Another Harry Potter book... This is the third time I've read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and once again it was a pretty fun read. However the thing that comes to mind for me first about this book was the circumstances in which I read it for the second time back in 2007. I probably got through at least half of it while waiting in line an entire day in Hollywood for a chance to get a ticket to see The White Stripes play in a tiny room. The deal was that the first two hundred people to buy the cd would get a ticket to see them play the next day in a small shop that they had set up and called Icky Thump Records. Of course the CD didn't go on sale until midnight and I got in line at 6 AM. Even though I was there 18 hours early I was nowhere near the front of the line. Anyway, I sat in the sun all day reading The Goblet of Fire and stressing out that I wouldn't be one of the first two hundred. Luckily I barely made it and got my ticket so that I could wait in line again the next day for the actual show. And the show was awesome... it was the last time The White Stripes ever played in Los Angeles.Thinking of this story got me thinking about some parallels between Harry Potter and The White Stripes. Both started and ended at the same time; the first Stripes performance was July 14th, 1997 and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released on June 26th, 1997. The final Stripes concert was July 31st, 2007 (just a month after my story) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released July 21st, 2007. So both existed as something current during the same time. Personally I discovered both at pretty much the same time also in 2001. Both also started out really good and continually got better and I'd say both came to very satisfying conclusions. While the middle White Stripes albums (White Blood Cells and Elephant) will go down as classics, Icky Thump was also a great album and only added to their legacy.... just like how most people love Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix most... but are still satisfied with The Deathly Hallows. I'm guessing Get Behind Me Satan is analogous to The Half-Blood Prince then.
Anyway, what I thought about most was how both Harry Potter and The White Stripes are supposedly finished. J.K. Rowling has said that she's done with Harry Potter forever now... just like Jack White said that the Stripes are a thing of the past. And a part of me really hopes this is true and another conflicting part disagrees. My heart wants more of both... but my brain knows that it is pretty likely that if either continued they wouldn't be nearly as good as what came before. Kind of like the Star Wars prequels or that final Who record. I guess I hope we never see more Harry Potter books or White Stripes CDs, but you know if either one announced something new I'd have to admit I would be super excited for either one and be the first to pre-order it. And yes, I'd be willing to wait in line an entire day once again to see Jack and Meg back together even if I knew deep down that it wouldn't be the same as seeing them back in 2007.
So, about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire... stuff happens with dragons, mer-people, and Voldemort gets a body. Harry survives it all. It gets an A.
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