We just had a good discussion the other day about JKR at Paris Fashion Week watching the extremely thin model go down the runway. Then I saw a picture from Ralph Lauren with a model so incredibly emaciated it was posted on a website called Photoshop Disasters which inspired the perceptive observation from a blogger on BoingBoing who wrote,

"Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis."

Photoshopped Fillipa Hamilton, Olive Oyl, and a more "robust" and real Hamilton.
Actually, poor Olive would need to lose weight for the runway these days.

 

Great Video Coverage of this by Rachel Maddow
"She sort of looks like she was shrinky-dinked, doesn't she?
Look at the ratio of her torso to her head.
That is not a ratio that exists in nature, at least outside the insect world....
It looks like whoever was in charge...was inspired by a combination of Barbie and those
giant-headed Bratz dolls. Actually those dolls
look more normal and more human than the model."



The picture was circulating around the blogosphere when the House of Lauren decided to do a Rowling and send out a bunch of threatening letters, as documented by BoingBoing:

It's obvious by now that Ralph Lauren *hates* being mocked. They hate being mocked so much that they ordered their attack lawyers to send letters trying to fool ISPs into pulling an "infringing" advertisement featuring a ridiculously skinny model (in fact, our posting of the image was fair use, not infringement; Ralph Lauren's takedown notices are bogus and they should know better).

It's also obvious that the photo of Filippa Hamilton used in the Ralph Lauren advertisement was digitally manipulated. But we still have three questions: 1) who, exactly, gave Ms. Hamilton the Olive Oyl physique? 2) If the photo was manipulated after it appeared in the advertisement, why didn't Ralph Lauren's law firm make mention of that in their silly DMCA takedown notice? and 3) Where's the original advertisement?

Note: For all these blog links, read the comments ~ priceless!

( Read more - Threats, Takedown Notices, Excuses,Counterthreats, Mockery, Truth, Etc... )

AMBER ALERT: We have a missing person in Fandom, someone who spent countless hours last year speculating on the location and activities of Steve Vander Ark and Roger Rapoport. I'm sure you all remember: Where were they and what were they having for lunch? Had they robbed any banks? Were their loved ones betting on the horses and buying lottery tickets in case the Lexicon never got published? Were they in secret talks with the British over clandestine publishing deals?

And now we must repay in kind by asking "Where in the World is DavidEnglish?"



Actually, I am not the first person to ask this question, as Weird One and LindenSwallow on Leaky Cauldron put out an All-Points Bulletin on DavidEnglish a few weeks ago, yet he hasn't resurfaced, except for one sighting on MyLeaky ~ July 1st. Before that, he was last seen at LeakyCon giving a talk about "Humor in Harry Potter," so is this disappearance a little practical joke? Is he referencing the whole Vanishing Cabinet theme from Half-Blood Prince? Is he hiding under a headless hat?

Please send a card or letter soon, DE, because no one can kick the English language around the way you can with your purple poetry and prose. No one can invent more Fandom Conspiracy Theories in one day the way you can. Have you gone into some underground bunker with Dick Cheney? Are you Twittering with copyright expert Lawrence Lessig? Are you there in San Francisco at Azkatraz trying to get Steve's autograph?

Wherever you are, feel free to drop by and write an Anonymous Post filling us in on your latest intrigue. DE Phone Home! Meanwhile, here on Livejournal we will be wondering where you are this summer. Ideas everyone?

You can now watch the documentary "We are Wizards" online in it's entirety on HULU. Fascinating stuff. Can't wait to read the comments on this one! There is some bad language and the F-bomb.

If you haven't heard alot of Wizard Wrock band lyrics, this is a good introduction.  I admit to knowing almost nothing about the phenomenon.

Couple of highlights about copyright - this guy Brad Neely who only knows the story from the movies and wrote his own words to fit with it. I detest his voice - ack! - but the idea is pretty funny. Read more about him HERE. His views on WB are so hilarious - he talks about some guy smoking a cigarette who calls the other "sleeper cells" to warn them when someone is breaking copyright. *LOL* We have our own X-File Cigarette Smoking Man, apparently! I hate to tell him, but WB has no sense of humor about this, so we are laughing as we pass the fan graveyard.

About a third of the way through is the story of a girl who stood up to WB when their attorneys tried to pull her Harry Potter website off-line. She orchestrated a world-wide boycott of the movies and dvds called "Potterwar." Can't say that I remember participating, but it's pretty interesting. Considering what happened to the Lexicon, I don't think she really changed WB's view on copyright.

( Watch the Video under the Cut )
More HP News:

There was a hubbub over the weekend about a British Tabloid saying there had been another preview of HBP and people hated it. Turns out, it was just a rehash of last fall's fatal preview when they showed HBP and people hated it. So no worries, right? Notice they didn't deny that the comments were uniformly negative. WB only debunked the idea that they would be stupid enough to repeat the negative commenting process. *LOL* Smart move, WB!

OK - who can explain this? A new picture has emerged on AcesShowbiz and originally on Scar Potter of two girls called "The Carrow Twins" - Flora and Hestia - and it's supposed to be from the Slug Club scene in HBP. One theory I've seen around is that this is really Crabbe and Goyle in disguise, but why name them after the Carrows, who were brother and sister? Implied incest? What the h-e-double-toothpicks is wrong with WB?

(Note: The following is a parody, and therefore, written for those with a sense of humor)



Narcissa Malfoy: Welcome to the one, the only, Narcissa-Cast! I am your favorite pureblood Slytherin with perfectly coiffed white-blonde hair, and I’m here to answer all your questions about my favorite subject . . . myself.

I should know all about that subject ~ I’m Narcissa Malfoy.

Here to introduce me and bask in my glory is my very favorite young fan, Imperia Gasconade.

*Music Starts*

Imperia: Welcome to Narcissa-Cast, the best and only podcast you will ever need to answer the question: “What does Narcissa Malfoy think, and why should we care?”

I’m Imperia Gasconade, your host, and the world’s number one expert on our only guest,  Narcissa Malfoy.

As always, we want to thank our sponsors: The Malfoy Trust as well as The Malfoy Vanity Press, publisher of my book, as well as any and all future books written by or about our favorite person, Narcissa Malfoy.

Imp: Great to see you, Narcissa, and I wish our audience could see how beautiful and truly inspiring you look tonight.

N: Thank you, my dear. I do try. (laughs softly, and with ladylike restraint)

Imp: And I notice you are wearing the slinky snake-shoes again! Naughty!

N: Hee. I borrowed them from a woman who visits my hair dresser. I saw them on her feet and just had to have them, and she never knew what hit her. She gave them right over after a little . . . encouragement with my wand. I believe she was a writer, too!

Imp: What a coincidence! That is a nice way to introduce our topic today:  the furtherance of my own brilliant  career as I have had the privilege of writing this new book: “Narcissa, Narcissa, Narcissa: Her Story, Her Life, Her Legacy, Her Everything.”

( Read more... )

Here is the trailer for Harvey Putter and the Ridiculous Premise, a parody making it's debut today on Mugglenet.

My favorite lines? "There's no crying in Squidditch," and "Harvey, babe, you're an idiot." My two favorite characters are "Seriously Wack," whose face appears in a toilet, and "Professor Fruit-of-the-Lupin," who is an "underwear-wolf." *lol* Funny stuff.  The guy who plays Harry is alot more like book Harry than Dan Radcliffe, if you ask me ~ especially with his anger and Crucio issues.  Dumbledore as "Mumblemore" is superb.

Enjoy!

The good news is we have these beautiful new pictures from the HBP movie! The bad news is, five minutes before they released the pictures, Warner Bros. postponed the HBP movie for eight months!

And the reasons are fascinatingly predictable. Money, of course. Oh, and other lame excuses, such as the Writer's Strike - which is over now, right? And they want to reach a "wider audience," whatever that means! What about the audience they've got? They kept us sitting here bored half the summer, waiting for the teaser trailer, which had absolutely no pictures of the "Prince" himself. Then the very night they postpone it, they suddenly flood us with pics. They tossed us a bone to gnaw after taking away the roast beast.

I've been reading the websites tonight and there is some weird stuff being written! WB not only screwed over the fans, but also IMAX and Entertainment Weekly. And there is surely more to come. And there are Petitions and Wank Galore.

 
UPDATE: I just have to add this quote I found on HPANA from Alan Horn, WB President, because it just speaks volumes about the greed involved in this decision:

"The picture is completely, absolutely, 100 percent on schedule, on time. There were no delays," Horn told The Associated Press. "I've seen the movie. It is fabulous. We would have been perfectly able to have it out in November."

Great. That's just so good to know. Thanks.

Definition of "facetious": 1592, from Fr. facétieux, from facétie "a joke," from L. facetia, from facetus "witty, elegant," of unknown origin, perhaps related to facis "torch." It implies a desire to be amusing, often intrusive or ill-timed. (Source: Online Etymology Dictionary . 
 
In the HP books, there are many questionable juvenile jokes, from Ron making remarks about "Uranus" in Divination class, to George considering himself "holy" now that his ear is gone, to Percy being teased as "Bighead Boy" by his brothers. The name "Harry Potter" is euphemistic and just barely passes the censors. And the fact is, most HP fans appreciate a good joke, the sillier the better. 

So when I read last week that JKR and her witnesses do not appreciate the "facetious asides" in the Lexicon, it seemed rather incredible.  And when you read the transcript and see what the objections were, it's really funny.  Recall that Harry himself thinks that Hagrid is "too large to be allowed,"  Yet JKR said:

A. (JKR) For that money, I believe you are being resold the Harry
15 Potter books with a negligible amount of attempted commentary,
16 some of it false, and a lot of facetious comments. I quote, 
17 "I would like to see Hagrid fit himself into a McDonald's booth." 

That was a remark Steve put in the Lexicon book. I fail to see why that would bother JKR, unless she hasn't been to McDonald's lately and tried to sit in a narrow plastic booth. It makes me wonder, have the books suddenly turned into "sacred texts" so that we can't joke about them?

Witness for the Plaintiff Jeri Johnson was on the stand complaining of some rather mild jokes Steve Vander Ark makes in the Lexicon book, and the Judge saw right through it to the heart of the matter and chimed in:

 Q.  (Hammer) You are an Oxford don, are you not?
        9    (Johnson) A.  I am.
       10    Q.  Many of the readers of the Harry Potter books are 12, 13,
      11    14-year-olds, isn't that true?
      12    A.  Yes.
       13             THE COURT (Judge):  Or younger.
       14    Q.  Or younger.
       15             The Harry Potter books are filled with jokes, are they
       16    not, that are directed at 10, 11, 12 and 13-year-olds, correct?
       17    A.  Yes, there are.
       18    Q.  In fact, there are jokes about troll boogers, isn't that
       19    true?
       20    A.  Yes.
       21    Q.  There are jokes about phlegm, isn't that true?
       22    A.  Yes.
       23    Q.  You, I assume, don't often joke about phlegm, correct?
       24    A.  Only with my 9-year-old daughter.
       25    Q.  So, in fact, you yourself recognize that a 9-year-old might
                                   1    find something funny that you yourself do not?
        2    A.  Absolutely.

Absolutely right. In the books there are also jokes about toilet seats, and jokes about an old man with nothing on under a dress so air can get to his privates. There are jokes about Moaning Myrtle getting into the bathtub with Harry.  Sirius jokes about Kreacher snogging a pair of pants.  Gilderoy Lockhart tells Snape that his "wand is a little over-excited."  And how can we forget all the "goat jokes" about Aberforth? Are those stories not meant to be "facetious asides"? 

Really humor is the last thing they should have brought up because parody is protected under copyright law, and the way things are going, that may be the only legal way anyone can express an opinion eventually.

FLC Law & Society Arts and Entertainment Blog has a six-part analysis of the Lexicon case, with an emphasis that RDR has a good chance of winning the case.

"Fair Use assures us that, with regard to intellectual property, society’s interests are relevant.... For one, a judgement in Rowling’s favor would discourage the flow of information from the Internet to actual publication. But more importantly, it would set a precedent that effectively sanctions an author’s monopoly on his or her work ... It is for these reasons that Judge Patterson should reject JK Rowling’s bid for the exclusive right to her copyrighted work, and rule in favor of the defendant, RDR Books."

Referring to this recent CNN Article about a class in "Christian Theology and HP" at Yale University:

"...  In what appears to be an emerging trend, colleges across the country, including Yale University, are offering coursework in the theology of Harry Potter. It stands to reason that any supplement like the Lexicon, regardless of who compiled it, would be a valuable teaching aid in this venue."

Also, if any of you missed April Fools on Mugglenet yesterday, here are a few highlights:

"At this early hour Tuesday morning, we are excited to inform everyone that the author of the Harry Potter novels has just passed along an early copy of her upcoming Encyclopedia! ... (Yeah, right - as if!)

... Warner Brothers has announced today that JK Rowling's upcoming Harry Potter Encyclopedia is in the works to become a possible three season animated series. ... The WB publicity department was quick to note that this is not one last money making opportunity....While no details are official, insiders tell us the series will be a collage of scenes inspired by facts revealed in Rowling's Encyclopedia. Season 1 is slated to be released between late 2012 and early 2013.

Funny - and some people really believed the second one, so the comments are priceless!  You know - that "collage" idea is actually pretty good! After all, that's how they filmed Snape's Worst Memory in OotP.

There's another funny joke from Firefox News about "Harry Potter Anime" (with sketches!) that probably fooled a few people, I'm sure! 

[sarcasm] But, hey -They could take all the fluffy new facts from the Scottish Book, and mash them together with the "extra" scenes they film for the movies (because, dang, the canon just isn't interesting enough). That might create an exciting spin-off that has nothing to do with the HP books at all - cartoons they show one-time-only so no one will get a chance to over-analyze them on forums (or unofficial encyclopedias!). And a fast-paced collage is much harder to follow than words written on paper, so JKR can easily "spin" it her way. New fans with shorter attention spans could replace the long-term troublemakers who misinterpret everything based on over-reading. [/sarcasm]

JKR and WB have filed a rebuttal in the RDR injunction case. Wow. 

Leaky Cauldron Summary of JKR/WB Filing, Feb. 27, 2008

Lucky Seven Hightlights (with a bit of Snark/SARCASM):

1. If a fan buys the Lexicon book now, they probably cannot afford to buy JKR's Scottish Book in ten years, and that is unfair and dangerous for commerce. All the fans who bought those millions of books last summer will never be able to save up $25.95 over the next ten years. Aren't we are all sitting here eating our gruel in poverty while typing on our laptops and using high-speed dsl ? [/sarcasm]

2. The Lexicon book will make too much money, and that is unacceptable. 'Nuff Said. [/sarcasm]

3. When JKR gave the Lexicon the fan award, she didn't mean it was a "favorite" site. It was not a seal of approval. In light of this, those plaques in the trophy room mean that the winners are barely worthy in some undeserving way, and shouldn't take it seriously. I suggest that all the fan sites who won a place on the Shield of Doom should take down the bragging rights immediately since you might offend somebody important. [/sarcasm]

4. When JKR said she used the Lexicon to look things up, she meant only because she was out somewhere and didn't want to buy a copy of her own book - the one with details she couldn't remember. That's understandable. [/sarcasm]

5. Steve's website is too popular, with too many hits. If only he could go back and create something decidely unpopular, then they might let him publish his book. Unpopular books don't sell, so they are allowed. Popular books are a threat, and must be squelched. Ah, the free market economy! [/sarcasm]

6. The media think Steve is an "Expert," and that is not allowed. They should refer to him as "The Non-Expert." No replacement guidelines are given for the WB's definition of "Harry Potter Expert." Probably your name has to be J. K. Rowling, and you have to live in the City of Edinburgh. [/sarcasm]

7. In fact, anyone who disagrees with JKR's view of either the books or the copyright laws, does not deserve to be called a "fan" nor an "expert." The filing states that Steve is neither a true fan, nor an expert. So even if someone reads the books 2,000 times, memorizes it all, worships the books, and explains them to others ~ Non-Expert, Non-Fan. Let's all eat our humble pie on that one. [/sarcasm]

English is a fluid and ever-changing language, and many authors have contributed new words.  There is even a word for those ~  "Neologisms."   These are words that come into, dare I write it? - the "Lexicon" of everyday speech.  When a word is catchy enough, it becomes part of the language. There are many neologisms from literature:  Catch-22, Quixotic, Scrooge, or Pollyanna. Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky" gave us many of them: Slithy, Burbled, Chortled, and Galumphing.  That "Slithy" is just one syllable from "Slytherin" should come as no surprise, either, yet JKR/WB would say that Slytherin is trademarked by them, and was "invented" by JKR.  But didn't she ever read "Jabberwocky" while growing up?  Isn't she influenced in her "inventiveness"?  


( More Thoughts )


The writer BabyBlue (ZoeRose) in the blog  Shell Cottage has written quite eloquently on this question of the Neologisms from the Harry Potter series.   If words are owned by the author, does that mean the definitions are also?  Is that why the "Unofficial" Lexicon is bad, while the "Official" HP Future Encyclopedia will be intrinsically good?  When the "Mother of All HP Encyclopedias" is published, will it have little trademark symbols beside each word?
  ( Essay by ZoeRose on the Lexicon and Word Ownership )

I role-play as the Editor of a Slytherin Newspaper called "The Parseltongue News" on Harry Potter Network. 

It's usually a collection of strange or macabre real-world news articles that Slytherins might enjoy reading. But occasionally I write a snarky editorial such as the one posted below, which has been rather popular in the Snape community.  I am posting it here so it will be easier to link directly, and so it won't be lost.

This was written in response to JKR's comments that Snape was not a "Big Man" and that he was a "vindictive, mean bully" till the day he died.