Postmodern Christmas: A Trip to Radio City (Travis Scholl)

December 20, 2007 by 5 Comments

From the Sightings WeBlog, a guest post:

Trangressive Irony at Radio City

— Travis Scholl

At this time of year American culture is laden with customs, themselves laden with multivariant meanings. The Christmas Spectacular that takes place every year at Radio City Music Hall, for example, comes with its own set of traditions. The stunning simultaneity of the Rockettes’ high leg kicks…the complex choreography of the Wooden Soldiers…the condensed retelling of the Nutcracker story—most of the elements of Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular, now in its seventy-fifth year, are told year after year, only with different choreography and new sets. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Postmodern Polly

Goodbye, ‘Accio Quote!’?

December 18, 2007 by 3 Comments

In an announcement put up just before Roonwit’s helpful summary of the PotterCast interview with Ms. Rowling, Madame Pince, the librarian at Accio Quote! (and friend of this blog), announced big changes at Accio Quote!. She wrote under the headline “Changes Coming” that:

I want to let all of our readers know that my website Accio Quote! will be changing. Some of the articles will be taken offline, although when possible we will be linking out. This means that for a short time the current search index will be less thorough, so we will be re-configuring that too and moving to Google Coop for our search utility. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

Should She or Shouldn’t She? Why Ms. Rowling Won’t Shut Up — and Why That is a Good Thing

December 18, 2007 by 18 Comments
Filed Under: Deathly Hallows Discussion Points, Hog Pro Notes, Narrative Misdirection

Goblet of Fire: ‘Beauxbatons and Durmstrang’ & ‘The Goblet of Fire’ (Chapters 15 & 16)

December 18, 2007 by 2 Comments

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Chapters 15-16

Mark True statements with a “T” and False statements with an “F.” Write your thoughts out in the blue books provided at the end of this examination page.

1. _____ Harry writes a letter to Sirius to discourage him from flying north; he writes that he must have imagined his scar hurting. Sirius responds that Harry is probably correct and that he wants to hear all the news via Hedwig, promptly.

2. _____ Professor “Mad-Eye” Moody gives everyone practice trying to resist the Imperius curse, but only Harry succeeds in hearing “another voice” “in the back of his brain” that argues with the commands of Moody. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Chapter Quiz

Ms. Rowling TLC PotterCast, Part 1

December 18, 2007 by 7 Comments

The first part of Ms. Rowling’s interview at The Leaky Cauldron is online already but I will wait to comment until the transcript goes up at TLC or Madame Pince’s Potter Pages. If you have iTunes on your computer and have listened to the show, please offer your thoughts here. The posted Table of Contents for the “landmark show” is:

-The morals of Beedle the Bard
-Who was right about Horcri?
-Who made the first Horcrux?
-Creating a Horcrux vs. splitting the atom
-Will Jo tell us how to create a Horcrux? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Unlocking Harry Potter