Hogwarts, Up or Down

Started by karlhenning, July 10, 2007, 04:46:57 AM

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Do you Harry Potter?

Yea
19 (55.9%)
Nay
15 (44.1%)

Total Members Voted: 26

Voting closed: July 20, 2007, 04:46:57 AM

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Sergeant Rock

#20
July 11, 2007, 07:24:49 AM
Quote from: PSmith08 on July 10, 2007, 07:35:06 PM
Whoa, whoa. Popcorn has been the only redeeming part of several movie experiences that I've had.

In fact, fresh popcorn - cooked in a stirrer kettle, with industrial-grade coconut popping oil, doused with Flavacol - makes everything better. I made popcorn for a summer as part of a complicated and non-linear volunteering experience, so the various intricacies of popcorn manufacture are burned into my brain and forearms. It mostly comes down to oil-to-kernel ratios, time in the kettle, and Flavacol usage. (Unsurprisingly, moderation in the first and third, with a subjective judgment on the second.) There is still some experimentation to find the perfect balance. Salty enough to be delicious, but not so salty that it burns.

So, how 'bout those Harry Potter books?

Wow...not only are you well-versed and articulate on issues musical, you're a master popcorner. My hat's off to you, sir.

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

PSmith08

#21
July 11, 2007, 07:49:26 AM
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on July 11, 2007, 07:24:49 AM
Wow...not only are you well-versed and articulate on issues musical, you're a master popcorner. My hat's off to you, sir.

Sarge

Thanks indeed, but - compared with some of the people who had been at the "popcorn game" for years - I was a rank amateur. Still, spend a summer doing very little else but making popcorn in a small, incredibly hot outdoor concessions stand, and you learn some things. Mostly how much hot popping oil burns.  ;)

Don

#22
July 11, 2007, 07:54:16 AM
I don't Potter - would likely do so if I was much younger.

Shrunk

#23
July 11, 2007, 08:57:54 AM Last Edit: July 11, 2007, 09:02:01 AM by Shrunk
I had a first go at the Harry Potter books a few years ago, when my daughter's were around 6 and 8.  I enjoyed the book immensely, but my kids found it too scary and refused continue to the second book.  Interestingly, it wasn't so much the suspense and danger that bothered them.  It was that Harry kept breaking school rules and they were afraid he would get caught.

I was quite disappointed, as I wanted to keep on with the series.  There was no reason I coudn't read them on my own, of course, but there was alway more "important" reading to be done.

Anyway, my girls are now 9 and 11, and they decided to brave the books again.  This time, they couldn't get enough of them, and we went thru all six books in a row.  One thing that seems to explain the popularity of the books is, as Sarge mentioned, the themes have become darker and more mature as it goes along.  In effect, the books have grown up along with its audience.

Apparently, bookies in the UK were taking bets on whether Harry gets offed in the final installment, but the betting was so heavily in favour of him being killed that they stopped taking bets.  Now the betting is only on who actually does him in.

BTW, a question for other parents: When do you stop reading to your kids at night, if you ever do?  Personally, I hope we never have to stop. It's one of the high points of the day. (We're doing Don Quixote now.)

Brian

#24
July 11, 2007, 02:05:52 PM
Love the books, will buy the seventh.
Only saw one movie (#1) before giving up on them.

Solitary Wanderer

#25
July 11, 2007, 02:15:13 PM
I haven't read the books, but I've seen a couple of the movies which were well done for what they are, but not really my thing :)

My wife's read the first book and loved it and wants to read more of them!
'I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.' ~ Emily Bronte

Bogey

#26
July 11, 2007, 03:38:42 PM
Quote from: Solitary Wanderer on July 11, 2007, 02:15:13 PM
I haven't read the books, but I've seen a couple of the movies which were well done for what they are, but not really my thing :)

My wife's read the first book and loved it and wants to read more of them!

Tell her they only get better....and darker.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Bonehelm

#27
July 11, 2007, 04:58:35 PM
I would say the books are much better than the movies. The movies are, after all, just made to attract kids and people who doesn't know anything about the series. Hardcore fans would find the movies stupid, just like I did when I first saw the Da Vinci Code movie.

Szykneij

#28
July 11, 2007, 05:11:08 PM
Quote from: PSmith08 on July 10, 2007, 07:35:06 PM
In fact, fresh popcorn - cooked in a stirrer kettle, with industrial-grade coconut popping oil, doused with Flavacol - makes everything better.

When I was in high school, I worked part-time at a drive-in theater and popped enough popcorn to fill the Grand Canyon. The coconut oil is the key to that irresistible, artery-clogging flavor. When the temperature dropped below 60 degrees F., the oil in the drums turned solid and you had to plop it into the kettle with a giant spoon!
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines. ~ Satchel Paige

PSmith08

#29
July 11, 2007, 10:47:30 PM
Quote from: Szykniej on July 11, 2007, 05:11:08 PM
When I was in high school, I worked part-time at a drive-in theater and popped enough popcorn to fill the Grand Canyon. The coconut oil is the key to that irresistible, artery-clogging flavor. When the temperature dropped below 60 degrees F., the oil in the drums turned solid and you had to plop it into the kettle with a giant spoon!

Ah, a fellow traveler.  ;D

Congealing is the sign of healthy food products. Don't get me started, though, on the cheese sauce they use for nachos. The horrible scraping from the can, the mixing with water, and the heating. This is allegedly cheese. I haven't had the stomach for such nachos since. I really can't even see the stuff.

Popcorn, though, has provided many a meal when I was too cheap or too lazy to get "real" food. Filling and delicious.

The Mad Hatter

#30
July 12, 2007, 03:14:33 AM
Quote from: brianrein on July 11, 2007, 02:05:52 PM
Love the books, will buy the seventh.
Only saw one movie (#1) before giving up on them.

Try the third. The other three aren't great, but the third was excellent.

Quote from: Bonehelm on July 11, 2007, 04:58:35 PM
I would say the books are much better than the movies. The movies are, after all, just made to attract kids and people who doesn't know anything about the series. Hardcore fans would find the movies stupid, just like I did when I first saw the Da Vinci Code movie.

Well, the book was trash as well...

Hector

#31
July 12, 2007, 06:06:29 AM
Quote from: Bonehelm on July 10, 2007, 01:45:44 PM
Someone convince me HP novels aren't children's fairy tales!

I have no quarrel with Rowling who turned up on TV last week for a rare interview in  drop-dead gorgeous heels, a black dress that allowed her tits to hang out, provacatively(rumour is rife that she has spent part of her billions on makeovers and the like). No quarrel, at all.

It is all these silly adults who think they are being really coooooooool  reading the 'adult' versions of the 'novels.'

I would never waste time reading the stuff, time is short and there is so much good literature out there, now, and I have never watched any of the films all the way through and tend to get bored with the relentless CGI. However, they provide unending employment for Brit thesps, which can be no bad thing (the latest has Helena Bonham-Carter who looks as if she could be really dirty, if you know what I mean ;)).

But, hey, if you love this fantasy stuff...why not go out and enjoy it :)

yashin

#32
July 14, 2007, 06:01:24 PM
Went to watch the movie last night...despite not watching the all in the series-so that makes it a little confusing.
Was quite impressed.  It did not leave me cold and bored like Pirates or some other recent rubbish.

What suprised me was how much older the cast look compared to the last one i saw.

I would watch it again....but i wouldn't race back to the cinema to see it again.

Transformers tonight-heard that is good.

karlhenning

#34
July 17, 2007, 12:18:19 PM
Quote"Gushing with enthusiasm and admiration, Beahm's compendium of Harry Potter trivia and essays should tide over fans waiting for book [seven] to come out.  Beahm pitches the prose just right; . . . sophisticated enough to interest adults and lively enough to keep younger fans engaged." Publishers Weekly, the trade journal for the book industry

I like that "book [seven]" . . . let us guess that Beahm updated a publication which had anticipated yet an earlier tome in the series.

AnthonyAthletic

#36
July 18, 2007, 09:08:57 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on July 18, 2007, 09:03:30 AM
Be safe out there!

Harry Potter spoilers spread over Internet

Harry Potter does not die...FACT  ;D

I know this for true  ;)

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying"      (Arthur C. Clarke)

karlhenning

#37
July 18, 2007, 09:23:25 AM
Longshanks: friend or foe?

DetUudslukkelige

#38
July 18, 2007, 09:49:37 AM Last Edit: July 18, 2007, 09:53:20 AM by DetUudslukkelige
Yes, I am a Harry Potter geek. At least, around the release of each book, I become one temporarily. I have just finished rereading the first six books... This was the first time I read the first book in nine years, in fact. I did not realize how much the movies diverged from the books until I reread them. In fact, sometimes I found myself thinking "It'll be interesting to see how they portray this in the movies", only to remember that the the movie for the book was already out.

Hrm. I tell you this, I am not going to let this book be spoiled for me. I was eating breakfast in a restaraunt the day the sixth book came out, and someone thought it would be a good idea to shout so that everyone could hear, "Hey, everyone, guess what happens on page 596 of the new Harry Potter book?" and then proceeded to read the passage out loud so that everyone could hear.
-DetUudslukkelige

"My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary." - Martin Luther

karlhenning

#39
July 18, 2007, 10:02:13 AM
So you're staying at home with the door locked until you've finished reading it, right?  8)
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