everything but the girl

where we are gathering for the Team Infinitus Site Visit. We have had cheese and margaritas and karaoke in the hotel's bar/restaurant thingy. And bonus unexpected!flourish!

I drove up this morning, and was surprised that GL Homes has decided to name one of its communities in Palm Beach this:
Equus


What, in 20 years is someone going to call a community Spring Awakening?

With a few notes and a HUGE and terrific announcement:

1. I have tasted some of the wonderful treats that will soon be on sale at the Three Broomsticks and they are all amazing. I can't talk about specifics yet but omgflail everything is beyond delicious.

2. Hogwarts at the WWoHP looks lovely in the rain. But the sunshine on it is gorgeous, too. Check it out!

3. The Elvis Library at the Hard Rock Cafe is wonderful, but it's sad when a bar runs out of absinthe.

4. I still haven't had a chance to wander around CityWalk. Maybe after the Park closes tonight - we are having meetings and working all day but we should be able to go to the Park for the last three hours. Any locals want to meet up at Margaritaville at 8:30-ish tonight?

5. Amazing meetings at Universal yesterday, and we got a terrific piece of news:

We are excited to announce that our exclusive Infinitus event in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter only at Universal Orlando Resort’s Islands of Adventure will take place on Friday, July 16! More details, including pricing and times, will be coming soon - our park access will be after hours and will be only for Infinitus attendees (and possibly a guest per attendee). We know you are excited as we are for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We can't talk yet about the awesome that this add-on event will include, but soon, we will. I strongly recommend registering for a single-day pass, a full registration or a Merlin's Circle registration sooner than later. Also, the Royal Pacific is filling up - although there are still many rooms available at the Portofino and the Hard Rock - so it would be a good idea to make your hotel reservation. too. There will be in-park benefits during regular operating hours for those staying at any of the three Universal Resort hotels.

6. Six is on the Simpsons Ride. Again.

7. Have people seen Percy Jackson? Aaron is taking the kids today and I think they may want to go again on Monday, so I may have to sit through it. Is there a scene equivalent to the ninety seconds of Hedwig flying in PS/SS that I hated so much?

8. Because of all the blackouts and blizzards and school and road closures and weather-ish messes, we've extended the deadline for programming submissions. If you haven't looked over the CFP yet, check it out here.

To submit a proposal for Infinitus 2010, please send an email to fpsubmissions@infinitus2010.org no later than midnight EST on February 28, 2010 with the following information:
· Name of presenter(s):
· Email address(es) of presenter(s):
· Phone number of presenter(s):
· Title of presentation:
· Presentation format (Lecture, Panel, Roundtable or Workshop):
· Time needed for presentation (20, 50, 80, 120 minutes):
· Presentation proposal (fewer than 500 words):
· Presenter biography (fewer than 150 words):
· Equipment and materials requested (e.g. whiteboard, projector [LCD or overhead]), if any:

I've seen a bunch of submissions from many of you, but so many of you have interesting things to talk about. Suggest a round-table that you want to lead, put together a panel, or do a paper - it'll be terrific. Also, remember that you can present if you only have a single-day registration.

1. The Nation is going to be releasing a book about Sarah Palin the same day her book comes out, and it's called Going Rouge and the cover looks very similar to the autobiography book that she wrote actually had ghostwritten for her. ( Covers are behind the cut )

So, what do you think? Permissible parody, fair use or copyright infringement? Can the cover be a parody even if the content inside is not a parody? In general, one cannot have a trademark or a copyright in the title of a book, but the trade dress of Palin's book may be protectable, and it's possible that a court would decide that the cover of Going Rouge is not a parody.

So I wonder if The Nation came up with the cover and title for PR/shock value and to get people talking about the book, or whether they actually expect to get taken to court and be forced to change it. Very interesting, very curious.

2. Michelle Obama with a green hula hoop!

3. Totally lost track of time at the gym today, and didn't realise that 50 minutes had passed until they had. That's what happens when you listen to Walking on Sunshine/Halo, Sweet Caroline, It's My Life/Confessions and Last Name, then re-watch the Pilot episode of Glee! Loved it last night, thought the musical numbers were all terrific, and am *thrilled* that the soundtrack is available as a prepurchase on iTunes, comes out right after Halloween and includes ( a song that hasn't been on the show yet )

4. Check out the updated Infinitus website! I was at Universal yesterday for a brief meeting after spending two days with DD, Princessing at Disney World, and Hogsmeade and Hogwarts are looking fantastic. I also got to see an artist's rendition of the inside of the Triwizard Tournament-inspired rollercoaster refurb, and it looks fantastic. I don't plan to actually ride that ride, as it goes upside-down and I won't do that, but I will definitely walk through the pre-show thing to see this amazingness in person.

The Infinitus CFP is also up, and I'll babble more about that next week.

5. gwendolyngrace and other fandomers are at the preview night for the Harry Potter Exhibition in Boston tonight and I wish I'd been able to get up there for that - and the Jason Manns concert tonight, too! - but I couldn't travel again this week, not with Aaron and I planning to go to LA in November. Must find out who (other than Kris Allen) is supposed to be on Conan that night, and score tickets if it's anyone interesting.

6. Is on a plane.

7. laughingirl has another round of auctions up right now, including bears signed by Donny Osmond, Kerry Butler, Olivia Newton-John, future GLEE director Joss Whedon, Lance Bass and more. Check it out, and bid! It's all for a terrific cause - breast cancer research!

8. Next week, glockgal and I are going to launch a CafePress store to raise money for DonorsChoose projects, so stay tuned!

9. Definitely planning to come to Wincon next October. Chicago is so much easier for me to get to than Denver was, and it'll be fantastic to meet so many of you, and see so many of you again. And speaking of SPN events, Creation's added a New Jersey event in July of 2010 to its website. Definitely not planning to go as it's only a week before Infinitus, and I'm going to be, um, busy. And there's no guests listed yet either. But it's a bit of a surprise to see it there.

10. I got a few concerned emails last week re the Sidekick outage, but I haven't had a Sidekick in almost 15 months. I ditched it when the second iPhone came out, and then unloaded it on my dad when the G1 came out. And now I am surreptitiously eyeing the newer phones Verizon is bringing out this fall that have Android. SO glad I'm no longer on the Sidekick system!

So as you may've seen from my Tweets yesterday, I was in Orlando for some of the fun surrounding the announcements about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter aka HarryPotterLand. Now, I've been a Disney fangirl since birth, and I do still love it there, but working with Universal Studios in the lead-up to infinitus2010 next July has been an amazing experience because of the love they have for the books (and the films) and how much they want all of that to be evident in every visitor's experience in walking through Hogsmeade OMG we get to walk through Hogsmeade! With Hogwarts right overhead! And then we get to go in!

We're going to go into Hogwarts. All of us.

And we can go to be an outpost of Ollivander's and The Three Broomsticks and you can get Extendable Ears and Butterbeer and they're re-opening the unicorn roller coaster which I've always loved and turning it into a ride on a Hippogryff and the ride inside Hogwarts is going to be amazing and I know this because Dan Radcliffe said so at the HBP premiere and we still can't share what he said because Universal asked me to embargo it, but it's all fantastic.

Yes, I am giddy. And of course there's going to be some major commercialization of things like the foods and confiscated items from the books and I don't know if Horcrustaceans will actually be on sale or not, and a visit to Honeydukes might include purchases of muggle rice crispie treats the likes of which you would never find in a Hogwarts common room, but you'll walk around with your wand, and the hat you brought - or purchased on-site and you'll be at Hogwarts.

Wow.

Also, the sticky toffee pudding that the folks at Universal's on-site catering company makes? Is so, so good. And so were their sweet pumpkin pasties, or so I was told.

Ten years ago, when the HP fandom was a nascent little thing, could we have ever imagined something like this? A place where all Harry Potter fans could go - where on your worst Muggle day, you could plan for your next trip to Hogwarts, and know that it's possible to actually (kinda sorta) go.

Ten years ago... when HPforGrownups started. Well, it's ten years ago tomorrow. Keep an eye on the Yahoogroup tomorrow and through the weekend for some semi-off topic frivolity and reminiscing. ( But for my personal amusement, a poll. )

Got home late this afternoon. FINALLY saw Show on the plane after installing evil Vista updates on my laptop, and restarting the computer, and downloading the updated version of iTunes, and restarting the computer, and having a very slow DL speed. Squee, finally, I thought! I mean, I bumped into titti absolutely at random in NY on Saturday (sorry I didn't call you later, but we ended up meeting a friend of my mom's a few blocks away, so my time was not my own) and couldn't talk about Show, and at laughingirl's party on Saturday night again I couldn't even be fannish about it because I didn't want to be spoiled, but now I can finally read all those open tabs I have on my laptop. Well, tomorrow.

( One quick thought though. ) (Gah, I so wish I could make it to wincon, but it's going to be impossible this year - do we know yet where it will be next year?)

Off to Orlando on Tuesday morning for some exciting announcements from Universal re the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Keep your eye on the HPEF twitter that day as we report the announcements and don't forget that we've extended the $165 Early Bird rate for Infinitus until at least September 18.