Last night was the YouTube premiere of A Very Potter Sequel, the sequel to last year's YouTube sensation, A Very Potter Musical. I, of course, watched it. AVPM changed and defined the fandom, much the way that Wizard Rock did.
If you don't know, AVPM is a parody of the books done excellently. It's a group of college kids in a theater group, and this people are amazing. It was written by the kid that plays Harry in the play, it's just, just, totally awesome. If you love Harry Potter, the is a decent chance that you will like it. It changes the way you see Harry Potter, and just displays the power of the fandom.
AVPM and AVPS they just do something to the story, enhance it, improve it if that's at all possible. Knowing that it's fan made matteral makes it all the much better. They take characters we know so well, Harry, Ron, Voldemort, Snape, Cedric, Quirrel, Draco, Dumbledore, and in the new one Lupin, and Sirus, and change them, in a good way. After watching the plays, you'll never see them the same, never think of Hufflepuff without having the hard to control urge to yell "FIND!" In re-reading the books this spring I didn't see the Ralph Fiennes Voldemort, I see the Joe Walker Voldemort. It's that fucking awesome.
At the end of the play, Harry Potter says this, and honestly, I may have cried a little: "They’re gonna try and tell me that this wasn’t real and that this didn’t happen. You know what, it was real and it did happen. We spent time here, we made friends here, and that’s a part of us. ‘Cause Hogwarts is bigger than any of us, it’s bigger than any of its founders, and it’s gonna be here long after we’re gone. Maybe we’ll see our kids come here one day. That’s the thing about Hogwarts—no matter how long you’re away from it, well, there’s always a way back.”
THAT is why I love Harry Potter. This is what Harry Potter is. This is why I love Harry Potter, because it is real. It's real to us. the last book came out three years ago this week. The last movie comes out a year from now, but that doesn't mean its the end. JK Rowling has created something that lives outside the covers of her books. She created a world that is better because she wrote a book. We, as the the fans, have taken what Harry has given us and turned it into art, and music, and charity organizations.
I glad I get to be a part of it.
AND THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY
Friday, July 23, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Honestly, I'm probably the worst reviewer of things ever. I mean people ask me what kind of music I like and I say something like "I don't really know." Because that's true, but when I find a band or a song I really like I can't tell people about it because I can't wrap my head around how amazing it was and have it make sense, it comes out something like "It's kinda like the Killers, only completely different and with more cymbals." Because that, is a review.
I was horrible at Book Reports too. I remember one I did in 8th grade on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which BTW is my favorite of the series, and I, like, failed, because I'm bad at summerizing.
This has a point, I promise.
Recently, by recently I mean like, a minute ago, I finished a book I think anyone reading this blog should pick up, or borrow from me. It's called "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman. It's a about a seventeen year old girl named Mia, who is in a HORRIBLE CAR ACCIDENT in the second chapter of the book which kills her parents, her little brother is also in the car. I feel that this should be emphasized since it isn't on the back cover, and it's sort of a mystery how this girl ends up in a comma, but HORRIFIC CAR ACCIDENT. This made me want to stop reading. I mean it's been a year and a half, but still reading about seeing brain matter on the road and knowing what happened that December night, was still a lot hard to handle.
Once I pick the book back up again and got past the crying in a public park in front of people for a fictional family, I got to the core of the book which is this girl, watching herself in a coma, deciding whether she should stay and fight and live in this world, or go join her family.
It chonicals her time in the coma as well as her life before the accident, and how these are reasons she should stay, or reasons she should go. It's powerful.
It's beautifully written, every word of it. It does say on the cover "Will appeal to fans of Twilight" but when I first saw it, it was still in hard cover and didn't say that, and I didn't notice until I got home, but anyway, there are no CREEPY VAMPIRES or NOT REALLY BUT THANKS FOR TRYING WEREWOLVES. It's not really fantasy, but kind I guess, I don't see it as fantasy because I view fantasy as the kind of book like Harry Potter or Twilight or something with far off lands and stuff. This is more surreal. But it is really amazing.
I know I'm, like, the WORST reviewist in the world, but I hope that explains why it's awesome. It's one of those books that makes you want to write like that, like reading a Sarah Dessen book. It's heartfelt and real, and most importantly, unlike Twilight, well written.
I hope that what I just wrote makes some kind of sense and maybe persades someone to read it, I hope it does. I really enjoyed it. In the books I've read this year I've only said "WAIT STOP THE PRESSES THIS BOOK IS FREAKING AWESOME twice, and I've read some AMAZING literature this year. I hope that says something as well. I mean, I want, like, my opinion to mean something.
AND THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY
Today is awesome because, well the weather was wonderful, and I read a wonderful book
Books read: 35
Since my last blog I have read: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire - both by Suzanne Collins and If I Stay by Gayle Forman
I was horrible at Book Reports too. I remember one I did in 8th grade on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which BTW is my favorite of the series, and I, like, failed, because I'm bad at summerizing.
This has a point, I promise.
Recently, by recently I mean like, a minute ago, I finished a book I think anyone reading this blog should pick up, or borrow from me. It's called "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman. It's a about a seventeen year old girl named Mia, who is in a HORRIBLE CAR ACCIDENT in the second chapter of the book which kills her parents, her little brother is also in the car. I feel that this should be emphasized since it isn't on the back cover, and it's sort of a mystery how this girl ends up in a comma, but HORRIFIC CAR ACCIDENT. This made me want to stop reading. I mean it's been a year and a half, but still reading about seeing brain matter on the road and knowing what happened that December night, was still a lot hard to handle.
Once I pick the book back up again and got past the crying in a public park in front of people for a fictional family, I got to the core of the book which is this girl, watching herself in a coma, deciding whether she should stay and fight and live in this world, or go join her family.
It chonicals her time in the coma as well as her life before the accident, and how these are reasons she should stay, or reasons she should go. It's powerful.
It's beautifully written, every word of it. It does say on the cover "Will appeal to fans of Twilight" but when I first saw it, it was still in hard cover and didn't say that, and I didn't notice until I got home, but anyway, there are no CREEPY VAMPIRES or NOT REALLY BUT THANKS FOR TRYING WEREWOLVES. It's not really fantasy, but kind I guess, I don't see it as fantasy because I view fantasy as the kind of book like Harry Potter or Twilight or something with far off lands and stuff. This is more surreal. But it is really amazing.
I know I'm, like, the WORST reviewist in the world, but I hope that explains why it's awesome. It's one of those books that makes you want to write like that, like reading a Sarah Dessen book. It's heartfelt and real, and most importantly, unlike Twilight, well written.
I hope that what I just wrote makes some kind of sense and maybe persades someone to read it, I hope it does. I really enjoyed it. In the books I've read this year I've only said "WAIT STOP THE PRESSES THIS BOOK IS FREAKING AWESOME twice, and I've read some AMAZING literature this year. I hope that says something as well. I mean, I want, like, my opinion to mean something.
AND THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY
Today is awesome because, well the weather was wonderful, and I read a wonderful book
Books read: 35
Since my last blog I have read: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire - both by Suzanne Collins and If I Stay by Gayle Forman
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