Can you say Busy!?

Bwahahaha! Just realized I haven't updated for a while now. And that the last thing I wrote about was how frustrated I was that people assume I'm slutty. If only they knew what my actual love life was like. Non-existant. Hahaha. Fools!

In any case, I did just update my youtube for the first time in even longer than this blog, as well. I guess I'm in sharing mode. Awesome!

So, I think my favorite part about writing the Daily Wrocket is the fact that even I am learning about new bands! Sure, most of it still consists of bands I've at least heard of prior to choosing to write about them, but there have been a couple where I knew nothing about the band but their name and the fact that they had at least one song of at least a minute in length. I don't always know what to say about a band, but that's part of what makes this all so interesting. I just get going until I hit on something I want to expand on. It's been a blast, to say the least. And now I'm starting to get more guest writers! People are eager to write editorials and album reviews. It's been amazing. Seriously!

The Daily Wrocket and What I've Been Up To... Not Much

Today is Day 7 of the Daily Wrocket. Holy criminy, that's exciting!

As supportive as the Wizard Rock Community always has been, I am still in a state of shock to see the number of readers, the comments, the messages from friends and strangers. I always knew I would have a small readership. I have friends who had every intention of reading daily from the get-go. Some of these friends are Wrock fans, some are interested in the concept of Wrock, and some just wanted to support my endeavors. So I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported me from the beginning of my work on this project. And I want to say thank you even more vehemently to everyone who has been reading the Wrocket since it's launch. Your interest and support is so amazing to me!

Additionally, the Wrocket launch party at Wrockstock was beyond amazing!

Whoa! It's the Artwork!

Exciting news!!! A while back, not long after I decided to pursue the Daily Wrocket, I contacted my lovely friend Aelfie to see if she would design a logo for the Wrocket. After much anticipation, the final designs have been revealed and I think it's lovely and fun!

Inspired by the classic scene from Say Anything, I give to you... The Daily Wrocket!!

Daily Wrocket Preview #2

Below is my next preview from the Daily Wrocket as it stands at this moment. I'm sure there will be some minor editing to this section, but I feel pretty good about where it stands now.

The below preview is the entire page titled "What is Wizard Rock?" It is designed to provide a basis of understanding of the genre for outsiders and (hopefully) a modicum of pride for insiders.

Any and all comments, suggestions, and constructive criticisms are welcome! Either comment here or email me at: dinah@dailywrocket.com

What is Wizard Rock?

Wizard Rock is, at its core, music about Harry Potter. This does not mean every song is solely about the boy wizard (not to deny that a decent amount of them are), but rather that the musicians involved in the movement write songs inspired by the characters, events, and themes found in the book series. Just as a "Muggle" music (as some of us Wrock fans refer to non-Wizard Rock) is inspired by everyday happenings, emotions, and situations, Wizard Rock is inspired by the same things, but with a focus on them as seen within a specific book series.

A Brief History of Wrock

It is widely accepted that the first Wizard Rock song was 'Ode to Harry' in 2000 by the band Switchblade Kittens that was later put onto their album The Weird Sisters. While I agree that this was one of the very first songs about Harry Potter (and certainly the first one to be widely distributed), I peg the beginnings of Wizard Rock taking place approximately a year later with the advent of Harry and the Potters.

"But wasn't it the first big song about good ol' HP?" you may be asking yourself, "I thought you said Wizard Rock was music about him?" Yes, but it's not quite so simple as that, as you'll see discussed in the section below on what seperates Wizard Rock from other music scenes.

Paul and Joe DeGeorge, also known as Harry and the Potters, started making music about Harry Potter by a happy accident of last minute cancellations from bands slated to play in their backyard. I'm sure it was stressful at the time, but I call it a happy accident because those bands cancelling essentially created a new musical genre.

The Potters started touring and telling anyone and everyone to start their own bands about Harry Potter as well. To their surprise and great joy... many of their fans did begin creating bands after listening to their music. Some of the first bands were Draco and the Malfoys, The Whomping Willows, and The Parselmouths.

Over the intervening years, nearly 700 Wizard Rock bands have popped into existence, some of which have stuck around and released extensive discographies (Catchlove and Ministry of Magic stand out in my mind at the moment), and some of which have released no more than a single song and left the band behind entirely after that.

If you'd like to read a more complete history, check out the History of Wrock posted on the Wizrocklopedia. Or better yet, order yourself a copy of the Wizard Rockumentary and watch with an open mind!

What Makes Wizard Rock Stand Out From Other Music Scenes?

While it all started as a single band, Harry and the Potters, one of the key ingredients to Wizard Rock is the community element. There's a reason I refer to it as the Wizard Rock Community in discussion (whether with newcomers to the idea of Wrock or to veterans of the community). Wizard Rock, by and at large, is very Do-It-Yourself. Most bands write their music, record, master, burn to CD, design and create album art, and anything else in the long "To Do" list of making an album all by themselves or with the help of friends. It's not unheard of to have music professionally mastered or to send an album out to be professionally manufactured when demand is particularly high, but that does not negate the creative process that the Wizard Rocker goes through prior to that point in production.

But that's not all, folks! Wizard Rock has this amazing tendency to support various charities and non-profits through touring, charity compilations, and general fund raising. The Whomping Willows' Matt Maggiacomo is one of the forerunners in charity fund raising, having raised money for disaster relief in Haiti and for the Harry Potter Alliance, among other charities. Also on the map for their extensive work are Paul and Joe DeGeorge (Harry and the Potters), Stephanie Anderson (Tonks and the Aurors), and Jarrod Perkins (Gred and Forge), among many others.

One charity that has received upwards of $15,000 over the years from various fund raising (including the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club run by Paul DeGeorge) has been First Book, an organization promoting literacy by providing books to children in need. In this regard, they share an important feature of the Wizard Rock Community: the promotion and spread of literacy. As is made pretty obvious, the entire Wizard Rock genre is inspired by a book series. All of us Wizard Rockers and Wizard Rock fans are also fans of this spectacular book series that inspired us to make music, love each other, and share our passions with complete strangers with similar interests. We want more than just our music to spread, we want a love of reading to spread to those around us and those listening to this music.

This is what makes Wizard Rock stand out: We aren't in the general mainstream, we don't have competition among bands, our musicians have a very DIY and independent attitude toward their music, and the Community at large has a major focus on spreading literacy and supporting non-profit organizations.

All I can say to this is: Awesome!

Where Can I Learn More About Wizard Rock?

The very best way to learn more about Wizard Rock is to explore it for yourself. My favorite way to do this is to find the myspace page of any Wrock band and to start looking at their friends list. There, you'll see a ton of other Wizard Rock bands. Just keep clicking around and listening to more music! You never know what you'll come across!

If you don't have the time to spend clicking around, feel free to peruse the Wizrocklopedia for a list of as many Wrock bands as have been located so far and news updates on what is going on in Wizard Rock. Alternatively, you can check out Real Wizard Rock for a seriously awesome selection of Wizard Rock lyrics from many of the genre's biggest (and some lesser known) bands.

And if all of this sounds like too much work, just sign up for the EP of the Month Club for a mere $60 (the entire profits of which go to benefit a non-profit organization). You will receive a total of 12 EPs over the course of the year, sent out quarterly. That's only $5 per disc! And you'll get a seriously rad selection of Wizard Rock to listen to!

The Daily Wrocket

As the Daily Wrocket official website is still in progress (and thereby closed to the public), I have decided to post at the least a very small preview from what is ready so far: a portion of my answer to the question, "What is the Daily Wrocket?"

So sit back, relax, and read a little about the Daily Wrocket to give you an idea of what it's all about!

What is the Daily Wrocket?
Have you ever considered how music plays into our lives and the effect it has on masses of listeners? I hope to use this project as a way of learning about and sharing the effect that Wizard Rock in particular has on the individuals who listen to it every day by observing the bands instead of the listeners.

I will be taking a different Wizard Rock band each day for 365 days and focusing my thoughts and discussion of Wizard Rock through them. The ultimate goal of the Daily Wrocket is to take an alternative approach to listening to music and sharing it with others. This is not a project where I plan on listing a band each day with their rap sheet of albums and music to date. No - I want to react to the music, to the band, and to the impact each band has had on the Wizard Rock Community, the Harry Potter Fandom, and on my own personal life.

I hope for this to be a very personal approach to music, Wizard Rock, and the challenges that arise in a small, close-knit community and how we rise above them to grow closer and stronger than ever before.

If you're a Wizard Rocker and would like to have a write-up about your band on the Wrocket, please email me at: dinah@dailywrocket.com I will send you interview questions to answer so I can make your write-up as awesome as possible!

An Update After a Long Time

I recently realized how ridiculously long it's been since I've done any kind of blogging here. A lot has happened in the meantime:

• My opinion article turned fiasco


• Azkatraz


• Running two productions at my local theatre (still running the second one now)


• Freya went to Europe for two weeks


• Preparing as much as possible for the Daily Wrocket


• I moved out of my old house


• Staying with my grandma until the next place is ready


• Continuing to work anywhere between 42 and 50 hours a week

I'm sure there's more, but I'm having trouble remembering more than that right now. It's pretty ridiculous, to be honest.

In any case, I've been doing a lot of thinking about a whole ton of stuff lately. Among these things is where the Wizard Rock Community is right now and what the future of it is. It's a terribly interesting train of thought and I'm working on writing up a few things about it right now. None of them are quite ready and I'm still trying to decide where I want to post them. One option I've been considering is re-instating my bi-weekly "Straight From the Dinah Saur's Mouth" column, but I have yet to determine whether or not I'll have time for that, what with the Daily Wrocket coming along so swiftly. We'll see.

Speaking of the Daily Wrocket, I've got a decent amount of the information for the website itself written. I'm collecting Wizard Rock email addresses and interviews to make my writing about them better and more interesting, but I'm slacking on actually getting write-ups written so far. I need to just sit down one day and start going through what I've got, listening to music, and writing my thoughts on what's going on. Hopefully I'll have time to do this sometime this weekend. Hell, I should just make time for it. It's the only way I'm going to get anything done. I can write about the bands I have interviews from and even do some write-ups on bands that haven't been active in an extremely long time. I don't anticipate getting a response from any of them regarding interviews, but that doesn't mean I don't have enough fodder to write about them!

I've purchased the domain name and have an email all set up. I just need to get the domain name linked to my blog (which is proving to be troublesome at this point, I think I just need to actually call their customer service on this one). Also, my lovely Aelfie is designing banners, icons, and the like for me. Once I have those, I plan on getting the web design set up (with the help of the ever-awesome Aaron, who also does the web design for the 'Pedia), and to start using social networking sites to begin promoting. By then, all the info pages will be up on the website and maybe I'll post occasional thoughts about my progress prior to the official launch to keep people updated and interested.

Well, I really ought to get going now. I just thought I'd give a basic update now that I have thought about it! Hope you're all having a wonderful day and that everything is awesome in your lives!