Mailbag: Wise Men and Wizards

December 29, 2019 by 4 Comments

I received this note in today’s morning flock of email owls:

I have a question for you. Maybe you addressed it in one of your books, I can’t remember right now. But Christmas triggered this question among my friends: why the Wizarding Community celebrates Christmas, since everything Jesus did could have been done by a wizard? The only thing we thought could be impossible for a Wizard is resurrection, but then again, if Muggles were the only witnesses, why would Wizards trust them? And seen by Muggle or magical person, why wouldn’t the Wizards check that testimony themselves (via Veritaserum or Legilimency?)

My response was close to a non-response but it raised an important point. More after the jump! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beatrice Groves, Hog Pro Notes, Mailbag

A Magical Time of Year: Lumos Fun!

December 28, 2019 by Leave a Comment

‘A Magical Time of Year’ is a collection of holiday music, profane and sentimental, by various Wizarding World property actors and actresses, from the well known Alison Sudol, Warwick Davis, Dan Fogler, and Ezra Miller to the folks you’d have to look up, the guy playing Ron Weasley in the London production of ‘Cursed Child.’ A pound and a few pence from every purchase goes to Lumos, and because Rowling’s Beedle the Bard was given to Lumos to cover their operating costs, all that money goes to uniting children with families.

A good deal all around, because the music for the most part is quite good. Alison Sudol’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,’ as you’d expect, may be the best but Kevin Guthrie’s ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’ is a keeper, too.

You can listen to the whole thing on YouTube now and then make your purchase here.

You might want to buy them one track at a time, though, lest you be subjected to Ezra Miller’s bizarro tunes, especially his work with Dan Fogler on ‘Hannukah, Oh Hannukah.’ If you wonder how these two will work out their relationship with J. K. Rowling over her #IStandWithMaya Tweet Heard Round the World, I’m right there with you!

Hanukkah, O Hanukkah from Gabriel Sunday on Vimeo.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

TheRowlingLibrary: Kloves and Rowling

December 27, 2019 by Leave a Comment

TheRowlingLibrary.com, a website and an online fanzine, has just published their December 2019 issue, and it’s a good one. The feature article of #36 is about J. K. Rowling and Steve Kloves and the much neglected change in their relationship with respect to the Fantastic Beasts series (in brief, Kloves is now not only an Executive Producer in his role as Rowling Re-writer but actually credited as a co-writer). That’s worth the time it takes to download issue in itself, but there’s more.

In addition, there is a review of all the Headline Generating Events of 2019 in Harry Potter fandom and an in-depth survey of the Christmas celebrations in each Harry Potter book. If you’re like me, both of those pieces will have several “I forgot all about that!” forehead slapping moments. There is also a wonderfully out-there piece by S. Sipal on the new Rowling twitter header with its Tarot card theme; Sipal, perhaps the world’s leading expert on the Fantastic Beasts film franchise esoterica and inside baseball, links the Tarot cards to possibilities in the next Beasts film.

This is all great material and fun reading! TheRowlingLibrary creates a fun and beautiful product and deserve your attention and support.

Is it perfect? No, but what is?

I suspect you’ll be as disappointed as I was that this issue went to press before the Tweet Heard Round the World, Rowling’s #IStandWithMaya Ezra Pound moment on 19 December, the 2019 event most fans will remember as the biggest news of the year. And why no mention in the Christmas survey of Beatrice Groves’ delightful LeakyCauldron posts on the Christmas Roses and Why a Basilisk fears the Rooster’s Cry?

And I just blushed at the Sipal piece on the Tarot Cards because she doesn’t know, as Evan Willis pointed out at HogwartsProfessor in August, five months before Rowling posted the three cards on her Twitter page, that these cards are featured on the cover of Blue Oyster Cult album, Agents of Fortune. They’re not about the Fantastic Beasts movie at all, alas, but the Cormoran Strike mysteries in which at least one Serious Striker believes the song ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ acts as something like The Prophecy does in Harry Potter. [For more on Rowling and the Tarot, read the three posts I wrote on The Hanged Man card here at HogwartsProfessor.]

Those are nit-picking criticisms, though, that only demonstrate how closely I read every issue of TheRowlingLibrary when it comes out! I recommend you download the current issue and read it yourself.

Filed Under: Hog Pro Notes

The Strange Case of the Missing Fan Site

December 26, 2019 by 4 Comments

MuggleNet.com is the Coke to Leaky-Cauldron.org’s Pepsi in Harry Potter fandom. The site is the click bait tool of Emerson Spartz, founder and CEO of Spartz Media, now Dose (see the 2015 New Yorker profile: ‘The King of Clickbait’ for all you need to know about him). Though primarily aimed at the movie, memorabilia, and phone app-gaming focused tribes within the Hogwarts Horde, MuggleNet has hosted both the MuggleNet Academia and Reading, Writing Rowling podcasts and Beatrice Groves’ ‘Bathilda’s Notebook’ entries for serious readers of J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith.

The news? This website has been down without explanation since 13 December 2019.

The MuggleNet.com home page offers the following explanation:  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Beatrice Groves, Hog Pro Notes, MuggleNet Academia, Reading Writing Rowling Podcast

Have Yourself a Harry Little Christmas

December 25, 2019 by Leave a Comment

My family celebrated Christmas today and, predictably, I added to my Harry Potter Christmas Tree.  I added Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes to my miniature village underneath. But the big new thing this year is the Hogwarts Castle Tree Topper, with interactive ornaments.  I now have the castle and the Ron and Harry talking ornaments; the Hermione is supposedly waiting for me under the tree at my mom’s house.  It was quite an engineering feat getting it assembled, but fortunately, I had my son’s help.  It is a bit top-heavy for my miniature tree, but I think it still looks pretty cool.  Even if we know that a truly authentic Hogwarts saga tree topper would be a petrified gnome dressed as an angel. Note the remote controller is also an ornament, shaped like the Hogwarts seal.

If you want to see and hear part of the interactive “show,” see Castle  and Train dialogue.

In addition to the theme music and train meeting from the Sorcerer’s Stone movie, the audio includes the Sorting, the chess battle, and Voldemort demanding the stone from Harry.  And that is without the Hermione clips included, yet.  With 4-5 other ports available  on the “Keepsake Power Cord” for future ornaments, I predicting there are Hagrid, Dumbledore, Voldemort and possibly Draco or McGonagall still to come.  You may someday be able to hear the entire movie audio  on your Christmas tree.

The ornaments were not my only Potter gifts.  In addition to the Wizarding Wheezes, I got a new Marauder’s Map planner, that has not only a full year calendar, but lots of cool stickers.  For instance, I was able to mark the days my son and I go back to school with Platform 9 3/4 labels.  I also opened presents while sipping coffee from the Harry Potter Christmas mug my daughter gave me last year.

I’m looking forward to blogging more during the holidays and a new year of full of exciting Harry Potter, Cormoran Strike and perhaps even some more Veronica Roth in 2020.  I have her recently published short stories for part of my vacation reading.  In the meantime, Happy (Gregorian) Christmas to those who celebrate and to all a good night and a merry holiday season.

A gentle reminder to readers that I am continuing to raise funds for the children’s center in Guayaquil, Ecuador and for my volunteer work with autistic children.  Please consider a gift. Mention that you saw the link on Hogwarts Professor and I will send you a handcrafted Harry Potter thank-you gift. Funds are also being raise through Do With Not For shirt sales.

 

Filed Under: Louise Freeman