MuggleCast 126 Transcript
Show Intro
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[Show music begins]
Micah: Because it’s the final episode of the year that was Harry Potter, this is MuggleCast Episode 126 for December 31st, 2007.
[Show music continues to play]
Andrew: Well, boys. We did it. We made it through 2007 all in one piece.
Eric: So far. So far, yeah.
Andrew: Ah, well. No, I mean…
Jamie: When is this being recorded?
Andrew: It’s the end of the year. It’s December 30st, or 31st. We are at the end of the year.
Jamie: You can’t judge those small amounts of time, Andrew. You know, anything can happen in a day, in half a day, in a minute, in an hour.
Andrew: That’s true.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: I think you’ve made that speech before.
Eric: Wait, wait, wait, Jamie. I’m just going to – wait. I’m glad that you’re back. I’m so glad that you are back that I’m going to contradict you.
Jamie: Well, thank you, Eric. That’s very nice.
Eric: Rome. Rome was not built in a day.
Jamie: Rome was not built in a day, but that just goes to show how awesome Rome is, where as stuff can be built in a day. You can still build a lot, but you can’t build…
Eric: You were saying, though, anything can happen in a day and I agree with you and I agree with you telling Andrew that except if we wanted to build Rome, we couldn’t do that in the day we have left in 2007, but anyway good to have you back.
Micah: Yeah, Jamie.
Jamie: Thank you.
Micah: I’m just happy you’re back. I’m not going to pick a fight with you.
Jamie: Thank you, Micah.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Jamie: You’d be sorry if you did. I can promise you, Micah.
Micah: See? I know better. That’s the thing, dude.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: That’s the point of the day.
Jamie: Eric, you need to wise up. You got to wise up.
Eric: Come on, man. I love you. It’s great you’re back. I’m so happy.
Andrew: It’s a good show to be back on because we are going to take a look back at the big events of this past year. It’s been one of the best years in awhile, I would say.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: I would say the best year ever.
Matt: Since last year, at least.
Andrew: Ever. What, Matt?
Matt: It’s the best year since last year, at least.
Andrew: Well, yeah. That’s true, but I would go so far as to say ever. And also we are going to place a WB – we’re going to place a WB. No, we’re going to place a call to WB to get results about my DVD because I am very angry!
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: We have a full show today.
Jamie: You mean we are actually calling them?
Andrew: You bet, Jamie. I get results, man. I’m Andrew Sims.
Eric: I’m Eric Scull.
Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Matt: And I’m Matt Britton.
[Show music continues to play]
News
Andrew: Micah Tannenbaum is in the MuggleCast News Center with the final news stories for 2007. Hey, Micah.
Micah: All right, thanks Andrew. 2007 was by far the biggest year for Harry Potter fans that we have seen. It was filled with book releases, movie releases, theme park announcements, an open book tour, and much more.
Check out MuggleNet.com for the fourth annual Year in Review, highlighting the biggest and most interesting stories of 2007.
Cleaning up on the year-end awards, USA Today recently named J.K. Rowling’s final novel in the Harry Potter series Book of the Year. A huge factor was due in part to the record-breaking numbers in sales made by Deathly Hallows. 11.5 million copies were sold within the first ten days of the July release. But the decision came down to something much deeper:
“Hallows is the book of the year because Rowling gave her story an ending that was as graceful, unpredictable and satisfying as the series itself. She reaffirmed that magic can exist when someone opens a great book and enters a world created from words on paper. She made us believe that the imagination, like her own little wizard, now all grown up still lives.”
And finally, the documentary J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life that aired yesterday on ITV in the England is now available on the station’s website. The description reads:
“With unprecedented access, cameras follow author J.K. Rowling in the year that she completes her publishing phenomenon, the Harry Potter series. The programme captures her return to the sources of her inspiration, and she reveals what she is planning on writing next.”
That is all the news for this December 31st, 2007 edition of MuggleCast. Happy New Year. See you all in 2008. Back to the show.
Andrew: All right, thank you Micah.
Micah: You’re welcome.
News Discussion: Casting Thoughts
Andrew: We’re not going to discuss any news this week because we are recording this a little earlier than normal. But Micah and Eric, I guess you guys wanted to get your input in on a couple news stories from last week. First of all, those casting announcements. I mean, basically on last week’s show we said that it wasn’t really that big of a deal because we don’t know any of these actors.
Eric: Yeah, but we do know – by the casting, you’re talking the casting of Cormac McLaggen…
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: Blaise Zabini…
Andrew: Yes, yes, yes.
Eric: Romilda Vane, Katie Bell, Leanne, and Marcus Belby. I’m just glad they’re in the movie in some shape or form.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: You know? But yeah, that’s about it.
Micah: Yeah, I mean I was just curious is this the final release as far as characters are concerned, or are we going to be hearing more in the future?
Andrew: No, I don’t think so. I would wager that there’s more to come still.
Micah: Okay.
Matt: They haven’t even casted Scrimgeour, have they?
Micah: No.
Eric: Oooh, yeah.
Andrew: Oh yeah, that’s true. Yeah.
Eric: Well, they may have, but we don’t know about it. But, it sounds like they’ve got the Slug Club. So…
Andrew: Wait a second, wait a second. Wait, are we sure about that? No, they have cast them, haven’t they?
Matt: They have?
Eric: Wait, no I think you’re right.
Jamie: Who, Scrimgeour?
Andrew: Yeah, I think Dark Horizons made that announcement, didn’t they?
[Eric laughs]
Jamie: Oh, that’s cool.
Eric: Hang on, IMDB.com – I’m going on.
Andrew: Oh, wait. Oh, wait. No, I’m getting that confused with Slughorn.
[laughs]
Jamie: Oh yes, he’s a very good actor, Jim Broadbent.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, is he? Have you seen him?
Jamie: Yeah, he’s in an episode – In fact, Phase Two, we used to talk about it. I just rented an episode of Only Fools and Horses, which is a British sitcom from quite a while ago, that stars Jim Broadbent as a character in it. And it was very, very good. So, he’s Slughorn. Very, very good.
Andrew: Awesome.
Jamie: But it’s like – oh, what was I going to say? Completely forgotten what I was going to say. Go on.
Eric: Okay…
Jamie: Talk amongst yourselves for a second.
Eric: I’m not finding it on IMDB.
Jamie: Sorry, sorry.
Eric: I couldn’t find out who was Scrimgeour.
Andrew: All right. Well yeah, we cleared that up. My bad, Matt. [laughs]
Matt: Yeah.
Micah: And what about the Gaunts?
Jamie: Oh, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: I mean e haven’t heard anything about them at all.
Eric: You know, I’m very worried about that.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. It seems like something that could very well be cut, because…
Jamie: I don’t – no, that’s pretty central to the story, though. The Gaunts is an important sort of helping element that gets them into…
Eric: And it’s Voldemort’s family.
Jamie: …into the whole Voldemort’s family and back story, you know?
Eric: Yeah, that’s his aunt and uncle, you know?
Matt: They haven’t really cut anything that was central to the story, yet, in the movies anyway.
Andrew: Well, yeah.
Eric: No, you’re right. But it just worries me because we’re seeing all these clips from the school side of things, that it’s just – I mean, maybe they’re just not revealing anything about Voldemort.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: But, I just – like I can’t wait to see the – not just the orphanage scene. We do kind of have…
Jamie: That’s going to be fun, yeah.
Eric: …confirmation they’re doing the orphanage scene, which is going to be amazing.
Matt: Oh yeah, definitely.
Eric: But just about Dumbledore and Harry is what I’m more interested in. But the director had said he was really going to focus on the relationships as a big part of the movie. And I’m worried that that will downplay any Gaunt-ness.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: But yeah, that’s probably true. But, it’s just – I don’t know, perhaps it’s just a personal thing, I just really, really like that storyline. The whole Gaunt storyline and the ring.
Eric: Same.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Same.
Matt: Yeah.
Micah: Right.
Andrew: Well, I guess we’ll see. I mean, I guess they probably haven’t been cast yet because maybe filming for that scene won’t occur until, say, mid-spring or even later; maybe late-spring.
Eric: Maybe. That reminds me, when I thought of Merope Gaunt as a character, I thought Helena Bonham Carter should play her. But then they cast her as Bellatrix.
Jamie: Ah, but then they cast her as Bellatrix. Very interesting.
Eric: But I – wouldn’t she make a Merope Gaunt? Like a good…
Jamie: She would. You’re thinking along the lines, as well.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: Along the same lines as them. You could – I see a sparkling career ahead of you, now.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Really?
Jamie: I have a philosophical question for you all, though. If a Harry Potter cast member is cast but nobody hears about it, has he really been cast? It’s like the tree thing. It’s like, if a tree falls in the forest…
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: …and no one’s there to hear it, does it cause a sound?
Andrew: Yes, absolutely.
Jamie: But has he, though? Because, if the public who bring in the money haven’t heard about it, what difference does it make? If it’s just being, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: I don’t believe that.
Andrew: I guess so.
Jamie: No, no. It’s a terrible question.
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: It’s a terrible question. But…
Eric: If the paperwork has been filed, Jamie, and they know that they’ve been cast, Jo Rowling knows that…
Jamie: See, that’s an important thing, yes.
Eric: Yeah
Micah: Well, I thought casting was complete, though, wasn’t it? I mean they just maybe haven’t made the announcements yet.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Well, maybe they need, maybe they need – sorry, maybe they need – what was I saying? Forget it.
Andrew: Well they probably want to spread the casting out to create more press.
Micah: Right.
News Discussion: J.K. Rowling and TIME‘s Person of the Year
Andrew: But let’s keep moving on here. J.K. Rowling was named the second runner-up in TIME‘s “Person of the Year.” What was you guys’ reaction to this?
Eric: Hmm, what do you think, Micah?
Micah: I just don’t really get Vladimir Putin, I guess. I mean, I’m sorry, but…
Eric: Who? Who?
Micah: …this whole thing goes back to being TIME‘s “Person of the Year.” What did Vladimir Putin do this year that automatically qualifies him to receive this award? And I’m not saying that over the course of his career he hasn’t done things, opening up Russia, but this one was a little bit odd for me, especially when you look at the first runner-up in Al Gore, who probably has done a little bit more. But there’s a Harry Potter podcast. J.K. Rowling – her series came to an end, everything that she’s done, not just in literature, but in charity as well.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Seemed to me this would have been the perfect year to give it to her, and I just look back over some of the people who have been named TIME‘s “Person of the Year,” over the last couple years, and it’s kind of a joke.
Andrew: Well, you were it last year, so I wouldn’t be complaining.
Micah: That’s a joke, in and of itself. But I mean, 2001, Rudy Giuliani, to me was the only time in recent history that they actually got something right.
Andrew: Yeah, well, I mean, it’s very opinionated, and I think anyone who wasn’t a Harry Potter fan would look at that and say, “J.K. Rowling got that? I mean, she wrote a book, but is it that big a deal?”
Jamie: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: I mean even seven books is like…
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Well, obviously her impact is so much more far-reaching than just “she wrote a book.”
Eric: Yeah, it’s true, and the thing with Russia – I mean, well, TIME is more political, I think. And Al Gore’s done obviously a lot with global warming. He’ll have his time to come. I just think number three is a good feat for Jo. I mean, if the Harry Potter series is not going to get recognized with number one, I’m glad it’s number three.
Andrew: I agree.
Micah: She’s annually up, though, I mean, right?
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: She’s been nominated for this many times before.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: So, it’s a victory. It’s a victory.
Andrews Handles DVD Issues
Andrew: Yeah. Let’s move on now. Last week I told everyone that I was having, well, two weeks ago, I was saying that I was having problems with my DVD, and of course a few people e-mailed in. And of course I’m very frustrated from this, and, you know, this is absolutely unacceptable. When I purchase a Harry Potter DVD, I expect nothing but pristine, crystal-clear quality. So…
Eric: Even though we’re used to with the crap features.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Well, besides that. Besides that. So we’re going to call the thing now, WB, and I’m going to get some results here. I’m linking out of this to conference.
Eric: But first of all, Andrew, have you determined whether or not you’re the only one in the entire world.
Andrew: It’s too late, I’m calling. Yeah, dude, didn’t you listen to me? I said that we’ve gotten e-mails from people saying that they were having the problem.
[Phone ringing]
WB: Thank you for calling Warner Home Video. How may I help you?
Andrew: Hi, I called earlier, and I got disconnected. I’m having a problem with my Order of the Phoenix DVD. The quality is messed up in some places.
WB: What is your name?
Andrew: Andrew Sims.
WB: S-I-M-S, or…
Andrew: Yes. S-I-M-S.
WB: “S” as in Sam?
Andrew: Yes.
WB: And your address?
[Beeped out]
Andrew: Medford, New Jersey.
[Beeped out]
WB: Okay, and a phone number for you?
Andrew: 609 [Beeped out]
WB: Okay, and what was the video you purchased?
Andrew: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was the two-disc Special Edition.
WB: Two-disc?
Andrew: Yes.
WB: And one of the discs does not work?
Andrew: Yeah, well, the quality on the first disc is pretty bad. It’s grainy in the first half-hour of it, and in the last half-hour it’s also very grainy.
WB: All right, well we’ll just forward this on to Warner.
Andrew: Okay.
WB: And they will take care of it. If they have any questions, they’ll call you.
Andrew: Okay. Great. Now, if they don’t have questions, are they just going to mail me a new copy, or…
WB: That’s correct, yes.
Andrew: Okay. All right, great. Thank you very much.
WB: You’re welcome, sir. Goodbye.
Andrew: Bye. Wonderful. A free copy! I mean, I could have just lied to them, and get a free copy.
Micah: What a pleasant woman to deal with.
Andrew: What?
Micah: What a pleasant woman to deal with.
Andrew: She was very nice.
Matt: She sounded like she smoked ten packs a day.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: You know who – no, honestly, Monsters, Inc., the boss, the boss in Monsters Inc.
Matt: [imitating the character’s voice] “Isn’t that nice.”
[Andrew and Jamie laugh]
Eric: [imitating the character’s voice] “Mike Wazowski, you still haven’t filed you paper work.”
Andrew: If you are having a similar problem with getting yours to work, or any problem with your DVD what you can do is you can call this number that I just called. The number is 1-866-488-4640 and it’s that easy. They’ll just forward you one. Please, please, please do not call them unless you really have a problem with your DVD, okay? Don’t call them and be like, “Hey, you were on MuggleCast, ha, ha, ha.: Don’t be stupid, please.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: We’re all adults here. That number is for people who are having a problem with the Order of the Phoenix DVD. So…
Eric: And please make it clear that it plays fine, it’s not a defective disk, it’s if anything, it’s the quality of the film. Andrew, your film plays, it’s just the first 30 minutes are grainy.
Andrew: Right. Well it’s the first 15 and the last thirty, but I said the first 30 to make it sound even worse. So…
Eric: Well, yeah not definition. Anyways she probably wrote it down. So….
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. So when they give you the replacement disk in like, ten weeks…
Andrew: I’m going to sell it on eBay.
Eric: No, don’t sell it on eBay.
Andrew: I’m just kidding. I’m going to use it.
Eric: Check it out; see if it has the same issue.
Andrew: Better not.
Eric: Geez.
Year in Review: Theme Park
Andrew: Well, let’s move on now. This is our New Year’s show so we’re going to do a Year in Review. We’re going to cover the top ten moments, happenings, things, of the past year.
Eric: Wooo!
Andrew: This says it’s in chronological order, but the theme park announcement didn’t come before Movie 5 and Book 7 announcement.
Eric: Well the Book 7 announcement was supposed to be when we found out that we were going to have the summer release, like the summer to remember.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Eric: So, I did that in a conjunction thing.
Andrew: All right, so one of the biggest announcements this summer was the idea of, well was the announcement of a Harry Potter theme park in Universal Studios. Now this had been rumored for a very long time, and rightly so I guess because the rumors came true, and I guess there was a lot of talk going around within Universal. Even Disney, because Warner Brothers were in negotiations with Disney, but that didn’t work out, either. So, what do you guys – I mean, a year ago I don’t think we ever would have imagined this theme park. It really did seem surreal, didn’t it?
Micah: Wooo.
Eric: It gives us something to look forward to, I think.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: It seemed completely doable, but it just seemed like no one wanted to do it.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: But give our updated information, that they’re doing Holidays at Hogwarts, what do you guys think about that, now?
Andrew: I think it’s – yeah.
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Yeah, I think it’s a nice way to sell the park. And compete with Disney.
Micah: Right.
Eric: Yeah. I can’t wait to ride the Quaffler. I think that’s going to be awesome.
Andrew: You think that exists?
Eric: I think that’s going to exist. It’s going to be their top ride, the Quaffler.
Jamie: The Quaffler?
Eric: Well, you name their top ride, Jamie.
Jamie: No, no, I wasn’t – I wasn’t saying anything.
Eric: I know, I know, I’m joking, I’m joking. I’m just trying to be – I’m trying to think of good ride names because, yeah.
Jamie: It’s going to be the Triwizard Wizzer. There you go.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: The Triwizard Wizzer?
Andrew: [laughs] Honestly, I think there’s going to be a ride on the Ford Angela. Angelia.
Jamie: [laughs] Angela?
[Eric and Matt laugh]
Jamie: How long has she been doing that job Andrew? She just begin?
Andrew: Yeah, whatever.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: The Ford Angela.
Andrew: The Ford Angelia. It’s going to be on the Ford Angelia.
Matt: Geez.
Andrew: Just because I think that’s – it would sort of be…
Jamie: They’re treated so badly there, they just are. They just work, work, work.
[Eric laughs]
Jamie: Poor Angela.
Andrew: All right, we get it!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: I’m retarded.
Eric: Our hearts go out to Ford Angela. No, see, I had Rollercoaster Tycoon. You guys played that game, you had that obviously. Right?
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, and I tried to make a Hogwarts park once, so I have all these recycled ride names that I’ve been trying to sneak into the show ever since we first heard about the theme park.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: And the Quaffler was one of them. So…
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Micah: Very funny.
Andrew: That’s clever.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Anyway, but yeah, I would definitely say it was all in our wildest dreams, but now it looks like it’s coming true. And this is one of those things when people come up to you and ask, “Oh come on Harry Potter is dead, there’s nothing coming anymore.” You can be, like, “Well, we’ve got two movies, you’ve got a theme park.”
Jamie: Oh yeah.
Andrew: And then they go, “Wow theme park. Hmmm, geez, sorry, my bad.”
[Matt laughs]
Eric: Yeah it’s not like House, MD would have its own theme park. Honestly.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: The OC.
Andrew: Yeah. This is going to be the first book that has its own theme park.
Eric: Is it? No, it’s not. Surely not.
Andrew: Well, I’m just grabbing at straws.
Jamie: Right.
Eric: It’s going to be.
Matt: Well, pretty much every ride in Disneyland is based off a book, anyway.
Eric: That’s true.
Andrew: No, it’s based off a movie.
[Eric laughs]
Matt: [laughs] Okay, Andrew.
Andrew: No, seriously.
Eric: And all these old Disney movies weren’t books first.
Jamie: You feel strongly about that.
Andrew: Well no, I mean, if you – there’s no Lord of the Rings theme park.
Jamie: No, but it’s different. The permanence of Harry Potter, they’ve seen it, it is different and they’ve seen it, and it’s kind of a different generation because we read it and then our children read it, and older people read it as well. I know it’s kind of the same with Lord of the Rings, but not to the same extent.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I agree.
Jamie: You know?
Andrew: I guess that’s true because Harry Potter is a movie anyways now, so – and heck, all the designs are coming from the movie itself.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: I mean they have Stewart Craig working very closely with them, helping them design all the areas.
Eric: So, I think it’ll be good.
Matt: Well, yeah.
Eric: I just, what I don’t want for it to be is a couple of shops that are constantly there all year round.
Andrew: It better not be.
Eric: Do you know what I’m saying? Because like at Holidays at Hogwarts they can always have the pumpkins flying and, or do you think they’ll try and attempt hovering candles and stuff like that? Like for the Great Hall? Because that would be awesome.
Andrew: That would be cool. I don’t know, though. It better be good though. That’s all I know. I mean, the expectations are so, I think, are so high on this theme park now. There’s no way this thing can be small. There’s no way this can be lacking in any sort of way, shape, or form.
Micah: No. I think…
Andrew: You know us. We’re going to be very critical of it.
Micah: Part of it now…
Matt: Yeah.
Micah: …is that Warner Brothers, I think, what they weren’t able to cover in the movies they have to make up for in this theme park.
Eric: Why?
Jamie: Yeah, that’s so true.
Micah: Because the fan is going to be much more critical of the theme park than they are of the movie. I mean, we’re already very critical of the movies, but you’re looking at the theme park and they have the ability to include so much more in this. Every little detail.
Eric: Oh.
Matt: But is it even going to be that big?
Andrew: No, well that’s the other thing. It’s a theme park, but it’s a world in a theme park. It’s not, you know, it’s no Disney World.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: I think it should be bigger then. Even without seeing it, I think it should just be bigger.
Andrew: It should be bigger, but they want to get this done soon, too.
Eric: How many coasters are they going to have?
Andrew: Just one I think. There’s not going to be that many rides.
Matt: No.
Eric: So, that’s a bit depressing.
Matt: They can always expand later.
Eric: Yeah, they can. They can.
Matt: It’s not like the first time they do it it’s going to be set in stone. That’s what it’s going to look like.
Andrew: Right. Right.
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: Set in Sorcerer’s Stone for that matter.
Jamie: Yeah.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: What do you guys think is going to be the – no, speaking of what Micah was saying about the books and being able to use – they’re obviously they’re trying to cram things into two hour movies, and that’s why stuffs not in the movies. What do you guys think, this is just my own wondering – for the stuffed toys for the squirt gun games. What do you think they’ll be giving out?
Jamie: For the what? Sorry?
Eric: Surely not more Hedwigs.
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: You know, the squirt gun games and the prizes you win.
Jamie: No, they are Hedwigs, but it also comes with like a defibrillator that you can stick on the chest.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That would be good.
Jamie: Sometimes it’s work, sometimes it doesn’t. Some children’s lives ruined, some not. It just depends. Luck of the draw. Luck of the draw.
Matt: I’m really excited to see what kind of candy they make in Honeydukes; in that store.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, oh, so good.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: They’ve already got a line of candy, The Bertie Botts.
Matt: Yeah, but I mean for a full store.
Eric: Oh yeah.
Matt: I seriously doubt it’s just going to be regular candy.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: That’s true.
Andrew: Yeah, I’m a little concerned that it’s going to be commercialized a bit.
Jamie: It will, it will.
Andrew: But, I’m just thinking of walking through the gift shop, and it’s going to be all the Harry Potter toys we’ve seen a million times before.
Eric: It should be totally new, totally new.
Andrew: Well, it should be, but their reasoning might be, “Well, we’re creating a new theme park; we don’t have to come up with new toys.”
Micah: Yeah.
Matt: Well, who knows? By that time, all the movies will be out.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s true.
Matt: Or, the last one will be waiting release.
Eric: Hmmm.
Andrew: Yeah. Could you imagine walking in there and all the books are for sale and all the complete book sets, complete DVD sets.
Eric: Well, that could take up enough of the – yeah, by the time they get through all the – yeah, I mean, that’s enough stuff right there, just the books for a shop. It’s a lot of space to fit it in.
Micah: Right. I think they’ll try and keep certain shops authentic, but like, Andrew, I still think they’re going to have shops where they’ll have stuff similar to what you just said.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Where you have books and stuff we’ve seen a million times already.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Do you think it’ll just be a big vender room?
Andrew: Basically.
Eric: Yeah, I’m worried about that too.
Andrew: I mean, that’ll be a great place for us to hand out MuggleNet stickers.
Eric: You know? I only have like seven left. I handed out all of the other ones I had, and I got like a hundred from Emerson. I was like, “Dude, I need another stack.”
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: He gives me this huge wad, and I was like, “Wow!” So, I’m down to a few.
Jamie: Do you know how we should advertise the site? We should – if there’s every nuclear war, we should just put a load of stickers inside the bomb, and if they don’t get vaporized they’ll go everywhere on earth…
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: …and everyone will turn into a fan.
Andrew: That’s if they don’t get vaporized.
Eric: Jamie, Jamie, that’s a wonderful idea, a brilliant idea. Let’s build a bomb and we’ll make sure to put MuggleNet stickers in it.
Jamie: Should we do that?
Eric: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Andrew: That’s a good thing to say on a podcast.
Jamie: Oh, is that bad?
Matt: Set a nuclear bomb on the world. Nah.
Jamie: [laughs] Well, you know. We’re a happy podcast.
Eric: So that our stickers go everywhere. And anyone who’s alive, anyone who isn’t vaporized will see our stickers that haven’t been vaporized and they’ll know to go to MuggleNet.com.
Jamie: Yeah.
Micah: That’s all I care about.
Jamie: It can be anywhere.
Micah: I mean, we bomb other countries for no reason all the time.
Jamie: A new version of I Am Legend, too.
Eric: I love that movie. Have you seen it Jamie?
Jamie: I haven’t seen it, no.
Eric: Oh, man. It is so good.
Jamie: Well, that’s cool.
Universal Contact
Andrew: You know, before I forget, I’ve been meaning to make this announcement or make this call on the show. If there is anyone in the Orlando that has a season pass or whatever to Universal, MuggleNet could really use a sort of reporter to go to Universal every few weeks and hit up a couple of rides in that area where they are building the Harry Potter theme park and take some pictures of the construction.
[Everyone chuckles]
Andrew: No, no, no! I’m dead serious.
Eric: But… Okay.
Andrew: Wait. Wait. Let me finish.
Eric: All right.
Andrew: JimHillMedia.com has a correspondent who goes on this ferris wheel and takes pictures of the construction. Now, we could just as easily get a fan down in Orlando to do it.
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Now, if you have that capability, e-mail andrew at staff at mugglenet dot com and we will work something out for you. That would be cool for us to become a nice little source for updates on the theme park.
Eric: If I was the theme park guy, I would cut the ferris wheel down just to stop people doing that. Oh, by the way. By volunteering, we are not – if somebody comes after you and your camera…
Andrew: Dude, nobody cares if you are taking pictures of the – that’s not illegal or anything. You are just taking pictures.
Eric: All right, sorry. Yeah, just a fan.
Andrew: “Oh, you’re taking pictures of the construction. Screw you.”
Eric: Well, some of that stuff is somevery serious stuff.
Andrew: I guess. I guess. Yeah, that’s true.
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: Anyway. We are on just number one of our top ten list.
Andrew: Yeah. We’ve got to keep moving here. [laughs]
Jamie: Are we really? [laughs]
Year in Review: Release Dates for Book 7 and Movie 5
Andrew: The next big announcement that came early on in 2007 was the Book 7 release date which was July 21st, 2007. This surprised most of us, because even before we got this release date we were speculating that, “Wait a second, wait a second, there is no way it could be released in 2007.” We spent shows going back and forth trying to figure this out.
Eric: Yeah, totally, totally. And then when we found out, we spent shows saying it was a bad idea.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: What do you guys think now? Did it really – did the success of the movie coming so close to the book, did it detract anything, would you have preferred otherwise afterwards, looking back?
Jamie: It is hard to say really…
Eric: You think?
Andrew: Well, in hind sight – sorry, Jamie.
Jamie: No, go on. Go on. I can’t remember what I was going to say, really.
Andrew: In hind sight, I don’t think it worked out bad at all. I mean it worked out great. It worked out great for the fansites, especially.
Eric: It was crazy.
Andrew: We had these tours, the podcasts, the Wizard Rock tours. There are tons of them, and then the Harry Potter convention, Prophecy, wrapped everything up. Overall, it wasn’t as bad as we thought. I think – I don’t know what we were so worried about. I think it was that it would be too busy and that it might affect sales, or the hype of the movie and book.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Sort of clashing them together, we thought could be a bad idea, but really it went by so fast. Nothing went wrong.
Eric: No.
Andrew: Not that we thought something would go wrong, but…
Eric: Right. It was just a really big chain of reactions, I think. I mean my first summer – that whole summer to remember for me started with the Book 7 event in London. So, with you guys – so I was a the end of it basically. I hadn’t been in living in the states sort of to experience the whole build up of the movie and everything being released.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: So, I imagine that was pretty cool.
Andrew: Yeah. At this point, I couldn’t imagine the book coming out in 2008.
Eric: Ummm…
Jamie: Yeah, I know. It would have been so different.
Eric: Yeah…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Well, do you think that it would have been less rushed? Did you feel that it was rushed?
Micah: No.
Andrew: No! Not at all!
Micah: No.
Eric: Then that is a dumb question to ask. Okay, cool.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: But I think it had to have been so that the book came out after the movie, not the other way around because I think…
Jamie: Yeah.
Micah: …wcould have done more damage to the movie if it had come out before.
Andrew: Definitely.
Jamie: Definitely, definitely.
Eric: I definitely agree with that.
Andrew: And the thing was that we had heard a while ago, before the announcement was made, it was – Jo would have made the July 7th, 2007, however, that felt too close around the London bombings. Jamie, was that July 7th?
Eric: That was the date.
Jamie: That was July 7th, yeah.
Andrew: So, it would have been a bad idea, and in that case the book would have come out before the movie, so it would have been interesting to see what would have happened.
Jamie: It would have been interesting to see how different it would be. Would the hype have still gone from one to ten with ten being a lot.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Or would it have been a huge hype, and then down a bit for the movie?
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: I think that the premieres would have been directly affected too, because those premieres were in late June and early July.
Eric: Hmmm, yeah.
Andrew: And that would have fallen right around the book release. That would have been extreme.
Eric: It would have been a big scheduling conflict really, effecting everybody, everywhere across the world.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Perhaps in a parallel universe there is a world where sor oft that happened and we have other MuggleCasters debating what if the movie came out first on the podcast.
Andrew: Perhaps.
Micah: Well, the movie did come out first.
Eric: Sorry, didn’t I say the book? No, I’m saying in that world they’re debating about what would’ve happened if the movie came out first because for them the book came out first.
Micah: Oh, okay.
Matt: Ohhh.
Eric: See, philosophy was my major, so forgive me.
Micah: I got you. I got you.
MuggleCast 126 Transcript (continued)
Year in Review: Waterstone’s Podcast
Andrew: And in relation to the Book 7 release, since we’re on the topic, we did our live podcast at Waterstone’s.
Jamie: We did.
Andrew: Jamie, Eric, and I were there along with Laura and Kevin, and that was by far our largest and most publicized podcast ever because it was…
Eric: I think it was highly successful.
Andrew: Oh, absolutely.
Jamie: I thought it fun, yeah.
Andrew: It was a very fun show.
Eric: Waterstone’s did so much for us.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: They really, really did.
Eric: And they were so – oh my gosh, it was amazing. And Jamie, I know you were very highly upset afterwards; we were all crying, I think.
Jamie: Oh, yes. It was very, very sad.
Eric: It was so emotional.
Jamie: It was, it was.
Andrew: Yes. Yeah.
Jamie: I was bawling, people were bawling, everyone was bawling.
Andrew: It was great.
Eric: Now Jamie, this is just an entry, you can cut this out, but question: did they – have they recorded that video that they were broadcasting?
Andrew: Oh, yeah, we never got a copy of that.
Jamie: Should I e-mail them?
Andrew: Yeah, could you e-mail them and ask?
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: Please do because I personally, even if we don’t ever do anything with it, I would love it because that was cool.
Andrew: Yeah, that would definitely be very cool.
Eric: That’s so nostalgic for me and personal, and it’s like – yeah.
Andrew: Not to brag, for Jamie and I, but I think we pulled that off very well.
Jamie: Which one?
Andrew: Remember, Jamie, we met with them like three weeks before.
Jamie: Oh, that wasn’t bad, yeah. That went that pretty well.
Andrew: They bought us coffee or whatever and we sat down and were like…
Jamie: There was like an array of drinks there.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: It wasn’t even just coffee, it was like, “What do you want?” “I’ll have a coffee please.” And there was like a teapot that got brought out. I’ll have tea, that’s cool.
Andrew: I just wanted water.
Jamie: Huh? Yeah, yeah. And it was coffee and then water and the bill must have been over one grand, U.S.
Andrew: [laughs] Just for a meeting.
Jamie: Just for a meeting.
Eric: So, you were treated to this array of foods for your meeting with Waterstone’s, then.
Andrew: Yeah, and then at the actual podcast itself, we just got one little plastic cup of water. So, no free refills.
Eric: Yeah, but we got introduced by Rubeus Hagrid…
Andrew: That was cool.
Eric: So, I don’t think money can replace that.
Andrew: That was cool, yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Year in Review: Pickle Pack
Andrew: Well, so that was great. And then let’s see, what do we want to jump to here?
Eric: We missed – one of the things was Pickle Pack. We came out with that about in April? Was it May when you came up with that, Andrew? When you said, “Hey, guys…”
Andrew: Well, when did we start? We started selling in April, I think; we opened up for registrations in April.
Eric: Yeah. He said, “Hey guys, we’re going to do a members only thing called Pickle because we’re really obsessed with pickles. And we’re going to do video blogs every week.”
Micah: I hate pickles.
Matt: They’re not bad.
Andrew: Me too.
Jamie: No you don’t. [laughs]
Eric: Honestly. Now, Pickle Pack will be going – now, just to clear this up, Andrew, I don’t know if you did this on the Christmas party, but people were wondering what is going to happen to Pickle Pack once Episode 140 hits?
Andrew: It’s closing.
Eric: Yeah? Okay, cool.
Andrew: No, actually, yeah, I think…
Eric: I think that’s actually two weeks away from the deadline anyway, so we could probably do two more video blogs.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we will.
Eric: Yeah, okay, cool.
Andrew: Yep.
Year in Review: MuggleNet’s Book Tour
Eric: And then what else, guys? Just quickly. The book tour that Ben and Emerson had for MuggleNet’s book. We can’t leave that out, obviously, because that was a big deal. They went to all sorts of – how many places did they stop at? Do you know?
Jamie: It was a lot, yeah.
Andrew: A kagillion.
Eric: Yeah.
Jamie: Literally, at least a kagillion Barnes and Nobles.
[Everyone laughs]
Jamie: A few Borders, as well.
Year in Review: MuggleCast Road Tour
Andrew: And also coinciding with that was the MuggleCast road tour that we did over the summer.
Eric: It went from California to PA?
Jamie: That was fun.
Andrew: Yeah. And I have to say, that was probably one of the best experiences of my life.
Jamie: I agree. That was so, so cool.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Ah, because Jamie did it as well. That’s right. You were in the states, Jamie, more than you were in – at home this whole summer.
Andrew: Yeah, he was.
Jamie: That’s got to to be true.
Eric: Weren’t you? Yeah. Or at least in the summer.
Jamie: From that first day… And on the first day…
Micah: Are you a citizen yet?
Jamie: I remember from the first day to the last day – I’m trying, I’m trying.
Micah. You’ve been in enough states. They should at least give you something, you know?
Jamie: Well, one of them asked me last time, “Wow, you’ve been coming here a lot. You here for business?” And I was like, I don’t think I can pull off the “Yes, yes. The Harry Potter Corporation based in Toledo.”
[Matt and Eric laugh]
Eric: I told them I was going for business once.
Jamie: Really? Awesome.
Eric: I think it was from Reading to London.
Jamie: Oh, that’s cool.
Eric: I was like, “Yeah, this is a business trip for four days.” And they were like, “Uhhh, yeah.” So that was nice.
Andrew: Hmmm.
Eric: But see, I still didn’t grow a beard or anything, so they still think I’m like 15 when they look at me.
[Jamie laughs]
Eric: So I’m like, “Going on business? Yeah, you know?” I still get carded everywhere I go.
Jamie: Awww.
Eric: But now I am too young. Now I am too young to drink since I’m back in the States. So…
Jamie: Yeah, you are.
Year in Review: Equus
Andrew: I think the highlight of my summer was when – no, of 2007, was when Jamie, Sam and I went to Equus, and they got carded, but I didn’t.
Jamie: The thing is Andrew…
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: The thing is with that is you know why that was. So…
Andrew: No, I think I look 21 – or 18.
Jamie: No, no, it’s not. It’s becase you…
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: …didn’t shave for a couple of days. It’s because you didn’t shave for a couple of days. And because after they asked me – wait. They asked me first, didn’t they?
Andrew: No.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah. They asked me first. So after they carded me, they obviously thought that since you were with me they wouldn’t need to card you.
Andrew: Uh huh. Yeah. [laughs]
Jamie: You know it’s true.
Andrew: I just found out it bugs you Jamie, so that’s why I bring it up.
Jamie: It doesn’t bug me, I just don’t – I just don’t mind arguing about it, that’s all. It’s fine. It’s fine.
Andrew: Well, the funny thing was, I wasn’t 18 when we went to Equus.
Jamie: Naughty boy. Naughty boy.
Eric: Wait, did you need to be 18?
Andrew: To drink.
Matt: [laughs] Yeah.
Andrew: I shouldn’t have said that. [laughs] Okay, moving on. We’ll leave it at that.
Matt: Whoops!
Year in Review: Episode 101
Eric: Okay. So, once Book 7 came out, the next thing we’ve got is Jo’s open book tour that she did for the children and…
Andrew: Actually, wait. Wait, wait. Let’s talk about Episode 101 first, quick. So we can try to go in order.
Eric: Oh yeah, of course, of course. Right after Book 1…
Andrew: Book 1? Yeah, Book 1.
Eric: Right after Book 7 came out, remember, guys, we did that lovely live feed of us laying on the couches and the beds and…
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: [laughs] And did we hit 1,000 people watching us?
Andrew: Yeah. There were over 1,000 people watching us read on Ustream. It was amazing.
Jamie: Ironically, you remember, it went off to the left and went to eight.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: There were more fascinated by the Be Back Soon sign than anything else. But the thing about that show we recorded right after we read the book, it was in that little hotel room in – what was that? The Holiday Inn? No, that was – no I think it was the Holiday Inn.
Jamie: I think it was St. Giles.
Andrew: No.
Eric: It was Jamie’s – it was Jamie’s brain child, wasn’t it?
Andrew: No, it wasn’t the St. Giles.
Eric: No, no, I have it in my phone. I have the name of it. I’ll find it in a minute.
Andrew: It’s the Holiday Inn. It’s the Holiday Inn, I’m sue of it.
Jamie: Oh, he Mayfair.
Eric: Mayfair.
Jamie: Holiday Inn, Mayfair.
Andrew: The Mayfair, yeah, yeah. Right. We recorded it in a little room there. We were all jammed into that one room. I didn’t get two rooms for some reason, and…
Jamie: It was like…
Andrew: Yeah, well, we couldn’t…
Eric: I was shocked. I thought they were going to make us get two rooms, remember that? Like…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: We go to check in and I thought I screwed it up with the baggage people.
Jamie: So, we’ve admitted to underage drinking, cheating hotels, what’s going to be next?
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: In this little room, we recorded this episode which happened to be our biggest – the most downloaded show of all time for MuggleCast, and it’s got to be up there as one of the most downloaded podcasts of all time: 163,000 unique downloads to date on this one episode where we sit there for less than an hour and talk about our initial reactions to the book.
Eric: Wow! And Jamie brilliantly handled e-mails in that – wasn’t it you, Jamie, doing that? The e-mails?
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Jamie was going through the e-mails.
Eric: Absolutely. You got every single one of those that came in, you read them.
Jamie: Which? Well, no, no. I didn’t get every one Eric. I got…
Andrew: It was like…
Jamie: …like half a percent.
Andrew: There was thirty coming in every second. Yeah.
Jamie: Butthere were lots, yeah.
Eric: Yeah, I just meant you hopped up and you handled them very well.
Jamie: Well, thank you, that’s very nice.
Andrew: Yeah. So, I’m really proud of that episode. I mean, just because we were so good for getting it – just sitting down and getting it done as soon as we finished the book, you know? We could have just suckered out and waited like a week to discuss our reactions, but we just did it, got it done, and because of how fast we got it up, that day, I think it was the 22nd – because of how fast we got it up, it just – there was just a surge of downloads for people looking for more information.
Jamie: Oh yeah.
Andrew: To hear our thoughts on the book, so..
Jamie: That’s pretty good.
Andrew: I’m pretty – I’m really proud of that episode.
Jamie: Yeah.
Year in Review: Wizard Rock Surges
Eric: Now, 2007 was a big year for Wizard Rock, wasn’t it?
Andrew: Yeah, it was, because I really think it did surge this year because of the book. Everyone sort of began discovering Wizard Rock and all it had to offer, and that it’s just Harry Potter music. It turns out, that’s what all the Harry Potter fans love to hear. Amazingly…
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: So…
Eric: Some don’t. Some don’t.
Jamie: Some don’t.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Micah said that two weeks ago that he doesn’t listen to it, and I don’t really, either.
Andrew: Yeah, well, it’s okay, Micah. Yeah, there’s some good artists.
Micah: MTV recognized it so, hey.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, that happened this year. That did happen this year.
Micah: That’s big.
Andrew: It also got a lot of press from MTV back in May, too. So, you know, it’s definitely worth noting. They’ve grown. The wizard rock bands have grown a lot. There’s well over a hundred Wizard Rock bands now.
Eric: Geez.
Andrew: [laughs] It’s just insane.
Eric: And are they all nouns and plural nouns?
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: They’re all Harry and the Potters…
Eric: Draco and the Malfoys.
Andrew: Moaning and the Myrtles, Andrew and the Sims.
Eric: Yeah. Andrew and the Sims?
Andrew: I’m just kidding. I hope that didn’t exist
Eric: Did you sign a release for that band?
Andrew: No, no. I would be embarrassed.
Jamie: Cease and dessist.
Andrew: Cease and dessist? Yeah.
[Eric laughs]
Year in Review: Jo’s Open Book Tour
Andrew: So, besides that, another big event in 2007 was J.K. Rowling’s Open Book Tour in the United States and Canada. It was really just a chance for Jo to just meet her fans – meet her fans like she used to, in a very informal setting, in a very intimate setting where she could just read to them and then, just amazingly, she met…
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Every single person in attendance at these magical events and signed a book for every single person. Just a fantastic thing for Jo to do.
Jamie: It is nice.
Eric: And, of course, this gained a lot of credibility for another one of the biggest events of 2007, amazingly, was the revelation of Dumbledore being gay. And our response to this episode – to this announcement was also one of the most – maybe, well, it was highly downloaded, but it was one of the listener favorites, just because we were so quick with it and it was a fun show; it was also a serious show.
Eric: Real mature, yeah.
Andrew: A lot of people could relate to the show.
Eric: Was that 117, Andrew?
Andrew: I don’t know.
Eric: Yeah, it was.
Andrew: I mean, in hindsight – you know, when I heard this news, I was on a natural high. I was like, “Wow. Dumbledore is gay. This is amazing news, something to stir up the fandom.” I never thought something would stir up the fandom as much as that did – after the book came out.
Eric: And you know what, the only thing I think that is more important than Dumbledore being gay that – that the American – like, everybody was saying it was everywhere on the news. We had listener accounts that it was on every radio station in taxis while people were dying halfway across the world.
Andrew: Mhm.
Eric: I think the only thing that could top that in recent years has been, just yesterday – Britney Spears’ sister is pregnant and she’s 16.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Because you guys realize that was on every channel, even ESPN had this little ticker at the bottom that said, you know, “Jamie Lyn Spears is pregnant.” So, I think that’s going to be the next big thing.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: Yeah. Well. Jamie, I had wanted to ask you about this because a lot of the feedback we had gotten said that this was not even a issue in England and most parts of Europe, whereas it was such a huge deal here in the U.S.
Jamie: Well, I think it’s – I mean, for some people it is a big deal for different reasons, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: I mean, I can’t talk for everyone, but for some people, it’s because, you know, it’s a character they’ve grown up with and it’s just a big change. For other people, you know, there could be other reasons, but I think it’s the same as over there, it’s just not as well publicized. It hasn’t gotten around as well. I haven’t heard that many people say it and normally…
Matt: Uh huh.
Jamie: …I think, you know, people would be talking about it, you know, and they’re not. So I don’t think it’s as big as it is over there or as widely announced.
Andrew: Right.
Jamie: Even nearly.
Andrew: What are your thoughts on that, Jamie? I mean, we never really had you on that show after that announcement.
Jamie: I think it’s cool.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: I think it’s very, very cool. I thought she was going to reveal – well, I didn’t think she was going to, but I would’ve liked to have seen her. She did talk about revealing a gay character or something about – she talked about someone’s sexuality, I’m sure she did. Or there’s been a lot of talk for a while on who it could be. There was that whole – what’s it called? I guess it was going to happen at some point, but I wouldn’t have thought Dumbledore.
Matt: Yeah. No, no, no.
Eric: No, no. Somebody had approached her about Remus and Sirius, I think.
Jamie: Yeah, Remus and Sirius, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. And, Jamie, you wanted to do an episode on that, I remember, but we were…
Jamie: You what?
Andrew: Sort of, like – remember?
Eric: You wanted that as a discussion.
Andrew: Yeah, you wanted to do that as a discussion to analyze, figure out, maybe if they were both gay.
Jamie: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Eric: And just for the record I think it’s credible. I’ve said it before. I think it’s credible.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. I mean, but we were afraid of going there just because of, you know, the whole…
Eric: Yeah. And before 117 it might not have been, you know? I mean now we can talk.
Andrew: Now, yeah. Now we could definitely, yeah. Yeah, so that was definitely one of the big things.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: What else have wI missed here before we get to…
Eric: The last one.
Andrew: Is that the…
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: …only thing left? Yeah, I guess so.
Eric: Maybe.
Andrew: Yeah. Go ahead, Eric.
Year in Review: Tales of Beedle the Bard
Eric: And the last thing is the Tales of Beedle the Bard, which J.K. has hand written seven copies. I’m still not sure, did she actually hand write the stories..
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Seven times?
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Because there’s seven copies of it? So, yeah. So she wrote the same story seven times for each of the copies. And, actually what I think is cool of it – my friend, Chaya Coppersmith just sent me a one of the auction booklets from Sotheby’s…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: …of Beedle the Bard.
Jamie: That’s cool.
Eric: And it has this whole – yeah, it’s absolutely wonderful. I love Chaya for that. That’s so amazing. But she sent me this auction book and it has this detailed description and apparently, the seven copies of Beedle the Bard, if you guys didn’t know this, were actually – she gave them, J.K. Rowling gave the other six to her closest people who had to do with…
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, dude. Where have you been? That was the whole point of these.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she gave the other six to her, sort of, Harry Potter forerunners.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Like, her publisher and stuff, and then the seventh book was the one that was auctioned off. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that ‘cause I didn’t.
Andrew: Yeah, that was…
Eric: But I got a cool auction book and it…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: …has the whole thing.
Andrew: I got it a few weeks ago and I talked about it on the show but I guess you weren’t on that episode.
Eric: No, I missed that.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: It is cool. It’s a nice little collector’s item.
Eric: Yeah, so Amazon.com bought it for 4 million dollars – or 3.8 million dollars.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. That’s a lot of money.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yep.
Eric: Geez. We shall see.
Andrew: Whole lot of money, and I mean we’ve discussed this on the past few episodes.
Eric: Mhm.
Andrew: But I think that will definitely set the – well, I don’t know. It’s going to have an impact somehow. I just don’t’ know how.
Eric: Well, it depends on what they’re going to do with it. They’re going to do something with it. They’re going to…
Andrew: Well, they’re going to take it on tour. They’re going to take it on tour.
Eric: Yeah. But still, it’ll be interesting in 2008 to see what they do with the tours as far as specific…
Andrew: Yeah, absolutely.
Eric: And are they going to have it in a glass case or not?
Andrew: Oh yeah, they’re not going to let people touch that.
Eric: I mean, yeah. Yeah. But they’ve just finished all of their reviews on Amazon of all the stories, so that’s interesting.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Yeah.
What Lies Ahead in Harry Potter For 2008?
Andrew: So, the question now is, what’s in store for 2008? Ummm.
Eric: Ummm, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
[Matt laughs]
Eric: That’s the question that’s on everyone’s mind.
Andrew: Good question. We won’t discuss that.
Eric: What do you think, Andrew? What do you think, Matt? What do you think, Matt?
Andrew: We won’t discuss that. Moving on.
Matt: For our President?
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: We’re not going to talk about that. We can’t talk politics on the show.
Matt: Ugh. Okay. Fine. Geez. I was just asked.
Eric: No, I asked the question. I can’t ask a question and get a legitimate answer?
Andrew: No, seriously?
Eric: I’m just saying, you were just saying what’s in store for 2008 and that’s what’s on my mind.
Andrew: Well, yeah, but…
Eric: You think people think otherwise?
Andrew: Yeah, of course.
Eric: Well, the sixth movie is coming out.
Andrew: Yes.
Matt: A couple conventions.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re going…
Eric: Yeah, Terminus and…
Andrew: Portus.
Eric: ….Portus.
Andrew: Which we’ll be at. HP2008 dot org. Sign up today!
Eric: Absolutely.
Andrew: And I think we’re going to be getting plenty of amusement park updates, because over the next year they’re really going to start. This is going to be the year of building everything, so…
[Jamie coughs]
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: I think we’re going to be getting plenty of updates about that, but generally a lot quieter than last year, which I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. What do you guys think?
Micah: Well, you’re not going to match the hype of 2007. No year, from this point…
Matt: Yeah, there’s no way to would compare.
Jamie: It would be foolish to attempt to, really.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: But, it’ll still be very exciting. It’s the next big thing, you know? It’s like what the Harry Potter fans are all, “Okay, what do we do next?” Well, we get excited about the movie. We get excited about the thing and this convention and yeah.
Andrew: All right.
Eric: Harry Potter‘s going to live strong through these events.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: I mean, you don’t even know what J.K. Rowling may announce next about a certain character or plot point or something.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Right, right.
Jamie: Exactly, exactly.
Andrew: Yeah. And I think we’ll learn more about the – maybe not more – about the encyclopedia, but more updates on her website.
Eric: Well, there was a news post on MuggleNet just today, wasn’t it, or no, just when she made TIME‘s “Person of the Year” she said the eighth Harry Potter book…
Andrew: Yeah, we talked about that last episode.
Eric: Yeah, okay.
Andrew: All right, so I think that’s a good look back at the past year that has been.
Eric: It was our main discussion.
Andrew: It’s been a gigantic year.
Eric: Yeah.
Favorite Moments of 2007
Andrew: One other thing I thought we could do – could do favorites, the Favorites segment we haven’t done in a while. I thought we could just go around the table and talk about or well not – we don’t have to go into too much detail, but just list our favorite memories of 2007. Who wants to go first? Our favorite memory of 2007.
Eric: I’ll go first. I think my famous – er, sorry – my favorite memory is the Book 7 event in Waterstones just because of how it went off without a hitch, how Waterstones had prepared so much for us, how it was smooth once we got there, and getting the book, being in the VIP party, and actually, most of all, seeing the fans that had been lining up, and I spent a bit of time down with them, as well as doing the podcast, which I think is one of my favorite live shows, if not my favorite live show. I think it was just everything from the light above me – almost falling on me – was absolutely wonderful. And that’s my favorite memory – absolutely, just that night.
[Andrew laughs]
Andrew: Micah?
Micah: I mean, I would say, because I had other commitments – work related stuff – and wasn’t able to go to London and a couple of other places. Philadelphia for me, because it was the first opportunity I had to do a live show, and it’s really the only time, I think, over the course o the summer, that I got to spend with you and Ben and Emerson and Jamie. So…
Eric: This was Enlightening, Micah?
Micah: Enlightening. Yeah, Enlightening 2007, and I’ll say this – I haven’t had the chance, really, to be at a whole lot of other conventions, but I thought that overall they had a lot of stuff and they did a really good job for a family event.
Andrew: Definitely, yeah.
Micah: And the place we podcasted from was awesome. I don’t remember the name of the hall that we were in.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: But it was Hogwarts-like, almost.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Me neither. I would have to agree – before we get to Matt.
Matt: Hmmm?
Andrew: I think Enlightening – the podacst we did there was definitely, I think, the best live show we’ve ever done.
Eric: Really?
Andrew: Yeah, because I mean the one in London was great, but this one in Enlightening – it flowed so well. We nearly went for two hours. We didn’t want to stop. I remember whispering over to Ben, “When should we wrap this up?” And he was like, “Let’s keep going with questions, this is going really well.” And I was like, “Yeah, it is.” It sounds – if you listen on the recording, it was a very professional audio recording, it was in a hall so you can sort of hear our voices echoing, so you can even get the feel of where we were.
Eric: Of being there, yeah.
Andrew: Overall it was definitely a very nice experience.
Eric: Cool, cool.
Andrew: We had a great number of fans there and like Micah said, the venue was excellent, and we nearly went for two hours. We were sort of the pinnacle of the conference; I mean, that’s the way they made it out to be. We had a great time, but so did everyone there, the organizers really enjoyed having us there. So, yeah.
Eric: Sounds good, sorry I missed it. [laughs]
Andrew: That was definitely worth it. It was a shame too, Eric, since…
Eric: Since it was in Pennsylvania and I normally live in Pennsylvania, but that’s okay.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Sounds awesome.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Matt?
Andrew: All right. Yeah, Matt
Matt: Yeah?
Andrew: Favorite of 2007?
Matt: I would have to say – it would probably be Prophecy in Canada. That would probably be my favorite because looking back, nothing went wrong. Pretty much everything was pretty much fun and I think everybody enjoyed themselves a lot. And I had a lot of fun just meeting everybody – a lot for the first time. And it was just really fun. The entire…
Eric: You definitely.
Matt: Sorry?
Eric: Yeah, and you going to Portus as well?
Matt: I don’t know.
Eric: Oh, you should man. Same people, same people. HPEF will be there.
Andrew: Well, sort of. [laughs] Same people are running it.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. I think the one thing that didn’t go right at Prophecy was that fire alarm that went of at like midnight or something.
Eric: Ugh, fire alarm.
Matt: Yeah, but – I think everybody had a fun story to tell during it.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Andrew: Alex…
Matt: I didn’t have to go down 30 flights of stairs like some people did.
Eric: Who started the fire alarm?
Andrew: I don’t – nobody knows. But Alex Carpenter, I remember, started this dance. The fire alarm sounded like something you would hear in a techno song or something.
Eric: Oh geez.
Andrew: So, every time the alarm would start buzzing again Alex Carpenter would start dancing. [laughs] Like a techno dance, it was so funny.
[Matt laughs]
Andrew: I’m sure there’s a video on YouTube or something. But that was a good memory.
Eric: Geez.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: So The Remus Lupins have other band members, doesn’t it?
Andrew: The Remus Lupins, yeah.
Matt: Yes!
Eric: Great, awesome.
Andrew: Absolutely fantastic live band.
Matt: And a great group of guys too.
Andrew: Absolutely, yeah. Jamie, what was your favorite moment of 2007?
[Strange noise]
Andrew: Whoa!
Micah: Maybe he’s enjoying it right now. [laughs]
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: That was him? I thought that was someone on Matt’s mic.
Matt: It’s – yeah, it was my sister. Sorry! What?
Micah: Oh, well now…
Andrew: Jamie, you there?
Jamie: Okay, it’s a tough choice, it really is a tough choice. I can think of so many good things. I mean the book tour, I thought, was one of the best times ever. It was eight days? Eight or nine?
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: And it was so much fun. But then Prophecy was so much fun as well.
Andrew: Mhm.
Jamie: So, it’s such a tough one. But the entire summer was a whirlwind, it was so cool.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Meeting everyone and – I had a really good summer, if that could be the thing.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: Yeah, Jamie, you were away for a second when I said mine. I don’t know if you would agree with this ,but the Enlightening 2007 podcast we did was definitely one of the best live podcasts we’ve done.
Jamie: That one was a lot of fun.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: It really was a lot of fun, and it was a really responsive audience as well. Really nice people.
Andrew: Yeah, that was like, that was like…
Jamie: Some really good topics.
Andrew: Yeah, we podcasted for over an hour-and-a-half and we didn’t want to stop because it was going so well.
Jamie: Yeah, that was fun, a lot of fun.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Enlightening altogether was fun. The talk we did I enjoyed as well.
Andrew: Definitely, yep, yep.
Eric: About podcasting.
Jamie: It was like – yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, well let’s move along now.
Eric: Because we’ve got two entire chapters to do.
Andrew: We have two entire chapters to do.
Matt: Geez.
Chapter-by-Chapter: The Will of Albus Dumbledore
Andrew: Yeah. Let’s move through them quick. All right, so now it’s time for Chapter-by-Chapter, let’s start off this week with Chapter 7, The Will of Albus Dumbledore. Micah, just start with a basic summary and then move onto the first point.
Micah: OKay.
Andrew: I’ll be right back.
Harry’s Too “Open-Minded”
Micah: Okay, so I mean the basic summary of the chapter is it’s Harry’s birthday, they are celebrating it and the Minister of Magic makes an unexpected appearance at his party. And he goes over the contents of Professor Dumbledore’s will with Harry, Ron and Hermione and we’ll get to that in particular in terms of what was left to the three of them. But what I wanted to start off is where the chapter begins primarily with Harry’s dream that he’s having. And he can’t remember where he heard this name. Well, he wakes up and Ron tells him that he’s been muttering some name in his sleep. And the name I believe is Gregorovitch.
Eric: Yep.
Micah: He has no idea who it is but he knows that he’s heard the name before and he knows that it has to do with Quidditch and he also knows that Voldemort is after him. Now, in my recollection, this is the first time in Deathly Hallows that we see Harry going into Voldemort’s mind and experiencing things that Voldemort is experiencing. Was this really in your guys’ opinion, I mean, a safe idea? I know he’s dreaming but shouldn’t he be trying to block these things out of his mind?
Eric: Okay, Hermione.
[Jamie laughs]
Eric: Okay, honestly – okay, Hermione. Well, just the first thing you said Micah – is this really the first time he’s in his mind? Because isn’t the first whole chapter a nightmare of Harry’s at the same time because Harry wakes up – oh no, no, no, never mind. No, he was awake and he was bleeding – I thought the first chapter was kind of a dream sequence but that in Book 4, isn’t it?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: The beginning of Book 4 is Harry’s dream. So, yeah. It is a strange connection between Harry and Voldemort, you’re right. During the chapter when Hermione finds out about the dream, she scolds him that he should be keeping Voldemort out of his mind. I think you’re right – it is pretty dangerous. And there’s a great line somewhere in this chapter, that says that Voldemort has been taking over the Ministry and the whole world and not your mind too. You know?
Jamie: But surely you can’t know too much about your enemy. I mean, I know ignorance is bliss but it’s not in that case. Because the more Harry understands, the more he understands Voldemort and magic.
Micah: Right.
Matt: Yes.
Eric: Yeah.
Jamie: Because magic has very subtle undertones, so the more he knows about the world and how people act magically.
Micah: Right.
Jamie: I just think it’s useful and if he wasn’t so stubborn and sort of determined in his own way, perhaps it would be perfect. But he does follow stuff too quickly before asking for help. That’s the only reason I’d say why he shouldn’t be if that makes sense.
Eric: I think you’re right, Jamie. I mean, he has this unique tool to see into the mind of Voldemort. He has to use it.
Micah: Right.
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: Otherwise he’s got nothing over anyone else in defeating Voldemort.
Andrew: And he’s just dead curious too. I mean, I’d want to know what he’s up to, especially if I have to kill him.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: Yeah.
Voldemort’s Vulnerability
Micah: I guess on the flip side though – if Harry is smart to be doing this and to taking onto these clues then how stupid is Voldemort?
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: To not be closing this out or even taking the steps to close this out? Because…
Eric: Like he used to.
Micah: Exactly.
Eric: He did at one. It was said. Yeah.
Micah: I mean, he used it to his advantage once, why wouldn’t he think that at some point in the future, Harry won’t be able to do the same thing?
Eric: He would because it was said he was practicing Legilimency against Harry – or so The Order thought. That was said in what? Earlier in Book 6 or something?
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Right, right. Yeah.
Micah: This is really when the pieces start to come together for Harry and he’s relaying this information onto people that are helping him out. And I just thought – I know that Voldemort is a flawed character but I didn’t think he would be this dumb.
Eric: Same.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I said I would prefer a more cunning and more intelligent Voldemort who made fewer mistakes. This is the beginning of the end for Voldemort…
Jamie: No, but…
Eric: This is where he makes one of many stupid, plain stupid mistakes due to carelessness.
Jamie: No, but wait – which mistake are you talking about specifically? The mind thing?
Eric: In thi case he just stopped… Yeah, the mind thing.
Jamie: You know, if you write perfect characters, your book get rejected. Everyone is flawed – that’s sort of the subtlety of writing, being able to write flawed characters. And Voldemort in that regard – because he considers everyone beneath his power, he doesn’t think that other people’s minds can sort of influence him or take anything from his rock-solid mind. So it’s like – he wouldn’t care about that just as when Kreacher went to the island and drank the potion. He wouldn’t have bothered to think about whether he could get back. It’s just his mindset now. And as Jo says, “He’s wormed from all the killing and stuff and can’t get it back.” So, his mind can’t fully recover, I’d say.
Eric: Right, right. I would agree with you except that I think with Harry he does – I mean Harry is obviously the only threat to him. I think he would treat the connection just as seriously as he always had because he had treated the connection between their minds very importantly. First, when he was using Harry and second when Occlumency against him – or Legilimency. But, it’s just – I just think Voldemort, and I would use that excuse. I mean, you’re right, perfect characters do get rejected. And I would use that excuse for, sort of, many of the mistakes that Voldemort makes. But as I plan to illustrate later, there just so many mistakes that Voldemort makes that I stop being able to accept that excuse, Jamie. After a while, I stop being able to accept that Voldemort is a flawed character because I just think that she has portrayed him a little bit smarter than that in Book 6.
Jamie: But you…
Eric: …when he is manipulating people and stuff. By the end of Book 7 he just makes so many mistakes. And that was my problem.
Jamie: So does Harry though! Harry makes ridiculous amounts of mistakes as well. So does everyone!
Eric: Yeah. But they all work for him. They all work for him.
Jamie: Oh, no, but they don’t know. Because he suffered a lot, like – it was a worthwhile victory because he saved the future but it was also kind of parry. He didn’t lose everything but he lost a lot. A great deal of people he knew.
Eric: He did.
Jamie: So he made mistakes. Now, it wasn’t his fault that these people died, but he didn’t do everything perfectly. A lot of the time, Hermione was right or Ron was right; they also made mistakes. They let stuff get in the way, they didn’t think logically. They sort of, you know, acted childishly. Everyone made mistakes. Snape did. Dumbledore especially; think of what he did, but he is still such an amazingly written character. And I would argue even though his mistakes were probably greater and in a bigger number, he was a more perfect character because of what he stood for. Perhaps, that kind of thing.
Andrew: Yeah. Okay. Well, let’s move it along here.
Harry and Ginny
Eric: But just some of the events that happened in the chapter: Harry’s talk with Ginny. When Ginny wishes Harry a very private “Happy Birthday,” which is interrupted by Ron, who tells Harry later to stop groping his sister. That Ginny thing – I’m sorry, but I had to mention it – because that Ginny thing is very well written.
Jamie: Yeah, yeah. That’s true.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I absolutely – I mean, a lot of these chapters feel like – I call them “book five chapters” because of how well – how much stuff is in them. Just these two chapters are.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: And I think they are amazing to read as the last chapters of this year that we read on the podcast. It’s a build-up and it’s a let-down. As we get to the wedding, it’s sort of the last order – the last chapter where everything is sort of normal with the living structure before they go off.
Jamie: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And so, yeah. But the Ginny thing – now guys. I just – can you all just talk about it for a second? Just what you thought about it, Harry and Ginny, and how that played out in the series.
Andrew: Ummm, well.
Eric: Because this is pretty much the last time we see Harry and Ginny before the Epilogue as far as I can remember. And there are some scenes later where they meet again, but…
Jamie: Well it’s very – sorry, go on!
Andrew: No, go on!
Jamie: Well, I would say it’s interpretable in very, very different ways. That scene where they’re kissing and Ron and Hermione walking in – because it’s very mature. Because, you know, it’s very sort of “grown up” for how old they are in some ways.
Matt: Mhm.
Jamie: But also it’s not very “grown up” at all.
Matt: Mhm.
Jamie: So, it’s like you can interpret it in different ways. It would be very interested to see how the filmmakers put their spin on it.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: Whether it’s two sort of children getting personal business confused or it’s two adults who are having something. God, that was too deep. I feel sick.
Eric: No, no, it was. But do you think they would do a lot of character development on Bonnie Wright and Daniel Radcliffe then?
Jamie: Probably. I think they probably will, yeah. They need – I mean, that’s a big scene, a very big scene.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: Because they spent the time on Cho. So, I…
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: I think they should.
Matt: I think that’d be a fairly good scene to watch too, in the movie.
Eric: Yeah, definitely.
Matt: Reading these books – now after reading them a couple of times, I start thinking about how it’s going to look in the movies. And I really see how – I really see Emma Watson and Rupert Grint really focusing on each other a lot in this scene.
Jamie: Definitely.
Eric: Yeah.
Jamie: That’s true.
Eric: They’re sort of aware of it in the background. There are also two very separate mentions of the two stolen hours on Hogwarts grounds a million years ago that took place between Harry and Ginny. It’s like an insight into Book 6 we didn’t have before. I just think it’s so wonderful because it’s Harry’s relationship.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And it kind of ends a bit sadly when he goes off. It’s just one of those great elements of this book before he goes off and has this long journey.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: The Ginny thing was very well-handled and important. Ummm, yep.
Andrew: I agree.
Jamie: That’s good. Yeah.
MuggleCast 126 Transcript (continued)
The Minister’s Visit
Eric: So, okay. So, so, so – they’re at Harry’s birthday. He gets a bunch of presents. We can skip over that because the presents are cool. But they get a message. It’s a patronus; it’s a weasel. Arthur Weasley’s voice saying, what?
Jamie: No, Shacklebolt’s – oh, sorry. Wrong bit – I’m on the wrong part.
Eric: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, I was going to say.
Jamie: Sorry, sorry.
Andrew: Go ahead, Eric.
Eric: Oh, yeah. Arthur Weasley’s voice saying, “Minister of Magic is coming with me.”
Jamie: Sorry.
Eric: Right. So Lupin and Tonks say, “We gotta go! Peace out, homie.” They leave. Then moments later they see Scrimgeour and his mane of tangled hair coming to dinner.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Or not to dinner. But, he has to speak to Ron, Hermione, and Harry privately. They’re wondering, “Why they want Ron and Hermione too?” They get there. He wants to separate them but they say, “Screw you! We’re seeing it together.” Take it from there.
Andrew: Right! Well, what we wanted to talk about was what Dumbledore gives to Ron, Hermione, and Harry. Of course, all of them, all those items, turn out to be handy in the end. But at that time… I think it’s one of Dumbledore’s greatest moments here when he gives us and the trio these three clues but nobody has any idea what on Earth to do with them.
Matt: Mhm.
Eric: Exactly, exactly. Neither do the characters. So…
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: Well, right. That’s what I’m saying.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: Well, I just like – I really like the fact that Ron really has no idea what’s going on, and he pretty much almost…
Jamie: [laughs] Yeah.
Matt: …screws it up for the three of them. And Hermione just gives him that look like, “Okay, you need to stop talking right now or you’re going to get us screwed!”
Andrew: Yeah! [laughs]
Eric: Yeah. Hermione is really smart in this chapter. Because she told – she annoyed Scrimgeour with all that legal information on how he wasn’t supposed to look through the will or the stuff that they were left. But they did obviously, and the only reason they’re getting them now on Harry’s birthday is because the 31 days is up since Dumbledore’s death.
Andrew: Right!
Eric: And their initial confiscation. So…
Matt: Mhm.
Andrew: And Scrimgeour seemed very reluctant to hand these items over too – if you do read it.
Matt: Yeah. He hated it, he loathed giving them back.
Andrew: Yeah. He was so suspicious. It was – you could really feel his emotion in this chapter.
Eric: Wellm he blew up. He had his wand against Harry’s chest when everyone ran in…
Andrew: Right.
Matt: He burned a cigarette mark in his shirt.
Eric: Yes! A cigarette burn in his shirt. I mean, who’s going to replace that shirt, honestly. I mean…
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: So, I mean, is there anything else to discuss with this? Or should we just move on? I mean, because…
Flesh Memories
Eric: Yeah, flesh memories. I think it’s brilliant how flesh memories and snitches are in – I just though that was something brilliant because it has a particularly practical use in the field of sports, in addition to being a very significant plot point in this book.
Andrew: Mhm.
Eric: The flesh memory, obviously, because it says, “They have them – snitches have flesh memories that determine in case of a dispute who actually touched the Snitch first because the first human hands to close around the snitch are the ones that it responds to or reacts to in the future.” I just thought that was so amazing!
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Especially the revelation at the end of the chapter, that it was actually Harry’s mouth that caught the snitch first time, which was brilliant.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: It’s just like similarly with Gregorovitch, that was actually mentioned previously – and we’ll find that out. But it’s just some brilliant stuff done in earlier books…
Micah: Right. That’s what I was going to say.
Eric: …which comes to furnish and is wonderful. What do you guys think of the message of the Snitch?
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Or Micah, what were you going to say?
Micah: Well, you brought up – J.K. Rowling all the way back to book one was formulating this. And you just think of all the detail that she put in.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: It’s amazing that something as simple as the snitch Harry caught in the first Quidditch match comes back to have such a huge influence.
Jamie: In his mouth.
Andrew: Would make all the difference.
Eric: Being something he could utilize.
Meddling Ministry
Micah: The only other thing that I wanted to bring up here real quick was that the Ministry in particular was trying to meddle in Harry’s affairs. What good would it have done Scrimgeour to know anything about what Harry was doing? I mean, would it really have helped him at all?
Matt: He’s desperate. He doesn’t…
Eric: He’s very desperate.
Matt: He doesn’t know – he doesn’t even think clearly.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: He’s just so hungry for some kind of silver lining in this pretty much fruitless fight against Voldemort.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And Matt, you can tell he’s desperate too, because actually I think he’s seeking for Harry’s help because…
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: I mean, I think he’s so obsessed with these items that Dumbledore gave them – and Hermione tells him such too. Hermione tells him, “This is what you’ve been doing locked up while people in your own office, while people are dying all around you; you’ve been looking at these items that Dumbledore is trying to give us!?” So, and that whole time, obviously, he doesn’t realize how infiltrated the Ministry’s become until what appears to be the end of next chapter, when he realizes how infiltrated everything is. And obviously his heroic acts are three – er, two chapters to come, but you know, he’s so obsessed with Harry…
Micah: Well, I mean..
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And finding it all out.
Matt: Mmhm.
Andrew: Well let’s keep moving on now. Micah, do you want to take the next point?
Micah: Aren’t we – isn’t that it for this chapter?
The Will’s Contents
Eric: I – it’s just, Ron gets a Deluminator, which I thought was cool that it was created by Dumbledore. Hermione gets The Tales of Beetle the Bard, which are pretty much like Mother Goose rhymes, I think – the sort of things that we grew up with.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: You know, Hey Diddle Diddle type things?
Micah: She better keep that book. It’s worth four million dollars.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: And Harry’s snitch says, “I open at the close,” which to me was like w-t-f, and it’s like, “I reveal my secrets at the end of the book” – is that what it says?
Andrew: Yeah. Well…
Eric: “I open at the close.” At the close of what?
Andrew: It’s…
Eric: The book? I mean I know it’s the answer, but…
Andrew: Well that’s the whole mystery. I mean – yeah.
Eric: “I open at the close.” That’s completely pointless – like I won’t tell you until you need me.
Andrew: Yeah, well…
Eric: Like, okay, thanks. Thanks, Dumbledore.
Micah: And don’t forget the sword.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: That is so something Dumbledore would say.
Eric: Oh, of course.
Andrew: Another thing Scrimgeour was getting very aggravated about…
Micah: Scrimgeour was very much like, Fudge, or, Umbridge, in this book to me.
Eric: It’s cool to draw a parallel.
Micah: He had a different – just the way he acted.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Micah: It was a lot more – I don’t know the right word, but it – he seemed not the same person that he was in Half-Blood Prince.
Eric: Mmmm.
Andrew: Mhm.
Eric: Well, yeah.
Andrew: So, next point. We don’t really need to talk about what they get, because we all know, you know, what happens with them.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: Do you want to move on to the next point, Micah?
Eric: What is the next point?
Micah: I don’t have any other points.
Andrew: The Ministry is still meddling, and why Scrimgeour wants – oh, I guess we did sort of talk about that, didn’t we?
Micah: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: The only thing that we don’t mention is that Norbert’s a girl, but that’s not important.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah.
Andrew: That was a big revelation though. “Norbert’s a girl!” We were like, “What?!”
Jamie: We?
Andrew: Say what?!
Matt: That’s great.
Eric: That goes back to – guys that goes back to Episode 2 of MuggleCast where we found out that Kevin was Kevina, and now we find out that Norbert is Norberta.
Andrew: I think we coined that on the summer road tour. I think someone – do you remember that, Jamie? Did someone come up with a new name for…
Jamie: Norberta.
Andrew: Norberta? Was it that?
Jamie: Probably, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, it was probably that.
Jamie: It could have been something like that.
Matt: Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: Cool. That’s Chapter 7?
Chapter-by-Chapter: The Wedding
Andrew: Yeah. We don’t have any favorite lines from that because we’re trying to move quickly through here. How about let’s move on to Chapter 8. Micah?
Micah: Sho…
Eric: Chapter 8, The Wedding.
Micah: The Wedding.
Andrew: You handle this. I’m on break. We handled the other one earlier today. Done.
Micah: Okay.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: See – I think the chapter kind of is self explanatory. I’m not going to really summarize it here, but I thought…
Andrew: Well wait, wait, wait – Chapter 8?
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: Chapter 8, The Wedding?
Andrew: It’s not about a wedding, is it?
Eric: Chapter 8, The Wedding?
Micah: Do you want – okay I’ll start over.
Andrew: No, no, no, no, it’s fine. I was just messing. You did fine. Good work.
Micah: You sure?
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: I can if you want.
Andrew: No, dude. It’s fine. Keep going.
Eric: Dude I can do it, I…
Matt: Just forget what they said, Micah. Just keep going.
[Jamie and Matt laugh]
Matt: You guys are screwing him up.
Andrew: Sorry.
Micah: Well I just kind of broke Chapter 8 down more by characters I guess instead of different events.
Andrew: That was a good idea, I think.
Eric: That was a good idea.
Xenophilius Lovegood
Micah: And we do meet a lot of new characters and see a lot of old people, as well, in this chapter. And the first one that really struck me was Xenophilius Lovegood. Obviously he shows up at the wedding, and makes an entrance with his – was it yellow robes, or something along those lines?
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: He looks like ‘an omelet,” is one of my favorite quotes, but yeah.
Micah: Right.
Eric: He is wearing yellow, and he thinks that it’s important because yellow is the color of the sun and it means good luck at weddings…
Micah: Yeah, well…
Eric: …according to their superstition.
The Symbol
Micah: He’s – yeah. And you know, this is – through Xenophilius we really start to learn, and let’s fast forward a little bit to, you know, when Harry, disguised as Barney Weasley, is sitting down at the table and is visited by Viktor Krum. And it’s really through Xenophilius Lovegood that we find out, or get our first glimpse at the Deathly Hallows, and we don’t know that yet, but he’s wearing this symbol around his neck, which seems to really anger Viktor Krum a lot. And…
Eric: So much so, that they’re seen storming off after an argument later on at the end of the chapter.
Micah: Right.
Eric: Apparently Viktor Krum, he was very nervous about “zat man,” that man, you know, he asked Barry or Harry or Barney – Harry slash Barney slash Barry, is what Muriel calls him – about this pendant. Now what’s the deal with the pendant? It’s the symbol of Grindelwald, but why? Because Grindelwald came and graffitied this corridor in Durmstrang. He graffitied on this symbol, and all the people who thought it was cool copied it down, and then obviously Grindelwald killed a bunch of people using that symbol as his thing, and Krum’s grandfather was killed and Krum says that everybody was taught a lesson then, you know, everyone who still supported the symbol was taught not to.
Micah: Right, and to me, when I was reading through this book – and obviously when you get to later chapters there are other references as well – but when you talk about using your mark after you kill somebody or doing the things that Grindelwald did, it kind of reminded me a little bit of a Swastika.
Eric: Oh yeah.
Jamie: Yes.
Matt: Yes, definitely.
Eric: You’re supposed to…
Micah: And, you know, another World War II reference, so to speak, that J.K. Rowling put in there.
Matt: Mhm. Well, she definitely said something about that, too.
Eric: Yeah.
Matt: In a previous interview she said there was something that went on about the coexistence of two of the wars during World War II, and she said there is a relevance between World War II, but we didn’t really see that much of it until Book 7 came out. That’s what she said.
Micah: Right, and I think it had less to do with Voldemort, and probably more to do with Grindelwald, just because of, you know, Durmstrang’s supposed location and just the name, Grindelwald, I guess has more of a German feel to it.
Eric: Yeah. Just like the Swastika is a sort of slanted – there’s a symbol – if you turn the Swastika so it’s not slanted it’s actually a symbol of peace. And the Nazis took that symbol, tilted it, and took it to mean purity, or took it be their symbol, or whatever it means. But it’s a tilted peace symbol. Now, Grindelwald, the symbol he picked for himself was actually just this symbol regarded of the fairy-tale of the Deathly Hallows. It was, as it happens, it was pretty much the symbol that means the Hallows.
Andrew: Mhm.
Eric: And it later became Grindelwald’s symbol, which is obviously something quite different than the Hallows, but the Hallows were what Grindelwald was all about. Seeking…
Jamie: But…
Eric: Yeah.
Jamie: Sorry – just to add to the last thing about Grindelwald being sort of – the Nazi references. “Grindelwald is a municipality in the district of Interlaken in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.” So, it comes from the same type of language, I guess. It sounds Scandinavian sort of language thing, I guess, I don’t really know much about language but…
Andrew: Oh, okay. That’s interesting, nonetheless.
Jamie: It’s a nice name, Grindelwald, I guess.
Andrew: Yeah.
Gregorovitch The Wand-Maker
Eric: So, Gregorovitch made Krum’s wand, is that what also we discussed?
Jamie: Yeah, she did. Sorry, he did, yes.
Matt: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, yeah. So Gregorovitch – Harry discovers that Gregorovitch – he knows where he heard the name before. It did have something to do with Quidditch, because the Quidditch player, Krum, who tries to pick up Ginny – Harry tells him that she’s taken – says that his wand was one of the last ones made by Gregorovitch, who Voldemort is now looking for. Yes indeed, yes indeed. And Gregorovitch is apparently a very good wand-maker, and though Krum concedes that he knows the Britons are – place store in Ollivander.
Jamie: They did, the exact phrase.
Andrew: Right, well let’s keep moving along here. Micah, do you want to move on to Aunt Muriel now? I think we can…
Aunt Muriel
Micah: [laughs] Would I ever.
[Andrew and Matt laugh]
Matt: Oh yeah. 101-years-old, baby.
Jamie: [laughs] And still going strong.
Matt: Oh.
Eric: 108, isn’t she? No, she’s 106.
Matt: What’s five years between 100-year-old woman anyway?
Jamie: Well, exactly!
Eric: You know, I don’t know.
Jamie: What’s ten, then?
[Andrew laughs]
Matt: Yeah. [laughs]
Eric: I understand.
Andrew: Aunt Muriel is not so positive about Dumbledore. She confirms more of what Rita had to say about Dumbledore and this is a very contrasting opinion from “Elphilias” Doge, and…
Jamie: [laughs] Elphias!
Andrew: Elphias. “Elphilias!”
Eric: Andrew, Ford Angela called, and she really wants to hang out with you..
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Okay, yeah, yeah, we’re all funny, can we stop wasting more time?
[Jamie laughs]
Andrew: Go ahead, it’s your show now, go ahead. I’m just going to kick back and listen.
Matt: What I liked most about Aunt Muriel taking the side of what Rita Skeeter wrote was, it was pretty much the closest thing we were ever going to get to a debate between Elphias Doge and Rita Skeeter.
Jamie: That’s – yeah, that’s true. That’s so true.
Andrew: Yeah. And I think…
Jamie: They wouldn’t have met up in real life. Sorry.
Getting to Know Dumbledore
Andrew: I think it also made it more real for Harry. Like the whole realization that maybe Dumbledore wasn’t, you know, that perfect guy Harry always saw him to be.
Eric: Which is an important piece.
Micah: Right.
Andrew: Yeah, because, you know, I can understand why he wouldn’t trust Rita, but then he’s hearing it from someone else? Granted, it’s a new character, and Harry hadn’t met Aunt Muriel before.
Micah: Not only that. I mean, Doge is getting extremely flustered during this whole thing, and if I was Harry sitting in that position, I mean, I would think that some of it’s got to be true. I mean, if he’s just sitting…
Eric: That’s exactly what he does.
Matt: Yeah.
Micah: …there sort of not being responsive at all…
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: …to what Aunt Muriel is saying, there has to be some truth to that. Maybe he clearly didn’t want Harry to know, but that was just kind of interesting. And also that – what I put down here was that I thought that Doge was kind of a character that Jo threw in there to keep reminding us of who we thought Dumbledore was through the first six books.
Andrew: Yeah.
Matt: Mhm. Well, just hearing two very opposite sides…
Micah: Exactly.
Matt: …just made Harry realize he really doesn’t really know anything about Dumbledore, pretty much.
Micah: Right.
Matt: He’d never heard of any of these accusations before, and it just seems like he – didn’t he say like it pretty much wasted time getting to know Dumbledore. Or maybe I’m just going…
Jamie: It didn’t really – but it’s like, you can never really learn everything about someone. And, you know, there is stuff that people don’t tell people just in general. I mean, like, I think Harry still knew Dumbledore very, very well, because he didn’t tell that stuff to anyone. And I’m sure if he told it to someone, Harry would be the first one, you know?
Eric: Yeah.
Jamie: I just think you can’t really undercut their very, very, very intense relationship just from finding out a few facts about his childhood, which, although significant, shouldn’t cast any doubt on the character he’d come to know, I guess.
Andrew: Right.
Micah: Well, it seems that there were things about Dumbledore, though, that was public information, but that Harry never really found out.
Eric: Such as the Dumbledores living in Godric’s Hollow, and the possibility, as it says later, that Dumbledore could go and visit his parents’ graves and then have to walk past James’s and Lily’s, you know, sort of thing.
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: All of that seems – especially due to the fact that Godric’s Hollow and Harry’s knowledge of it seems to be tainted. How he knew about it before he should’ve, or before it was mentioned in the books. He knew where it was, or said about it. But I forget what I’m saying, except that Dumbledore had some closeness, and, I think, when we see Doge, it’s basically like we’ve seen this guy – and we’ve previously read the obituary where Doge introduces himself as a kid who was excluded because of his dragon box, or whatever.
Jamie: Yeah.
Eric: So, you get this fierce loyalty to Dumbledore just because of how great, you know, his image is, and Doge is very adamant about Dumbledore being seen as this great, very friendly person as he was to Doge. And that’s really, incredibly important. And the line – the line that you guys were referring to is, “He wanted the truth and yet all Doge did was sit there and bleep feebly that Ariana had been ill. Harry could hardly believe that Dumbledore would not have intervened if such cruelty was happening inside his own house, and yet there was something undoubtedly odd about the story.”
Micah: Right.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: So he’s learning the truth. At least bits and pieces of it.
Eric: Basically.
Micah: It may not be exactly what Aunt Muriel is conveying, but I wanted to go back to what you said about Godric’s Hollow, though, because I think that – to me, here’s this kid who’s been suffering for his entire life, knows absolutely nothing really about his past. And Dumbledore lived in the same place that his parents did, and yet he never shared that piece of information with Harry at all, and he could’ve, realistically, at any time.
Andrew: Yeah. I just think that was another big hit for Harry. TO make him… That was just another way Jo was trying to make Harry realize that Dumbledore wasn’t someone…
Eric: And to cast doubt on his hero.
Andrew: I mean, you should still look up to Dumbledore, but, you know, don’t see him as a perfect character. You know?
Eric: Right. Which is good. She made him human.
Andrew: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: She gave him a family, which was odd.
Andrew: Which was fantastic.
Eric: Yeah. The thoughts of a teenage Voldemort – sorry – the thoughts of a teenage Dumbledore is just weird.
Andrew: Yeah. Did you have another point to add to this, Micah?
Micah: No.
Andrew: I mean, just about Godric’s Hollow. The reason why Dumbledore may have not told him?
Micah: I don’t know what the reason would be that he wouldn’t tell him. I mean, I think it would’ve provided him a little bit of comfort, you know, to have some tie back to his past.
Andrew: Would there have been too much of a connection? Maybe Dumbledore didn’t want that kind of personal connection.
Eric: Well, that’s the reason…
Andrew: I mean, that’s not the biggest personal connection. But it just can add fuel to the personal connection fire. [laughs]
Eric: Well, I think didn’t J.K.R. say that that’s why he didn’t tell Harry the truth about the Mirror of Erised at first, was because Dumbledore would have seen himself with his parents?
Andrew: Mhm.
Eric: And his family? And that was exactly what Harry was seeing. And it was too close. That Dumbledore thought that it was inappropriate?
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Well, I think that at that point, it may have been a little bit too much for Harry to understand.
Eric: Pre-emptive, yeah.
Matt: Mhm.
Micah: To take in all at once.
Matt: Mhm.
Micah: And – but I think something as simple as saying that he had himself lived in Godric’s Hollow would’ve…
Eric: I think it would have helped.
Micah: Yeah, I agree.
Matt: But I don’t think he also would have wanted Harry to delve too much into his family either. Because it’s probably not something that he wishes to talk about with anybody, either. It’s too painful.
Eric: On the contrary he did – he was always enjoying finding out more about his parents, I think.
Matt: No, no. Not Harry. I mean Harry not finding out about Dumbledore’s parents.
Eric: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Dumbledore might – yeah. I mean, pretty much Book 6, the last moments or the last year of Dumbledore’s life, was spent setting up appointments. Not close to him. And surely they could of had – they would have had something to talk about every single night of the year if they wanted to. But the appointments were based on the Horcruxes because that was Harry’s journey. That was Harry’s goal. And, although Dumbledore’s family was possibly information that Harry would have benefitted from knowing, it wasn’t most important. And the consequences that Harry has to feel betrayed or possibly – he has to doubt Dumbledore.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: And that’s what the story’s about: doubting Dumbledore.
Andrew: Yeah. Let’s move on though. We’re really getting long here. [laughs]
Eric: Well, we’ve got pretty much everything except the very end.
Andrew: I know.
Eric: Everybody’s dancing. Ron and Hermione are dancing.
Micah: And there was a wedding, by the way. I mean, I know…
Andrew: Yeah, there was a wedding. [laughs]
Micah: …we didn’t really touch on that.
Andrew: It wasn’t that big of a deal.
Matt: No, it wasn’t.
Andrew: I mean, everyone was really excited before we all got Book 7. Wasn’t everyone like, “Oh! We get to see the wedding!”? Was it Jamie, did you get really excited about that? Someone did.
Jamie: I did get excited about that. I thought it was cool to have a wedding. To see…
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Well, like what a wizard’s wedding is like.
Andrew: Yeah, right.
Eric: Yeah, you’re right!
Jamie: The vows they say.
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Yeah, they have phoenixes and the cake. When they cut the cake.
The Lynx Patronus
Andrew: Yeah. So, at the very end of the chapter, they get a Patronus from…
Matt: Kingsley.
Andrew: …Kingsley. And it says, “The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming.”
Jamie: Then it says, “April Fools!”
Andrew: April Fools!
[Eric laughs]
Matt: In all seriousness. With that scene, I think that’s going to be so awesome in the film.
Andrew: Oh my god, yeah. Like all the music and it just blasts in.
Matt: And you just hear this classical music in the background.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: Everyone’s dancing. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this Patronus just comes out and lands in front of everybody. And they all just stop and just look at it.
Andrew: [laughs] I just got a chill.
Matt: And there’s this booming, dark voice.
Eric: “The Ministry has fallen.”
Matt: “The Ministry has fallen. Shacklebolt is dead.”
Eric: Scrimgeour! Scrimgeour is dead. Shacklebolt is very much alive.
Matt: Sorry.
Andrew: I think he’s going to go – I think the Patronus is going to be tweaked just a little bit to say, “The Ministry’s fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming. Dumbledore’s got style.”
[Everyone laughs]
Matt: Wow. But doesn’t…
Andrew: He’s got to say that line again.
Tangent: Lord of the Rings
Matt: When I read that, when he said, “They are coming,” did anybody go back to Lord of the Rings when he said, ‘They are coming.'” when he read the manuscript?
Eric: I’ve never read Lord of the Rings.
Jamie: Wait, yes!
Matt: Wait, you didn’t see the movie?
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Jamie: Matt, which part is that from exactly?
Matt: Fellowship of the Ring when they were in the…
Jamie: Oh! Oh, yeah.
Matt: …the dwarves’ mine.
Jamie: Yes.
Matt: When he was reading it.
Jamie: And that’s the best example. There’s a piece in the Lord of the Rings soundtrack that’s sort of a bit from every single film at some point. And that’s the best bit. Across the Bridge of Khazadu-dûm when it goes, for the first time. It could be the first time, I think… [hums a song from Lord of the Rings]
Matt: Yeah, no that was the climatic of the theme.
Jamie: Wasn’t it?
Matt: Yeah. That was it, yeah.
Jamie: Oh, what a beautiful soundtrack. Howard Shore they did the film proud. All lot of proudness.
Back to the Patronus
Micah: But one other thing I wanted to add was just that I thought that when the Patronus comes and says what he says, it was really one of the “Holy [word bleeped out]” moments of the series.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Micah: Because you realize the game is on.
Matt: Yeah!
Micah: It’s about to go down. The wedding’s really the last happy scene in the book.
Matt: It was literally the last good moment of the story.
Eric: Yeah. Everything else from that on in is Harry running from Voldemort. Well, yeah. It’s the last.
Matt: Because right after you read it, I mean, all your adrenaline just starts flowing through your body.
Eric: Oh geez. So good.
Matt: “Oh my god, I got to turn the page!”
Andrew: Right. [chuckles]
Micah: We need a song for Scrimgeour. I haven’t come up with one yet. So…
Eric: Oh! I did! I did, Andrew!
Andrew: Does he deserve a song? Okay, what’s the song?
Jamie: The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Eric: Why did you… Oh, Jamie, you rock. That’s better.
Jamie: Why? What was yours?
Andrew: The Lion Sleeps Tonight? That’s what it’s called?
Jamie: You know, [singing] “In the village, the peaceful village…”
Andrew: Oh, it’s not called, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, though, is it?
Jamie: Yeah, it is. Oh well…
Micah: It might be like, In The Jungle.
Andrew: I think it’s called, In The Jungle, yeah.
Jamie: Oh right. Sorry, sorry.
Matt: I still think after every death they have, Another One Bites The Dust by Queen.
Jamie: Yeah!
Andrew: [laughs] Just a quick, “Another one bites the dust.”
Micah: What was Eric’s?
Andrew: What was Eric’s? Please, we’ve got to move through this.
Eric: Why are we doing this? Why do we have a song for Scrimgeour?
Andrew: Oh, because now we’re doing this thing on Chapter-by-Chapter where every time a character dies we play a song for them. At least a song sample.
Eric: Oh, I missed that. Okay, well, forget mine then.
Andrew: Sorry. So, in honor of Scrimgeour today, we are going to play In The Jungle.
[In The Jungle plays]
Eric: Great song. It’s by The Tokens. Purchase it on iTunes for 99 cents.
Jamie: [singing] “In the village, the peaceful village…”
Andrew: Here’s to you, Scrimgeour. You were worthless.
[Micah laughs]
Quote Quiz
Andrew: Now it’s time for, “Quote Quiz…quiz…quiz…quiz…”
Jamie: [laughs] That’s pretty good, Andrew!
Andrew: Thank you. It’s supposed to be like and echo, you know, like I’m in a tunnel. “Quote! Quote! Quiz…quiz…quiz…”
Eric: Andrew, just turn your mixer on.
Andrew: No, dude, it’s never going to work, it’s never going to work.
Eric: No, I mean for the echo.
Andrew: Dude, it’s – okay. It’s time for Quote Quiz Chapter 9. This comes from…of course I lost it. Wonderful. Good planning on my behalf. I’ll just take this one.
“If I can’t use magic, and you can’t use magic near me, without us giving away our position…”
And then he was cut off. Or she. There’s Quote Quiz for you this week. Jamie, you want to do a British joke?
Jamie: I don’t have one for this one, sorry, guys.
Eric: Oh come on, what the [word bleeped out], Jamie, is this not like nine months in the making?
Andrew: Okay. It’s fine.
Jamie: I made quite a successful one, I think, previous shows, so. Also, it’s New Year and New Year isn’t the time for jokes, it’s the time for looking forward and jokes describe the past. So, you know?
New Year’s Resolutions
Andrew: Yeah. Does anyone have any New Year’s resolutions for 2008 before we wrap things up today? Last year we all did.
Matt: I don’t want to be as hot as I am now.
[Jamie laughs]
Matt: Because it’s just not fair to everybody, you know?
Andrew: Wow. You are so cocky. Okay, you’re muted for the rest of the show.
[Jamie and Matt laugh]
Eric: Oh wow, punishment.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: My New Year’s Resolution is to move out to California. Successfully.
Jamie: Mine, too.
Andrew: Oh yeah, Jamie. Jamie’s coming out too. I haven’t really mentioned that yet.
Jamie: Maybe, I don’t know yet.
Matt: Oh yeah?
Jamie: Well, yeah.
Matt: What?
Andrew: Oh yeah. News to Matt.
Jamie: Haven’t I mentioned it yet? Haven’t I mentioned it? Oh. No, no maybe, maybe. It’s very, very perhaps at the moment.
Andrew: Anything from anyone else?
Eric: My New Years Resolution I think is to, because obviously we’ve got some things going on in 2008. We’ve got still a bunch of Harry Potter events, the end of weekly MuggleCast, so I think my New Year’s resolution is to see everything through to the end and just make it another good year, I think, and to just be true to myself. And yeah, yeah. And have another good year!
Andrew: Matt? Micah?
Jamie: Hey, Micah?
Micah: Yeah?
Matt: Hey!
Jamie: Weren’t you really, really keen to shake that case of gonorrhea?
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Dude, come on. [laughs] You’re not supposed to bring that up on the show.
Andrew: Do you guys have anything? We’re running really late. It’s making me sad.
Micah: Yeah. What did you say?
Andrew: It’s making me sad!
Micah: No, no.
Andrew: Editing!
Micah: Jamie?
Andrew: If you don’t have anything it’s not a big deal.
Micah: Well, no, I’d just go off of what Eric said. And I think with MuggleCast most likely coming to an end on a weekly basis, I agree. Just seeing things through and making these last few shows something that people will really enjoy.
Andrew: Right.
Matt: Yeah, mine’s kind of the same.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: By the way, there are now five to ten groups on Facebook…
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: …about our ending the show, so people are torn up.
Andrew: Well, that’s what – that’s well said, Micah and Matt. I wonder if we came through with out New Year’s resolutions from last year, because I know last year we looked at the ones from the year prior. So, too bad we didn’t look into that beforehand.
Eric: So, this is our third New Year’s.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s our third New Year’s.
Eric: Our third New Year’s show.
Andrew: Yep.
Eric: Oh, and we should count down, shouldn’t we? For the new year. So…
Andrew: How about we do it after the contact information?
Eric: Okay.
Contact Information
Andrew: All right, well, before we wrap up the show today, it’s time to remind everyone about our contact information. If you would like to send something to our PO Box, you can do that by mailing it to:
MuggleCast
PO Box 3151
Cumming, Georgia, 30028.
Eric: Hi, Laura’s mom!
Andrew: You can visit MuggleCast.com for a handy feedback form to contact any one of us at our first name at staff dot mugglenet dot com, with the exception of Matt, who is matthewb at staff dot mugglenet dot com. You can also visit the MuggleCast website for a handy feedback form.
And don’t forget our community outlets. MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Frappr, Last.FM, the Fanlisting.
You can also Digg the show once – no, actually, Digg the show whenever you want at Digg.com. Vote for us once a month at Podcast Alley and rate and review us at Yahoo! Podcasts.
The fan forums are also up again. MuggleCastFan.net/Forums have returned. They started from scratch, so visit MuggleCast.com for a link in case you forget. It’s right there on the top.
Eric: Yes, Alice has done an amazing job getting those back up.
Show Close
Andrew: I think that does it for this week’s show. We’re going to wrap things up today with a New Year’s countdown, just in case you happen to time it right.
Eric: Yeah. Oh, well, no. We don’t need to worry about timing the show up to it, I’m just saying. Because we’re releasing it on the 30th, that’s a whole day in advance. So…
Andrew: Well, it might be on the 31st, I don’t know for sure.
Eric: So, I’m just saying, if it’s almost midnight, you know, or if you have nobody – if it’s almost midnight and you have nobody, we’ll do a countdown and you can countdown with the MuggleCasters.
Andrew: Okay, that sounds good.
Micah: Right.
Andrew: It’s like a commentary.
Eric: So pause the show and wait until about, you know, 15-20 seconds before the end.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: And then…
Andrew: Yeah, okay. Got it. Yeah. Right.
Eric: …unpause it and we’ll be counting down with you, so…
Andrew: Okay.
Eric: …you guys ready?
Andrew: Got it, yeah.
Micah: Put on the Bruce Springsteen, as we do every year.
Andrew: Yeah, we…
Eric: No, this year we’re putting on Europe.
Andrew: No.
Micah: What?
Jamie: What is that, your new resolution, Micah?
[Andrew laughs]
Jamie: “War! War! Create more war?”
Micah: No, no, no, no.
Jamie: “War!”
Micah: We play a Springsteen version…
Matt: [singing] “What is it good for?”
Andrew: Right, Micah.
Jamie: Oh, sorry. I thought you meant war. I was like, “You dictator, you.”
Micah: It’s a Springsteen version of Auld Lang Syne.
Andrew: Yeah.
Jamie: Ohhh, go for it.
Andrew: All right. Ready? On three, we’ll start from ten. One, two…
Eric: [laughs] Wait, what? On, on…
Andrew: On three, when I say “three”…
Eric: On ten we’ll start from three?
Andrew: No. When I say “three”…
Matt: When he says three…
Andrew: …we start counting down from ten.
Matt: …we count down from ten.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Thank you, Matt. I understand you.
Andrew: All right. One, two, three.
Everyone: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six [everyone laughs] five, four, three, two, one.
Micah: Wow!
Eric: Happy New Year!
Andrew: Happy New Year!
[Andrew presses the Easy Button: “That was easy!”]
[Jamie and Eric sing Auld Lang Syne]
Andrew: Once again, I’m Andrew Sims.
Eric: I’m Eric Scull.
Jamie: I’m Jamie Lawrence.
[Auld Lang Syne begins to play]
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Matt: And I’m Matt Britton.
Andrew: Thank you, everyone, for listening, and we will see you in 2008 for MuggleCast 127. Bye bye!
Jamie: Have a great new year!
Micah: Happy New Year!
Matt: Yay!
Eric: Good night!
[Auld Lang Syne continues to play]
Blooper 1
Eric: Like, you know what I’m saying? Because holidays at Hogwarts…
[Phone beeps]
Eric: …they can always have like pumpkins flying, and the, or – do you think they’ll try and attempt hovering candles and stuff like that? Like for the Great Hall? Because that would be awesome.
Andrew: That would be cool. I don’t know, though. It better be good, though. That’s all I know. I mean – whose phone keeps going off? Is that mine?
Jamie: Sorry, it’s mine. Sorry.
Andrew: Oh. Turn it off or like chuck it across the room or something.
Jamie: Oh, cool. Thanks, Andrew, I’ll do that.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Blooper 2
Micah: [laughs] Okay, this has nothing to do with Chapter 7.
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