Cosplay Gallery: Fantasy Films

In the last few years, most of the major comic book conventions have become dominated by television and movies. I think there are a lot of hardcore geeks who have a serious problem with this, but I could go either way: There is now more money going into comic books and more awareness as a result of bringing these together, but then again, it kind of dilutes the convention into a popular culture/Hollywood convention and pops the bubble of the comic book reader microcosm. But when it comes to really creative Cosplay, I have only one answer: Whether it has to do with television, movies, comic books or video games, as long as it's a good costume, I'm in. These costumes from Dragon Con 2011 and Otakan 2011 are just the good costumes I was talking about.

Harry Potter

Red Sonja

Winged Monkey

Songs of the Sorting Hat

In celebration of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 coming to theaters, Paste Magazine released a series of playlists appropriate for the four Hogwarts houses of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

The first thing that you have to do is take The Hogwarts Sorting Hat quiz to determine what house you belong to. (I refrained from taking any such test because I knew that I would be horribly disappointed if I ended up with anything but Gryffindor. I was happy to find that this particular test placed me in Gryffindor among the brave and the bold.)

The next step is to listen to the playlist that corresponds to the house that was chosen for you. Sadly, Paste only lists the song. You're responsible to gather them through whatever means, legal or otherwise, you are accustomed to using. Here are the playlists for each house.

Gryffindor

Mascot: Lion

Traits: Courage, Daring, Nerve, Chivalry

1. The Flaming Lips - "The W.A.N.D."

2. The Replacements - "I Will Dare"

3. The Hold Steady - "Stay Positive"

4. The Lovemongers - "The Battle of Evermore"

5. U2 - "Pride (In the Name of Love"

6. Pink Floyd - "When the Tigers Broke Free"

7. Sigur Rós- "Hoppipolla"

8. Otis Redding - "That's How Strong My Love Is"

9. My Morning Jacket - "What a Wonderul Man"

10. Drivin' N' Cryin' - "Fly Me Courageous"

11. Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Fight Like a Brave"

12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Gold Lion"

Hufflepuff

Mascot: Badger

Traits: Hard work, loyalty, tolerance, fair play

1. The Whigs - "Right Hand on My Heart"

2. The Avett Brothers - "Hard Worker"

3. Ryan Adams - "Perfect and True"

4. The Youngbloods - "Get Together"

5. Bob Dylan - "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"

6. Aretha Franklin - "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man"

7. James Taylor - "You Got a Friend"

8. Jack Johnson - "Hope"

9. Dispatch - "Carry You"
10. Dave Matthews Band - "Steady As We Go"
11. Hootie & the Blowfish - "Let Her Cry"

12. Tea Party - "The Badger"

 

Ravenclaw

 Mascot: Eagle

Traits: Intelligence, creativity, wit and wisdom

 

 

1. Vampire Weekend - "Oxford, Comma"

2. Andrew Bird - "Scythian Empires"

3. Midlake - "Young Bride"

4. Yo-Yo Ma - "The Eternal Vow"

5. The Long Winters - "Copernicus"

6. Blackalicious - "Chemical Calisthenics"

7. Vic Chesnutt - "Strange Language"

8. The Decemberists - "The Island"

9. TV on the Radio - "New Health Rock"

10. Talking Heads - "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)"

11. R.E.M. - "Moral Kiosk"

12. Steve Miller Band - "Fly Like an Eagle"

 

Slytherin

Mascot: Snake

Traits: Ambition, cunning, resourcefulness

 

 

 

1. Sixteen Horsepower - "Coal Black Horses"

2. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "Red Right Hand"

3. The White Stripes - "Conquest"

4. The Raveonettes - "Bowels of the Beast"

5. Tom Waits - "Little Drop of Poison"

6. Mastodon - "Oblivion"

7. Black Sabbath - "Black Sabbath"

8. The Rolling Stones - "Paint It Black"

9. The Sex Pistols - "Anarchy in the U.K."

10. Drive-By Truckers - "Cottonseed"

11. Ween - "Buenos Tardes Amigo"

12. Marilyn Manson - "Snake Eyes and Sissies"

 

If you want to read the original article, click here.

Wizard People, Dear Reader

Wizard People, Dear Reader is an alternate soundtrack to the film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone made by Brad Neely in 2004. The idea is that you mute the film and play Neely's thirty-five chapter audio book instead of the film's original audio track. It's similar to the idea that you can play the album Dark Side of the Moon as an alternate audio track to The Wizard of Oz, or The Dark Side of Oz, as the conglomerate has become widely known.

There are three ways that Wizard People, Dear Reader can be experienced.

The first and second involve getting a hold of Brad Neely's audio track and matching it with the film yourself, and lucky for us, a web site called Illegal Art has made that really easy. They even included instructions on how to make sure the audio track matches the video track.

The first way of viewing Wizard People, Dear Reader involves downloading the audio track from Illegal Art. There are two tracks that can be burned onto two CDs. Simply right-click them and select Save Link As... Disc 1. Disc 2. I'm certain that the audio track, as well as a dubbed version, are probably available on most of the more popular torrent sites, if you're into that sort of thing.

The second way of viewing Wizard People, Dear Reader involves sending $28 to Illegal Art to obtain a 2-disc hard copy of the audio track. If you enjoy what Illegal Art does, this is a good option, because it helps fund the non-profit devoted to keeping art free. Order Wizard People, Dear Reader here.

The third way of viewing Wizard People, Dear Reader is via the thirty-five chapters that are already matched with their corresponding movie scenes and made available via YouTube on the HarryPotterCentral channel. I was planning on embedding them on this blog, but since there is matched content from the movie that's not possible, so here are the individual chapter links.

Chapter 1: Power-Baby --- Chapter 2: Pork Family Project --- Chapter 3: Harry's Depression --- Chapter 4: Hagar's Gifts --- Chapter 5: London's Bowels --- Chapter 6: With Money I Am Safe --- Chapter 7: Brandish This! --- Chapter 8: Valmart's Club --- Chapter 9: Whooshers --- Chapter 10: The Bear, The Wretch --- Chapter 11: "F*ck Yes," Says Fate --- Chapter 12: Fortune's Grind --- Chapter 13: Food and Phantoms --- Chapter 14: First Day Sucks It --- Chapter 15: missing... --- Chapter 16: Jesus Christers! --- Chapter 17: More Training --- Chapter 18: missing... --- Chapter 19: The Cribbage Match --- Chapter 20: missing... --- Chapter 21: Christmas Yes! --- Chapter 22: Invisibility On! --- Chapter 23: The Gate of Sh*t --- Chapter 24: Hagar's Tale --- Chapter 25: Guess the F*ck What? --- Chapter 26: Harry Boils --- Chapter 27: Wizard's Release --- Chapter 28: The Bear is God --- Chapter 29: The Bear is Dead --- Chapter 30: Holy F*cking Sh*t!! --- Chapter 31: Holy F*cking Sh*t 2 --- Chapter 32: Harry Kicks Back --- Chapter 33: We Are Gods! --- Chapter 34: Awkward Embracers --- Chapter 35: End Credits

Harry Potter: Don't Ask, Don't Spell