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| Thursday, September 18th, 2008 | | 6:25 pm |
| | Sunday, September 30th, 2007 | | 1:25 pm |
| | Sunday, August 5th, 2007 | | 1:49 pm |
Deathly Hallows...whatever. I am so over you.
Now is not the time to rant about my reaction to Book 7. Most of my friends already know how I feel, from my rather strong comments on other journals. The upshot is, now that the ten-year Imperius spell has run its course - I'm free! Yay! On the other hand, there are all those boxes and boxes in my storage vault of all those mint Harry Potter action figures and toys. eBay here I come! | | Thursday, May 10th, 2007 | | 12:28 am |
Phoenix Rising
Just a few more days before I leave for New Orleans. Still high from brushing all the laquer coating on those fifty Remembralls, though. (They look beautiful, though. The glitter mixed in with the metallic paint streaks worked great, I must admit) I'm most proud of the Honeydukes souvenir chocolates, though. Let's hope they don't melt during shipment to the hotel.(Janice's specially designed logo on the wrappers was inspired!) Those four "Harry Potter" film screenings are going to be such fun! (If we can only stay awake for them) Par-tay! | | Saturday, May 5th, 2007 | | 9:48 pm |
Yay! The Movie Gift Bags are 96% Finished!
Like, so Cute! I can't wait for you all to see them! l. "Sorceror's Stone" bag: - white feather for "Wingardium...!" - Jellybellies in ribboned minibag - Hogwarts letter w/purple wax seal (handprinted w/green calligraphy ink) - red and silver gloss Remembrall 2. "Chamber of Secrets" bag: - Golden snitch - Honeydukes Chocolate - Howler w/gold wax seal and red ribbon - Truly creepy stretchy 3" black spider - metallic whizzer for hooting at those hot Slytherin men. Yum! 3. "Prisoner of Azkaban" - Large pink Aunt Marge balloon - Sirius Black mini-"Wanted" poster - Honeydukes chocolate - Sheer black chiffon Dementor banner 4. "Goblet of Fire" - the BIG one! - Honeyduke's chocolate - Green gummy worm "Gillyweed" - Gold-tipped sword bubble bottles - Bright green feather quills - Toy-filled "Mad-Eye Ball" - white origami birds Each in tinted cello bags with shiny ribbons. They'll make great souvenirs, too! Yay! Can't wait to see everybody on Tuesday! - Current Mood:  happy | | Monday, April 30th, 2007 | | 9:17 am |
Advice for Shutting Out the World for Book #7 Release?
Hey guys! I was wondering what everybody else's strategy is going to be when DH comes out. I'm pretty sure I'll have to keep the radio and TV off. Those loudmouths are SURE to blab something I don't want to hear. (I can just see Katie Couric going all smarmy "Ooh, it's official! It was all a dream for a little boy named Harry Potter!") Obviously, no looking at newspapers, either: "IT'S CURTAINS FOR WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS BOY WIZARD!" The oddsmakers in Vegas must be doing a booming biz: Harry Potter is a horcrux: 3:1 Snape dies saving Harry: 2:1 Sirius isn't dead: 20:1 Hogwarts is just a pretty castle inside crazy Alice Longbottom's snowglobe: 30:1 Percy is a spy: 5:1 Meanwhile, does anyone have more suggestions for keeping the blabbing noodleheads of the world at bay while we all settle down to read the last book? | | Thursday, February 1st, 2007 | | 4:40 pm |
It's cheaper at Amazon
So, Barnes and Noble wants two dollars more for the pre-order of "The Deathly Hollows" than Amazon is asking. Just thought I'd mention it. | | Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 | | 1:50 pm |
Blame the Anorexics? Say what?
The Metropolitan Transit Authority has just released its report on subway travel delays, and has revealed that the #1 cause of all NYC service disruptions is, get this: FAINTING DIETERS!!!!!!!!! Um, wtf? (Notice the report didn't say "starving" people. It didn't say "penniless people who can't afford a decent meal.") In other words, all these people on crash diets are dropping like flies in the train cars and blocking exits. Also, when they faint, it means the train must be stopped until emergency med techs can arrive. Really? So, it isn't the winos who fall asleep in the seats next to me and keel over on the #6 train. Yeah, and Voldemort isn't back, either. | | Monday, January 1st, 2007 | | 12:01 am |
BAH, HUMBUG!!!!
Call me a sourpuss, I don't care! I've just rolled my eyes at the most annoying New Year's coverage EVER! Do I ask much? I just want to see the Big Ball come down. One minute til Midnight, that's ALL I want to watch. I don't need to see close-ups of strange couples playing tonsil hockey in Times Square, or long shots of confetti dropping. JUST SHOW ME THE BLOODY FRIGGIN' BALL!!! Apparently, at ten seconds til midnight, I have to look at close-ups of my ugly mayor's face, and then MORE strangers dry humping each other. AGAIN, WHERE IS THE BLOODY BALL? Oh. Never mind, it's fallen already. Sorry. I'd like to thank every major television network for the most sucked-out New Year's Eve coverage. BAH, HUMBUG! | | Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 | | 2:17 pm |
Thank you, for the Virtual Gift!!!
Thank you to the anonymous gift-giver! That stack of presents was so adorable! It really brought me some unexpected holiday cheer. Hmmm, I wonder who you are... | | Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 | | 7:50 pm |
Anything Less Than a Total Orgasm Must be a Flame...
Continuing my Fanfic.net rant: There's a writer who has been doing a multi-chapter Angst fic which has been keeping me quite riveted. She seems like a really talented and dedicated person who delights me with frequent updates. In turn, I've been writing very enthusiastic, encouraging reviews. Yesterday, I wrote a very thoughtful, constructive critique of her latest chapter. It was by no means a flame...and certainly, quite respectful. By today, my review had mysteriously "vanished." I don't know what to think. Is it a technical glitch, or do writers often delete non-fawning reviews...so most of what remain are the goo-goo raves? Can a fanfic.net account do that? I'm hoping it was a glitch...but as it is, I almost don't want to read her story anymore. I feel childish about wanting to delete it from my "Favorites" list. If a writer doesn't want a genuine critique...shouldn't they just say so in the AN's? Like one writer did last year: "Don't correct my spelling, and don't tell me what you don't like about my story. In fact, I only want to hear good things. Thanks." (I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist.) At least it was honest. | | Thursday, September 28th, 2006 | | 4:35 pm |
OC in "Order of Phoenix" film
Hey, I've been a little out of the OOP movie loop these days. Can anyone tell me why they had to create an original character for the latest HP movie? He's a second-year named Nigel. Anybody know why they felt it was so necessary? And as a result of spending time on an OC, what important stuff is going to get cut? Frankly, I thought there were plenty of second-years at Hogwarts already, without having to dream up new ones. I certainly hope this isn't a sign of things to come. Also, I'm hoping the latest composer isn't going to insert annoying vocals with Celine Dion. You know, all those curling melismas: "Oh, whoa whoa...there's a veil on my heart! Oh, whoa whoa...will we ever meet again? Oh, whoa whoa...where or when? Oh, whoa whoa...there's a place! Oh, whoa whoa...where the phoenix flies! Through the flames! Whoa whoa! My heart will live again! Whoa whoa!" - Because that would suck more than anything has ever sucked in the entire history of sucking. Seriously. | | Friday, September 15th, 2006 | | 11:26 am |
Oh, crap! For the first time EVER in my life, I sent an eMail to the wrong person. A person that I was insulting in said eMail. I thought I was replying to a friend's question. A question about somebody else's eMail, which was contained in an attachment. OMG! I answered the attachment, not my friend's letter! Life sucks. | | Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 | | 4:44 pm |
The Whole Shebang
Okay, so last night, I trolled the long, snakey VOLDEMORT-ESQUE queue around Radio City Music Hall. Traffic delays unfortunately postponed ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) apythia's arrival, so we never got to meet up. However, she did get to distribute many Phoenix Rising tattoos. I distributed many PR bookmarks, and tonight, if the weather doesn't stop me, I'll do it again. But let me just say for the record...it's f-ing hot! So, like, The Reading. (At the last minute, I managed to snag a primo orchestra seat on the aisle, so went anyhow) Whoopie Goldberg came out and read some canned b.s. about some kind of whatever that they usually write for actors who make celebrity introductions. Next came Kathy Bates who most charmingly introduced Stephen King, who made an odd choice for his reading. (the ahem, unexpurgated regurgitation scene from "Stand By Me.") Next, Andre Braugher gave another canned intro for John Irving, whose reading selection was probably the most spellbinding and exquisitely constructed. (Apologies to JKR) A goodly percentage of the the audience consisted of Irving and King fans...which explains some of the responses I got for my Phoenix spiel as I did the bookmark-y thing for two hours before take-off. Again, we were surprised by another celeb, Jon Stewart, who gave a surprisingly winning and genuinely affectionate intro for Rowling. Everyone is still dazed by those high, high-heeled silver asp sandals that she wore. Psychic moi actually sensed she would pick the "Dumbledore-Meets-Young-Tom-In-The-Orpha nage" scene. Would that I were so vibed about the winning Powerball numbers. For some reason, the camerawork on the three giant screens above the stage seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on the short hem of JKR's black cocktail dress and on lingering shots of her "If-Cleopatra-Starred-In-Sex-And-the-Cit y" $$$$$$$$ F-Me pumps. You could actually hear male (and a few female) members of the audience go "Rrrr!" Rowling, herself, gave a good-natured smirk and commented and I'm paraphrasing here) that while the two authors sitting beside her were brilliant, fantastic, legendary, blah, blah, blah...her spiked sandals were like, a zillion times cooler than their lame guy shoes. 12 questions had been selected from over a thousand submitted. I was kind of surprised that many of them were lamer than the guys shoes. You know...boring innocuous writer career and inspiration inquiries that nobody gives a flying butt monkey about. The kind of questions that people ask just so they can, like, hear themselves asking a celebrity. I mean, why not just ask "If you were a tree...........?" But somebody asked about wands and their cores, and essentially JK said she chose those cores 'cause they seemed to her like the three strongest. There are other wandmakers in other magical countries who use more locally prevalent magic cores, like Veela hair. BTW, the wand choosing the wizard will be paid off bigtime in Book #7. Somebody asked "What does Hermione see when she looks in the mirror of Erised?" JKR seemed entranced. The question had never occurred to her. I could see her trying to straddle an answer that would give too much of the plot away. She essentially said, Hermione sees herself in a clinch with a certain SOMEONE...which elicited deafening shrieks from shippers in the audeince. JKR at that point, put the final, devastating nail in the coffin for all those HHr fanatics out there. May I just say..."Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah!" (with apologies to k_t18 ) She spoke of the POSSIBILITY of redemption for everybody's favorite blonde Slytherin punk baby - and made it clear that there will be no touching "Voldie-As-A-Repentant-Dying-Darth-Vadar" moment. Voldie is a psycho nut job and shall remain so. In conclusion, it was pretty wonderful and inspiring and I was so moved I almost sobbed like the pathetic, sentimental pussy that I am. However, I maintained my usual sang froid. | | Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 | | 2:01 pm |
Phoenix Rising
It's already August, JKR is going to start her reading at Radio City Music Hall in a few hours. I am so excited about the Phoenix Rising conference this coming May in New Orleans! The organizers have gone all out to make sure that this venue is going to ROCK!! Everything is being planned with incredible skill and care. And unlike the restrictions at certain Salem venues during the Witching Hour last October - costumes will be permitted, even ENCOURAGED at all events. That Masquerade Ball at the Fairmont is going to be incredible. If you think about it...the old world mystical charm of New Orleans fits right into the Harry Potter Universe with ease and delight. The nightly midnight HP film screenings in the grand ballroom of the Sheraton (purple sleeping bags optional) are going to be a blast. And I don't just say that because I'll be delivering a talk about each movie before the showings. Yeah, I can do pompous windbag film school lecturer when I want to. Although, I believe it's going to be far more fun while holding a frozen mango Daiquiri. http://www.THEPHOENIXRISES.org | | Saturday, February 4th, 2006 | | 6:37 pm |
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Fairy in a Teacup
Well, this is about my mood.... |
| | Thursday, November 24th, 2005 | | 9:02 pm |
My Review of the new "Pride and Prejudice"
There are many reasons to remake a successful film - the most basic and honest ones are these: It's such a great story we can't get enough of it, and it's sure to make money with such a built-in audience. I recall reading an interview with the movie's director while P&P was in production. He remarked that he wanted to make the story more physical and passionate (or some such thing). This seems like a worthy aim - the question is, did it work? The secret of P&P's appeal has always been the fact that J.A. wrote so exquisitely about characters who were forced to hide behind social facades, instead of giving full vent to their passions. Consequently, the dialog as a sharp, ironic weapon of expression is of primary importance. That's the charm and timelessness. The director here loves his camera. He subjects us to an interminable scene of endless close-ups in a marble sculpture gallery. Yawn! We get it! The statues are nude! Ooh! He adores to linger rapturously on breathtaking landscapes, rainstorms and sunrises. He details the buzzing fly, pig testicle and window smear. Each scene is punctuated with a music or song. In itself, that's lovely. Yet, while bringing us inches away from the physical intimacies of the Bennet's world, he is unable to maintain true intimacy. We lurch from sequence to sequence, feeling strangely cheated out of wonderful moments. There is an odd flatness to this world. With the exception of a handful of leads, the characters are all painted with the same dull brush. The younger Bennet sisters are virtually indistinguishable. The women are all mousy and faded...the men slovenly and subdued. Part of this might have to do with the muted palette which only allows the landscape to be vivid and alive, not the people. He is almost obsessed with showing the sloppy, muddy crudeness of British Regency country life. Yet for all this vaunted "realism," there are jarring anachronisms here. Lady Caroline wears a ballgown in one scene that resembles a Vera Wang prom dress. If a woman did wear such a gown 200 years ago, it would have only been in a whorehouse - certainly not by a lady, and certainly not in the more prudish countryside. The vulgar Lady Catherine, for all her tactlessness, still would never have shown up at the Bennet house in the middle of the night to express her displeasure. And the heavy eye make-up and lipstick on Lizzy in one of the final scenes (she's supposed to have just woken up) is an utter distraction, considering we are seeing her in close-up. All these are mere quibbles, and shouldn't really affect ones enjoyment of a film, but they serve as indications of the director's basic cluelessness. It's always annoyed me that with the exception of the 1940 Hollywood version, no film adaptation ever showed a kiss between Darcy and LIzzy after she finally accepts his proposal. Austen has always given her readers the luxury of deciding for themselves how passionate is Darcy's physical response to such joyful news. For me, the hints are quite clear: "...he expressed himself as sensibly and warmly as a man violently in love can be supposed to do." The lack of a kiss at such a moment, might have been tolerated, except for the fact that the director built up to a crescendo of expectation - half-dressed hero and heroine rushing towards each other in the early moments of dawn - bosoms practically heaving with expectation. Then, abruptly, in an earthy movie that has expressed no such previous primness - we fade in the sunrise. What the f-????? We are then subjected to mind-numbingly static scene between Lizzy and her father (apparently, the director feels the real star of the movie is Donald Sutherland, who plays Mr. Bennet - of whom, I can only say, a little goes a long way) With added new dialog that attempts to illuminate that which needs not be illuminated, the movie thuds to a dead stop. As romantic as the final tagged-on scene might have appeared, it was so peculiarly reminiscent of the final scene in of all things, "Sixteen Candles" with Molly Ringwald. I kid you not. Yes, I actually had to physically restrain myself from shouting "LAME!!!" instead of muttering it under my breath. I will admit, however, that despite my earlier fears, the actor portraying Mr. Darcy, was quite acceptable. I am somewhat baffled, however, at the recent tendency to portray Lady Catherine as a blithering neurotic, rather than what she really is - a snooty, egotistical bitch. All else aside, it was a pleasant enough diversion for a Thanksgiving morning. Um, except for the fact that during the last five minutes of the film, an elderly couple burst into the theater, talking quite loudly, making remarks such as "Where's a seat? It's too dark! I can't see anything?" (and then, to me: "You're sitting on the aisle. I want that seat. Can't you move?") That, in itself, was enough to totally shatter the moment. Current Mood:  sleepy | | Sunday, November 20th, 2005 | | 7:37 pm |
Sexiest Man Alive????????
In the drugstore this evening, staring stupidly back at me from the cover of this week's People Magazine...the coverboy, himself. The proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive," is - Matthew McConaghy???? Say what? Are you f-ing kidding me? If there was ever a blatant example of a movie studio PR machine paying off publishers, here it is! How the heck is this unappealing, non-sexual, wussy space cadet considered the sexiest man alive? On what planet, in what alternate universe would this loser be crowned King of Sexy? Either the editors were bribed, big time...or they're obviously Crack Hoes. Do they really believe their readers are such gullible morons who would buy that? And where, might you inquire, is there any mention of Mr. Jason Isaacs, Mr. Alan Rickman, Mr. Gerard Butler, Mr. Hugh Jackman? Nowhere in the People universe. Yikes! Current Mood:  indescribable | | Saturday, November 19th, 2005 | | 5:44 pm |
No Goblet of Fire toys? What the f-????
Once again, the morons at Warner Bros. and Mattel have decided they don't want to make any money from the Harry Potter franchise. Knowing full well that a built-in market exists, they've come to the logical conclusion that this is not the time to manufacture any Harry Potter toys. (except for a lame game, and no, BTW, Legos don't count!) Yet another week goes by when I drift aimlessly into another Toys R' us, eager to spend money. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Unless, of course, you want King Kong action figures. Hmm, think I'll pass. Even the managers at TRU were stunned that there was no HP merchandise at all. The Mattel website doesn't even list anything except a Quidditch game. I suppose the decision not to release any Goblet of Fire action figures must have something to do with the fact that it's a movie nobody wants to see, won't get much publicity and will close very quickly. PUH-LEEZ! Who are these morons? Could they by any chance be connected to the brain-dead bean counters who passed over every legitimate British actor to hire that humorless canker sore, Michael Gambon? Or the same people who did not "invite" John Williams back to score the GOB movie? Or the same people who have turned Hermione Granger into a Lindsay Lohan clone? If they bothered to get a Harry Potter "person" in there, they'd know where the money is waiting to be made. Fleur Delacour, Cedric Diggory, Lucius Malfoy and Sevvie Snape action figures. C'mon! Wouldn't YOU buy them? ACTION FIGURES THAT WOULD MAKE MUCHO MOOLAH: 1. Cedric Diggory, Hufflepuff Himbo Supreme 2. Lucius Malfoy, with Flippable Platinum Hair (brush included) 3. Fleur Delacour, for contrast 4. Severus Snape, the One True King of Hogwarts. Long may he reign! 5. Bathtub Harry 6. Old Weasley Twins - pull their long white beards to make them young again! 7. Peter Pettigrew with detachable silver hand 8. Mad-Eye Moody with detachable leg and glass eye 9. Cho Chang, in ball robes 10. Draco Malfoy with detachable bouncing ferret Well, not that anyone listens to me. Anyhow, I'm anxious to hear what everybody thought of the movie! Current Mood:  grumpy | | Monday, November 7th, 2005 | | 9:41 pm |
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The most embarrassing picture ever taken
What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt? If it's the guy to the left of the Queen, nothing! |
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