BaddaBlog

Monday, July 23, 2007

Wizard Geeks

Soucheray wrote about it Sunday. Television and radio news in general went nuts with Harry Potter stories last week.

My nephew started reading the books this summer. He listened to the books-on-tape a year or two ago. He blitzed through the first four and started the fifth in only six weeks. Not bad for a kid who isn't yet eleven.

Far be it from me to question an adult for standing in line to buy a kid's book. I've slept out for concert tickets once and I play D&D. I've gone to movies on opening night. I get that. However, even with all the dice I've rolled I can't get into Harry Potter.

Souch apparently read the first book and said it was neat for a kid's book. My Mom started reading my nephew's books and said they were kind of fun. My wife took me to the first two films. Too. Damn. Long.

I love long films if the story merits and if it is fun. "LA Confidential" requires every ounce of attention. "Braveheart" harkens back to the days of epic films. The true epic films still hold my attention. Potter is merely a modern film spectacle... which is fine. It just is not likely to sustain.

My wife, the boy, and I drove off yesterday... and she sits in the front and starts to put her iPod earphones in. (I refuse to call them ear-buds.)
Me: "What are you doing?"
Wife: "I'm going to listening to the last five minutes -"
Me: "No you're not.
Wife: "- of the sixth Harry Potter... what do you mean -"
Me: "It is five minutes. Wait until you actually have the time to start reading the new book."
Wife: "But I want to -"
Me: "Yeah, and I want to be Spider-Man, but that's not going to happen right now."
Wife: "You're being a -"
Me: "Jerk? Yeah, and listening to an audio book in the car when you could be talking to me and your son is rude. I did enough of that as a teen ager. Put it away."

Actually, only the first half of that conversation happened.

By the way, it is me or do you get the impression that some folks would by a gleaming white turd if Apple put an "i" in front of it and a crappy battery inside it and let you listen to any number of songs and lame pod-casts?

The new iTurd. Everyone's got one... and they bring them into the cinema when they go see "Harry Potter and the Impending Restraining Order".


The Onion: Harry Potter

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