I gave it the morning after it aired.

The scene above -- in which Callie was supposedly imagining all the Grey's couples gettin' flirty and sexy -- is an example of how this episode, which started out very powerfully (so much so that I was teary-eyed), went horribly awry. While Callie and her unborn baby were in life threatening situations and Meredith was severely depressed about her inability to have her own baby, she would NOT be singing gloriously about "running on sunshine" with a crazy-big smile on her face while kissing Derek I'm sorry. This scene was preposterous.

However my review wasn't all negative:

"Sara Ramirez, who plays Callie, sang the hell out of this episode. She has a lovely voice. She energetically emoted. She underplayed it when the song called for quiet grace. And that opening scene where Callie was having an out-of-body experience and singing as she was brought to Seattle Grace and wheeled into the OR for the first time, that was mighty powerful.

Chyler Leigh (Lexie) and Chandra Wilson (Bailey) also sang exceptionally well throughout."

Otherwise . . . too. Much. Singing.

Media Coverage: Ferraro vs Taylor

Following on the heels of last week’s post about the disparity of the media coverage allotted to the deaths of screen icon Elizabeth Taylor and political trailblazer Geraldine Ferraro, I wrote a column which contains some hard numbers to back up my assertion that Taylor received loads more news coverage than did the first woman vice presidential nominee for a major political party, someone who the likes of Hillary Clinton and Madeline Albright said was a role model for them.


The most dispiriting part of the piece was this quote that I found from a National Journal writer who, after comparing the  media attention these two women received after their deaths, surmised, “. . . [A]s the media space afforded Elizabeth Taylor’s and Ferraro’s obituaries attested . . . society still values female sex symbols more than female leaders.”

Paging Mr. Darcy

I have an embarrassing confession to make: I've never read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I know, shocking, isn't it?

But seeing as though I've been on a classics binge lately -- A Tale of Two Cities and Jane Eyre -- I started Pride and Prejudice over the weekend and am bringing with me high hopes that this classic will deeply impress me. I hope I won't be disappointed.

In the meantime, as far as my pet project of reading the entire, seven-book Harry Potter series aloud to my youngest son, I've started writing about the Harry Potter Reading Out Loud Project on my lifestyle/parenting blog. Thus far, between myself and my husband, we've read 2,750 pages to our now-9-year-old son and just concluded Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

To keep tabs on our reading progress, I made a special blog page where I list on what page we left off and what was going on when we closed the book. We've just started the beginning of the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and are still on the part where the U.K. Prime Minister is having a disturbing conversation with the Minister of Magic.

Image credit: Amazon.com.

Gryffindor Trio Share 'Harry Potter' Experiences with Magazine

The three, young, seemingly well adjusted stars of the Harry Potter films -- who’ve spent the last 10 years of their lives on camera -- gave great interviews to Entertainment Weekly about their experiences playing Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley for half their lives. (It's worth noting that none of these three actors have been involved in scandals, under-aged drinking and drug-taking incidents or other bad behavior during this period.)

Best parts of the EW interviews:

-- Daniel Radcliffe, 21, said he was in the bath when his family got the news that he’d been selected to play Harry Potter. Then he cried. He was 11 years old. “It was probably the best moment of my life,” Radcliffe told the magazine.

-- Actress Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Bellatrix Lestrange, said of Rupert Grint, 22, (Ron Weasley), “He’s a bit like Luna Lovegood, you know? He’s on his own moon.” Then the article described how Grint bought an ice cream truck after he got his driver’s license. Seriously.

-- EW also put together a video of the child-actors’ facing aging from the first Potter film to the last.
Image credit: Entertainment Weekly.

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1:' Nov. 19

Mark down the date: November 19.

That's when the second-to-last Harry Potter movie will be released: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I.

I'm planning on taking my twin 12-year-olds to see it on opening weekend as this series is absolutely beloved in my house. My twins have read and re-read and analyzed the entire seven-book series countless times. Our kids have dressed up for Halloween as various Hogwarts students for years. (My older son looked eerily like Harry Potter the one year he was The Boy Who Lived for Halloween.)

My husband and I have read the series as well (me twice) and we, as a family, have been reading it aloud to our 9-year-old. (We're a third of the way through the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.) I must admit, I'm really enjoying reading it together.

When I watched the newly-released trailer for Part 1 of Deathly Hallows, it was depressing and sad, as I see Harry as one of the more tragic characters in children's literature and the end of the sixth book/movie, literally made me cry. (No one had yet spoiled the ending for me.)

My husband and I went to see The Town this past week (which I recommend for a thoroughly entertaining two hours) and he saw a poster promoting Deathly Hallows and said it was upsetting to see the image of Hogwarts, on fire, under the heading, "It All Ends Here." *sniff*



Will you be among those on line to see Deathly Hallows?

Image credit: Warner Brothers.

A Real Life Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and Honeydukes?

When I read the news about the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park that's slated to open at Universal Orlando Resort in the spring, the kid in me felt like it was Christmas.

I gush about the Potter books, the possibility of actually ordering a Butterbeer and rub my hands together in anticipation on my Picket Fence Post blog where I talk about my and my kids' affection for all things Potter.

Is it too early to start planning to buy myself a pair of Extendable Ears at Zonkos?

Image credit: Times Online.

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Tommy Gavin, Jason Bourne, Harry Potter, Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin & Red Sox

When I haven't been catching up on the latest news stories about Michael Jackson, the unfaithful South Carolina governor who doesn't know when to shut up, U.S. troops leaving Iraq and about Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell being put on the DL (!), I've been coping with sick kids and have been sick myself . . . but that hasn't stopped me from consuming pop culture and watching Sox games. Here's what I've been up to pop culture-wise this week:

TV:

-- Sox, Sox and more Sox. Mercifully, I didn't watch the entire game when the Sox blew a massive lead -- and "imploded" according to Jonathan Papelbon -- against the Orioles. Silly gal that I was, I thought they were going to win because they were up by so much, so I tuned in to other things, like Rescue Me.

-- I said this last week and I'll say it again this week: Rescue Me has been great this season and has drawn viewers into dark, twisty, unpredictable places. This season warrants a full blog post on its own, particularly given the blow torch scene. Damn!

-- Nurse Jackie: Jackie Peyton's kid is creating drawings sans colors, with no sun in the sky? Sounds like the recent weather around New England. Kidding aside, this dark show has me hook, line and obligatory sinker.

Movies:

-- Adored the Bourne Ultimatum which The Spouse and I saw on DVD. It sparked a heated discussion about who would take who in a fight: Jason Bourne or Jack Bauer. (I say Bourne. Bauer would be too busy yelling, "Dammit!" and trying to get patched in to Chloe on the phone.) While Ultimatum's handheld camerawork made me feel a bit nauseous at times (or it could've been the flu from which I was recovering), I was otherwise highly entertained.

-- What didn't I find so entertaining this week? Planning on watching the cerebral Frost/Nixon film by Ron Howard, only to find that I'd instead ordered from Netflix the ACTUAL Frost-Nixon interviews from the 1970s. At 10 p.m. on a Saturday, I could've stayed up to watch Ron Howard's hyped up dramatic version of the interviews, but I feared the real ones would've put me to sleep. It lies, still unwatched, next to the DVD player.

-- In preparation for a column in which I compare my kids' fascination with all things Harry Potter to my generation's fascination with all things Star Wars, I OD'ed on Potter films, specifically The Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Order of the Phoenix. I still tear up at the end of Phoenix.

-- In preparation for a different column for a different publication, I'm planning on going to the theater to see the Sam Mendes film starring The Office's John Krasinski called Away We Go. It's been a tad challenging to find it playing at a theater near me, seeing as though it doesn't have a massive, nationwide distribution. I can't decide whether to keep my expectations low or not, given that I really did NOT like the last Mendes film, Revolutionary Road.

Books:

-- I'm continuing to re-read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as we're now at T-minus two+ weeks and counting before the film version is released.

Magazines/Newspapers:

-- I've not yet read the Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin -- "It Came From Wasilla" -- but from what I've read on the internet, it sounds like it may well be a polarizing piece about a woman who's controversial herself. It's on my "must read" list.

-- I read a thought-provoking column in the New York Times over the weekend which mused about whether Michael Jackson is truly the last, worldwide mega-star who spans the generations. His music, the article suggests, was popular in the pre-internet days/pre-iTunes/pre-fractured pop culture world, when everyone watched MTV when it still played music videos. I tried to think of another cultural figure who is vastly popular with a wide swath of people, whose accomplishments affect people of varying backgrounds and nationalities, and who would cause people to spontaneously gather to celebrate and the only name that popped into my mind was Oprah. Do you think Times writer David Segal is right when he speculates that there will be no more mega-, multi-generational celebrities like Jackson?

Image credit: Vanity Fair/Risko.

Re-Watching/Re-Reading Movies, TV Shows, Books: Just My Style

It was with tremendous pleasure that I read a recent column in the New York Times extolling the virtues of re-reading books. Columnist Verlyn Klinkenborg, who said he's fond of re-reading some of his favorite books rather than instinctively moving on to new material, wrote:

"Part of the fun of re-reading is that you are no longer bothered by the business of finding out what happens. Re-reading Middlemarch, for instance, or even The Great Gatsby, I'm able to pay attention to what's really happening in the language itself -- a pleasure surely as great as discovering who marries whom, and who dies and who does not.

The real secret of re-reading is simply this: It is impossible. The characters remain the same, and the words never change, but the reader always does."

This was a wonderfully simple, yet insightful observation. We readers change all the time, influenced by our life's experiences. The books don't. I re-read The Scarlet Letter last year in preparation for a column and found Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic to be nothing at all like I remembered from my earlier readings of it while in high school and college. From my new perch -- as a married mother of three -- it almost seemed like it was a new book altogether. The story held more meaning for me than it did for me when I was 15, or 20. Ditto for Gatsby, which I recently read again. As with Letter, it seemed like a fresh literary experience because I have a more experienced point of view than when I first met F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby.

As for Klinkenborg's comment that when you're re-reading something you're no longer distracted by finding out key plot points, the same reasoning applies to re-watching movies or TV shows, particularly complex programs with layers of allusions like Lost, Alias and Mad Men.

Take the densely written drama Lost. When I watch a new episode for the first time, I focus almost exclusively on the plot, how the storylines fit into the meta-story of the show and whether they jive with past episodes and character backstories. Once the major twists and turns have been dispensed with, I can dive back into the episode during a later viewing and comb for hints, layers and connections while reveling in the subtleties I missed when I was busy obsessing about the storylines.

On this practice, I differ with The Spouse, who believes that once he's seen something he moves on. Been there. Done that.

Over the weekend, the movie American Beauty was on cable TV. I first saw it in the theater in 1999 with a friend. When it came to VHS (when everyone was still watching tapes), I got a copy and watched it with The Spouse who thought it was just "okay." In the years since, whenever I've suggested that we re-watch the movie, The Spouse has declined. However when we watched the last quarter of it this past weekend together, we noticed new things mostly due to our different perspectives, particularly because we're both in our 40s and the lead character, Lester Burnham is 42. (The experience didn't convince The Spouse to re-thinking his stance against re-watching TV shows and films.)

As far as the books I've read in the recent past which have thoroughly entertained me (such as The Time Traveler's Wife and the Harry Potter series I read last summer), I know that if I allow myself the luxury of re-reading them -- having already satiated my greediness to know what happens -- I will be able to, as Klinkenborg said, "pay attention to what's really happening in the language itself."

Are you a re-watcher/re-reader? If you're a fan of a complex show like Lost, how many times do you re-watch something? Is once enough?

New 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' Trailer

A brand, spankin' new trailer for the new Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is out. (Link to the video here.)

A little over four months 'til it hits the theaters, on July 17. My resident Potter-a-philes are excited (plus I can't wait to see it either).

New Trailer for 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'

It's been less than a week since I completed the last book in the Potter series. Now I'm planning to catch up on the films. I've only seen the first two and have Netflixed the others. (Need to decide if movies four and five are too violent for my two 10-year-old Potter maniacs to watch.)

While I wait for those DVDs to arrive, I discovered a new trailer for the next Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Entertainment Weekly's Pop Watch blog. The film was originally slated to be released this fall, but studio execs pushed the date back and now it'll come out in the summer of '09.

Amidst the cool effects in this trailer -- love the dramatization of the Pensieve -- I like that there were moments of levity, like when Harry told Hermione Granger, "But I am the Chosen One," and she batted him on the head with a paper.

Awaiting Dec. 4: New Potter Book, Tales of Beedle the Bard

I just finished reading the seventh book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, concluding a multi-month odyssey. (I started the series this spring at the prodding of my twin 10-year-olds.)

Now, just in time for Christmas, a new Potter book is coming out on Dec. 4, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a book that played a key role in Deathly Hallows after renowned Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore left it to Hermione Granger.

The Scholastic web site describes the forthcoming collection of wizard tales this way:

"Now, thanks to Hermione Granger’s new translation from the ancient runes, we present this stunning edition with an introduction, notes, and illustrations by J. K. Rowling, and extensive commentary by Albus Dumbledore . . . Professor Dumbledore’s commentary — apparently written some eighteen months before his death — reveals not just his vast knowledge of Wizarding lore, but also more of his personal qualities: his sense of humor, his courage, his pride in his abilities, and his hard-won wisdom. Names familiar from the Harry Potter novels sprinkle the pages, including Aberforth Dumbledore, Lucius Malfoy and his forebears, and Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (or 'Nearly Headless Nick), as well as other professors at Hogwarts and the past owners of the Elder Wand."

While I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that Beedle won't be a grave let-down after the drama that was the Deathly Hallows, I'm trying to devise a Dec. 4 game plan: Buy the book without telling the kids, read it and then give one, pre-read copy to share, or just bring home two, let the twins read them immediately -- as I'm sure many of their classmates will do --and just wait to read it when they've finished? Decisions, decisions.

Image credit: Scholastic.