Grateful Gooner

Harry Potter: The Opera?

// July 17th, 2006 // No Comments » // Books and Music

Composer’s hard at work on ‘The Harry Potter Opera Cycle’ sans official approval

By James Hebert
UNION-TRIBUNE ARTS WRITER

July 16, 2006

As if magical powers and literary immortality (not to mention a seven-picture Hollywood deal) weren’t enough, the world’s most popular wizard now can add another notch to his broomstick.

Harry Potter has an aria.

He’ll have more soon, as far as Tiffany Moon is concerned. For now, though, the local composer has completed one Potter opera solo. It’s among the first components of what she envisions as a seven-part opera cycle based on the J.K. Rowling series of children’s books.

Moon, who teaches piano and voice at a Rancho Bernardo home studio, is a wizard of ambition: She sees the Potter project as taking up “a good 10 to 15 years of my life.”

For the rest of this article from the San Diego Union Tribune, click here

Happy Burns Night!

// January 25th, 2006 // No Comments » // Books

(click to listen)

O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my Luve’s like the melodie,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile!

Hermione is a punk rocker

// September 9th, 2005 // No Comments » // Books and Music

Fans of Harry Potter and really bad punk music would do well to check out

“Harry & The Potters”

Made up of two Boston-based brothers, Joe and Paul DeGeorge, “The Potters” have been playing bookstores and libraries around the US, Canada and the UK.

Give them a listen, then check out their site, as well as this article from VH1.com

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince

// July 19th, 2005 // 2 Comments » // Books

Another fantastic achievement by Jo Rowling, “Half Blood Prince” is the Harry Potter series’ “Empire Strikes Back.” It ends on a major downer, but there’s still that ray of hope shining through.

Lots of people I know are still reading this book, so I’ll refrain from revealing any plot points or spoilers. Suffice it to say that it was an exhilirating read, and thoroughly satisfying.

For those of you who have finished “HBP”, there’s an amazing interview conducted by the editors of Mugglenet and The Leaky Cauldron, the two fan sites specifically chosen by Jo as her favorites.

Check it out here:
JK Rowling Interview 7/16/05

Two books to review

// July 12th, 2005 // No Comments » // Books

A Long Way Down is the fifth novel by my favorite author, Nick Hornby. While it doesn’t rank with the greatness of his first three; Fever Pitch, High Fidelity,, and About A Boy, it has a charm all its’ own. The premise is somewhat morbid: What happens when four sucidial strangers bump into each other at the exact moment they most need one another – on the roof of one of London’s most infamous suicide spots? While that’s obviously a bit of a contrievience in and of itself, Hornby takes some additional literary license throughout the novel to put the characters in a series of highly comic scenarios. The thing is, I didn’t mind one bit. It all works, and I laughed constantly while reading.

Meanwhile, in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman has collected a series of essays he’s written on a myriad of popular culture subjects. From his hatred for John Cusack to his love of “The Real World”, every essay is an absolutely hysterical descent into what made/makes America tick in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Checking one off the list…

// June 10th, 2005 // No Comments » // Adventure, Arsenal FC and Books

In my Friendster profile, I have a list of three people I want to meet; Nick Hornby, Bono and Arsene Wenger. Well, I can now check one off the list.

Yesterday, Scott and I travelled down to Olsson’s Books & Records in Arlington, VA to go to a reading/signing by Nick Hornby, aka, my favorite author.

I’ll post much more later, but to check out pictures from last night, click on the image above.