Why I *still* love Harry Potter

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

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

Everyone is someone's biggest fan, I just happen to be yours

Tonight was the third Tuesday of the summer.

To regular people, summer technically started yesterday, but for me, summer started on the 8th with the first Stranger than Fiction show of the season. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I LOVE STF and everything about them, if you are a new reader, I'll explain real quick.

STF is an improv comedy troupe based out of Portsmouth NH, My High School English Teacher is among it's members. I have been attended the shows religiously since 2004. You can't really explain it much more than that unless you see the shows.

Anyway, after being mildly traumatised by Jon Wellington, (btw it's worth the $12 cover charge to see Jon Wellington live, again it's something you just need to see.) I stood outside to talk to the cast because I haven't talked to my High School English Teacher since December (I know that seems odd, but High School English Teacher and I have a weird relationship) and I missed talking to him at the graduation on Friday.

Until tonight, I wasn't formally introduced to the new cast members, I've been told I'm talked about regularly, which is weird, but whatever, everyone's famous for something.Tonight High School English Teacher turned to one of the new people and said: "Have you met Deanna? She's our biggest fan."

It's cool to be recognized for something, even if it's something like going to over 50 improv shows.

High School English Teacher told me that with the new website that should be up this week, (with everything High School English Teacher does, I'll believe that there is a new website when I see it) that they were thinking about having a "biggest fan" part, which according to him, would without a doubt be me he said: "You'd have to stop coming to shows for a while for {BP's Mom} to even come close to seeing as many shows as you." 

How cool would that be, he told me to think of something that I could put up on the sight, maybe I could do pictures or a little mini blog or inside jokes or something. I mean there's just so much that I love about them, and the fact that it's not just High School English Teacher, but other members of the cast the recognize that I spend a lot of time and money going to these shows, that I truly love them, that I've seen more shows then their parents or wives/husbands, it means something.

I got a tweet a little while ago, when I wasn't even thinking about STF, from High School English Teacher, it said something along the lines of "FYI STF speaks of you highly and often, you're officially our biggest fan from many years running."

I'm just glad I could be a part of it. Even if it's just from the front row of the audience.

AND THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY
Today was awesome because it is Tuesday, and frankly, Tuesday has always been my favorite day of the week

Books read: 32
Currently (re) Reading: A Prayer of Owen Meany by John Irving

Sometimes I just feel SO OLD

Last night, I went to the graduation of a good friend of mine's little sister. When I graduated, she was in 7th grade, and high school graduations make me feel old anyway. I mean, I graduated five years ago, but it seems like so much has happened in those five years. All of a sudden my friends are married and have babies, there was a girl there that I graduated with who was pregnant with what I think is her third child, and she's been married for almost five years. It's weird, but in a small town like the one I grew up I guess it's not that unusual to have a larger percent of people that get married young and start families while people are still in college. That particular pregnant high school classmate's husband, also a fellow class of 05-er, is in the military, so I kind of feel their life is in a fast forward mode that other people aren't.

ANYWAY, the friend which I was watching her sister graduate, I haven't seen this friend in four years, since she graduated from high school. In that time she's moved fourteen hours away, married a guy that I haven't met, but seems really amazing, and now she has a 4 month old daughter, whom I met yesterday, which honestly is why I went to the graduation.

After the graduation I walked around looking for our High School English Teacher, who, as usual took off the second he wasn't needed anymore and was home before we left the soccer field, because he @replied me on twitter before we got to Applebees. She, my friend, wanted High School English Teacher to met her daughter, but alas, since he has magical powers, he missed out. I was holding the baby and a different English Teacher came over to talk to us and in a mildly funny moment said. "Oh my God De Cooley is that your baby?" My brother is Facebook Friends with her, I feel my brother would relay this information to her if it was true. We also live in a small town, she would have known before I showed up at graduation with an infant, but anyway, I was like "nope it's her's." I enjoyed that moment, just for the look on that English teacher's face.

I went to Applebees with 3 friends after graduation, so that we could catch up with the friend we hadn't seen in years and talk about the silly stuff we always talked about, like "Life To-Do Lists," which include things like meeting the cast of Harry Potter, and telling better jokes; and life Not-To-Do lists, like being pregnant twins and stealing sperm from dead people to have zombie babies.

As you, blog reader, know, I tend to feel, especially lately after moving back home, that I don't have any, or many friends, last night, for the first time in a while I felt like I really did have people. They weren't people that I hung out with a lot in high school, in truth, I became better friends with one of these girls after high school, more to going to STF than anything, in another is really my little brother's friend, but sitting there eating and drinking lemonade and talking until they closed, I felt like I did back then, back when I knew I had friends and people to talk to.

My friend took the train back early this morning, but I do have a picture of her and her beautiful little daughter, and I've been promised daily text messages with pictures of the baby so I can watch her grow up from far away, but I know I'll get to see her during her sister's spring break next year, and if it's anything like last night was, it will be like no time has past, the way friendship should be.

AND THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY
today is awesome because I have the Sims 3 to make friends live next door to me in my video game world.

Books read: 32
Currently Reading: A Prayer for Owen Meany (needless to say: ReRead.)

Remember in 6th grade when anything was possible?

Last week for Nerds to the Power of 5 we were giving the challenge to put the five of us in a band. Because of situations out of my control, mostly because people don't inform me of plans that they make for me, and then don't accept the fact that I want nothing to do with said plans, I was unable to make a video on Monday, or a make up video on Saturday.

Normally, I would just add last week to this week's topic, but I feel that I MAY talk to much about this week's topic, so I'm just going to blog the video I would have made last week.

When I was in sixth grade, two big things happened, first, Corey and Topanga broke up, and The Back Street Boy, N*Sync, The Spice Girls, and Hanson, hit it big. Because of the second thing, my best friends and I decided to start a band.

One of us played the flute and another played the clarinet if I remember right, they may have quit by this point, but I know they played then at one point, anyway I remember that we voted and decided that we would all be singers, several of the five of us were in chorus. We had a black notebook that we passed between the five of us that we wrote all our songs in, I think I still have it, but I'd have to really look for it. If I do it buried under years of school work and notebooks. I don't remember a lot of it, but I do distinctly remember that one us, Pheebs, wrote a song about boys and one of the lyrics was "Stick him with a fork."

We used to walk around at recess and thing up what would make good album covers and stuff. We were pretty convinced at we could do this, I have no idea why, I just remember thinking that five girls from the Shire, with little to know musical experience could make a band, this was of course before the days of American Idol.

One day we just stopped trying to be a band. I don't know if it was because the school year ended or because we just lost interest. But I remember spending a good chuck of our school days working on writing songs, we never, like, rehearsed or anything, but we wrote a whole bunch of songs.

As for our challenge this week, I would give us the following assignments:
I would put Megan in the front, lead vocals: of all of us, I think that Megan is the most outgoing of all of us. From her Tumblr, I've seen her style, and I really love it, and I think she would make a wonderful front to our band.

I would have Mary on lead guitar, because she plays guitar, and that's kind of one the main requirements to play lead guitar.

I would have Noelles on drums, I see Noelles are more of a background person, I don't mean this in a mean way, it's just that even in THES, she would be a background person, as the Narrator in the plays. Although this is basically the main part, like the drums, the focus isn't on her, but she's supporting the whole thing. I hope that makes sense.

Laura I would have on rhythm, mostly so that I can jam with her on bass. I don't know if Laura feels the same way, but I see Laura was one of my really good friends. I feel like I could have known her forever, even though we've never met and she lives on the opposite side of the continent in a different country.

As for a name, I'm super horrible at naming things. I feel that there would be a nerdy reference of some kind like Megan suggested, and I feel it should be mildly obscure. As for an exact name, I'm not really sure.

AND THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY
today is awesome, because tomorrow, is Tuesday.

Books Read 31
Currently Reading: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

I'm currently reading Dreamlandby Sarah Dessen, and I keep coming across these amazing brilliant lines, just pieces of sheer genius. I know that this lines floated around in her head looking for the perfect moment to float out of her fingertips to the keyboard or flow out of her pen. I read them in complete awe of their amazing-ness.




When I read lines like that, I usually underline them, my copy Paper Towns by John Green is filled with thin pencil lines, my Maureen Johnson books are as well. The only books I have that are exempt from my pencil underlining rule are my Harry Potter books those remain pristine, minus the chocolate sauce stains that a chubby 11 year old can't help but cover the sides of the pages of books she's reading with.



Most of the time its a piece of writing that I find funny or brilliant, something that I want to replicate in someway for myself. I want to have the same impact on a future reader that these writers have on me. I picture some girl like me sometime in the distant future, someone I'll most likely never meet reading a book with my name on the cover with a pencil marking something that I wrote and saying "Jeez this is amazing."



I want to be able to create this more than anything in the world. I want to write something people can relate to, something people will want to read over and over, and something that people can quote. I know it's a silly thing to want but I want it.



I think this the reason I'm having such a hard time finding a job. I don't want to sit behind a desk all day doing some stupid job I can't stand. I never want to work retail again in my life. I don't want to have to work for someone I can't stand. The only job I can see myself enjoying is the one I worked last summer, working with MFB and writing. I want to spend hours on end alone in a room with Microsoft Word and twitter open typing away. I just wish there was a way I could get paid to make up ideas, to type away for several hours a day, to read and re-read and re-write and edit, all before a single soul before myself sees it (expect JenJen, since she's my editor).



I know it's an unlikely goal, an almost pointless mission to even try, but I want this more than anything I've wanted in my entire life. And what sucks is that I can't write where I live now. I can't write in my parents house. I can't. Someone is always around, asking questions, making me do something, thinking I'm not doing anything but messing around on the computer when I'm not, I'm working. It's nothing they'd accept as work, but it's work, and hopefully, someday, it will all pay off.

AND THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY
 
today is awesome because I managed to get half a chapter written before I got too annoyed with my parents and had to stop.
 
Books read: 24
currently reading: Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
recently finished: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

The Great Harry Potter Re-read of 2010

Last night I finished reading, for the second time in it's entirety, the Harry Potter series. I've read the first three books, probably five times a piece, and the fifth and sixth ones twice before starting this venture in the beginning of April (The fourth book annoys me, and I couldn't deal with Fred's death in the seventh).

I wanted to re-read them because I wanted to feel a part of something again. I wanted to feel like I did the first time I opened the cover of Sorcerer's Stone when I was 11. I wanted to feel like I missed out of something awesome when I didn't get my Hogwarts letter. I also wanted to pick up on things that I missed, to find the little bits of information JK Rowling left along the way so we could figure it out on our own before Harry did.

I walked back into these books knowing what was going to happen, hoping I could see something I didn't see before, able to connect the dots in earlier books that I hadn't before. I learned to look at Draco Malfoy not as some annoying little prat, but as a confused little kid looking for his parents approval. I didn't even find Harry and Ron as annoying as I did the first time through (Hermione, still annoying).

I remembered my reactions to different parts of the books. Reading the end of first book on my mom's friend Janet's living sofa while all the other kids played video games down stairs. Being very upset when I didn't get the 2nd and 3rd ones for Christmas from my parents, then sitting next to the Christmas tree at my aunt's house during dinner and reading half of Chamber of Secrets. Laying outside at camp reading Goblet of Fire with a group of 9 year old campers, and crying a little bit for Cedric Diggory. Sitting on the pull out sofa in my family room with a broken leg when Sirus died. Sitting under register 10 at Market Basket at 6:30 am when I was supposed to be pulling curtains reading Half Blood Prince, whipping the book at Reckless and saying "OMG I HATE THIS BOOK!!!" when Snape killed Dumbledore and wanted more than anything to call Brittany, who was in French camp and discuss. Sitting at stop lights reading Deathly Hallows and crying like my best friend got crushed with a wall in the KMart parking lot when Fred Weasley died, laughing when Mrs. Weasley called Bellitrix a bitch. Cursing Jo for naming that poor kid Albus Severus.

That is my childhood, this is why these books mean so much to me, these books are a bigger part of my life than I even imagined when I decided to re-read a month ago. I mean, I knew Harry Potter was important, I knew that it meant a lot to me. But now, looking back at this last month, I see that Harry Potter isn't just a book, it's never been just a book, as I'm sure everyone who has ever read them can tell you, Harry Potter is way of life. Harry Potter is something that you walk away from feeling like you've done something, like you defeated Voldemort, like you fought Bellitrix, like you were the one to bury Dobby.

JK Rowling gave us all a gift, and I'm glad I got to re-open it, re-enjoy it, re-love it. And I can't wait to do it again.

AND THAT IS THE END OF THE STORY

Books Read: 22
Last read: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows