Day Twenty

His "Harry Potter look" from the 2003 American Music Awards. With that, I am off to find a green-striped tie to go with the baggy white Oxford and swirly black coat ensemble.

Stop by Kel

They've never talked about living together. When they're on tour, they practically do anyway, except in the ways that they don't.

That line goes for the whole story. JC could be... a complicated flower, I'd imagine. Not exactly a wealth of practicality and very deeply involved in his own world, but by the time you realize these are problems you'd be too in love with him for them to matter enough to stop.

They're counting down in Times Square tonight.

All the Harry Potter controversy this week has been a blast.

-The shipping truck heist of almost 8,000 books outside a London distribution plant on Monday.
-J.K. Rowling suing the New York Daily News, where a reporter stumbled on a mistakenly shelved copy of Order of the Phoenix in a Brooklyn health food store, the first two pages and a synopsis of which ended up as the cover story on Tuesday. Apparently, the going rate for such indiscretions is $100 million. Note to self.
-A local girl and her mother finding not just books but the accompanying display in a Delray Walgreens on Wednesday morning and having the cheerful salesclerk sell the book to them with all assurances that it was just fine to do so. No doubt there was more done than the disappearance of the display by that afternoon, whatwith the threatened embargo against non-compliant retailers.
-Bookstores staying open all night and having sleepovers for fans.
-The signs being posted on the outside of the shrinkwrapped, boxed, and high security-ensured crates of books - Do Not Open Until 06/21/03 or the Curse of the Phoenix Will Be Upon You!

The excitement that these books have generated in kids is just amazing to see, watching three or four of them clustered around a single book, taking turns reading out loud. The Time article mentioned reading level jumps of two to four grades, of austistic and remedial kids coming to love books because of this story. Rowling said that Harry "just kind of strolled into [her] head fully-formed" during a train ride. The whole phenomenon is, as cliched as it may be to say, almost magical. I can't wait for tonight, to experience firsthand the kind of unique excitement of this, a book premiere.