Half Blood Prince is Coming!

After several years of multiple fantasy films coming out, the selection has dwindled and I am eagerly awaiting Movie 6 in the Harry Potter collection. So much so that I like to stop by Mugglenet to check out what they've uncovered as we get closer to the release date of July 17th. The latest news is that you might be able to catch a glimpse of it in AMC theaters:

We've now learned that AMC theaters have started playing a Half-Blood Prince sneak peek of their own, and MuggleNet visitor Ellie wrote in to tell us all about it. This feature was seen during a showing of the new Disney documentary Earth, before the trailers.

New footage included a shot of Slughorn's head popping out of his armchair disguise. The armchair then unfolded and shrunk into Slughorn. There was also a conversation between Harry and Dumbledore atop the Astronomy Tower, a group of Hogwarts students in the Quidditch stands looking up at the sky (maybe at the Dark Mark?), some funny shots of Lavender hitting on Ron, and new interviews with director David Yates and producer David Heyman.

As excited as I am for the new movie to come out, I also see that the end is in sight for this era of fantasy fandom. Once Movie #7 has come and gone, what will become of all the people on Mugglenet or other Harry Potter fan sites? The sites themselves will go the way of the dodo and become only a memory in our minds. This is the web and things change pretty quickly around here. All the more reason to enjoy the present and make the most out of the fan resources that are out there!

Musings on Moving

I remember when I moved into my college dorm way back when I first graduated High School. It was my first time away from home for an extended period of time, and I packed fairly lightly since I was sharing a tiny room with a roommate. Not a month went by when I realized that I missed my copy of The Lord of the Rings terribly and I asked my Dad to send them out to me as a care package, along with more of my art stuff. Fandom and fantasy art go hand-in-hand for me it seems. That's why this blog is becoming more focused on the fan part of things, with my art as an expression of that.

Believe it or not, there are fantasy artists out there who don't care a flying fig about the books, movies, and other fantasy artwork out there. They just jumped on the bandwagon and got in tight with a manufacturer and viola! Fake Fantasy Art. If you're a true fantasy fan artist, like me, you started out showing your stuff at the SF&F conventions, because you were going there anyway! But I digress. It seems that anytime I move, or begin a new phase in my life, I re-read The Lord of the Rings. Nowadays, I tend to just watch the movies again because it feeds more of my senses.

When I was painting the rooms in this house, I put my CD from The Return of the King in the boombox and went to work. Now we are just gathering the last bits from the garage at the other house and we are done! All I have to decide is how I will next experience Middle Earth in celebration of the next great adventure in my life, having just one house!

P.S. Please let me know if you like the new masthead for the blog!! ~BHB~

The Return of the King...and Elves!

Last Friday night I attended The Lord of the Rings - Return of the King viewing party at a friend's house. Long ago, my sister and I played hostess to the first Lord of the Rings party. It too was held on a November night, but the movie had yet to be released in the theater, so we shared what we had downloaded from the official movie website and went from there. When we finally saw it in the theater, it was an incredibly magical event!

But before the film came out, we had the joy of reading the entire series aloud with wine and cheese at the ready. The wine was from Australia because we couldn't find any from New Zealand, where the movie was being made. I bought a copy of the sound track ahead of time and listened to it while painting Merry Meet, a portrait of an elf and fairy sprite meeting in a green wood.

When I look back on that time I remember so much that was wonderful, I loved where I lived at the time and all the memories we created for our friends. Today I still cherish this painting, though the original found a new home the first time I showed it. There are still a few prints left to complete the limited print run of just 100, and now they are available in a larger size than before. I hope the future brings many more wonderful memories of fantasy gatherings as well.