Harry Potter and the Silly Weblog Post Title
Saturday morning, and I get an unexpected lie-in as my daughter (henceforth ever known on this weblog as Kid A) had her swimming cancelled and then overslept. My wife (henceforth known as Pablo) has got up to take my son (henceforth known as the Thief) to his swimming lesson. I lie back in bed, stretching luxuriously when the doorbell goes. Luckily it is before Pablo has left, and she answers the door.
Then I here her coming up the stairs. I close my eyes, pretending to be asleep. “Ouch”, I cry, as a 700-page hardback edition of You-Know-What lands on my midriff. That was a surprise. I mean I’d remembered it was St. Harry Potter Day the world over, but I forgotten that Pablo had ordered the book (way back in February) as a special offer on her BFC book club. I had meant to get it in a couple of weeks time at the local book shop (Friar Street Fantasy, btw) once all the hype had died down.
Pablo has gone to swimming. I really should get up and have breakfast, tidy the kitchen, get Kid A up, get her dressed, check the email, mow the lawn, weed the borders, wash the bike, feed the cats, read some weblogs, write a bit more of Thing, put on some music, have a bath, or take down the gazebo as high winds are due the next day. Or I could just see what the first chapter is like …
It’s later and Pablo has returned with The Thief to find me still in bed, 200 pages into the book. Kid A woke up and has trashed her room, trying on ear rings and clothes. I’ve been given detention for a week, and the book has been confiscated until further notice.
Now it’s Sunday morning. Pablo is out, and I’m in charge of the children. Using them as look outs, I break into Pablo’s locker and steal The Book. Despite facing possible neglect charges over the children, I manage another couple’o'hundred pages before Pablo gets back. Kid A is impressive in her role as lookout “Mummy Mummy” she calls and I stash the book under the chair just in time.
Kid A is no longer in my good books. She told Pablo that Daddy had a dinosaur under his chair, and upon finding the yellow tome, she checked the location of the bookmark and realised what I’d done. I’ve been banned from playing Counterstrike for life!
Sunday night: 9pm, I was allowed to continue reading once the children were asleep, and I’d tidied the living room and loaded the dishwasher and made Pablo a cup of tea and a dozen other remedial chores that seemed to take a lifetime. She’s gone to watch Big Brother or some other boring TV program. I read.
11pm. It’s finished.
Monday morning. The gazebo broke in the wind and rain last night. Two of the metal posts are bend and twisted, and the plastic corner pieces are in bits. It looks like a passing giant accidentally stepped on it.
It was lucky that the book is such an easy read; or did that just make it more addictive? Good, fun book. Don’t take it seriously, don’t believe the hype, but enjoy it. If you like that sort of thing.
June 23rd, 2003 at 13:31
Hey, you should be boycotting the use of Radiohead album titles as nicknames now they copy-protect their CDs and refuse to let people buy their music through Apple
June 23rd, 2003 at 14:56
Radiohead have started copy-protecting albums? Really? My copy of “Hail to the Thief” isn’t protected…
June 23rd, 2003 at 15:03
Then you must have bought it in the USA. Every other region in the world has copy-protected discs.
http://rocknerd.org/articles/03/06/09/2351223.shtml?tid=29
June 23rd, 2003 at 15:11
If my (UK bought) copy has copy-protection, it is very poor protection. (Didn’t work, in other words. I assumed there was no protection on it)
June 23rd, 2003 at 15:14
I didn’t know about the Apple business, but then Apple is only for the US, and I don’t have a Mac anyway.
Is it Radiohead or EMI, though?
June 23rd, 2003 at 20:34
Someone on my blogroll found that it didn’t play in their portable CD player, but he could still rip it with WMP? See http://fuddland.org.uk/archives/2003/06/22/001831_maybe_they_misunderstood_the_design_brief.php
for details.
June 24th, 2003 at 23:26
Nope. Bought in the UK, at Sainsbury’s I think. Ripped without a problem.
June 28th, 2003 at 5:53
Plagiarising the first Harry Potter book, one could rename this entry “Paul and the Chamber of Procrastination”.
June 28th, 2003 at 5:55
Now, why it doesn’t say my name in the ‘posted by’ area, I don’t know.
July 5th, 2003 at 23:50
It’s Metallica, not Radiohead, who refuse to sell through AppleMusic.com. They explain they don’t want to contribute to the demise of the full-length CD. Radiohead’s adapted to online music fairly well.
Many bands are upset that the market will force them to show up in the studio and put some effort into it instead of recording one ’single’ and eleven pieces of shite.
Of course, the single never really died in the UK, unlike out here in the states.
July 7th, 2003 at 7:16
And some other bands are worried that the single will become the predominant way in which their music is heard. If you can just buy the singles rather than buying the whole album, you will never hear the songs marketing deemed were not radio friendly unit shifters. The obvious example being the song of the same name by Nirvana, and Scentless Apprentice off the same album, In Utero. Fantastic songs, and you’d never hear them on radio.
July 8th, 2003 at 15:05
The single is very much on its way out in the UK too. I don’t remember the figures exactly (or the location of where I read this) but the Beatles sold a million and half singles in 1963 to get to No.1 but todays No. 1 has sold less that 50,000 records.
I’m glad that Radiohead are not anti-Apple, their website seems to be one of the best/interesting band websites out there, so I was suprised by the claim.
July 8th, 2003 at 15:15
Radio never plays anything odd their standard play list unless it is an evening/late night slot. For example, on BBC Radio 1, DJ’s can only play 3 non-playlist songs during the daytime.
And I expect the play lists are controlled by the Industry, so you only get to here what they want. At least that is how it works in the UK.
I don’t listen to Radio 1 anymore (except for Mark’n'Lard).