Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

 I saw the Harry Potter stage play with my friend. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It's the first stage play I've been to since before Covid.

I'll be vague, but there may be some spoilers.

Every format of storytelling has to work a little differently. For example, this is the first time I really noticed how the scene changes need to work into the flow of the story. These were particularly creative scene changes too (at least from what I remember about the few other plays I've seen). 

And the effects were really cool. Like getting sucked into the book shelf. And the centaur. That was really neat. And of course all the magic tricks. And the dementor's. One descended from the ceiling right in front of us, and my friend got scared. 

Though some of the plot confused me. It might make more sense if I saw it again. For example, why did they need to humiliate Cedric? And I have trouble believing that Cedric would change that much as a result. And when they were helping to reset the timeline, why did those people submit to getting the dementor's Kiss? They just gave up and let it happen. And sure, they knew the timeline would be reset and they'd end up okay. But the Dementor's kiss is pretty much the worst thing that could ever happen. Why would they not fight it as much as possible?

Anyway, I liked Scorpius. Who would have thought Draco's son would be a sweetie. Not to mention a very geeky one.

The Most Fabulous Fight Scenes

Long ago, I watched the movie Hero. I need to watch it again because it had the most beautiful fight scenes I've ever seen. I want to try writing something similar.

And I just watched House of Flying Daggers. The same was true for this movie. The fights from these films are so beautifully choreographed and filmed. They include fantasy elements, such as floating or balancing on stalks of bamboo, even though they're not really fantasy films.

 

I'm trying to remember if Crouching Tiger hidden Dragon was like this. I watched it when I watched Hero, and I'm getting the two mixed up.

Books by Color

I recently watched a Youtube video by Patrick Rothfuss. In it, they discussed organizing your bookshelf by color. For people who know their books very well, it's a more aesthetic way to have them arranged.

It's an unusual idea. I wonder how my books would look arranged by color. I wouldn't want to keep them like that, but I kinda want to see it XD

Mexican Gray Wolf

Banthas

I recently learned that someone I work with (at least before he retired) worked on the original Star Wars! 

Specifically with the bantha.

 

The banthas were elephants in fur coats. It was at Marine World, I think (Whatever it was called before Six Flags). After the movie, Marine World got to keep the bantha outfit. But unfortunately, against the protests of my co-workers, that suit was left outside on display, where it eventually fell apart. Man, that suit would be worth a fortune if it were around. And it would be so cool to see!

(I also just watched that new series about Industrial Light and Magic, where they talked about a lot of the special effects. It's easy to forget how hard it was to do effects back then!)

A Series of Unfortunate Events

I just watched the Netflix series of "A Series of Unfortunate Events." 

It was really popular. I tried reading the first book back then, but I just couldn't get into it. I saw the movie, but that only covered the first part of their story. 

 

And yeah, the whole point of the series is that it's one awful thing after another. But why? Take three great kids, and have fun watching them get tortured over and over? 

But a lot of the plot just confuses me. I still don't understand why a bunch of people went evil and started trying to kill everyone. Because someone couldn't deliver a sugar bowl?

And something tells me that the Netflix series had a nicer ending than the books.

John Green

I still watch Vlogbrothers videos regularly. And while I've read all of John Green's books, they're usually not as much to my taste. Except for The Fault in our Stars.  But what I do love about his books is that they make me think. John has great themes and ideas, and his writing sparks my imagination. That doesn't happen too often, so it's great when it does.

I just read the Anthropocene Reviewed. It turns out that I quite like his nonfiction writing. It gives me even more ideas.

Barn owl