Awesomeness: the Ohio State University Marching Band

Friday Fun Video: "Wizard Love"

The lovely Alessandra recommends this:

 

Movie Madness: Advice You Can Take?

Sometimes sci fi and fantasy flicks can give you words to live by.  Or not, teehee!  "What is best in life?"

Nerd Fun: Pumpkin Carving Inspired by Literature

Check out 18 amazing pumpkin carvings!

History/Policy LOL: Harry Potter and the Post-War Reconstruction

Yay, Voldemort has been defeated!  But as any historian can tell you, getting rid of the Big Bad is often the "easy" part.  The aftermath ... That's the really hard bit.  

(At the end of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Alessandra turned to me and said something like this: "Now comes the really tough part.  OK, Aragorn, you did all this awesome stuff to help rid of Sauron, get the girl, and claim the crown of Gondor, but now you have to do all the hard, inglorious, everyday stuff like worry about paving roads and fixing sewers in Miras Tirith.")  

Check out this rather tongue-in-cheek look at Harry Potter and the Post-War Reconstruction.  I'll leave you with a cool quote: "What ultimately matters is not just whether something evil was defeated, but whether something good is built in its place."  True dat.

Film Culture Commentary: Harry Potter as Conservative Hero?

You know, I'd never thought about it in these terms, but now that I am, it kind of makes sense.  Note the story's emphasis on family, self-reliance, hard work, right and wrong, and a healthy distrust of an intrusive bureaucratic government.  Hmmmm!

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Graduation.

Like numberless legions of other Harry Potter fans, I went to see the final installment of the movie series this past weekend.  As some friends and I were saying, in many ways, this marks the end of an era on a very personal scale.  In many way, this film in itself, both in its existence and especially in its content, is like a personal graduation -- a commencement -- an end of a kind of childhood.  Underneath the magic, it is about growing up -- about making the hard choices, about becoming responsible adults with a clear-eyed view of reality and a sense of right and wrong even in -- especially in --the toughest of circumstances. Maybe I can explain this way: The time to be delighted and awed by enchanted ceilings and floating candles at that first dinner  at Hogwarts is over. The dining hall has become a battlefield hospital in a full-blown wizard war with life and death, and freedom and tyranny in the balance. 

The themes of sacrifice, loyalty, and doing what is right instead of what is easy ... These are ultimately all about growing up.  I had gone into this film with plenty of apprehension.  I loved the books, and the movie series had been somewhat of a mixed bag.  This final adaptation, though, bore its own unenviable weight of expectation.  I remember grabbing the seventh book when it was published in 2007 and reading nearly nonstop until my eyes hurt.  I desperately wanted the movie version to ... well, maybe "do justice" to the book is too much to ask?  How about ... to be not a total letdown.  It wasn't.  It was magic on an entirely different level and emotional register.  It was riveting narrative magic, and for once the special effects acted in service to the story and the characters. You want an epic conclusion?  I GOT YOUR EPIC CONCLUSION RIGHT HERE.

For those of you in a hurry, I'll just say this: The Battle of Hogwarts itself is worth the price of admission.  For the rest of you: more thoughts after the jump.  < River Song voice > Spoilers.

Awesomeness: Gorgeous Art by Brittney Lee

What lovely art!  (Check out these Harry Potter-themed paper cuttings!) She also has an Etsy shop.

LOL: Harry Potter vs. Star Wars

Hmmmmm.

Awesome Movie Madness: Final Trailer for Last Harry Potter Film

Presented without comment:

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

Movie Madness: New "Harry Potter" Trailer

Yes, please!

Best and Worst Sci Fi Flicks of 2010

Let the debating begin!  (You may recall the Best and Worst of 2009.)  My vote for the best sci fi flick (if not the best flick period) of the year is "Inception."

Movie Review: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1"

In haste because I am running around getting ready for Thanksgiving ... I saw the latest Potter flick on opening night with some fellow fanatics, and I have to say that it was the best Harry Potter movie in a long while.  The enormous book was cut down effectively, and the cliffhanger came as I expected even as it still had been on tetherhooks until the final installment of the story. 

The plot focuses mainly on the adventures of our familiar companions Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), and Ron (Rupert Grint) as they go on the run from the ascendant forces of Voldemort and the corrupted Ministry of Magic, which is fine, but I really wanted more of my other beloved characters.  For instance, the glorious Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis) had only one, all-too-brief appearance, though I did get a bit more screen time from my beloved Weasley Twins (James and Oliver Phelps).  There is never -- never -- enough of Alan Rickman as Severus Snape. One flash of inspiration that must not be omitted: the ever-wonderful Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour. 

Still, if the movie is intended to bring home the creeping terror and horror of a world now overpowered by the English Patient  Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his Death Eaters, the atmosphere doesn't quite do it.  (Then again, this might not be the fault of the flick, really.  Maybe my inability to be readily terrified is a function of my surviving graduate school...)  Then again, I have never really bought Fiennes as Voldemort.  You-Know-Who has always been more frightening in my imagination than he has ever been on screen.  Well, enough of that.  Let's get to finding and destroying some Horcruxes, shall we?

MM gives this movie a grade of B.  RottenTomatoes give it a Fresh rating with 79% positive reviews.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" runs 146 minutes and is rated PG-13 for violence, frightening images, and one brief (and disconcerting) moment of fantasy sensuality.

Movie Madness: Weasley Twins Visit Taiwan

Harry Pottermania!  I can't wait for the new movie to open this Friday.  So here's a bit of Potter-related news as the adorable twin actors James and Oliver Phelps (better known as Fred and George Weasley) visit Taiwan.

Throw the Book At Them: the 50 Most Hated Literary Characters

It is time to get your hate on, bibliophiles!  (Especially you, La Parisienne and Kamikaze Editor!)  See if you agree or disagree with the choices and rankings of the 50 most hated characters in literature.

I gotta say, though, this list has utterly endeared itself to me by proclaiming that the #1 spot belongs to Bella Swan and Edward Cullen and #3 to Holden Caulfield.  YESSSSSSSSSS!  (Remember my previous hating on "Twilight" here and on Holden Caulfield here.)

Here, let me give you the top 10 for you to harsh on to your heart's content:

1. Bella Swan and Edward Cullen
2. Cholly Breedlove
3. Holden Caulfield
4. Scarlett O'Hara
5. Iago
6. Anita Blake
7. Tom Buchanan
8. Heathcliff
9. Dolores Umbridge
10. Dorian Gray

For the record, I hate plenty of the people on the list, but I reserve a special nerd-rage for insufferable #43 Robert Langdon, whom not even lovable nebbishy Tom Hanks could make me love.  By the way, Satan barely makes the list at #50 ... because, I suspect, Milton did too good a job in Paradise Lost and turned the Prince of Darkness into a too memorable an eloquent anti-hero.  I mean, you gotta give props to a poet who lets Satan hold a pep rally in hell.  I'm serious!

Quote of the Day: Craig Ferguson on Sci Fi and Fantasy Fandom

I'll get back to "serious" blogging about foreign and domestic politics later (ummm ... sorry?).  I found this quote and I could not resist.  Look what Scottish (now Scottish-American -- congrats on being naturalized, sir!) comedian Craig Ferguson had to say recently (begins at 4:37 if you bother going, though the quote's all you need, and I have it right here):

"There’s rivalry between the Harry Potter fans and the Twilight fans. And Twilight fans think they’re much cooler than the Harry Potter fans. And I’m like, I dunno why, they’d all get their @$$ kicked by the Doctor Who fans."

Ferguson then yells, "That's right!  I am one!"  Absolutely fantastic.  Have you any doubt at all that tough, smart, sassy, independent Who fans like La Parisienne and California Dreamer and Alessandra and I could have Twilight fans for breakfast?  It wouldn't even be a contest.  And we'd still have room for croissants afterwards.   Oh, and remember the end of this?

Geek Fun: 28 Fictional Characters on Twitter

Tweet, tweet, my lovelies.  Rated PG-13, though.  (Via Neatorama).  Oh, Internet culture!  Plenty of your favorite pop culture figures that you love (or love to hate) are tweeting like mad.  I give you an example or two:

Nerd Journal: If I Could Be a Real-Life TV Trope ...

Oh, TV Tropes is a glorious website!  I'm thinking that, given a choice, I would want to be either this trope or this one.  Ooooh, or probably this one too -- it even comes with a lovely quote from the poetry of Dryden!  Or this, which comes with an even more awesome quote about the sage and his (let's make it "her" too!) books:

Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you kingdoms and armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger.

OH YEAH.  That's about five kinds of awesome.  

Movie Madness: 30 Most Anticipated Flicks of 2010

Here's a list. Guess, just guess, what #1 is. It's the movie that I'm most eagerly awaiting. Some of the other movies I couldn't care less about. ("Piranha 3D"???)

Nerd Fun: Top Schools for Supervillains

Here's a delightfully nerdy take on the world of comic books and sci fi-fantasy. Some of these schools have some pretty wicked alumni ... Homecoming every year must be a nightmare and a half!

Which one of these schools do you like best? Sunnydale High probably holds the record for highest rate of teacher/student/staff casualties on campus, though Hogwarts has hands-down the Worst Alum Ever.