Harry Potter Fest is a wrap!

This week has been Harry Potter Fest at LR and it has been pretty amazing.  We had some really interesting and smart people come and talk about the appropriate readership of HP and all of the different Christian elements in the books.  Earlier to day we had a Quidditch match on the lawn and the entire week culminated to night with a Wizard Rock Concert featuring the bands "Gred and Forge" and "The Blibbering Humdingers".  I work for the event staff and so I had absolutely no excuse for not being their but I was generally disappointed in the lack of an audience that our school provided.  I dunno what everyone on campus could be doing on a friday night if they weren't nerding it out at a Wizard concert...!

It was probably the most hilarious thing that I have ever been to.  The songs were very smart and witty and at times a little vulgar, but that's funny, too.  Despite the fact that I caught a cold sitting outside I would say that I enjoyed every bit of the concert.

Since I do have the honor of setting up for these events I was able, this week, to talk, personally, with all of our speakers and the bands.  This was really fun and enlightening.  Our first speaker, Amy Sturgis, teaches Native American studies at Belmont College and was the first person in the world to teach a college course on Harry Potter.  She was very fun to hear talk and I and several others are now on a mission for her to be an adjunct professor on our campus next year so that we can take one of the literature classes, or maybe her HP class!

The second speaker, John Granger, was freaking MINDBLOWING.  What he said about Harry Potter and what he found in the books was one of the most interesting things that I think I have EVER heard.  This is not an exaggeration.  He dissected these books and found out so many interesting things about them.  For instance:  He described that Rowling utilized Alchemeic writing styles in Harry Potter and that in every work of Alchemeic literature their must be a smart female role, symbolized by the metal Mercury, obviously Hermione.  And their must be a passionate male character, symbolized by Sulfur, Ron.  Well...it just so happens that the letters associated with Mercury on the periodic table of elements is HG (hmmm...Hermione Granger, maybe...), and her parents are dentists!  Also she is named after the female version of Hermes, the god of MERCURY!  I know what you're thinking...HOLY CRAP!  It also happens that Ron's middle name is Billius, which is always associated with Sulfur!

Needless to say, despite the fact that t was one of the longest and most stressful weeks of my life I am able to say that I had a lot of fun and cannot wait for Nov. 19!  And to re-read the books!