Weather Outlook: Rain, with a Chance of....More Rain.

YEAH! FRIDAY! OH YEAH! Last night I saw.....as my French sister Sarah would say......"ze 'Arry Pott-air"

IT WAS....eh.

NOTE: I PROMISE THERE ARE NO SPOILERS BELOW! I SWEAR! FO REALS!

No, it was good. Aside from the downright pornographic way they handled Harry and Cho's kiss, the movie was great. The kiss, by the way, was sick. It was obviously two 14-year olds awkwardly snogging and they did this sloooow pan up from their feet to their face, all sexy-like. All innocence is officially gone out of this world when they make Harry Potter sexy. But hey! It was good. And it was funny seeing it in Ireland. There's been a lot of hype here about Luna Lovegood who is played by a girl from Tearmann Feichín in County Louth. She was picked out of a crowd of thousands in an open casting for the role. Everyone in the audience giggled at her country accent. Also, people laughed at Seamus' accent when he goes off on Harry.

Did Rowling have to name the one Irish kid Seamus? Really?

Anyway, the biggest point to me--and tell me if you see this too--was that they really made Umbridge to look like Queen Elizabeth II (current queen). I question whether that was JK's intention or if that was movie adaptation. I know she's heavily involved in the films, but look at how Umbridge was portrayed in the book's illustrations:

And here she is in the movie:


She even has a throne and cape at times.

When did we start politicizing Harry Potter? When did it start becoming such an Orwellian societal commentary? People are abuzz about the supposed implicit metaphores in HP. But beyond the obvious addressing of racism (mudbloods v. purebloods) and some points on good vs. evil, I find myself being rather skeptical of all the heavy politicizing. Come on---it's for kids!

But okay, add whatever layers that you will. I should be a more diligent English major: we are notorious for making everything a metaphor.

I'll refer you to the bottom of this post for proof.

Anyway, no plans this weekend save drying out. It has rained every day in June and every day in July here. COULD I PLEASE SEE SOME SUN? Did the sun break up with Ireland? Was there a spat? I have not seen the sun since Paris, and if it wern't for Paris, I wouldn't have seen the sun since the first week of June.

But I suppose there's a reason this island is so green. That's one thing you can say for Ireland--when you're here, the grass is NEVER greener on the other side!!