It was a week with York TV. Cer-rap. ANd then a week with the Bamburgh Research Project at my favourite castle! Which was cool. I had to do it over the summer. The college isn't great for support.

Are you studing at York Whixie?

Yes I am. But not York uni. York St John college.

I was there to I was a CASMAP, I finish 2years ago but I live in York last year as I was waiting for my boyfriend to finish as York Uni.

How cool is that!

Very cool! My two housemates are CASMAP music. They are the musical production society's director and musical director. I live in Musical Production Society Hell. You probably know all my lecturers!

I take it you are theater, film and TV?

Good old York St John, with Harold Robinson, Alan Clake, David Lancaster the list is endless.

Yup! We seem to be the majority.

Yea the CASMAP course went down hill I think, you guys always seemed to have more fun than us. So we just when out and got pissed!

I feel sorry for you with all the musical stuff sounds like my idea of hell to!

I`m old. I can remember when it was "The St John`s college of Ripon and York".

I was there when it was Ripon and York! I spent my first year in little old Ripon

And then Ripon closed and you had to come to York, right?

Yes I did it was too bad though I had run out of things to do in Ripon. There are only a certain amount of time you can walk round it!

Sorry will stop talking about York now and wil get back to Harry Potter

You mean Amanda Holden? Gwarn with yer! That's blatantly not her. Too thin around the mouth and botoxed around the forehead. It's Miranda Richardson, or I'm a hobbit-loving Lord of the Rings fan.

You don't like Lord of the Rings Stella?

Fackin' hate it, my dear. Load of piffling arse. The films look terrific and all the actors are damned attractive but you couldn't get me to care a fig about the story lines in a million years.

Well it may not be the easiest thing to relate to but as a piece of pure escapism it great.

spoily mc spoiler if you havent read 5

books are a very good story but i hate the way they are written, and the fact that sirius died in 5, he was the only INTERESTING character and had room for development, a cheap death and it pissed me off

never seen any of the films, dont intend to, they look soooo cheap... i saw the end of 3 (best book) and the werewolf looks like shit, a kind of stretched gollum, doesnt even look like it has hair, either that or it bathes in hair gel...

so yes, looking forward to 6 but read sooooo much better books since the first and it does seem to suck now i do like te story tho

have we had the old 'potter vs northern lights' argument yet?

i loved the potter books when they first came out ( reading them on the tube with the 'grown ups' covers ) but when i read pullman's trilogy it really made young harry look like he was in a kids book...

for anyone potter fans who haven't read these books i say 'do yerself a favour'

also, gotta agree with stella, i tried to read lord of the rings before the films came out so i could get more from the movies but GOD they were dull. 'and aragon and a hobbit walked up a hill and talked to a tree' for seven hundred pages.

Im a huge harry potter book fan, and have just read the his dark marterials trilogy at the end of the year as part of a project. I couldnt help but love it. I never want to say I like a series more the hp ones so this trillogy is right next to it. I love the newer hp books rather than the first 2, the 1st is proberly my least favorite but I'll always love them all. Im trying to presuade my best mate whos also hp mad to read HDM as i think she'll like them too

Isnt HDM great?!

As for what rita skeeta looked like, I've always (for some reson) imagened her to have short neon ginger hair with those sort of glasses someone posted in lime green with jewels and s couple between the lenses to look like the eyes of a buterfly on short antini (the lenses being the wings)

Just typing that out ive suddenly realised something, ive been thinking of a young Anne Robinson!

I'm just over half way through Northern Lights and I have to say that so far it's better written and is more imaginative than the Potter books - which I like (even though the last one went on forever . . . ).

Well the Harry potter books were originally written for childered, northern lights is for older childeren. I love everything about Northeren Lights. If I had read northern lights first then seen the hp films then read the books, id proberly not like the books that much. Reading the HP books has been like a journy, ive read them all dozens of times (except the 5th which ive only read fully 3 times).
His dark materials is an excelent trilogy. I was told to read it within a week with another given book from the big read as part of an illustation project. The lecturor (and me) had no idea it was a trilogy. Id wanted to read northern lights but I didnt know it was made into one book like lotr called HDM. I managed to read all 3 in 7 days and im slowly reading them again.

Mrs Coulter (or however its spelt) is the scariest book character I think ive ever come across, her and her deamon. Mind you, that woman from the minestary in book 5 of hp gave me chills during Harry's first detention

Oh if you want a good fansite for HDM, check out http://www.bridgetothestars.net

Well It's been on all the Potter fan site that Warner Bros have confirmed that the trailer for the GOF will be released at the end of March begining of April as the film has pretty much finished filming.



Yay I can't wait!

I'm within pages of the end of Northern Lights and I must say I don't feel comfortable reading this book.

Rowling’s books are usually pretty safe and nothing really unpleasant ever seems to happen to the lead characters (outside of the public-school jolly-japes kind of mishap) but with Pullman I get the distinct feeling that he could go all Iain M Banks and wipe out everyone in the room in a particularly gruesome - but colourful - manner!

Hurray!!!

Counting down till march...

Head on over to www.thesnitch.co.uk, and they have pictures from the GOF 2006 calender, which feature the first picture of Viktor Krum!



Just scroll down the page and you'll see all the pictures.

Thats Baz, its very cool!

Viktor Krum is quite good, fairly close to how I saw him in my head.

I dunno. He isn't how I pictured him.

pehaps darker skinned and longer hair

I must admit the guy who is goung to play Cedric Diggory is rather good looking... He kinda looks a bit like justin timberlake in the face area though.

Thanks to the first 2 films Im absolutly smitten with Sean Biggerstaff who played Oliver wood..

Raven - I totaly agree. Its a very risky book. The trillogy has actually been band by some societies and churches have told people not to read them, as you will see why when you read on the other books. It comes as no suprise that the daily mail labeled Phillip Pullman as 'possibly the most dangerous auther in Britain'
I saw most of a brilliant interview with Pullman around christmas that opened my eeys to some things a bit more, especially understanding dust (now the most annoying word to me). Im looking forward to the film and seeing the theatre production sometime.
Im reading the 3rd book again (id be reading it now if I hadnt left it at my parents house). Your in for a treat, and for sadness

Oh, I reserved my HP halfblood prince book last week, not that I really need to reserve it. Me and my best friend (as well as the local paper reportes) know for a fact that we will be first in line waiting outside the shopping center for the books, like we were for the last book (ok we were 7th and 8th cause my mum took me out to a resturant) and first in the queue for all the films, and each time the same reporters have been there saying 'Not you again'

I feel rather silly at times, especially when we saw the 3rd film at the first dhowing, the second showing straight afterward and then the showing about 5 hours later all on the preview day just to grin our faces off at the 'Do you want to get a bit closer...to the shrieking shack!' line....

Scholastic, the American publisher of the Harry Potter books, have confirmed the lengh for the US version of the Halff Blood Prince, coming in at 672 pages longs.

No word on the lengh of the UK version.


Also congrates to JK Rowling, who gave birth to her 3rd child a couple of days ago.

Cool! I was just about to check out her website. Congrats to her!

Here's something thets given me a chuckle a few times, an alternative American Pie (from mugglenet)

Voldemort's Lament

Now that is funny!

Cheered up my day.

Taken from The snitch;

now that is just mean

I don't remember Mrs. Weasley being in The Goblet of Fire past the first chapter or so, so it's not surpising therefore that her role has been cut. If she weren't to appear in Order of the Pheonix that would be a different matter as she's quite active in that - from memory anyway!

She is in it at the end as well. she turns up to spend the day with Harry before the 3rd task with Bill. But yes I can see why she has been cut from it, with such a long book to turn in to a decent length film.

That doesn't mean that I have to like it though!

Same here.

Was very ticked off that Griffindor winning the quiddich cup wasnt in the last movie, not that I was hugely botehred about more quiddich scenes but for Oliver Wood

Molly weasly is in one of my favorite scenes in the books that was cut out of the film version, when ron ginny and harry turn up in dumbledores office with harry drenched in dirt and blood

Oh yes indeed!!!

Oi, back off!

Notice what he said in chamber of secrets?

"I want it Bigger, harder an longer"

Oh Mr Biggerstaff, how you tease me so with your Glaswiegen charm!

I love This Photo of him

Now that is a very nice picture!!!!

Thank you Baz!!!!!!

And that other picture of him is very moody and sexy!!!!

Now now you have to share!

Meany.

Do you think I should wear my cloak again when queueing up for my hp book? It kept me warm outside but I doo kinda look lie a prat in it. Oh and the manager at the time (he was dressed as harp potter) was giving everyone, including all my mates goodie bags...BUT WOULD GIVE ME ONE!
I still hate his guts to this day.

(soz, delete!)

Well that is very mean!

I think you should wear your cloak, sounds cool, and if you don't get a goodie bag this time take a broom with you as well and beat him with it.

Watched HPatPoA last night. Best of the three films no doubt. Still too long and far too derivative, they seem determined to whack in every supernatural cliche ever.

That said David Thewlis was excellent and I enjoyed the beginnings of sparks between Ron and Hermione. Still can't stand the 'boarding school is heaven' undertones, particularly as a middle class existence (personified by Harry's aunt and uncle) is presented as the worst imaginable fate!!

Special effects still leave a lot to be desired (see Hippogrif (sp) and werewolf) but I did think the map was really well done and there was certainly a lot more visual imagination on display.

It's a shame Daniel Radcliffe isn't maturing into the actor we might have hoped for, but Oldman, Thewlis and Spall joining the cast pretty much makes up for his shortcomings (that boy really can't act angry can he?)

***

EDIT: Oh I almost forgot, what's most annoying and has been in all three films is that fact that everyone's lives revolve around Harry Potter and everything that happens is related to Harry Potter and if anyone stops talking about Harry Potter for more than a minute they get a slap.

Oh and why do they only teach magic at that school, what about Maths and Physics or Geography - in fact it's a wonder they can read at all.

And why is one 'house' evil? What's that all about, why have an evil house at all?

And how exactly can Tom Riddle and Voldemort be the same person?

Tom Riddle was Lord Voldemort, before he becomes Lord Voldemort, kind of full time.

In the Chamber of Secrets, the Diary that Ginny has is the Diary of Tom before he fully becomes Voldy, so that's why he comes back as Tom, instead of Voldemort, but it is Voldemort if you get what I'm saying.

Probably not as i'm not doing a good job of explaining it.

I watched the Chamber of Secrets and got that he became Voldemort post writing the diary. What confused me is that he was in the chamber as Tom and on the back of Ian Hart's head as Voldemort, but I suppose these weren't at the same time.

Tom in the chamber a physical manifestation of the diary? That opens up a whole new list of questions. I don't think Rowling's thought it through to be honest (I can almost hear my english teacher screaming "suspend your disbelief").



The actor playing Tom Riddle was quite a fitty, I think I'd team up with him and bring Potter down.

I don't understand what the problem is...

At that point, Tom Marvalo Riddle had made the conscious decision to become Lord Voldemort and to "purify" the witching and wizard community. Perhaps, with some kind of forethought, he knew that if he should fail, his manifestations through the diary would give him a second chance. By draining the lifeforce form an individual, he would render that person a mere shell, enabling him to transplant his essence into said vessel, so to speak.

At least that's my take!

The version of Tom Riddle in tCoS was young because he was a "copy" of Tom as he was when he wrote the diary.

After making a "copy" of himself in the diary the real Tom went on to become Voldemort and it was he who killed Harry's parents and who was seen at the end of tPS.

When the "copy" got powerful enough in tCoS it manifested itself in the form it was when the "copy" was made so in effect there were at that point two Tom Riddles - the "copy" from the diary and the older version that had become Voldemort.

Tom Riddle, as he appeared in tCoS, wasn't the same Voldemort that you saw at the end of tPS.

Don't know if that helps!

I think I see your confusion. However, if you look at the flashbacks to when Tom was at school, he had already released the Basilisk and tried to blame it on Hagrid and Aragog. Therefore, the seeds of Voldemort were already taking root.

I also believe that as Voldemort grew in power, his copy also grew in power.