Jenny just sent me a link to this month’s Details magazine, which features Daniel Radcliffe on the cover and an interview and photoshoot inside. EWW EWW EWW. Not a fan of the chin fluff. Nor the leather vest. *shudder*

What a cute zorse! (Link courtesy of Eva.)

As the Order of the Phoenix file out of the Room of Requirement, Harry steels himself to go kiss Cho. Ginny shoots him a pained look.

EVERY FEMALE IN THE AUDIENCE: Awwwwwww!
Snookums: *eye roll* Girls.

My Official OOTP One-Word Review: PHWOAR! (That’s a thumbs-up, in other words.)

Seriously, it is becoming more and more apparent that the real intended audience for these movies is grown-up women (and gay men). There’s more fodder for fan fiction in this one movie than in an entire series of Star Trek. I’d pretty much been immune to the Snape-love before, but WHOA. Every time Alan Rickman snaked out a syllable, the women in the audience swooned. And that scene, the one where he’s teaching Harry Occlumency, you know, the one where he warns Harry he’s about to penetrate him…? Uh yeah. Anyway. Man, Daniel Radcliffe is looking really fit, isn’t he? Could there BE anymore shots of his neck or sweaty chest? There could not. (He’s still a bit too pretty in the face for me, but I’m willing to overlook it.) And Sirius was SMOKIN’ in this movie. I know that some folks have been on the Gary Oldman train for years, but I never really got it. Before. Ahem.

But enough about the eye candy. There was lots of other stuff I liked, the most important being that they cut all the crap out of the story. I always found Phoenix too long and confusing, and the movie version boils down the story nicely. (Though it does leave a very obvious plot hole: why the hell does Voldemort suddenly want the prophecy anyway? Not that it matters, since it’s a total MacGuffin and the information itself isn’t exactly earth-shattering.) Helena Bonham-Carter was a complete nutbar, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. The kiss was nicely done. (Though I missed most of the conversation afterwards, as the audience was still rolling from Harry’s “Wet.” comment.) LOVED Fred and George, as usual. Love Ginny, love Neville. Surprisingly, I really liked Luna Lovegood! I never warmed to her in the books and I expected to be ambivalent, but the actress did a great job with it. I loved the fact that they were able to incorporate so much footage from the previous films, like the scene with Harry and the Mirror of Erised.

Also liked: all the typography. I’m serious. Whoever had to design all those newspapers and Educational Decrees did a really good job.

And lastly… Tonks. Yeah, it was purple, and it was briefly red, and she didn’t suck too much… but mostly I’m just glad that she was only in it for two minutes. I’ll have that much more scope for creativity in my costume!

Hmm. It seems I’m not the only one who finds Flickr darn near unusably slow most of the time. 🙁

What the hell is this? It seems to be a trailer for an untitled movie from J.J. Abrams, the Lost and Alias guy. It’s stunning. It’s weird to see a preview for something without a title.

Happy birthday, Sis!

I’ve started an “Australian Knitters” group on Ravelry. I sent out invites to everybody I could see on the location map, but let me know if I missed you. (Actually you don’t need an invitation to join; you can just sign up on the new Groups page.)

In what universe is this hair colour “bubble-gum pink”? THAT IS PURPLE. I am not dyeing my hair purple. The movie people can suck it.

Is anybody else having trouble with Ravelry tonight? I can’t get to it at all.

Five minutes later: Of course, as soon as I post that, it’s up again.

This weekend was all about long periods of quiet knitting time punctuated by brief episodes of crazy social outings. I worked on the Snook’s jumper all day Friday (basically finished the sleeves) before heading out that night for Fiona’s birthday dinner. What fun! Bubbly and lamb shanks and cake and happy children and the Sock Victim. Saturday morning I was back on the couch for the all important Joining of the Sleeves and Body. In the afternoon, we were summoned by Powdered Toast Man to Paddy Maguire’s for beer and conversation. (How nice is it to go to a pub and not end up reeking of smoke? FRICKIN’ EXCELLENT.) We were soon joined by Amy, who whisked us off to Newtown for some Mexican food. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a table at either Chocolate Dog or Newtown’s Cocina. (Since when do you have to make a reservation at a restaurant on South King Street? That’s RIDICULOUS.) We ended up at the swankified Bank, slurping Thai food in the dark out the back and making plans for the Harry Potter trip in two weeks…

Which brings me to this morning. Here I am, sitting at work while hundreds of fans cheer as the sneak preview of Order of the Phoenix begins six blocks away. *sniff* Bastards.