THREE DAYS

[cleolinda]

GOD! It's like being seven years old and waiting for Christmas over here. And you know, there's a point where it's not even about Harry Potter anymore. It's exciting knowing that millions of us are all waiting for the book to come out. It's exciting--and a little wrenching--to know that this is going to cap off a seven-book, ten-year series; that we're going to find out everything we've been wondering about, all the loose ends; that terrible things might happen to characters we care about; that there won't be more after this. And having OOTP come out in theaters just the week before multiplies the excitement by a factor of ten--it's exciting because it's exciting, if that makes any sense; it's getting excited for its own sake, a communal experience, a fannish high. I think the communal factor cannot be underestimated here; the last Lemony Snicket book had me champing at the bit, but it was relatively quiet in a fannish way, probably because fewer people read that series. The high dissipated pretty quickly. Deathly Hallows, you know people will be discussing this for months, and--bonus!--bitching at each other for years. For those of you who don't follow Fandom Wank, there are some violent, vicious differences of opinion over whether Harry should die, whether Snape is good or evil, whether Draco is a romantic antihero or a weaselly little bully, and, most importantly, who Harry ends up with. Some guy named Voldemort may be involved, but I hear that's just a rumor left over from the fake fanfic still circulating.

(Note: As of last night, all those links were spoiler-free.)

Another Pro Tip I heard on the interwebs today: Unsubscribe from email notifications of anyone who friends you (or defriends you, for that matter) until you've finished the book. When, oh, let's say dobbykillsharrypage606 friends you, you'll understand why.

Meanwhile, I've finally decided what I want to do on Friday night, and I am SO INCREDIBLY RELIEVED to have settled it. It's cost $40, but I'm going to the McWane Center for OOTP in IMAX at 8:30 pm ($10), and then hang around at their party ($5) until midnight, at which point they will have books right there ($25). Yeah, I probably could have gotten it cheaper, but four or five dollars is worth it to actually have something to do, since I was bored stupid for five hours at the HBP Barnes and Noble "party," and I suspect that people who would pay to get into McWane are less likely to shout spoilers out at midnight. SO. RELIEVED.

Monday Morning Box Office: Harry Potter Learning To Deal With New Stirrings In His Naughty Wizard Places (Gawker).

Harry's pals must face ‘Deathly Hallows’ too (MSNBC).

Seven questions for Rupert (USAToday).

Tonks Talks: A New Interview with Natalia Tena ("I really wish she had had pink hair like in the book. They didn’t want to do that because pink would be associated with Umbridge, who is evil. They really didn’t take many risks") (Leaky Cauldron).

Staunton colors evil pink in 'Order of the Phoenix' (USAToday).

Harry Potter and the magical Midlanders (fun facts: the actor who plays Filch is Kate Beckinsale's godfather; one of the Phelps twins was a runner on The Da Vinci Code; both Peter O'Toole and Ian McKellen turned the Dumbledore recast down) (Sunday Mercury).

Harry Potter And The Newfound Appreciation For House Music (Defamer).

Harry Potter and the Pricing Problem (Booksquare).


Noted tenor Jerry Hadley taken off life support.

Art owner alleges Warhol conspiracy.

Mexican volcano is test bed for trees on Mars.

"Too sexy for my bus," woman told; status regarding party, shirt and cat uncertain.

Officials: Prosthetics give amputee edge.

2,400-year-old golden mask unearthed.

University chairman: N-word 'slipped out.' *facepalm*

Royal Audits: BBC Sentenced To Identifying And Correcting Every Lie In History By Decree Of An Angry Queen.

They've penetrated our code walls! They're stealing the internet!

Dooce answers her hatemail.

Fair Warning, Science Fiction Writers: "At some point in the near future there will be a new market for science fiction short stories that not only intends to pay you poorly, but also plans to carve out a slice of a whole bunch of your derivative rights."

Three More 'Indiana Jones' Films Heading Our Way?; Lucasfilm Denies Future ‘Indy’ Sequels In Works.

New Joker/Heath Ledger Photo.

Cate Blanchett's 'Elizabeth' Becoming a Trilogy?

Set pics from Cloverfield, and what Ethan Haas was all about. Warning: It's ONTD, so do NOT go into the comments if you don't want to be spoiled for HP.

Anne Hathaway to Star in Jonathan Demme's 'Dancing with Sheba.'

No Cobra in G.I. Joe? I have no idea who Cobra is; I just report on things I think y'all like.

Poster: The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Shoreline Buys The Rights To Horror Comic 'The Living Corpse.'

'Torture porn' hits a bloody wall.

Art Forgers Hit the Big Screen -- Possibly with Clooney and Owen.

Leto, Polley Star In Sci-Fi Mr. Nobody.

trailer_spot: Last Legion, And When Did You Last See Your Father?, Golden Compass, Rush Hour 3, In the Shadow of the Moon, No Country for Old Men, Death at a Funeral, In the Valley of Elah, Margot at the Wedding, Charlie Bartlett.

Comments

[ironclad1609.livejournal.com]

I am glad I am merely careful but not paranoid yet. It's only an (admittedly long awaited) book :P

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

Well, trying to boot someone off a bus because they're wearing revealing clothes is at least a bit better than kicking them off because the're gay. What's with all these people being kicked off public transport lately?

So Captivity's bombing, is it? I suppose it would be immature to snicker. Enough is freaking enough already.

[enthroned.livejournal.com]

We'll be at McWane too for a while, and probably the Summit B&N close to midnight, since that's where my book is reserved. I'm so excited! :D

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

A little of my faith in humanity has been restored with the failing of Captivity. I read the reviews and was sickened by them without even seeing it. I'm glad that there still seems to be a line we as a society won't cross yet.

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

I like Natalia Tena more and more.

[jessica-dwg.livejournal.com]

You are going to LOVE the IMAX 3D. It is crazy, crazy awesome.

[oasis-zephyr.livejournal.com]

OOTP in IMAX is actually pretty awesome (although I don't know that I would have gone to see it if my ticket hadn't been $10), but I highly suggest preparing yourself for the 3D portions. They are all pretty... well, none of them made my brain explode out of my eyes except for the parts involving the prophecies. Something about the swirling color orbs being thrust into my face was just a bit too much for my mortal eyes to handle.

[quenbolyn.livejournal.com]

Gah, I'd love to go to a great, big party at midnight, but I have to be at work the next morning at eight o'clock.

So my schedule will basically be: Go to Borders and grab the book at midnight... Squee for five minutes... Put fingers in ears and run home... Try to sleep instead of sneaking looks at book... Go to work for eight hours and avoid anyone who looks about to say something along the lines of "Did you get to the part where Neville gets run over by the Knight Bus?"... Go home and read book... Die happy.

Spoiler Trolls

[kauricat.livejournal.com]

It IS like Christmas! Only better, because I get to play dress-up.

Good point about disabling notifications. Also, any community maintainers might want to lock their communities down temporarily. I've already heard of some HP comms banning wasteofpages, harrypooter, hpspoilerific, nowah, and jacjoyce.

Re: Spoiler Trolls

[caersidi.livejournal.com]

I was just about to post this :)

Yeah there are trolls out there and the HP mods are trying to get the word out.

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

it's exciting because it's exciting
I understand *exactly* what you mean. I like Harry Potter, but I don't love the series the same way like love other fandoms, like I did with Joss Whedon shows or Pirates of the Caribbean. However, the energy and excitement other people are emitting makes me enjoy and dread the final book more so than I probably would care, if I lived in a vacuum.

[calpurnia.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you've said. (Though I don't watch TV anymore, so I know nothing about Joss Whedon. POTC, on the other hand, *love*.)

Normally, hype about anything has a reverse affect on me and turns me off, but I'm going to take part in this release. Amazingly, the only bookstore within 60 miles of this desert purgatory where I live is having a midnight party, so I think I'm going to go. I know I'll be a bit lost reading 7 without having read 4, 5 & 6 (read part of 4 but could...not...get...through...it), and the impact of the end probably won't be as strong with my not having read those earlier books, but that's okay, I'd still rather read the end on my own without it being spoiled.

PS Cleo, thanks for the link to the cupcake recipe!

[valancy-s.livejournal.com]

Have you seen loldemorts yet? Seems right up your alley! They've only just started up but they're quite hilarious. (And spoiler-free.)

[youngcurmudgeon.livejournal.com]

There's also lolpotters, which is using spoiler-cuts that seem to have worked so far.

[lafemmezilla.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, good tip on the friend/unfriend notifications. Thanks!

I cannot WAIT until Saturday and the subsequent weekend of NO SLEEP. Hooray!!!

[silrana.livejournal.com]

"No Cobra in G.I. Joe? I have no idea who Cobra is; I just report on things I think y'all like."

Cobra was the G.I.Joe organization's nemesis group. Leaving them out is like remaking Star Wars and leaving out the Empire.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I should spend Friday night on the sofa, just to be sure I wake up when the mailman dumps that ginormous book in my mailbox.

The phrase "shot with a handicam" fills me with Blair Witchy glee. I'll probably be hideously disappointed, but right now I don't care.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

it's exciting because it's exciting, if that makes any sense; it's getting excited for its own sake, a communal experience, a fannish high.
Yes, it's so fun!

No Cobra in G.I. Joe? I have no idea who Cobra is; I just report on things I think y'all like.
What the hell??? If I recall correctly, Cobra is the VILLAIN OF THE SERIES. It's like having a Transformers movie without Megatron.

[triplethreat310.livejournal.com]

Just dropping in to say thanks for posting the No Spoilers stuff - I've just linked you over on my blog (http://whywritersblock.blogspot.com). because I knew people here will be cool about not posting stuff (not like ONTD, I'm pretty sure I saw an actual post that had spoilers in it. Sigh.)

Thanks again :)

[pscopathictiger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, people are spamming the comments over there with "spoilers" and I accidentally read one of them. But it was so stupid that I thought it was a badfic ending. So, I'm not believing them haha.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Officials: Prosthetics give amputee edge.

Let's just say that I have trouble believing that differences in air resistance are giving him any advantage. I have an old paper (1927) on air resistance on runners, and the author measured that the air resistance on the whole body is not more than about 6 pounds for a guy that's 5' 9" at 34.5 ft/s, the world speed record at the time. (The author, A.V. Hill, is well known in fluid mechanics, and there's no reason to think his measurements are invalid.) It's hard to guess what fraction of that 6 pounds is from below the knee, but the area is so small compared to the rest of the body that it can't be much.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

No COBRA = No Death Eaters, including Voldemort

[pinstripe-bindi.livejournal.com]

I am over-fucking-joyed that Captivity is flopping miserably. I loathe the entire genre with the burning passion of a thousand suns; pile the disgusting misogyny of this movie on top and I just want to hurl everyone involved with making it off a bridge. Just reading the review at pajiba.com (http://www.pajiba.com/captivity.htm) made me feel like vomiting.

[agatha-mandrake.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, I quite enjoyed the review for Captivity. Not because I want to see, because it's clearly a disgusting, misogynistic piece of cinematic offal, but because of the level of anger directed at the film. Dude was so angry I'm sure I saw little puffs of smoke coming out of my monitor while I read it. It gives me a tiny shred of hope to know that not all men enjoy this kind of crap.

(Best line:"The whole movie makes Saw look like motherfucking My Fair Lady with an industrial metal soundtrack.")

[t4-flirt.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is def. like waiting for Christmas as a child. :)

I am going to (finally) see OOtP sometime on Thursday, and then hope to snag a book over the weekend. No, I couldn't preorder due to lack of funds. And I wish like hell that hubby and I were going to a party, but we have a toddler...and no sitter. It's all we can do to get my mother-in-law to watch the lil' one Thurs. so we can see the movie.

Have fun at the party Cleo!! Have a butterbeer for me! LOL

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

Thankyou for providing the Harry Potter fandom wank links, they've kept me amused for about 2 hours.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

OMG! You linked to my local paper (the Sunday Mercury!)

[sualocin.livejournal.com]

Your party idea = brilliant.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I totally stole it from someone on a message board who said that that was what she was doing--I'd already seen POA in IMAX earlier this year, so it seemed logical that they'd have OOTP running down here as well, and then it turned out they're also doing a giant party. WITH BOOKS. I still can't get over how perfect it is.

[caligogreywings.livejournal.com]

:/ The B&N party sucked? Crap, we were going to the Summit one. Maybe we'll hit the MacWane one too. I was rather impressed with the festivities they had for the movie last week.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think the Summit was the one we went to also--there was like a jellybean counting contest, and people showed up in costumes, and there were refreshments on sale way back in the music section (as well as the usual cafe), but... I really kind of don't remember much else. My sister insisted we get there super early in case everyone was lining up, so from like 7 or 8 to midnight, it was me wandering around with nothing to do. I did meet up with a small group from LJ who recognized me (I mean, because I'd mentioned what I'd be wearing) and talked with them for a while, but that was it. What'd they do at McWane last week?

[jennnk.livejournal.com]

it IS like Christmas, only I was the kid who sliced open the scotch tape so expertly that I could re-wrap everything without my parents knowing. And it was always still awesome on Christmas because then I could HAVE the stuff I knew I was getting. I haven't read the leaked "book," for a number of reasons (least of all I don't want to download something and my computer won't open a .rar anyway), but I've read the summaries and I say it's like my mom finding out that I've been opening my stuff, replacing it all with Dollar Tree stuff, and snickering on Christmas morning when I open the REAL presents. There is NO WAY this "book" isn't a really complex fanfic. no way. you really have nothing to worry about, Cleo.