I think that going with Drew Carey is a fabulous choice. Personally, I've thought for a while now that CBS should tap Mr. T for the hosting job ("Come on down, fool!") but Carey is probably as ideal a man for this job as there can probably be. Here's wishing him all the best!
Since reporting last week about Sony Music saying that there are "no immediate plans" to release a CD of the Transformers score, a lot of people have been making inquiries with various parties about this. Fellow seeker-of-the-score Chris Barry has made the following compilation of answers that have been coming out about a score release:
1. Lorne Balfe (composed some additional music on Transformers) said: "There is talk of a score for transformers coming out but it will be at least another 2 months!"It's a good thing to know, at least, that the right folks who have been involved with Transformers's music do understand that there is quite a heavy demand for this score. By the way, when talking about a "Jablonsky Transformers score album", I hope that this includes every composer's contribution to this amazing soundtrack, if at all possible.2. Mel Wesson (ambient music designer for Transformers) said: That's a question a lot of people are asking but to tell the truth I have no idea what's happening with the album. It would surprise me if the score wasn't released, although people tell
me soundtrack albums without high profile songs seldom sell that well. That said it's a big movie, there's a market for the score and I'm sure it'll be available at some stage.3. Frank Macchia (responsible for percussion/choir orchestration on Transformers) said: I have not heard that there will be a score release of Steve's music to Transformers. It's possible that down the road a CD will come out, but I do not know of any CD presently planned.
4. SonyMusicStore Customer Service said: At this time, there are no immediate plans regarding the release of the Transformers soundtrack score.
And in case you haven't seen Transformers yet (and you really should 'cuz it's a terrific movie), here's an example of why so many people want to own this soundtrack so much. I've no idea how long it'll be up on YouTube but someone has posted the "Autobots descent" scene. Here it is, in all it's glory:
I'm going to be contacting Sony Music pretty soon (can't today 'cuz there's a few things on my plate that need attention and I want to allow for however much time is needed to convey our desire on this) and will report back, hopefully with some encouraging word. In the meantime, keep spreading the word about the petition and encouraging people to sign it. Even if this is just a fraction of the people who want to buy a Transformers score CD, every signature is still going to help the cause immensely.
Here's the exterior of the store. It's probably my favorite bookstore in Greensboro, if for no other reason than because I've come to know a lot of good people who work there.
Without a doubt, there were more people waiting inside Border's this time than there were two years ago. And it seemed that the crowd only grew exponentially as midnight approached.
Here he is: the infamous Brian aka Darth Larry, who Border's brought back special for this night before he starts his new job as a music professor at Mercer (click here for what Darth Larry thought about the book after his insane reading binge).
Here's the sign-in table. If you pre-ordered the book you got a wrist-band in one of about 5 or 6 colors, depending on how early you showed up to get a spot in the check-out line (I think). My wrist-band was colored pink, which put me in the group about 5 places from the front of the line (I guess we could have gotten there earlier and received a higher color in line, but Lisa and I did have our fifth anniversary to celebrate over dinner, 'course :-).
I didn't take these next three pics. They came from someone who I let borrow my camera so they could get these photos of the sealed boxes containing the copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I would have probably been severely mangled if I had come within eyesight of these crates before they were brought out at midnight.
This being a Harry Potter release party, a lot of folks came out in costume (and in case anyone's wondering, I did not wear the "Read a Harry Potter book for Jesus" t-shirt). This dude is sporting some wizarding high fashion.
And here's a guy who's either Voldemort or a Death Eater.
For the kids (and the considerably older kids as well) Border's had several events going on, including a "dance floor" and Harry Potter Bingo.
This is Susan Miller, a teacher at Ragsdale High School. She came dressed as Professor McGonagall and her daughter came as Nymphadora Tonks, complete with wild pink hair.
Ahhh yes, the big question we expected to be answered in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (besides whether Harry lives or dies): is Severus Snape a good guy or a bad guy?
Luna Lovegood has become quite a popular character from the books. There were at least two young ladies who came as Luna (complete with copies of The Quibbler).
"The Great Snape Debate": a lively forum about the infamous Hogwarts potions master.
This person came dressed as a Gringotts goblin two years ago. It looked great then and I think the makeup and costume looked even more outrageously terrific this time.
And the Gringotts goblin entered the place accompanied by another awesome costume: none other than He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself, Voldemort!
Here's Phillip Arthur, one of the Border's managers not to mention fellow blogger and good friend (click here for the review he wrote of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).
In the last hour before midnight, the Border's staff had a costume contest. I wasn't able to get too many good pics of this 'cuz of the crowd, but there were plenty of good and original costumes, including one guy who came as "Harry and Cho's secret love child from an alternate universe"!
The calm before the storm: with about 45 minutes to go before midnight, the front counter was bereft of customers. Here you see Border's employee Liz as the lone guardian on the frontier of madness.
Hey look: a kid actually dressed as Harry Potter at a Harry Potter book release party!
Finally, with about ten minutes or so to go, everyone was more or less in their color-designated sections around the story. With one minute left the countdown toward 12:01 a.m. commenced.
And then: Magic Hour! Here are the first customers to buy the book, including the guy in the Voldemort getup who won the costume contest.
The "pink-coded" people wrapped around inside the store, but the line moved very quickly. Darth Larry told me Saturday afternoon that they were able to get around 600 people served within an hour and a half: a new record!
Here are three good dudes that I spent time with in line as we made our way to the counter.
On final approach to the checkout counter. One of the things the Border's people did that seriously expedited things was that they were busy bagging individual books so that they would be ready for purchase immediately.
Our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is almost in hand!
And there's Brian, in his farewell appearance at Border's before he rides into the sunset for Mercer.
And heeeeeeeere's Harry!
That last picture was taken by Meaghan (here with her husband, whose name is on the tip of my tongue - is it Scott? - but I can't remember exactly, c'mon you guys shoot me an e-mail and please let me know so the record will be accurate :-) who I'd last seen playing cello along with Brian this past December at UNC-Greensboro's performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors.
And, that was what went down on the night of July 20th-21st 2007 at the Border's in Greensboro. The Border's staff did an awesome job of entertaining the crowd and making sure that everyone got their books. It was a perfect model of customer service: I tip my fedora to the whole crew there.
'Twas a wonderful time! Lisa and I both enjoyed the evening (it was still an offbeat way to celebrate a fifth anniversary though). Too bad it will never happen again. But maybe J.K. Rowling will go the George Lucas route and write some prequels someday (maybe about the first war with Voldemort?) and we can all get together again. Maybe then I'll be courageous enough to actually come as Snape next go-round :-)
(NOTE: This review does not contain spoilers. Feel free to read without risk of having something revealed to you that you don't want to know about yet if you haven't read the Harry Potter books ... even though you should read them at some point :-)The best magic is when the trick is done right in front of you, in plain sight where you can see everything, and still your mouth hangs open in utter amazement at trying to figure out "how did they do that?".
For the past seven years, ever since I first bought and read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I've watched J.K. Rowling spin and weave her wonderful tale. She has made me look forward to each succeeding book with a wide-eyed wonder about what was going to happen next, where was this going. Always with the barest hint of mis-direction or sleight of hand on her part.
So at about 12:30 a.m. this morning (late last night in layman's terms), I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, almost 24 hours to the minute after first buying it at Borders in Greensboro (full report with photos of that coming later today).
And now, the morning after, I feel as if I have watched the conclusion of the most magnificent magic act in the history of fiction. The way it unfolded, the way it was always playing out before our eyes from the very beginning even if we didn't know it. How everything, in the end, is revealed to have been working in glorious sync toward the act's climax ...
"How did she do that?"
How wonderful a performance was it? Right now, I think that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a more fulfilling and uplifting end for a saga than Revenge of the Sith was to Star Wars ... and maybe even how The Return of the King wrapped-up The Lord of the Rings.
And the more I think about this book, the more I'm becoming convinced that the Harry Potter series is allegorical Christian fiction on par with C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. After Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, nobody will ever again be able to claim that Harry Potter is "evil" or "promoting witchcraft" or whatever ludicrous things have been said about these books and their author. What Harry and Hermione discover in Chapter 16, and the very title of the next to the last chapter of the book (it's called "King's Cross") should be flashing sign enough about the considerably Christian element that has been at work in this series.
I'm very glad now that I took the time to re-read all of the subsequent books in the past few weeks leading up to the release of The Deathly Hallows. It refreshed my mind about a lot of details that seemed so minor then, but take on enormous new significance in this final chapter of the Harry Potter saga. I'm trying hard this morning to think of some thread from subsequent books that is still left dangling by the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. So far I can only think of one, and it's a pretty minor one (but something toward the end makes me wonder if Rowling left that hanging after all).
And this book, at long last, delivered solid answers on some things that I had been wondering a lot about since the very beginning. Want an example? Without giving away any spoilers to those who haven't read the books yet (you know who I'm talking about ;-) I'll offer this example: in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, when Harry and Ron meet for the first time, Harry reads something. This particular item has to do with a certain major character and it cites a name and a year. Mention of the year alone has piqued and ached my curiosity for the better part of a decade now, because it happens to have been a very significant year in real world history and I've been dying to know all this time "okay, what's the connection here?". Sometimes I've wondered if I was reading too much into it. And then it turns out, after reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, that I was right to have caught note of that and maybe I didn't give it enough thought, because it turns out to have been very, very important to the story as a whole (and I'm probably giving away too much already just talking about it like this).
That's what this book is like though. Whatever question that likely has tantalized you for so long during the Harry Potter series, is answered here. Including some things that I had never given a second thought to. It can never be said that J.K. Rowling was simply "making it up" as she went along: this kind of orchestration isn't possible unless there were years of planning and forethought behind it.
This book has heartbreak. It has horror. It even has humor. It satisfies in ways that I've never enjoyed out of a fictional saga before. And for what it's worth, I will go ahead and say that the greatest line of the entire series is in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and it's spoken (actually screamed out) by Mrs. Weasley. You'll know it when you read it.
And so far as The Big Question goes, the one that has been foremost in the minds of readers these past two years - other than about if Harry is going to live or die in The Deathly Hallows - I can only say here that the answer is definitive and final and absolutely fitting in every way. But that's all I'm going to say about it until I'm confident that plenty enough people have read the book so that it can be discussed safely in the open.
I'm not going to say much more about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It's still very soon after the book's release and there are plenty of folks who haven't even read the first novel in the series, much less this final one. Those people really do deserve to discover the world of Harry Potter as we first came upon it: with amazement and wonder, and as unsuspecting as we were as to how beautifully crafted this intricate world really is.
In the meantime, I've finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and soon my wife Lisa will be reading it for the first time too (she's currently finishing reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince again). And then the book will join the others on our shelf as the complete seven-volume collection of the Harry Potter saga: a story that we will be returning to many times over the years, not just for our enjoyment but also to share with our children. And, no doubt, that they will share with their own children.
I used to wonder if my generation would ever see a literary masterpiece like The Lord of the Rings be produced in our own lifetime. I wondered if there was still enough magic in this world to do something so beautiful and wonderful again. With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows finishing this series, I am at last convinced: the magic is still out there. We just need to have faith that we can ... and will ... find it.
For the first time in my life, ever, my eyes were full of tears after reading the final words of a book.
That wasn't the only time either that it happened while reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, either.
Best experience I've had reading a book since ... maybe ever. It's going to take quite awhile for this to fully sink in.
There are a lot of things I'm going to be saying about this book in the next few days, especially when I write up my full review. But this needs to be stated loud and clear and right now: As of this moment a lot of people, if they have any shred of conscience, owe J.K. Rowling a huge apology. For trying to claim that this series of books is evil and morally corrupting and the ridiculous charge that it's "promoting satanism". The people who have said these things and have tried to ban the Harry Potter books and who have said a lot of nasty things about Rowling, if they have any sense at all, they will express nothing short of profound regret at what they have done all these years.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows establishes these seven books, now and forever, as Christian allegory that's just as wonderful as The Chronicles of Narnia. And I defy anyone to argue with me otherwise about that.
This book came out just over 24 hours ago. I'm already finished reading it. If you've finished reading it too and have a blog, do yourself a favor and make a note of it with a post, so that you can have something to point toward in years to come so you can tell your kids and grandkids "yes, I read Deathly Hallows when it first came out."
This book makes history. The good kind.
Will write more later. I'm gonna rest awhile now.
The end of this chapter - Chapter 24 - made me have to step away from the book and take a break for about a half-hour. It literally made my brain hurt to read something that horrific.
Something like this is perhaps the last thing that I would have ever expected to read in a children's novel.
That scene was ...
Like I said, words fail.
Still taking it nice and easy so that I can savor every moment of reading this. And so far, I can definitely say that it's been a very long time that a book has affected me like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And it's still far from over.
Many more thoughts about it later. I just wanted to hit the blog and chronicle my stunned disbelief at what I just read in this book. And even this probably won't be the last unholy act that I read before this night is over ...
Now comes word that Jenna Olwin has finished reading the book, too.
I am just now getting to Chapter 16 on page 311. I started reading the book as soon as I got home early this morning, then got some sleep starting at about 5, slept 'til 10 and then took another nap 'til noon. And I'm going slow with this book: I want to savor every bit of it, as much as I can, because this really is the final one. I want the experience to linger out a bit.
I should finish sometime later this evening. In the meantime, congrats to Darth Larry and Jenna (and probably a few others that I know have finished it by now too no doubt :-)
If Guinness has a category for "most violent children's book ever written", then Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has already earned the title ... and I'm not even a hundred pages into the thing!
Death toll so far: won't spoil it with numbers but it's far beyond what you would expect from kiddie literature.
And it's threatening to get worse.
Nobody is safe anymore.
"old Charlie stole the handle andIf you're just about to start reading, boyz and goylz: hang on tight. It's going to be a very long night indeed.
the train won't stop going --
no way to slow down."-- from "Locomotive Breath" by Jethro Tull
Lisa and I went to Carrabba's on High Point Road in Greensboro for dinner at about 8, and then after that we went on to Borders further down the road. I got to purchase Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows about 35 minutes after the book went on sale.
We just got home. The first thing I did was make an annoying crank call to certain friends in Bellingham, Washington to let them know that us folks on the East Coast have already got the book, and they still have to wait more than an hour at least!
Full report of what happened tonight (well at Border's anyway) on this blog sometime during the weekend.
Seems like just yesterday. Can't believe all of the things that have happened in those five years.
Where does all that time go?
What does God have in store for us the next five years?
I don't know ... but it's a great feeling knowing I've got the best girl in the world to share this life's journey with.
Happy anniversary honey :-)
So here are my absolute final predictions for the Harry Potter saga before this concluding chapter of the series is published:
- Harry will live.That's just the stuff that readily comes to mind. This probably isn't even half the predictions that I could come up with: it's still leaving out Grawp and Professor Trelawney and the motorcycle and dozens of other things.- Hagrid will die.
- The fatal shot aimed at Voldemort will come from none other than Draco Malfoy, who reconciles with Harry just before passing away from wounds suffered in battle.
- Rufus Scrimgeour will be sacked ...
- ... and Arthur Weasley will become the new Minister of Magic.
- We will finally get to see Azkaban Prison.
- Norbert will return as a full-grown dragon
- Neville will finally confront Bellatrix Lestrange, upon which he goes into a fit of rage and kills Bellatrix with a savage assault of the Cruciatis curse.
- In a perfect world, Harry would hunt Dolores Umbridge down like a dog, and shove that evil quill pen of hers straight and hard up her (vulgar terminology for human anatomy).
- Ron and Hermione will wind up married, and have twin sons they name Albus and Hagrid.
- Wormtail will rescue Harry from an attack by Fenris Greyback by plunging his silver hand into Greyback's chest and ripping his heart out. With Greyback dead, the curse of lycanthropy will be lifted and Remus Lupin will no longer suffer from being a werewolf ...
- ... and Remus will relent to having a relationship with Tonks.
- The Dursleys will barely escape the total destruction of Number 4 Privet Drive that is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. on July 31st, 1997.
- EVERYTHING that was published in The Quibbler will turn out to be absolutely true, including the story that Sirius Black was once a singing sensation and that Cornelius Fudge is after the Gringotts gold.
- Professor McGonagall will be confirmed by the board of governors as the new Headmistress of Hogwarts.
- Professor Sprout will flee the country and Neville will fill in as substitute Herbology teacher at Hogwarts (by this point he will already be of age by wizarding standards) until a permanent replacement is appointed.
- It will be revealed that Snape was working for Dumbledore against Voldemort all along. How this will be possible is something that I have been trying to figure out for two years now and am no closer at understanding: it's just a gut feeling.
- Filch, for the first time in his life, will perform magic. It comes in a moment of madness after he sees his beloved cat Mrs. Norris killed by the Death Eaters. And the magic that Filch does is nothing less than the Avada Kedavera.
- Bill and Fleur will have their wedding but it will be too much of a target of opportunity for the Death Eaters to pass up and an attack ensues.
- "R.A.B." will be revealed to have been Regulus Black, and the strange locket that won’t open at 12 Grimmauld Place will indeed be the Slytherin locket that is the real Horcrux.
- Harry will, at some point, come to Godric's Hollow and meet his father's parents for the first time.
- Luna and Neville will end up getting married.
- Harry and Ginny will end up getting married also.
- Lucius Malfoy will end up bankrupt and destitute.
- Viktor Krum will replace Karkaroff as the head of the Durmstrang school.
- The last we see of the Weasleys' Ford Anglia, it is flying off into the sunset with Ron and Hermione, with the words "JUST MARRIED" written on the rear window.
- Harry will fulfill his dream of becoming an Auror.
- Harry and Ginny will have a son, who they name Sirius.
I'll probably be finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows about 48 hours from now. And then we'll see how this all goes down in the end.
EDIT 10:37 p.m. EST: Jenna Olwin has published her own list of predictions for Deathly Hallows. Amazing how some of ours are close similar, and we didn't even compare notes or anything before we did our own lists!
(By the way, I've watched the Transformers "soundtrack" sales rank on Amazon go from #22 this past Saturday to #282 today, just 5 days later. A lot of people are buying this CD thinking it's the Jablonsky score, and some are returning it once they realize this isn't the score at all. And word about that is getting around fast.)
Well, apparently it's not Warner Records at all, but that it's Sony Music that will be responsible for what happens with a commercial release of the Jablonsky Transformers score. And the word from them is ... it might not be "in the works" right now after all.
Here's what user "Zophael" on the Superhero Hype! Boards got as a reply from Sony Music when he asked about the album ...
At this time, there are no immediate plans regarding the release of the Transformers soundtrack score.I'm going to keep the petition going (click here if you haven't signed it already and would like to). Whenever's a good time to do so, I'm going to forward these names and comments to Sony Music. But I'm thinking that maybe it would be good to go for a direct appeal at this point also.SonyMusicStore Customer Service
Here's the Sony Music website's feedback form where you can write to them from your desk.
There is also this mailing address that I found. It's for Sony Music Online Services, but I imagine any mail about a Transformers score would probably get forwarded to the appropriate department ...
Sony Music Online ServicesThere is also this phone number for Sony BMG Music Entertainment. I'm going to try to give them a call tomorrow and see what's the status on the Jablonsky Transformers score ...
550 Madison Ave, 24th Fl
New York, NY 10022-3211
Sony BMG Music EntertainmentIf you write or call, remember: be nice! We very much want to have Steve Jablonsky's awe-inspiring score from Transformers in our music collections. So we need to impress upon Sony Music that they stand to make serious money by releasing this as a top-quality album, crafted with as much care and attention as any other epic movie's soundtrack.
212.833.8000
Let's show 'em how much we want 'em to "transform and roll out" them CDs! :-)
It's an ETS Recognition of Excellence for scoring exceptionally well on the Social Studies Content exam. According to ETS I scored within the top 15% of those who take this test.
Pretty cool :-)
And then today, another very good friend shared a devastating bit of news.
To the people I'm talking about: you are two of the most amazing people that I have ever known. And you have not only been a rich blessing in my own life, but to many others: no doubt many more than you'll ever know.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.God will see you through this. You will overcome these tribulations. In the meantime, know that you are lifted up in our prayers and that we are here for you.-- Jeremiah 29:11
It was about two months before the wedding. She was doing her final exams and I was at Star Wars Celebration II in Indianapolis. I wanted to get her something really special from the trip and also something of a gift for her getting her master's degree.
Well, Lisa and I sort of discovered the Harry Potter books at about the same time and Sorceror's Stone was the last movie we saw in theaters before we got engaged. And one of the guests at Celebration II was Warwick Davis: the fella who played Wicket in Return of the Jedi and who also played Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter movies. So I had an idea ...
I left the convention center, ran down the street to a B. Dalton's bookstore and bought a hardcover copy of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. I then went back to the convention, waited in the autographs line and asked Mr. Davis if he could sign this book for my fiancee. He was delighted to do it, and in gold ink this is what he wrote on the blank page inside the cover:
LisaI got back home a few days later, gift-wrapped it and a few days later after she graduated at Georgia I gave it to her.
Practice your charms!Warwick Davis
'Flitwick'
And Lisa was ... surprisingly unimpressed.
And she's been that way about it until tonight. After the movie she's telling me about how she really likes Dumbledore's line in Sorceror's Stone regarding how we should not "dwell on dreams and forget to live", so she gets the book out of the shelf, she opens it up. And it's like she's seeing Flitwick's signature for the very first time and now she admits that it's a rather neat thing to have and appreciates me for getting it for her. Only five years later.
She'll appreciate it even more in years to come, when we can show it to our kids and tell them that this book was once held by the same Professor Flitwick that they watch in the movies :-)
The "Read a Harry Potter book for Jesus!" t-shirt. So what's the story behind the inspiration for this latest bit of mischief? I'll admit that part of it is because as a Christian, I don't have a problem with the Harry Potter books. But also because it really hit me earlier today, while going through a certain portion of the book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, that there is an amazing use of scripture toward the end of the book. It's not directly quoting from the Bible, but it's a wonderful depiction of the nature of God.
It's toward the end of the next-to-last chapter of the book, "The Lost Prophecy". I was finding so many Bible verses that reflect what Dumbledore is saying there, that I literally lost count of them all.
There's no telling how many people have possibly received a knowledge of the gospel through these books and others, like the Chronicles of Narnia. It doesn't matter how the truth is presented or what the exact words are - this isn't Gnosticism we're dealing with after all - just so long as the truth is presented.
So ... should I wear this thing on Friday night? :-P
