Hogwarts Herald

This weekend, March 6 through March 8, 2009, ABC Family is having another Harry Potter weekend. I am not really sure whether there will be any new sneak peeks, but I believe at least the ones from the Harry Potter weekend in December 2008 will be shown if there are not new ones. Either way it can be fun to watch the movies on television because they usually show mostly the Director’s Cut versions with the deleted scenes included in movie rather than just as separate special features on the DVDs.

The line up includes Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on Friday, March 6, 2009, at 7:30pm Eastern Time and mini marathons on Saturday, March 7, 2009, and Sunday, March 8, 2009. The Saturday marathon includes Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at 12:30pm, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at 4pm, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at 8pm. The Sunday marathon includes Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at 12:30pm, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at 4:30pm, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at 7:30pm.

You may be wondering why the marathon does not include Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The inclusion of the fifth movie would make the marathons more complete and make a good lead up to the upcoming sixth movie. I do not think they are intentionally leaving it out to do another marathon closer to the release date, as I have heard some suggest. I think the reason is that ABC Family does not have the rights to show it, yet, as I believe HBO still has the cable television rights to the fifth movie.

I found a rather touching article about the Friends of the Milwaukee Library sending a complete set of the Harry Potter books to a small library in Kyrgyzstan. The book set is going to the library in the Tamga village. They were inspired to send the set because someone who recently came back from visiting there realized that the village children had to share one copy of the book and they could not even check it out from the library. The children in the village only speak Russian, so they have sent them a set in Russian with a special inscription in Russian that says it is a gift from the Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library. The books will be reaching the village by first going to D.C. and then getting to Kyrgyzstan by diplomatic pouch to the U.S. mission in the capital city, Bishkek. It will then be delivered to the village.

I found this contest run by Warner Brothers interesting, although I personally see no point in entering because I already made plans to be in Chicago and got my tickets to see the exhibit on the second day it is open to the public. Those not already planning to see the exhibit or at least not until much later in its run might find it fun to to enter and try and win. The contest prize is for a trip for 4 to Chicago for 3 days and 2 nights and tickets to go to the exhibit on/around world premiere opening day, April 29, 2009. The prize includes airline tickets and hotel accommodations as wel.

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Warner Brothers has announced the date for the final Harry Potter movie, which will be part 2 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The date is currently set at July 11, 2011. Feel free to mark your calendars, but do not be too surprised if it moves, as the current upcoming release ended up quite delayed. The second part of the movie still does not have an exact name. I really hope they put some originality into it and do not just call the Deathly Hallow moves Part 1 and Part 2. Honestly, I think both of them should have different names, as it just does not seem appropriate to be calling a movie based on only the part of the book the name of the book, especially since they know they are going to do a movie to cover the left out part. The name for the movie/DVD release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows should be saved for when the final one comes to DVD and they do a special edition with both movies based on the final book packaged together. At least that is my opinion on how I would like to see it done.

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter area of Universal Studios Orlando is still quite some time away from opening, as it is not expected to open until sometime in 2010, but there has been news that Hagrid’s Hut can be spotted there already. The rooftop of the structure that is Hagrid’s Hut can supposedly be seen from at least one place at the Universal Studios Orlando theme park. It seems that the Orlando Sentinal did some looking into what it could be. It definitely seems to be Hagrid’s Hut. According to the permits for building the Hut it appears that the hut will be mostly just seen from the outside by the general public. The hut is expected to be used to store props.

It definitely seems that they are going building a lot of the different structures. Some will probably be just for display and make for good photo ops in front of, such as the confirmed Hagrid’s Hut building. There will also be several buildings that have some sort of attraction or themed experience. This includes some of the wizard shops that will have adequately themed items that might not be quite as magical as the real stuff, but still fun. There will also be some restaurants based on places in the books, which will probably include being able to get butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks. There is also to be some rides. I think this includes one that is going to be inside the Hogwarts castle they are going to build. I just hope it is not some roller coaster ride and instead is some dark ride scene ride like a lot of the rides in Fantasyland at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, as that would be much more interesting to experience than some thrill ride in my opinion.

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Recently three teaser poster images have been going around the Internet for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie. Two of the posters have Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince written at a slant with the release date of 07/17/09 (the slashes are actually in the shape of lightning bolts on the poster) underneath. One has Harry Potter with his wand raised in a rainy scene. The other one has Albus Dumbledore with his wand in the same sort of rainy scene.

The third poster is also the rainy scene style. It is not slanted like the other posters, though. It has Harry Potter looking straight out and is just a head shot. Albus Dumbledore is seen as a reflection in both sides of Harry Potter’s glasses. This one simply says HP6 in the right hand bottom corner. It also says “Once again I ask too much of you, Harry.”

Also, I recently read about the possibility of there being a clip of the new movie at the end of the Oscars.

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The Harry Potter series author, J.K. Rowling, is to have her handprints become the latest tourist attraction in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. Her handprints are set in stone and will be put on display outside the City Chambers. The preserving of her handprints is part of her honor of receiving the Edinburgh Award, which she was awarded last year. Of the honor of having her handprints preserved, J.K. Rowling said, “I am deeply honour to have my keyboard-chipped fingernails, not to mention my pen-induced friction callous, commemorated in the place where I produced Harry Potter.” The handprints have already been set in stone at a stonemason’s workshop in Morningside, but it sounds like they are not yet on display outside the City Chambers. At least the article I read just implied they were soon to be displayed or perhaps it meant they just went on display.

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

At select Regal Theaters there is a special preview of the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie. The special includes new footage, clips, and interviews with some of the cast. The interviews are to include Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), and the producer David Heyman. The interview part certainly sounds new, but from the description of the clips including some of it seems old (i.e. I have seen it in trailers before), although also some new stuff at least.

This site describes the following scenes as being in the preview: “Bellatrix on top of a table in the Great Hall throwing a spell (extended), Hermione throwing birds at Ron, Hermione’s jealousy of Ron and Lavender (”Excuse me, I have to go vomit”), Dumbledore levitating items in the Dursley house, a couple of new lines from Dumbledore, new shots of the Inferi, and the “She Thinks You’re the Chosen One” scene (extended).”

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The set where Harry Potter stunt double for Daniel Radcliffe, David Holmes, was injured on doing a flying sequence involving an explosion on January 26, 2009, has been reopened. They still have released very minimal details about the incident besides the fact that David Holmes is recovering at a hospital (sounds like he is paralyzed from the waist down) that specializes in spinal cord injuries (Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, in Stanmore, north west London to be exact). The investigation of the accident is an ongoing on being carried out by the Health and Safety Executive. They have finished the aspect of going over the stage, though, and have released the scene for use again. I do not think the closing of the stage has affected the shooting of the 7th movie, as they were only doing test shots so far and only the one particular set was closed.

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

In 2008, the most borrowed book from libraries in the United Kingdom was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The figures were tracked by the Government funded Public Lending Right. It sounds like they pay authors based on the times the authors’ books are taken out of the library. The 7th Harry Potter booked was checked out 109,000 times to make it top the list. Interestingly, though, J.K. Rowling is not among the top checked out authors. The top checked out author is James Paterson. I assume this is mostly because other authors have a lot more books to check out and J.K. Rowling only has 7 (maybe, 10 if you count those two little books and the book of stories).

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

J.K. Rowling has now received the highest civilian award in France. The honor is becoming a knight of the Legion of Honour. This honorary title was given to J.K. Rowling by the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, in Paris. As part of the speech of accepting the awarded, which she delivered in fluent French, Rowling apologized for using a French word to name the main villain of the Harry Potter series. I thought was interesting to learn that Voldemort means either theft or flight of death in French. She said that despite the name he is 100% British. The name was chosen as “a name that evokes both power and exoticism” and she thanked the French for not holding a grudge because of her use of the word.

The President of France praised Rowling for getting kids to read again, which is something she has helped encourage throughout the world. Interestingly Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was a bestseller in France before it was even sold in a French language version, which made it the first English language book to top the book sales chart in France.

J.K. Rowling is not the first Rowling to become a French knight. Her great-grandfather was made a knight of the Legion of Honour for his actions during the first World War. He was made a true knight of the legion, as he was French. J.K. Rowling is only an honorary knight of the legion, as she is not French and a foreigner can only be an honorary knight of the order.

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

I have read several articles recently about their being a Harry Potter literature class at Cal State University Fullerton. Personally I think it is a great idea for a class. Sure most of the students who take it have probably read the whole series multiple times, but the class looks at the book deeper than many do when reading it. I can imagine a curriculum including looking at the different ties to mythology and the meaning of the words some of the spells seem to derive from. Perhaps it would make a little more sense as a high school course and it may be supposedly too low of ‘grade level’ for college students, but it does not mean it cannot be a topic that can become scholarly enough to make for a fun elective college course.

Most of the articles I have read have either presented the topic in a neutral way without saying it is good or bad or presented it in a positive light. Today, thought, I read the first one on this topic that was very negative on the topic. I really never thought that it was a bad idea and personally I do not agree at all with the article writer, as I see the adding of classes that relate to popular modern literature a worthwhile change of pace from all the courses that just look at classics. I understand the author trying to make a point that instead of budgeting this class they should be offering more sections of required classes, but sorry I blame it more on the students than the school that the seniors cannot graduate on time. I did college in three years and never even had to resort to asking a professor manual add me to a class and I never even got first pick of classes because I never had senior registering status. I do not know how it works at that university, but I know where I went to school the students often had similar complaints and I think it was mostly them not taking proper initiative along the way to get the required classes and narrowing down cramming in the required classes last instead of trying to get those in first and leaving room for your electives as filler credits.

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The other day I posted about Emma Watson, who plays Hermione in the Harry Potter movies, taking the SATs to apply to American universities. Today I read an article about her choice of schools. Her top choice is Harvard, but she is also considering other Ivy League schools, such as Yale and Brown. After filming the Harry Potter movies, she is ready to shift her focus more exclusively to school. Sounds like she is very Hermione-like in that all along she has kept on top of her studies and worked acting around them. By the way I also read an article today that mentioned she was still deciding between going to university at Oxbridge or an Ivy league school.

Remember to comment this month and get an entry in the Hogwarts Herald February 2009 Contest to win a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

For those who do not know the Nicholson Cafe is famous for being the place that J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philospher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone. Do not worry if you did not remember the name of the cafe because even I think of myself as a big fan and I do not remember ever knowing the cafe’s actual name until reading about it now being up for sale. I would not say I am less of a fan for not knowing, but rather a fan that has not exhausted the amount of things I can learn about the books, their author, etc. What would be the fun of it if I already knew everything?

Anyways on to what this post is supposed to be really about. The Nicholson Cafe ceased to exist away ago, as the current restaurant that occupies the space is a Chinese restaurant called Buffet King. The owner of the restaurant is hoping to sell it to someone that will turn it into a literary museum dedicated to Rowling and Harry Potter. He first offered it to J.K. Rowling for £1 million, but she declined to purchase it.

The shooting for the movies based on the seventh Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, appears to have truly started this week and already there has been an injury on set. Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double was seriously injured doing one of the stunts yesterday. I think this week is just test shots, but the test shots include some stunts and as always stunts do have a bit of a danger to them. Actually, I can imagine the test shots being when things go wrong the most, although, not usually quite so wrong.

The double injured was Daniel Radcliffe’s (i.e. Harry Potter’s) 25-year-old stunt double. The accident happened during rehearsing for a flying scene that also involved an explosion. He obviously was using a harness to fly, but the explosion did not act as they thought and caused him to plummet to the ground. He was not knocked unconscious, but it has been reported that he did say he could not feel his legs when he landed. No further information seems to have been released yet out of respect for the family besides saying he was taken to the hospital by paramedics.