wizard rock radio!
If you need your fix of Harry Potter-themed "wizard rock," look no further.... thanks to the coolness over at Paste magazine.
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
PSAs from the future
No explanation needed. Just watch 'em.
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
cardboard tube war
Not quite a LARP, but close enough. Who doesn't want to get involved with this? This is Seattle ... So what ya waitin' for? Let's start a cardboard war in our own city! Hu-yah!
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Egad! someone who does not like Harry Potter?
Ok, so let's say you hate Harry Potter. Bryony Gordon, the author of this story (originally appearing in the Telegraph UK) bravely if foolhardily admits he'd enjoyed a blissful period thinking that Harry Potter did not exist at all, because no book or movie had been released in ages (ages for Harry Potter fans, anyway). "For two blissful years my life has been a Harry Potter-free zone. No talk of muggles, or quidditch, or Hogwarts or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." And for this London resident, "nobody has made any really unfunny jokes about the train leaving from platform 9¾, which is good, because it means I have had less cause to hit people over the head with a rolled up newspaper." Yuk yuk.
Which just goes to show you, you can't force geekdom on anyone. You can't make a person like a book, a movie, a pop cultural phenom. But this author goes out on a limb a little further, to say, "it won't surprise you to learn that I don't understand grown adults who like Harry Potter... It's a bit sinister, actually. In my mind, you may as well sit on the train reading a Thomas the Tank Engine picture book making choo-choo noises." Then the "escape" claim: "I know that mature fans of Harry Potter claim it allows them to escape to another world, that it helps them to feel young again."
For me, there's nothing wrong with that. But for Mr. Gordon, I sense the kid's play that Harry Potter evokes is shameful.
Gordon cleverly exits on a joke "But when the first one came out I was 17 and by the time that the final movie instalment is released I will be 31. That doesn't make me feel young. It makes me feel really, really old. And there's nothing magic about that." And leaves me wondering if there's something else here, unexamined, that explains his aversion to all things Hogwarts.
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Mommy, I want this for my birthday
My buddy JP (one of the key characters in my book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks) turned me onto this at Geekologie. And I've decided for my next birthday party, I want a huge cake in the shape of a Robotron coin-operated video game kiosk and, sitting on it, big red dragon guarding a d20, a light saber, my old DM's guide, and a bottle of Henricks gin, with a big One Ring wreathed in fire suspended above, through which Gollum, Ian McKellen and Barack Obama are playing leapfrog. Mommy, can you make that for me? Pleeeezzzee???
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Comic-Con turns 40 years young....
One of the heavyweights of the con scene rolls into San Diego again: Comic-Con. And it's an older granddaddy than I originally thought. The con celebrates 40 years this year. Funny-- D&D celebrates its 35th this year (not to mention 30 years since I first learned D&D, and 25 since I graduated from high school. Yikes! But that is another story...
Comic-Con is a fanboy and fangirl paradise, with guests ranging from Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Tim Burton, Robert Zemeckis, Ray Bradbury, Seth Green, Stan Freberg, June Foray (voice of Rocky in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show), a screening of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog" (which I experienced at Dragon*Con last year -- very silly and fun) ... more highlights here.
Sigh... wish I was going. But I can't. I will be headed to Gen Con in August. More on that later...
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
some fries with that...
the image gallery that goes with my excursion to New Zealand, Welligton, "Wellywood," etc.... 
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
The Author in New Zealand
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Under smoky-blue cloud cover, they raise their ladders, and thrust their siege towers toward Helm’s Deep. From all sides, like a stream of mercury, hordes of orcs pour through the crumbled curtain wall.
In my elaborate reverie of battlefield glory, I vault up the stairs, light-footed, graceful, deadly, ready to face my foes. Of course, I can’t stop them alone. I have an army of heroes on my side. I can’t stop the theme music trumpeting and drumming in my head, either. What fantasy freak can, especially in New Zealand, land of so many memorable film locations? ... read more in my article for the Boston Globe
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
10 Business Lessons I Learned from Playing Dungeons & Dragons
10 Business Lessons I Learned from Playing Dungeons & Dragons
Some good advice here, especially this one:
The best quests require a mixture of skills in the party. Find new friends and cultivate ancillary skills. That pesky little hobbit thief may eat you out of house and home, yet sometimes he comes in pretty handy. This is the point of all those tedious "diversity training" exercises from your HR department; perhaps the message would get across better if they talked about the apparently-weak wizard and the bard with those amazing negotiation skills.
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Harry and the Potters in a cave
If you happen to be in the Boston area, come help celebrate the July 15 release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with "A FREE SHOW in a CAVE!" Well, Harry and the Potters say, "Actually, not a cave, but a chasm. CLOSE ENOUGH! How cool is that? You gotta come!" This is an unplugged concert/hike/sing-a-long in a place called Purgatory Chasm (which, coincidentally, I wrote about ages ago for the Boston Globe). Anyway, their event info is here:
07.14.09 | Sutton, MA | Purgatory Chasm | ALL AGES | 8:15pm | FREE!!! | Facebook
Here’s the plan: Meet at 8:15pm in the parking lot of Purgatory Chasm. Bring a flashlight! At 8:30, we will hike up into the chasm (it is a very short hike - <10min). Once we're in the chasm, Harry and the Potters will play a bunch of unamplified songs. Sing-alongs galore! Bring your voice! After we've done a bunch of singing and stuff, we will go to the movies together! We're planning on attending the 12:05am screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the Blackstone Valley 14 in Millbury, MA which is only about 10 minutes from the Chasm. Follow this link to buy tickets to the 12:05am screening!
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
China Miéville on why Tolkien rocks
I saw China Miéville speak at a forum at Book Expo a few weeks back. Smart, articulate guy. Re His take on Tolkien is one often forgotten: Tolkien built the world --- mountains, forests, seas --- and made up languages, THEN wondered who might live there to speak those tongues.
"The order is reverse: the world comes first, and then, and only then, things happen--stories occur--within it. ... So dominant is this mode now (as millions of women and men draw millions of maps, and write millions of histories, inventing worlds in which, perhaps, eventually, a few will set stories) that it's difficult to see what a conceptual shift it represented."
Plus, get this note by Miéville: "Tolk gives good monster. Shelob, Smaug, the Balrog...in their astounding names, the fearful verve of their descriptions, their various undomesticated malevolence, these creatures are utterly embedded in our world-view. No one can write giant spiders except through Shelob: all dragons are sidekicks now. And so on."
Indeed.
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
http://www.omnivoracious.com/2009/06/there-and-back-again-five-reasons-tolkien-rocks.html
Q&A with Hobbit Director Guillermo del Toro
Great Q&A with Hobbit Director Guillermo del Toro on the Future of Film, in this month's WIRED. Like a lot of future-thinking folks, he's got grand ideas of the way we'll consume content and narrative in the future:
In the next 10 years, we're going to see all the forms of entertainment—film, television, video, games, and print—melding into a single-platform "story engine." The Model T of this new platform is the PS3. The moment you connect creative output with a public story engine, a narrative can continue over a period of months or years. It's going to rewrite the rules of fiction.
Check out his LA lair-------->
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Harry and Potters video
here's the direct link, in case you missed it
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
a D&D commercial
Yes, geeks, the time is the 1980s, and your parents really really don't want you to fall prey to the satanic ways of D&D... so here's a cartoony, *fun* way to look at that weird "game with dice" that no one seems to understand. Not even your sister gets it ... "Wait, what's this ... g-g-g-girls play?"
http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/61/
"use your lightning bolt!" ...."victory is yours!" ....and the best tag line of all, TSR's slogan "products of your imagination." Yuk yuk.
Dig the sweaters and lapels. And note the split second snippet from the previous commercial for an NFL-sanctioned Wilson football. Trying to covert geeks, one jock at a time. Did no one do their market research?
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
"dwarf"and "elf" are out, "dyslexic" and "database" are in
A friend of mine wrote me that in the new edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary (for kids), in order to make room for new-fangled words like "celebrity," "tolerant," "vandalism," and "negotiate," certain nature words that define many kinds of plants and animals had to be taken out.
Dwarf and elf got the ax, too! What does that say for the next generation of fantasy freaks?
Words out: golblin, beech, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, canary, chestnut, cowslip, fungus, gooseberry, ivy, lavender, leek, minnow, mint, nectar, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow. and also: altar, bishop, chapel, christen. hmm....
Words in: Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate.....
The ultimate irony? One of the new words added is "endangered."
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Harry and the Potters 500th show
If you haven't seen Harry and the Potters, here's a good introduction. Two brothers -- Paul and Joe DeGeorge -- who are the sweetest guys you'll ever meet. And they can rock. Here's them playing their 500th show in their own hometown of Norwood, Massachusetts. As their website puts it: "mere blocks from our boyhood home, in the very elementary school that we attended so long ago, in the same cafetorium where Paul sang the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” theme song in the 5th grade musical and where Joe witnessed Ellen Greely throw up through her recorder (@vomitwords) during the 3rd grade recital."
I profile them in my book (chapter 9, in fact).
Lyrics to "Dumbledore"
You were the best we ever had
You were the best we ever had (you were the best)
I wish that we could go down to the Room of Requirement
And we could go bowling just like you used to
Back when Hogwarts Bowling Club was cool
You were the best we ever had
You were the best we ever had (you were the best)
Dumbledore
We're here with you tonight
We'll carry on the fight
Everything will be alright
And everyone is fine
You were the best we ever had (you were the best)
I wish we could have shared more together
But now you're off on your next adventure
Dumbledore
We'll fight for you tonight
Dumbledore
We all fight for you tonight
In our hearts we'll never let you die
Your love is keeping us alive
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
We'll carry on 'cause there's nothing to fear
Dumbledore
We'll fight for you tonight
Dumbledore
We all fight for you tonight
In our hearts we'll never let you die
Your love is keeping us alive
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
You'll never be gone as long as we're here
We'll carry on 'cause there's nothing to fear
Dumbledore
We'll fight for you tonight
Dumbledore
We all fight for you tonight
In our hearts we'll never let you die
Your love is keeping us alive
Dumbledore
We'll fight for you tonight
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
This is the direct URL for the Harry and the Potters movie I shot -- apparently amazon.com does not allow you to embed videos ...
A blog begins
And lo, and the creator spoke, and there was a blog. And it was good.
Or we hope so.
Welcome to the "Ethan Freak" blog. Where I'll try to keep tabs on some of the fantasy and gaming activity out there. Whether it's D&D, other games, Dragon*Con and other cons, Tolkien and Lord of the Rings rumors, Harry Potter fandom, or why this d20 (above) is so worn down (have I been rolling it THAT much lately?), our interest and reach is wide, wolfish and wistful. Here goes...
--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks