I cried twice in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2.
We used to give my dad guff for having shed some eye-rain over Spock's death in The Wrath of Khan. Whether I inherited his tear-genes or am just simply a maudlin Hufflepuff, I sure lost it in the movie theaters on July 15.
Less romantic, dry-eyed naysayers may shrug-off my mawkishness as the waterworks of a weirdo. But it wasn't the "It All Ends" mantra that got me. As bittersweet as it was to watch the series conclude, 7.2 (as my wife's uncle dubbed it) got me in a more incarnate way as I watched good people stand up to evil despite the odds. The part where the good wizards and witches cast protective enchantments over Hogwarts? Yeah, that's the one that really got me (Fred Weasley's death, too). I had to take off my 3-D glasses in order to reach my misty eyes.
Harry Potter seized my whole week. First, the subject started dominating conversations with my wife—I literally asked her over dinner whether or not she thought the Potter kids took vitamins. Then I listened to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' "O Children" (the song where Harry dances with Hermione in the tent in 7.1) on YouTube often enough that Melissa had it stuck in her head for two days.
Yet nothing could have topped-off my HP week better than playing Quidditch at a family reunion in Idaho. "Muggle Quidditch," that is—the difference being that our less magical environment obliges us to stay earthbound (blog post about this coming soon!). I got so wrapped-up as a Chaser running the quaffle to the goals that I literally let out a war cry, with broomstick straddled and all (I missed).
But eight days later, Harry is old news. I have moved on to more productive things, like following Peter Jackson's Facebook video updates for The Hobbit. Oh, and blogging!
Yes, like a much nicer Voldemort, I am back. You may notice that all my old posts from 2009-2010 have been removed and turned over to Dementors. You see, they were really quite funny, but they don't exactly apply anymore. Most of my posts were musings on male single life and, well, I'm no longer single. In fact, I'm rather quite married.
So my purpose in blogging has changed. Instead of "Casual Observations" that were really perky jabs at my kookiness, I'm pulling out my Geek Card: this blog will be the "Casual Observations of a Nerd." Here you'll find a weekly column in the form of book insights, movie reviews, links, and—surprise!—casual observations, all in the name of what some people call "just movies" or "just books" and I call "I'm still in denial that it really isn't real." Maybe a few stories from my nerd life experiences, too.
And who knows? You may get a kick out of it—just hopefully not a bludger to the head. Enjoy!
