Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Around the holidays, I always get really in the mood for movies like Harry Potter (and want to go to Hogwarts even more badly). Well, basically I'm always in the mood for Harry Potter, but even more so October through early February. Hogwarts for me is always this nice cozy castle surrounded by old growth forests and lots of good food and slightly crazy/eccentric people. It's the same for a lot of people. Unlike in the HP7 movie poster, Hogwarts NEVER gets trashed by Death Eaters. Its teachers never die. McGonagall gets to teach transfiguration forever. And yes, even though Voldemort threatens everyone inside it with death, it's still a semi-paradise. Will my obsession with Hogwarts last forever? Probably. Aunt Petunia's jealousy (over Lilly) lasted a nice long time. Of course, that's from the perspective of a slightly...hmmm...over-excited, indecisive, person basking in the glow of such a recent movie release. I am a little embarassed to admit that I saw HP7 for the third time last night. Three times, I felt, would be a little much even for me. But actually, I enjoyed it the third time the most. For a variety of reasons. One, I wasn't either starving or deliriously tired. Two, I actually started to accept that HP could be HP without Hogwarts. Three, I got over the sadder aspects (gone are the happy innocent days at Hogwarts) and was able to appreciate some of its more quirky "wizarding-world" scenes that accounted for so much of my fascination early on. And lastly, I wasn't the only one in the theater to yell at Snape's first appearance. My friend sitting next to me--as big a Snape fan as I am--nearly mauled me in her excitement. Anyways, there's this great line about his robes billowing out behind him, like they always do, in the sixth book. It reminded me exactly of that first Malfoy manor scene, as he climbs the staircase. Quite dramatic. Yes, I reread a good portion of the ending of the sixth book this morning (surprise, surprise). I was trying to figure out why in the world Ms. Rowling decided to name it "and the Half-Blood Prince". But the exciting conclusion to that story--after we know who it is, of course--is that Snape's witch mother married a muggle. Shocking. Just like Voldemort's. So, I have a couple possible theories:
1. She was trying to let the reader know that Snape is more important than they previously imagined by devoting the title to him. Even though the potions book, I believe, doesn't do much to further the plot besides introducing Snape as the Half-Blood Prince. And we never hear about it again.
2. She wants to draw attention to half-blood Snape and his early involvement in helping Voldemort form the "perfect pure-blood society" so-advertised in HP7, then in so-doing bring attention to Voldemort's identical situation and thus the hypocritical/ironic status of their work. Though really, Voldemort uses it as a facade for his rise to absolute power.

If you have more theories, please enlighten me. And my family. They watched the sixth movie last night without me, even though the night before my dad asked me not to watch it because he was going to bed and wanted to see it too. Yes. I know. What is this horror? And then they had the nerve to bombard me with plot questions, such as the one I posed to vous (respectful/you plural in French), which I happily tried to answer. Anyways, so...theories. That would be good. Also, a little peeved that Bill was left out of the sixth movie and Peeves for all of them. I really like Bill. I don't know why. Maybe it's just the way he carries himself, and his good nature even though he's been mutilated by a werewolf. Bill, and, of course, Fred and George. I couldn't help but snicker loudly at that part with Ginny, where George walks into the kitchen with the toothbrush sticking out of his bandages. Ginny is so...obnoxious. I had a dream, about a week ago, where I was at Hogwarts. The classroom looked like a normal Lakeridge classroom, except that Daniel Radcliffe was sitting right next to me and the class was having a competition to see who looked the most like a Harry Potter character. Obviously, the entire class voted for him...except for him, who voted for me. It was a pretty good dream, even though he thought I looked like Ginny. And then an abnormally large spider started spinning glowing silver webs all over the school grounds and my dream went downhill from there. I just thought it was cool that I was at Hogwarts. Anyways, on to art.

So, yesterday, I got most of the primary painting done on my concentration piece and a good portion of the tree trunk finalized. Never before have I seriously applied paint with a palette knife, nor done a tree in acrylic, but it was quite fun. Hopefully everyone else will think it looks like bark. Oh, but using a palette knife was so much fun.

On the Harry Potter premiere (naturally)

Surprise, surprise. This premiere for me was up there with Christmas. Honestly, last week went by so fast that it felt like a holiday. I'm so sad that there's only one premiere left to attend. This HP7 one was my first, and I absolutely loved it. I actually sort of felt bad that I didn't have more of a costume, because so many people were decked out. Well, actually, I did have more of a costume but no one would have noticed because I was wearing my big fluffy grey sweater and cowering under a drippy umbrella, ski jacket, and big pile of blankets the entire time. The way my group and I were camped out, I could really only hold my umbrella with my feet, so all this freezing cold water pooled in my shoes and soaked my socks (neither of which were dry the next day). I didn't stop shivering the entire time, but everything was completely worth it. Special thanks to everyone who brought extra blankets and Bridgeport for its last, broken umbrella. Anyways, it was really fun to be around other huge Harry Potter fans--people that would go all out with their costume and then run around having random duels with other people on the sidewalk. Even Voldemort walked past once, which was sort of creepy because he walked really slow and stared at you the entire time. When we got inside the movie theater, he was the one helping with trivia. When he announced the second question for the grand prize (the first nobody knew), I was very pleased to realize that I knew the answer, because I had been practicing the line for weeks. It was, What page number does Professor Snape say to turn to in his Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson in the third movie? Or something of the sort. Page 394. I love Snape. He's my favorite character (I've probably rambled on about this before), and he has a cool voice, so it's fun to try to mimic what he says. I'm so excited for the second movie, when so much time is devoted to him. Anyways, the movie as a whole was actually pretty sad. For me the beginnning with Hermione was the saddest, and the end was too but I've never really liked Dobby all that much.

On a different note, I was thinking a little more about concentrations and thought that next year, it might be kind of fun to do something around commercial transportation. The Harry Potter premiere was sort of conveniently timed with the new WOA, too.



Me in front of the Snape cardboard pillar




The imax people got to wait inside, the 12:05 people got to wait on the sidewalk nearest the theater, and the 12:15 people got to wait in the middle of the street. Would it have been worth paying an extra 7 dollars to wait inside? Absolutely not.



So many people were oblivious as to why everyone was lining up. We got asked by at least five people, told them Harry Potter,  and then started seriously considering saying "Tangled"



Upcoming WOA...hmmmm

So I guess my concentration is going to center around humans trapped in nature. It sounds so different from what I originally said I was going to do, but it actually encompasses quite a few of my previous ideas. As for the WOA....having a hard time deciding. I keep trying to say, "Okay, this is what I'm going to do," with absolute conviction, but my idea changes every day. And the medium. Acrylic is really tempting, but takes me a crazy long time to do. Hmmmm.

Harry Potter comes out in less than two weeks! Yes!!!!! In French class today, my teacher suggested making some group presentation due on that Friday and immediately everyone exclaimed "Harry Potter!" and proceeded to tell her that that might not be such a good due date. I think she was a little surprised at the mass outcry, but....I am so proud of my French class.

The aftermath of Halloween....

Well, everybody looked dead on Monday morning. I certainly felt tired. It would be nice if they all gave us a day off after Halloween...yeah, wishful thinking. Anyways, hope everyone had a good one. I dressed up as George Weasley, ran around the house labeling all the rooms as parts of Hogwarts. The downstair's bathroom officially became the girl's bathroom on the first floor, or wherever it is. Moaning Myrtle's haunt. I drew a quick picture of her and stuck it on the wall, along with a plastic snake. Then I wrapped a smaller snake around the faucet, just to prove my point (the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets). Today, my grandma told me that these snakes were quite effective. Apparently, the larger snake fell off the wall and freaked out my aunt. Oops. Anyways, upstairs became the third floor corridor on the right hand side, off-limits to anyone who does not wish to suffer a most painful death. My room became Dumbledore's office (which, conveniently, you need a password to enter). Sherbert lemon? No. So, I guess some of the signs were sort of cheesy. But I had a lot of fun making them, all in tribute to the series' impending end. Can't believe the next one is coming out in less than two weeks! So excited! But at the same time, a little sad. A good amount of fun is in the waiting. So excited, though. I tried to carve my pumpkin with the Hogwarts emblem this year, to go along with my decorating theme. Hence, the pictures at the top.