Thursday, July 10, 2008

A Harry Potter conference in my own backyard

Once or twice over the past couple of years, I’ve considered submitting a paper for one of the many emerging Harry Potter events, but in the end, I’ve had more than enough to keep me busy with writing about Tolkien. It turns out that today through Sunday, there’s a national (nay, international) Harry Potter event going on right here in Dallas. Who knew?! Just twenty minutes from where I’m sitting at this very moment, at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in north Dallas, a zillion rabid Harry Potter fans, a few scholars, and one celebrity are hobnobbing at Portus 2008. Check out the schedule here. You can read some further details here, including a few highlights on the more serious scholarly side of the event (of which there is all too little, if you ask me).

If you live nearby, there’s still time to register and attend, but I’ll warn you: admission isn’t cheap. The total conference registration is $220 USD, and there are side events, luncheons, special workshops, and minglers galore — all at an additional charge. If you opted for everything, it would set you back more than $400 USD! Wow, and I thought Kalamazoo was expensive! (But at least Portus 2008 offers a single day rate, something they could learn from at the ’Zoo.) And anyway, I suppose you could recover some of the cost by putting your Jim Dale autograph up for auction on eBay. ;)

So, Harry Potter fans, enjoy! Myself, I’m more than busy enough with Mythcon 39 coming up next month. Expect to hear a little more from me about that in the next few days.

2 comments:

  1. I have a Jim Dale autograph -- he appeared in a show here almost ten years ago.

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  2. I love his narrative voice-overs on Pushing Daisies, though I must admit that when I first heard them, I thought it was Malcolm McDowell.

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