ravenna_c_tan

So I saw DH2 the other night in a midnight showing, at the Boston Common theater. The Boston Globe was there covering the event, as there were thousands of people there, many in costume, myself included. I had decided to wear my Slytherin tie.

Now, those of you who have known me for a while know I’ve identified as a Ravenclaw for years and years. Heck, my LJ default icon even says it. Haha! Even the name “Ravenna” is a reference to it! But?

But. I have to ask myself, if I’m such a Ravenclaw, why do I even OWN a green and silver tie? I picked it up second-hand for $1 and at the time I thought someone else might want it someday. But I wore it.

A Boston Globe reporter came up to me. “And which character are you?” she chirped.

“I’m just a generic Slytherin,” I answered. “In fact, I’m coming out as a Slytherin today.”

“You are?” She looked surprised. “But aren’t the Slytherins the bad guys that everyone hates?”

“Yes,” I said. “The Slytherins are the New York Yankees of the wizarding world. Everyone hates them because they’re the best.”

So here you have it, my coming out photo, which appeared on the front page of Boston.com the next morning!

I had no idea why the photographer who was taking the shot for the paper asked me to move a little to the side. Apparently it was to capture the light streaks behind me to make what Francie gatewaygirl called “St. Cecilia of Slytherin.”

A little while later, I tweeted: It all ends tonight! I used to be a ravenclaw. Technically I’m a Slytherclaw. But JK Rowling you are done kicking Slytherin around!! Green & silver REPRESENT!

As is my fate in life, I can never fit into a single box. Life of a bisexual, half-blood (in the Muggle sense), switch with gender identification issues. Heh.

Anyway, this meant I had a great time even before the movie started. There were people there dressed as Nagini, as the Golden Snitch with “I open at the close” painted on their skin, some Rita Skeeters, some Trelawneys, and lots and lots and lots of Hogwarts students. Mostly Gryffindor, of course, but plenty of the other three houses as well. And lots and lots of Quidditch players! I mean real actual Quidditch teams from the local colleges who came in their uniforms (T-shirts mostly) carrying their brooms!

And then came the movie. My review follows. Stop reading now if you don’t want any spoilers.

( Spoiler alert. )

No, really. A friend just forwarded me the flyer about it…

Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt
JULY 9−SEPTEMBER 5
Pick up a “Marauder Map” to explore specimens from
wolves to wolfsbane and test your depth of knowledge
about Harry’s world.
Free with museum admission.

Hogwarts at the HMNH
JULY 27, 5:00−8:00 PM
Come as a favorite character or creature. Discover how
the fictional potions, wands, and magical creatures have an
origin in the natural world.
Extended hours, 5:00–8:00 pm, with half price admission

Harvard Museum of Natural History
26 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
http://hmnh.harvard.edu

I won’t be here on July 27th–I’ll still be in the UK!

Download the pretty Hogwarts poster: http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/images/stories/documents/harrypotter%20poster_summer.pdf

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

What a great day at Aeternitas. Tarot class, quidditch, a talk on the Deathly Hallows, Professor Snape’s potions (cocktails) class, and the ball and Wrock concert still to come. (The Remus Lupins are still my fave.)

First I taught my Tarot class. It was packed! Very nicely attended. I was a bit slow-headed still so I forgot to award and deduct house points, but it was fun and I hope people got something out of it. It was a mix of new folks to the Tarot and experienced readers and hopefully I gave them all something to think about. I taught the two spreads I invented, The storyteller’s spread (or The Road Not Taken) and the Finders Spread, which Alex invents in Magic U. book 3. (More details on these at my blog here: http://blog.ceciliatan.com/?page_id=53)

After the class some students stayed to chat about things like, oh, what was wrong with book seven, et cetera, which was fun. One of them turned out to be my friend Anick, with whom I was in a few Harry Potter RPGs on Livejournal for YEARS!! Squeeee!!! And then I wandered a bit, lost my voice and

Read the rest of this entry »

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

(This is the post from Thursday night, but I just finally got Internet by going down to the lobby!)

Here I am at Aeternitas! But I’ll probably be posting all this afterward, since the first thing I noticed upon checking into my room is that the WIFI doesn’t work.

We’re at a lovely lakeside resort called The Margate in Laconia, New Hampshire, and everything so far has been terrific with the venue except that they really are not prepared for a full house of LiveJournal addicts! The Internet is overloaded is the word. Ah well. I’ve been using Twitter to put out brief observations, but that’s all.

I arrived in time to catch the Fashion Show, except I decided I had to be fussy about my own costumes and hang up all my robes and shirts and such (HP cons are the only ones where I actually use the iron in the room…) and so I missed the beginning of it. The emcees were Lucius and Draco, and if you’ve been to any of the main HP cons in the past few years you now who I mean. They’re from the Boston area and Lucius has always had a lot of flair so this was a perfect gig.

There were some incredible costumes in the fashion show. My three favorites, if I were giving awards, went to the Lily Evans ball gown, the steampunk Tonks, and to the combination Snape/Captain Harlock. Droxy also put in an appearance as leather-clad Snape that drew many whistles from the predominantly female audience. There was also Death, who came out and presented the Deathly Hallows to three lucky audience members, including pulling the invisibility cloak out of his pants?!? Suffice to say a grand time was had by all.

At the end of the fashion show it turned into a dance party, but the dancing mainly had to stay on the stage & runway since the “event tent” is on an uneven grass surface. I ran into Sinick and Acidburn (and Acid’s SO, whom I gather is normally an HP widow but came along this time) toward the end and sat and chatted with them for a bit. Then we went off to check out the Common Room.

I got separated from them along the way as I stopped to put in some donations to the fundraising raffle. In my various travels to book conventions and the like I have ended up with things like extra copies of The Science of Harry Potter and HP sticker books and such. So I donated them. The coolest thing is probably a Scholastic Half Blood Prince giveaway from BookExpo a few years back, a fiber optic pen that lights up Avada Kedavra green. Muahaha.

As it turned out the common room was closed for cleaning until 10pm, though, and I wandered about a bit but never did find them again. Instead I ran into Montana and her daughter, and we ended up in the common room (which had opened by then), and I did a tarot reading for Montana. Then along came DJ, BethBethBeth, and Reddwarfer, and I did readings for Beth(3) and Redd. Then Beth ran off to her room to work on fest stuff since she couldn’t connect to the Internet from the common room. Friendship bracelets were made. Politics were discussed. The failings of Book 7 and also the Star Wars saga were discussed.

It’s now one in the morning and I’m back in my room drinking herbal tea and still can’t connect to the Internet. This is just as well as now I ought to try to write another 1000 words of Magic University Book 4 and then get to sleep at 2am so I can make it to breakfast by 10. The hot breakfast buffet is only $6.95; I’m there!

****

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

So, when I was feeling overwhelmed tonight and like I just have to get away from it all… I realized I had more money in my Paypal account than I expected. So I went ahead and registered for AETERNITAS.

http://www.aeternitas2011.org/

It’s a Harry Potter fan convention planned for April 28-May 1 2011 in Laconia, New Hampshire! Why, that’s broom flight distance from here!

A bunch of my slashy friends are already planning to go (femmequixotic, bethbethbeth, r_grayjoy, gatewaygirl) so I feel pretty confident it’ll be a slash-friendly bunch. Also I note the organization putting it on, HP-MA has a monthly fanfic discussion meeting.

Registrations are limited to 500 (for contrast, Infinitus had something like 2000) and all guests must stay in the hotel, which appears to be a charming, lakeside resort.

Anyway, just wanted to spread the word among my f-list. My S.O. always has MIT alum stuff to do that weekend (Steer Roast) so I may as well out-geek him in the only way I can.