THEME PARKS: Accio Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!!

YES! If any of you are like me you've been dying to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando. Well guess what, the theme park is going to be built right here at Universal Studios Hollywood!!! The only bad part about this news is that the park won't be finished until at least 2015 which right now feels like an absolute eternity. For those of you who don't know, the park is completely Harry Potter themed and offers a few rides and a real life Hogsmeade where you can shop for wands and drink Butterbeer! From what I've heard the park is still relatively small and can be tackled in only a few hours but I still tingle at the thought of actually walking through Hogsmeade and seeing Hogwarts up on the hill in front of me!

For the full story head over to Collider HERE!

MOVIES: Can we ever get too much Harry?

I submit that we cannot! So here is six minutes of deleted scenes from The Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Some of them are pretty interesting and some of them are a little slow. There are a couple shots that are only a few seconds long that I can't really comprehend why the movie makers took them out of the final product. It is cool to see a couple of the shots before they actually finished them up; one shows Seamus with a green screen in the background and the other shows a poorly rendered Nagini pursuing Ron and Hermione. Cool stuff.

MOVIES: 11-11-11

Until now that date only represented the release of Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for me, but now the day has become even more epic. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 hits store shelves on DVD, Blu-Ray, Combo Pack, all that good stuff. There will also be a complete 8 movie collection for those with disposable income after purchasing Skyrim at midnight. Wow that's gunna be a good day. I suppose I can watch HP on my computer while playing Skyrim on my 360? Yea, that sounds pretty good.

YOUTUBE: Gosh these guys are so stinkin' funny!

Not sure if any of you are familiar with the "Literal" trailers that Tobuscus posts on Youtube, but based on the fact that this video has 7 million views it's likely that you've at least seen a few of them. Anyways, there's not too much news today so I figured I'd post one of my favorite trailers they have done. I also highly recommend watching all the other trailers they've posted because most of them end with me laughing hysterically trying to catch my breath.

ADDICTION: Pottermore beta is underway.

For those of you that don't know what Pottermore is, let me enlighten you. Now that the world will never see a new Harry Potter book (with the exception of a possible Encyclopedia type thingy) JK Rowling figured she should do something to keep Harry alive so that billions of us wouldn't just jump off our roofs hoping that there's flying brooms in heaven. Well, that thing is Pottermore. An interactive website through which us Potter addicts can play games, be sorted into houses, make potions and much more. All of these activities are centered around unlocking additional information and stories about the world of Harry Potter that Rowling herself has written. Recently the site has gone into beta and 1 million incredibly lucky people are getting to be a part of it...I'm not one of them. But the people from Entertainment Weekly are and they've posted an article highlighting some of the magical treats they've experienced so far including:
 - Being sorted into Ravenclaw house
 - Being able to interact with other people in your house
 - Buying potion ingredients at Diagon Alley to make potions
 - Managing your money from your vault at Gringotts
 - Dueling other people with your customized wand and spells you have learned

And these highlights are simply from the limited content that is being released to the beta testers right now. So far only portions of The Sorcerer's Stone are available so it sounds like there will end up being a plethora of awesome stuff to do within Pottermore. I for one, am very very excited. The site is set to go live sometime in October and registration will be available soon according to Pottermore!

EW has the full story HERE

NN ORIGINAL: Harry Potter and Why We Need Hogwarts.

The other night I went and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for the second time. Sitting a few seats down from me was a girl who was at the theater all by herself. As the movie reached its most emotional moments I realized she was crying. Crying the same way I was as we saw these characters that we know and love conclude their journey. I couldn't help thinking to myself...this is what it's all about. Now I don't know what was going on in this girl's life; only that she needed an escape for a couple of hours and Hogwarts was somewhere she wanted to be.

I started thinking about getting emotionally involved in something that we know is not real. How is it that Harry Potter, a boy who never even existed except in the mind of JK Rowling, is able to have such an impact on the entire world? Why do we care about someone we will never truly see because they never truly lived? I came to the conclusion that it's quite difficult to put into words; but I'll do my best.

We need to escape once in a while. There's so much pressure and so much darkness in our world everyday, that sometimes we need to visit a place that has a happy ending. First there's school, then work, then a family and so on and so forth. If we didn't have things like Harry Potter, I'm pretty sure we'd all kill each other before the week was through. Look around you and you'll see everyone constantly finding their little escapes. From my seat in the airport terminal I can see a man reading a book, a woman doing a crossword puzzle, a mom playing with building blocks with her son and so much more. Most of the people here are finding their escape for the moment. Yes, one woman has her bluetooth glued to her ear and is talking business next to me; but I bet you anything she'll get home tonight, have a glass of wine, and escape. Without these things that take us away from the world we live in, I think we'd feel trapped.

I remember sitting on my bed in my room at home reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince when it first came out. I arrived at the scene where Snape kills Dumbledore and as I was reading tears started to fall on my page. I think it was at that moment I realized how much I actually cared for these people. People, like they exist, like I could fly to London and possibly run into Harry at King's Cross Station. They're not real! None of them have ever drawn breath and yet we shed tears for their loss! There's a wonderful line at the end of Deathly Hallows: Part 2 where Harry asks Dumbledore if what's going on is real or if it's all in his head. Dumbledore answers, "Well of course it's going on inside your head...but why should that mean it's not real." I don't think you can say it much better than that. These things that we love all stimulate our imagination. And that is where our escape truly lies. One of my favorite quotes comes from Albert Einstein, it's short and simple stating, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." He truly was a brilliant man don't you think?

I think we all need to find our escape whatever it may be. I've seen a lot of people who take this life way too seriously; and while that might lead them to "success" or whatever their definition of the word is, will it lead them to happiness? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think these escapes are important. I think they keep us sane, keep us grounded in reality in a way since we can distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy. Yes, I feel powerful emotions when I watch certain movies or read certain books, but they are fleeting. I'm not still mourning Dumbledore's death, I'm not still celebrating Frodo destroying the ring. We go to these places for a few hours to find a bit of happiness.

So find your escape. Whether it's at a school where young witches and wizards go to learn the ways of magic or something else, take some time and simply imagine. Trust me, it's magical.

MOVIES: Maybe James Cameron should have directed The Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Because he's the only thing standing between Harry Potter and the title of highest grossing movie in history. Reaching an absolutely unreal worldwide box office take of almost $1.4 billion Potter has passed Return of the King to become the third highest grossing movie of all time. It's likely that this is where Potter will stay to rest though since 2nd place is Titanic with just over $1.8 billion and first is Avatar with an inhuman $2.78 billion. But regardless of whether or not you like the films (I'm on the fence about most of them) they have certainly been entertaining and well worth the $10-$15 for a movie ticket.

We made how much?

FANMADE: Harry Potter + Legos = One brilliant trailer.

Well the buzz around the final Harry Potter movie seems to be finally dying down. Most people, fans or not, have caught up with the story and witnessed the final film; and at this point, no one can get mad if anything in the story is spoiled for them. However, someone did take the time to completely recreate one of the incredible trailers for the film entirely out of Legos and it's pretty sweet! I'm a big fan of the Lego stop motion videos and this is definitely one of the best ones I've seen. So check it out!

BIG DAY: Today is the birthday of a very important person.

Yes, today is my birthday but I'm not the very important person. Today is in fact the birthday of our beloved Harry Potter! And, perhaps even more importantly, his brilliant creator JK Rowling. Without whom we would have had nothing to be obsessed about for the past decade. Celebrate accordingly and enjoy the magic in the world.