I don't have much time today. But, I just want to say, for those of you who don't live in Indonesia and have been supporting me with my HP feature so far, you can now see the English-language, online version of the feature:

over here

(Yes, I created a new blog, which is slightly more professional than this one, for the sole purpose of posting those articles online. I'm a bit anal that way.)

I've only just posted 1 article: the opening, Harry Potter - A Never-Ending Sensation.

Been editing that post for the past 2 hours and figuring out how to format the post. Harder than I thought. I need plenty of fluffy hugs and Freddie Stroma pics to get by if I want to continue tomorrow.

Anyway, a sneak peek:

Has it really been eight years and five movies already? It seems like only yesterday that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released. Now the franchise adapted from British novelist J. K. Rowling’s best-selling books is reaching its peak. And instead of winding down, the Potter mania rises even higher in anticipation of the sixth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Among the plethora of movies based on young adult books offered to the audience, Harry Potter, with its leading young star Daniel Radcliffe, still reigns supreme.

Now, I must rest. Tomorrow is a hectic day, starting with technical meeting for the Twilight event and ending with, hopefully, HBP.

I spent the weekend looking for a black dress. I finally found one in Zara today. Zara is on sale, so I got a really good bargain on the price. Needless to say, I'm quite fond of this dress. ♥

Yesterday evening my sister and I finished CSI: NY season 5. Triple damn to what happened at the season finale. ( Spoiler ) Now I really can't wait for Season 6!

I also watched 30 Days of Night (on Saturday). You know what? I love it when vampire movies are so bloody instead of sparkly and glittery.

Did anyone catch HBO's First Look on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? It was on Saturday night, and the re-run was on Sunday morning. Since I missed the first half of the special show, I woke up at effing 8 in the morning to catch the re-run. Actually, I considered avoiding the show because I absolutely cannot stand the host of this show - this girl with annoying hand gestures and... a weird haircut - and I didn't want to get spoiled. But the temptation was too great and... and... I SHOULD HAVE AVOIDED IT! I saw the trailer and I wish I hadn't. My expectations for the movie (by that I mean Sectusempra scene) are now high and I don't know if this movie will live up to it.

Also, why does Tom Felton have to look so good in this movie? I really do not want to fangirl him more than I already have. *sigh*

Pimping:


Very looking forward to that. But maybe I won't be able to participate as much as I want to... I've an effing Twilight event to effing prepare. (I still don't know why I'm doing events like these. I'm not even in marketing anymore. *rolls eyes*) Besides, I might be too busy watching HBP.

I almost forgot to say that I have two new magazines to gawk at read this weekend. I got Movie Magic and Film Fantasy that features Half-Blood Prince and New Moon respectively. (By the way, what is up with these magazines' names? I didn't realize this before, but they seem to come from the same publisher... how odd.) They are horribly difficult to get in my own bookstore. I had to get them from the branch stores. I've been attempting to reserve some copies for my friends... and it's been a struggle! Grh.

Also, I've been trying to figure out how I should post my HP articles from FiRST Magazine. I want to do it here in LJ, but seeing as how I'm trying to avoid advertising my LJ so that... 'certain people' can't see it, I need another place to post them all. I've an account at Wordpress, which I've never used, but I don't even like the name I've picked out there. So, where do you think I should post these articles? Wordpress or Dreamwidth? Advise, anyone?

Anyway, today has been a weird day in general. I think I slept too much in the morning. Last night was the first time in many days that I've been able to get a decent sleep in many weeks, but I woke up feeling groggy. I haven't shaken off my grogginess until now so I'm feeling very weird. I don't feel like a part of the real world I'm in and just now someone commented to me, "You know, I'm talking to you right now, but it doesn't feel as if you're here." I was quite alarmed by that comment, which is why I needed to write this paragraph and let you all know that I am in a weird mood today.

And suddenly, I miss seeing Anton Yelchin in Star Trek very, very much. I wonder if I can still catch that movie at Blitz Megaplex... ah, Wictor, Wictor...

Oh! odayski was asking for news on Coco Avant Chanel. I Googled and found a few interesting links. Here are for your fashion enjoyment:

Audrey Tautou is oh so Coco Chanel -- O rly? (But I think she is...)

Preview the Costumes in Coco Avant Chanel -- Didn't see what's here, but I assume there are lovely, shiny clothes here...

My sister called me moments earlier, to let me know that there's a HBP special on HBO. She missed Part 1. O__o;; Now I have to rush home to catch Part 2. I also instructed her to DVR the program. I hope there's a re-run!

For that, I must now go. Enjoy your weekend, F-list!

People, I do not want you to be indifferent about Bill Nighy playing Rufus Scrimgeour. It's the most important casting news in the HP movies! Ever. So, please, spread the hype.

And I was saying to blamebrampton that this weekend, while people will be at Azkatraz, I plan to write RPS. Don't care if it's wrong. Just want to do it. All of this? Blame it on the HBP premiere pics of Tom and Dan and Rupert and that hot guy who plays Cormac McLaggen and snapiphany. (Perhaps one of the mods of hd_career_fair can kick my ass and tell me to write my Career fic instead?)

Also, I'm blaming snapiphany for putting me on 'Let's Feast Our Eyes on the Sexy Freddie Stroma' mode. For a guy with the weird name, he's surprisingly... slash-inspiring hunky.

Anyway. Had sushi for lunch. Was full from the copious servings of cold ocha. Now hungry as hell again. Don't know what to eat now. Maybe I'll eat Freddie.

*slaps self*

STOP IT.

Going home now.

Bill Nighy is Rufus Scrimgeour

I do think Daniel Radcliffe & Co. will be getting pouting lessons from this man.

Who else don't we have yet in this movie?

Ah, yes, Jeremy Irons, Ewan Mcgregor, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost... Kate Winslet! Come on, WB. There's still time to collect veteran Brit actors for the last two movies and pit them against the young ones!

...so, wait. I don't suppose they have the scene where Percy & Scrimgeour visit Harry at the Burrow over Christmas in the HBP movie. Since he hasn't been cast until now. :O

My first Harry Potter feature is published! :)

I was so happy when I heard about it from the editor, Joe, earlier today. I was having a stressful day, beginning with work outside the office (I spent the better part of today in Kino PIM-2) and also being late for a meeting on an 'emergency' Twilight event we're doing next week. I was feeling like I was such a failure, professionally, when I received the text message from Joe. Instantly, my day brightened.

And here it is, the magazine that my feature will be published in:

FiRST Movie Magazine Indonesia
July 2009, Issue 18
On newsstands 11 July

(I've a copy with me right now, but I think it won't be available for public until this Saturday. And I'm surprised at how little got cut on the final print. Spotted 2 errors, though. Damn it!)

Anyway, this means, I can start preparing to post my articles in English. Which reminds me, I have a question for you, F-list: would you be interested in reading about the HP characters' journey? Or are you only interested in the more 'fun' stuff like the Tom Felton interview and the HP vs Twilight essay?

I know 80% of my active F-list are HP-savvy people. They know HP characters better than most people. What I wrote is pretty basic stuff for casual readers who are not in the HP fandom, specifically the characters' journey through movies 1 to 5 (yes, this is all movie-verse, not book canon, so don't expect too much either). It's all kind of boring, to be honest, but if you're interested, I don't mind showing them to you... I just don't want to waste web space. :)

I've chronicled my joys and woes of writing this feature in this journal. If you're on my F-list, you can read my whole experience interviewing Tom Felton here (snippet of the interview also available!), panicking about character limit here, and angst-ing over having to write a 'HP vs Twilight' essay here. (They're no longer Custom F-locked. All the others are open for public.)

Also, I just found out last week that main features like the HP one aren't usually given to freelance contributors such as myself. When I heard this, I thought, "Wow, I must have a huge sign hanging on my forehead that says 'POTTER GEEK; WILL WRITE FEATURE FOR FREE SCREENING TICKET'." I am now convinced that this is the reason why I was asked to do the feature on the first place.

What else... what else...

Ah yes. Half-Blood Prince premiere. Well. Wow. Lovely pictures all around. I heard the reviews are quite positive (clarification, anyone?) I'm steering clear from them, though. I don't want to know what happens in it until I see it for myself next week. But if I can just say one thing: What the fuck, DanRad? What the heck did he wear to the premiere? (Dunno what I'm talking about? Click here.)

That's all for now. Must go and leave the office. I've been left all alone in the darkened office. Since there have been rumors of... apparitions, I better not linger! Besides, I'm hungry, covered in dust and cold. Anywhere would be better than here at the moment.

OMG.

HBP London Photo Call

So, here's the thing. I had a rough morning. Major argument with a colleague with long-term consequences on the professional dynamics among my colleagues happened to me. (I just made the phrases up to sound important. But basically what happened was that someone made me angry this morning and I reported him to my boss. Now, we're all in the deep shit together.) Then, as soon as I came back to the office from branch duty, I had to do this meeting with the Twipeeps. Only afterwards did I get to check my e-mails and LJ and found the above link from one of HPANA's feeds. Needless to say, cheerfulness returned to me instantaneously. :D

Then, halfway browsing through the pics there, I found an entry from snapiphany that pointed out that THIS PICTURE existed.

Checked back on the earlier link and found more. Squealed like mad. Confused the hell out of my staff. But who cares? I'm happy.

I even managed to get rid of the disappointment I felt towards The Demon's Lexicon, which I managed to finish last night, by the way. (Thank you, Brammers, for giving me a tip on how to approach the story that enabled me to continue until the end.) I read it very quickly in order to get it out of the way so I can move on to my next book. I'm not going to write a long review about the book. Mostly, I've expressed my thoughts on it in the comments over at this link. Now I just want to say that I surprised myself at being able to correct guess the twist about the main character. (Also, I hope that the lead female character could disappear from the rest of the trilogy and her brother would play a more prominent part in the future books.) That's all.

And anyway, tonight is the premiere of HBP in London. Wish I could stay up to watch the live stream, but I have to wake up early tomorrow to vote. Yes, people, we here in Indonesia will vote for the next president tomorrow. The presidential election campaigns have so far been fucked up ones in my eyes, but fortunately, I know who to vote for. One of the candidates is a semi-regular customer of my bookstore and I will vote for him because his money keeps my job alive until now. Shallow reason? Yes. But it's true. And I like to be practical.

Expect a report on the voting process and more HP fangirling soon.

Now, I go home and sleep.

I give up. I tried to move on with The Demon's Lexicon for the sixth time last night and... I JUST COULDN'T GET INTO IT! *facepalm*

( Pondering, wondering... )

On the other hand, after I gave up trying to make sense of TDL last night, I find myself longing for the next installment of Melissa Marr's faery series. Which reminds me that I still have to write a review for all three books, Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange and Fragile Eternity. Not now, perhaps... but I do wish we get the fourth book soon.

Anyway! I've been meaning to rec this one fic for days, but I kept forgetting...

[+] Paws of Fury by Veritas

It's a Kitten!Harry fic, which is not only so fantastically fun and fabulously fluffy, but also wonderfully well-written! Surprisingly un-saccharine, so your teeth won't be rotting, because Harry starts off as Dark!Harry, and then Draco comes to the rescue, and just... wow! The middle part has delicious UST (which mostly has been resolved, but an underlying tone of it still lies beneath all the fluff). Lovely, just lovely. I wish I had time to comment on each chapter, but alas, I can barely keep up reading the chapters... but, I've resolved to write a proper review for it at the end. Just you wait!

I think there were other fics I was supposed to rec, but I don't remember which ones they are right now. When I do, you'll surely be seeing it here.

As for my day today... I wore red to work today. Along with a Weasley Twins badge. And my Order of the Phoenix bag. Yesterday, I was decked in green and grey (grey because silver is way too shiny for a casual Sunday afternoon event) to channel my inner Slytherin. So today, as if I feel the need to balance out the whole Gryff/Slyth equation, I decked myself in red. Not that anyone noticed.

(I know what you're thinking and, yes, I'm apparently that geeky!)

Funnily enough, when we had a meeting this morning, the conversation about Motor GP was rampant among my fellow managers and the supervisors. I was expecting Wimbledon to come up as a topic, but I forgot that my colleagues aren't the type to understand and enjoy tennis. Meanwhile, I was all "HARRY POTTER!" Sometimes I feel like an alien among humans. Fortunately, I quite enjoy being alien.

While we're at it - and before I go in search of food - I just want to say: YAY FEDERER!

Dan the Man

So, here's yet another interview with Daniel Radcliffe that is just so very quotable that I couldn't resist the lure and have to comment on a few things.

The article opens with this:

If you are the world's most famous teenager, the speculation that swirls around you is often less interesting than the reality. For instance, Daniel Radcliffe is not gay, but he does have an interest in cross-dressing: "The one piece of advice I would give to any actor is, if you want to go out on the street without being recognised, without even being looked at, go out with a 6ft 8in beautiful transsexual," he says, eyes wide.

Sometimes, I just wonder about this boy. :o Fascinating comment as always. I'm thinking he'll be like Cillian Murphy and play as a transgender in a movie like Breakfast on Pluto. He could totally pull it off.

And he talks about literature and poetry and whatnot... all the usual stuff. But the parts that interest me most is the part where he talks about other people. (Because I'm a stalker and I always want to know who he hangs out with. I was hoping he'd mention R. Sparkleson, but nope. Only Freddie Highmore.)

Radcliffe says he used to "struggle" with Rickman: "I never used to know when he was joking or not. I think I took a lot of his sarcasm seriously. But recently I've woken up to it and he's actually a great guy."

You know what, that makes sense. I can understand that. Alan Rickman... when I see him in interviews, he sounds very snarky more often than not. But, you know, I'm glad to know that they have a great relationship. And, apparently, Mentor!Snape comes to live in Rickman & Radcliffe's relationship: Rickman cut short a holiday in Connecticut to visit Dan and gave him some pointers on stage presentation that helped him throughout the last six weeks of Equus. :D

Then he was talking about his girlfriend and relationships and... he quoted William Makepeace Thackeray!!! O__o;;

I seem to be a long-term relationship kinda guy. In my head I'm Byron, spreading failed romance ... There's a great line in Thackeray, 'Yes, I am a fatal man. To inspire hopeless passion is my destiny.' That's the image I have of myself [but] it isn't even remotely the case. I am quite a romantic."

This is the reason why I'm Team Radcliffe, not Team Pattinson. (Although, really, can you imagine just how effing hot extremely exciting when they both sit down together for the same interview? :D)

Also, this:

...the people he "absolutely loves" on set: Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, and Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger. "They are, to all intents and purposes, my brother and sister." Are they all best friends? "Probably not, only because we don't see each other out of filming. But someone like Tom Felton, who plays Malfoy, I'd count among my really good friends. I went to the cricket with him on Sunday."

So, they really did go out together to watch Quidditch cricket! *grins* My slashy mind is thinking... happy thoughts.

Then the article said that he knew Freddie Highmore since they were little. They must've been utterly adorable together. :D

With each interview I read about the Harry Potter cast, I am convinced that HP is better than Twilight simply because all the actors have exciting, if a bit dangerous, lives. Dan Radcliffe has interest in cross-dressing, Emma Watson is going to an Ivy League college, Tom Felton rode an ostrich, and... Rupert Grint suffered from swine flu!!! And that... made me drop my jaws in awe. (Speedy recovery, Rupert!)

Seriously, who the heck needs Robert Pattinson if you have all of them?

On another note, HP event is done. The local Potter crowd is cool, but they were surprisingly pathetic when it comes to answering the harder questions about HP. I mean, I admit that the questions we (one guy from their community and myself) chose for the quiz session were extremely difficult (e.g. how much money - in exact Galleons, Sickles and Knuts - that Fred and George bet Ludo Bagman for the Quidditch World Cup result?) but some questions should be easy for any obsessed Potter fans, which they all claim to be, and... they still didn't know the answers! I feel so blessed that I'm a fanfic writer and have to constantly do research on stuff.

For that same reason, I think the HP crowd on my F-list kicks even more ass than these people. :) ILU, PPL! :D

But, anyway, seeing as I'm done with work for today, I'll be going home and getting some sleep. Hope your weekend is awesome, F-list!

Why can't event preparations go as planned? :( From meeting schedule changing to banners not arriving on time... they just make me want to scream!

... but never mind. *sigh*

Tomorrow's the Harry Potter event in my store. Target audience is HP fanatics. I'm doing the MC thing, and will moderate the discussion. If you're planning to go there, expect an in-dept discussion with this theme: 1998-2017: The Life and Love of the Boy-Who-Lived during the 19 Lost Years. Basically, we'll be pondering on questions such as "What the hell happened after the war?" and "Why the Epilogue, J. K. Rowling?" In short, it's like research and brainstorming for a post-DH, EWE/Epilogue-compliant fic in a public forum. :P

When I host tomorrow, I'll be wearing a T-shirt that says: I stole Lucius from Narcissa.

Also, I signed up for hp_cross_fest.

Yes, you heard that right. I signed up for this, even though I promise myself I wouldn't. Cross gen is still not my thing, but there was this one prompt that I just couldn't get out of my head. Bunnies were already jumping around all over the place and I just have to let them have their way. In fact, I'm almost quite done with the fic's outline. All I have to do is write the fic! :)

Because of the event, I now have to go pick up my T-shirt, write my MC notes, and then get some good night's sleep. As for you, dear F-list, have a great weekend! (Especially you guys in the you-know-where, who are celebrating the you-know-which-independence-day.) Ciao, ciao!

It looks like I still have a few stories from last weekend's storewide event to share with my F-list. I was just sitting here, waiting for my ride to come and pick me up, and suddenly remembered a passing conversation I had with one of the customers I helped find a book.

This customer was looking for Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore (haven't read the book, but the Vintage UK paperback cover - with the black cat - is plenty cute) and Wind-Up Chronicle. As I was showing him the books, I noted with interest that he was carrying The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. Now, this book has been on my rec list to anyone who's looking for new YA fiction to read. So when this customer went to the cashier and paid for the books, before I put them inside the plastic bag, I picked up his purchased Benedict Society and said, "Great choice, sir. This book is excellent. Highly recommended."

The customer smilingly responded, "Really? I thought so! Thank god, I've been looking for the next Harry Potter. Haven't found any that matched it, but this could be it."

I was tempted to argue then and there with him that this book was NOT 'the next Harry Potter', because there is no such thing as the next HP in my opinion. Unfortunately, there was a queue on the cashier so I had to hurry up with the transaction. Besides, after pondering on his statement, I realized that he probably didn't necessarily mean to say that the book was going to be 'the next Harry Potter', but that he was looking for a book - any book - to read after he finished Harry Potter instead. If that was the case, that definitely would be just fine for me. I'm glad that I didn't become defensive on the spot then and there.

But, really, the phrase 'the next Harry Potter' is pretty damn annoying. It's like every other book and movie tries to be 'the next Harry Potter'. I know that comparison is inevitable, but it doesn't mean that I have to like reading/hearing this phrase. I don't really know when my dislike for this phrase started to develop (probably about the same time I started receiving publishers' catalogues), but it did. I really want to say, ENOUGH ALREADY! LEAVE HARRY POTTER ALONE! (You know those fics where Harry is highly sought after by every single person in the wizarding world and their Muggle neighbors, except for Draco Malfoy, and he has to escape wizarding Britain and hide because he couldn't handle his own fame? Well, this feels quite similar to that.)

Most of the time, I hate it when the phrase is used regarding Twilight, but last week, I just saw it being applied to my new favorite series, Michael Scott's Nicolas Flamel books. I received an e-mail from a friend who wanted to read this book and said that he heard of it being 'the next Harry Potter', and I was, like, NOOOOOOOOOO! Needless to say, I set my friend straight afterwards.

I wonder if my attitude stems from the fact that I'm a HUGE HP fan and loyally think that HP can't be matched by any other YA series on the planet. Or the fact that I work in merchandising and see a lot of publishers trying to market the book that way until I get sick and tired of it. Or the fact that I'm just weird. It's probably a combination of all three. *sigh*

The only good thing about all this is that the trend is shifting. Now people are starting to say 'the next Twilight'. I can already imagine the Twihards shitting their pants trying to do the same thing I do, but in sillier ways. The idea makes me feel better about this whole thing about the next Harry bloody Potter. *grins*

Anyway. Just a thought.

WTF Ben Barnes? What happened to your handsome, clean-shaven princely face? He looks very much like a... a bear. (Not a very cuddly one at that.) What is this movie he's doing that he has to grow facial hair? Argh!

I like my boys pretty, thanks very much. GIVE ME BACK MY PRETTY! But it's okay. I still love him and we're still going to make pretty babies together.

That was admittedly the first thing I saw this morning when I went online. Not a very stimulating picture for me and I somehow think that it might have been the reason why the day sucked so bad.

Well, apart from the fact that I was told that my editor was trying to get me a higher fee for the HP feature (bless you, J, bless you so very much!), the day sucked in a major way. Might as well go home and sleep the day's woes and not wake up until tomorrow morning. Which is why I better get a move on right now.

But I got a bunch of L'Occitane stuff, so expect a L'Occitane pimping post in the near future (you all know the drill, L'Occitane product pimpage will happen after I try them on for a few days). I had to go buy Aromachologie conditioner because I've run out of mine. I almost didn't get them because they were also running low on stocks. D: But the sales people kindly grabbed them for me from a nearby branch. Then, while I was at it, a new Almond product was being promoted and they managed to so convincingly sell it to me. Let's see if this works. Heh. Just spent about USD 160 in there... they BETTER work. *glares at L'Occitane bag next to desk*

OK, I'm out of here. Need to have a good self-pampering session.