Changing it up

     Nothing can stay the same forever, including Harry Potter. Scholastic has released a new cover for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second novel in the series. They have done this to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Harry Potter series.
      This morning, May 30th,  Ellie Berger, the President of Scholastic Trade Publishing, Arthur A. Levine, Vice President and award winning artist Kazu Kibuishi unveiled the cover of the new trade paperback of J.K. Rowling’s second Harry Potter book at Book Expo America in New York City. The cover is shown below.

Merlin's Beard!

I titled this blog "Merlin's Beard!" because in Harry Potter that is like saying oh darn. I also picked that phrase because I will be talking about beards. I have decided to rate the bearded characters from least to greatest based on beard. I also included some people based on mustache.

 

Barely a real beard, nice mustache though. This is werewolf Remus Lupin. Father of Teddy Lupin and Husband of Nymphadora Tonks. He met his demise in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

 

 

 

This beard has great style. In the photo above is Sirius Black, Harry's God father. He was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

 

 

That mustache, I know this on beards but damn that's awesome. This Flius Flitwick, more commonly known as Professor Flitwick. He teaches the charms class at Hogwarts.

 

 

Albus Dumbledore, both actors possessed great facial hair. Dumbledore was Headmaster at Hogwarts. He was killed by Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

 

 

Hagrid wins.

Potter Puppet Pals

Potter Puppet Pals is a web series with puppets that parodies the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. It was started by Neil Cicierega. The first couple episodes were animated, both posted in 2003 with Newgrounds. On the 26th of September, 2006, the series was launched  again on YouTube under Cicierega's page as "Potions Class". Six more episodes were released by Cicierega between 2006 and 2009. About one year after episode seven was released a new video appeared on Neil's channel announcing channel for just Potter Puppet Pals. That same day, three more videos were released on this new channel.

 

A popular Potter Puppet Pals video ^^^

Would you hire him?

I imagine this would be what Harry's resume looked like when he applied to the Ministry of Magic. He works as an auror there when he is all grown up.

Potter is moving up in the world

You may remember me blogging about the Orlando's "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" back in 2012, if you don't that's okay. Here is a link to that.

    In the couple of years since Universal Orlando Resort announced that they would be expanding the hugely popular The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, there had been no official confirmation on what exactly that would entail. It wasn’t the world’s best-kept secret though, as theme park-focused websites have heavily tracked the progress of the expansion, learning many details along the way. This continued in the past year, as you could watch the huge construction on the new section, occurring at Universal Studios Florida.

     Today, (May 8th) Universal at last have officially announced the focus of the expansion, confirming the expected information. Where the original section of the Wizarding World was modeled on Hogsmeade (named my blog after that!) and Hogwarts, the new section is Diagon Alley, located in London in the Harry Potter books and films. What’s very notable is that the two sections are at two completely different theme parks – Universal’s Islands of Adventure (the home of the original Wizarding World) and Universal Studios Florida are located right by each other, but with separate entrances and attractions. To travel from one part of the Wizarding World to the other, visitors will ride the Hogwarts Express. The expansion will open sometime in 2014.