MuggleCast 250 Transcript
Show Intro
[“Hedwig’s Theme” plays]
Andrew: Because we would even read a book by Jo about sixteenth century basket-making, this is MuggleCast Episode 250 for March 2nd, 2012.
[Show music begins]
Andrew: This week’s podcast is brought to you by Audible.com, the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks, with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction, and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast.
[Show music continues]
Andrew: Well, for the…
Ben: Yeah!
Andrew: …250th time…
Ben: Uh-huh.
Andrew: …welcome to MuggleCast. It is a landmark episode.
Ben: Two-fiddy.
Andrew: A landmark podcast.
Ben: Two-fiddy.
Andrew: A – it’s a huge, momentous occasion. And here to celebrate with us is Ben Schoen.
Ben: Two-fiddy.
Andrew: [laughs] Returning after a long while. He’s feeling very nostalgic, he’s wearing his MuggleCast 2006 Lumos shirt.
Ben: Yeah, just for the show, man.
Andrew: But then…
Eric: Oh man, the grey one?
Andrew and Ben: Yeah.
Eric: Awww, I missed that shirt.
Andrew: I was really touched and then I realized his whole wardrobe is MuggleCast shirts.
Micah: Does it still fit you?
Ben: Yeah, it’s all I wear. Yeah, it still fits me! What are you trying to say?
Eric: What are you insinuating?
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Ben: What’s the insinuation?
Micah: No, I’m just saying you’re a little bit older now, though. You grew a little taller since then.
Andrew: Yeah, it has been six years.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: It’s been a while.
Ben: Whereas I used to fill it – now I fill it out with solid, lean body mass.
Andrew: Right. [laughs] Check out Ben’s body on Twitter.com/benschoen.
Ben: “Ben’s body.”
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Ben: It’s the new Twitter account.
Andrew: [laughs] I do not want to see that. Anyway, Micah, Eric, and I are here. We were also supposed to have one other host but this person…
Ben: She bailed.
Andrew: Bailed, yeah.
[Eric laughs]
Ben: She bailed.
Andrew: I wasn’t even going to reveal the gender but…
Micah: Well, that automatically…
Ben: Oh.
Andrew: …that’s okay.
Micah: …narrows it down to one person.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Yeah, Laura.
Eric: It’s very narrow.
Andrew: Laura is in Costa Rica. There’s time confusion, that may have been what’s happening. But we’ll get her on a different episode.
Eric: There’s also a language barrier. I don’t know.
Andrew: Yes.
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: Costa Rica.
Andrew: Yeah, she said – she e-mailed me last night. She was like, “I’m going to be speaking Spanish the whole time.” I’m like, [takes a deep breath] “No, you’re not.”
[Eric laughs]
Ben: We tried to call in some translators and all that, but…
Andrew: That’s what I said to her, I said we’d have a translator on the show.
Ben: …we couldn’t get any arranged in time.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Yeah. So we had differences we couldn’t sort out, so that’s why…
Eric: Although – also…
Ben: She was un-reconciling.
Eric: …we should clarify about the red-head that we promised last episode.
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: Ben, you’ve dyed your hair red recently?
Ben: Yeah, this is true.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: This is true.
Eric: Is it – brings out your Irish heritage.
Andrew: So that’s the surprise guest.
Ben: And Eric shaved his head lately.
Eric: You’re Ben O’Schoen, is that you?
Ben: Ben O’Schoeno.
[Micah laughs]
Episode 250 Milestone
Andrew: Well, yeah. I mean, so congrats, everybody, on 250 episodes. Especially you, Ben. I mean, you’ve been tirelessly working through all the episodes. You above anyone…
Ben: I know. For the record – for some of those new listeners, if you go way back in the day I used to be on this show quite a lot.
Andrew: Yeah, you did.
Ben: And I used to be a big contributor to the show.
Andrew: [laughs] So what happened?
Ben: What happened? I don’t know, man.
Eric: Well, Ben, you’re still a big contributor to the show.
Ben: I got a little bit Potter-ed out over the years, but I’m here. I still like to come on the show. I like to talk about Harry Potter. I love podcasting with you guys.
Andrew: Of course!
Ben: We’ve been doing this for years. 250 episodes.
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: You think we’ll make it to 500, bro?
Andrew: Hmm, I don’t know, that’s hard to say. Unless we turn the podcast into something greater because J.K. Rowling has a new book.
Before we continue with today’s news, and there is a lot of it, we’d like to remind you that today’s podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. It’s the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks, with more than 100,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature and featuring audio versions of many New York Times Bestsellers. For listeners of this podcast, Audible is offering you a free audiobook to give you a chance to try out their great service. One audiobook to consider, and we know this is going to appeal to a lot of you, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This book is fantastic. It’s a tear-jerker, you will laugh, you will cry, you will love it! Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet. Brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. To get The Fault in Our Stars by John Green or any other book on Audible for free, visit AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast.
News: J.K. Rowling’s New Book
Eric: [gasps] What?
Andrew: And that leads us into the news this week.
Micah: Andrew, what’s in the news this week?
Ben: Oh.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Well, Micah, J.K. Rowling announced a new book. Evidently, if we are to believe the giant graphic that was on her agent’s website, we are to believe it’s called The New Book.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Which was very insulting to everybody who saw it.
Ben: Insulting?
Andrew: Well, insulting in that it’s – I don’t know, was it a joke? What did this…
Eric: Is it…
Andrew: Why have a graphic that says “The New Book”? [laughs]
Eric: The New Book by J.K. Rowling. They just wanted something to – already it’s got feet, marketing feet, and already it’s walking away, running around the world selling itself.
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: As of right now, as The New Book. When I first heard this news, and when I heard the amount of information that was released, the first thing that popped into my head was, “Oh, here we go again! J.K. Rowling with her…”
Andrew: Secrecy.
Ben: Her little bit at a time. We’ll just give them a little bit of information at a time. We get them up at 4:00 AM to tell them that we’re going to release something in nine months.
Andrew: Right.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: With Pottermore.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Ben: So I mean, this is – but she has the right to do that.
Andrew: She can do it, yeah.
Ben: And she has the – she’s not some no-name nobody. I don’t think Stephenie Meyer could pull this off.
Andrew: Oh, whoa, whoa. I don’t know. She – I mean – well, let’s go through it. Let’s go through it.
Eric: Yeah, so what news is there?
Andrew: So it started very early in the morning. The Blair Partnership, which is her new – the new company she’s represented by. It used to be Christopher Little. She left Christopher Little. A little drama there, I think, but we don’t know the details anyway, [in a bad British accent] the Blair Partnership. [normal voice] And they updated their website which read, [in a bad British accent] “We are pleased to announce that our client, J.K. Rowling, will be releasing a new novel for adults. Further details will be announced later in the year. The Blair Partnership is a literary agency. We are in the business of taking care of authors, their talent, their careers, and their success.”
Ben: What accent is that?
Andrew: It’s a mix of nonsense.
Ben: It was like Scandinavian…
Andrew: Scottish…
Ben: …half Borat…
Andrew: …Australian…
Micah: [laughs] Half Borat?
Andrew: It’s bad. [laughs] So yeah, the Blair Partnership announced this. Like I said, there was the graphic that said “The New Book.”
Micah: Is that like the New Testament?
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Yeah! That’s a good one, Micah. I like that.
Andrew: So Harry Potter is now the Old Testament, huh? Great.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: More religious comparisons.
Ben: And this book isn’t going to be published by Scholastic.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: Or Bloomsbury.
Andrew: Right. The new partner – the new publisher is Little, Brown who published the Twilight books. So…
Eric: What?!
Ben: Interesting.
Eric: That’s the last thing we need, is a Twilight-esque cover for the new J.K. Rowling book.
Ben: Oh yeah, these Twilight publishers are just going to screw it all up.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: No, I mean, just high contrast, one object. Those publishers make those kinds of decisions and – I don’t know.
Andrew: And J.K. Rowling’s official statement was, “Although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world. The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry‘s success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher. I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life.”
Ben: Yeah, she’s like, “Scholastic, I’ve made you rich enough.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Ben: “I’m going to make somebody else rich.” In general, the expectations for this – people – I mean, obviously, commercially, whatever this book is, the fact that it has her name on it is going to – it’s going to sell a bazillion copies and people are going to line up at the bookstores, people are going to be stoked for it. Now – but in terms of what to expect, isn’t that kind of like the equivalent of if Zuckerberg – Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook – was to make a new tech project in the future, asking if we were to expect that to have as big of an impact as Facebook? Isn’t that like kind of the same thing with J.K. Rowling’s new book?
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: To me, it almost seems like we’re going to be disappointed.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: There’s no way we’re not going to be disappointed given just what we’ve come to expect from J.K. Rowling.
Micah: I don’t…
Eric: I’m surprised – so it’s been five years since the publication of the seventh Harry Potter book. I’m surprised that the announcement that came wasn’t, “Oh yeah, by the way, I wrote this book. It’s been published for over a year, and it’s this book that she wrote under a pen name or something.”
Andrew: Mhm.
Eric: Because J.K. Rowling does seem to have that problem where if she were to write a new book, she couldn’t be secret about it and it may get this – not unjust attention, but it may get attention based on other merits.
Micah: Right.
Eric: I think we’re all very interested in seeing what…
Micah: But…
Eric: …the next book she writes just because it’s her.
Micah: See, the problem that I have with that is – and I guess I understand why authors do it, but she’s already established herself. She took the chance, she wrote Harry Potter, became this tremendous success. Why would you want to write under any other name moving forward?
Eric: Right. Well, really it’s just for the crowd control aspect of it, I think.
Andrew: Yeah, to avoid that pressure of the Harry Potter…
Eric: Yeah. Not only the pressure but people – I mean, I don’t know. Why did Stephen King do it? He wrote as Richard Bachman for a couple of – and I don’t think the reasons are that great because ultimately, you’ve got to stand by who you are, I think, public image or not public image. And so J.K. Rowling isn’t writing under an alias, her announcement was that there’s a new book from her coming out, so that’s good.
Andrew: And I think she could do that in the future, write under a pen name, but not for her first post Potter project.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: I think that’s too soon.
Ben: Well – and particularly from a commercial standpoint…
Andrew: Yeah, they…
Ben: They’re just saying this is going to be – particularly if this book isn’t that great or something. This is going to be the most successful post Potter work that she does.
Andrew: Yeah. And you know Little, Brown – whatever publisher was going to win the rights to this, they wanted to say, “This is J.K. Rowling’s first post Potter project,” because it’s going to sell like crazy. But I admit that it’s going to be hard for me to pick up this book and read it and be like – I want to read more fantasy from J.K. Rowling, so I would be disappointed if I’m reading it and there isn’t any sort of magic or fantasy.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Anything in fantasy. I just want something related to fantasy.
Eric: So this is my main question, and I think it could – I mean, a lot of topics about this could be a main discussion for a show. But my question is what does it mean – there’s two little words in this press release from Little, Brown, and it says, “Our client, J.K. Rowling, will be releasing a new novel for adults.” What does that mean, “for adults”? What is…
Andrew: It means…
Micah: It means there’s more adult-appropriate material.
Eric: Oh okay, more adult – does this mean sex? Does this mean drug use? Does this mean lesser themes? Does it mean it won’t be a fantasy? Does it mean – what does that – what can we make of releasing a new novel for adults?
Andrew: I think…
Ben: For adults, I would say – books like Twilight, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games…
Eric: But Twilight is young adult.
Ben: Those are young adult.
Eric: We have to be specific, young adults.
Ben: No, that’s what I’m saying, is that – whereas those books are for young adults, whereas – what’s the name of that guy who did Game of Thrones? H.R.R.Z.Y…
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: J.R.R…
Eric: Yeah…
Andrew: George R.R. Martin.
Eric: …that’s the one.
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: That’s the one. [laughs]
Ben: Okay yeah, George R.R. Martin. Yeah. Game of Thrones, those books are for adults and I would say – I would expect to see a higher level of writing from J.K. Rowling…
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: …if she’s saying this book is for adults. Would you guys agree?
Andrew: I would agree.
Eric: Well, higher level of writing or just more adult characters?
Ben: I would say a higher level of writing. Well, I mean, a more sophisticated writing style.
Eric: Because I mean, she improved her writing technique through every Harry Potter book. There’s no…
Ben: Yeah, but they’re still written for young adults.
Eric: I mean, essentially the narrator will be different.
Ben: If you were to go read a George R.R. Martin book, it’s going to be more complex and not as easily readable to a young adult as it would be to an adult.
Eric: But I think part of J.K. Rowling’s appeal was how readable her writing was for everybody to begin with, which is – why, do you think this writing – the books – are you saying the books will be written in a more – a less accessible way? Where it’s just kind of confusing or drolls on?
Ben: Not confusing.
Eric: Less interesting?
Ben: Or that it drolls on. Or that it would be less interesting. I would just say that it’s going to not be as light.
Andrew: In short, I think it’s not going to be as marketable to children. It’s not going to be topics or themes that you could sell to a kid and a kid’s going to be interested in.
Micah: Yeah. But the other thing to realize…
Ben: Yeah. Well, the good news is that her audience has grown up with the books.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Yeah, that’s exactly what I was going to say, is that…
Ben: I knew that, Micah, so I stole it from you.
Micah: Yeah, you stole it. You just ripped it right out of my hands. No, I agree with what you’re saying. I think that the audience is older now, and they are more easily able to understand adult themes. And – not to say that kids can’t or young adults can’t, but I think – she probably has a lot more freedom, too, in writing this book, where maybe she was a bit more restricted with Potter in terms of the kind of things that she could put in there.
Andrew: Though you can also bring up the point that the Harry Potter books were very long, and by most standards, you do not write long books for children. And that’s one of the reasons why they’ve always never been considered children’s books, at least the last few.
Eric: By the people reading them, yeah.
Andrew: Yeah. Now, there have been some clues suggesting what J.K. Rowling will be writing, and it seems it could be in the mystery/crime drama. The Guardian rounded up a few details about – why they think it could be thriller/crime. For one, the editor at Little, Brown that she is working with. He is David Shelley, “a man who counts Dennis Lehane, Val McDermid, Carl Hiaasen, and Mark Billingham amongst his authors and who comes from a background steeped in crime and thriller writing. And now he’s going to be editing J.K. Rowling’s book.” He’s also reportedly brought out the best in various thriller writers: Panic by Jeff Abbott, The Shakespeare Secret by J.L. Carrell, The Brutal Art by Jesse Kellerman. He’s taken over editing for major brand-name authors including Billingham, Nelson DeMille, and Duncan Falconer.
Micah: Oh, Nelson DeMille, interesting.
Andrew: What did he write?
Micah: He writes a lot of those types of books. I have a lot of them, actually.
Andrew: Okay.
Micah: Like thrillers.
Andrew: And Ian Rankin, a known neighbor of J.K. Rowling, jokingly tweeted that, “Wouldn’t it be funny if J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults turned out to be a crime story set in Edinburgh? My word, yes.”
Micah: Law & Order [unintelligible]
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: He’s a crime writer. So those were some hints, but again, none of this is confirmation. I would say that’s a good guess, though.
Ben: And she said there’s more information to come later this year, right?
Andrew: Yes, and…
Eric: Well, hang on, did she tweet this? [laughs]
Andrew: No, the Blair Partnership said more information to come later this year, and then J.K. Rowling later in the day tweeted herself that the book will be out later this year.
Ben: Oh really?
Andrew: And that was the first confirmation that it was actually going to come out this year.
Ben: Oh damn.
Andrew: So later this year.
Eric: Damn indeed, Ben.
Ben: That’s really exciting.
Andrew: Yeah, it is.
Ben: That’s really exciting because that’ll be the first fiction novel I’ve read since…
Andrew: Harry Potter?
Ben: …Harry Potter.
Andrew: [laughs] You mean you haven’t read The Hunger Games yet?
Ben: I haven’t read The Hunger Games. I know I’m going to get…
Eric: Ben, neither have I.
Ben: …massacred but…
Eric: Ben, we should read it together.
Ben: Yeah, I’m open to reading The Hunger Games. Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to make this a series.
Andrew: Really? Now, see, that disappoints me. I would love another J.K. Rowling series.
Ben: Well – I mean, I think if she’s going to make it a series, she’s going to come up front and say this will be a trilogy.
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: I don’t think she would do more than a trilogy, because she’s not going to want to mess around with – another seven books? Yeah right.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Yeah. [laughs]
Ben: The pressure of producing another novel – maybe she just wants to write a standalone story and do it all in one go this time.
Eric: I’d love to see her do it.
Andrew: I’m sure she’ll do that at some point, but not right now.
Eric: Yeah, a standalone story. I’d like to see that from her.
Andrew: Joining us now is Laura. Hello, Laura. Thanks for joining us.
Laura: Hi, guys! How are you?
Andrew: Good. You got out of class late, I understand?
Laura: Yeah, I’m a really mean teacher. Kept my students late.
Andrew: Can you believe this? Laura Thompson, now a teacher.
[Laura laughs]
Ben: Hola. Hola, Laura.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: You kept them until 9:00 at night?
Ben: Hola, Laura. Como estas?
Laura: It’s an hour behind you, actually.
Micah: 8:00 at night?
Laura: So – yeah. Well, the class goes until 7:45, and it wasn’t really my fault, they were asking questions, so they were kind of the ones who held me up.
Micah: Do you teach college?
Laura: I teach elementary and college…
Micah: Wow.
Laura: …actually, so yeah.
Ben: It’s all grouped together down there.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: In Costa Rica. Laura is in Costa Rica…
Micah: Can we stay in your bungalow?
Laura: I don’t live in a bungalow, Micah. I live in a mud hut. I would expect you to know this by now.
Andrew: [laughs] Anyway – but seriously, Laura. So you’re in Costa Rica now. What motivated you to move down there and teach? I mean, that’s a wonderful thing.
Laura: Well, you remember, Andrew. I came down here to study abroad two years ago, and…
Andrew: Mhm.
Laura: …that’s why…
Micah: Time flies.
Laura: It’s kind of why I stopped being on MuggleCast, [laughs] partly, because at the time I had no Internet. And I just loved it here so much that I wanted to come back and, really, if you’re a native English speaker, [laughs] the only kind of job you can get here is teaching. So, that’s how it happened.
Andrew: Nice, nice.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: So, what do you think of J.K. Rowling’s new book announcement? Does this excite you?
Eric: Have you heard about it?
Laura: [laughs] No. I mean, we don’t get news down here.
[Everyone laughs]
Laura: I mean, the fact that I have Internet is just absolutely amazing.
Micah: Well, you just said you…
Eric: [laughs] News comes by sparrow, right?
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Sparrows delivering the news?
Laura: No, no, by toucan.
Andrew: Caw! Caw! Rowling!
Laura: We don’t have sparrows down here.
Andrew: [laughs] Toucan.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Well, you just said you brought Internet to Costa Rica.
Andrew: So what do you and the toucan think of J.K. Rowling’s new book?
Laura: We’re pretty freakin’ excited. We don’t know that much about it unless you guys have gotten some news that we haven’t gotten down here, but there was…
Ben: It’s coming out later this year, Laura. Did you know that?
Laura: Yes.
Andrew: Duh, Ben.
[Laura laughs]
Ben: Well, I didn’t know – she said she didn’t have much news about it…
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: No, but…
Ben: …so I was making sure she had the details.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Laura: There really isn’t, though, is there?
Andrew: No, there’s not.
Laura: It’s just it’s coming out this year, and it’s an adult novel now.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah, yet we find a way to spend a half hour talking about it. How awesome are we?
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Because again, there’s…
Eric: Micah thinks it’s going to be a contender for the New Testament, actually.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: Really?
Eric: [laughs] Is what he said earlier.
Andrew: [laughs] Because it’s called “The New Book,” off of the Blair Partnership’s website.
Laura: Well, I have a question: I mean, has there been any discussion about what kind of genre we’re talking about? Or have you guys already spent eight million years?
Andrew: It’s rumored – yeah, a little bit. It’s rumored to be a crime/thriller, based on evidence that her editor at Little, Brown has a ton of experience in the crime and thriller genre. So, rumor has it that that fact alone is playing a big hint as to what the genre will be.
Ben: What if it flops?
Andrew: That’s completely possible.
Laura: You think?
Andrew: That’s completely possible!
Eric: Is it?
Andrew: Yes!
Eric: Is it really?
Andrew: Yes!
Laura: How?
Ben: I mean, I think it can flop from the standpoint of The New York Times, The LA Times, the major newspapers and publications…
Eric: I completely disagree.
Ben: …doing negative reviews about it…
Eric: I don’t…
Ben: …and saying that J.K. Rowling’s new work is a miss. But I don’t – it’s definitely not going to flop from a commercial standpoint and in terms of the way the fans view it. I think the fans are going to love it. I think she could scribble on a piece of paper and call it her new novel, and…
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Ben: …most fans would love it…
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: …because there’s such a…
Andrew: It’s new.
Ben: …great affinity for J.K. Rowling.
Laura: Oh definitely. She could put out a book about fifteenth century basket-weaving…
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Laura: …and everybody would just be head over heels.
Eric: I would be all over that [censored]. I’d have BasketCast…
Laura: [laughs] BasketCast.
Eric: …I’d be hosting that podcast, talking about it. I’m telling you – but I’m thinking…
Ben: Eric is a basket case.
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Yeah. No, no, no…
Ben: That would be perfect. You should host that show.
Eric: No, I would love – because I would feel educated because J.K. Rowling has that authority over me. I look to her to learn new things. But I’m saying the way they’re going to – they’re already – and we talked about this earlier, Laura – is they’re already marketing this book, such as with that image that accompanied the news article which is “The New Book by J.K. Rowling.” It’s already this huge shroud of mystery and marketing, and no doubt – we were even talking about this – the new publishing company is going to market this book as the next book by J.K. Rowling. Following post Potter, after a seven-year series, this is the next book by Harry Potter. So I really don’t think they’re going to let it fail in any way. Like financially? Never.
Andrew: No.
Eric: But I think what it will come down to is whether or not fans or people who have read Harry Potter – you know, us, read us, the ones who are now adults – whether or not we like the story.
Andrew: So, I mean, there’s so much to look forward to over the next few months. [laughs] We have the title, we have summaries, we have covers…
Micah: Okay, can I throw this out there? What do you think will happen first? Pottermore open to the public…
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: …or the book being released?
Andrew: I think they’re just going to shut down Pottermore and get to work on the next interactive website for this new book. [laughs]
Laura: Oh God.
Andrew: Newbookmore.
[Laura laughs]
Micah: I mean, how bad – just as an aside, how bad must these people feel that have been waiting now since – October? Was that when it was supposed to be?
Eric: Well…
Andrew: Yeah, and I mean J.K. Rowling’s probably whole grand plan was to get Pottermore out of the way [laughs] and move on to the new book.
Eric: And then move forward. And she couldn’t do that, yeah. Well, we’ll hear from some disgruntled Pottermore-ites later in the show.
Andrew: But – yeah, and I’m looking forward to midnight release parties…
Eric: Oh yeah.
Andrew: …I’m looking forward to…
Laura: Oh heck, yeah.
Andrew: I mean, we could easily turn – if this book is a three-part series, we could easily turn MuggleCast into a joint Harry Potter and new book podcast.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Or obviously, if it’s just one book we’re going to have a whole episode dedicated to reviewing it.
Eric: For sure.
Andrew: Yeah, so…
Micah: We could go chapter-by-chapter.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. And also, I would like…
Ben: We should go…
Ben and Micah: Word-by-word.
Micah: Yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: On the new book.
Andrew: [laughs] I’d also like to announce NewBookCon 2015.
Eric: Yes.
Andrew: This is going to be a conference dedicated – forget Harry Potter, that was so 2012. NewBookCon ’15 will feature lots of literary discussions, podcasts, and orgies, all focused on…
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: …the new book from J.K. Rowling.
Eric: Orgies? Is that…
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Is that going to be at the…
Eric: Are you using the right word?
Andrew: Oh yes.
Laura: [laughs] Is that going to be at the “New Book” theme park in Orlando?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: But speaking of that kind of thing, there’s definitely going to be a TV show or movie based around it. No doubt!
Eric: Yeah, if it’s…
Andrew: A studio is already clamoring to get the rights for the movie.
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: I was going to say, if it’s a crime drama, or if it’s something like that, that would definitely be adapted into a hundred other formats.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: I would say David Heyman probably has first dibs, though, if…
Andrew: Yeah, I would think so.
Eric: Well – although, J.K. Rowling is not going with Bloomsbury or Scholastic, and those are people – relationships she’s built.
Andrew: That’s true.
Micah: She’s already made them enough money.
Andrew: Well, can’t the same be said [laughs] about David Heyman and Warner Bros.?
Micah: [laughs] Well, that’s true.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Sources have confirmed that David Heyman and J.K. Rowling were being a little flirtatious…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: …at an after party…
Andrew: Really?
Ben: …last week.
Andrew: Last week?
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Hmm. So David Heyman’s a player to get those scripts, huh?
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: Those – yeah, the movie rights, sure. That sounds like the David Heyman we all know.
Andrew: Well, this news pushed J.K. Rowling over a million followers on Twitter…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: …one of which is not Micah Tannenbaum. As we remember on MuggleCast Episode 249, Micah was so upset at J.K. Rowling…
Ben: He un-followed her?
Andrew: Un-followed her, can you believe that?
Micah: [laughs] I un-followed her, yeah.
Ben: Why are you un-following Jo?
Micah: See, but I un-follow her and then a week…
Laura: Why would you bother, though? I only un-follow people who spam my Twitter feed.
Andrew: [laughs] Right!
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Micah did it for the opposite reason.
Eric: J.K. Rowling did the opposite.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: Laura, Laura, to you, J.K. Rowling is like – to you, Laura, J.K. Rowling is like the agreeable neighbor, right? [laughs] Or the agreeable tenant. Never hear a peep from them, always turns in the rent on time.
Laura: [laughs] Yeah.
Ben: Was that a part of that segment Micah used to do called “What’s Bugging Micah?” Does he still do that?
Andrew: It was – it wasn’t explicitly a “What’s Bugging Micah?” but on the last episode or two episodes ago, he voiced his concern and he un-followed her. Because I mean, he’s right. She doesn’t tweet anything interesting, so why bother following her?
Ben: That’s true.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: And then look what happened. A week later…
Eric: She did this to spite you.
Ben: That’s true.
Micah: …she announces that she’s got a new book.
Andrew: Yeah. Some people in the Hypable comments speculated that she did it just for you. So…
Micah: Yeah, well…
Andrew: You should feel very lucky.
Micah: And no, I’m not going to start following her again, because [laughs] as I said on the last episode, when she makes these types of announcements they tend to…
Andrew: Appear elsewhere.
Micah: …get picked up by media outlets and even reach faraway places that Laura lives, where toucans have to deliver the mail.
[Laura laughs]
MuggleCast 250 Transcript (continued)
News: Bloomsbury to Publish Illustrated Editions of Harry Potter Books
Andrew: “Caw! Caw! New book!” Also on the same day, moving on from the new book, Bloomsbury announced via an interview with the Associated Press that they are going to re-release the Harry Potter books in illustrated formats.
Eric: Illustrated by whom?
Micah: What?
Laura: What the heck does that mean?
Andrew: It means – well, a picture book, I think.
Eric: A Harry Potter picture book?
Andrew: And it was kind of confusing at first. It wasn’t exactly clear, the way the article was written, whether it was Scholastic or Bloomsbury. But it is Bloomsbury re-releasing in illustrated format. So I’m just picturing like – and I hate to make a comparison, but the Twilight books…
Laura: Exactly. Ugh.
Andrew: At least the first one, has the graphic novels.
Eric: Graphic novel adaptations, yeah.
Andrew: It’s a two-part graphic novel. And you know what?
Micah: Is it graphic?
Andrew: They look really – no.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: They’re visual. And you know what? They look really good.
Micah: That’s what I mean, are they graphic pictures?
Andrew: It’s a certain – no!
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: It’s not Breaking Dawn!
Ben: You know. [laughs]
Andrew: It’s a certain type of art style. I’m sorry to say I don’t know what it is. But I read through one and it’s really nice. I mean, it’s a cool way to…
Ben: You mean looked through it?
Andrew: Yeah, I did. Yes – right, I looked through it. It’s like reading an audiobook. You don’t read an audiobook.
Ben: Yeah. It pisses me off when people say that.
[Andrew laughs]
Laura: That they read graphic novels? Yeah, that’s annoying.
Andrew: Or audiobooks. [laughs]
Ben: Yeah. People are like, “Yeah, I read this book,” and it’s like, “No, you didn’t. You told me you listened to it on your drive.”
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Ben: “That’s not reading the book.”
Andrew: That’s a discussion for another day, but I think you basically comprehend the information the same way.
Ben: A similar way.
Andrew: Yeah. It is different, though. You’re right. So what do you guys think? I mean, I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but illustrated format. What – this is very clearly for kids, but…
Eric: Yeah, it says a picture – you know the adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words”? The Harry Potter books actually have thousands of words in them, so I just wonder how they’re going to be constantly playing to condense the Harry Potter books into something that’s a little bit smaller. Will the illustrated books be smaller than the actual Harry Potter books?
Andrew: You would think so.
Eric: Or will they be larger?
Andrew: I would think…
Laura: Yeah, I would imagine so.
Eric: That’s the – right? Otherwise it’s just an insane task. But will plot threads be cut in the same way that they do in the movies?
Laura: I kind of wonder how Jo must feel about this, because she was so adamant about being really careful with the art on Pottermore so as not to destroy people’s images of what things looked like when they were reading the books.
Andrew: Oh.
Laura: Like you couldn’t see…
Ben: Oh, like the movie hadn’t already done that.
Laura: Well, true, but…
Andrew: But Pottermore is to serve as a companion to the books as you read, so interesting point, Laura.
Laura: I just kind of wonder if she must really be on board with this. I mean, in the end, it’s just more money in her pocket, so I’m sure…
Eric: Maybe it’s actually…
Laura: …she’s not crying about that. But…
Eric: Maybe it’s all the images that were going to go on Pottermore are now being put into a book and they’re moving on…
Laura: Except it’s going to be like Japanese anime style. [laughs] That’s the other thing. If they make it into a graphic novel.
Andrew: It’s kind of what it has to be.
Laura: [laughs] Yeah.
Andrew: Well, I am looking forward to looking at it. I mean, maybe J.K. Rowling will have some new information in these visuals, you would think. Because if you’re looking at all these visual scenes, wouldn’t new information be revealed?
Eric: Like…
Micah: No.
Andrew: You know how – Potter fans always like to tear stuff apart, so they’re going to be like, “Oh look, the crown molding is painted gold in the Gryffindor Common Room.”
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: “I never knew this before! Somebody, quick! Add it to the Lexicon!”
Eric: Yeah. Well, I’m just thinking like in the scene where Professor Trelawney has her first prediction, maybe painted in the background listening in at the door will be Snape. It’ll be a little spoiler for people who are like thirty pages behind. But…
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I don’t know.
Andrew: So details are [pronounces “scar-ce”] scarce. It’s supposed to be released from…
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Did you just say “scar-ce”? [laughs]
Andrew: Scarce, sorry. Hey, guess what, guys? 250 episodes, nothing’s changed, I’m still pronouncing words wrong.
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Eric: That’s comforting, actually. You’re my anchor, Andrew.
Laura: Awww.
Andrew: Yeah. I am your constant.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I am your constant in your science experiment of life.
Eric: Dude, that’s amazing.
Laura: That’s also sad.
Andrew: So the official statement from Bloomsbury is: “We are pleased to announce that as part of our long-term strategy for Harry Potter, we intend to publish illustrated editions of all seven Harry Potter books in a rolling program from 2013 onwards.”
Ben: Their long-term strategy.
[Laura laughs]
[Someone makes raspberry sound]
Ben: Milk it for all its worth!
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Can any – yeah, long-term.
Andrew: And so 2013 is still a long way off for the first one. I would suspect new books will be coming out every six to twelve months.
Micah: Well, now we’re in the zone where they’re going to start doing anniversary editions and special ultimate – kind of like what they did with the films – and they’re just going to try and keep doing this for as long as they possibly can, tweaking – even if it’s one little thing…
Andrew: Yup.
Micah: …so that people are going to keep buying.
Andrew: You’ll remember that Scholastic tried to start releasing anniversary editions, tenth anniversary editions of each of the books.
Eric: Yeah, they did one.
Andrew: They did one, and then they didn’t do any others. And it kind of flopped. They admitted, “Yeah, we’re not going to do it anymore.” [laughs] So they only did one.
Eric: Well, isn’t that what they did with the Ultimate Edition DVDs? [laughs]
Andrew: Well, yeah. I mean, they have all but two left. I think they’re still going to come out.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: They have to. That’d be cruel if they didn’t.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: The one other thing I was going to ask – I don’t think we’ve talked about this, but with this new book that’s coming out from J.K. Rowling, one of the things that she talked about in the past was that most of her work moving forward was going to be for charity. Was there any notes about that in what was released?
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: I can’t see this being for charity.
Eric: A crime book for charity?
Andrew: I could see more Harry Potter work being for charity…
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: …but not this.
Eric: If it turns out that her new crime drama isn’t for charity, I wouldn’t hold her to that word where she said that, because I took it to mean the same thing, that future Harry Potter work would be for charity.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: And she’s proven that already. She’s done that multiple times with various Harry Potter things. I think Beedle the Bard was one of them most recently.
Laura: Mhm.
News: Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Did Not Win At 2012 Academy Awards
Micah: Oh geez, here we go.
Andrew: So moving on to some movie news now, this was – it was a very shocking weekend. I’m still shaking from the news.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew:: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 did not win at the Oscars, which means that over the entire franchise, it did not win one Academy Award, Hollywood’s most prestigious award.
Ben: Ooh.
Andrew: It was nominated in Art Direction which went to Hugo, Makeup which went to The Iron Lady, and Visual Effects which went to Hugo.
Micah: You live there, Andrew. Go put a flaming bag of dog you-know-what on their…
Ben: On the Academy’s doorsteps.
Micah: Yeah.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: I’ll show you!
Ben: We’ll do it together!
Eric: And why don’t we record that we’re going to do that, and we release it publicly? Yeah.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: That’s even better!
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Videotape it and put it on YouTube.
Ben: We’ll burn down their houses!
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: I’d rather not get arrested. I don’t know, that doesn’t seem worth it just for some YouTube viral video.
Micah: You won’t get arrested.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay. Then I’ll go do it right now!
Micah: Go! While we’re here. We’ve got time.
Andrew: So we don’t need to rehash all this Oscar talk, but we did do a lot of talking last week, or last episode, about could it win an Oscar, and our opinions were mixed. A lot of people said no. A lot of fans said no, it didn’t have a chance. And they were right.
Micah: Well, Mikey said it on the last episode, too.
Andrew: Yup.
Micah: That he really didn’t think that they had a chance, and – I still would like to see them do something. I guess it would have to be next year at this point, where they just honor the series, because I think to not honor a series that’s been the highest grossing ever, that doesn’t make any sense.
Eric: It’s rude.
Ben: Well, I guess that’s part of the reason – I mean, for some people who are film snobs, they probably don’t see too much of a difference between Harry Potter and Twilight in a lot of ways.
Laura: Mhm.
Ben: I mean, they probably see Harry Potter and Twilight as being a lot closer together than Harry Potter fans would probably be comfortable with admitting.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I wonder…
Ben: In terms of just being a commercial type of dealio, films made to make money as opposed to being actual…
Andrew: Truly artistic masterpieces.
Ben: Well – and these are books, you know? These were written as books, so they are adaptations. And going from a book to the screen, you’re not going to – if these were made for the silver screen initially, it could be a different story, I think.
Laura: Were you guys genuinely surprised that it didn’t win anything?
Ben: No.
Andrew: Mm-mm.
Laura: Okay.
Eric: I was.
Andrew: I had my finger – I pre-wrote tweets saying, “It did not win this award,” “It did not win this award.”
[Eric and Laura laugh]
Andrew: I had my button – my finger on the trigger [laughs] as soon it was announced, because it was kind of predictable. Go ahead, Eric.
Eric: Yeah, I mean, I was just – I guess overall, I’m surprised that it didn’t win. I thought it had a chance in those specific categories. I guess I’m just most surprised that it wasn’t nominated for Best Picture, even if it didn’t have a chance of winning it. I’m surprised that they went with sort of the nine results instead of the ten.
Micah: But the thing is, as I go back to if it would have won an award or two awards this time around, does that really kind of make you feel any better?
Laura: No.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Knowing that it hadn’t won anything prior to it. It doesn’t really justify anything. If anything, people would say, “Well, they won the award because they haven’t been recognized for the past seven films.”
Andrew: That’s true.
Laura: Yeah, can you imagine the one award they get being Makeup? [laughs]
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, that would have been so lame. And here’s another little factoid: the average Academy voter – these are the people who nominate and vote – the average one is a 62-year-old white male. And people cry foul over this, because it’s basically a bunch of older white men voting for the best pictures of the year.
Laura: Oh my God!
Andrew: And then we get the same predictable results every single year.
Laura: It’s like the government!
Ben: Well, you do realize…
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Exactly, right.
Micah: Except for the president.
Ben: You do realize the Academy is pretty much the people who are the big names in the industry, people who have been around in the industry for a long time.
Andrew: Yeah, they know their stuff, but…
Ben: Right.
Andrew: Who are these people to decide? Because it was very predictable that The Artist was going to win because it won all these other awards leading up to the Academy Awards. And it’s artsy.
Eric: That’s a good movie. Have you seen The Artist? It’s really good.
Ben: Well I mean, the thing about it is these are art awards and it’s kind of like – I think I gave this comparison to you once on – we were talking about this on Instant Messenger or something. Somebody who is a wine expert, a sommelier or whatever, when they drink wine they analyze it. Their brain analyzes it a different way than the average commercial wine-drinker. They’re looking for something that tastes good.
Micah: The boxed wine-drinker.
Ben: Yeah. So Harry Potter is like boxed wine, it’s like Arbor Mist. It tastes good to everybody, it’s a good story, it’s a good, solid film, but to the person who is looking for – is judging the films off a completely different set of criteria than you or I, that what makes good film per se – there’s a lot more that these guys know than…
Andrew: Okay.
Laura: Well…
Ben: …any of us could ever really use to judge the film.
Laura: I have to be honest – and this is not going to be a popular opinion. I think part of the problem is that they were not gearing the making of these films towards winning any kind of award like this until the very end. You know what I mean? They didn’t start doing the Oscar push until the last movie. And I feel like there are a lot of points – there are a lot of weak points in these movies – particularly “1”, “2”, and parts of “4” – that were not that good. And I think a lot of times when people think of Harry Potter, they’re not just thinking of the one movie that most recently came out, they’re thinking about it as a collective whole. And so they’re thinking, “Well, Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was really good, but man, the second movie sucked.” So I think that’s part of that problem, too.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. But these Oscar voters, you would think they’re only thinking about one film though.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: If they are this experienced, they should be only taking one into consideration. But let me give you another…
Ben: Hugo should have won. I mean, did you see the special effects in Hugo?
Andrew: Yeah, but how…
Eric: I found Hugo to be ordinary, not exceptional. I thought visually, very pleasing, good acting, and great effects. But as a movie, the plot didn’t really excite me.
Andrew: I rented it, I have it coming in on Netflix. I’m really excited to watch it, because it did get so many good reviews. But here’s another factoid: out of the top five franchises ever, which are Star Wars, James Bond, Harry Potter, Shrek, and Batman, only Harry Potter has not won an Oscar. George Lucas’s Star Wars movies won eight Oscars. The James Bond adventures have picked up two. The Batman iterations to date own three wins, including a Best Supporting Actor trophy for Heath Ledger. And the Shrek franchise received an Animated Feature award.
Eric: Hmm. But there have been twenty-two Bond films, and for them to have only won two Oscars…
Andrew: [laughs] Well, yeah, and those films aren’t Oscar-worthy. Come on.
Eric: You’re saying they’re pulp.
Andrew: Yeah, and I’m saying – but again, Harry Potter, I wasn’t necessarily looking for a Best Picture win for Harry Potter. I was looking for Best Makeup. I mean, the amount of work that does go into these films is incredible.
Laura: Oh yeah.
Eric: Yeah. And talking about the Oscars again, that intro video where they announce the nominees – or not announce the nominees, but where they went back over the nominees at the actual Oscars – the short video segment that they have prior to every video being announced.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I thought Harry Potter actually – through those previews, Potter had the best one. I think it was Jason Isaacs talking about…
Andrew: He was really pumping it up.
Eric: Yeah, [laughs] really pumping it up! But I thought – that was the moment when I thought that Harry Potter had a chance at the Oscars, was when I saw that specific lead-in video right before they made the final announcement. And of course, Harry didn’t win. But with the Makeup, I thought Makeup was probably their best chance, simply because they had that line about goblins. And you’re up against making Glenn Close look like a boy, or…
Micah: Yeah, but that’s been done before. Haven’t they done that?
Eric: …Meryl Streep look like – well – or Meryl Streep…
Micah: She does look like a man. It’s not that hard.
Eric: Making her look like…
Laura: Margaret Thatcher?
Eric: …the Queen.
Micah: [unintelligible]
Eric: Yes. So…
Andrew and Micah: No.
Eric: No. I really still don’t understand necessarily why Harry Potter didn’t win.
Micah: But what about – I mean, I saw a really cool graphic that somebody posted on Facebook. Think about how much it takes to transform Ralph Fiennes into Voldemort.
Andrew: Yeah, this is all very…
Eric: They’ve got to take his nose! Every time you see him and he doesn’t have a nose, that’s makeup or CGI.
Andrew: Well, to wrap this up, there’s a YouTube channel called HowItShouldHaveEnded.com – well, it’s probably a website but they also have these videos on YouTube.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: And they did “Harry Potter and the Best Picture Summary,” and it’s Snape, Dumbledore, Harry, and Voldemort all discussing why they weren’t nominated for Best Picture. And it’s very funny, so we’ll just play it.
[Audio clip plays]
Harry: Professor! Did you hear the news?
Dumbledore: News, you say?
Harry: We aren’t nominated for Best Picture!
Dumbledore: What?! That’s outrageous! Who would do such a thing?
Voldemort: I’ll tell you who! Someone that looks just like me except covered in gold, that’s who.
[Prolonged silence]
Voldemort: What, I’m not allowed to be upset about this?
Dumbledore: Best Director?
Harry: Nope.
Dumbledore: Best Actor?
Harry: Nope.
Dumbledore: Actress?
Harry: Are you serious?
Dumbledore: Cinematography?
Harry: Nope.
Dumbledore: Editing?
Harry: No.
Dumbledore: Not even Music?
Harry: No.
Voldemort: [censored] you guys! We made eight movies.
Dumbledore: Was it because of the scene at the end when you kids were grown up? Because I told you, that scene should have only been on the extended Blu-ray version.
Snape: Hello, everyone.
Harry: Professor Snape! Did you hear about the nominations?
Snape: Yes, and I’m appalled. I kept this serious look on my face for over ten years, and George Clooney walked down the beach for two hours and suddenly everyone wets their pants.
[Andrew laughs]
Harry: We had a beach in our movie!
[Ben and Laura laugh]
Harry: I held an elf in my arms on the beach as he died!
Voldemort: I cried during that scene.
Harry: Thank you!
Snape: Exactly. We have everything those movies have.
Harry: Totally have everything!
Snape: Hugo: A boy in a train station. I wonder where we’ve seen that before. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: A boy who loses his father.
Harry: I lost both of my parents!
Snape: Moneyball: Sports. We have Quidditch.
Voldemort: Yes, but Quidditch is kind of stupid.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Snape: Midnight in Paris: Time travel.
Dumbledore: Duh. We did that years ago.
Snape: The Help: Racism.
Voldemort: We force elves to be our servants.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Snape: The Tree of Life. Did anyone even see that movie?
Harry: No.
Voldemort: I hated The Tree of Life.
Dumbledore: I’ve never even heard of that movie.
Snape: War Horse.
Harry: We have war.
Dumbledore: And flying horses.
Snape: The Artist.
Voldemort: Oh, I actually really liked that.
Harry: Oh, yes. He is right, actually.
[Laura laughs]
Dumbledore: Wonderful, wonderful.
Snape: I enjoyed it tremendously.
Voldemort: To be honest, it probably should win.
Harry: I totally agree.
[Ben and Laura laugh]
Harry: I’m sorry, so what is the deal?
Snape: Our movie actually made money, that’s what the deal is.
Harry: Well, so sorry we’re a massive success like the Lord of the Rings.
Dumbledore: Or Titanic.
Voldemort: Sorry everyone loves us.
[Andrew laughs]
Harry: Sorry we influenced an entire generation.
Snape: Sorry we made eight movies that people will watch more than once.
Voldemort: So sorry that our last film alone made more money at the box office than all of the nominees combined!
[Thunder in the background]
Dumbledore: I believe this is what Muggles call “horse poop.”
[Sound of a door opening]
Hermione: Everyone! We’ve been nominated for three awards! Isn’t that exciting? Art Direction, Makeup, and Visual Effects!
Dumbledore: Nobody cares!
Voldemort: Oh, come on!
Dumbledore: Big surprise there.
Harry: We could win that one with our eyes closed.
[Outro music plays]
[Audio clip ends]
Andrew: So there we go. That said it very nicely and it resonated very much with fans.
Micah: Yeah.
Laura: Yeah, that was funny.
Micah: It’s pretty good, pretty well done.
Andrew: Yeah. [laughs] Comparing house-elves…
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: …to racism in The Help.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: What?
Eric: Well, that was the goal, wasn’t it, really? I mean, talking about…
Micah: Yeah, there are definitely themes of racism in the books. We’ve talked about that on the show before.
Laura: I think they were kidding.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: “Mudblood.”
[Laura laughs]
Micah: Yeah, I thought they were kidding, too.
News: Deathly Hallows – Part 2 Nominated for Ten 2012 Saturn Awards
Ben: Well, as a consolation, Harry Potter picked up ten Saturn Awards!
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: I don’t know what the second part of that note is.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: In the doc.
Eric: I don’t know the second part of that note, either.
Andrew: Yeah, so it did win – it was nominated for ten Saturn Awards, but honestly, who cares about that?
Micah: [laughs] And…
Eric: Well, the Saturn Awards, interestingly…
Micah: Is that a special Saturn Award?
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: That – we’re talking about the Google Doc, somebody graffiti’d it.
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: Now, the Saturn Awards – I didn’t even really know about these.
Andrew: [laughs] What is all this?!
Eric: I recall hearing about the name. But it’s in June, and they’ve been nominated for ten, same amount as Hugo, and so Potter does have a chance of winning those. But it’s specifically for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. So…
Andrew: I’m over it! I can’t – I don’t care about Harry Potter and awards anymore.
Eric: That’s okay.
Andrew: They lost the Oscars. Who cares?
Eric: We’ll find out in June. [laughs] So…
News: Wizarding World Orlando Expansion Updates
Andrew: Okay. Well, in some impressive news, just a quick update on the Harry Potter theme park expansions. There’s been a lot going on. We know that they’re building a Wizarding World in Los Angeles. They’re building an expansion in Orlando.
Ben: Mhm.
Andrew: The expansion in Orlando is going to be taking place in the other park.
Ben: Hmm.
Andrew: Not in Islands of Adventure. So you’re going to need two tickets for the full experience, baby, and how are you going to…
Ben: Two tickets?!
Micah: Oh, come on, they’ve got to work something out there.
Ben: Oh my God.
Laura: Oh no, they’re not going to. [laughs]
Andrew: And how are you going to get to those two parks? How else, the Hogwarts Express. And there’s been a little new information about that. It is going to be cutting through the back of Universal. You’re going to be going through a tunnel, basically, on a train, and there’s going to be video screens all surrounding you and it’s going to be like you’re making that journey from Diagon Alley to the Wizarding World and vice-versa. So…
Micah: Well, nothing says English countryside like Orlando, Florida.
Laura: [laughs] Yeah.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, it should be interesting how they create that experience. But no other information has been revealed. Hopefully soon. I mean, they’re already working on it. They’ve already been knocking out Jaws which is where this new Harry Potter park is going to be built. It should be fantastic.
Ben: Awww, they’re getting rid of Jaws?
News: Pottermore to Distribute E-Books Through Libraries and Schools
Andrew: Yeah. It closed about a month or two ago. Yeah, sorry. It was a good ride, it was a classic. When Pottermore does open they are going to be distributing e-books through public and school libraries. This was an announcement made in association with Overdrive. So this is great. And now – this seems so odd to me and I wouldn’t like doing this at all, but in libraries these days you can bring your e-book in and rent a book, and then exit the library and then you’ll have it on your e-book reader.
Eric: That’s so New Age to me.
Andrew: It doesn’t seem right. Like, if I go to a library I want to pick up a physical book, that’s why I’m there.
Eric: Yeah, otherwise I’d just be on the iTunes Store at home.
Ben: Whatever, dude. You have a Kindle, an iPad…
Andrew: I lost my Kindle.
Ben: Did you really?
Andrew: Yeah. If anybody has found it, by the way…
Laura: How did you lose your Kindle?
Andrew: Because it’s so small and lightweight and amazing that it just floated away.
Ben: Wow.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Laura: So amazing that you forgot it somewhere.
Micah: I hope somebody who needs a Kindle found it and won’t return it to you.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Hey…
Laura: How can you need a Kindle?
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: I don’t know, ask Andrew.
Laura: How can you need something like that?
Andrew: You want to save paper. You want to save the trees, baby. I’m green. You should be, too. You’re surrounded by them in Costa Rica.
Laura: We don’t have paper.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: This episode is offending somebody.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Micah: As always!
Andrew: But these e-books, we don’t know when they’re going to be announced – or when they’re going to be available. Apparently when the e-book store opens up on Pottermore, but when’s that going to be?
Micah: So Laura, what do you use if you don’t use paper? Do you guys just write messages in the sand to each other?
Andrew: Plastic.
Laura: No, I mean, we’ve got a lot of banana leaves, so we use those.
News: Pottermore Not Opening to Public in “Immediate Future”
Andrew: [laughs] In related Pottermore news, they reinforced that they do not have an opening date in the immediate future, and this came after a Guardian writer contacted Pottermore and found this out. So, not good.
Micah: It’s just gotten to that point now – I mean, I feel like I’m the spokesperson for this, but people were looking forward to it. That’s my only thing. And people who have been looking forward to it for a long time, you know?
Laura: Oh whatever.
Andrew: And being let down.
Laura: I’ll give my account to somebody. If you want my account, send me an e-mail.
Andrew: [laughs] Hey, that’s against the rules, Laura!
Laura: Yeah, okay.
Eric: I’d give my account to somebody if I could remember what the username was.
Laura: Yeah…
Andrew: You know, I was actually thinking…
Laura: God, the usernames for that thing are so bad. I’m sure you guys talked about this a lot…
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: …but they’re so bad.
Andrew: I’m CatSeeker.
Eric: Yeah, we missed you on that discussion.
Laura: Yeah, I think I’m something like Rook – something or another, I don’t know.
Andrew: ToucanRook?
Laura: [laughs] ToucanRook.
Micah: Toucan Sam.
Laura: I got the special Latin American name.
Andrew: [laughs] “Oh, we see you’re in Latin America. Here, we’re going to add ‘Toucan’ to your name.”
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: We’re all going to hell.
Andrew: I got some – so yeah, no updates on Pottermore, unfortunately, yet. But feel free to contact Laura if you want her Pottermore name. Just kidding, that’s against the rules. Nobody e-mail her.
Eric: That’s against the rules.
Laura: Please e-mail me.
MuggleCast 250 Transcript (continued)
News: Emma Watson to Star in Guillermo del Toro’s Beauty and the Beast
Andrew: The news that got Ben excited: Emma Watson is going to – is pretty much set to star in Guillermo del Toro’s Beauty and the Beast, a live-action version. Emma Watson would, of course, play Beauty. Belle. The princess.
Eric: What’s funny is I actually…
Ben: Ooh.
Laura: I think she’ll be perfect for that, actually.
Eric: You do?
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: Why, because she’s so French, right?
Laura: Well – oh, you mean like Belle in the Disney version was?
Andrew: The Disney character? [laughs]
Eric: Yeah.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: Oh. Oh, oh, I get it. It’s double…
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Oh okay. I got it, I got it. Okay. Well, I’m just saying – okay.
Micah: Add the French to the list.
Eric: I think if they’re going to do something, they should do it right. They should do something definitive. It’s an old French legend, they should cast a French audience for it. That’s just my thought. Although, just – not three hours ago, I watched the Beauty and the Beast episode of Once Upon a Time, which I thought was pretty cool, and that had Emilie de Ravin as Belle and she’s Australian. So, who knows.
Andrew: So many different Belles.
Laura: Well, and…
Eric: So many different Belles. Do they really need a live adaptation of…
Andrew: Well, fantasy is in. And princesses – and by the way, there are two Beauty and the Beast television shows in the works, one for CW and one for ABC. So Beauty and the Beast is in right now. Get on that, yo. In related news, for Guillermo del Toro’s film, the part of Mrs. Potts will be played by Julie Walters, which I thought was very fitting.
Laura: Oh, that’s perfect!
Eric: Didn’t she voice Mrs. Potts in the Disney version? [laughs] I feel like she did.
Andrew: That’s actually a complete joke.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: That’s not true at all!
Eric: Oh. Well…
Andrew: Just on Molly Weasley, Mrs. Potts, kind of similar. Guess that didn’t go over well.
Laura: No, that kind of went over like a lead balloon.
News: First Look at Harry Potter: Wizard’s Collection
Andrew: Okay. And finally, in the news this week, we talked about the – we mentioned the Ultimate Editions earlier in the program. But what’s better than ultimate? Definitive.
Eric: Ooh.
Andrew: And we talked about the Harry Potter: Definitive Collection. It was announced last year with the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 DVD, saying it would come out in 2012. Apparently, it has a new name! The Wizard’s Collection, with a huge box, feature set, and price tag. This baby’s going to cost you $500 retail.
[Eric laughs]
Ben: Wow.
Micah: What?
Laura: Right.
Ben: Rip off!
Andrew: Amazon is offering a [laughs] 150-dollar discount.
Ben: Don’t they play the movies on ABC Family all the time?
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Every other weekend…
Andrew: Yes!
Eric: …is a Harry Potter Weekend.
Ben: Jesus.
Andrew: But this is the Definitive Collection, and in order for you to have the Definitive Collection, you’ve got to pay a lot of money.
Ben: I know, but how much do you think the Definitive Collection is going to be worth ten years from now?
Andrew: [laughs] I know.
Micah: Just as much as you have in all eight DVDs.
Andrew: Well, it comes with the theatrical versions and extended cuts of the first two movies. It also comes with…
Laura: I’m not going to watch those anyway.
Micah: Blah, blah.
Andrew: …five hours of never-before-seen special features…
Eric: See…
Andrew: …in limited and numbered editions. I have no idea what…
Eric: I would pay about 100 dollars, maybe 200 dollars, for just the special features discs, and then leave, because I already have the movies. I don’t need those, you know what I’m saying?
Andrew: Right, so you’re basically paying – so all Harry Potter fans are basically just paying for this nice box, and the over five hours of never-before-seen special features.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: And who even knows what they are.
Laura: Do we really believe that they’re never-before-seen? I don’t buy that.
Andrew: Yeah, that is a stretch.
Laura: I don’t buy that.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: The only thing – well, David Yates specifically said that there was an outtakes reel that was going to be part of this, so…
Ben: Ooh.
Eric: …there is that.
Laura: Yeah, and like everything else on these DVDs, it’s probably going to be thirty seconds long.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Or uploaded immediately to YouTube…
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: …thereafter.
Andrew: Right, right.
Eric: Which is what I’m hoping for, because $500, a little steep.
Micah: So, if you want a positive review, don’t listen to this show.
[Laura and Micah laugh]
Eric: One thing I want…
Andrew: If you want a positive review of anything, don’t listen to this show. [laughs]
Eric: Don’t listen to this show. One thing I want if – and I guess I shouldn’t continue saying something that’s not positive, but one thing I want if I’m going to get this 500-dollar set is a little bit more of an analysis of the trunk that it comes in, because in the video it looks great. It opens up and it’s sideways and it’s upside-down and there’s drawers that come out. But there was a box set – was it of the books? It was of the seven hardback books – hardcover books – and Amazon was selling it and it was a big deal, and it comes in a treasure chest or Harry’s trunk. And unfortunately it was made out of a very cheap cardboard…
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Eric: …and it couldn’t even sustain the weight of the books, I don’t think, over time, and so people who bought that found very quickly that the trunk was becoming destroyed just from gravity.
Andrew: This looks to be paper. I mean, it’d be very cool if it was wood, but this looks to be paper.
Eric: Paper? Yeah.
Andrew: Or cardboard.
Eric: I’m saying if it’s going to be $500, make it out of gold, you know?
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: It better be signed by every person that ever acted in these films, for $500.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, they’re going to have the numbered editions, whatever that means, but it’s also to include collectable memorabilia items, including concept art, a map of Hogwarts and much more. The concept art stuff we’ve seen in the Ultimate Edition, so…
Eric: Or in Film Wizardry, or in…
Andrew: Right.
Eric: …Page to Screen, or in the Marauder’s Map, or at the exhibition, or at the studio tour.
Andrew: No release date yet for this product, but it is looking to come out sometime this year.
Micah: With Pottermore?
Eric: Wizard’s Collection. That’s who it’s for: wizards.
Listener Tweets: J.K. Rowling’s New Book
Andrew: So, that is it for news, and obviously a lot of big news so we wanted to spend the majority of the episode discussing that. But the Twitter question this week we have for everybody who follows us on Twitter.com/MuggleCast. We asked you: What do you expect from J.K. Rowling’s new book? What do you expect it to be about and why, and what do you hope for? Natalie Morelli said:
“I just hope for another series with some of her wonderful character development!”
Terrance Pinkston of Hogwarts Radio said:
“A thriller! I think it would be great to show another writing style that has something that’ll keep us on the edge of our seats.”
Ooh, now this I like. Mitch Hull wrote:
“Steamy romance. With Fabio on the cover. Please, Jo.”
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Fabio?
Andrew: That was also Laura Thompson’s idea, steamy romance. One of those great…
Laura: Hey, hey, he’s my boyfriend. Don’t…
Andrew: Who, Mitch?
[Micah laughs]
Laura: No!
Andrew: Oh.
Laura: Fabio!
Andrew: Oh, Fabio. [laughs]
Laura: God.
Andrew: Okay.
Micah: [laughs] Let’s just keep it going.
Eric: There’s a bit of a disconnect happening.
Andrew: [laughs] Christy wrote:
“I think it’s going to be a Victorian mystery novel just because that’s what it seems like she loves. I would enjoy anything.”
That’s interesting. Victorian.
Laura: What makes you think she loves Victorian?
Andrew: What makes you think she doesn’t?
Laura: Well, no, this person said, “It seems likes she loves…”
Andrew: No, I know.
Eric: Well, J.K. Rowling goes around writing things on statues, so I don’t know.
Andrew: [laughs] That’s true!
Eric: She’s been known to do that.
Andrew: ac_maher wrote:
“As unlikely and denied as it is, imagine if it was secretly prequel-esque. The fandom would go crazy.”
Eric: No.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s definitely not going to be Potter.
Laura: That’s not going to happen.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: No Potter.
Laura: Sorry to shatter your dreams, but not happening.
Andrew: emilyzit wrote:
“I think it will be amazing and completely different, but we all know she is a great writer so I have high hopes.”
AmishFlyers66 wrote:
“A grownup Ron tires of life in Hermione’s shadow, runs away to Edinburgh where he hangs out his shingle and solves local murders.”
[laughs] Okay.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Very descriptive. PennyLane516 wrote:
“I hope it draws me in just like ‘Potter’ did but doesn’t try too hard to be enticing. I hope it can stand on its own.”
GleeLover15 wrote:
“I don’t really care. I’m just am glad she’s writing something! I hope it is totally different than ‘HP’ so we can have a new story!”
Ben: You know, Andrew, I need to go.
Andrew: EmilyPeanut…
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: No, you don’t.
Ben: Okay, I don’t.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: EmilyPeanut wrote:
“I just hope it’s really good. After ‘Potter’, she has lots of pressure for it to be amazing like ‘Potter’ is.”
So we could go on and on with Twitter replies, but thanks everybody who follows us on Twitter, Twitter.com/MuggleCast, and we always ask a question. All right, Ben. Well, where are you going? At least tell us that.
Ben: I got to go downstairs.
Andrew: And?
Ben: Take care of business.
Andrew: Are you cheating on us? Do you have another podcast to record?
Ben: Yeah, I do, and other things to take care of.
Andrew: [laughs] YokoCast?
Ben: YokoCast. Laura is meeting me downstairs in twenty minutes.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Andrew: Okay.
Ben: I got Jamie Lennon flying in from England.
Andrew: Lawrence.
Ben: Lawrence, Lennon.
Andrew: Well, thanks for joining us on our 250th episode, and we’ll see you at Episode 500.
Ben: Episode – yeah, that’s exactly what I was going to say. That was going to be my joke, you stole it from me.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: I’ve been waiting to use that.
Eric: Sharing is caring.
Ben: But I love everybody. I miss everybody.
Andrew: And you can follow Ben at Twitter.com/benschoen.
Ben: Yeah, that’s me.
Micah: I thought…
Andrew: It’s a good Twitter account.
Ben: Mhm. Micah Tannenbaum, it’s been great!
Micah: See you, Ringo.
Ben: Eric Thompson, it’s been good.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Ben: Laura Scull, talk to you guys soon.
Andrew: All right. Goodbye, Ben.
Ben: Andrew Lawrence, later.
Laura: It’ll probably be another two years, Ben, I’ll see you.
Ben: Probably. Hit me up!
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Muggle Mail: Felix Felicis
Andrew: On to the e-mails. Eric, could you read the first one from Sarah?
Eric: Yeah. First e-mail is from Sarah, age 15. She says:
“So recently I have been doing a bit of research on Felix Felicis, and I noticed that it takes six months to brew the potion. How did Professor Slughorn in ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ have all of the Felix Felicis ready if he only got hired two months previously? Sorry if this is a topic you have already discussed, but I would like to hear what you guys have to say about it.”
Laura: Maybe…
Eric: So, we’re talking at the beginning of Harry Potter: Year 6.
Laura: Maybe he bought it somewhere, pre-brewed. I’m sure you can do that.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: Or couldn’t it have been in storage at Hogwarts somewhere?
Eric: Well, can you store it like – is there a Rubbermaid or a tupperware…
Andrew: Oh yeah, I see what you mean. I mean, somebody – another teacher could be brewing it. Think of how many teachers are at Hogwarts.
Eric: That’s true. I wonder, also, how much of that brewing process is actually brewing. Do you know what I’m saying? Gathering the ingredients is some, some ingredients have to mature. So by the time you actually throw them into a cauldron and it turns gold, I’m sure that isn’t until sort of the very end.
Andrew: Laura, would you like to read the next e-mail?
Muggle Mail: Watches in Hogwarts
Laura: So, the next one comes from Cassandra-lee, age 14, of Melbourne, and she says:
“Hi MuggleCast, I was re-reading ‘Goblet of Fire’ and it got me thinking that if you can’t use Muggle objects around Hogwarts because of the magic (as referenced from ‘Hogwarts: A History’) if this is true, how come they can use watches? Wouldn’t it affect the magic just as electricity would? Just a thought. Love your podcast, keep rocking!”
Hmm.
Eric: Are the watches just a movie thing? I’m really trying to think of a book reference where they said…
Laura: Because don’t they, for their seventeenth birthday, get some special watch?
Eric: Ooh, maybe.
Laura: Like the one Dumbledore had with the planets around the outside.
Eric: Well, then there’s the Weasley clock which again, it’s a clock and it’s around magic. But I’m thinking…
Laura: But it’s a magical one now.
Eric: Yeah. Well, at the movies – or in the movie, there’s that giant clock tower, that pendulum…
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: …that Umbridge walks by, or Snape stands by in the movies.
Andrew: Couldn’t the watches have been enchanted?
Eric: Well, I think – and with big clocks, anyway – they’re more mechanical than electrical, if that makes sense, so it’s like gears turning.
Laura: Mhm.
Eric: So, what if the magic just makes the gears turn? Whereas – so it doesn’t need to be – it replaces electricity then, because watches are more of a machine than – a computer wouldn’t be able to work without electricity, but gears would be able to turn with magic.
Andrew: Yeah, I could see how it could’ve been – these watches were enchanted or made in the wizarding world, which would – because, what, do they have no clocks?
Eric: Well, yeah, how do they tell the time if they don’t…
Andrew: Right.
Eric: Yeah. Or – I think with the books, there was always that – they were talking about periods ending, going onto the next period, or bells or something. How would they change classes without a time-keeping system?
Andrew: Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. My best guess is what I’ve just stated. Micah, could you read the next e-mail from Theresa?
Muggle Mail: The Deathly Hallows
Micah: The next e-mail is from Teresa, 17, of Taiwan, and she says:
“Hey MuggleCasters, I’ve been listening to the podcast for almost a year and I think you guys are great! Since there isn’t a lot of fans in my school and no one (that I know of) who is as into the series, it has always been exciting to follow the new episodes and listen to you guys discuss ‘Harry Potter’.
Here’s something I couldn’t quite understand, and I was hoping that you guys could answer it for me: I was re-reading ‘Deathly Hallows’ the other day, and there’s something that I find strange. On page 572 of the UK edition, Dumbledore answered Harry about ‘The Tale of the Three Brothers’: ‘I think it more likely that the Peverell brothers were simply gifted, dangerous wizards who succeeded in creating those powerful objects.’ If it really was so, then shouldn’t ‘The Master of Death’ be nothing more than an empty title simply made up by whoever…”
[coughs] Excuse me. “Did it?” I guess is what she’s trying to say.
“Why would Dumbledore, as brilliant as he might be, believe that there truly is a master of Death? Is there something that I’ve missed or is it something that is just not fully explained?”
Laura: I thought the whole idea was that that title was more of a self-fulfilling prophecy. You couldn’t really obtain it without first trying to seek it, which ended up being impossible because as Dumbledore kind of explained, anybody who went out to actually try and seek power was actually not equipped to yield it, whereas somebody like Harry, who had it thrust upon him, was actually a very good leader. So, I don’t think that – I think Dumbledore was right by saying that it was really just kind of a tale based off of these three very talented, dangerously-talented men, but I don’t think that it’s actually real. I think that Dumbledore was just very enticed by the objects and what they were capable of.
Eric: Hmm.
Micah: Yeah, and I think though that we’ve seen wands have certain allegiances, aside from the Elder Wand, right? In parts of the series? So I don’t – and wasn’t there that whole bit about when Harry was killed by Voldemort, or whatever you want to say happened to him, he cast that sort of same protection that his mother cast on him? So that in part, I think, aided him in his defeat…
Eric: To be the Master of Death.
Micah: …of the Death Eaters and Voldemort.
Eric: Yeah, it’s interesting and it’s a bit – I don’t want to say it’s convoluted, but Harry had several things going for him. There was the blood seal, his mother’s sacrifice, the fact that he was The Chosen One, the prophecy, and that he was wielding – over time he had each of the Deathly Hallows. Yeah, I don’t know. But I always just kind of took The Tale of the Three Brothers as being true, but then this quote from Dumbledore says that he doesn’t really think there were three brothers, or that he didn’t think they met Death. He just thought they created these three different objects.
Laura: Yeah, that’s how I always took it, that they had created these objects, or at the very least had come to possess them somehow, and then as they got passed down over time – much in the same way that our own kind of folklore and legends are created, people start creating stories in order to make sense of why things are the way they are.
Eric: Yeah, that’s a really rich interpretation of the story and also – yeah, I agree completely. That makes sense to me.
Chicken Soup for the MuggleCast Soul
Andrew: All right, to wrap up the show today we have Chicken Soup: Extra Spicy (Dedicated) Edition.
Micah: Oh.
Andrew: Titled by Eric Scull.
Eric: Yeah, extra spicy and then the dedicated is in parenthesis. So this guy is – you’ll understand.
Andrew: Okay. I thought this was like a Chick-fil-A reference or something.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: This is from…
Laura: Oh, I miss Chick-fil-A. Sorry, go ahead.
Andrew: Me too. I just had it twelve hours ago. Twenty-four hours ago.
Laura: Mhm.
Andrew: So, waiting forever. Anyway, Matt L, 14, from Tampa, Florida. He writes:
“Dear MuggleCast, this week I have been stuck in bed at home sick for all week. It sucks, which is why I decided to go back and re-listen to all the MuggleCast episodes. I will admit that I almost gave up at the twelve-hour live show…”
Laura: Oh yeah, so did we.
Micah: So did we, yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: But we made it to twelve hours! I think I was on for like ten minutes of that.
Andrew: He continues.
“…but it is so great, listening to how great the whole experience has been. Thanks so much for keeping me from going insane in my room. I’m currently on Episode 164.”
And then he asked a question so we should just answer this.
“Why did Voldy crumble into frosted flakes in ‘DH2’? You should re-listen to Episode 4.”
Laura: Uh-oh. I don’t get it. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, did we predict that’d happen in Episode 4?
[Laura laughs]
Eric: Episode 4 was me, Ben, Jamie…
Micah: Was there an explanation there?
Andrew: We’ve talked about how he fell apart and that was just – I don’t know. I think we all had differing opinions on it. But…
Laura: Well, he didn’t fall apart though. Not in the book.
Andrew: No, no, no. Yeah, no, of course, but we’re talking about in the movie.
Eric: That’s a fairly…
Laura: Yeah, I know, but I think…
Eric: …big change if you think about it.
Laura: If it’s Episode 4 then that means that we made some kind of prophetic statement.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: As we tend to do.
Andrew: Oh yeah, I guess you’re right. Somebody should go back and listen to it.
Laura: Yeah.
Eric: It’s probably about a cereal.
Andrew: Somebody let us know.
Eric: I think it’s about a cereal. I think Jamie…
Laura: [laughs] Yeah, because we’re not going to do it.
Andrew: Yeah, I can’t listen to myself.
Micah: Neither can we.
Andrew: I listen to myself all day.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: I talk to myself, I’m very lonely. Anyway, thanks, Matt. Hope you got better. Can you believe that, guys? He’s fourteen. When we started this show he was about…
Eric: Eight?
Andrew: I don’t even think he was born yet.
Eric: Yeah.
Laura: [laughs] Wait, how many years has this been going? We started this in 2006?
Eric: Do the math, he was…
Andrew: Five.
Eric: Five.
Laura: 2005?!
Andrew: Yeah.
Laura: Oh my God, seven years?
Andrew: So seven years, so he was…
Eric: Yeah…
Andrew: [in a silly voice] He was a little seven-year-old.
Eric: …Laura, our seventh year is coming up in August.
Laura: Oh my God.
Andrew: In August.
Laura: I’ve known you people too long.
Eric: Yeah, you should leave and go to a different country…
Andrew: Laura, you’re like freaking out right now.
Eric: …or something to get away from us.
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Laura: Then that doesn’t work, either.
Andrew: And live amongst the toucans.
Eric: Yeah.
[Laura laughs]
Announcement: MuggleNet Site Issues
Andrew: Anyway, it’s been a very fun show, I have to say.
Eric: If you sent an e-mail to mugglecast at gmail and got bounced, we had some kind of a lockout issue. So I wanted to just remind everybody, please e-mail us at mugglecast at gmail…
Andrew: Well – no, I don’t think that was the problem. I think it’s because the site is down, [laughs] which I also want to bring up.
Eric: Oh.
Andrew: We’ve been getting a lot of comments about that because people can’t e-mail in via the feedback form, so I think that’s why e-mails stopped.
Eric: Oh okay.
Andrew: So yeah, if you’re wondering, the site is going to be down for a little bit longer. But when it is usually up, you can go to MuggleCast.com to find all you need about the show, to download the latest episodes and whatnot. Right now you can get episodes via MuggleNet.com.
Micah: Why don’t I explain a little bit of that, real quick?
Andrew: Okay.
Micah: For people who are looking to get onto MuggleNet, there have been some problems the last couple of weeks with some malware on the site. We took most of the site offline so that we could try and fix the problem, and that it doesn’t infect anybody’s computer. So hopefully, MuggleCast will be back up in the next few days, in time for this episode.
Andrew: What happened was I got really angry that I’m no longer part of MuggleNet.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: So I started installing malware on the site.
Micah: We knew it.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: There was actually theories about it. I saw some people in the comments being like, “Oh, Andrew must have done it.” [laughs] I was like, “Yeah.”
[Laura laughs]
Eric: I did not originate that rumor, I will tell you that.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Yeah, you did.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: No, I think that…
Andrew: No, I didn’t do it, I just paid somebody to do it. No, this is a joke.
Laura: Damon. You got Damon to do it.
Andrew: Damon! He’s striking back, finally, after all these years!
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: Waffles.
Andrew: No, it’s Ciaran. Oh man, the site has so many enemies!
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Laura: Oh God.
Show Close
Andrew: Anyway, it’s been a fun 250th episode. And really a fun 250 episodes.
Eric: Gosh, we didn’t even reflect.
Andrew: Well, we did a little bit.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Let’s reflect. We’ve got five minutes here.
Andrew: We reflect, like, every ten episodes. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, it’s true, now because they’re so far apart.
Andrew: It’s the same stuff. But thank you to everybody who has been listening over the years. It’s just been a lot of fun.
Eric: And this guy, this Chicken Soup, 164 episodes in one week.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s pretty impressive.
Eric: That’s actually mathematically impossible.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: But I don’t want to…
Andrew: No, nice going, dude. Nice going, Matt.
Eric: I don’t want to call him out, but man, that’s awesome.
Andrew: Yeah, I know. That’s great. Podcasts are always fun to listen to. I listen to podcasts myself. Not this one, but it’s because I’m on it. So really, I am listening.
Eric: Yeah. And if you edit it, you’re really living it like three times. There’s no…
Andrew: Yeah. Right. And now that we have this new book from J.K. Rowling to look forward to, who knows how we can incorporate this book into MuggleCast itself in the future.
Micah: Exactly.
Andrew: So yeah. And whatever J.K. Rowling writes next. And what Pottermore puts out next, and what happens at the Wizarding World. There’s just so much.
Eric: When’s the – before the next episode comes out of MuggleCast, there will be a studio tour, right? Does that – isn’t that March?
Andrew: Yeah, the studio tour will be open at the very end of March, and MuggleNet and Hypable will both be going to the release events. So…
Micah: So we’ll be sure to talk about it. How about next episode we – we’ll talk a little bit about the content on Pottermore because who knows when it’s opening to the public.
Eric: Oh…
Andrew: We have talked about it, haven’t we?
Micah: No, we didn’t talk about it because…
Andrew: We didn’t go in-depth on it.
Micah: Yeah.
Eric: I need to find my username and password.
Andrew: Very good. Laura, hope to have you on again soon. It’s always lovely having you on.
Laura: Yeah, definitely.
Andrew: And again, MuggleCast.com. Usually when it’s up, you’ll have all the information you need, but in the meantime you can follow us on Twitter, Twitter.com/MuggleCast, Facebook which is Facebook.com/MuggleCast, and the fan Tumblr which is MuggleCast.Tumblr.com. Thanks everyone for listening! I’m Andrew Sims.
Micah: I like how this person just said that they’re going to be listening again now that Laura…
[Andrew and Laura laugh]
Micah: …and I guess Ben are on.
Laura: Awww.
Andrew: What, on Twitter?
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Oh cool.
Micah: I guess the three of us weren’t good enough.
Eric: [laughs] Oh, we’re…
Andrew: What do you mean listening…
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Oh, that person quit listening, and now…
Micah: Yeah, now they’re back.
Andrew: Nice.
Eric: It might just be worth returning to.
Micah: So thanks, Brad.
Andrew: And thanks, Laura and Ben…
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: …for…
Eric: Giving us that edge.
Laura: For bringing Brad back?
Andrew: We’re up one listener, woo-hoo!
[Everyone laughs]
[Show music begins]
Andrew: Every listener matters. Anyway, I’m Andrew Sims.
Eric: I’m Eric Scull.
Micah: You can go, Laura.
Laura: No, Micah, you have way more seniority over me. Go.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Awww.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
Laura: And I’m Laura Thompson.
Andrew: [poorly impersonating Ben] And I’m Ben Schoen.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: That’s my best Ben Schoen.
Micah: Ringo Starr.
Andrew: [poorly impersonating Ben] And I’m Ben Schoen. And I’m Ben Schoen.
Eric: [poorly impersonating Ben] Peace and love. Peace and love.
Andrew: [poorly impersonating Ben] Peace and love.
[Laura laughs]
Andrew: Thanks everyone for listening. We’ll see you next time for Episode 251. Goodbye!
Laura and Micah: Bye!
[Show music continues]