MuggleCast 130 Transcript
Show Intro
[Music begins]
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[Show music begins]
Micah: Because Matt can feel it, this is MuggleCast Episode 130 for February 2nd, 2008.
[Show music continues to play]
Andrew: I have a story that I thought I could kick the show off with this week. I was in the bathroom the other day and I was using Neutrogena Facial Scrub for acne for my face…
Laura: Okay.
Andrew: …and I’m putting this scrub on my face and I’m rubbing it and it gets in front of my nose. And I breathe out of my nose, and I actually created an air bubble in my right nostril as I blew because the soap was right in front of my nose so I blew this huge bubble. I was like, “Whoa! This is cool. I’m going to talk about this on the show.” And then it popped.
Matt: Are you serious?
Eric: First time listeners we…
Laura: Wow.
Eric: …welcome you to MuggleCast, a Harry Potter related discussion podcast.
Andrew: I thought it was a good story, and I thought it was funny.
Laura: No, Andrew.
Matt: Well, you need to think harder.
[Matt and Laura laugh]
Laura: No.
Eric: But Andrew, you have some how tie that. You have to some how Make The Connection, even though Jamie’s not here, you have to – Like if it were Jamie, say, [In fake British accent] “I was shaving and I blew this bubble…”
Andrew: Well, it was unexpected and surprising. Just like everything in the Harry Potter books. And it was fun. I wish I could have taken a picture.
Eric: Well, it’s a good story, I wish I shaved.
Andrew: You don’t have to shave. Jamie doesn’t have to shave. Eric doesn’t have to shave. I have to shave, like, hourly my facial hair has grown in so quick. I’m so manly.
Matt: You are such a liar.
Laura: Oh my god.
Eric: You’re very manly, Andrew.
Andrew: Laura has to shave like once a week.
Laura: Oh, yeah. That’s right.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: I forgot about that.
Andrew: Yeah. How about that. Yeah, so we have a good show this week. We are going to talk with Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters. He has a new charity effort out, and we are going to talk to him about that, and also he is going to reveal a new MuggleNet demo, well, actually its not new, it’s been around since 2005, but it hasn’t been released to the world until now. It’s a demo song about MuggleNet. It’s fantastic. So, I’m Andrew Sims.
Eric: I’m Eric Scull.
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson.
Matt: I’m Matthew Britton.
Mikey: And I’m Mikey B.
Andrew: And Mikey B’s here!
Laura: Yay!
Mikey: Yay! Wooo!
[Show music continues to play]
News
Andrew: Micah Tannenbaum is in the MuggleCast news center with the past weeks top Harry Potter news stories. Hey, Micah.
Micah: All right. Thanks, Andrew. Although he has shown an interest in working on the much anticipated final installment of the Harry Potter film series, it has emerged today that Guillermo del Toro will not be directing Deathly Hallows since “he’s rather busy,” as put by producer David Heyman. In fact, it seems that he will instead be taking the reigns of The Hobbit and its sequel film. Since Deathly Hallows is set for release in 2010, and principal photography for The Hobbit begins in 2009, he would not be able to work on both projects.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has been awarded with an outstanding achievement prize at the UK’s The South Bank Show Awards, which recognize British achievement in music, theatre, television and the arts. The awards will be broadcast on February 3 on ITV1.
As we told you earlier this week, filming crews are preparing to start shooting scenes for Half-Blood Prince at Gloucester Cathedral. (If I get one more e-mail, I swear, I’m going to go crazy.) As you can see from the photos, preparations are clearly underway. We’ll update you as we know more.
And those of you in Canada will get a chance to see James Runcie’s documentary J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life this Monday, February 4th at 10:00 p.m. easter on CBC Newsworld. The documentary originally aired back in December on ITV. We will keep you posted on any plans for it to air here in the United States.
Finally, there will be a new face to the character of Pansy Parkinson in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. A&J Management is reporting today that Scarlett Byrne has been cast in the role of the sixth-year Slytherin in the upcoming Potter film. The part was originated by Genevieve Gaunt in Prisoner of Azkaban.
That’s all the news for this February 2nd, 2008 edition of MuggleCast. Back to the show.
[Show music starts to fade]
News Discussion: Movie 7
Andrew: All right, thanks to Micah for that. Once again it was another one of those slow news weeks, but there’s going to be some interesting news coming out within the next couple of months, concerning the 7th film, but we haven’t really – There’s no official, official, official, official, announcement yet. So, we’ll have to wait for that, but in the meantime this week, we find out that, what’s his name, del Toro is directing The Hobbit.
Matt: Well, not technically directing, just yet.
Andrew: What do you mean?
Matt: He’s in talks with them right now.
Andrew: So, he…
Mikey: So, he hasn’t signed his contract yet.
Matt: No, Andrew.
Andrew: Oh, I thought he was signed.
Matt: But he’s showing very much interest and Peter Jackson and apparently – It’s going to happen, but it’s just official yet.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay. All right.
Mikey: Wait, you know what? Honestly, it’s going to happen ’cause del Toro is just amazing, and him directing The Hobbit because Jackson doesn’t want to right now. Jackson has so much on his plate, it’s ridiculous.
Eric: He does! And I love all the films he’s doing right now.
Mikey: He’s producing so many films right now. He’s also doing the Halo movie, too.
Eric: Oh right. But…
Mikey: And he’s…
Matt: Tin Tin. He’s doing the Adventures of Tin Tin with, possibly Rupert Grint, that they were talking about.
Eric: Yeah, that’s…
Matt: A long time ago.
Eric: That’s true, but what would Peter Jackson just – now he’s having, obviously, some creative control of Hobbit, isn’t he? I mean, I…
Matt: Oh, yeah.
Eric: It just shocks me…
Mikey: Well, yeah. He’s a producer…
Eric: …that he wouldn’t be directing.
Mikey: He’s a producer so…
Eric: Well, that’s why I was asking.
Mikey: Well, a producer doesn’t have as much creative control as a director or even, you know, people that are going to be storyboarding it for him in general.
Eric: Right.
Mikey: Deciding where things are going to go. But, he’s definitely going to be there to collaborate. Because, truthfully what’s going to happen is any director, especially if you have someone that talented as your producer, you’re going to ask what does he think about what’s going on. Just like, my biggest concern last summer. Michael Bay did Transformers, and I was a huge fan of Transformers when I was younger. But I hate Michael Bay as a director. Not anymore.
[Eric laughs]
Mikey: I think he did good on that movie. I really hated a lot of the stuff he had done. A lot of stuff he had done was bad. But, he had Spielberg as his producer on that movie.
Andrew: Matt, does this come as disappointing news to you? Because I know you were hoping for del Toro to direct.
Matt: It’s kind of bittersweet, I guess. Because…
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: …I mean, I really like del Toro as a director. I mean, I love, I absolutely love Pan’s Labyrinth. But, knowing that he’s going to direct The Hobbit, which I’m a huge fan of the book also, I really can’t complain.
Andrew: Okay.
Mikey: Now Matt, I know you’re a del Toro fan. Are you excited for Hellboy II as much as I am?
Matt: Yeah. A little bit.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: Come on. Have you seen the trailer? Del Toro, he like, when he released the trailer…
Matt: I was being sarcastic.
Mikey: …and he’s like, “Everybody, this is Hellboy II.” Like, he was so excited to do Hellboy I and Hellboy II. And I just think everything del Toro does is…
Matt: Everything he does is good.
Mikey: …pretty amazing. As of, like, recently.
Andrew: Well, we’ll wait for more developments about the movie. But, it should be very interesting to see how they’re going to, you know – of course, there’s still the rumors going around about Deathly Hallows being split into two movies and then of course we’ve still got to hear about the director. So, we’re hoping for an announcement about all that soon. If I was a betting man, which I’m not, but if I was I would say that Deathly Hallows is definitely going to be split into two.
Laura: Hmmm.
Andrew: But that’s just if I was a betting man.
Mikey: Do you think it’s going to be split into two or just, like, a long movie?
Andrew: No, I think it’s going to be split into two separate films.
Matt: I hope so.
Eric: Why would they do that, Andrew?
Matt: Because they want it…
Andrew: Money.
Matt: …to be good, I guess.
Mikey: Money. [laughs] Well, no. Money. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah, exactly.
Mikey: That means they’re going to get all of us to go twice [laughs] to see the movie. And buy two different DVDs and then when they come out as the combined DVD, buy the combined DVD one.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s…
Matt: Yeah.
Announcements
Andrew: That’s true, too. Well, we’ll have a really good – I’m sure we’ll have a really good discussion once there is an announcement made about, you know, the film being split into two. Of course, if that happens. Okay, so moving on, announcements real quick. It is a new month. Happy February everyone, it’s the month of love. Vote for us on Podcast Alley; get us up there in the top ten. We already are now, on February 1st, but there’s only a handful of votes. So thank you for placing your vote over there. I know I voted earlier today, place my vote.
Mikey: So did I.
Andrew: Good, good.
Matt: You liar. You did not.
Andrew: I did too. I have the confirmation e-mail to prove it. It’s easy, it’s very easy. You just go to Podcast Alley. You hit “vote,” for us, obviously. And you put in your e-mail address and you click the link they -email it to you and you’re done. Also, just a little update on the little east coast tour we’re hoping to put together. One bookstore chain turned us down because they would rather we do a tour in the summer around Harry’s birthday or the Book 7 paperback release. But, of course we can’t. We don’t really want to do it then, it’s too late. We want to do spring break. So, we’re looking at other options right now, and hopefully we’ll have something more firm to announce within the next few weeks. But we are still working on it, just so everybody knows. But let’s get right into Muggle Mail now, because we have a lot to discuss on this week’s show.
Muggle Mail: Helen McCrory’s Pregnancy
Eric: Okay, our first one comes from Emily Kate, age 16, from Bangladesh. She says:
“Dear MuggleCasters, I was sitting in study hall listening to MuggleCast and I had made it through almost all of Episode 129 without my study hall supervisor noticing that I was listening to my iPod (which I’m technically not supposed to listen to in class). There was about a minute left in the show when you guys were talking about Micah’s “pregnant comment” and I started laughing so loud the supervisor came over and I didn’t notice. I had my iPod taken away but I got it at the end of the day. But it was a great episode. So worth it.”
Matt: Awww.
Andrew: Thanks.
Laura: Awww.
Mikey: You know, I’ve actually done that before, too. I was listening to an episode – I don’t know, I think it was an early episode of MuggleCast. And I’m just, like, sitting there. And then I start cracking up out loud. And I’m sure it’s something Ben or Jamie did when they yelled at each other.
Andrew: No, I’m sure it was my joke.
Laura: I’m sure it wasn’t.
Mikey: Actually, you know what? It was right, I think it was the “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!”
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: Or something like that.
Andrew: Thanks.
Mikey: Something like that. Or Simmsy or something like that.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: Pickles.
Andrew: Yeah, we get e-mails like this from time to time, saying that we do that. We get people in trouble in science class and whatnot. But, yeah, that’s funny.
[Matt laughs]
Mikey: But you should be paying attention to your classes because education…
Andrew: Yes, you should.
Mikey: …is for the future. It’s for the future.
Eric: Well, it was study hall. It was study hall.
Mikey: Oh.
Andrew: That’s not important.
Eric: I always used to sleep in study hall.
Muggle Mail: Tracking Umbridge and Voldemort’s Mind
Andrew: The next e-mail comes from Jeff, 23, of Connecticut. He writes:
“In regards to tracking Umbridge to the Ministry, I believe it was said in the book that only top officials were allowed to directly apparate inside the building. Umbridge, being undersecretary to the Minister, would most likely have been one of said “top officials.” Therefore, it probably would not have gone unnoticed if Kreacher showed up in the middle of the atrium and apparated away with one of the top officials. Unless they were able to somehow track down where Umbridge lived, the Ministry seems to be the only way of finding her.
Next, as far as Harry once again seeing into Voldemort’s mind, not only was it useful, but in the book it also stated that Harry gained control over the visions while burying Dobby after their escape from Malfoy Manor. On page 478 in the American edition it says,’His scar burned, yet he was master of the pain; he felt it, yet was apart from it. He had learned control at least, learned to shut his mind to Voldemort, the very thing Dumbledore had wanted him to learn from Snape.’ I think this was useful because after this he seems to be able to invade Voldemort’s mind whenever he wants. I think this was crucial to the book because it was probably the only instance in the whole series where Harry seemed to have a true magical talent over Voldemort. This may not be very relevant to the chapters you were discussing in your last episode but I think they were nonetheless important to the story. But to conclude, maybe Hermione was right to tell Harry he should block out those visions, because in the end it gave him the control to look into Voldemort’s mind whenever he wanted, which Hermione even encouraged him to do during the Battle for Hogwarts.”
So, yeah, that’s basically the point I was making. It just works to their advantage. It’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Eric: Harry won the argument when he was talking to Hermione in the bathroom. He was like, “You know, I’m totally going to do this, and I want to know what my enemy is doing.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And Hermione was like, “whatever.”
Matt: This is probably why I like…
Mikey: Don’t argue.
Matt: …Book 7 so much for Harry. It’s because he’s just so certain now, you know? He actually knows more than a lot of the people who are trying to inform him on.
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: Right, yeah.
Andrew: He’s very confident.
Matt: Yeah, he’s the most confident in the series.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Like I just read the Lupin scene today, and even though you’re shocked about how Harry acted, it’s just – it’s so well done, and then Harry’s like, you know, his own person. It’s really cool.
Muggle Mail: Nazi Germany Comparisons
Laura: All right, this one comes from Alexis from Westchester, New York. She writes:
“Hi everyone. I just listened to Episode 129, and was particularly intrigued by the lengthy discussion about parallels between Harry Potter and the Holocaust. As Laura said, Buchenwald and Auschwitz were Nazi concentration camps in Germany created and used to, in essence, exterminate European Jews. Nuremburg and Auschwitz had the words ‘Work Makes Freedom’ carved into its front gate. Nurmengard was a prison that housed Grindelwald’s opponents, and its entrance bore the slogan, ‘For the Greater Good.’ As also stated during the show, Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in 1945, which is another parallel to the Holocaust. The prejudice demonstrated by the Holocaust still haunts us today, by way of racism and genocide in our world. In the wizarding world, Grindelwald’s ideas are projected through Voldemort and the pureblood/Muggle-born prejudice we’ve seen since ‘Chamber of Secrets.’ Just wanted to add to the Harry Potter/Holocaust discussion because I’ve spent years learning about the Holocaust. I love the show and I hope to meet up with you at the New York live podcast.”
Andrew: If we do it.
Laura: [laughs] Yeah. Yeah, it is really interesting that you bring up that point that Auschwitz had the “Work Makes Freedom” sign. You can actually read that in Elie Wiesel’s Night, which is an account of…
Eric: Elie himself.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: Yes. He was a Hungarian Jew who spent time in Auschwitz.
Eric: I read that book in, I think it was seventh grade, and it was a really powerful book, and also, though, I’ve been to a concentration camp. I went to Dachau when I was in Germany, and that also has the sign above the entrance. It’s – I believe it translates to “Work makes one free,” or “Work makes freedom,” same deal. “Work makes one free” is pretty much kind of ironic, but that’s what the Nazis put on the gates of the entrance of the work camps.
Andrew: Interesting.
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: So, I’ve been there in person. It’s a really somber, solemn place.
Laura: Well, and it’s just interesting that Jo kind of used that whole “For the Greater Good” thing, because that’s a lot of what the Nazi propaganda was based on, just this idea that they were going to purify Germany and keep the evil, dirty Jews out and the perfect, wonderful Aryans in, and it’s just – it’s awful.
Eric: Yes. Absolutely. And last chapter, you guys, did you guys talk about the throne of Muggles? The throne made of Muggle bodies?
Andrew: Yeah. Yes, we did.
Eric: Yeah, because that was really – there’s something, there’s a structure in Dachau like that, and it’s a bit sickening.
Andrew: Really? Is it the same thing?
Eric: It’s not a throne of bodies, but I think it was a wall made of impressions of bodies, or something. It was actually of all the Jews and stuff. If was actually quite grotesque, but I think it’s inside Dachau.
Andrew: I bet.
Eric: So there’s something quite very similar that I’ve seen in real person, and it’s just really, really strong parallels in Jo’s book, and earlier I questioned, and this relates to this chapter, too. Earlier on the show I questioned some of the parallels. I said, “Do we really need a Nazi parallel in J.K. Rowling’s works?” I think reading these chapters, I think, really it sort of made me rethink that comment, and I’m really happy with this parallel because in a way, just the way that we see the Ministry befallen in these past few chapters, and now, with what Lupin is telling them, and all this stuff, of how the tabloids are taken, and all of this stuff we’re seeing, it’s good to have it in a children’s book.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Because all these kids who read about the Holocaust are seeing it also happen in their favorite – to their favorite boy wizard, to have it happen to Harry Potter. So I’m really proud of Jo for this, and I retract what I said before about it not really being needed. I think it’s really good.
Muggle Mail: More on Nazi Germany Parrallels
Matt: Okay, and our next e-mail comes from Emily Rowe, 18, from Rockaway, New Jersey, and she writes:
“While listening to last week’s Episode, 129, I noticed that you guys also recognized the parallel between the Death Eaters and the Nazi Party of Germany. If you will, let me throw in my two cents about this parallel.
One, Hitler’s main focus of prejudice during the Holocaust was the Jews when he himself had Jewish blood in him. Voldemort thought that Muggle-borns and half-bloods were unfit to practice magic, when he himself was half-Muggle. And even if he resents that part of him, it does not take away the fact that he has Muggle blood in him.
The next point is the one I stress most. The Swastika had been used for thousands of years as an Asian symbol for peace and prosperity. If you take a look at artifacts from India or anywhere else in Asia, you will see the swastika carved into them. Then Hitler got a hold of it, flipped it around and tilted it on its side to associate it with the Nazi party. This is similar to Grindelwald’s situation with the Deathly Hallows symbol. He posted this symbol on the walls of Durmstrang and it became negatively associated with him considering that he became a notorious Dark Wizard. But was the symbol for the Deathly Hallows really that bad? Did it really represent something evil like destroying Muggle-borns?
That’s all I have to comment on that subject. I love listening to you guys, and it really makes my day! Keep up the fantastic work. Emily.”
Andrew: Thanks!
Laura: Can I first interject something? About the Hitler is Jewish thing, that’s actually not proven. No one knows for sure. Where the theory comes from is Hitler’s grandfather, they believe Hitler’s grandfather may have been part Jewish because his father was an illegitimate child and so it’s possible that his grandmother, they know that she worked in the home of a wealthy Jew, so it’s possible that the son of the household got her pregnant, but no one knows for sure. But everyone does know that Hitler did not practice Judaism. So, just to clear that up.
Matt: No, I’m sure he didn’t.
Laura: Yeah.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Laura: So it’s – I don’t think it’s really fair to say that he was Jewish, because..
Matt: I do agree though with her second point, though. I think that really is a…
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: That’s a very nice connection.
Matt: It’s a good parallel between Deathly Hallows.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: I actually said that over the tour. I said that over the tour once.
Andrew: Did you?
Mikey: Yeah, but we kind of skipped over it.
Eric: That Deathly Hallows symbol, we talked about it. I remember talking about it when we did the chapter “The Wedding,” and just saying about it. We don’t actually know, you know. Krum said that it was Grindelwald’s symbol, and Krum was sort of really adamant that Grindewald killed a lot of people. We don’t really know exactly what Grindelwald did, do we? You know, as of the end of the seventh book? We just know that he was all about sort of wizard above Muggle. And that’s sort of how that worked.
Andrew: Mhm.
Matt: But you know, we can’t really just – it can’t be really a World War II Nazi comparison, too, because it happened way down in the past, too, like with the Devil’s Pitchfork, it’s actually a triton from Neptune, I think it was.
Eric: Yeah. Well religious symbolism, yeah. It was actually from – the Pagans used that symbol too. And so it’s…
Matt: Right, and the Pagan witch hat too. They associate that with evil.
Eric: Yeah, yeah exactly. All this, it’s actually called iconography, I think. Or religious iconography.
Matt: Oh, of course.
Eric: Or something like that. There’s a bunch of names for it.
Mikey: No, that’s actually what it’s called. That’s what it’s called.
Eric: That’s what Robert Langdon studies, I think. Isn’t it? In Da Vinci Code, and in Angels and Demons?
Laura: Yes.
Matt: Da Vinci Code? Yeah.
[Eric makes happy noise]
Mikey: Yup. And Angels and Demons.
Eric: There’s all sorts of talk about it. It’s really fantastic, the history of symbols and stuff like that. That’s all in that book.
Harry and the Potters Interview
Andrew: Well let’s just keep rollin’ along here. Right now we’re joined by Paul DeGeorge now who is Harry, Year 7 in Harry and the Potters. Paul, how are you doing today?
Paul: Hi Andrew, thanks so much for having me on. This is my first MuggleCast appearance, I’m really pumped.
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Andrew: Yes. Well we wanted to have you on for a couple reasons today. First of all, we want to talk about Harry and the Potters though, because essentially it was the first wizard rock band, right? I mean, do you like to take credit for it, or do you give it to, what is it, The Switchblade Kittens?
Paul: Well, you know, I don’t mind taking credit for it if you’re going to give it to me.
Andrew:[laughs] Uh huh.
Paul: Sure, I mean really like Joe and I, I guess, were the first ones to sort of like do something so conceptually consistent, where we sort of adopted the characters of Harry and created our own band around it.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: Where we’re exclusively doing like, Joe is Harry, Year 4 and I’m Harry, Year 7, and through the magic of time travel we’re able to start a band together, you know. Kind of just assuming that if Harry had that ability to travel through time, that’s what he’d choose to do with it. I guess.
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Andrew: Why did you do Harry, Year 7 and Harry, Year 4?
Paul: Well, at the time we started, which was almost six years ago now, Joe was about 14 and so we thought, well that’s about Year 4, right?
Andrew: Ohhh. Right.
Paul: He was just about to turn 15. So that put – that’s where Joe goes, and I was a little older, like I was in my early 20s, so I was like, well you know all those characters on Beverly Hills 90210 were like in their 20s playing high school kids.
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Paul: So we decided to go for that. Like I’d be Harry, Year 7, and since then we’ve taken a kind of Simpsons approach to it, where we don’t ever age.
Andrew: You never age.
Paul: Yeah.
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Andrew: Yeah, as is the case with most TV shows these days. Why did you start the wizard rock band? Why Harry and the Potters? Why Harry Potter music, since there was nothing at the time.
Paul: Yeah, well you know, Joe and I had played in bands, but we’d never played together. We’re brothers, but there’s eight years between us, so we never played in a band together, and we kind of – the idea just came to me one day like, what if Harry Potter had a band? You know? And I thought, well that’s something so cool to do with my younger brother, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: Is to do this goofy, silly, fun band, and what really appealed to us about it was, you know, these Harry Potter books had had such a huge affect on so many young people’s lives, you know? Inspiring kids to read, and getting so many kids involved in literature. We thought well maybe we can sort of take that to a new level and you know, if we start this band and write some rock and roll songs about these books, maybe we can convince libraries to let us come and play in their library. Play these rock shows and get younger kids involved in rock and roll and seeing live music.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And that’s what it was like at first, you know? We would be playing in these libraries around Boston, and a lot of parents would take their younger kids like between 8 and 12 years old to come see us, and it was great. We had no audience established, and we were playing to rooms of 50-100 young kids and eventually, this was back in 2003, we noticed over the course of the summer that year as we had played in all these libraries around Boston more kids were coming regularly, and they would start to know all the words to our songs like they’d gotten our CD or something at a show.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Paul: They were coming, and they’d know all the words to the song. I was like, “This is incredible!”
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And then shortly after that, the Harry Potter fan community sort of caught wind of us, and that’s when things just kind of got crazy for us. We honestly at the time had no idea that such a thing existed- that there was this incredibly cohesive and enthusiastic online fan community, and it was actually, oddly enough – a post on MuggleNet at some point in the fall of 2003 that really slammed our web server, and…
[Andrew laughs]
Paul: …shut us down for a few days, I think. And that’s when our band sort of took a national presence, I guess.
Andrew: Yeah. You know, it’s funny you say that because for the past couple years now, we’ve been – we always thought that we were the first ones to post about you guys. And then Melissa came to me – Melissa Anelli from Leaky came to me a few months ago and said, “Could you find the post where you guys made the Wizard Rock, where you plugged Harry and the Potters?” And I looked it up, and I found it, and we actually credited Veritaserum for tipping us off.
Paul: Oh. Okay, okay.
Andrew: [laughs] So we were like, whoa! It actually wasn’t MuggleNet, but yeah, we did post that because I remember. I think it was Ben who posted it, or maybe Emerson. Do you remember who it was?
Paul: No, I can’t remember.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: I just remember being like, “Whoa! Look at all these websites. They’re all about Harry Potter!” [laughs] So that was my introduction to the online fan community. It was around that, at the same time, maybe just a few days before, it was really the Live Journal community that created a buzz about us. Some fan fiction writers and stuff just started mentioning us, and that kind of took off.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: All of a sudden I had a 400 dollar bandwidth charge for the month, you know?
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Andrew: Right. And now you guys are on Trivial Pursuit cards. [laughs]
Paul: Oh man. [laughs]
Andrew: Do you want to tell this story? [laughs]
Paul: Yeah. I guess we’ve come a long way in these last few years.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: We got on a – that’s the most incredible thing that’s happened to us, I think.
Andrew: Mhm. [laughs]
Paul: Just a couple weeks ago, somebody sent in a JPEG, and it was a photograph of a Trivial Pursuit card from Sweden.
Andrew: Mhm.
Paul: And the question reads, “What do brothers Paul and Joe DeGeorge call themselves when rock out?”
Andrew: That is amazing.
Paul: Yeah, but the most amazing thing about it is that there isn’t even a context for it.
Andrew: Right. [laughs] Right. Right.
Paul: They’re just assuming that Joe and I are household names in Sweden.
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Paul: Which I think is kind of an outrageous assumption. I think it’s probably considered a difficult question in the game.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s like something you would expect for Bruce Springsteen. I know you guys are big Springsteen fans. [laughs]
Paul: [laughs] Yeah, right.
Andrew: Like U2 or something. But yeah, that’s awesome. That is so cool.
[Paul laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] I wonder if – I bet you guys would love to see the reactions of some people playing that game. They’d be like, “Paul DeGeorge? What?”
Paul: I know, right? [laughs] It’d be amazing. Hopefully somebody’s going to send us the card. I think the girl who notified us is going to send us the actual card, so we can frame it.
Andrew: [laughs] Oh yeah, of course.
Paul: That’s the kind of thing that you don’t even dare to dream about. I mean, what kind of jerky kid says, “Someday I want to be on a Trivial Pursuit Card.”
Andrew: [laughs] Right. Like, “What the hell are you thinking?”
[Paul and Andrewlaughs]
Andrew: So, now today, there are literally hundreds of wizard rock bands out there and…
Paul: Yeah, my last count was 420.
Andrew: Oh my God! You count? Where do you count?
Paul: No, I just look up on…
Andrew: Okay. [laughs]
Paul: …Wizrocklopedia. Then I copy the entire band list into Excel and…
Andrew: Oh, good idea. [laughs]
Paul: …and let that count for me.
Andrew: That’s a good idea, actually.
Paul: So there’s a lot.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: There’s a lot of wizard rock bands. It’s incredible.
Andrew: Do you have any thoughts about this? Just how it’s grown so much since you guys started this? I’m sure you’re supportive of all these bands, and really it’s like, how I see it is it’s a great way for anyone interested in music but doesn’t know how to get really noticed, it’s a great place to start because there’s all these Harry Potter fans that are dying to just try out all these new bands.
Paul: Yeah. Well, honestly the way I think of it is it’s almost like the beginnings of punk rock, you know? The whole thing about punk rock is that it’s the kind of music that anybody can play. And there are these stories about people just grabbing guitars, and drums, and bass for the first time and just playing songs, you know? Whatever came to mind.
Andrew: Mhm.
Paul: Like bashing it out on a few chords, and that’s kind of like what I see in Wizard Rock. It’s these kids that are so pumped and amped on Harry Potter that they’re just looking for another way to express that love and that passion.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: So they’re grabbing instruments and starting bands for the first time, and it’s really wonderful. And the cool thing about it is that it allows for such a diversity of music out there. There really is something for everybody in the Wizard Rock community.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: There’s all sorts of stuff out there, and there’s plenty of like, you know, it get’s as abrasive or as pop friendly as you want it to be, you know? There’s like, a metal band in Holland playing songs about Voldemort, you know?
[Andrew laughs]
Paul: There is black metal…
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: …and there is ultra poppy stuff and dance pop and all that.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And so it is all there and that is the most amazing thing to me, is what a diverse and welcoming community it’s become where kids feel free to really experiment and try things out, and the unreal thing is that there is a community there for them to do it with.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And to get that feedback and support from. Whereas if it was a different situation, maybe these kids are recording in their bedroom and playing for their friends or something.
Andrew: Right, right.
Paul: That’s possibly what this would have been like ten years ago, but with the advent of technology and MySpace, it’s so easy for a band to become legitimized by MySpace. You just throw up a profile and all of a sudden you have a band.
Andrew: Exactly. [laughs]
Paul: Throw up a profile and a song and you are a band.
Andrew: Go to MySpace, create an account, boom – you’re done.
Paul: Ten minutes. You got a band.
[Andrew laughs]
Paul: For real.
Andrew: MySpace really is where every wizard rock band is, right?
Paul: Well, yeah.
Andrew: Why does everyone go to MySpace? Just because it is great to host your songs and all that?
Paul: Well, the thing about MySpace is that – and it’s not just wizard rock bands anymore.
Andrew: Oh yeah.
Paul: As far as the music industry, it is where everybody, like if you’re going to the concert and you’re like, “Who is the opening band?” And they’re like, “Oh, I don’t know, whoever.”
Andrew: Oh that’s a good point.
Paul: If you go to their MySpace, you can listen to their songs. You know? And then if you went to their website then maybe you would have to dig around to find their songs.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: But you just go to MySpace and the songs are right there and you just listen real quick.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And so it is just sort of that accessibility of the music that has made MySpace so prevalent in our habits now-a-days.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s interesting. And then all your fans can comment on them. Do you guys base – I’ve always figured this, I don’t know if this is how you guys think of it – do you guys base the popularity of all the bands based on how many friends each you have? Because I mean if you look at the list, you guys have a gazillion friends and then everyone is lower from there. How do you guy – do you guys base popularity or does it not matter?
Paul: Yeah. Well, I don’t ever measure anything by popularity.
Andrew: Mhm.
Paul: That is not really a concern of mine, so I just think that I don’t really have any comment on that, I guess.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: It is not even something I think about. I mean, who cares what’s popular. Just find what you like.
Andrew: Yeah. That’s very true. Yeah. Now I guess we will talk about Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club, now.
Paul: Yeah.
Andrew: This is your big thing. You started it last year. Now you have got Matt Maggiacomo from The Whomping Willows helping you out. What is the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club?
Paul: Well, the whole idea behind the EP of the Month Club is that it is sort of modeled after these old record clubs, where you would join up, like Subpop used to run a Subpop singles club, and they would release, they started it in the early ’80s and the first Nirvana single was released through the Subpop singles club and stuff like that.
Andrew: Mhm.
Paul: So the idea is that you sign up for a year and it costs like fifty or sixty bucks and every month you get a new record in the mail. It is a seven inch, you know back when records were cool.
Andrew: Right.
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Paul: And so it’s sort of modeled after that idea, and what we did last year was, we got together – I got together twelve bands that I thought were a good sampling of bands in the community at that time.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: At the time there was far less than 400. There were a hundred or so, so I just picked a bunch of people who I thought would be fun to work with and over the course of a year we released 12 different CDs, and people who subscribed to the club would get a couple CDs at a time in the mail, and we had stuff like Harry and the Potters released a CD and Draco and the Malfoys and The Parselmouths and The Remus Lupins and all these bands were contributing CDs worth of material, usually between five and ten songs that were all made just for this club. They were all exclusive CDs and we pressed a thousand copies of them and sold about 750 subscriptions and each band got a couple hundred copies that they could sell on their merch table, but otherwise all the money from the subscriptions went to an organization called “First Book,” which is a national nonprofit that donates new books to children from low income families.
Andrew: Oh wow, that’s great.
Paul: So, it is trying to promote literacy at an early age in communities where kids don’t often have access to that sort of thing.
Andrew: Yeah. Right.
Paul: Think of the joy as a little kid how pumped you were when you got a new book, or mom brought home something new to read to you at bed or something like that.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Paul: And that is the whole idea behind what they do, and they have been a great organization to work with, and so in 2007 we had the club, and we sold subscriptions and eventually the club sold out. We sold over 750 subscriptions and so far we have raised over $13,000 for “First Book” through subscription sales.
Andrew: Wow! That is incredible!
Paul: Yeah and this year we are doing it again with a whole new set of bands. Harry and the Potters are staying on as a flagship I guess.
Andrew: Of course. [laughs]
Paul: So we will be releasing another CD this year through the club and…
Andrew: All new music, too?
Paul: All new music.
Andrew: Wow! Sweet.
Paul: Yeah, Joe and I, we had a really fun time with it last year, where Joe and I kind of set aside a weekend, and kind of wrote and recorded all the songs that weekend.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] Cool, cool.
Paul: Like, as fast as we could.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And we came up with like 14 songs and I think our CD is just under 14 minutes, you know. So, it’s just really a quick thrill ride…
Andrew: Uh huh. [laughs]
Paul: Of Wizard Rock.
Andrew: Cool.
Paul: But it was super fun for us to do and I had a blast sort of overseeing the club.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And helping each band put their CD together, like the artwork and all that.
Andrew: Mhm. Yeah, the albums look really cool. They’re nice and organized.
Paul: Yeah.
Andrew: I mean, you have that certain theme going on with each album cover. It was very nice.
Paul: Right. We tried to have it – give it a consistent feel.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: It feels like you’re getting – at the end of the year, you have a collection. You have 12 CDs that all go together in some way and we’ll be doing that again this year. We have a different artist on board to handle the overall look of the club.
Andrew: Okay, cool.
Paul: And it’s going to look really cool. It’s going to look, you know, really wonderful. I’ve been working with them in the past few days on getting stuff together for this year.
Andrew: Sweet.
Paul: And this year I got Matt Maggiacomo on board and he’s kind of helping. We’ve been throwing ideas around, you know, and we kind of picked out the bands together.
Andrew: Mhm.
Paul: We’ve got a great new troupe of bands, you know, of people. Well, I should mention who the bands are so the people can get excited.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: Matt’s band, The Whomping Willows will obviously be contributing an EP, and rumor on the street is that it’s going to be the big Whompy EP, so Matt’s sort of been teasing everyone with certain big Whompy, like hip-hop style tracks for the past few years.
Andrew: Nice. [laughs]
Paul: And this time he’s going to make do on a whole EP’s worth, so that’s going to be pretty exciting.
Andrew: Awesome. His shows are always fun. I regret to say I haven’t been to a Harry and the Potters show yet, but The Whomping Willows – Matt’s a really fun guy. He’s just playing there with his acoustic guitar. He really interacts with the crowd.
Paul: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Sorry, go on. [laughs] Just had to say it.
Paul: Okay. Yeah, no problem. You’ll have to come see us some time, Andrew.
Andrew: Mhm.
Paul: I’ll put you on the guest list at the library.
Andrew: Yes!
Paul: That doesn’t actually exist.
[Andrew laughs]
Paul: Those shows are free.
Andrew: I didn’t think so since it’s a public library.
[Paul laughs]
Paul: Uh, no. So we got The Whomping Willows and Gred and Forge.
Andrew: Okay.
Paul: Which is this guy Jared from North Carolina. I’m really excited about him. He actually just put out one of my favorite Wizard Rock CDs, which is called “Half the Band I Used to Be,” which is both a brilliant title and…
Andrew: Cool. Yeah, yeah.
Paul: A brilliant album. Really fun, like poppy, punky stuff, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: Think of a really awesome Green Day songs.
Andrew: Okay, cool.
Paul: And that’s the kind of stuff Jared’s doing with Gred and Forge.
Andrew: Uh huh.
Paul: We’ve got Catchlove, which is our favorite – one of our favorite Wizard Rock activists. Chase is an awesome dude and he’s all about promoting good causes and that sort of thing. He sort of uses his band, Catchlove, as a forum for Darfur awareness which I think is incredibly wonderful.
Andrew: Okay. Yeah.
Paul: He’s become a really great member of the Harry Potter Alliance and stuff. And we got the Hermione Crookshanks Experience from California and a couple really fun acts. We’ve got Tom Riddle and Friends, who are these two hilarious dudes from the Cincinnati area, I think. They’re just kind of – the way Matt described them was he said they’re like if Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson started a band about – from Voldemort’s perspective, which is really hilarious.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: I totally, totally suggest checking those guys out. Their MySpace has some really fun stuff on it. And The Giant Squid…
Andrew: I have the list right here if you want to…
Paul: Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, I’m going off of the top of my head, but…
Andrew: Okay.
Paul: We got The Giant Squid Extravaganza. He’s really pro-environmentalist Wizard Rock, sort of. And this is along the same lines as, you know, The Whomping Willows are pretty heavy on the environmental stuff.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And so is The Giant Squid. He likes to plug that. He’s got some good stuff planned for sure.
Andrew: Cool. Uh, The Nifflers?
Paul: Yeah, The Nifflers: Canada’s first representative in the Wizard Rock Club.
Andrew: Oh, cool.
Paul: Yeah. They’re – I’m such a sucker for these sibling duos, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: Like Draco and the Malfoys. The Nifflers are a brother-sister duo from the Toronto area. Super nice folks.
Andrew: Gryffindor Common Room Rejects.
Paul: Yeah! Oh man, they’re great, too.
[Andrew laughs]
Paul: They’re like a pair of high school girls who produce really cool, low-fi punk rock on keyboards and stuff like that. It’s really, really, really fun stuff.
Andrew: All right, cool.
Paul: They kind of remind me of our band, where we would just, like, hit play on one of the keyboard demos and then record a quick song over it. It’s just like that.
Andrew: [laughs] Nice and easy.
Paul: [laughs] Yeah, and really fun too.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And we got Justin Finch-Fetchley, the Hufflepuff representative. He – he’s actually one of Matt’s old friends from way back. He’s kind of in that circle of Woodsocket wizard rockers.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Paul: Woodsocket, Rhode Island represent.
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Paul: And I think the last – oh, The Mudbloods. They’re from…
Andrew: Yes.
Paul: The Texas area. They’re fantastic. I really love their stuff. Just great. Indie rock sounding stuff, and they’ve got a great attitude, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: We kind of tried to pick bands that we really thought would be the most fun to work with and have a really great positive attitude that reflected what we liked best about wizard rock.
Andrew: Yeah. It all seems they’re very – they’re all very into – they’re supportive of the idea of raising money, since…
Paul: Yeah, well, exactly. You know, that’s the whole thing behind the club, the end result. We both want it to be super fun for people….
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: …who are subscribers, and we think it is, because over the course of the year if you subscribe you’re going to get 12 CDs, you know? And those 12 CDs are only come to you and a few other hundred people in the world.
Andrew: Right.
Paul: You know? They’re just for you, and I think there is something cool behind that. And then at the end of the day, the club costs 60 bucks, and I know that’s, like, kind of a lot of money, but at the same time you’re getting 12 CDs so it’s like 5 bucks a disc.
Andrew: Right.
Paul: And they’re all mailed to you. It’s very convenient. They show up at your home…
Andrew: Mhm.
Paul: Once every few months, and then we’re going to raise – through it we’re going to raise a ton of money, and this year we’re sort of expanding it. We’re hoping to sell a few more subscriptions this year, and maybe raise almost twice as much money as we did last year.
Andrew: Okay, great.
Paul: And the money this year is going to go to First Book again and we’re also throwing some money over to the Harry Potter Alliance’s way.
Andrew: That’s great. Yeah.
Paul: Because this is going to be a big year for the HP Alliance.
Andrew: Oh definitely. Especially with Jo’s backing now.
Paul: Yeah, oh man, what a wonderful – what wonderful comments she made about the HP Alliance recently.
Andrew: Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely.
Paul: So, everybody at the HP Alliance is super pumped about that and just feel like this is the time to really reach out to the Harry Potter community and really catalyze them and really do something special together.
Andrew: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
Paul: I think it’s part of why Jo’s excited about it and part of why the fandom is so excited about it, because it has this sort of momentum to it.
Andrew: Mhm.
Paul: And the more people that are on board, like, the better the stuff we can do with it.
Andrew: Yeah., yeah.
Paul: You know?
Andrew: Yeah. So, it sounds like a good deal to me. Getting 12 CDs, each with a few songs, what, five to ten songs you would say?
Paul: Yeah, typically five to ten songs from each band, it’s great.
Andrew: Okay, cool.
Paul: And those are just for you, just for you wizard rock fans.
Andrew: And they look great. They come – they come professionally packaged, and designed and all that.
Paul: Oh yeah. No rinky-dink operation.
Andrew: [laughs] This is no CDR from Wal-Mart. This is the real deal.
Paul: Oh yeah. They’ll go to pressing plants, you know. I have a roommate that’s a sound engineer, and he does all the mastering, so they sound great.
Andrew: Oh, good, good.
Paul: And they look great, and the bands are all great, so, you know, check it out. We’ve got a website that you can subscribe from, which is WizardRockClub.com, and you can totally check out more info on all the bands there and read more about what we’re about.
Andrew: Cool.
Paul: But you know the gist of it is, we’re having fun with wizard rock, and we’ve got a bunch of great bands involved, and we’re raising money for some really great causes.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: That – that really sort of encapsulates, to me, what wizard rock is about. It’s about this idea that we’re going to have a lot of fun together, and we’re going to put smiles on people’s faces, and try and do some good in the world too.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. You guys – the whole wizard rock community has a great sense of just togetherness, and it’s like one big family. It’s great what you guys have all created together.
Paul: Well, you know, it kind of stems from the whole Harry Potter fan community, actually. Like, I don’t think it’s unique at all to wizard rock. What it is, is it’s really the Harry Potter community…
Andrew: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Paul: That’s unique in that way now.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: Yeah, I mean, wizard rock – the bands help each other out and all that, but when you look at the Harry Potter community as a whole it’s such a welcoming place, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: And there are so many people that contribute to that, you know? Like you guys at MuggleNet are such a major part of that in bringing people together, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: I’m sure you guys must hear testimonials all the time, like, you know, these people met their best friends ever…
Andrew: Oh, god yeah.
Paul: …through MuggleNet. Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Paul: Yeah, it’s such a wonderful thing. It’s so cool to hear those stories and realize that, well, not only have these books changed people’s lives in such a significant way, but really, like, they’ve created this community and these people are continuing to interact and be such a tremendously positive force in each other’s lives and now, through – through things like Wizard Rock and the Harry Potter Alliance, are taking that to the next level where we’re branching outside the community…
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: …of Harry Potter fans and, like, getting out into the real world and, like – and doing some really cool stuff…
Andrew: Absolutely.
Paul: …even outside the fan community.
Andrew: There’s quite a few examples of that in our fandom.
Paul: Yeah.
Andrew: It’s great. And, I mean, if – anyone listening, if you’ve never been to a Wizard Rock show, I highly recommend a Wizard Rock show with a few bands all coming together to play or even just one by themselves. I mean, they’re always a lot of fun and like Paul was saying, you know, you guys – you guys were impressed by some people singing your songs. I mean, now it’s like, all these people coming out to the shows are always singing along and dancing and just having a great time.
Paul: Yeah, it really is something special and unique, you know, and pure. So, I would definitely advise anyone to go check out a Wizard Rock show in your area because there’s a lot of cool stuff going on and you’re bound – you’re bound to have a good time, you know. You’re going to leave smiling. I’ve never had any sort of, like, real negative experience at one of these shows, you know?
Andrew: Oh, no.
Paul: Everybody – everybody goes with such a positive attitude.
Andrew: Yeah, definitely.
Paul: And when I think about the time I wasted at like, other boring concerts where people go and they, like, stand with their arms crossed and it’s almost like they go to, like, tear a band apart…
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Paul: You know, like, “This band sucked” or “That band sucked.” But, like, Wizard Rock is like a total antithesis of that.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Paul: Where people are going because they want to have a good time. They want to see people. They want to have fun.
Andrew: Absolutely.
Paul: They want to get dressed up. Whatever. You know?
Andrew: And it’s a great time with all their friends and you meet new friends there. It’s just wonderful.
Paul: Absolutely.
Andrew: Definitely. Well, is there anything else you wanted to bring up? Should we wrap this up?
Paul: You know, earlier, before we started recording we mentioned that…
Andrew: Oh. [laughs]
Paul: …back in the day, back in the day – I think it was early 2005.
Andrew: Mhm.
Paul: So about three years ago, Harry and the Potters – we were kind of working with MuggleNet loosely for a Book 6 launch event and that’s when I started interacting with some of your staffers, I think.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: At the time – I don’t know if it was one of your guys’ ideas or mine, but I put together a MuggleNet theme song…
[Andrew laughs]
Paul: Which we never officially recorded, but which I did send – send into the MuggleNet circle.
Andrew: Yeah.
Paul: So, I think now it’s time for the official premiere of that.
Andrew: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Paul: That theme song.
Andrew: Three years later. [laughs]
Paul: I’m going to – three years later…
Andrew: It’s time for its premiere. [laughs]
Paul: We’ll dig up the demo and you can premiere it on this Muggle – MuggleCast here. It’s not a MuggleCast theme, but, you know, MuggleNet. Close enough. Actually, I could – you could just over-dub me. Ready? Here’s the clip. MuggleCast! So you can over-dub that at the end.
[Andrew laughs]
Paul: MuggleCast!
Andrew: Okay. Well, we’ll…
Paul: MuggleCast!
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Andrew: Well, we’ll have two versions: MuggleNet and MuggleCast.
Paul: There you go.
Andrew: We’ll just rearrange your words and all that. No, but – alright. Let’s play the clip now.
[Plays the clip]
We’ll post the news
And your magic-hungry Muggle eyes
Will devour every word
Trying to pacify your appetite
For boy-wizard related things
How can there be so much Harry Potter news?
MuggleNet!
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Paul: Awesome
Andrew: Ah. Brings back memories.
Paul: Cool.
Andrew: So, well, that’s great. [laughs] That’s great, Paul. We thank you so much for making that. I’m sure – I’m sure that will get some feedback.
Paul: No problem. It was no trouble.
Andrew: I remember over – I guess, maybe it was summer 2005 or summer 2006, Ben was always singing that song left and right at opportune moments.
Paul: Nice. It’s glad – I’m glad to know that it kind of lived on within the MuggleNet staff, you know?
Andrew: It did. Yeah, it did.
Paul: Even though it never made its way public until now.
Andrew: I almost forgot about it…
Paul: The world premiere.
Andrew: Until you brought it up before we started recording. But it’s good.
Paul: Cool.
[Andrew and Paul laugh]
Andrew: All right, well, Paul DeGeorge, thank you so much for joining us today on MuggleCast.
Paul: Yeah, thank you so much, Andrew, for having me.
Andrew: No problem. We’ll check out your MySpace, www.MySpace.com/harryandthepotters, and also you’re in our new Wizard Rock section and you wrote up a lengthy interview for us. Thanks for doing that.
Paul: [laughs] Yeah. I went kind of crazy on it. I had a lot of time on a bus ride, so I just…
Andrew: No, it’s great! It’s great!
Paul: …went ballistic on your interview questions. [laughs]
Andrew: Well, it’s all good. I’m sure everyone will be enjoying that.
Paul: Cool! Great!
Andrew: All right, Paul, thanks very much!
Paul: Thanks, Andrew!
Andrew: Talk to you again soon.
Paul: All right.
Andrew: That was Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters. He’s like Harry himself, practically. He’s like just as popular.
Matt: He’s kind of a big thing.
Andrew: Yeah, he’s sort of a somebody in the Wizard Rock world. I’ll put it that way.
Eric: I really like what he’s doing with the Wizard EP of the Month. I really like that.
MuggleCast 130 Transcript (continued)
Chapter-by-Chapter: Chapter 13 – The Muggleborn Registraion Commission
Andrew: Yeah. That’s what we talked about. This week we’re just going to try one chapter – Chapter 13 – The Muggleborn Registration Commission. We feel like there’s a lot to talk about this chapter and the next week following it, so next week might be one chapter, too. I don’t know. Heck! We could be going until summer! I hope not, but…
[Andrew, Eric, and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Not weekly, anyway.
Eric: Well, we’ll see.
Andrew: All right, well let’s just jump right into it. I mean, this is the chapter where Harry, Ron and Hermione infiltrate the Ministry and Harry goes into Umbridge’s office and searches for the locket, of course to no avail and they actually do end up getting the locket in one of the coolest scenes so far in this book., and probably one of my favorite scenes in the book as a whole.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: Totally agree. So they’ve actually infiltrated the Ministry in the previous chapter but they’re just stepping off of the elevator in the beginning of the chapter when Umbridge recognizes Hermione who is Mafalda Hopkirk. So Harry steps off the elevator and Umbridge gets on the elevator and Harry is confronted with Pius – by Pius Thicknesse who is under the Imperius Curse. Do we know who Imperiused Pius? Is that Voldemort, like, directly Imperiused him because this is the Minister of Magic?
Andrew: Presumably it would be Voldemort.
Mikey: No, no, I believe in the beginning it was….
Matt: It was Draco, wasn’t it?
Mikey: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah. They stated that someone was supposed to do that at the beginning. I don’t remember who.
Mikey: Oh. I thought it was Yaxley because we were introduced to Yaxley in the very beginning of the book and I believe Voldemort talks to Yaxley about what’s the progress with the Ministry.
Eric: Oh.
Mikey: Things like – “we have Thickness under our control.”
Andrew: Oh, right. Yeah.
Mikey: So I believe it’s Yaxley, especially considering, you know, that would be great to build this character up because he’s kind of new in the seventh book and he’s the one that did this.
Eric: Yeah. Yeah.
Mikey: I don’t know. That’s just what I remember from reading, guys.
Eric: Yaxley’s making a bang. Yaxley’s is making a bang. I was just thinking in that scene it would be funny if Harry turned to him and said, you know, “I’m Harry Potter” and just watch him flip out, but…
Mikey: [laughs] No, actually, actually – again, like honestly, I want to see, you know, who’s Harry impersonating. Rancor – what’s his name?
Matt: Runcorn?
Andrew: Runcorn, yeah.
Mikey: Runcorn? And he’s like this high up Death Eater person…
Eric: Yeah.
Mikey: I would love for Harry – when Harry and Ron are in the elevator with Arthur – it’d just be like, “Arthur, it’s me, Harry, and this is Ron!” and just be like totally see Arthur Weasley just flip out and be like, “What are you doing here?” It’d be amazing, because like, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: Harry feels bad the entire time in that entire scene.
Eric: Yeah, I agree. That’s what Jo’s so good at writing, though, is these scenes, you know? Like you really have to admire Jo for writing this just how she did because it’s like you almost want to reach out to the characters you’re seeing in peril. You know? Like Arthur Weasley getting intimidated and stuff – it’s just – I like how it all plays out.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: No, I agree with you. It’s one of these – this book is, like I think I stated a long time ago – this book is one of those things where I was mad at it throughout the entire reading. Because it was like, I wanted them to do something and they weren’t doing it, or they weren’t – I was like talking to the book and obviously, you know, it’s not going to respond because it’s a book!
Eric: Did the book talk back?
Mikey: [laughs] I think it might’ve talked back at one point. It might’ve been a dream or no sleep or something.
The Pure-blood Pamphlets
Eric: Half asleep while reading it, yeah. That does it sometimes. Yeah, right before Harry goes into Umbridge’s office there’s that group of wizards and witches that are folding papers – the Ministry pamphlets with a flower strangling another flower on it.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: What’d you guys think of that pure-blood pamphlet maniac crap?
Andrew: I thought – it sort of reminded me of like – sort of a telemarketer’s office or something where they’re all just grouped together and doing the same thing over and over again.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: I don’t know if Jo’s trying to draw another parallel to something within the government or – yeah, I don’t know.
Eric: Just the idea that they were magicking pamphlets together – what would they use to magick pamphlets because pamphlets can be made quite easily by just folding paper. But they were like magically waving their wands and – I know it’s a moot point, but…
Andrew: See, I don’t see the point in doing that because they have paper folders. I used to use one in the job I used to work at. You put like a stack of papers in and then it like folds it three ways and it comes out like a toaster. You can just stick it in the envelope.
Eric: Oh, that’s cool.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Where do you get one of those Andrew?
Mikey: Yeah, but see the problem is…
Andrew: OfficeMax? [hits the “Easy” button] Actually, Staples.
Mikey: I prefer Staples. That’s what I was going to say.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: I prefer Staples, my friend.
Eric: Right.
Mikey: But – it’s one of those things, though. Even if they do have paper-folders, Andrew, this is a wizarding world. We’ve seen them turn down jeans and t-shirts as daily wear to wear cloaks. So obviously going to Staples (“That was easy!”) and getting a paper folder – they’re probably just going to use their wand because it’s free.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: So…
Eric: They can’t be bothered. They can’t be bothered, Andrew. Plus, the Ministry needs to create jobs.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s true.
Mikey: Yeah. Economy – good for the economy.
Matt: About the picture with the red rose being strangled by a green weed, being mean and evil-like – do you guys see that as, kind of, propaganda?
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, sort of.
Eric: It’s propaganda. Oh, yeah.
Mikey: Yeah.
Eric: I think Umbridge drew it, too.
Laura: It’s propaganda though.
Eric: Yeah and Umbridge drew it, too. Umbridge could have been responsible for that drawing, actually. That’s what, I think, Jo hinted at. Because she said when Harry took a look at that, he didn’t know who drew it, but the scars on the back of his hand tingled again as they had previously.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: I thought it was a good comparison, too, because you know, roses are represented as the most beautiful, most prestigious flowers of the group…
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: And that would represent like, Purebloods. I thought that was nice.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s a really good point.
Mikey: Yeah, but I think it’s also the fact that seeing a room of them folding it also lies in line with the pamphlet of what the Ministry has done previously about how to protect them and everything like that. I remember it was Half-Blood Prince and Harry was like, “I received a pamphlet form the Ministry,” and Dumbledore asks, “What did you think of it?” and he says, “It was pretty useless.”
[Eric laughs]
Mikey: That’s kind of what I think we’re seeing – that these are pretty useless because they’re propaganda and we see them as propaganda because that’s what the Ministry does because they’re kind of useless already.
The Eye of Moody
Andrew: So, the eye…
Eric: The eye! Nailed to the door. Or, you know, attached to the door. Guys, this is – this is sick. This is sick.
Andrew: It’s one of those classic Umbridge moments that I really was missing from Order of the Phoenix. Because like I’ve said so many times before, Order of the Phoenix gave me so much anger because of Umbridge. And that – you see Mad-Eye’s eye just framed up there like a trophy prize. It’s – I mean, it’s being used, but it’s still disgusting and wrong.
Matt: Well, it confirms that…
Laura: Yeah.
Matt: It confirms the fact that we know what happened – who got to Mad-Eye’s body first, too.
Andrew: That’s – oh yeah. Good point.
Mikey: But I think the – what the biggest question that came up to me when I read this was where did Mad-Eye get that magical eye, then? If it’s so unique that they’re taking it versus just creating their own…
Eric: Or getting their own, yeah.
Mikey: Where did he get this magical eye? Where did it come from?
Andrew: But I think Umbridge wanted it to just – I’m sure she was happy that Mad-Eye died, so – and I mean, they realized there was a use for it.
Matt: I’m sure she was there, too. She probably took it when they were examining his body.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: Yeah. Considering she takes the locket, too.
Matt: Yeah. She’s just taking stuff.
Eric: Yeah, she gets out and about a lot. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Umbridge gets around.
Matt: She goes to yard sales and everything.
Andrew:
[laughs] Hey, for all you guys know, she could have gotten that eye at a yard sale. But realistically, yeah, that just confirms that the Ministry got to Mad-Eye’s body. How unfortunate!
Umbridge’s Ministry Office
Eric: Yeah. So, I don’ know. If Harry walks in – when Harry walks in to her office and he sees that her office is pretty much the same as it was when it was at Hogwarts – I can’t wait to see that in the movie…
Andrew: That’s so funny, yeah.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: Because the whole time I was reading that scene, I was like, “Okay, time to bring the plates back out of the prop room.”
Eric: [laughs] Yeah.
Andrew: Because that’s…
Eric: Time to get another photo shoot of the cats and everything.
Andrew: Right. Well, hopefully – I mean, I’m sure they’re happy about that because now they know what to do for her office at the Ministry: same exact thing.
Matt: It’s easy, too, because it’s almost exactly like it was in the fifth story, so they really don’t have to change anything.
Andrew: Right. Exactly.
Eric: It’s interesting…
Mikey: Yeah, I actually kind of freaked out re-reading it. Because after I had seen the movie with all those cats now, versus just like – when I was envisioning before when I read the fifth book, now when I read it, I was like, “Oh my gosh, there are all these cats on the walls.” And I just started hearing the meows.
Matt: I know. It’s so surreal.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Mikey: And it’s so creepy! It’s like “Meeeeow! Meow!”
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: Scratching. Ahhh, sorry, I’m freaking out!
[Eric makes “meow” noise]
Laura: I still just think of the cat plates they had in the bathrooms of the premiere party.
Andrew: I know.
Laura: And – oh my god.
Andrew: They would meow and stuff. That was really funny.
Eric: I wish I was there.
Matt: Yeah. So do I.
Andrew: Such a nice touch.
Mikey: Yeah, I didn’t go so…
Andrew: Not to have some inside talk even more, but another amazing thing about that after party is that they had an indoor area and there were portraits on the walls, but they were like plasma T.V. screens with portrait borders around them.
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: And it was moving wizards and stuff – it was so cool.
Laura: Yeah, that whole thing was pretty sweet. I have to say…
Andrew: Yeah, it was. Sucks you guys weren’t there! [laughs]
Matt: Well, I’m glad you guys had fun.
Mikey: Yeah, I’m glad you guys had a lot of fun.
Matt: Yeah, jerk.
Andrew: Well, Laura’s the one who took a picture with Rupert.
Laura: I did! It’s on my Facebook.
Andrew: That was very exciting. I’m glad you did that.Â
Eric: So, as if…Â
Andrew: I was too afraid to do that. But anyway…Â
Search in Office Reveals No Locket
Eric: So as if the shockingness – as if the chapter couldn’t get any more shocking, Harry unsuccessfully searches for the locket unsucessfully in her office. And ell, actually guys, do you want to talk about that decoy detonator? Because my favorite line in the chapter comes just as Harry’s exiting Umbridge’s office.Â
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Can we jump to the favorites segment here quickly?Â
Andrew: I guess so, yeah.
Mikey: Yeah.Â
Eric’s Favorite Line and The Rain Cloud
Eric: Well, my favorite line in this chapter – they’re discussing the diversion that Harry created with the decoy detonator and they say, “I bet it sneaked up here from Experimental Charms. They’re so careless. Remember that poisonous duck?” [laughs].
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: You know, I agree. Because it’s one of those things where it also shows how lax and ridiculous the…
Eric: The office life is.
Mikey: …Ministry has gotten.
Eric:Â “Remember that poisonous duck that was up here?” “Yeah, those silly Experimental Charms people.”
Mikey: Poisonous Duck. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, so the Ministry is sticking Dementors on the Muggle-borns.
Matt: They are?
Andrew: Which was very sad, but at the same time.
Mikey:
Andrew: It was definitely the coolest scene. Should we jump to that now?Â
Matt: Yeah.
Mikey: Well actually, there’s something I put in there that sort of goes along with what Eric was saying – before we get down to the bottom of the elevator, guys.Â
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Okay.Â
Mikey: Eric brought up the exploding decoy and we know that’s from the twins. Then, Harry and Ron are in the elevator and Arthur Weasley shows up. And Arthur tells Ron, not knowing it’s Ron, how to stop to the rain in Yaxley’s office.Â
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey:Â My question is how does Arthur Weasley know exactly the spell? Do you think it’s the Order of The Phoenix making rain clouds in the offices?Â
Eric: Oh no, no, no…
Matt: I think, if anything, it’s Fred and George’s stuff.Â
Eric: No, he said he knew that spell because it worked for the other guy that had rain in his office.Â
Mikey: Yeah, but that just seems way too convenient – that seems way too convenient that he happens to know it off the top of his head. I think there is something along there, where they’re tossing rain cloud frisbees or something and making rain clouds in all the offices of the Death Eaters.Â
Matt: It’s very Fred and George-ish though.Â
Laura: Yeah.Â
Mikey: Yeah, that’s what – I agree.Â
Matt: Like what they did in Movie 5 with the swamp in the Great Hall, or wherever it was.Â
Eric: That’s true…Â
Mikey: Swamp in the hallway.
Eric: Just because how close they’re watching Arthur Weasley, it just seems unlikely he’d be involved in it, but it is very pranksterish.Â
Matt: I don’t think he is involved. I think it’s…Â
Mikey: Yeah. I guess I can see it not being Arthur but I think Arthur knows exactly who’s doing it and what’s going on. I can really see it being a Fred and George thing where they snuck in and go, “Dad, just let these go,” and him doing it nonchalantly and they just go to where they need to go. Because that’s just amazing – come on, a rain cloud! Â
Eric: What stuns me is that the raining offices floored Ron. I mean, he – when Hermione was mentioning suggestions, you know, Finite Incantatem or just Impervius and all that stuff – these are all spells that Ron had learned at Hogwarts for years and he was just completely unable to grasp the concept. He was fiddling in his pockets for a quill to write down the spells. And Ron is just completely stumped by this raining office when Hermione told him the spells to use and he just seems really incompetent.
Matt: Well, we know Ron’s reaction time isn’t as quick as the rest of them; he doesn’t very quick reactions.Â
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: No, he doesn’t.
Mikey: Yeah, but it’s also one of those things where – what was it? Who was it? Yaxley? Again Yaxley said, “Fix the office and I might go easier on your wife.”
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: And again, Ron’s like, “I need to do this because I don’t want an innocent person to, you know, be killed.”
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Right. He’s getting freaked out.
Mikey: So one, Ron is under pressure and stuff like that. I think you guys picked on Ron a little too much, because I like him. [laughs]
Eric: [sings] “Under pressure…”
Mikey: No, it’s one of those things – yeah. [sings] “Under pressure…” But no, it’s one of things where Ron definitely is put under pressure and I think Harry, even Hermione, has problems under pressure. We see that coming up in a second and I’ll bring it up again. But Harry is the only one who does really well under pressure. Â
Eric: “Fire!” “But there’s no wood!” “Are you a witch or not?” [laughs]
Mikey: [laughs] Well no, it’s also the same thing as like – again, there are Dementors all around and Hermione can’t cast a Patronus. It’s the only spell she’s ever had problems with.
Eric: Yeah.
Mikey: Still, it’s like you’re under pressure. I work better under pressure, but I don’t know about you guys.
The Elevator and The Courtroom
Eric: Speaking of Nazi parallels, there’s a really good line in here when Jo is illustrating that Umbridge’s Patronus is keeping the Dementors’ cold effects from reaching the prosecutors. And it’s a line that says that “morbid feeling,” that “dismal existence was for the accused not the accusers.”
Matt: Right, well that’s in the next chapter, isn’t it?
Eric: No.
Mikey: No, that’s in this chapter.
Matt: Are you sure?
Eric: That’s in this chapter because they’re in the chamber.
Andrew: So we’re there now.
Mikey: Yeah. So, we’re going, now we’re moving down.
Eric: Right.
Mikey: Arthur Weasley just told Ron how to get – and we’re going down into – Harry puts on the Invisibility Cloak.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: And Percy Weasley is on the elevator, he gets off the elevator – oh, and Arthur tells off Harry.
Mikey: Yeah, Arthur tells off Harry and Harry puts on the Invisibility Cloak and boom! They’re down in the courtrooms. That’s where we’re at.
Andrew: I was very surprised by Arthur Weasley’s attitude there because I don’t think that’s – I think that’s the first we’ve really seen him act like that. Of course, he’s not – he doesn’t know it’s Harry but still, I was kind of surprised by how mean he was.
Eric: Pleasantly surprised though.
Mikey: I wasn’t though. They’re not pushovers. You know what I mean?
Andrew: Yeah, I know.
Undesirable Number One and Eric’s Wizard Rock Band
Eric: Mikey.
Mikey: They’re family and – what?
Eric: It’s – he’s been hanging around Undesirable Number One too much. You know?
Andrew: Ah, yes.
Mikey: Yeah. That’s what it is.
Andrew: Those were cool names.
Matt: Now is that me or is that title just…
Eric: It’s the coolest title in the world.
Matt: …kind of, uncreative.
Andrew: I like it.
Matt: I don’t like it at all.
Eric: Who has not – see, I want to start a Wizard Rock band. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and I’m going to call it – before someone else does – I want to call myself Undesirable Number One because it means…
Andrew: Well…
Eric: Because it’s just another nickname for Harry Potter but it’s – I don’t think it’s taken. So…
Andrew: That is a really good name but I think you just blew it.
Matt: You just blew it, you’ve got to…
Laura: Yeah.
Mikey: But guys, guys! Didn’t you know? Me and Eric started that band last week.
Matt: Oh.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Mikey: Undesirable Number One, that’s me and Eric. That’s me and you right?
Eric: Yeah, totally.
Mikey: Is that what it is?
Andrew: All you’ve got to do is – Paul and I discussed in the interview – all you’ve got to do is just create a new MySpace page and boom! You have a band. You’re done. So, just create the band real quick putu p a MySpace before the episode comes out.
Mikey: Yes! We should. Let’s do it right now. Guys, you’re listening to history in the making. Undesirable Number One is getting an e-mail at Gmail right now and a MySpace page in the next five minutes.
Eric: Mikey, if you…
Andrew: Sweet.
Eric: Could do that I’d love you forever.
Mikey: Actually I would let you do it because I’m actually looking at my bills now. I’m sorry.
Eric: That’s okay, it just won’t get done.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Just get that done. Okay, giving that name up for the public…
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: Undesirable Number One…
Mikey: Yes.
[Eric laughs]
Mikey: Make it and the just give Eric credit for the name because it’s awesome.
Back to Umbrigde’s Office: Rita’s Book
Andrew: Okay, well let’s…
Matt: Hey guys…
Andrew: Let’s keep moving along here.
Matt: Can I say something?
Andrew: Sure.
Matt: About – because we kind of passed it and I really hate going back but, I think this is a pivotal – one of the pivotal points in the chapter, when Harry looks at the book by Rita Skeeter about “The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore.”
Eric: Oh, you’re right. We missed that.
Matt: It has a picture of Dumbledore holding who I believe – isn’t it Dumbledore? He says it could be Armando Dippet, but…
Eric: No, Doge.
Matt: Doge. Doge. That’s it.
Eric: Dumbledore is there and he says it could be Doge he’s holding.
Matt: I kind of thought it was like, Grindelwald or something.
Eric: I think – it’s either talked – I don’t think it would be Grindelwald in that picture though. See, it depends on what picture. But, the one in the book…
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: I don’t know. If it’s…
Andrew: What made you think it was Grindelwald?
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: I don’t know. Because he was just holding his arm around him looking really happy and Dumbledore and him used to be really good friends.
Andrew: Well, what are you trying to say?
Mikey: Wellm it couldn’t have been – couldn’t it have been his brother?
Andrew: They were lovers. I don’t know.
Mikey: Were they lovers?
Andrew: No they weren’t.
Laura: No, they weren’t.
Andrew: But Dumbledore loved him.
Eric: You know what else is funny? Rita Skeeter – it said, from the same author as “Armando Dippet” – what was it? “Moron.” [laughs] Or something.
Andrew: Yeah, something like that.
Eric: “Master or Moron.” It was pretty funny.
Back to the Courtroom and The Locket
Andrew: So, let’s get to the chamber now in the courtroom. Harry is there with his Invisibility Cloak, scares Hermione by saying, “I’m behind you.” This – I love this scene. I think this is so cool.
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Umbridge is explaining that the locket belongs to her ancestors and that just sends Harry through the roof. I can’t – I really cannot wait to see this scene.
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Andrew: Laura – what did you think about it, Laura?
Laura: I thought it was just fabulous. I mean you just – it’s just another one of those Umbridge moments that you talk about where it’s like, she’s just flat out lying, like… [makes frustrated noise]
Andrew: Right.
Laura: It’s so annoying.
Andrew: So easily. So easily.
Matt: What’s great about when she does these lies and stuff – she knows it’s a blatant lie and she knows that she can say it and it’s pretty much cannon when she says it, because no one can say anything.
Mikey: See, what I was going to say is like – this is great, you know, it’s this blatant lie. But if she knew what it really was, it’d be even that much more because it was Salazar Slytherin’s. It was one of the founders of Hogwarts. You know, she could say, “Oh, this is an old family heirloom but it was originally Salazar Slytherin’s.” That’s so much more than it was like, “it’s been in her family for generations” and I just find it very ironic that she’s making up a story that’s not even as good as the actual story behind it.
Laura: Yeah, that’s true.
Matt: Well if she – if she blatantly tells everybody that it’s from Slytherin, people are going to start to actually research it to see if she’s a liar or not. If she goes “Selwyn”…
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Matt: …it’s not as prestigious.
Mikey: No, I know. Yeah, I know, but the whole thing is though – like, the actual story behind what the locket is and what it is, is way more interesting and way more important than her made up story of “it’s been in my family for years.”
Â
Andrew: Of course!
Â
Eric: Umbridge has the locket around her neck and she is proud to wear it. But if Pius Thicknesse, if the Minister of Magic saw the locket at any point, you know, when maybe she was walking in, she showed it to the Minister: “Do you like my new locket?” Pius should’ve told – if Pius was under the Imperius control of Voldemort, Voldemort would’ve seen that locket, and he would’ve recognized that the locket was out of its hiding place. That’s a potential…
Â
Andrew: Yeah!
Â
Eric: … big plot hole that I just – I just thought of that.
Â
Mikey: Well again we – I thought that we said that Pius wasn’t Imperiused by Voldemort.
Eric: Wasn’t under Voldemort. And I think that’s…
Â
Laura: Yeah, I don’t think he was.
Â
Mikey: And again, I think Voldemort was lying low still. He’s basically in control because all his cronies are controlling the Ministry. But he doesn’t actually need to be – I think they said, I think Arthur or…
Â
Eric: It was Remus. It was Remus who said, “Yeah, that he doesn’t have to.”
Â
Mikey: Yeah, it’s Remus that says he doesn’t need to because he has virtual control without having to make himself present. And if he did make himself present, then there would probably be more people that would stand against it because then it’s obvious, but…
Â
Eric: But I just thought it was – yeah. Yeah.
Â
Mikey: But I’m pretty confident it wasn’t Voldemort.
Â
Eric: No, you’re right. It’s no plot hole.
Harry Attacks Umbridge, Hermione Takes The Locket
Â
Andrew: So, another thing we wanted to talk about here. So, Harry sends a curse at – what was it again?
Eric: He shuts her face.
Â
Matt: It was Stupify.
Â
Andrew: It was Stupify, right.
Â
Mikey: Was it Stupify, again? Oh, geez.
Andrew: It was.
Â
Eric: Yeah, it was Stupify.. It was Stupify.
Mikey: It’s a good spell, isn’t it?
Andrew: It was.
Mikey: Stupify again.
Â
Eric: Umbridge is boom – face desk, head desk.
Why Does Locket Have No Effect on Umbridge?
Â
Andrew: Which is great, and then Hermione goes into it get the locket. One thing that Matt wanted to bring up was why does the locket not have an effect on Umbridge? Because as we know later on in the book – we’ll talk about it now just because Umbridge is wearing it now – Ron felt the effects of it. It made him separate from the group. So, what was it about Umbridge that…
Â
Matt: Well, not only that, but when they put the locket on for the first time – in the next chapter though – you could feel it, an automatic heart beat. Like, wouldn’t she feel that?
Â
Andrew: Yeah, well not just that. Harry said he felt the slightest heart beat…
Â
Mikey: Heart beat and stuff, yeah. We read both chapters in preparation for this but then we just realized that the chapter’s too big.
Â
Andrew: Yeah.
Â
Mikey: For two chapters, but…
Â
Andrew: So…
Mikey: Oh…
Andrew: The question is why – does anyone have any high ideas or theories why Umbridge wouldn’t feel anything? Does it matter if you’re wearing certain amount of clothing that’s protecting you from physically…
Â
Eric: Well she does have the ruffles, the foliage…
Â
Andrew: Touching skin?
Â
Eric: But…
Â
Andrew: Her dress. No, I’m just kidding.
Â
Eric: No, well, I think she did feel it. I don’t think the locket had no effect on Umbridge. But I think, though, that Umbridge was so full of malice, generally – when she got the locket, she proceeded to – I mean that is when she proceeded to make those pamphlets and start crucifying and became the head of the Muggle-born Registration Committee. She was at a really crucial, really powerful, self-important time as part of her career at the Ministry. I just think the locket would have felt good – unusually good to wear. I think it attracted her to begin with.
Â
Matt: Yeah.
Â
Eric: And it just was one of those things that empowered her to do her job and have all that malice and evil. So, she might not have noticed that it was beating a heart beat, but I think it definitely affected her it made her – sort of brought out her evil and her cruelty.
Â
Laura: Yeah, I agree. Definitely
Â
Mikey: Yeah, I have to be with Eric, but I also think maybe – also kind of shows that – because it is part Voldemort. I know that Voldemort has a direct affect on the people that see him that are not his followers. It could also mean that she was a Death Eater and he had been in his presence before and did not seem any different. I personally think that just because how evil she was, she would definitely be one of the Death Eaters.
Â
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Well, yeah.
Â
Mikey: And this locket would not change anything. You know?
Laura: Well…
Mikey: It’s what she’s been used to.
Â
Matt: That’s kind of the same as my theory, too. Although, I think since it is a Horcrux and it’s part of Voldemort – I think Horcruxes kind of have soul of its own. So, I think it could actually sense if it’s in danger or not. Maybe that’s why it affected Ron so much because it knew what – it kind of felt that it was kind in danger in this group of peoples’ hands.
Â
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
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Matt: Whereas, if it was with Umbridge, it knew it was safe or it just could sense a comfortable…
Â
Andrew: Oh, that’s true. Yeah.
Â
Matt: …aura around her or something.
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Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Â
Mikey: Yeah. I could believe that. That’s a good one.
Â
Laura: Yeah, well I think the big point of the locket is that it brings out the worst in people. If you’re a good person like Ron is and it starts to magnify all of your worst traits, you’re clearly not going to be very happy.
Eric: You’re very fearsome.
Laura: But if you thrive in being evil like Umbridge does, then just making her power-hungry nature that much more bad would make her happy.
Matt: That’s true.
Laura: So, yeah.
Matt: That’s a good theory, too.
Eric: Yeah. Well, you know what Hermione does, guys? This is – this shocked me.
Andrew: But wait a second – was there anything that showed Dumbledore – or, sorry – that Umbridge – her cruelness was exemplified?
Eric: Well, it’s like…
Laura: Well, the way I think – I mean…
Eric: I’m not saying it’s inhuman. I’m not saying Umbridge is being super powerful now that she has the locket. I’m just saying that the locket would have felt good to wear around – as a general vibe, like…
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: …Umbridge would be – Umbridge would be getting this vibe to be cruel, and she’s proud to have this locket that is from the Sed – or Selwyn family, or whatever, which is not true.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Well granted, also…
Laura: Well, I think that it…
Matt: Oh, sorry.
Andrew: Yeah. Let Laura go.
Laura: It’s okay. All right, I think that what it shows is it kind of took her whole pure – her obsession with pure-bloods to a whole new level, because in the fifth book, she didn’t really say anything about Muggle-borns, did she?
Eric: No, she just hated half-breeds, like centaurs.
Andrew: No.
Laura: It was mostly about magical creatures…
Eric: Yeah, magical creatures.
Laura: And this just took it to a whole new level. And gave her the opportunity.
Eric: Totally.
Andrew: But don’t you think that was Dumbledore’s – or, sorry – Voldemort’s doing?
Laura: Well I think that – I think that he allowed – I think he made that easier for her to do, but it also, I think, could become more acceptable for her if she had – you know, if the locket did bring out…
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: …that kind of…
Eric: I’m with Laura.
Laura: Evil, power-hungry…
Eric: I’m with Laura.
Laura: Personality of hers.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: Yeah, I can go with that. I’ll buy that.
Duplicating the Locket
Eric: You know what’s so shocking that I read, guys, is that Hermione duplicated the locket so that Umbridge didn’t know it was missing. Did you guys catch that?
Laura: Mhm.
Matt: Yeah. Mhm.
Andrew: Well, of course…
Eric: But I thought…
Andrew: That’s pretty important.
Eric: That’s so weird. So now, not only is there a locket around Kreacher’s neck, which is the false locket that R.A.B. put in the basin to replace the locket he took, but now there’s actually a duplicate locket that actually has an “S,” so it’s almost like an exact replica of the Slytherin artifact without Voldemort’s soul in it.
Matt: Uh huh.
Andrew: But that’s important because if Umbridge thought it was stolen, there would have been this huge search for that locket and…
Eric: Right, but…
Andrew: …they would have had a…
Eric: What exactly does it…
Mikey: And I’m sure Voldemort would have found out.
Eric: Matter? But what exactly does it…?
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Oh. Well…
Andrew: It matters because they don’t want another reason for Death Eaters and Voldemort to come after them. Or Umbridge – like, maybe Umbridge would have been really annoyed enough to go after…
Eric: Right. Okay.
Andrew: …Harry, Ron and Hermione to get the locket.
Eric: But at first I didn’t wonder, because, I mean, after they make the big escape from the Ministry, I think – I mean, there are several moments here – and this is another point too – there are several moments – see, Mary, the wife of Redge, who they’re rescuing from this trial – she’s really confused because Harry is, you know, personifying the man who put her there in the first place. But they shout each other’s names quite a bit when they’re escaping and throwing Patronuses at the Dementors, “Harry,” “Hermione,” “Ron this,” “Ron that,” and it seems pretty obvious that it’s Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger that have appeared at the Ministry. It seems like Mary would be able to piece it together, or that, you know, somebody would be able to piece it together. Wouldn’t they just want to come after Harry Potter anyway for being at the Ministry? Wouldn’t that just make them want to come after them anyway?
Mikey: Yeah. Well, they’re already after Harry Potter anyway.
Eric: I guess. Yeah.
Mikey: But no, I think the big thing about the locket is, again, without her knowing the locket’s gone and making a fuss about it, Voldemort won’t get wind that his locket has been found and the people involved with taking it and stealing it was his one big enemy. You know what I mean? If Voldemort knew he was destroying his Horcruxes, I think he would have gone out and made more. You know? There are so many more things he could have done than to prevent himself from ever destroying all the Horcruxes. Do you know what I mean?
Eric: You’re right. Dolores…
Mikey: And Harry is this 96-year-old man…
Eric: Umbridge…
Mikey: Trying to kill, you know, the last seventeen of them.
Eric: You’re right, and Umbridge would have been making a big fuss if her locket was…
Matt: Well…
Eric: Stolen.
Matt: Back to what the original question was, though, about how come it didn’t affect her as much, was – I just thought about it – she didn’t wear the locket as long as Ron did either, so that’s probably why it didn’t affect her as much as it did Ron.
Laura: Fair point. Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: I guess. Yeah.
Matt: Because it didn’t – weren’t they like out there for months?
Mikey: Yeah…
Laura: Yeah.
Mikey: But also, how long did she have the locket from what’s his name? From…
Eric: Mundungus. Dung.
Mikey: …Mundungus? Yeah. Do you know what I mean? She could have had it for months too, because they didn’t think about this locket until – remember when Dumbledore died? That’s like the summer before. Let’s say that’s like June or – and now it’s like, what? It’s like…
Eric: Now it’s September.
Mikey: …September maybe. So she’s had it on straight for months then if he got it right away. Do you know what I mean?
Matt: Did he say he sold it right away though?
Mikey: And actually, no. Mundungus stole it before Dumbledore’s death even, after freaking what’s his name’s death? After Sirius’s…
Laura: Oh, good old what’s-his-name!
Mikey: Which was like, years ago.
Eric: So all we know is that Umbridge came up to Dung while he was selling in Diagon Alley and said, “Do you have a permit to sell it here?” And he said no, he’s like, you know, whatever, and she’s like, “Give me that nice necklace, I want it.”
Mikey: Yeah, “give me that and I’ll turn a blind eye.”
MuggleCast 130 Transcript (continued)
The Escape and The Polyjuice Potion Issue
Eric: Well, next was just their – kind of their escape. Do you guys have any comments about their escape?
Andrew: The escape was interesting. I thought the biggest “Holy Sh…” moment was when the real – what was his name again?
Matt: Yaxley?
Andrew: No, no, no, the guy who went home to puke and then…
Eric: Reg Cattermole.
Mikey: Reg Cattermole.
Eric: Reggie Cattermole.
Andrew: Yeah, when he came back and, you know, everyone realized there was two of them. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah.
Andrew: That was a very confusing scene, like…
Matt: It’s hard to read.
Andrew: …even Yaxley was confused. It is hard to read.
Matt: It’ll be a lot better in the movie though.
Eric: Well, Harry laid out this bald guy.
Mikey: Yeah! I think that’s a cool part. I was going to say that, and like, Harry’s just like – he punches a bald guy that lets them go through, and he’s like…
Eric: Yeah.
Mikey: …”He’s helping Muggle-borns escape Yaxley!” and confuses everyone. That’s just awesome.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: I think – but, again, this is not going to be a Daniel Radcliffe doing this scene, punching, and it’s going to be some guy playing Runcorn, and I want to see some big guy just punch another guy.
Eric: Oh, guys, what do you think is going to happen? Because this is a Polyjuice moment, but remember, they made a significant change in Chamber of Secrets when they used the Polyjuice. They still had their own voices, which was…it was a dumb change to make.
Andrew: Yeah, you know, I thought about that because Mrs. Cattermole was all confused in – once they knocked Umbridge out, she got all confused, but like, Harry and Hermione kept addressing each other as each other. So, I don’t understand really what’s going on there.
Mikey: But she was also worried about her life. She’s not paying attention to those little things. We catch them, obviously.
Andrew: Yeah, but she – but it’s not even a little thing. It’s like, “Harry come here, Hermione come here.” Like, you know?
Eric: It is, it is. Andrew is completely right, and, I mean, more to the point, in the book they don’t have their regular voices, and they shouldn’t either. I mean, that was stupid of Movie 2 to do it, but it was a plot device.
Matt: Well, they don’t in The Goblet of Fire either with Mad-Eye Moody. I think they just changed it ’cause they realized that’s how it happens.
Eric: Oh, you’re right, because Mad-Eye Moody, yeah okay, so that’s a Movie 2 error.
Andrew: But I do think from a movie stand point, especially with the trio, it’s too confusing while you’re watching a movie to follow who Harry, Ron and Hermione turn into. Don’t you think?
Laura: Yeah, I think they will change it for the benefit of the movie goer.
Eric: So what do you think they’ll do?
Andrew: Yeah, it’s just too confusing, especially with these random Ministry characters, like – you know, a typical movie goer will not understand – will probably get confused. Especially during these faster-paced action scenes, like, “Wait, who’s who again? I forget.” Like, you know, it’s not going to have like arrows pointing to who is who. You’ve got to have…
Mikey: But you know what? That’s actually what happens; Ron forgets what Harry looked like.
Eric: Yeah.
Mikey: You know what I mean? I think they’re not going to – I don’t think they’re going to dumb it down for movie goers, regardless of…
Eric: I don’t think they’re going to dumb it down, you’re right.
Matt: No.
Mikey: Yeah, I think they’re going to have different voices, and what’s going to happen is, we’re going to follow the one person that the movie’s through. We’re going to follow Harry. And we’re going to forget that it’s Hermione, but then he’s going to be under the Invisibility Cloak and go, “Hermione, I’m here.” And it’s going to go, “Oh, that’s Hermione’s character again, she changed from what she looked like.”
Andrew: I guess so.
Eric: Mafalda Hopkirk.
Mikey: And Ron forgot what he looked like, you know what I mean? There’s enough in there. The only part that’s going to be confusing is like, that ending part when two Reg Cattermoles come out.
Matt: Right.
Mikey: But then, you know what’s going to happen is? They’re going to start coming back.
Matt: Exactly.
Mikey: Because Yaxley has a moment of recognition, that’s when Harry’s scar is going to appear.
Eric: Or their voices change. Yeah.
Mikey: Or their voices start changing. You’re going to know – the movie goers are not – sorry, I get passionate when we start talking about the movie, even though I love the books.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Mikey: Because I’m a filmmaker, guys. But you know, it’s…
Eric: I know.
Andrew: Wait, wait. You’re a film major? You never said that before.
Mikey: Yeah! What can I say? I like movies.
[Laura and Matt laugh]
Andrew: I didn’t know that. But wait, repeat it like five more times, because I think I’m going to forget.
Mikey: Mikey B! Likes movies. Okay, I’m going to leave it there. But no, it’s one of those things they can definitely keep in.
Eric: Yeah, well I agree.
Mikey: They don’t have to dumb it down. As long as they have the one thread which is Harry’s character as Runcorn, because we follow him, we know that’s Harry, and then, you know, Ron’s character comes back in. Even if we forgot what it was, he goes, “Ron, it’s me.” He’s like, “Oh Harry, I forgot what you looked like.” They bring that back up so we know what Ron looks like again, and then, you know, again we have Hermione.
Eric: I think they will cast actors. Yeah, I don’t think they’ll dumb it down, you’re right, Mikey. Have you seen Stardust? Have you guys seen Stardust?
Mikey: No.
Andrew: Well, obviously, they’re going to cast actors, but I – see, I think the way they did it in Chamber of Secrets says something. Sure, they could change it, but I think to avoid confusion – and yes, there will be confusion, I don’t care what you guys say. I mean, whatever, we can agree to disagree.
Mikey: But what about Mad-Eye? We didn’t have Mad-Eye doing a weird fake voice the entire time.
Andrew: Well, because then you would’ve known it was…
Laura: Because that was a longer period of time too.
Andrew: And the other thing was that you weren’t supposed to know that that was an impostor.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Like if it was a different voice, people would’ve been like, “What the hell?”
Matt: Yeah, I know, but you can’t just change it, Andrew.
Andrew: Although I guess that’s the first time we’re meeting Mad-Eye anyway, so nobody would have known.
Mikey: So, it wouldn’t have mattered. Exactly.
Eric: Actually, wait, you guys are forgetting – wait, I remember it. No, it would be easier to understand because they’ll understand because of the seven Potters. The scene with the seven Potters, with all of those Dan Radcliffes.
Andrew: That’s going to be hard, too.
Eric: I don’t know even know if it will be hard, it will just be – they’ll understand that that kind of stuff happens, so the…
Matt: It’s possible, guys…
Eric: Filmmakers…
Matt: It’s not hard.
Eric: …establish that with the scene with the seven Potters to then help understand what happens in the Ministry of Magic.
Andrew: True, true.
Mikey: I want to see Dan Radcliffe walk in as Fleur Delacour. Just walking around, giving Bill a big old kiss.
Andrew: So, um, yeah their escape; it’s cool.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: The saddest moment is when they realize that they won’t be able to go back to Grimmauld Place anymore.
Eric: They don’t realize that yet.
Mikey: No. The saddest moment is when Ron gets splinched. That’s…
Eric: That doesn’t happen yet!
Andrew: Yeah, but he’s okay.
Eric: It doesn’t happen yet, guys. They’re in midair
Matt: You are skipping to the next chapter.
Eric: They are in midair….
Andrew: Oh. Right. Yeah.
Eric: …when the next chapter happens. Harry just feels Hermione’s grasp leaving him and then that’s…
Andrew: Oh, yeah that’s…
[Something beeps in the background]
Andrew: Something in my room keeps beeping!
Mikey: So that’s Chapter 13.
Quote Quiz
Andrew: All right. So it’s time for Quote Quiz-quiz-quiz-quiz… Okay, this week’s Quote Quiz from Chapter 14 is: “Can you feel it though?”
Matt: Yeah!
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: I can feel it.
Andrew: No. No. That was Quote Quiz, Matt. That wasn’t a question.
Matt: Oh, oh, oh.
Make The Connection
Andrew: Ummm, okay. So let’s move on now to Make The Connection.
Matt: Is it Make “the” Connection or Make “a” Connection?
Andrew: Matt’s back this week with a…what?
Matt: Is it Make “the” Connection or Make “a” Connection?
Andrew: “The.”
Matt: Oh, it is?
Andrew: Well, we’ve always called it Make The Connection, so I don’t know.
Matt: All right. Okay.
Andrew: Let’s start with Mikey since he is new to this. I guess Eric hasn’t done one yet either, has he?
Mikey: I’ve done one before.
Andrew: Oh okay.
Mikey: I just haven’t done one in a long time because I haven’t been here.
Matt: I am going to give Mikey an easy one.
Mikey: Okay, good. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Matt: Okay. Let me look. Let me look. Let me look Okay, Mikey B, your Make The Connection for this week is: Make The Connection between Harry Potter and Anakin Skywalker.
Andrew: Oh god!
Mikey: Oh, eez! Which Anakin, though?
Eric: Dude!
Matt: The one in Star Wars.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: Okay. Just checking, because really, I don’t want to make a connection between – well there is another one. There is Anakinn Solo.
Eric: Oh, you’re right.
Matt: In the movies. In the movies.
Mikey: In the movies.
Matt: In the movies. In the movies. In the movies. In the movies.
Mikey: In the movies. In the movies. Okay, well I am going to have to say Order of the Pheonix is a lot like Attack of the Clones, because they’re both big babies and whine about a lot of things.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: Because Harry Potter is like, “I’m mad! At the world! Beause I’m angsty, and I’m ALL CAPS HARRY!” And then in the movie, Anakin Skywalker goes, “I killed them all! I hated them. AHHH!”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: “I hate them.”
Mikey: That’s a good one, right?
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: That’s a good one.
Matt: Mhm.
Mikey: “I hate them all! I killed them all like animals! I’m angry!”
Eric: “I smothered…”
Matt: That’s good!
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: Actually, you guys want to hear a Star Wars story, a very quick one that kind of relates to this?
Andrew: Really quick.
Mikey: All right. I pulled out my Wii, Nintendo Wii again, and I set it up, and I’ve been playing Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, and then I rented Lego Star Wars.
Eric: Oh! How is that for Wii? For Wii?
Mikey: That game is amazing! Lego Star Wars for the Wii is the most amazing thing. I beat Episode 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 and then I had to return it before I could beat Episode 6, so…
[Matt and Eric sigh]
Mikey: …I think that I may have to buy it or rent it again. Because Lego – and they’re making a Lego Indiana Jones.
Eric: Yeah.
Mikey: And I’m so excited. The Lego games are so entertaining.
Andrew: They are.
Mikey: They’re not little kid games. They are awesome. They’re Lego games.
Andrew: I used to love Lego Chess. That was a fun one.
Eric: That always froze my computer.
Mikey: Dude, Lego Star Wars.
Andrew: I guess I am the only dork who plays Lego Chess.
Eric: Lego Chess, yeah.
Mikey: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah, anyway.
Eric: Well, Lego Chess inspired me…
Mikey: Make The Connection.
Matt: Wait, wait, wait! Let me say something about this, because I want to tell you the reason why I picked this – was because the person who sent this in had the most perfect Make The Connection, and I agree with it.
Andrew: Oh okay.
Matt: It is so funny. The reason why there is a Make The Connection between Harry Potter and Anakin Skywalker is because both main actors, Daniel Radcliffe and Hayden Christianson both are bad actors.
[Everyone boos]
Mikey: That’s mean!
[Matt laughs]
Eric: That’s the worst Making the Connection. I don’t like that one.
[Matt continues to laugh]
Mikey: But this is what happens, though. Let me explain why that’s completely wrong.
Matt: Oh. Okay!
Mikey: I can explain that. I can explain why that’s completely wrong. Harry Potter is originally a fictional character from a novel. Anakin Skywalker – we never had a novel of that. That’s George Lucas’s vision. Every Star Wars book never dealt with the story of Anakin Skywalker. That was originally released not as a novel, but as a movie. And that’s where Hayden Christianson is the canon for that, whereas Harry Potter – the canon for that is the book one, not the movie one.
Eric: Ah.
Mikey: Not Daniel Radcliffe.
Eric: That’s true. It is safe to say. Now Mikey B’s…
Mikey: They’re two different things.
Matt: I’m not convinced, but okay
Eric: So you can’t mess with Hayden Christianson.
Mikey: I’m sorry sure. Don’t mess with me and Star Wars. I have a Yoda tattoo and a Fox Phoenix tattoo, okay? I got my two friends.
Andrew: Mhm.
Mikey: Okay? Those are on my body for life.
Eric: Well, okay, none of you mentioned the fact that he’s a little boy when he figures out that he’s going to be whisked away and taken on a fate-entwined journey.
Andrew: There’s a million connections.
Mikey: There’s a million connections. But I wanted to bring up the whiny one so I could change my voice and go “I killed them all! Ah!”
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: Oh, it was funny. It was funny. It was funny. That was a very, very scene. That was a very…
Andrew: All right.
Mikey: All right, and actually, you really like – honestly, go play Lego Star Wars. Even if you don’t like Star Wars, just to see the angsty Anakin Skywalker as a Lego is so entertaining! That’s what that voice came from. The “Ah!” It’s amazing. It’s so funny.
Eric: I am just so upset that they combined those games because I have one and two, which was the original trilogy, which was the sequel they made. And now they have the complete Saga for the Wii, the PS3, and the XBOX 360. And I don’t have any of those systems. So, I don’t have the combined game. Can I have a Making the Connection, Matt?
Matt: I got one for you, but I got Andrew because I like this one for Andrew. Make a Connection between Harry Potter and a furry hat.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: A furry hat? Well, what does that have to do with me?
Matt: I don’t know.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Okay. Well, Harry Potter and a furry hat. Yeah, are we talking a cap or like a…
Matt: It says, “A furry hat.” Go with it.
Andrew: Okay. Well, a furry hat is very warm and cozy on your head. It actually sometimes tickles your head because of the fibers that are coming off of it. And when you where a wizarding hat – or a witches’ hat – your head tingles, because when it’s a Sorting Hat, it talks to you.
[Eric laughs]
Matt: Hmmm.
Mikey: Booo!
Matt: A Sorting Hat?
Andrew: [laughs] I know it’s terrible, but that’s all you’re getting.
Mikey: That is horrible.
Andrew: That’s all your getting Sorry! That’s the best I can do.
Matt: Well, the person who sent this in…
Mikey: You had it going with the warm and fuzzy.
Andrew: Hold on, oh. Wait, what did the person say?
Matt: If Harry was in need of a birthday present for Luna, he could give her a furry hat and tell her it was made from the skin of a Crumple Horned Snorkack. Also, she probably…
Andrew: Oh!
Matt: …would appreciate pictures.
Andrew: Okay.
Matt: Oh, whatever. I thought it was going to be a connection between Luna’s lion from the Quidditch match.
Andrew: Oh! Yeah, I didn’t think of that. Yeah, that is fuzzy. That is funny – fuzzy.
Mikey: Yeah.
Andrew: If I was a betting man, if I was a betting man, I would bet that that’s going to be in the movie.
Matt: My next one’s for Eric. Eric?
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Are you here? Okay. Make The Connection between Harry Potter and receiving an electric shock in a bathtub filled with grape Kool-Aid.
[Laura and Mikey laugh]
Mikey: Wow!
Matt: There’s actually a good explanation for this. So, it’s not impossible.
Eric: Receiving a shock when you’re in a bathtub filled with grape Kool-Aid? Ummm…
Matt: Yes.
Eric: Well, that would be about as close as I could get to replicating the Ministry of Magic scene with the brain tub. The tub with the brains in it? The shocking brains. Like, if I wanted to recreate the Ministry of Magic scene in my own bathtub, that’s what I would do. I would get a bunch of grape juice and a hairdryer. And I would shock myself.
Mikey: Uh, grape Kool-Aid, my friend.
Eric: Oh, grape Kool-Aid. Sorry, yeah.
[Mikey laughs]
Eric: Sorry, if that fails.
Matt: No, that was okay.
Andrew: That’s all right.
Matt: There’s no wrong answer, right?
Andrew: That’s true.
Matt: All right.
Andrew: Well, unless you don’t Make The Connection. [laughs]
Matt: Mhm. See the listeners…
Andrew: What was…
Matt: Okay, the actual explanation for that was, in Goblet of Fire, Harry takes a bath in the Prefects bathroom to solve the golden egg clue…
Eric: Oh.
Matt: …with many multi-colored waters and bubbles. Hence the grape Kool-Aid. He receives a shock when Moaning Myrtle pays him a visit.
Eric: Oh, wow!
Laura: Oh, okay.
Eric: So Harry gets a shock!
Andrew: Oh! See, these are like puzzles. These are like puzzles. You have to work through your brain to find a connection.
Eric: That was proably the most intelligent one. That was really incredible. I don’t like myself. I like myself that much less because I did not make that connection.
Andrew: Awww.
Matt: Awww.
Andrew: Don’t get emo about it.
Matt: Awww, geez.
Laura: Awww. That’s sad.
Matt: It’s the Emo Cast now. [laughs]
[Laura laughs]
Matt: Okay, Laura. You’re next.
Laura: Oh, boy. I hate these things.
Matt: Okay, Laura. Don’t worry, I’m not going to be mean. Make The Connection between Harry Potter and putting a poisonous snake in a light bulb, then putting it in a glass box with another lizard, and smuggling the box to Texas.
Andrew: Ha, ha! [laughs] Poor Laura had a bad one last week too.
Laura: Yeah, I did. Well, okay so wait. Wait, we’re putting a poisonous snake inside of a light bulb. And then we’re putting that with a lizard, did you say, in a box?
Matt: Putting it in a glass box with another lizard. And then smuggling the box to Texas.
Laura: Hmmm. Well, you could definitely draw a Horcrux kind of parallel there. You know, housing something that’s living inside of an inanimate object. And also the idea that some of Voldemort’s Horcruxes were spread out across the continent, like one of them was in a tree in Albania, wasn’t it?
Eric: A tree in Albania.
Laura: So, yeah. I mean, there really aren’t any trees in Texas so you couldn’t say that it was in a tree there. But also, Voldemort has a snake.
Matt: Okay! Okay! Good!
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Laura: No, no, no. And he had her suspended in that ball thing, which is kind of lightbulb shaped, sort of.
Eric: It’s bulbous. It’s bulbous.
Matt: Okay.
Andrew: Okay.
Laura: What was the actual connection?
Matt: I don’t know, wait. The connection is…
Mikey: I made that up.
Matt: Poisonous… Yeah I made it up.
[Matt and Laura laugh]
Matt: The connection is poisonous snakes are really dangerous to many people, just like Acromantula’s are. And in order to smuggle these dragon eggs, is to put them into something that isn’t clear, such as a lightbulb. Then to avoid suspicion, putting it into a box with a less dangerous animal. Then they would be able to smuggle it to where ever they want to. For example, how Hagrid smuggled Aragog into the castle. I don’t know.
Laura: What? Hagrid did not put Aragog in a lightbulb! I don’t understand.
Matt: I don’t know! I just wanted you to try, Laura.
Andrew: I think she made a good…
Mikey: Great job, Matt.
Matt: I just wanted to challenge you, I think you did an awesome job.
Laura: No, I’m just wondering where the person got that from. I don’t get it.
Andrew: I don’t know.
Mikey: People reach. People reach for these things.
Andrew: Yeah, you have to make a good connection, folks.
Matt: These are probably the best ones I got that stuck out in my mind. A lot of you – when you send a Make The Connection, please give me the connection after you’re done. Don’t just put it and then just say, “I don’t really know the connection, I just like it.”
Eric: Even though Jamie did that clearly to people.
Mikey: I do that. Don’t do what I do.
Eric: Jamie ruthlessly created connections.
[Mikey and Laura laugh]
Laura: Oh yeah, it’s true.
Eric: But maybe that’s just Jamie.
Mikey: I love Jamie.
Andrew: It’s right in front of you.
Eric: Yeah, it’s true. It’s true.
Matt: That’s Jamie’s charm though. He just does it just to see us suffer.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs]
Top Ten Uses of a Pensieve
Eric: So, what are these Pensieve Possibilities? Because that is the title of last week’s show.
Andrew: Well, last week we asked you guys to send in possible uses for a Pensieve. And we had quite a few lists sent it; we thank everyone who contributed to the list, but the best one actually was a collaborative effort that I want to read. So, we asked you to send in your top 10 list. The top 10 uses for your Pensieve. If you had one, what would be the top 10 uses? Because in the book it’s only used to store your thoughts but then we realized, wait there’s more possibilities and we came up with some ideas on the show last week – just bounced some ideas around. And here’s one sent in by Kavitha, also known as Padfoot on the MuggleCast Fan Forums. She writes:
“Hello, MuggleCasters! I’d just like to say that the fan forums and I have created this list. We made a huge list, and voted on our favorite ten. You can check out the topic if you’d like to see them all! Here’s the link for the full thread.”
Andrew: And we’ll link to it on MuggleCast.com. And then here is the list. She actually didn’t number the list.
Eric: Top Ten Choices For What You Can Use A Pensieve For.
Andrew: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Is there 10 or 11 here?
Eric: There is eleven.
Mikey: Well, let’s just read them off anyway.
Andrew: Okay. So the first one: “Put some cucumbers in it, close it up, and make pickles! When you’re done with the pickles, keep them in the Pensieve, and send it to the P.O. box (or the Pensieve Object Box).”
Mikey: Ohhh.
Andrew: Wait. How do you create cucumbers out of pickles?
Eric: Vinegar.
Mikey: That’s what pickles are, my friend.
Andrew: Vinegar. Oh, okay. I didn’t know that.
Laura: Yeah. You didn’t know that pickles were made from cucumbers?
Andrew: With vinegar? No.
Matt: Well, with other ingredients too.
Laura: Did you think they just sprout out of the ground?
Eric: Are there pickle trees?
Mikey: In jars?
Andrew: Laura, I don’t know, I’ve never studied it!
[Laura laughs]
Matt: Maybe you should take Pickles 101 in college.
Eric: Andrew, forgive Laura for you not studying it. Maybe next time you create a catchphrase for the show you should do a little research behind it. You know? Kind of figure out where they come from.
Andrew: Well, I just never really cared, so…
Matt: Quack.
Andrew: So, next item: “Use it as a collector when you sit on the streets trying to get We Will Rock You tickets.” That’s a little rip at Jamie and I. You know, we can afford them! We don’t need to collect them, but thanks for the idea. Third item: “Hit Laura Mallory over the head with it.” That’s kind of mean.
Laura: That sounds like a good idea.
Andrew: Yeah, I guess.
Mikey: [laughs] The next one’s my favorite.
[Matt laughs]
Mikey: I’m sorry, guys, it’s my favorite. It’s right up my alley.
Andrew: “At a sleepover, use your Pensieve to stick your friend’s hand in for a wonderful prank.” Ha!
Mikey: That is…
Andrew: It’s like when you stick your friend’s hand in warm water.
Mikey: Warm water!
Andrew: Apparently, but that doesn’t always work.
Mikey: Andrew?
Matt: So, what happens when you put your hand in it? You pee memories?
[Andrew, Eric and Mikey laugh]
Mikey: Somethining like that..
Andrew: I guess so.
Eric: Would you like to try it, Matt? I’ll get my Pensieve and we’ll give it a try, we’ll give it a whirl.
Mikey: Matt, Matt? You should… You know what?
Matt: Well, I think so! It flushes all the bad memories because that’s what urine is – it’s just waste.
Eric: I’ll stand well back from you, Matt, when you do that!
Matt: Huh!
Andrew: Next item: “Washing your MuggleCast Picklepack shirt in it.” I suppose that’s good, although it smell a little bit afterwards, especially if you use it as a toilet.
Matt: Mhm. All those who have the Picklepack shirt, right?
Andrew: Next one: “Put all your nightmares in it and…drunk people you hate in it”?
Eric: “Dunk people you hate in it.”
Mikey: No, dunk people, not…
Andrew: Oh, dunk. I thought it said drunk. Well, we know what I’m thinking about.
Laura: Yeah, really. [laughs]
Andrew: “Put all your nightmares in it and dunk people you hate in it.” Next item: “Put it outside and use it as a birdbath.” That’d be nice.
Matt: Yeah. I’d do that. It depends on whose Pensieve it is, though.
Eric: Actually, this one is my new favorite.
Andrew: “Put a motor and bubbles in it and use it as a foot massager.” [laughs]
Eric: [laughs] That one’s really inventive.
Andrew: Second to last one: “Use to house pet fish.” That’d be okay, but you’d always have to – it’s not glass so you’d have to look in it from the top.
Matt: Yeah. And also the fish would know all your deepest secrets, so you never know…
Eric: Yeah, because you’d put your…
Andrew: See, are we looking at these as if your memories are in it at the same time?
Mikey: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: I thought we were…
Matt: That’s what a Pensieve is.
Andrew: No, but…
Laura: That’s what it is.
Andrew: No, I realize this, but I thought we were just using the basin or something. I don’t know.
Eric: Oh! Oh well, that would be funny if you were making pickles in your Pensieve while memories were floating around it, and by the time you actually construct the pickles, you take the pickle out, chomp on it, and relive one of your memories and be like, “Oooh, that’s a good pickle.”
Mikey: Memory pickles! Can you imagine that!?
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: Can you imagine that?
Andrew: It’s like crack brownies.
[Mikey laughs]
Laura: We should put a patent on those.
Mikey: [laughs] What?
Andrew: They’re like crack brownies.
Eric: That’s a tasty pickle.
Mikey: [laughs] How do you compare memory pickles to crack brownies?
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Because you said you’re putting something into a food, like when people put illegal substances into their brownies.
Matt: Or you could put your pensieve in the freezer and have little ice cubes of your memories…
[Eric laughs]
Matt: …and have a nice little comfortable…
Andrew: Or Jell-O. Jell-O Pensieve shots.
Laura: Jell-O shots, yeah.
Eric: Muggle cubes, or memory cubes.
Mikey: I have lime Jell-O in the fridge right now.
Matt: Ewww.
Mikey: It’s tasty.
Andrew: And the last item: “Cry into it when MuggleCast stops doing weekly episodes.” [laughs]
Laura: Awww.
Eric: Which will never happen. We were just kidding by the way…
Andrew: That’s funny.
Eric: …about MuggleCast.
[Mikey and Andrew laugh]
Laura: No, we weren’t.
Andrew: So, thanks, everyone, on the MuggleCast fan forums for creating that. See, that’s a good idea. That’s what people do on the forums. They collaborate on ideas and thoughts about the show. MuggleCastFan.net.
Matt: Yay.
Contact Information
Andrew: All right, it is time to wrap up today’s show. This is a long episode. Hey, Laura, what’s the P.O. Box?
Laura: You can send everything except anything pickle related…
[Eric laughs]
Laura: …to:
P.O. Box 3151
Cumming, Georgia
30028
Andrew: We also have a MuggleCast hotline set up for the day that we do get back to voicemails. If you’re in the United States, you can dial 1-218-20-MAGIC. If you’re in the United Kingdom it’s 020-8144-0677, and in Australia the number is 02-8003-5668. You can also Skype the username MuggleCast to get in touch with us. No matter how you call us just remember to keep your message under 60 seconds and take out some background noise so your call is crystal clear. We’ll get back to those when we have time someday. I don’t know if it’ll ever happen, so maybe we should stop making that announcement. [laughs]
Laura: Yeah. [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] There’s also a feedback form on MuggleCast.com to get in touch with any one of us, or use our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com.
[Show music plays]
Andrew: Of course, matthewb at staff dot mugglenet dot com, and mikeyb at staff, or is it just mikey?
Mikey: Nope, it’s just Mikey.
Andrew: It’s just Mikey?
Mikey: It’s just Mikey.
Andrew: Ok.
Mikey: It’s M-I-K-E-Y. It’s like Mickey, but no “e.”
Andrew: You mean “c.” [laughs]
Mikey: Just – oh yeah, “c.” I do have an e. M-I-K-E-Y. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m tired. It’s a long day already. I had waffles this morning.
Andrew: We also have the community outlets on MuggleCast.com. We have MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Frappr, Last.FM, and the Fanlistings and the Forums over at MuggleCastFan.net.
Show Close
Andrew: So, that does it for today’s show. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Once again I’m Andrew Simssss, with the nose bubble.
Mikey: I’m Mikey B!
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Mikey: Mikey B! Okay.
[Laura laughs]
Mikey: Okay!
Laura: I’m Laura Thompson…without a nose bubble?
Eric: I’m…
Andrew: Eric?
Eric: …Eric Scull, and floating in a tub of grape Kool-Aid.
Matt: And I’m Matt Britton, I guess?
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: Yeah! [in high pitched voice] Matt Britton! Matt Britton!
Andrew: Thank you, everyone, for listening. We’ll see you next week for Episode 131.
Eric: Sayonara.
Andrew: Woo! Happy February!
Laura: Bye.
Matt: Bye.
Mikey: Bye.
[Show Music ends]
Blooper 1
Mikey: Dude, you know, I wanted to build that up. I wanted to be like, and I’mmmmmmmm [makes drumroll noise] Link! After I fixed the tie and everything.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: But yeah, that’s what Mikey B’s got.
Andrew: Shut up, man.
Mikey: Because, come on, man. Could you not imagine…
Andrew: So what if I laugh like a girl?
Mikey: …me like dancing in front of the computer screen and going…
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: “And I’m Mikey B.” Yeah, anyway.
[Everyone laughs]
Blooper 2
Micah: But, see, if it was up to me, I would say: Because this is one long *bleep*in’ show, this is MuggleCast Episode 130 for February 2nd, 2008.
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