Me and a group of friends met at the coffeeshop beforehand and then drove down to the theater. We were there two and a half hours early, which went by REALLY REALLY SLOWLY. We talked about people’s outfits (there were a couple great Dumbledores in attendance), some people went back out for food, we shared book recommendations and twitter handles.

Finally, it was time for the movie! Here’s what I thought:

Massive spoilers ahead if any of you haven’t seen it yet…

Things that I felt weird about

• The FUNERAL. Good heavens. I’m not sure how they decided it’d be a good idea to leave it out, but I am still holding out hope that maybe the 7th movie will start out with it. I really wanted to see the white coffin and the phoenix song. I am also sad about this because this is where Harry breaks up with Ginny, and she says she understands even though we all know she is upset.
• Dumbledore’s wand not being in his coffin, but instead on his desk when Harry enters it to check it out after he dies. Perhaps they intended this scene to be pre-funeral? Because otherwise that has DIRECT and SERIOUS implications for the next movie(s).
• The leaving-out of the Astronomy tower battle. Director claims it was redundant to the final battle of Hogwarts in the last book, but there were SO MANY things they left out by association. I knew something was up when Harry drank all the Felix Felicis himself instead of only half, so he could share some with his friends during the battle.
• They never said who Fenrir Grayback was. You’re supposed to infer it, I guess, from the one “WANTED” poster briefly shown in one scene. Since they left out the Astronomy tower battle, they also left out Bill getting bit by Fenrir. What is Molly and Fleur’s conflict going to be about now?
• The Weasley house burning down. Seriously? What? The Burrow gets attacked in the next book for sure, but I have no idea what point they were intending to make with that scene. How are they going to resolve that for Bill and Fleur’s wedding? Or are they going to leave that out (SAD! I hope not!) since they didn’t do any kind of setup in this movie?

Things I later noticed they left out, but didn’t notice at the time so I don’t feel weird about it

• The beginning of the book with the Muggle prime minister or whatever, in his office
• Kreacher – I JUST NOW noticed that they left out his whole involvement in R.A.B.’s locket-stealing endeavor. I feel like starting a S.P.E.W.-like organization to promote the non-leaving-out of house elves in the HP movies. Poor Kreacher, Dobby, and Winky.
• More flashbacks of memories and Voldemort’s past. I forgot that they went to see the Gaunts with the ring, and Hepzibah Smith and her assorted wares and so Harry gets clues as to what the next Horcruxes would be. I didn’t think they set up the Horcrux hunt very well, so it feels like Harry has even less information than he does, which wasn’t a lot to begin with.

Things I really enjoyed

• Harry on Felix Felicis. Seriously hilarious. “Harry!” “Prooofesssor!” and “HI!”
• Ron, under Romilda Vane’s love potion, with that dippy look on his face soliloquizing about the moon
• The more natural humor interspersed throughout the movie. It’s a dark movie, but it’s also way funnier than the others and it feels much more like natural dialogue than forced scripting. I found myself giggling at certain parts and laughing out loud at others.
• Draco finally showing an emotion other than scorn. His scene where he’s sobbing in the bathroom was especially powerful.
• Luna Lovegood. Her lion hat! The weird shiny/poofy dress she wears to the Slug Club party! I didn’t like that they had her be the one to discover Harry in Draco’s train compartment, but I think they covered the switch pretty well. (It was actually Tonks in the book, and it makes less sense to introduce her there than it did to just have Luna discover him.)
• Cormac McLaggen – He was such a cocky asshole and had the perfect amount of attractive swagger mixed with total jerkface annoyingness. I kind of wish they would have put more of the Cormac/Hermione thing in the movie, but I’m not disappointed with it as-is.
• Harry and Dumbledore in the cave. I think they did that really well.

Overall, I did enjoy this movie a lot. I am upset about the bits they left out (the funeral and the Astronomy tower battle) but I don’t think they ruined the movie for me like the left-out bits did for the third movie. I find myself really, really wanting to watch it again because Harry has so much more personality and character in this one than in previous ones.

Have you seen it yet? What did you think?

In the interest of full disclosure, I should preface this with the note that I am a web developer by trade and only an occasional web designer. The majority of design work I do is only for this site (and my portfolio site, I guess) because even if I take on freelance projects, it’s usually for someone who already has a design and needs it built out. That said, I still think this applies and I’m excited to participate.

What’s your favorite genre of music?

Metal. That said, I listen to everything from alternative indie pop stuff to scary things in other languages, so I am pretty open. I listen to a fair amount of black metal (Borknagar, Opeth), industrial (Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein), folky Nordic metal (Storm, Otyg), goth/doom metal (Type O Negative, Sisters of Mercy), alternative (They Might Be Giants), indie (The Decemberists, Neutral Milk Hotel), and pop (Lily Allen). I tend to have favorite bands rather than favorite generes, because I listen to so many different kinds of stuff.

Do you listen to that genre while designing or does it change?

Not generally. If I have a particular song stuck in my head, I will listen to that, but I think most stuff I listen to is too abrasive for thoughtful work.

Do you tend to listen to any artist in particular while designing?

Sigur Rós! Their stuff is so amazingly perfect for design or development work. It’s symphonic enough to be calming, but has either a beat or is loud enough that you get a rhythm going in your work. Plus, depending on the album, the lyrics are either in Icelandic or a nonsense language that mimics Icelandic, so you don’t get too caught up in what the vocalist is saying and can focus on your work. Phenomenal and totally recommended. (If you’ve seen The Life Aquatic, Starálfur is the song that comes on when Zissou & co. are in the sub and they see the leopard shark. LOVE IT.)

Do you find that different song styles or beats influence the style of your designing? Vice versa?

Hm. I’ll say that if I really get on a roll, I want some pumping music behind me. That’s more for development, I guess, but Rammstein or NIN are great for that. When I’m thinking, or working on fiddly designy things, I prefer something more mellow like The Decemberists or Neutral Milk Hotel so it doesn’t get in my way. I think my designs and my development needs influence my listening rather than the other way around.

What program/site do you use to listen to music?

iTunes. I don’t use Pandora since we’re not allowed to stream music at work, and then I forget to use it once I’m home. I usually prefer to listen to a whole album at once rather than a party shuffle or something, so I like iTunes for that because I can play things by album easily.

And finally, could you live without music? Design?

No, and no! ALL THE BEAUTY WOULD BE GONE FROM THE WORLD. I just rediscovered this article on A List Apart called “In Defense of Eye Candy” and realized it’s more or less what I wrote my thesis on in college. People perceive attractive things to work better and to be more trustworthy, and it’s the function of the designer to facilitate this experience. I’d be so sad without that!

What song best sums up your design style and/or the music you listen to while designing?

Since I mentioned it before, let’s say Starálfur by Sigur Rós. I think it best sums up the music I listen to when I do either design or development. I’d definitely recommend that entire album though; it’s called Ágætis Byrjun. (And since I was thinking about all this, I had to grab my iPod to listen to this album!)

Thanks, Nikki! This was fun and I hope you get some great responses.

All I have to show for it is some crap cameraphone photos, most of which are from Daniel’s phone since mine decided to die right when I wanted photographic evidence of my having attended.

More photos are up on Flickr if you’re interested. I’d like to say more about the show itself, but it’d be kind of incoherent at this point and mostly consist of the words “AWESOME!!1!!1″ and “That was so amazing!!1!!!1!” and… I am not sure you want to hear it. Hee.

Suffice to say, I’d go again in a heartbeat. I could sit and watch that video screen all day. NIN picked a wonderful array of songs to play live, including some things off of Ghosts I-IV that featured a banjo and a marimba (vibraphone?). The digital effects on the screen were mezmerizing; I hope their light tech gets paid a lot because he deserves it. It’s one of the few shows I’ve been to where I wanted it to go for another hour at least.

Edited to add: Here are some more photos of the show from OnPortland. They’re a heck of a lot better than the ones I took.

“Where was I? Ah, yes: I hate Élites. Which is why, whenever I am having brain surgery, or eye surgery, which is sometimes necessary due to all my non-blinking, I always hire some random Regular guy, with shaking hands if possible, who is also a drunk, scared of the sight of blood, and harbors a secret dislike for me.”

The cadence and the stream-of-consciousness run-on sentences and political commentary just kill me.

Onward!

Obama has passed a series of anti-violence, protection against sexual assault, and equal opportunity laws

These laws include provisions for:

• Increasing penalties for multiple domestic violence offenses – the more an offender does it, the worse it gets for them.
• Increasing penalties if a battery incident occurs in or near a women’s shelter – if a woman is in need of a shelter situation (presumably to escape domestic violence) it is comforting to know there is an extra deterrent for their attacker.
• Helping victims get help without compromising their job – Just imagine how awful it would be if you were a victim of domestic violence and during the course of trying to seek treatment, you were terminated from your job. Again, adding insult to injury.

He also passed several laws regarding sexual assault the help protect the victim and bring their attacker to justice, and passed a law in Illinois to give 330,000 more women protection from pay discrimination. Simply put: A woman with the same job and responsibilities as a man should get paid the same amount, not less simply because she is a woman. Hurrah!

Obama supports a woman’s right to choose

I believe having kids should be a choice. Flat out. If you don’t want children, you should not be forced to bear them anyway because archaic men in government tell you you must. Raising kids is a huge endeavor, one that, ideally, (future) parents should be prepared for before embarking on that journey.

If a woman accidentally becomes pregnant, I believe that choosing to continue or terminate that pregnancy is her choice. If she wants to keep the baby? Fine. She wants to put it up for adoption? Fine. She wants to terminate? Fine. I don’t believe anybody makes these decisions lightly.

What I appreciate most about Obama’s stance on this issue is his commitment to preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place. Instead of screaming “ABSTINENCE!” and running away, he’s advocating education and funding for family planning.

Obama will cut taxes for you more than McCain will

CNN Money worked out dollar for dollar how your taxes would change under each administration. Turns out, if you are part of the middle class or lower, you will get around 3x the tax cut from Obama as you would from McCain. People who make an insane amount of money would see their taxes go up – personally, this makes sense to me as these are the people who can afford it.

Jason Furman, the new economic adviser for Obama’s campaign said, “And the McCain plan gives nearly one-quarter of its benefits to households making more than $2.8 million annually – the top 0.1%.” I see that and I think, “Seriously?” I want someone who will help more people than just the top 0.1% of the country. According to the IRS, 89% of Americans make less than $100,000 adjusted gross income annually – if you (like me and almost everyone else I know) make less than that annually, your taxes will go down under Obama.

Obama has not sold his soul to win the presidency

Lately, it seems like McCain will do absolutely anything to win, including running false advertisements claiming Obama wants to teach comprehensive sex-ed to kindergartners, when he was actually advocating teaching them how to avoid sexual predators.

McCain may be the only candidate who has ever gotten in trouble with FactCheck.org for quoting FactCheck.org.

Did he think no one would notice?

But McCain has concluded that a fact-based case about Obama isn’t enough to prevail in November. So he has chosen to smear his opponent with ridiculous claims that he thinks the American people are gullible enough to believe.
- To McCain, the Truth is Expendable

The McCain campaign has decided he can’t win if people knew the facts – that’s why he’s resorting to these lowball attacks full of blatant lies.

Obama’s VP Pick of Joe Biden showed strength and intelligence

Obama picked someone he knew would have his back and do a great job as president if he were somehow indisposed. I don’t know a ton about Biden, but I know where he stands on issues and I know he has decades experience in government. I trust him.

I do not trust McCain’s pick:

Palin didn’t know what the Bush doctrine was. She robotically mouthed ancient Bush propaganda lines about the “war on terror.” She casually said that we might go to war with Russia. She blandly handed over control of Iran policy to Israel, ignoring the fact that if Tel Aviv attacked Iran, U.S. troops located next door would almost certainly die as a result. She clumsily avoided answering any question for which she had not hastily memorized a stock answer. You could practically see her riffling through her mental cheat sheets.
- The culture war – It’s back!

Again, I find her terrifying. The casual attitude toward future wars is enough to put me off right there, and it makes me very suspicious of McCain’s mental faculties if he genuinely thinks she was a fantastic choice for the future of this country.

I believe Obama will be an actual agent of change

After months and months of Obama’s campaign promoting “change we can believe in” and succeeding, the McCain campaign decided to jump on the bandwagon.

The thing I don’t get, though, is how you can claim to be a “maverick” (oh how I hate that term now) and an agent of change when you have voted with Bush 90% of the time. THAT IS NOT CHANGE. That is four more years of the same. I don’t even know how he is getting away with trying to espouse this idea.

I saw on someone’s website recently the phrase, “Change is not a synonym for improvement.” This is true. However, right now our country is in shambles – the economy is crap, gas prices are horrible, people are losing their jobs left and right. I would say that right about now, “something different” would definitely be an improvement.

Obama is not in denial about the economy.

Faced with the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (mortgage lending companies), the faltering of Lehman Brothers (who have just declared bankruptcy), and the collapse of Merrill Lynch, McCain has described the economy as “fundamentally sound.”

From the article:

“Ladies and gentlemen, I could walk from here to Lansing, and I wouldn’t run into a single person who thought our economy was doing well — unless I ran into John McCain. … I don’t doubt that John cares. He just doesn’t think. He doesn’t think that we have any responsibility to help people who are hurting,” Biden said.

I want someone for president who wants to take responsibility to help people who are hurting. It’s obvious that the economy is tanking. Let’s do something about it!

Obama represents the sort of president I want

In 2004, 57% of Americans would rather have had a beer with George W. Bush than John Kerry. Experts call this the “likeability factor” – regardless of qualifications, there is usually one candidate that you just “like” more, or identify with more.

The peculiar thing is that this only applies to politics: Voters who would not dream of taking their car to an incompetent mechanic or their body to an unlicensed physician have no problem electing totally unqualified candidates to perform the most difficult and important job in the world, simply because they identify with them.
- The culture war – It’s back!

I hold the opinion that the President of the United States should be someone that we can look up to, be proud of, like, and admire. He or she should be damn smart. I don’t want someone running this country because they look like they could drink a beer, I want someone running this country because they know what they’re doing.

For what this means is that anyone with expertise, unusual intelligence, mastery, special knowledge, is likely to be rejected by voters who are resentful of “elites.”

With all due respect, I would venture to say that someone who doesn’t even know how many houses he owns is more elitist than a community organizer who happens to be Ivy-league educated. And when it comes to presidents, what is so bad about being elite? If you are elitist, that is one thing, but being part of the elite is prestigious! It’s something to strive for! American Heritage Dictionary defines it as, “The best or most skilled members of a group.” THAT IS WHO I WANT FOR PRESIDENT.

Conclusion

I know that I have probably missed several important topics in both posts – I’m aware this is not totally comprehensive. I’m basically just trying to lay out my feelings in hopes that I can help the cause for Obama. I really and truly believe with every fiber of my being that he should be our next president. I feel much stronger about this right now than I did when I voted for John Kerry four years ago, and when I was too young to vote for Al Gore eight years ago. If you are currently undecided or planning on voting for McCain, I implore you to reconsider your position and to consider voting for Barack Obama.

I would be willing to chat with anybody more about my feelings on this subject if you are so inclined.