Super Powers

I've been meaning to write about the top three super powers that I want ever since I started watching Heroes again.  Here goes.

1. Teleportation

I believe this to be the ultimate super power for one reason: traveling sucks.  Don't get me wrong - there are some positive aspects of traveling such as catching up on a book while flying, seeing the sights through a train window, taking a road trip with friends, but these things can still be accomplished without the hassle of travel.  I could teleport to a field in some European country and take in the beauty without the hassle of fitting my luggage on the train.  I could teleport to a rocking chair in the south to read a book without going through security.  I could teleport to visit 6 friends in one weekend and see where they live, their families, and their favorite restaurant in town.  I could be closer to everyone I love and be further from everyone I don't.  I could cut out road rage, travel anxiety, and the pain in my ears from the plane landing.  I could teleport to the gym during my lunch break instead of taking the entire time to get there and back.  The possibilities are endless.  I would visit every continent, every country!  I could donate my gas money to charity (I do feel guilty that my top super power is selfish).

2. Human lie detector

At first this was going to be Mind Reader, but then I saw the girl on Heroes who could tell when someone is lying and decided it would be much better.  Knowing everyone's thoughts seems like hell most of the time - it seems the only time i ever really think cohesively is when I'm being judgmental.  Oh man, maybe that's just all I ever think.  Anyway, moving on.  I want to know when people are lying because then I can make intelligent decisions for myself and others.  See, sometimes people lie to me because they don't understand what I'm asking - like if I say to a roommate, "are you staying the night?" she may think I want her to leave when really I just want to know if I should move my car out of the driveway.  So she may say yes just to make me think she's staying to try to ruin my night, but really she's stuck in the driveway now.  I don't really care what she thinks; I just want to know if I have to move the car now or if she's gonna wake me up to move it.  See?  I'm helping us both.  Or if I ask my boss if I can have a day off and he says, "no, we're busy that day" but I can tell he's lying, then I can change my argument; I'll know to come up with a doctor's appointment.  But if he's not lying, I would come to work that day and change my day off - or prove that I'm not busy.  Or if someone says, "I just entered your number wrong on my phone" I will know whether to keep trying to get together with that person or just let them be.  No hard feelings, no one looks foolish.  I'm not trying to call people out on their white lies - I just want to know when I'm being lied to so I don't do the wrong thing.  P.S. if, like on Heroes, I got a tingle whenever someone was lying, I'd have to wear loose fitting pants at work.

3.  Controlling Cars on the Road

This is not a very common super power but it is one that I have truly wished for ever since I started using cruise control regularly.  I enjoy my safety pocket on the highway and I cannot stand when I'm cruising at 70 and the driver next to me keeps going from 65 to 80 and back again.  I want to be able to send this guy ahead of me far enough that his 65 bouts won't affect me.  Also, merging.  Omigod I cannot stand when we're all merging and the driver in front of me won't move into the lane even though there's plenty of space for him.  He's just gotta stay straight even if it means half his car is in the shoulder.  I would be able to squeeze him in right in front of me, in the lane.  Or I'm trying to get onto the highway and the driver on the road won't change to the next lane even though it's free and clear.  I could move him over just until I pass.  Or I'm trying to exit while someone is trying to enter and he slows down even though he's trying to get on the highway, but I slow down because I'm trying to exit and then we're stuck next to each other so neither can move to the desired lane.  I'd sped him up to pass me and enter safely onto the highway.  This super power gives me the ability to make other cars do the right thing - stay at one speed in your own pocket, merge into the lane when it's your clear chance, speed up when getting on the highway, etc.  Not only am I helping myself curb the rage, I'm also helping everyone else get better gas mileage.  Not entirely selfish.  I should give credit where credit is due, though - when I was 15 my mother was dating H.  H was a man who drove a lot.  He was a smoker and not allowed to smoke in our house so he would go for drives, or volunteer to drive me places when I needed.  He had this thing where he would take one hand off the steering wheel and pretend to push the cars in front of him out of the way, like parting the red sea.  Every once in a while a car would move as he did it and would say, "Look!  I did it!"  As a non-driver I thought he was nuts and didn't understand why he was always doing that; I thought he was bored.  But now I realize it was to curb the rage.

Just a little more about HP/country music

I've returned home from HP6 the second time.  On the drive to the theater I caught the end of Brad Paisley's new single "Welcome to the Future."  The part I heard was about how far we've come with racism, I guess.  I was pretty excited about it because a. it's a country song, b. I love shit about racism (positive shit) and c. have the two ever before come together?  In the song he sings about how people burned a cross on the lawn of one his friends in high school.  We know the friend is supposed to be black because he's on the football team and he gets a cross burned on his lawn for asking out the homecoming.  Okay, we're halfway there.  Anyway, then he goes on to sing that we've gone from Rosa Parks to "a man with a dream."  I thought he was going to reference a man in an oval office or something along those lines, and maybe he is in a way?  But then to segue into the chorus he sings, "wake up, Martin Luther: welcome to the future."  Now, if there's anything I like more than positive racist shit, it's Martin Luther King Jr.  But what happened in the song here?  Are we singing about Christianity and the road Lutheranism has taken?  Are we singing about how the Christian KKK has gone from burning crosses to voting for black people?  Or are we honestly supposed to allow poetic license and just know he's singing about MLK Jr?  Also, we went from Rosa Parks to MLKJ?  That 40 years ago!  Does he think that was the end of racism?  We finally get a progress country song and it's only progressed to the 1960's.  Well, after the movie I needed to hear the whole song so I listened on youtube.  It's not mainly about racism at all; it's about progress - cell phones, video chat, and fusing electronic music with country style.  Oh well, I wonder if Lutherans will like it.  Do they still exist even?

Here's my segue to Harry Potter:  The 6th book includes a lot about splitting the soul and the evil that entails.  Somehow I always connected that to a passage from Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail": 

" ... segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality... Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?" 

People must be whole together so that they can be whole within themselves.  Voldemort was always alone; he was without parental love, friendship or companionship.  Therefore, he did not see that splitting his soul was evil because he was in essence already a split soul.  Now it may seem like a stretch but if you know who V'mort is, you know that he not only splits his soul, but also splits the community.  His goal is to weed out the mudbloods and the muggles from the purebloods.  Is this not the same as segregating black and white, Jewish and goy, gay and straight?

Furthermore, in the movie, and now that I think of it, previous movies, there is a strong theme of light and dark.  Slughorn tells Harry that there is light and dark and he tries to stay towards the lighter magic.  Dumbledore fights off death with light and heat.  In the 3rd movie Dumbledore says that in times of darkness one can always turn on the light. etc.  Does this not directly come from MLK saying we must fight darkness with light?  

Have we come a long way from the 1960's?  We still find the need to teach our children about the evils of segregation.  Martin Luther King Jr.'s words are still news to us.  Is it because we only ever read the first half of his "Letter" in school?  Is it because we think we're done and therefore cannot move forward?  Is it because we compare real humans who are different, like gay people, foreigners, and people of color, to vampires , werewolves and wizards?

Harry Potter Review (SPOILER)

I finally saw HP6 and don't really know what to think.  

I'll start with the good:

The three leads' acting was much improved.  I guess after 5 movies you're bound to get a little better.  The crying wasn't laughable like in previous films.  It helped that Harry didn't cry - Radcliffe is pretty bad at it. 

The cinematography was great.  It was shot by the same guy who did Amelie and I read that they had to undo a lot of the editing because the colors, like in Amelie, were "surreal."  I wish I could see that first version.  The shots were almost as nice as HP3, and the magic looked pretty magical.

Michael Gambon, who will never be as good as the late Richard Harris, as Dumbledore, was a bit improved.  He at least got a funny line or two: "Ah, to be young again and feel the sweet sting of love."  I wonder if we will ever find out why they made Dumbledore suck.

The story that Slughorn told Harry about his fish, which was not in the book, was great.  I thought it was sweet and really helped the plotline of Harry's mother being so special.

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was pretty cool too.  It was shot well and looked neat.  I could probably watch a half hour of just people looking through the shop, but that's not really useful.

I liked that we got to see Neville a little.  I didn't realize how little a role he plays in the 6th book.  We read about his classes in the beginning and then he's in the fight at the end (that was cut due to hatin' on Bill?) but that's it, isn't it?

Loved the scene with Harry and Ron lying in bed talking about girls' skin.  Where to boys jerk off at a boarding school?  Must be rough.

Slughorn was good.  Maybe I just enjoyed pretending Bridget Jones' dad is secretly a wizard.

I think I liked that Snape shushed Harry just before offing Dumby.  It helped strengthen the "betrayal."

Aragorn was nicely gross and scary even in death.

Harry was great on Felix.  Loved the cocky know-it-all, slightly drunk act, even though it wasn't what I expected.  Also liked Hermione drunk.

Luna's wrackspurts exist, if not the way she imagines them.  They looked like "Dust."  I was worried for a second that Harry's Daemon would show up too.

Blaise Zabini was hott.

Things I didn't like:

McLagen was hott.  How are we supposed to be against him when he licks his lips at Hermione and is super seductive?

Dumbledore doesn't know what's going on?  He sees Slughorn's true memory and is shocked? Why have they ruined Dumbledore?  Also, is he hitting on Harry?  Is this to set up the post-mortem controversy?  Harry, are you making out with Hermione?  Harry, you need to shave [giggle].  wtf?

Fleur is a great character - why cut her out?  Especially when the movie is all about hormones and she basically represents sexual desire.  Also, Trewlaney must be fun to shoot.  Weird that they would cut such visually exciting characters.

The best part about a crush is the anticipation.  Harry and Ginny don't do it well in the movie.  It's too easy, and when it does happen, it's not special enough.  The most prominent theme in the book is Love, with a capital L and it wasn't payed out well.  I guess it was obvious that they were in love but I think they introduced her too strong, too soon in the movie.

Rowling does a pretty good job of diversifying the student population in the books, and the previous movies have been okay about it.  This movie was awful - why are the Patil twins no longer Indian?  Where are the dred locks? 

Didn't realize how much I liked the Dursleys until they were gone.  I think I just feel bad for the actors.

Snape revealing that he is the HBP was so anti-climactic.  Oh by the way, remember that book you barely talked about this year?  It was mine.  You know the book - the one that helped you in potions?  The one you kinda remember hiding with Ginny?  Oh, did her kiss downplay that part?  You know what I'm talking about; It's the title of the movie.  I guess you don't care, but I am the HBP, just so you know.  Move on, Snape; we don't know what you're referring to.  

Things to Ponder:

Obviously: the Horcruxes.  It was cool that we got to see Dumbledore realize that Harry is one.  That was somehow obvious and subtle at the same time.  Liked it.  BUT, no cup? no snake? no something of Ravenclaw's?  Will it just be the locket and Harry?  Will Harry really figure it all out on his own?  Maybe Dumby will help through Snape more than originally.

Will we get to see the Fleur/Bill wedding even though they were absent?  I guess it's disposable but would be cool to see.  I think they'll do it - they already made Shell Cottage, so we know the couple will be in there somehow.

Will Kreacher be totally out?  My guess it most likely.  Maybe he'll be in the Black house to serve but not help figure out the secret of Regalus.  I hope they still go to the Black house even though we didn't find out in the movie that Harry owns it. I love the scene where Ron and Hermione fall asleep holding hands and Harry feels all alone.

The invisibility cloak was super played down, but the ring was there, as was Dumbledore's wand.  Maybe the invisibility cloak just isn't fun to film?  The stone will def be in the last movie cuz Radcliffe, in an interview, talked about filming the scene with Harry's loved ones walking into the woods.

What will Harry do about Ginny?  Hermione talks in the end about her like she'll be around.  She better not be.  EW's HP6 spread included her in all the shots, so there's a chance she'll have a bigger role than she should.  Maybe they'll play up the female power.

Will they out Dumby?  I think I hope so.  It would be nice to have a little pro-gay/anti-gay theme in the finale, especially if they get the Love theme right. 

If they cut out Xenophilia, I will be so mad.  I still remember how excited I was when I saw that he had his own chapter in the book.  Here's hoping everyone else felt the same.  Luna had a strong presence, and the Quibbler was there, so there's hope.

The Order was almost non-existent.  Will we get to see George's ear cut off?  Seven Harrys?

Will they move the "Other Minister" scene to the 7th movie or cut it completely and introduce him another way.  We know Scrimgeour will be there because he's been cast already, but I do hope to see the muggle minister meet him.  If they're cutting the book into two, they might as well keep all the fun, right?

Exciting stuff!  Can't wait to see it again.