If it weren’t enough that Half Blood Prince is going to be screened at an Imax theater, or that there will be an awesome “Masters of Harry Potter” Business track, or that the formal and academic programming will be amazing, the folks at Azkatraz 2009 have made another VERY exciting announcement:

In conjunction with HP Alliance, HPEF is taking wizard rock into San Francisco Bay on Friday, July 17, 2009 with WROCK AROUND THE ROCK, a four-hour cruise featuring wrock, games, and a Magical/Muggle tour of Alcatraz from the water.

There will be food, an open bar (three hour open bar with alcohol available for a small additional fee), and music from Brian from the Draco Malfoys, The Remus Lupins, The Whomping Willows, The House of Black, Ministry of Magic and more!

Also, we’ll have one deck on the yacht that’s music-free, with space for games, conversation and, of course, food!

If you want to see all of the information about the cruise, go to the Azkatraz 2009 website for the details.

You can register for Azkatraz 2009 here. (Remember to write hpprogs in the referral section.)

We can’t wait to meet you at Azkatraz. And in the meantime, keep on wrocking (and prognosticating)!

Hey everybody!  We’re back for another exciting episode of HPProgs!

We don’t have much to talk about this week.  It’s October which means we have to announce the winner of our September Beedle the Bard YouTube contest.  And we do, in the podcast.  So take a listen!  Also, we were at the New York City Wizard Rock Festival (which, after typing that out, I now know why everyone referred to as NYCWRF).  It was awesome, we got to hear lots of amazing bands, and meet lots of amazing people.  If you were there, let us know what you thought of it!

And that’s about it!  Stay tuned we’ve got some good stuff coming in the next few weeks.  And make sure to check out HPProgs on YouTube, and enter the Beedle the Bard YouTube contest, if you haven’t alraedy (or even if you have, enter again!).  You could win a copy of the deluxe edition of the new Beedle the Bard book coming out in December.

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp.

You can listen to the podcast with the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

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It’s our one year podcastversary! We’re really excited that we’ve made it one whole year, and were really happy that all of you have been along for the ride! In celebration, we’ve got a bit of a potpourri for you in our special anniversary episode. We’ve got news, games, music, contest winners and, of course, a tiny little bit of prognosticating.

A special thanks to *you*; we couldn’t have done it with you.

In the news:

• Harry Potter the highest grossing movie franchise in history: until the Star Wars fans calculate the rate of inflation.
• Scholastic announced which schools will be part of JKR’s tour in LA and New Orleans.
• JKR coming to Toronto- Greg in Toronto better go.
• Jim Broadbent will play Horace Slughorn in HBP.
• OOTP movie being released on December 11. New boxed set with a lot of cool stuff as well.
• First complete set of signed Harry Potter books now up for auction. In a related story, we have declared bancruptcy.

You can listen to the podcast with the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

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