Fantastic Beasts Cast Visits Alabama?

November 2, 2018 by 1 Comment

I posted a video last week of the Fantastic Beasts principal players in the red carpet appearance they made in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China. This was not a surprise; though Chinese Box Office for Hollywood productions is way down, blockbuster films like the Marvel and Wizarding World franchises make hundreds of millions of dollars there. Perhaps it is because earnings there are way down that a large part of the ensemble cast was dispatched to the totalitarian capital of the world to stir up fan interest there.

More videos of the event after the jump —

Yesterday the same crew, actually even more of the Crimes of Grindelwald cast, showed up at Parkside Junior High School in Baileyton, Alabama, population 610. I kid you not. Here are some pics from various twitter feeds to show it really happened.

Why did they travel en masse to this backwater town in Alabama to visit the Junior High School there? Because Parkside Junior High was re-made this past summer into a veritable Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Read the whole story of the school’s transformation here.

I am skeptical, no, true confession, I am cynical when it comes to the motives of global corporations and any do-gooder activities they support. But this was a really neat thing they did seemingly in appreciation and to applaud the efforts of a group of teachers to re-enchant the lives of their students.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Fantastic Beasts

Lethal White: Robert Glenister Audio

November 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment

From Hatchette Audio UK:

“Have a listen to Robert Glenister in action here, reading by which has just made the Audiobook Shortlist

(See link below to free reading sample; audiobook available for purchase here — and that Amazon page has another free sample.)

How good is Robert Glenister‘s reading of the Cormoran Strike mysteries?

His audiobook of Cuckoo’s Calling won a National Book Award before Galbraith was outed as Rowling, i.e., before anyone had heard of the series, Glenister’s reading was acknowledged by industry professionals as exceptional. And he’s only getting better, book by book. I’ve read Lethal White twice — and listened to it four times.

Hearing the various regional accents, the differences in class pronunciation, and the emotional content of the character’s voices makes such a difference in getting Cormoran Strike. I recommend Glenister’s readings without reservation.

There is one downside, however. Short and handsome Tom Burke, already a visual failure in representing Cormoran on the teevee screen, will always be an audio non-starter, too, to anyone who has heard Glenister’s Strike, the voice of a smoker, overweight, and struggling heroically with chronic pain.

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike

Halloween Treat: Luna Lovegood Tango

October 31, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Happy Halloween: Potter Pumpkin Day!

October 31, 2018 by 1 Comment

I was sent the pics below by Lancelot Schaubert, longtime friend of this blog and brilliant story teller and Potter Pundit. Check out his ‘Scary Stories for Halloween,’ a re-reading of Shelley’s Frankenstein. I enjoyed this remarkable bit of Pumpkin carving, one that is a wonderful retelling of the Hogwarts Saga as the Squash turns, and trust you will, too. Happy Halloween!

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Lethal White: The Missing Page Mystery

October 30, 2018 by 4 Comments

I have started the process of charting Lethal White. This involves taping together large pieces of paper, drawing a line with a ruler and dividing that line into 71 segments for the 69 chapters, prologue and epilogue, and then re-reading the book and making notes on the chart with respect to the time, place, characters, events, and noteable signs, symbols, or stray thoughts I find meaningful. The reading is done first chapter, last chapter, possible middle, and then forward and backward to spot any possible ring echoing. When I’m done, I’ll have an oversized atlas page from which to work on topics like links to Goblet of Fire and Cuckoo’s Calling, the structure of the book, and thematic elements like those touched on in yesterday’s post. Not to mention the thought that struck me on my fifth time through Robert Glennister’s audiobook recording of Lethal White, namely that Della White is a stand-in of sorts for Hillary Clinton.

Before I begin this labor of charting love, I wanted to share with you a mystery I discovered while comparing the superficial structure of Strike4 with that of the three previous books.

Cuckoo’s Calling has five parts bracketed by a prologue and epilogue. The Silkworm and Career of Evil are both straight up chapter books, no ‘Parts,’ no bracketing at beginning and end. Mark that down as another Cuckoo and Lethal White correspondence.

The mystery is in the two parts of Lethal White. ‘Part Two’ is given its own page between the end of chapter 35 and the beginning of chapter 36 (page 287 in the edition I have). I checked to see which of the two parts is longer (part two by almost sixty pages if you’re interested). I wasn’t sure if the page for ‘Part One’ was included in the pagination so flipped to the book’s beginning to see if it was before the prologue or chapter one and how it was numbered.

In my copy of Lethal White at least, there is no page set apart for ‘Part One.’ Cuckoo’s Calling does have a separate ‘Part One’ page after its prologue and its ‘Three Months Later’ page, and before its chapter one frontispiece and epigraph.

There are three credible solutions to The Mystery of the Missing Page: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Cormoran Strike, Ring Composition