As I type this, the Phoenix Suns are losing by 19 points to the San Antonio Spurs. It looks like they are going to go down 0-3 in this first round best of 7 playoff series, and in all likelihood, they’re season is, in the immortal words of some unspecified girl on either Laguna Beach, or the Hills; “Dunzo”. A Greg Norman syndrome of sorts.
It’s inherently sad for me to see these Suns struggle. They represent all that is good and noble in the NBA. They embody fun, seemingly effortless basketball. They try and score as much and as fast as possible, and they deal with the consequences later, a veritable college student drinking heavily on Cinco de Mayo. They’ve had all kinds of regular season success, and even moderate to strong postseason success, but can’t seem to grab that championship.
Their qualities alone are enough to make my heart frown when the Suns struggle, but even moreso, the rise and fall of the Suns parallels my college career, and to witness their last stand brings to the forefront the fact that I’m graduating in about 3 weeks. Appropriately, my college years will die with these Suns.
Let’s hope in our DeLoreans and drive* back to July 14th, 2004. An 18 year old version of myself had just graduated high school and was enjoying the rest of the summer before falling down the coast to college. The Phoenix Suns, coming off a 29-53 season, signed Steve Nash when the Mavericks weren’t all that interested in trying to bring him back. Both of our futures were bright.
The next four years saw the Suns win 62, 54, 61, and 55 games, arguably the most successful run in their history. The same could be said for me, I learned a lot, had a few drinks and laughs with friends, enjoyed the company of probably a few more beautiful women than I deserved, traveled around the world, and even fell in love once. The Suns and I both inhabited a charmed, higher level of existence.
This season, faced with their inability to get to the NBA Finals, the Suns made a bold, borderline reckless, trade. They traded Shawn Marion, a swiss army knife of a basketball player, and backup point guard Marcus Banks, to the Miami Heat for Shaquille O’Neal. It was unclear at the time whether or not Shaq was still alive. (Like I said, it was a bold trade.) The trade meant the end of the Suns as we knew them. Suddenly decision making was needed, sobriety was required. There were some half court sets, and definitely more throwing the ball into the post than anybody was comfortable with. The Suns were growing up.
So was I. I knew this was my last year. I did stuff solely for the sake of my resume. I added the extra internship and classed up the wardrobe. I had one foot on the next step and one foot still on the ground floor. I still would run and play, but always washed my hands afterwards. Suddenly decision making was needed, sobriety was required.
Now the Suns are crashing and burning, and if Game 1 was any indication, quite spectacularly. Steve Nash is getting old, Grant Hill is held together by scotch tape and Elmer’s glue at this point, we now know that Shaq is alive, but he’s certainly staring his own mortality right in the eyes. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some big changes for them this summer. The prevailing sentiment seems to be to make some trades and build around Amare Stoudemire and Leandro Barbosa. I like to think I’m not crashing and burning, but my college years certainly are. They’re just about over, it’s sad solely for that reason, but also because, like I said, their story played out a lot like the Suns did. Plenty of success, but ultimately their potential was never reached.
I don’t regret anything, but I know I could have stood out a bit more, really made my mark. Sometimes I was too content to do well enough, the equivalent of lots of regular season success and less post season success. I didn’t fail by any means, but I didn’t necessarily come through in the clutch. I imagine the Suns feel the same way, in no way do they regret anything, but they’ve got to feel a bit whistful about what could have been.
Both the Suns and I face uncertain times this summer and on. We’ll both be ending a really great chapter and hoping to write an even better one. I imagine J.K. Rowling felt like this after she wrote Half Blood Prince and felt Deathly Hallows looming. The pressure is formidable, and I hope I am too.
I’ve been going through some old mini DV’s from senior year of high school and I have unearthed some rare and valuable gems. Sam, Bryce, Paul, and I made a rap video for our Film/Lit class about the book/movie the Beach. (I’ll upload the entire video when I find it.) None of us are good at rapping by any means, but Bryce really took us to new lows. And I mean that in the best way possible. Awesome lows!
Sound the horn of Gondor! Today is J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday! He would be 118, and as we all know, if he were a hobbit he’d probably still be alive and enjoying his senior years. I imagine there are all kinds of celebrations going on in Middle Earth today, you’ve got to honor your forefathers, and especially the founder of your world.
Señor Tolkien, I think that you wrote some really damn good books and it would be great if you could come back from the dead and write more.
“Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has strongly hinted for the first time that she could write an eighth book in the series.
Rowling, 42, admits she has ‘weak moments’ when she feels she will pen another novel about the boy wizard.
One of her biggest fans – her 14-year-old daughter Jessica – has already put pressure on her to revisit the character.
…
However, if an eighth novel were to be written, Rowling concedes it is unlikely that Harry would be the central character.
…
An interview with Time magazine, which put Rowling at No 3 in its Person Of The Year list, she said: “There have been times since finishing, weak moments, when I’ve said ‘Yeah, all right’ to the eighth novel.
“If - and it’s a big if - I ever write an eighth book, I doubt that Harry would be the central character. I feel I’ve already told his story.
“But these are big ifs. Let’s give it ten years.”
In the meantime, Rowling is working on two writing projects – an adult novel and a “political fairy tale” – and is involved in charity work”
I’m sorry, but that is just wayyy too scary. That’s the kind of thing that could seriously scar a child. Imagine if you saw this thing lurking about when you were out trick or treating back in the day. I don’t know what I would do, but I would probably think it was a real werewolf, and I can’t think of anything much more frightening than that. The thought it could be Professor Lupin doesn’t make me any less scared, because as we know he couldn’t control himself when he was a wolf, unless he drank his potion, which in the real world doesn’t exist. So if I saw this werewolf while I was out I would immediately know he was not on the potion, and thus wild and dangerous. I guess werewolves don’t exist either, but I digress. Bottom line is, that thing is way too scary. If you actually make this for Halloween this year, I will never let my future children hang around you, because you are a creep.
This is pretty big news. According to J.K. Rowling, she always thought Dumbledore, head of Hogwarts School, mentor to the Boy Who Lived, was gay. The Washington Post has the story:
“NEW YORK (Reuters) - J.K. Rowling has outed one of the main characters of her best-selling Harry Potter series, telling fans in New York that the wizard Albus Dumbledore, head of Hogwarts school, is gay.
Speaking at Carnegie Hall on Friday night in her first U.S. tour in seven years, Rowling confirmed what some fans had always suspected — that she “always thought Dumbledore was gay,” reported entertainment Web site E! Online.
Rowling said Dumbledore fell in love with the charming wizard Gellert Grindelwald but when Grindelwald turned out to be more interested in the dark arts than good, Dumbledore was “terribly let down” and went on to destroy his rival.
That love, she said, was Dumbledore’s “great tragedy.”
“Falling in love can blind us to an extent,” she said.
The audience reportedly fell silent after the admission — then erupted into applause.
Rowling, 42, said if she had known that would be the response, she would have revealed her thoughts on Dumbledore earlier.”
Personally, I think this is great. I think it adds a lot more depth to Dumbledore’s character, to learn how he had to kill his true love. Dumbledore always seemed like a bit of a tragic character, beloved by most, yet a loner. Now we have some insight into this. Did he ever love again after Grindelwald? Did Dumbledore feel the need to hide his homosexuality, and thus feel trapped?
I’m curious if homosexuality is something accepted in the Wizarding world, or if it is psuedo-accepted, like in our world, or maybe even not at all accepted, like in the South. How would Lucious Malfoy feel about his son being taught by a gay man? Granted, I have no proof Death Eaters would be homophobic, but for some reason it just seems like they would be. Voldemort is such a Hitler figure, you know in his attempt at keeping Wizard blood pure, he probably feels the need to root out gay Wizards too.
Sadly, this new information about Dumbledore probably gives that much more steam to those Christian groups that think Harry Potter is the Devil’s work.
I do think it is very interesting that J.K. never divulged this in any of the books. I can’t think of any other literary or movie characters that are so important, and also gay. I mean think about it, Dumbledore was arguably the most powerful Wizard in the world, and he was also gay. I really can’t think of another instance where such a powerful and important (in the sense of importance to their world) character is gay. I think it’s great that Dumbledore was outed. He immediately becomes the most famous (outed) gay person ever. Did J.K. purposely leave the fact that Dumbledore is gay out of the books in hopes that some people would like and identify with him more? Did she just leave it out to make her books less controversial? Did she simply feel that the fact he is gay didn’t really have anything to do with the story?
I’m afraid it won’t happen, but if JK has back stories for all her characters like this, I almost feel like she is obligated to write some more books and share them with us. We care so much Jo, we just want to see further into your mind and the Wizarding world!
The article went on to say that JK’s net worth is 1.12 Billion Dollars. Holy hell.
For my whole life, I have wanted magic to be real so badly. Honestly, if I think about it too much, it just depresses me that it’s not real. Think about how superior our world would be with witches and wizards. Granted, there would need to be laws controlling magic, or we would all be Jedi Mind Tricking each other, which would get chaotic. Those laws sound difficult to impose, but if we had magic, I’m sure we could use magic laws that would work. It would somehow work itself out. Why can’t it just be real? I can’t think of anything cooler.
Now, I know J.K. Rowling presents the idea that the Wizarding World simply hides their abilities from us “muggles”. I don’t believe this though, a wizard or a witch, is still a human with human emotions. At some point a wizard would use magic to impress a girl and the whole thing would be blown. Something like that would happen, which is why I am reasonably confident magic does not exist currently.
A couple years back, I even went so far as to buy some spell books at Powell’s (my local bookstore and also the biggest one in the world for those who don’t know). I read them all cover to cover and attempted to perform numerous spells, to no avail. This just added to my frustration and disappointment in the lack of magic in our world. Now I have a bunch of worthless spell books in my shelf.
I think this obsession with magic and fantastical things has led to another fascination of mine, cyborgs and robots and such. Being a cyborg would be as close as I could get to performing magic, and to pilgrims or cavemen (I apologize for propagating the stereotype) such things would appear to be magic. If I had robot eyes I could see for miles, giving me in every sense, a magical power. This is problematic though, first because I don’t think robot eyes are available yet, and second because it is still not magic, it’s science and technology. A guy in a lab built my robot eyes and can explain how they work. Obviously, this is predicated on the fact that we learn how to interpret brain signals and program computers how to read them, then we may be able to design robot eyes and that scientist in the lab could explain how it worked. Bottom line though, it’s still not magic. I may have an X-Man like power, but I’m no wizard, I’m still a fake relying on technology.
I know I have proposed no solutions and this short essay has basically just been me complaining something I really really want doesn’t exist, but at the very least you can now understand why I played (ok fine, play, present tense) the Magic: The Gathering card game. It lets me live out my dreams that will never happen. I know I sound like such a burnout when I say that, but it’s true. I just have to live with the fact that magic does not exist. I know I will be ok, but some days it is just very hard to accept.
Side note: I hope no girls read this essay. If they do, I may never date again.
The Hobbit turns 70 today (which incidentally isn’t that old for a Hobbit). This is one of my favorite books of all time. I won’t say it’s my Bible, because Lord of the Rings is my Bible. So, maybe if the Bible had a prequel, maybe about God in his young days. We would certainly get insights into how his relationship with the Devil became so strained. That would be the Hobbit.
It’s a much lighter read than Rings. A great place to start if you haven’t read the trilogy. Or even if you have read the trilogy. A must read.
Last night I finished reading Deathly Hallows (yes, it took me like 2 days) and now Harry Potter is all I can think about. I’ll hold off on a review where I actually talk about story details until more people have finished it, but there are so many parallels to other stories, I kind of found it interesting. Voldemort and the Death Eaters are pretty much Nazi’s, with their race cleansing (and talk of pure blood), shortsightedness, arrogance, and attempted slow march to world domination. The Ministry of Magic situation is very similar to “1984”, suppressing anything but the official government line. The Star Wars comparisons flow like wine too. Voldemort is a dead ringer for Darth Vader. He wants to rule the entire galaxy, and instead of building his Death Star for immortality, he seeks the Elder Wand. Harry, the Order of the Phoenix, and the rest of the Wizarding community who fight back remind me of the Rebel uprising in Star Wars. The Harry, Ron, and Hermoine trio is Luke, Han, and Princess Leia pretty much exactly, right down to the romance between Ron and Hermoine/Leia and Han. Harry is Luke, the unlikely hero from apparently modest beginnings (but turns out to have important parents), who always fights for love and friendship, and never considers using his position for power, shades of the mental battle against the Dark Side of the force. Even Harry and Voldemort are linked on a very basic level, much as Luke and Darth Vader were, not as father and son, but something equally as powerful.
JK Rowling wrote some fantastic books, and it’s certainly not a knock on her that she borrows so much from Star Wars or Lord of the Rings (did anybody else notice how Dementors are pretty much exactly the same thing as Ringwraiths?), because certainly her books have a life of their own and while they may parallel those stories they are undeniably very original. It’s interesting how so many of our beloved epic stories resemble each other. I think it’s something about the black and white struggle between good and evil that we all identify with. I often wish life was cut and dry like that, with obvious good guys and bad guys. It seems somehow simpler. No matter how all powerful the evil is, there is never a doubt what you should be fighting against, or fighting for.
In anticipation of Deathly Hallows on Saturday, I can’t stop thinking about Harry Potter. Thus, I shall give my take on the Order of the Phoenix movie that came out last week.
***SPOILER ALERT!*** You’ve all read the books, right? I doubt I’ll spoil anything for you.
I think OOTP (Order of the Phoenix, just to save me lots of typing) is a tough book to turn into a movie. Sure it has the epic battle in the Ministry of Magic at the end, and the book was 850 plus pages, but it is really a transitional book. It’s all about the impending fight with Voldemort, and getting ready for it, and what it means to Harry’s world. Which makes it hard to make a movie about. Plus, each Harry Potter movie has been frusturatingly different than the previous one, as they keep bringing in new directors. I think the Prisoner of Azkahban movie was the best thus far. The director, Alfonso Cuaron, also did Y Tu Mama Tambien, which was basically porn. Remember that slow motion diving board masturbation scene? So he was an odd choice to direct a Harry Potter movie, but I think he knocked it out of the park by embracing the darker aspects of Harry’s world, making the movie appeal to the older kids that like the books, like me, as well as the younger kids. Cuaron also directed Children of Men, which I haven’t seen, but I’ve heard is fantastic, and is directing the upcoming The History of Love. Just a side note: The History of Love is one of my favorite books ever, so I’m very excited about the movie natch, and I’m glad to see it’s in the hands of a capable director.
So anyway, I think the darker tones of Prisoner of Azkaban led them to switch directors again for Goblet of Fire. This time Mike Newell was brought in, yes that Mike Newell, who is responsible for such masterpieces as Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Mona Lisa smile. Give me Alfonso Cuaron back. That said, Goblet of Fire was not bad. I think Newell must have had orders to find a happy medium between the very kids-y early Harry movies and Prisoner of Azkaban, because Goblet of Fire feels very uneven, as the moods are constantly shifting from very dark to silly. It makes it hard to settle in and enjoy it. Although, there were some really genuine moments that resonated with me. After Cedric gets killed and Harry takes the port key back to Hogwarts for instance. What happened seems to hit Harry the second he gets back and as he breaks down the crowd cheers because they have no idea what happened and they think he just won the Tri-Wizard tournament. It’s just a very strong moment of despair for Harry, and it was one of those random movie moments that just touched me. Also the Quidditch World Cup match at the beginning is spectacular and so is its swift turn to destruction when the Death Eaters show up.
OOTP had yet another director, David Yates, who I had never heard of, but apparently does a lot of British TV. Interesting choice, but he does quite well. I’m definitely OK with him being signed on for Half-Blood Prince too. In all honesty, I love Harry Potter so much, it would be very hard for me to not like this movie. It would have to be along the lines of the Ring 2 for it to really let me down.
1. I loved all the awkward moments. Yes, this is about Harry hitting adolescence and as we all know, adolescence is awkward, and leaving in awkward moments just for the sake of that seems odd, but Yates handles them well and they got me to crack up every time. Plenty of glorious awkward silence between Harry, Ron, and Hermoine.
2. The subplot of his government being run into the ground and not focusing on the right things is really interesting and was brought to life well in the movie. The Ministry of Magic refuses to believe that Voldemort is back, and spends all their time discrediting Harry and Dumbledore instead of focusing on the matter at hand. Harry’s frustration with his world came off as very real, the worst possible thing that could happen is happening, and nobody will listen to him. It helps that in real life, we have a government focusing on the wrong things to help us relate to this.
3. The acting is mostly top notch all around. I loved Hellena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange. Carter was in Fight Club and Charlie and the Chocolate factory, and good in both of those. She didn’t get a lot of screen time in this movie, but she came off as genuinely evil and insane, and creepy! Ralph Fiennes as He Who Shall Not Be Named With No Nose, turns up the creepiness to 11 and that works too. Note that one scene where we swoop into Harry’s brain and it has Voldemort standing there with his wand looking nonchalant, then he swoops his hand forward and sticks out his tongue. Henry and I cracked up. Imelda Staunton was very good as Dolores Umbridge. She was so creepy with her cat plates and how she smirked at everything. Pure evil behind that niceness, she seemed to capture the character really well. I liked Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood, she played spacey really well. I also liked the fact that she is a huge huge Harry Potter fan, apparently that helped her get the role too. That’s got to be the thrill of a lifetime for her. It’s akin to me getting to play an mid level important elf in The Two Towers or something. The twins were pretty entertaining, as was Ron. It’s a kick to watch all these actors grow up from movie to movie. Even Emma Watson as Hermoine was better, doing much less acting with her eyebrows.
4. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry keeps it solid too. I didn’t find his acting super inspiring, but he’s definitely solid as Harry and he’s gotten so much better since the earlier Harry movies. I did like his disheveled look in Goblet of Fire much more than this new more ripped, more butch Harry.
5. A lot of was left out from the book, most notably Quidditch and that weird subplot with Ron being super jealous of Harry. Also where was Lavender Brown? Nevertheless, I can see why a lot of it was left out. Keeping all that stuff in would have put this movie at around 3 and a half hours at least, and while I would have been OK with that (see the theatrical release of Return of the King at 3 hours and 42 minutes), for people that are less hardcore Harry Potter fans that would have been overkill. The end result is that the movie breezes by, and while I would have liked more detail, I was OK with the run time.
6. A moment that stuck with me was after Harry sees Ron’s dad get bitten by Voldemorts snake in the Ministry in his dream. Harry wakes up in a panic and ends up in Dumbledore’s office. People are fretting about what to do and in the middle of the chaos Harry screams at Dumbledore “Look at me!” Everybody goes silent, surprised at the outburst, probably doubly surprised that it was directed towards Dumbledore. Then after a tense moment, Harry breaks down and asks “What’s happening to me?” It really hits you how everything in Harry’s world is going wrong. He’s growing up and dealing with that, Voldemorts back and the government is directing all that attention towards Harry rather than the Dark Lord. Even his life in the real non-magic world is not a refuge. Things are bleak for Harry, and you really feel for him at that moment.
7. I wanted more screen time for Ginny Weasley, she becomes a major character yet I could hardly tell who she was.
8. It’s never explained why Dumbledore avoids Harry for most of the movie. This is explained thoroughly in the book and renews our faith in Dumbledore. Here, he just seems aloof until he saves Harry at the end in the movie, and it is never explained why.
9. The term “snogging” for making out absolutely has to make it across the Atlantic and to the US. Consider me spokesperson for the “snogging” movement, I’m spearheading it.
10. Any time I read a Harry Potter book, or watch a Harry Potter movie, it makes me sad how I will probably never be a wizard. Given one wish I would use it to become a wizard.
11. Being a squib would be the worst thing ever. You know about magic and wizards and witches, and by all rights you should be one, but you just can’t. I can’t imagine anything more frustrating.
12. WHERE WAS THE QUIDDITCH?
13. Azkaban was briefly shown, and it was so cool. Exactly how I imagined a wizard prison would be.
14. The dementors got way more intense and scarier.
15. Dudley was just ridiculous. Fat wannabe hip hop kid? I think he was even wearing bling.
Well, I’m revisiting this a couple days later, and I lost focus. So here ends my abrupt movie review. I apologize. It was a solid movie about a fantastic book. Better than most movies I’ve seen this summer surely. The important thing though: DEATHLY HALLOWS TONIGHT!!!
