Comic for Monday, July 16th, 2007

Posted: 7:00 am, Monday, July 16th

So it's Harry Potter week, and I'm just going to unapologetically post everything that strikes my fancy about Harry Potter, all week long. (Including discussion rules on Friday and then Monday, so that we don't spoil anything for anyone.) 2.0 and I caught Harry 5 right after work on Friday, and I thought it was awesome. I think 2.0 liked it the best of the five films, but I'm not sure if Prisoner of Azkaban remains the best of them. Some awesome touches (nothing spoiler-y, don't worry) were douchebag mcfuckwad Dolores Umbridge's pink-stone office with animated cat plates; everything about Luna Lovegood; some creative screenplay abbreviations; and a downright awesome final action setpiece. Anyway, the NY Times had a pretty cool overview of the film series (all of which we've watched recently - Chris Columbus is awful). There's also this list of hints from J.K. Rowling herself that the folks at Wikipedia have compiled. Nothing spoiler-y, I don't think, so dig in. (Including the fact that 'scar' is no longer the last word in the book, which I did not know Rowling had said. Huh!) And then 15 sent me this link from the UK Guardian, with a few sentences from an October '06 manuscript - the *first* few sentences. I'm not going to sleep at all Friday night.

Speaking of books, I'm a little over a hundred pages into the Golden Compass, and I don't know what to make of it yet. Pullman's explaining the rules of the universe a little slowly for my liking, but I'm willing to give him the rest of the book, since there's been talk of armored intelligent bears already.

They're having a block party on my block, and damn if I'm not out of town for a wedding that weekend. What a drag.

No surprise, now he's losing the military families.

Fun article about future creep and needlessly updated products. While I can't off-hand think of a product that I loved so much I wish it was never updated - although the laserjet my high school had when I was in eighth grade was pretty friggin' awesome - 2.0 just recycled an old cell phone yesterday from '01 that was the best she'd ever owned. (Actually, I really liked this old Ericsson that was my second phone at AT&T - it was small and lightweight and monochrome, but it did all it needed to do, which was receive calls and text a bit.)

By the way, everyone missed a big gaffe on Friday. Granted, his face was never fully visible, but it was pretty clear I left Pete's mustache off. It's corrected now, no points for anyone.

I've decided over the weekend to never buy another Dell. This laptop's given me nothing but trouble even before I dropped it, and now the bottom two thirds of the screen is susceptible to flicker, and at one point cut out entirely. Unfortunately, I'm a ways away from buying another one altogether, since this is *still* less than two years old.

Alright, a few calm days before this week picks up, so I ought to be around during the day. Sorry things have been a bit touch-and-go around here lately, it's not been a relaxing summer. I do like the batch of strips coming up this week, though. Pete's lines consistently tickled me as I was drawing.

bullfrog

Grafe -- Monday, July 16 2007, 08:00 am

this might be my favorite strip ever. good job with the background.

Sweet, high praise to start the day.

Meant to say in my Harry 5 ramblings, the Daily Prophet looks like it's crazy fun to lay out.

I finished re-reading HP 6 last night and am no longer convinced Snape is really evil. it just seems too, well, obvious. and I forgot about the whole "RAB" note...I just don't think that one was fair. Talk about cliff-hanger endings.

I believe Snape dies a redemptive death in Harry 7.

2.0 spent a lot of time researching RAB over the weekend, including the possibility it was a monogram (and the initials would therefore be RBA or RA and BA, and be a couple). Which would be a funny way to sign a note, now that I think about it.

Dude, RAB is totally Sirius's brother, isn't it?

And watching Harry Potter 5 made me certain that Snape is good - I know I'm confusing Alan Rickman's performance with the character of Snape, but I can't help myself!

I agree 15. I feel like Snape's memory would no longer be painful or embarrassing if he was truly affiliated with Voldemort. He would be satisfied that his power had grown exponentially. I also think that he was crushing on Lily, and that when he looks at Harry he sees the person he hated (James) and the person he loved (Lily) rolled into one.

For that reason I think he is deeply conflicted about Harry, and I think that ultimately he will protect him. I think Harry's eyes are his saving grace when it comes to Snape.

I don't know what to think about his killing Dumbledore. I think whatever it was he didn't have a choice...and I think it goes WAY beyond the unbreakable vow.

The monogram thing is only a theory. Regulus is the obvious choice, but I didn't want to rule out other possibilities.

Good point about Snape and his conflicting feelings over Harry. I never thought of it that way.

Harry also finds a heavy locket that he can't open when he's cleaning at the Black house in book 5. It's possible that that was the horcrux that Sirius' brother obtained.

Sweaty: I thought about that too, but it didn't make the film, and I know that JKR has made suggestions to the directors when something important is overlooked. She did it with Dobby 4.

To that end Regulus doesn't make it into 5 either, which casts some doubt for me.

Nice catch Sweats - it *is* possible that that's the locket, because that could be how Kreacher's important in Book Seven, and why Kreacher was kept in the flick, however briefly. (And he is fucking awesome in Harry 5, too.)

Completely off-topic, but the NYTimes has an interactive feature about where the Pres candidates have gotten their money...I find it completely facinating that Obama has raised so much via donations less than $200 http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/politics/2008_EG_FINANCES.html?8dpc

I was under the impression that only white people and David Ortiz lived in Wisconsin.

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4008/gjvv9.png

I know we've got some Cards fans in the room, so I'm linking to the Uni Watch report on the Cards museum that he ran the other day (Friday?). I didn't have much of a chance to read his site last week, or I would've had this to you in a more timely manner.

http://www.uniwatchblog.com/?p=557

I am, for some reason, listening to Hum right now. Stars was really a pretty cool song.

I second your comments on Umbridge's office and Luna in HP 5-- both hit the nail on the head. And seeing the flick in IMAX was way cool; made the final scenes more fabulous than I thought they could be.

I'm almost done with Book 4, so have to burn through 5 & 6. So no predictions on my end just yet.

Good luck with 5 - I was physically tired after re-reading it recently.