Vermin of the Week

[vovat]

In this post, I'll comment on a few newsmakers. Some of them are newsmakers only to me, but it IS my journal, right?

Harry Potter: I'm sure everyone who cares at all about such things knows about Rowling's comments on killing off characters (EDIT: and since the link I had up here is now dead, those who haven't will have to find them elsewhere). Her statement about understanding why an author would want to kill off a main character so that there couldn't be any books written by other people doesn't make that much sense to me, for two reasons:

1. The copyright term (in both the States and the Kingdom, I believe) is currently the author's life plus 75 years, and might well end up being more if the Disney lobbyists have anything to say about it. Is she really that concerned about what's going to happen to the series that far in the future? I guess there's always the possibility that one of her heirs could sell the rights to make a quick buck (or pound, as the case may be), though, so it wouldn't necessarily be that long, but still. We're almost certainly not looking at any sequels by other hands until long after Rowling's death.

2. Does she REALLY think a little thing like Harry being dead would preclude the possibility of unauthorized sequels? I'm sure some hack would find a way to bring him back to life, or just write about some other character from the Potter universe. (Apparently at least one of them lives, right? {g})

Regardless, this is definitely not proof that Harry is going to end up dead, as some have speculated. Sure, he MIGHT die, and Rowling has always been pretty clear on this point. But I don't think there's more evidence that he will now than there was before this interview.


Rush Limbaugh: Caught with Viagra on a plane? How embarrassing! Wait, does Rush GET embarrassed? I'm led to believe that he's a coward, but I'm not sure he has a sense of shame. Whatever. Bill O'Reilly insisted that his being investigated was the result of a politically motivated witch hunt. The fact that he's known for having drug problems is apparently irrelevant. Mind you, O'Reilly always insists that people only dislike HIM for his politics, so I wouldn't exactly trust his opinion. Still, it's certainly possible that they paid more attention to Rush than they would have to someone else with a known drug habit, and that wouldn't really be fair. But hey, it's still funny, right?


Aaron Spelling: I suppose he can rest in peace now that 7th Heaven has ended. That was his swan song. :P


George W. Bush: According to one of the checkout line tabloids, he was cheating on Laura with Condi Rice! I thought that was pretty far out even for a tabloid headline. But hey, maybe Condi is his type. She's always seemed to me to have the demeanor of a cranky schoolmarm. And Laura actually WAS a schoolteacher, wasn't she? Hmmm...


They Might Be Giants: They (or their publicity people, anyway) receive jeers for switching their concert from WHYY to WXPN, and not bothering to tell anyone until after they'd already overbooked it. I wouldn't have been able to go anyway, but bethje was going to.


Cracker: No, not the band, although I AM supposed to be getting my ticket for their Atlantic City concert soon. Cracker is the cat who used to live in the house where I live now, but the guy who moved out shortly before I moved in took the cat with him. Then, last weekend, he returned him. Cracker can be really friendly at times, but then at others he'll run away from me. Can't he make up his mind? {g}

Comments

[twobitme.livejournal.com]

Ended, but returned from the dead. That's right Seventh Heaven will be back in the fall.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

On #1 in the Harry Potter comment: I don't know exactly what JKR's contract is like with her publishing company, but it quite possibly wouldn't be an issue of copyright if more sequels were commissioned by the publishers. I mean, why WOULDN'T a publisher attempt to milk more out of such an extreme bestseller? They could even hire ghostwriters to write more HP books under the name JK Rowling, depending how much of her rights she's sold to the publishers. Like I said, maybe she's got a better contract than that, but maybe she hasn't, either.

Incidentally, Laura Bush was not just a teacher, but a SCHOOL LIBRARIAN, of course!

[bethje.livejournal.com]

You'll have to remind me to take my camera over there and take some pictures of Cracker and Anderjerk and MAOW Kit, so you can put them up or whatevs.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

PS-- Reading this post apparently made me dream about Who was going to Die in Book 7, and apparently my subconscious decided she was going to kill off Dobby, and in the dream I was like, "Oh, that's not so bad, then." Cruel of me I suppose. Bad subconscious! Bad!

[onib.livejournal.com]

Did you at least listen to the TMBG concert online? I downloaded it, but I haven't had the opportunity to listen yet. I think it sucks that they didn't go with an NPR station, especially considering that they seem to get more airplay on NPR stations that regular rock stations.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

With new episodes, or what?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I looked in a few of my copies of the Potter books, and they said that the text was "copyright J. K. Rowling," rather than the publishers. I obviously don't know the details of her contract, though. Nor do I know what happened to my copy of Order of the Phoenix. I brought most of the books I could find over to my new home, but it wasn't among them, for some reason. I guess it's probably still at my mom's somewhere.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, if Dobby really DOES die, I guess that could be considered a prophetic dream!

Maybe Winky will drink herself to death. Actually, I wonder whether a house-elf could die that easily. We really don't know anything about their typical lifespans, as far as I can recall.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yes, I want to take pictures of the cats, as well as several other things. If I ever get my room straightened, I'll want pictures of that as well. I don't know how soon that will be, though.

MAOW Kit? Is she going to sing "Ms. Lefevre"?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm usually not much on listening to recordings of concerts (unless they're, like, actual live albums or something), but I might do it eventually.

WXPN IS a public radio station, albeit not under the NPR umbrella. They sponsored the Singer-Songwriter Weekend at Penn's Landing where TMBG played a few years ago, and it was actually on their kids' show that I first heard "Birdhouse In Your Soul."

I don't listen to the radio much these days, so I'm not sure how often either WXPN or WHYY plays TMBG under normal circumstances. I do know that they seem to do a lot of interviews on NPR, though.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the clarification. I had no idea that WXPN was also a public radio station.

I know TMBG does get interviewed a lot on public radio, but they've also done the theme songs for a couple of shows or at least provided incidental music (e.g. "What Do You Know?").

[k1cup.livejournal.com]

JKR reminds me a lot of Bill Watterson and his need for control over the Calvin & Hobbes franchise, or lack thereof. I mean, he refused to have any merchandise created and basically called it quits when he felt artistically dry.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Let's hope we don't start seeing bootleg window decals of Harry peeing on things!

[twobitme.livejournal.com]

Yep. Completely new episodes. They decided the ratings were too good to let it go.