We always get comments about how when they listen to our podcast, people feel like they’re getting a glimpse into our lives. They usually follow up with a statement about how they love the rapport the two of us have. Well, for those of you who like HPProgs for the intimate way we welcome you [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #87: Our Worst Episode Ever: Plus: Twilight vs. Harry Potter

Hopefully by now, you’ve seen the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We sat down immediately after watching to record out thoughts. What do you think of the trailer? Does the voice of the woman in the orphanage belong to J.K. Rowling?
You can listen to the podcast with the [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #86: Half Blood Prince Trailer Podcast

By Matthew
Let us know what you reckon about the new Trailer.
The poll is right there on the right, scroll down a little, there you go!

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Continue reading → New Poll: What does the Half-Blood Prince movie trailer do for you?

One of the over-arching meta-themes of the Harry Potter books is, without a doubt, choice. From early on the books the theme of choice is empasised, when the Sorting Hat defers to Harry’s wish to be in Gryffindor, or when Dumbledore makes it clear to Harry that it is his choices, far more than abilities [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #85: Free Will and Choice in Harry Potter

The first official Half Blood Prince Teaser is now being shown at Imax viewings of the Dark Knight movie. BlogHogwarts.com put it up on youtube and you can see it here:

I think we can all agree that the HPProgs/Hogshead collaborative trailer is MUCH better than this one. Can’t we?

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Continue reading → First Official Half Blood Prince Teaser Online

As you may have read, we just got back from Portus 2008, a Harry Potter convention that took place July 10-13 in Dallas, Texas.  And, guess what?  We had a blast!  From Jim Dale giving a live performance, to meeting lots of fun and interesting people, it was a great time.  We sat right down [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #84: Post Portus Podcast

We showed this teaser trailer (which may or may not…ok, may not, be the teaser trailer for the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie) at our panel at the Portus Podcast Palooza (which was awesome, thank you so much for everyone who came to our panel).

Thanks to Travis for joining us!

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Continue reading → Half Blood Prince Teaser Trailer…Revealed?

We’re back for another action-packed episode of Patterns in Potter.  This time, we take on the latest contender in the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows.  We begin with an analysis of the prologue, of both The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus, and William Penn’s More Fruits of Solitude.  From there, we discuss the apparent connection to Chapters 2 and 3, [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #83: Patterns in Potter - Deathly Hallows

This appeared in a survey I took from Borders Books. It seems that it might be some kind of Half Blood Prince Promotional poster which will grace the cover of the book once the movie comes out. What are your thoughts?

What do you think? Could this be the new Harry Potter and the Half Blood [...]

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Continue reading → Half Blood Prince Movie Poster?

This week, we discuss J.K. Rowling’s commencement address to Harvard University’s graduating class of 2008 (with audio snippets!) and conclude our Patterns in Potter discussion for the theme of Book 6.
JK Rowling’s Speech at the Harvard Commencement
We look forward to hearing from you. You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your [...]

Continue reading → Episode #81: Patterns in Potter, Book 6 - Definitely Evil

By Matthew
I’ve been reading through Lewis’ The Problem of Pain and the bells started to ring when reading the chapter on Hell.
Our Lord speaks of Hell under three symbols: first, that of punishment; second, that of destruction; and thirdly, that of privation, exclusion, or banishment into “the darkness outside”…
…Destruction, we should naturally assume, means the [...]

Continue reading → C.S. Lewis describes Voldemort’s hell, Caspian movie problem and why Rowling spoils it for everyone.

This week, we begin our Patterns in Potter coverage for Book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The theme of this book is quite ambiguous; in fact, it is ambiguous. Sorry if I’m not being too clear here, but you’ll have to listen to the podcast to figure the rest out.
In the [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #80: Patterns in Potter, Book 6 - Black, White and Gray

Hey everyone.  Believe it or not, Greg and I are both under the weather right now and if we would sit down to podcast tonight the result would be a raspy, nasal, and moany sounding episode.  So we are going to do you all a favor and not subject you to our ailments.
We won’t be [...]

Continue reading → What’s Going On

by Matthew
I’ve been listening to my BBC LOTR and have been enjoying the adaption. Its interesting to me how different people have made the story fit into their production’s available time. Listening to this has made me more tolerant of changes that need to be made to fit the story in. I [...]

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Continue reading → Quality Audio Productions

This week, we finish up our Patterns in Potter discussion for Book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  This time, we focus on Harry’s visions (courtesy of Lord Voldemort) and his driving urge to understand the truth of these visions, and what knowledge they can bring in aiding in the fight against evil.  It’s quite [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #79: Harry Potter and Gödel’s Theorem

In the week’s episode, we continue our discussion of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the central theme of truth and knowledge, specifically how the book presents the theme in context of Hogwarts, education, careers and experiential vs. learned/taught knowledge.  It’s even more exciting that I can describe.
We look forward to hearing [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #78: The Truth Hurts

Amazon has announced the semi finalists for the Beedle The Bard Ballad Writing Contest.

Vote for your favourite in the 13-17 age group
Vote for your favourite in the 18-and-over age group

Through May 11, 2008, Amazon customers are invited to vote for their favorite submission in both age groups. Each winner will receive a $1,000 Amazon Gift [...]

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Continue reading → Amazon Announces Semi-Finalists For the Beedle The Bard Ballad Contest

In what will go down in history as being HPProgs’ finest hour *or* our worst episode yet, we bring to you Episode #77. We decided to go a slightly different route for part of this episode and after our very short news discussion we re-enacted part of the J.K. Rowling vs. Steve Vander Ark/RDR [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #77: A Dramatization; and, Patterns in Potter, Book 5

Thanks to Travis for the heads up that for the first time in ten years a Harry Potter book is NOT on the New York Times Best -Seller List.
What is interesting is that this comes on the same day as Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People came out with JK Rowling conspicuously NOT on the [...]

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Continue reading → Is Harry Potter Becoming Obsolete?

This is exciting news!
    BALTIMORE, April 25 /PRNewswire/ — Becker Group, in partnership with
Warner Bros. Consumer Products, today announced it will bring worldwide
audiences “Harry Potter: The Exhibition,” a state-of-the-art exhibition
highlighting artifacts from the Warner Bros. films based on J.K. Rowling’s
beloved book series. The 10,000 square foot experience will premiere in
Spring 2009 in a major market, [...]

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Continue reading → Harry Potter Coming To YOUR Town? Harry Potter Exhibition Announced

Hi Everyone!  This is just a heads up that as of now, we will not be releasing episode 77 this week.  Things are very busy around here and unfortunately there is no time to prepare, record, and edit the episode this week.
  We look forward to returning next week for our regularly scheduled episode, and [...]

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Continue reading → Episode 77

Ginny, have you seen my Firebolt?
The trial over Steve Vander Ark and his Harry Potter Lexicon continued today in New York, in what appears to be the final day of testimony. According to the WSJ Law Blog (which may be suing HPProgs for copyright, as we’ve been linking to and excerpting from the quite [...]

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Continue reading → J.K. Rowling/Steve Vander Ark Trial Continues; Day 3

Well the hopes of a full settlement were apparently too much to ask for. Darn. The WSJ law blog tells us that when the courts reconvened today, the attorneys informed Judge Patterson that they had reached a settlement only on the false advertising and deceptive trade practices claims. This means only that neither J.K [...]

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Continue reading → Partial Settlement Reached in JK Rowling/Steve Vander Ark Trial

This week, we take a break from the Patterns in Potter series to disucss the court case currently underway in New York between J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. on one side, and RDR Books and Steve VanderArk on the other.  There’s been excellent coverage of the trial (and interesting comments) over on the WSJ Law [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #76: Harry Potter Goes To Court

Apparently, Judge Robert Patterson feels similarly to many Potter fans. Towards the end of today, he asked both parties involved if they could reach a settlement, stating that he feels that the case between JK Rowling and Steve Vander Ark/RDR Publishers has become more lawyer-driven than client-driven.
The Wall Street Journal Court Blog reports the [...]

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Continue reading → The Judge Wants a Settlement

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has posted another great entry about the JKR/RDR/SVA court case. SVA testified today.
What’s More Important to the Parties? Money or Passion? Yesterday, Rowling said the case isn’t about money, but about principle. One of RDR’s lawyers, Anthony Falzone, in his opening remarks said that for Vander Ark it was [...]

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Continue reading → Steve Vander Ark Testifies

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has given a report on some of today’s court proceedings.
According to the Law Blog, the heart of this case is the  fair-use doctrine which according to the US Copyright Act is explained as follows:
One of the rights accorded to the owner of copyright is the right to reproduce or [...]

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Continue reading → More on Today’s Testimonies

NEW YORK - J.K. Rowling said Monday that her efforts to halt a publisher’s “Harry Potter” lexicon have been crushing her creativity.
Rowling said she has stopped work on a new novel because the lawsuit in federal court has “decimated my creative work over the last month.”
Rowling is suing RDR Books to stop publication of Steven [...]

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Continue reading → Testimonies Have Begun

JKR/RDR/SVA: really bad shipping idea?
Well…yes, but they are also the key players in the trial which will begin this week in New York City.
The showdown between Rowling and Steven Vander Ark is scheduled to last most of the week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Rowling is scheduled to testify Monday in a [...]

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Continue reading → JKR/RDR/SVA Trial To Begin This Week

Broadway Equus dates have been announced:
As previously reported by Playbill.com, Daniel Radcliffe and Tony and Olivier Award winner Richard Griffiths — who played to sold-out crowds in the London revival — will reprise their work for Broadway audiences. Radcliffe will star as Alan Strang with Griffiths as Dr. Martin Dysart. Opening night at the Broadhurst [...]

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Continue reading → For Those of You Interested in Seeing Dan Radcliffe and a Horse

It is possible that this has been up for weeks but I just noticed that the Formal Programming for Portus has been announced on the website.
My two roundtable discussions are included. 
If you haven’t decided whether to come to Portus or not yet, maybe this programming list will help you make your decision. 
It is going to be amazing. Nuff said.

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Continue reading → Portus Formal Programming

Last week, we introduced pride as the theme of Book 4, with a focus on both personal and communal pride, and how nationalism, racism and other -isms can flow from pride. This week, we continue our discussion of Goblet of Fire and the theme of pride, listen to a few comments, and have an [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #75: Patterns in Potter, Book 4 - Pride

This week, we continue our Patterns in Potter series, beginning our examination of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  In this episode, we discuss the main theme for Book 4, pride, and how Harry’s experiences in the beginning of Book 4 relate to this theme.  Pride, both personal and external, comes before a fall, and there’s no bigger fall for the wizarding [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #74: Pride Before The Fall

In this week’s episode, we finished our discussion on the theme of emotion in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We talked about the Dementors and their effect on the soul, as well as their antidote: the Patronus, and the necessary requirements to conjure one.  This was actually an off the cuff, un-planned discussion [...]

Continue reading → Episode #73: Patterns in Potter, Prisoner of Azkaban - The Pit of Despair

I don’t know. 
That was a lie. 
I do know. But I don’t want to tell you.
Fine, I’ll tell you.  It hasn’t been recorded yet. Greg and Penny the Harry Potter Procrastinators, I mean Prognosticators, pushed off recording until tonight (Monday evening).  We were going to record but I (Penny) starting to get either a migraine or [...]

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Continue reading → Where’s Episode 73?

I stumbled across this video today. Coincidence? You decide.
Warning: there is some explicit language, so don’t watch if that’s a concern.

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Continue reading → Speaking of Harry Potter Addiction…

by Dave,
I give a presentation at the College English Association in a couple of weeks discussing storytelling in relationship to videogames. In all my reading for this, one book I’m focusing on is by Marie-Laure Ryan, titled Narrative as Virtual Reality. In one part of her book, she begins discussing how immersive a [...]

Continue reading → Use Your Imagination!

Firstly, we apologize for the lateness of this episode. If you have been paying attention to the goings on at this blog, you’ll know that I have been ready to be committed to St. Mungos Psych ward because of all the problems editing this episode. It has taken 3 days and it is finally ready [...]

Continue reading → Episode #72: Harry Potters Anonymous

Hey everyone. We are a bit late on episode 72, we plan on putting it up tomorrow evening (March 10). Just to give you a preview, we are taking a break from Patterns in Potter this week. We interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Rudski about Harry Potter Addiction. The interview was quite eye-opening.   The rest of [...]

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Continue reading → Status of Episode 72

In this week’s episode we started our discussion on the prevailing theme in Prisoner of Azkaban: Emotions. Between the Aunt Marge debacle, the werewolf in his midst, the various animals and animaguses (I never learned how to pluralize that) in the book, and time travel, Harry was forced to learn the importance of keeping [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #71: Patterns in Potter - Lost in Emotion

In this week’s episode we started our discussion on the prevailing theme in Prisoner of Azkaban: Emotions. Between the Aunt Marge debacle, the werewolf in his midst, the various animals and animaguses (I never learned how to pluralize that)  in the book, and time travel, Harry was forced to learn the importance of keeping his [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #71: Patterns in Potter - Lost in Emotion

by Dave
A standard literary trope is to set characters against each other, playing one’s personna in relationship to another. Typically, we find the “arch”-nemesis, especially in adventure or heroic stories. The main character is opposed by a primary antagonist, and the juxtaposition of these characters reveals something about one or both to the [...]

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Continue reading → The Snaped Crusader (#2): The Rise and Fall of Harry’s Nemesis

In this week’s episode we started to discuss the theme of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Identity.   As usual, the theme is present from the beginning of the book at the Dursley’s  and continues to make its appearance throughout the book. We talked about Harry’s struggle with identity and how it relates to other characters [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #69: Patterns in Potter, Book 2 - Crisis of Identity

In this week’s episode we continued our discussion on Power as the prevaling theme in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. We specifically addressed the invisibility cloak and Mirror of Erised and their roles in bringing the theme to life. We also had some great listener comments in MP3 form from: Shimon, Aaron, David & [...]

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Continue reading → Episode #68: