Hiatus

This blog will be on hiatus until December. Thanks for reading and see you later this year!

The Best of Half-Blood Prince

Minor spoilers for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (the film).

The Harry Potter books are way too long and detailed to be adapted adequately to film. Even Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with a running time of 2 hours and 33 minutes can't cram in all the important parts of the book. That's understandable. Stories based on books must be told differently on screen. Even though Half-Blood Prince has gaps that can be explained only by knowing the book, it shows one thing very, very well: Harry and Hermione's relationship.

Throughout the series, Harry and Hermione are best friends and always supportive of each other. Where Ron sometimes gets lost in himself or in the events around him, Harry always keeps an eye out for Hermione. In Half-Blood Prince, Harry likes Ginny but can't be with her for fear of Ron's reaction. Hermione likes Ron but he runs around with Lavender and pays little attention to Hermione for most of the film. Harry is the only one who is aware of Hermione's trouble, as Hermione is the only one aware of Harry's.

We see Hermione's disgust with Lavender every time she leaves a room abruptly or snaps at Ron for being so oblivious. Hermione gets upset, storms off, or cries. When Harry sees Dean Thomas with Ginny, he doesn't show an outward reaction. Maybe his facial expression changes or maybe he turns away, but that's it.

Until the scene where Hermione sits on the hallway stairs and cries.

Harry comes to comfort her and Hermione asks him what it feels like when he sees Ginny with Dean. Harry doesn't answer right away, but a moment later when Hermione cries into his shoulder, he says, "It feels like this."

Harry and Hermione's friendship is of the purest form, totally platonic. The books depict the same relationship, but it comes across stronger on screen. We can read that Harry and Hermione support each other, but the film does a better job of showing their compassion and sympathy.

Makes me wonder why some fangirls wanted Harry and Hermione to date and miss out on this perfect friendship.

DFTBA Records knows how to use the internet

DFTBA Records is an independent music label created by Alan Lastufka and Hank Green to promote and sell music by YouTubers. All of the artists on the label have strong followings on YouTube and are talented musicians who need a way to distribute their work.

Promotions, sales, song previews, and news updates are all online for DFTBA Records. They have no need for TV spots or other traditional advertisements, and the incredible thing is that they've been really successful so far. So Jokes hit #22 on the Billboard "Hits of the Web" chart in May 2009. Chameleon Circuit sold 1,000 copies in one week. Two hundred DFTBA t-shirts sold out in less than a day.

The key to their success is how they use the internet to promote their work. The artists make YouTube videos to talk about and share their music. DFTBA Radio Hour offers commentary and plays DFTBA Records music in podcast form every Wednesday night. Alan utilizes Twitter to give updates on albums and projects. There's a wiki. There's a street team. There are competitions. There's a blog. DFTBA Records is all over the web in text, video, and audio formats to reach and interact with its audience.

I don't watch much TV anymore, I don't read magazines often, and I rarely listen to the radio. The best way to get my attention is on the internet, and I bet that's the same for a lot of teens and young adults out there. DFTBA Records has a solid grip on how to stay in touch with fans and sell music online. That's more than can be said of music labels that depend solely on a company site and iTunes for an internet presence.

Speedy Gonzales

I saw a boy at work, maybe 4 or 5 years old, who was wearing a t-shirt with Speedy Gonzales on the front. I don't see many kids wearing clothes with older cartoon characters, so I thought it was pretty cool he was wearing it. Then I realized the boy was really young, too young to have watched Speedy Gonzales. To him, the character isn't the fast, Spanish-speaking mouse that ran around our Saturday morning television screens. The boy probably thinks it's just a cartoon mouse with a huge hat. I bet he can name the current characters on the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon but not many (if any) from Looney Toons.

Back to BlogSpot

I'm going to change the domain name back to BlogSpot (http://digitalfare.blogspot.com), so if there are any regular readers out there, please be prepared to update your bookmarks. The RSS feed won't be affected.

I've also thought about making this site less formal and more of a blog, a place where I can write out my thoughts. The topics will still be media-related, but the posts will hopefully read more like a conversation/thinking out loud than a news article or review. More personal.

Can Buffy be our Doctor?

TV Overmind posted an open letter to Joss Whedon that discusses the potential of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be the "legacy" program in the U.S. that Doctor Who is in Britain. I love Doctor Who and Buffy, and I'm not opposed to anything Joss Whedon does, so let's take a look at what would and wouldn't work if Buffy were a continuing series.

The Doctor regenerates after he's mortally injured, and a new slayer is called after the current slayer dies. In both series, it's easy to switch out the main actor and use someone else. You're not replacing Darrin Stevens--it's a logical progression in the show. The Doctor's personality is slightly different with each regeneration and each slayer could take a different approach to her responsibilities. The Doctor can go anywhere in space and time to have his adventures. Slayers could be from anywhere on Earth, so there's the possibility of dealing with mythology and lore from various countries, and that’s pretty cool. The Doctor has different companions and he meets new people. Likewise, the slayer can have a new watcher, her own set of friends.

Where it falls apart

The Doctor, despite his regenerations, is the same character. Same man, new everything. He keeps his memories, his knowledge…the core being of the Doctor. The Slayer, however, would be a completely new person after the previous one died. She would need to discover who she is, go through training, and learn about vampires and the other baddies all over again because she’s a different person and new to slaying. It could get repetitive.

The Doctor’s character is a progression over time. Experiences that he has change him, and he retains everything he knows with each regeneration. Every Slayer, though, would be a different approach to the same type of character. You can have a Slayer that’s with it, wants to fight evil and does a good job most of the time (like Buffy). You can have the spunky, aggressive, violent Slayer we saw with Faith. You could have a timid Slayer, one who doesn’t want the job. You can have a Slayer that’s a mix of what we’ve already seen. My point is, how many times can you re-hash the Slayer? Every time there’s a new one, you need a different approach, something that’s new and creates a new character that make sense in the fictional world we're dealing with. Can you sustain something like that for very long? I think after a few Slayers, they’ll be too many similarities to care about the new one. Here's another girl who fights evil just like the dozen before her. Yay.

Every new Slayer would practically be a new show. New cast, new place, new problems. Doctor Who has those new things too with each regeneration, but the core character of the Doctor and his TARDIS keep everything together. The audience has something to hold on to while everything else changes. In a Slayer franchise, that constant thing would be the Slayer’s responsibilities, fighting evil, and I’m not sure that’s enough continuity between Slayers to keep the show captivating.

I’d love more Buffy or a similar show about a Slayer, but I don’t think it can hold up as a continuing program the way Doctor Who has. A collection of mini-series about vampire slayers, though? Yes, please. (Whedon being the one to do it would be amazing, but he’s pretty busy at the moment. Sigh.)

YouTube Filler

Since I've been home from college, I noticed that I don't watch YouTube videos as often. I check my subscriptions during the week, but I don't watch new videos the day they're up anymore. I know why.

When I'm at school, my day is structured and if I have a few spare minutes before leaving my dorm, I'll watch a video or two on YouTube. I don't want to sit down to work on anything substantial for 5 minutes, so I go to YouTube to fill the time. That means that I check YouTube a few times throughout the day and watch videos very soon after they're posted.

Since I've been home, though, my days aren't so structured. Going to work and a few other commitments are really the only set things in my schedule, so when I'm around the house, one thing I do simply flows into the next. I don't have spare minutes throughout the day becuase I don't have a schedule that locks me into certain things at certain times.

The result is that I still check my YouTube subscriptions often, but I don't necessarily watch videos right away. I let a few build up and then spend 15 minutes or a half hour to catch up at once. YouTube becomes its own activity instead of filling in blank spaces throughout the day.

I thought it was interesting that I spend my time differently during the school year and during the summer. Do you have a similar experience?