Neo Potter
What follows are three seemingly-unrelated things which, if you have patience, will all come around at the end.
ONE.
Let’s start by saying I know very little if anything about Harry Potter. This is because I haven’t read the books and, therefore, should keep my mouth shut (which was also my stance on the Million Little Pieces debacle: don’t know, haven’t read it, should probably get around to it so I can offer some informed opinion but right now I’ve just got other things going on). That said, I lovelovelove it that millions of people are READING, that they’re lining up around bookstores for tomorrow’s release of the next Harry Potter installment as though it were an iPhone, a Wii or a Cabbage Patch kid circa 1982. It’s kinda like how I was student teaching when the Leonardo Di Caprio Romeo and Juliet came out, and some kids came running into class asking if we could read Shakespearre ‘cause, like, the movie was sooo cool!
TWO.
Please buy your books from independent bookstores. Some suggestions: Myopic, Quimby’s, Book Cellar, Unabridged and—my favorite since we moved North, the place that gets the bulk of my money and love ‘cause not only are they well stocked and will order (fast) whatever’s not in house, they also they have all sorts of great readings and discussions and crazy magazines and they support local writers and zines and once I even went in there and was like, “Hi, uhm, there’s this book I want and when Holly recommended it to me I wrote it on my hand but that was yesterday and I’ve since taken a shower and I don’t know the title or author except I know it’s new and there’s a girl on the cover and it’s interconnected short stories and maybe the writer works for The Believer but I might be making that up?” and instead of telling me I was a ginormous asshole (which I would have told myself had I been working there when I came in), the super-nice (and also cute/funky) girl working there FOUND IT—Women and Children First over in Andersonville, who are sponsoring a neighborhood-wide Harry Potter release party tomorrow night.
THREE.
My favorite theater company in this city is, hands down, the Neo-Futurists. Always has been, since I first saw Too Much Light when I was twenty and drooled over my program. At that point in my life, when asked, ”What are you going to DO with yourself, Megan?” (a question which I heard a great deal of seeing as I was about to graduate, that time in a young girl’s life where everyone and their mother thinks they have the right to get all up in your future and what you’re SUPPOSED to say is, “I got a job in a high school!” or “I got a job in a law firm!” or anything prefaced with “I got a job”) I would say, “I’m going to be a Neo FUTURIST! I’m going to write three minute plays about whatever the Hell, and I’m going to jump around on that stage in Andersonville in front of packed crowds three nights a week and also I’ll drink Bourbon and maybe change the world!”
Long story short: While I DO drink bourbon, write about whatever the Hell and try to change the world, I am not a Neo Futurist.
I have, however, been lucky enough to work with them, and will be doing so again THIS FRIDAY on a show they’re doing in association with Women and Children First Bookstore and the Andersonville Neighborhood wide Harry Potter Release Party.
Let us recap: Have I read Harry Potter?
No.
Have I recently been living in a barn and are therefore unaware of the huge impact these books have had on our society as a whole, rending myself unable to come up with any sort of Harry Potter-related commentary?
No.
So should this therefore be fun?
Hell YES. Especially because this is with the Neo-Futurists (insert uncontrollable drooling). Especially because this is for Women and Children First, a bookstore that I love so much I would, if asked, do a reading about Danielle Steel or people.com (not saying that those two examples are in line with Harry Potter because, if you recall, I HAVE NOT (yet) READ HARRY POTTER AND HAVE NO RIGHT TO SUCH COMPARISONS sort of like how my Uncle (who is A. my favorite and B. a Republican but still C. an awesome guy because we learn from each other) and I got all sorts of drunk together (bad!) and I brought up something about Farenheit 9/11 and he said, “I’m not going to spend my money on that trash!” and I gave a very impressive soliloquy about how one cannot judge something one hasn’t seen and then later, in the same conversation, heard myself saying, “Passion of the CHRIST? I’m not going to waste my money on— ” and as the words came out of my mouth I realized the enormity of my hypocrisy and so, the very next day, I rented that Mel Gibson movie and you know what? I WAS RIGHT! BUT YOU STILL NEED PROOF, PEOPLE!
What was I talking about?
OH YES.
Tomorrow night. Details above.