Meme - 30 Days of Harry Potter - DAY 2
After ascertaining that spending five days on an island that depends on sunbathing and coastal swimming from its many beaches to entertain whilst it is raining and extremely misty with my family is not a good idea and results in the most highly-concentrated amount of self-inflicted scratches I've ever felt the need to decorate myself with, I return. Not really in the best of mindsets, it must be said, so I've done this to make me feel better and also because I know you really want to hear more of my emotional, nostalgic blah.
Day 2: Your Favourite Film
Based almost purely on nostalgic value, PS, without a doubt.
PS really fuelled my obsession for many, many months. I was late to the party, having seen it for the first time a good while after it was released in cinemas after being invited by a... friend who couldn't take anyone else from our group because they'd already seen it. Very last resort I may have been, but if she hadn't taken me along, I might never have seen it, due to only fleeting interest on behalf of my family, and other... friends having already watched it.
This was the first time a film really left me breathless and altered me as a person. The only other time this has happened so far was an art class in which I watched Fritz Lang's Metropolis, aged 13.
The warmly-lit set, the magic of the floating candles and the enchanted ceiling, the staircases, statues, ghosts - it seemed to me as though everything was lifted straight from the book and painted in front of my eyes, so vividly that I hardly knew where to look at any given time. And the music. Hedwig's Theme seized hold of my hand, transported me away from the cinema seat and ushered me directly into the cupboard under the stairs with Harry Potter. It inspired me to really try at learning flute because I was so desperate to produce this charming piece of magic. To give you some semblance of how much I still love this melody, consider this: it was the first thing I set as my alarm melody when I got a CD clock-radio in the Christmas of 2002. After thousands of 6ams, 6.45ams, 12pms, on dark winter days and unhappy school mornings, for airport trips and early appointments, and now for university classes and household cleaning, it has remained the same.
Then there was Snape. He was realised precisely how I'd pictured him, and his first appearance sparked my five-year crush on Alan Rickman. I did not have the mythical, turbulent, teenaged sexual awakening that people talk about. My hormones did not push me into fantasising about fucking the boy two rows in front of me in English, or Matt-next-door, or Alan (complete coincidence) who wrote "j'adore tu" instead of "je t'adore" in red marker pen on my whiteboard. I did not want to kiss. I did not want to hold hands. Sex never entered my head. I wanted to study stained leather-bound books with Snape in his office. I wanted to talk to him, to argue with him, to smirk when he said another disparaging turn of phrase about my awful handwriting. To this day, I find the idea of a brooding man with floor-to-ceiling books much more attractive than anything else. I'd forgo sex, kisses, affection altogether, if I could only share his library and his thoughts.
On the day the film was released on home video (we didn't own a DVD player until a while later), I was returning from a school residential. I got home and eagerly ran to the lounge, where lay the VHS ready to be played. I watched it most nights. I got excited every time. Ill one day from school, I was well enough to prop up on the sofa and watch PS. The fever and headache didn't matter: I had Hogwarts and magic.
Never have I been, and I very much doubt I will again be, that obsessed with a film. Each time I saw an actor or actress's name in the television listing, my heart leapt. Seeing Lego sets of the Potions classroom lined up in toy shops made me wild with happiness. I got the game for GameBoy Colour (the PC CD didn't work with my ancient desktop computer) and spent hours and hours and hours on it, starting again when I completed it.
Though I still adore the Potterverse, due to my age and responsibilities I don't rewatch trailers fourteen times. I don't download all the backgrounds and use the Skinkers desktop Owl (remember that?) to get reminders about DVD and game releases. PS is in its well-loved case just above my head on the shelves as I look up. It holds a precious, innocent part of me that I cannot hurt, with self-harm, with anger, with tears, with exhaustion, with exasperation, with the fierce, hard barrier I raise to try and keep my scraps of self-esteem safe. Young, unconcerned, carefree me is in that box.
The rest
The music I'm listening to now is from a beautiful fanmix made by moodilylit and can be found here. I highly suggest downloading it, it's very well-chosen and the cover art is fantastic.
Day 2: Your Favourite Film
Based almost purely on nostalgic value, PS, without a doubt.
PS really fuelled my obsession for many, many months. I was late to the party, having seen it for the first time a good while after it was released in cinemas after being invited by a... friend who couldn't take anyone else from our group because they'd already seen it. Very last resort I may have been, but if she hadn't taken me along, I might never have seen it, due to only fleeting interest on behalf of my family, and other... friends having already watched it.
This was the first time a film really left me breathless and altered me as a person. The only other time this has happened so far was an art class in which I watched Fritz Lang's Metropolis, aged 13.
The warmly-lit set, the magic of the floating candles and the enchanted ceiling, the staircases, statues, ghosts - it seemed to me as though everything was lifted straight from the book and painted in front of my eyes, so vividly that I hardly knew where to look at any given time. And the music. Hedwig's Theme seized hold of my hand, transported me away from the cinema seat and ushered me directly into the cupboard under the stairs with Harry Potter. It inspired me to really try at learning flute because I was so desperate to produce this charming piece of magic. To give you some semblance of how much I still love this melody, consider this: it was the first thing I set as my alarm melody when I got a CD clock-radio in the Christmas of 2002. After thousands of 6ams, 6.45ams, 12pms, on dark winter days and unhappy school mornings, for airport trips and early appointments, and now for university classes and household cleaning, it has remained the same.
Then there was Snape. He was realised precisely how I'd pictured him, and his first appearance sparked my five-year crush on Alan Rickman. I did not have the mythical, turbulent, teenaged sexual awakening that people talk about. My hormones did not push me into fantasising about fucking the boy two rows in front of me in English, or Matt-next-door, or Alan (complete coincidence) who wrote "j'adore tu" instead of "je t'adore" in red marker pen on my whiteboard. I did not want to kiss. I did not want to hold hands. Sex never entered my head. I wanted to study stained leather-bound books with Snape in his office. I wanted to talk to him, to argue with him, to smirk when he said another disparaging turn of phrase about my awful handwriting. To this day, I find the idea of a brooding man with floor-to-ceiling books much more attractive than anything else. I'd forgo sex, kisses, affection altogether, if I could only share his library and his thoughts.
On the day the film was released on home video (we didn't own a DVD player until a while later), I was returning from a school residential. I got home and eagerly ran to the lounge, where lay the VHS ready to be played. I watched it most nights. I got excited every time. Ill one day from school, I was well enough to prop up on the sofa and watch PS. The fever and headache didn't matter: I had Hogwarts and magic.
Never have I been, and I very much doubt I will again be, that obsessed with a film. Each time I saw an actor or actress's name in the television listing, my heart leapt. Seeing Lego sets of the Potions classroom lined up in toy shops made me wild with happiness. I got the game for GameBoy Colour (the PC CD didn't work with my ancient desktop computer) and spent hours and hours and hours on it, starting again when I completed it.
Though I still adore the Potterverse, due to my age and responsibilities I don't rewatch trailers fourteen times. I don't download all the backgrounds and use the Skinkers desktop Owl (remember that?) to get reminders about DVD and game releases. PS is in its well-loved case just above my head on the shelves as I look up. It holds a precious, innocent part of me that I cannot hurt, with self-harm, with anger, with tears, with exhaustion, with exasperation, with the fierce, hard barrier I raise to try and keep my scraps of self-esteem safe. Young, unconcerned, carefree me is in that box.
The rest
The music I'm listening to now is from a beautiful fanmix made by moodilylit and can be found here. I highly suggest downloading it, it's very well-chosen and the cover art is fantastic.