Peg Kerr's Journal

I've created a wizard rock set list which adheres pretty closely to the plot of the seven books, book by book. I chose a variety of artists I particularly like, that have done a good job of dramatically presenting various scenes or just the feeling the books evoke, through their lyrics and music.

( Here's how I'd tell the story of Harry Potter through Wizard Rock songs )

Your suggestions, additions, deletions? I'm probably relying most heavily on Riddle™ and Ministry of Magic, with a goodly dose of Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, the Parselmouths, the Weasel King, the Remus Lupins, the Whomping Willows, and Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls.

I've had less wizard rock news lately, since MySpace (curses be upon them) have ceased offering music for free download.

Still, there are bits of news now and then: Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls is offering a couple of his songs for free download at his website. Download ‘In Your Shadow’ and ‘There By My Side’ by following the directions in his blog post.

Gred and Forge’s new album PitchesWitchesRiches will be released April 1st (Fred and George's birthday--how appropriate!), and is available for pre-order starting tomorrow. Check out his latest blog for details. (I really enjoyed his album Half the Band I Used to Be Listen to "Ginny Gets Around" at that MySpace page to hear a sample of one of the girls' favorite songs.)

I'm also keeping an eye on The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office Myspace page, as they should be releasing their album Hocus Pocus Opus soon. I've been waiting for this one for a long time. Ministry of Magic fans, check out their cover of Ministry of Magic's Snape vs. Snape/The Bravest Man I Ever Knew, which will be on this new release. I'm looking forward to this one.

As always, humor me and please comment if you listen and like.

( what I did today to make the world a better place )

It was wonderful. It was distinctly peculiar to be there without delivering a paper. But that gave me a little more freedom to attend panels myself. The programming was multi-track, so I wasn't able to see everything that caught my eye, but on the other hand, that meant that there was usually something interesting going on. One panel (on Severus Snape) was a disappointment. It turns out that none of the four panelists (all fans rather than primarily academics) had done much preliminary thinking or planning about the topic at all. They simply said, "Well! Let's talk about Snape." And then made no attempt to moderate the audience at all. I left after a half an hour of frustration.

I caught two of three of the panels that Barb Purdom (psychic_serpent) held, as well as Catherine Schaff-Stump's (awelkin) panel on Neville Longbottom. Professor Ed Kern continues to please, with interesting panels on postmodernism, and the King's Cross chapter in Deathly Hallows (the two of us got into a fun and lively debate as to whether the Potter books demonstrated Tolkien's concept of eucatastrophe or not; he thought they didn't, whereas I thought they did). I had a great talk with him at the small HPEF reception, where we discussed the influence, among other things, of Jane Austen's work on Rowling's writing. It is always a pleasure to speak with Ed.

It was so much fun to see so many of the people I've been corresponding with online for years. Met all the snapecast crew and sat through the live snapecast podcast. I spent time with flourish, and got really excited discussing the preliminary planning of a new RPG. And I finally (FINALLY!) got to meet moony! We met first on line when her Snape was tormenting my Neville when we were on nocturne_alley together.

We enjoyed Jim Dale's presentations hugely; he was SOOO delightful and funny. We heard his Saturday morning program, and then we were also at the special dessert event--I have pictures of him sitting next to the girls, which I hope to post later. We also attended the luncheon with Monique Trotter. Wish we could have attended the one with Dr. Henry Jenkins, but couldn't swing that one financially.

I caught a few of the acoustic wizard rock sets, but the highlight of the weekend for me was the ball. Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls was first up, and then Ministry of Magic. They were just as great live as I hoped they would be, and we had a great time being dancing fools. My hips are still hurting, days later, I danced so hard. So many people said to me afterwards, "OMG Peg, you were right about wizard rock! It's fabulous!" Which felt really good.

Both girls had a wonderful time, too. They bought stuff in the huckster's room, played Quidditch (and unfortunately, both as Seekers on opposite teams, managed to crash each other when chasing the snitch; Delia was icing her leg for a 1/2 hour afterwards). They made mosaics at the Smashing Times art event; they danced to wizard rock; they brainstormed RPG with flourish; they sang along to "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" with moony; they volunteered at the Common Room, they were everywhere. So many people were so kind and friendly to them (after reading about them for years in my journal) that they felt very welcomed.

bekkio and the rest of the Portus team, you did a wonderful job. Excellent conference.

It was really tough to come home. (And Rob, true to form, practically gave me a heart attack on each leg of the trip. On the trip out, he was so late from his interview that I feared we'd miss the plane. When we were ready to leave to come home, he realized at the last minute that his driver's license was missing, so we feared that we wouldn't be allowed on the plane. He finally found it in a frantic search through the sofa cushions in our hotel room.)

If you saw us (or have pictures!) leave a comment. Wasn't it fun?

WHEN ARE WE GOING TO GET THIS ALBUM???

How does one adequately describe the awesomeness of Ministry of Magic collaborating with Christian Caldera of Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls?

You can't. You just have to go to the Ministry of Magic page and listen to the new track up tonight: "Forever Together." Enjoy.

As always, for my curiosity, comment if you listen and like. Do you think you'll buy the album when it comes out?

Jace of Catchlove and Christian of Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls have teamed up as the duo Talons & Tea Leaves. I just dropped Jace an email asking about the whereabouts of a CD I'd ordered from him, and I mentioned in passing that I was hoping that they'd make the Talons & Tea Leaves song "Hallelujah" downloadable. He was a little embarrassed about the CD being late, and so just because I asked, he made all the songs on the Talons & Tea Leaves page downloadable. Hurrah.

Grab them.

Two songs available for free download on Catchlove's supplemental page: "Sibyll Trelawney" (which is a parody of "Eleanor Rigby") and "The Lonely Life of Sir Nick."

Pretty good stuff. Catchlove is one part of the two-musician duo Talons and Tealeaves, the other member is Christian of Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls.

Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls. I have downloaded as .mp3 his first album and I am enjoying it to a truly absurd degree. Yes, I am that much of a geek. You can buy it, too, here at Soundclick. The band consists of one person: he does all parts of the music and singing himself.

Here's his MySpace page, where you can listen to more samples of his forthcoming album.