A bit more than an author

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of going to see John and Hank Green when they came to Dublin on “The Fault In Our Stars” tour, which for those who have been living under a rock, is the multi-award winning book by John Green.

John and Hank are the Vlogbrothers on YouTube, and they run several other channels as well, such as Crash Course and SciShow. John writes books, such as Looking For Alaska and The Fault In Our Stars, and Hank makes music, about topics such as Harry Potter and Angler fish mating techniques (Don’t be put off, they’re actually really good songs).

The event was in the RDS, and due to the fact that I got there two hours before it was due to start to queue, I was only a few rows from the front, and managed to get a view unobstructed by the dreaded columns.

I find myself wondering how many people showed up to the event thinking it would be like a normal book tour, especially if they were unaware of Nerdfighteria, and even Hank for that matter.

You may be wondering what a Nerdfighter is.

A Nerdfighter is a fan of John and Hank. Contrary to popular belief, Nerdfighters don’t fight nerds, but rather fight for nerds, and for intellectualism. From personal experience, I find Nerdfighteria as a whole, quite a pleasant group of fans, or at least as pleasant as a group of fans can be, when your demographic is age 13-17.

So on to the event itself.

To start off John talked for a while about how he came up with the idea for The Fault In Our Stars (TFIOS). He talked about how he used to work in a children’s hospital, and how he was absolutely terrible at working in said children’s hospital. He explained how since then he had always wanted to write a book set in that environment, but how it never seemed to work until TFIOS. He talked about Esther Earl, and how she inspired him. For those who don’t know, Esther was a Nerdfighter who died of cancer in 2010 at age 16. She was and continues to be a large influence on Nerdfighteria, TFIOS is dedicated to her, the charity This Star Won’t Go Out, was established in her memory, and her birthday, August 3rd, has become a Nerdfighter holiday, a time to celebrate family.

He then read from the first chapter of TFIOS, and answered some questions about the book, and the writing process.

Then Hank came out and played some songs, before they both answered some questions on a timer, and John slapped Hank, for answering when the timer went off to signal the end of question time. They attempted to speak some Irish, commented on the weather and posed for Photoshop.

Then Hank sung some more songs, including Rebecca Black which was fun, and wore a horse head because why not eh?

I wasn’t lying. The horse head happened.

The entire hall (it was actually a society library, but you get the gist) sang along to a bit of the Proclaimers, and then most people queued for another hour or so (or two or three probably by the end of the night) to get things signed, which to be honest was worthwhile queueing for.

Signed with a Hanklerfish.

I think the best thing about events such as this, is the sense of companionship. You’re in a room packed full of people who love the same thing as you, and to me that’s one of the best feelings. The amount of people in Harry Potter or Doctor Who shirts, or really any other fandom was lovely to see, because it sometimes feels like these things aren’t as popular in Ireland, and it’s lovely to see that this really isn’t true.

I genuinely can’t fault this event, it was completely amazing.

So until next time, DFTBA.

A Very Potter Musical…

A Very Potter Musical, by Team Starkid!

For those that don’t know, A Very Potter Musical is a fan made musical, by a group of super-awesome people called Team Starkid. These amazing people, took one long hard look at the Harry Potter fandom, and decided to blow our minds, by making a musical. Well probably. They could have just been really bored or something, I just made that last bit up…

But they did make a musical. They made an awesome musical. Totally awesome even. Maybe even supermegafoxyawesomehot…

That’s beside the point (Though it is totally awesome).

The point is, I’m trying to review it, and it’s awesomeness is getting in the way.

 Basically, this musical is one of the best things that ever happened to HP fandom, apart from the books themselves (obviously). To briefly describe it, it’s a musical that mashes up a few of the plots from a few of the books, starkidifys them (yes that is a word), and adds in some of the most totally awesome music known to fandoms.

Starring Darren Criss, Joey Richter, Bonnie Gruesen, (the totally awesome) Lauren Lopez, Joe Walker, and too many others to list, A Very Potter Musical has been up on YouTube, for about 2 years now.

Darren Criss is a brilliant Harry, Joey Richter as Ron, was really really good, as was Bonnie Gruesen as Hermoine, but they’re not the real star sof the show (sorry!).

Joey Richter, Darren Criss and Bonnie Gruesen as Ron, Harry and Hermoine

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m huge (That’s right, bold and italic… *gasp*) Lauren Lopez fan. She had all the best lines, and she really delivered.S he’s an amazing Draco Malfoy, and I don’t think I can write (type?) anything here that can stress that enough. I for one, would love to see her and Tom Felton have a chat some day…

Another amazing performance (*trying to sound like a quality reviewer*) was that of Brian Rosenthal as Professor Quirrell and Joe Walker as Voldemort. They also had more than their fair share of great lines, and to put it bluntly, they were brilliant. Before watching AVPM, it never even crossed my mind to ship Quirrelmort, but now I do. They’re just that awesome.

Brian Rosenthal and Joe Walker as Professor Quirrell and Voldemort.

Joe Moses as Snape was absurdly awesome in every way. Thanks to Dylan Saunders, since watching AVPM, I have never been able to read the word “Dumbledore” without seeing the High School Musical shirt.

The Shirt...

Then there’s the music. Though “music” seems like too mainstream a word for it. These are possibly the catchiest songs you will ever hear, and I assure you, you will find yourself humming them at the most inappropriate of times. “Voldemort is goin’ down” at a funeral anybody? I’ve done that…

I’ve already signed two petitions over the past two years (more of a crumpled sheet with a few illegible names on it really) to have AVPM be our school musical. The first time the teachers just laughed and kicked us out of the staff room, but the second time, they actually bothered to look Team Starkid up online. Unfortunately, if we put on the musical, they (and the school) might get sued, so I guess that means no Potterness for my school*sob*.

So I’m about done with this post now. Spell check is telling me at least half od the words in this post are spelt “wrong”, and also, I think I’ve said awesome far too much, but that’s how it’s going to be. Oh, and here are the links to the musicals (Yes plural, there’s a sequel!) themselves:

A Very Potter Musical, Act 1 Part 1

A Very Potter Sequel, Act 1 Part 1

So check them out! There’s a bit of language in them, and your granny may not appreciate some of the humour, but I for one, find them hilarious!

So until next time just remember:

You can’t just GO to Pigfarts, and jazz hands make everything better…

Score one to Peer-Pressure…

Maybe you’ve noticed, I’ve added a new page. Well actually, I was sat down at gunpoint and forced to add a new page. Not really, it was much worse. Two of my friends decided that the page section was looking a bit bare, so they took my copy of the Hunger Games hostage, until I gave in.

So I gave in. I mean they had my Hunger Games. My Hunger Games!

That’s a cruel and unusual form of punishment, and nobody should ever have to go through it. It was horrible. I’m told my eyebrow started twitching when friend number one started reading it. In my defense, it was an extremely traumatic experience for me. Why? Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, I’m obsessed with the Hunger games.

But moving on…

I heard some extremely upsetting news yesterday. About a month ago, I discovered that one of my best friends hadn’t read Harry Potter. How can you live in the twenty-first century and not have read Harry Potter!? So I leant her my copy of the last book, as she had seen the other movies. Do you know what she did? She didn’t read it, she just looked at the last page to see who won! How horrendous it that?!

How could somebody do such a thing. By doing that, you deprive yourself of the suspense, the worry, and the joy that comes with reading a book for the first time.

Then, when I told her that what she did was wrong, she thought I was being sarcastic, and she laughed! Laughed!

Okay deep breaths. Probably, nobody cares about this as much as me, but I think it’s worth a complaint. So there, I complained.

So until next time here’s the link to my new page, and don’t forget, Jazz hands make everything better…

Turning Fanatic…

I am officially a hypocrite. Well, kind of…

Why am I a hypocrite?

Well my mocks are finished (Whoop!) and I am officially in reading mode. On Friday night, I read the latest Timeriders book, “Gates of Rome”, by Alex Scarrow, and I started rereading (for the third time) the first Hunger Games book, by Suzanne Collins. Yesterday, I finished “The Hunger Games”, and also read “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay”, the second and third Hunger games books, also by Suzanne Collins. Today, I started reading Department 19, by Will Hill.

So why is this hypocritical?

 Because I am now vaguely obsessed with the Hunger Games.

As many of you probably know, The Hunger Games movie, is coming out on the 23rd of March. I have a countdown calendar made. This morning, I wasted the end of my Christmas Amazon vouchers, ordering the companion guides to the series. I spent the morning on YouTube, watching the trailers, and interviews with the cast. I even (don’t judge me!) considered applying for a part in the second movie, which led to looking up casting directors and headshots. Then I came to my senses.

This is really worrying to me, as in a previous post, I slated my friend for being obsessed with one of the actors in the film. While I’m not quite obsessed with any of the cast yet, at this rate, it can’t be long.

But it’s not that I’m obsessed in a bad way. I just want to make sure that the films do justice to the books. It would kill me, and probably many others, of the films were a let down, or didn’t live up to the books, or the hype. Because there is a lot of hype.

In fact, it would be almost impossible for them to be as good as everyone’s saying they will be. It will probably turn out to be like the Harry Potter movies, no matter how good they turn out to be, everyone will complain anyway, and say they’re an insult to the books.

What I’m saying is, I don’t want the books to be tainted, because of a bad movie. I don’t want to be reading the books, and suddenly start imagining the actors/actresses. I want the books to be my experience, to be my images, because the books belong to the readers. To the reader’s imagination. It’s for the readers to decide what the books look like, what the characters look like, and that shouldn’t be taken away.

For instance, my favourite character in the books, is Johanna Mason. She’s not in the first movie (I think), well she wasn’t in the first book, just mentioned. But she is in the second and third. And I swear, if whoever plays her in the movies, doesn’t do her justice, I will write a strongly worded post about it, and maybe write a letter. Yes that’s right, I’ll be that angry!

So I’m saying this now, if I ever write a bestseller, that earns me millions of millions of euros, there probably won’t be a movie. I’m sorry, but it’s my decision. If (when) I am actually in this situation, I can guarantee this post will come back to haunt me. Because I will be in this situation. I will. I will…

So I’m going to take a lie down now, and wait for this fit of fanaticalniss (spell check tells me that’s not a word, but I’m using it anyway) to wear off.

So until next time just remember:

I am officially a hypocrite, and Jazz hands make everything better.