Bucket and I have been doing some night time bike riding lately. It's been fun. It kind of makes me want to do the moonlight ramble this year. I probably won't, but it would be fun.
I'm currently watching/listening to Kevin Smith's panel from Comic-Con. I may not enjoy his movies as much as I used to, but the man can work a crowd. He is a funny, funny man.
Ok, enough about things that aren't Harry Potter.
I'm reading Book 7 and am about halfway through it. I think the thing that I find so frustrating about this book is that there are a lot of good things in this book. There are a lot of really cool, really poignant scenes. Unfortunately, they are linked together by a lot of filler. One thing that occurred to me while reading is that the storyline of this book is the kind of thing that is usually covered in an entire series. The collection and destruction of four magical objects would usually take a multipart story cycle to accomplish. Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more to say about this when I'm done with the book.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Ending another post with again, again.
It's 1:25 in the morning and Albus Dumbledore is still dead.
I finished book 6 a few minutes ago and here are some things I noticed:
Book six IS mostly fluff. There isn't a lot happening. It's a book about treading water. So all you bitches who is like "The movie skips all the cool parts of book 6," need to shut the s up. They hit all the high points of the book (and hit them with more skill and subtlety than the book does), and then some. Ok, the Death Eaters fighting the Order as they run out of Hogwarts would've been pretty cool to see, but we got a lot of that in the last movie, and we're going to get a lot of that in the next two movies, so if David Yates wants to have a movie end without a big wizard throwdown, than I'll allow it.
The thing that struck me the most while reading this, is how much I like Dumbledore as a character. He is a little too lenient with Harry, but he does hush him up occasionally, and anyone who puts a hush on Harry Potter is ok in my book (that book being "Harry Potter Needs to Shut his Fucking Mouth: The Sass-Enders). Dumbledore is a great character with so much depth and nuance. I was sort of sad when he died again. I don't like his line about feeling safe around Harry Potter, who is, let's face it, a pretty horrible Wizard. I think the end of the book seems a little rushed, but really the whole book is fairly quick; about halfway through the book they're in March. The funeral lasts about 4 pages, and is fairly lame and even though it would be entirely appropriate to mention it, no one mentions that Dumbledore's brother is the owner of the Hogs Head (the two things that bother me most about the Harry Potter Books are the fact that Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the whatever whatever has a little brother that runs a bar next to the school that Albus is headmaster of, and no one mentions this until book 7, and the fact that Harry has no grandparents. This lack of grandparents thing might seem trivial and nitpicky, but when you do the math on how old everyone was when Harry's parents croaked, something doesn't add up. I'll probably do this math again when I reread book 7 and share it with you then, I'm sure you can't wait).
I'm really not looking forward to reading Book 7. Mostly because I remember it being a terribly unsatisfying book, but also because it means saying goodbye to this world, as poorly written as it sometimes is, all over again. I still don't know why I love these books so much. I think the English Boarding school aspect might have something to do with it. I could take or leave the magic, as it seems sort of trivial and inconsistent, as well as not really that important to the plot. Anyway, I'll let you know when I finish book 7.
I finished book 6 a few minutes ago and here are some things I noticed:
Book six IS mostly fluff. There isn't a lot happening. It's a book about treading water. So all you bitches who is like "The movie skips all the cool parts of book 6," need to shut the s up. They hit all the high points of the book (and hit them with more skill and subtlety than the book does), and then some. Ok, the Death Eaters fighting the Order as they run out of Hogwarts would've been pretty cool to see, but we got a lot of that in the last movie, and we're going to get a lot of that in the next two movies, so if David Yates wants to have a movie end without a big wizard throwdown, than I'll allow it.
The thing that struck me the most while reading this, is how much I like Dumbledore as a character. He is a little too lenient with Harry, but he does hush him up occasionally, and anyone who puts a hush on Harry Potter is ok in my book (that book being "Harry Potter Needs to Shut his Fucking Mouth: The Sass-Enders). Dumbledore is a great character with so much depth and nuance. I was sort of sad when he died again. I don't like his line about feeling safe around Harry Potter, who is, let's face it, a pretty horrible Wizard. I think the end of the book seems a little rushed, but really the whole book is fairly quick; about halfway through the book they're in March. The funeral lasts about 4 pages, and is fairly lame and even though it would be entirely appropriate to mention it, no one mentions that Dumbledore's brother is the owner of the Hogs Head (the two things that bother me most about the Harry Potter Books are the fact that Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the whatever whatever has a little brother that runs a bar next to the school that Albus is headmaster of, and no one mentions this until book 7, and the fact that Harry has no grandparents. This lack of grandparents thing might seem trivial and nitpicky, but when you do the math on how old everyone was when Harry's parents croaked, something doesn't add up. I'll probably do this math again when I reread book 7 and share it with you then, I'm sure you can't wait).
I'm really not looking forward to reading Book 7. Mostly because I remember it being a terribly unsatisfying book, but also because it means saying goodbye to this world, as poorly written as it sometimes is, all over again. I still don't know why I love these books so much. I think the English Boarding school aspect might have something to do with it. I could take or leave the magic, as it seems sort of trivial and inconsistent, as well as not really that important to the plot. Anyway, I'll let you know when I finish book 7.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Harry Potter, again.
About 2 years ago, I read Harry Potter books 1,2,3,4,6 and 7. I read 7 because it had just came out and I read 6 so I would remember what happened right before book 7, then I read books 1-4 because I hadn't read them in a while. Now, because the 6th movie just came out and because it's summer (which is the season during which I read Harry Potter books, since I pretty much just keep living the same year of my life over and over again), I'm rereading books 5-7. I hadn't read 5 in a while, and for good reason. It is by far her worst book. For some reason, the first 200 or so pages seem incredibly familiar to me, as if I had read then dozens of times before. I'm not sure why this is, because I've probably only read book 5 four or five times. Anyway, book five is a slog until you get to about page 400 or something. Then it becomes interesting, sort of.
Most of the events of the book worth mentioning are handled much better in the film adaptation. I think this is because Steve Kloves realized that if he actually put the majority of the words JK Rowling put in the mouths of her teenagers on screen, the only people who would like these movies are the kinds of people who watch reruns of Full House and think they are watching the height of comedic writing. That being said, Rowling is capable of writing some transcendently funny bits of dialogue, but most of the time, her characters speak in mid 90's sitcom cliches (or chant and sing in large groups, which, as we all know, is typical teenager behavior).
Things I noticed upon rereading Book 5 (which I hadn't read since before Deathly Hallows came out mind you):
1. It is hinted at ever so slightly that Dumbledore's brother lives in Hogsmeade (the reference is made in passing and seems almost like a non sequiter).
2. Also hinted at: Harry's inexplicable love for Ginny Weasley. This is another reference that is buried under pages and pages of unrelated information, then all of a sudden Harry notices something about Ginny. Then completely ignores her for the rest of the book. (I seem to recall finding Ginny and Harry's relationship a bit forced, maybe when I reread book 6 it will seem more natural, but I doubt it).
3. Harry is still a complete jackass when it comes to Snape. After seeing his father torment Snape, and after Snape alerted the Order of the Phoenix to the trouble at the ministry, Harry still hates him, for no reason. At some point Harry even says (well the narrator tells us what Harry is thinking) that he will never ever forgive Snape for getting Sirius killed.
4. RETCON: Harry rides on the "horseless carraiges" at the end of book 4. He would've seen the thestrals then, as he had seen Cedric kick off a few days prior. Yet, when he sees them in book 5 he's totally like "What the shit is this shit? Dragon Horses? Cock that!".
5. Harry keeps talking about how Voldemort killed Cedric. The entire book he's like "Voldemort killed Cedric!" or "That reminds me of that one time when I was in a graveyard and VOLDEMORT KILLED CEDRIC!", but Voldemort didn't actually kill Cedric. Peter Pettigrew did. Granted he killed Cedric on Voldy's orders, but still, I think a disctinction should've been made.
6. Harry never blames himself enough for his Godfather's death. The reapprence of the two way mirror at the end of the book acts as a reminder of A. Harry Potter's need to act like a Hero at all times and B. JK Rowling inventing objects and plot devices and then forgetting about them until it's too late for characters to use them properly, then covering the slip up by having the character comment on the fact that they really could've used that item if only they would've remembered about it earlier, Oh well, how about those wands?
7. The lack of Slytherins in Dumbledore's Amry, and really the lack of any Slytherins with any redeeming qualities whatsoever just reinforce the important lesson that, some people are just evil and it's ok to judge people based on who they associate with. First impressions are almost always the most accurate.
8. The one character who actually calls Harry out on his douchebagginess is the portrait of Sirius's Great, Great, Grandfather. Of course we can't believe anything he says because he's a Slytherin, and they are all pig rapists and cow stabbers. So because he says Harry shouldn't be acting like such a douche, it means that Harry tottally should act like a douche. Fucking Slytherins. They should all be drowned in a sack. Every one of them.
So all and all, book five is probably the most frustrating read of all the Harry Potter books. It's long, tedious at times, and Harry is at his most angsty. Next stop, book six.
Most of the events of the book worth mentioning are handled much better in the film adaptation. I think this is because Steve Kloves realized that if he actually put the majority of the words JK Rowling put in the mouths of her teenagers on screen, the only people who would like these movies are the kinds of people who watch reruns of Full House and think they are watching the height of comedic writing. That being said, Rowling is capable of writing some transcendently funny bits of dialogue, but most of the time, her characters speak in mid 90's sitcom cliches (or chant and sing in large groups, which, as we all know, is typical teenager behavior).
Things I noticed upon rereading Book 5 (which I hadn't read since before Deathly Hallows came out mind you):
1. It is hinted at ever so slightly that Dumbledore's brother lives in Hogsmeade (the reference is made in passing and seems almost like a non sequiter).
2. Also hinted at: Harry's inexplicable love for Ginny Weasley. This is another reference that is buried under pages and pages of unrelated information, then all of a sudden Harry notices something about Ginny. Then completely ignores her for the rest of the book. (I seem to recall finding Ginny and Harry's relationship a bit forced, maybe when I reread book 6 it will seem more natural, but I doubt it).
3. Harry is still a complete jackass when it comes to Snape. After seeing his father torment Snape, and after Snape alerted the Order of the Phoenix to the trouble at the ministry, Harry still hates him, for no reason. At some point Harry even says (well the narrator tells us what Harry is thinking) that he will never ever forgive Snape for getting Sirius killed.
4. RETCON: Harry rides on the "horseless carraiges" at the end of book 4. He would've seen the thestrals then, as he had seen Cedric kick off a few days prior. Yet, when he sees them in book 5 he's totally like "What the shit is this shit? Dragon Horses? Cock that!".
5. Harry keeps talking about how Voldemort killed Cedric. The entire book he's like "Voldemort killed Cedric!" or "That reminds me of that one time when I was in a graveyard and VOLDEMORT KILLED CEDRIC!", but Voldemort didn't actually kill Cedric. Peter Pettigrew did. Granted he killed Cedric on Voldy's orders, but still, I think a disctinction should've been made.
6. Harry never blames himself enough for his Godfather's death. The reapprence of the two way mirror at the end of the book acts as a reminder of A. Harry Potter's need to act like a Hero at all times and B. JK Rowling inventing objects and plot devices and then forgetting about them until it's too late for characters to use them properly, then covering the slip up by having the character comment on the fact that they really could've used that item if only they would've remembered about it earlier, Oh well, how about those wands?
7. The lack of Slytherins in Dumbledore's Amry, and really the lack of any Slytherins with any redeeming qualities whatsoever just reinforce the important lesson that, some people are just evil and it's ok to judge people based on who they associate with. First impressions are almost always the most accurate.
8. The one character who actually calls Harry out on his douchebagginess is the portrait of Sirius's Great, Great, Grandfather. Of course we can't believe anything he says because he's a Slytherin, and they are all pig rapists and cow stabbers. So because he says Harry shouldn't be acting like such a douche, it means that Harry tottally should act like a douche. Fucking Slytherins. They should all be drowned in a sack. Every one of them.
So all and all, book five is probably the most frustrating read of all the Harry Potter books. It's long, tedious at times, and Harry is at his most angsty. Next stop, book six.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Watching Firefly Again
Joss Whedon makes me angry. I don't know when this started, but for some reason whenever I watch/read something that Joss Whedon wrote, I'm just irritated beyond words. I think my problem is, and I'm just guessing, is that it seems like he writes scenes that look cool or are funny, but don't really make a lot of sense in the context of the reality of the show. For example, in the first episode of Firefly, there's a scene where The Prostitute is giving herself a sponge bath, which is sort of hot, I guess, then Shepherd Book knocks on her door, and though still half naked, The Prostitute tells whoever is knocking on the door to come on in. Why would she do this? Because it's cool to have half naked women in your TV show and it's funny and awkward to have religious figures exposed to half naked women. Of course this doesn't really make sense from a character standpoint, but it makes sense from a "I want people to think this show is awesome" standpoint. He does this kind of thing constantly. The entire episode of Jaynestown is like this. Also, he thinks he can write good music, but he can't, at least not in the context of the songs in Firefly.
Also, happy Fourth of July. Make sure you looks at some fireworks or Uncle Same won't come to your house at midnight and leave you some freedom in your favorite pair of pants.
Also, happy Fourth of July. Make sure you looks at some fireworks or Uncle Same won't come to your house at midnight and leave you some freedom in your favorite pair of pants.
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