I was there, too! It was so cool! I got some pictures...

Thanks for the report, Nard. I stayed up here in the East and was ecstatic when they began receiving signals. I do not know how much science they are going to get out of the rovers but just getting them there safely is achievement enough for me. But like the last rover the public gives it a thumbs up and flips the channel. It really tries patience when it takes nine days to stand the thing up. Kinda makes me wonder if it would be worth it to send up a cheaper, more exciting muscle car type rover up there and fly around for a day or so.

jfaronson:
Hmm! I didn't carry a balloon.... where abouts were you? (Did you get some good pictures?)

Ought Not:
Pres. Bush was possibly going to announce America's quest to land men on Mars....when everyone celebrated 100th anniversary of flight by Wright Brothers. Now the talk is that he will announce THAT next week. Plans also call for putting a permanent base on the moon....

Have several photos from the Marslanding event that I will post, but either on my website, or as a click-on right here on these postings. Stay tuned!

ALSO:
It was really great to meet actor John Rhys Davies, who portrayed Gimli, in 'The Lord of The Rings', at the Mars event. Talked to him quickly about a couple topics, but later I discovered that he played the Captain in Ray Bradbury's play, 'Leviathan '99', last year. (I first enjoyed Davies in the 'Indiana Jones' movies).


[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 01-09-2004).]

Wow, Nard. I was jealous enough when you said you went out there for that event, and now you said you met Davies! Wasn't he a blast as Gimli? And I know he played a second role, but it's escaping me at this moment (too much wine with dinner...). Treebeard, perhaps? And I'm even more impressed to hear he was in one of Ray's plays!!

I had no idea that Gimli was the guy in the Indiana Jones movies! He was good in LOTR. In fact, Gimli is my favorite of the bunch and he gets very little credit. He was like a rowdy little Irishman.

And as goes the man on the Moon and Mars I'd have to say it is great. The rumor is it's a long plan though and that leaves me very sceptical. President Bush will be retired and fly-fishing by time it gets implemented. And God knows who will be President when it is time to fly. NASA was gutted in the 90's when the economy was as great as it will ever be. I don't know what exactly President Bush has decided on but the only way, I believe, is for a President to say, "We're going up tomorrow."

[This message has been edited by Ought Not (edited 01-09-2004).]

My daughter and I met Davies, and the guys who played Sauron and Wormtongue at a LOTR panel discussion here a few months ago. Davies (and the other two) were extremely gracious and witty. A very pleasant encounter with them.

Nard:

I was right near the front--long brown hair, yellow jacket. I thought that might have been you running around with the digital camera, but I wasn't sure. However, I DID keep looking at you...maybe next time.

I still have to get my pictures developed, since I don't have a digital camera.

jfaronson:

Ha! I think I have a picture of you...taking a picture of the crowd in the auditorium....

Photos:
I'll be posting about 6 or 7 pictures from the Mars event onto my Website this week. Probably get there later part of the week, 15th, or thereabouts will let you know.

I was surprised when I caught a photo of someone handing Ray a contract to sign. It looks probably like a release from something being done at the event, like film or audio interview...

Ray knows what he's signing, I am sure, but with that crush of people, I take it Patrick has a trained 'satellite-eye' also on what Ray signs that's put in front of him...



[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 01-10-2004).]

After finding the phrase "Something Wicked" at the beginning of (I SWEAR!) a Partridge Family novel, I did a search on eBay and came up with 189 items! It seems to appear in quite a few album titles/songs. If the PF reference was inspired by Bradbury's use, it entered the language pretty quickly, as the PF novels appeared less than a decade after Bradbury's work.

That's very interesting. I still think it was Bradbury who popularized it, and therefore inspire MOST of today's uses of the phrase. Ten years is plenty of time for a phrase to become common within a language, especially in a society like ours with so much advertisement and sharing of ideas. For example, upcoming editions of the Oxford English dictionary will include the word "muggle" as an entry, from the Harry Potter books. The phrase "Something wicked..." had already entered the language long before and was surely widely known, being that it was Shakespeare, with all his fame and popularity, who wrote it. It had entered the language, but it was Bradbury who made its use common in more recent days.

Well, with all the previous posts, the new Harry Potter movie opens soon, and it shall still have scenes with "Something Wicked This Way Comes" both seen and sung. Previous posts said it was probably for initial advertising. But a trailer shown a couple weeks ago at the theater, has a new version that appears to hold that scene as a part of the movie.

So... what's the latest general consensus?

Is the line simply picked by Rowlings as line from Shakespeare?

Is she a sort of silent Ray Bradbury reader, paying a sneaky homage to Ray?

None the the above.

Both of the above.

Or something wickedly else?

Nard:

I stand firm that it's a the line is an influence from Shakespeare, not Bradbury.
there are major Shakespearean references all through the books, starting with Muggles.

According to recent documentary on PBS, a street in Shakespeare's childhood neighborhood was called something like "Muggle Lane."

The Weird Sisters, a wizarding rock band introduced, I believe, in book 4, are another name for the witches in Macbeth.

I know there are many more, but these are the two that come to mind immediately...

Agreed with Jfaranson, but the question is whether she took them from Shakespear, or from Bradbury. Bradbury might have taken it from Shakespeare, but she might have only read Bradbury. Though I doubt that - she being British and all.

Cheers, Translator

Well, someone just has to get a letter together and mail it to Rowlings, asking her point blank... '''how did that line from Shakespeare get into the conversation of Harry Potter? A Bradbury influence?'''

Anyone know the glorious address, or the thereabouts, of that 'etherial' Rowlings neighborhood...?

There have to be one or more message boards with know-all fans, but with someone as popular as Rowling it would be all too easy to go "diagonally" and end up in Knockturn Alley with the mean, flamethrowing fans. To keep things safe, I will post the query on my nice book groups!