Tribute to the Harry Potter Series:3. The Wizarding World

Earlier this month I took a vacation to Florida. We went to all of the Disney World parks and Universal Studios. By far the coolest attraction was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park. It was as if you were in the books themselves. Every detail, of every ride, store, and bathroom were spot on.

Entering the park, the first thing that catches your eye is the Hogwarts Express. A life size bright red train as if it were ready to leave the station. After gawking, and taking pictures for 10 minutes, we finally decided to walk beyond the entrance and take in the shop fronts and Butterbeer stands.

Everything from the Butterbeer, to Hogwarts, to Moaning Myrtle’s chuckles in the bathroom was as if everything you had ever seen in the movies had come to life. It was truly magical. In fear of spoiling anyone, I will not give any more details, but I will share a few pictures as a teaser.

P.S. The Butterbeer was delicious, and yes I bought a wand. Sirius Black’s.

Tags | Harry Potter, photography, Universal Studios, Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Tribute to the Harry Potter Series:2. Muggle Art

The creations of popular TV shows and movies over time have sparked the interest of artists to develop fan art from their own perspective. Popular hits such as Star Wars, LOST, Dexter, and Harry Potter, have inspired right-minded fans of these pop culture hits to create alluring works of art. Over the years, Harry Potter fan art has poured into websites such as www.mugglenet.com and www.smosh.com.

Last week, a friend shared an article with me that he found online. It is a collection of some of the most amazing Harry Potter related works of art you will find. You can find over 120 pieces of Harry Potter artwork of subjects from Harry’s stag patronus, to Hermione and Crookshanks reading in the common room, at www.gallerynucleus.com. Click on the images I’ve chosen to highlight below for complete details on the piece.

My top three art pieces

• Name: EXPECTO PATRONUM
• Artist: Tony Lombardo
• Exhibition: Harry Potter Tribute Exhibition
• Medium: Oil on linen

• Name: MAD EYE MOODY
• Artist: Megan Brain
• Exhibition: Harry Potter Tribute Exhibition
• Medium: Paper

• Name: PSYCHEDELIC LUNA
• Artist: Xavier Collette
• Exhibition: Harry Potter Tribute Exhibition
• Medium: Acrylic, glow in the dark

Tags | EXPECTO PATRONUM, Fan Art, Harry Potter, MAD EYE MOODY, Megan Brain, PSYCHEDELIC LUNA, Tony Lombardo, Xavier Collette

Tribute to the Harry Potter Series:1. My Journey as a Muggle

Growing up, I didn’t like reading much. I was a slow reader, my attention tended to wander from the pages, and most of the time (99% of the time) I found the act of reading boring. I was always a very active child/teenager, and my focus of extra curricular activities fell within the realm of sports. Football, basketball, and baseball consumed most of my time throughout the years, and reading for fun always on the back burner.

When the Harry Potter book series was so popular, I was a part of the group who found it stupid/childish to be obsessed with a kids book that was about magic. Just to clarify for the record, I WAS WRONG. I was first introduced to the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2008, when I was 22 years old in my junior year of college. I finally set aside my preconceived notions of the fictional magic series and watched the first movie. As Harry strolled down Diagon Alley for the first time, I am pretty sure I was thinking the same thing as he was… Why wasn’t I introduced to this world sooner?

It immediately became an addiction to want to learn more about Harry Potter and the magical world he lived in. On nights when there was little or no homework to be done, I sat and watched the remaining four movies (that were out at the time) and was equally impressed with each one. Both the complexity of the storyline and the amazing attention to detail had me hooked. Still I was reluctant to devote the kind of time needed to read all of the books.

By the summer of 2009, the movie Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out in theaters. Naturally, I LOVED IT. But now I had to wait a whole year and a half to find out if Severus Snape was actually that big of a sniveling prat? NO WAY. I could not wait. I borrowed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows from my girlfriend and began reading it the next week. With every spare second of free time I had, I was reading the final installment of the series.

I laughed, and cried (tears only, no sobbing people). And I felt both sympathy, and empathy for the characters with every flip of the page. Never had I read a book that sparked my imagination so much, or evoked an overwhelming amount of emotion that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows did.

I finally knew how “The boy who lived” sought out his fate, and fulfilled his prophecy. I also learned that *SPOILER ALTER* Hermione and Ron finally snog. But I needed to know more. I wanted to learn the details that the movies had excluded. So I started at the beginning. I started with Sorcerer’s Stone and read all of the books including Deathly Hollows for a second time (and then a third more recently). So again, I laughed and cried. Before I knew it, both releases of Deathly Hollows had come and gone, and I had once again laughed and cried.

Even though the world of Harry Potter has only been part of my life for two and a half years, it feels as if I am losing a close friend that I have known since my childhood. The Harry Potter series has helped me escape life’s reality of stress and worry, by entering an ingenious world created by a gifted author. Thank you J. K. Rowling for your hard work, and outstanding imagination. The Harry Potter books will always be a part of my life that will never be forgotten.

And no, I never once fell asleep reading a Harry Potter book

Tags | Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling, JK Rowling, Muggle, Rowling