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)!

For our pre-Beedle the Bard release episode, we couldn’t think of a better person to talk to than Travis Prinzi, from the Hogs Head. As you may (or may not) know, Travis is an expert on fairy tales and he spoke to us about why Fairy Tales Matter and why they shouldn’t be dismissed. We also spoke about the concept of having a fairy tale within a fairy tale: specifically Beedle the Bard in Harry Potter. Travis had a whole lot of interesting information and we can’t wait for you to hear what he had to say.

Travis has a book coming out in several weeks titled: Harry Potter and Imagination: The Way Between Two Worlds. It is now available fore pre-order, so make sure you check it out!!

We also discussed the results of our Beedle the Bard Contest, which we wrote about in the last blog post.

And make sure you check out the information on helping out the HPEF while making holiday purchases (including Beedle the Bard!) at Barnes and Noble during the beginning of December.

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

After almost four months, I have finally gotten around to uploading the video from my round table discussion at Portus. The reason I chose to do this is three fold. Or would that be tri-fold? I don’t know. In any event….here are the reasons why I am finally posting this video:

1. This round table discussion was standing room only. Not only was I proud of the fact that it was such a well attended session at Portus; but the conversation was great and I wanted everyone in the HPProgs world to be able to watch and hear it.

2. Some of you might be on the fence about attending Azkatraz 2009 and I wanted you all to be able to see an example of *some* (and believe me everything else is MUCH better than anything I could do) of the programming at an HPEF event. Also I truly believe that the HPProgs listeners are some of the most intelligent people in the HP fandom and I wanted you to see that if an idiot like me could do a session, so can you.

3. We got this snazzy video camera, I have a Mac with decent video editing software and I was in the mood to use them both:)

So without further ado, here is the video footage from the discussion, “Voldemort Understands Nothing: Why This Led To His Ultimate Downfall.” I apologize for the four videos- youtube only allows you to upload ten minutes of footage at a time. (The videos are best seen in high quality.)

HPEF Presents is the new podcast produced by the folks who are bringing us Azkatraz 2009 in San Francisco, California. They have released their first episode today. Take a listen as Aziza and Will interview Gwendolyn Grace who is the Minister of Magic for the upcoming Azkatraz Conference. This episode is especially informative for those of you who are trying to decide whether to attend Azkatraz. It is chock full of information about the conference and you will definitely get a great taste of what is to come!

Click here to listen to the first episode of HPEF Presents. 

As always, if you are interested in attending Azkatraz 2009, you can still register. Please make sure to write “hpprogs” in the referral space and we will all be able to be happy HP conference goers together in July of 2009!!

As we have mentioned before, Azkatraz 2009 will be taking place in San Fransisco this coming July 17-21, 2009. Azkatraz promises to be on of the best HPEF events yet and we hope you can make it. The first issue of “The Informant”, Azkatraz’s official newsletter is up and it has information about registration, the Half Blood Prince Movie Screening, special events and more! Also, as we all know, HP Progs has some of the most intelligent listeners and readers out there, so we wanted to remind you that you can still submit proposals for presentations at Azkatraz. Both Greg and I will be submitting proposals and perhaps this year, Greg will actually get one accepted ( ).

You can go to the HPEF Website to register and remember that the sooner you register, the cheaper it will be. Just a little favor, when you do register make sure to write “HP Progs” in the referral area so that the folks at the HPEF know who sent ya there!

-Penny

According to marketwatch.com website, Warner Brothers has announced this afternoon that they are moving the release of “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” to July 17, 2009.

Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Warner Brothers said this about the move:

“Our reasons for shifting ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment. Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films–changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move ‘Half-Blood Prince’ to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer.”

We will get you more info as it comes in. This is big news that will sure to disappoint many Potter fans.

UPDATE: One good thing to come out of this: I received this email from the HPEF, the minds behind Harry Potter conventions such as Prophecy, Portus and the upcoming, Azkatraz 2009:

We are in touch with movie theaters within walking distance of the Parc55, the official Azkatraz hotel, and we will definitely be having HBP viewing parties from Friday on.

The IMAX near the hotel - it’s about 3 or 4 blocks away - will not know if they will have the film in IMAX or on regular-sized screens until February or March, but we have reserved an entire theater for the showing at 00:00:01 on July 17, 2009! We are also working to schedule at least one additional showing over the weekend, and perhaps one on Tuesday as well, depending on attendee interest.

Tickets will be available when our registration system goes live in the beginning of next month, and we will have more info about cosplaying, music, and other movie-showing events at Azkatraz shortly.

Be sure to keep checking our website (http://www.hp2009.org) for all the latest updates!!

NICE!

(Hat Tip: AG, friend of DL)