So last night’s big fun was going down to the Castro theater and seeing “Laughing Matters” at the G&L film festival. Lynn is friends with the producer and her L.A. contingent, and invited me to the before-screening party, but Gloria and I were shoveling down dinner at Fuzio’s and by the time we got to the theater, they wouldn’t let us inside.
So we stood out in that blasting arctic wind for 45 minutes waiting for the previous movie to get out. I hate winter. Oh, right! It’s June! Don’t let deevalish fool you with stories about how pleasant the weather is in this town. It has been friggin’ freezing lately. I have this theory that the true cause of global warming is that all the cold air everywhere in the world has concentrated off shore above Ocean Beach and is now blowing through the streets of San Francisco.
Anyway, we finally get into the movie, which is actually a pair of shorter documentary films about lesbian comedians, both cracking-up funny. Then I meet up with Lynn to go to this after-screening party at a downtown hotel.
Lots of schmoozing with the L.A. types–producers, a couple of the actual comedians featured in the film, their entourage(s), and of course a few local San Francisco movers and shakers. Free cocktails. But of course it’s Sunday night, a work night, and there isn’t going to be any late-night partying for me.
Gloria didn’t go to the after-screening party, she had to catch a plane to New York this morning to go on her QE2 cruise to England. She asked me if I wanted a copy of the “adult cover” version of the latest Harry Potter while she was in London. I told her I’d rather have the first book (seeing as I haven’t read any of them), and that I wouldn’t mind having a copy that says “Philosopher’s Stone” instead of “Sorcerer’s Stone”. Americans are such peasants!
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 
Could be worse… in France they called it Harry Potter at the School of Sorcerers, apparently not anticipating that they would actually have to translate and market all the subsequent books, which could all be called by that same title. At least the name of the Philsopher’s Stone was intact inside the word (I know because I saw a subtitlted version in theaters on the “first day” while in Lyon).
My question is…
Did they change the text of the American version so that it says “Sorcerer’s stone” inside the cover everywhere it’s supposed to read “philosopher’s stone”?
Probably, huh? Plebians, plebians. All Americans are an uneducated lot of Neaderthals…
Hey! I’ve got two words for you, Masq: Micro climates!
There must be a special one in down town SF
Because the Castro last night was freezing and Parnassus Street has never been warm or wind-free since I started working my present job (3 and 1/2 years now).
Send some of that warmth our way!
Re: My question is…
Yes, they did. Also, the British and American versions of the first film are slightly different due to the different name for the artifact. I saw the British version subtitled in French. I noticed there was only one scene where you saw someone’s mouth when they said “Philosopher’s Stone,” often they were offscreen or behind something. And they just said “the stone” quite a bit as well, probably more often than in the book.
I guess Scholastic just wanted to play it really safe when they released the first one here. You notice now that no one’s screwing with titles! (including France). It does seem though like the film would have been a good opportunity to just dump the lame American name. Ah well!
Re: There must be a special one in down town SF
Warm enough fer ya?
Yeah, but wait three days and it’ll be gone
And then we’ll get something new and exciting–like three days of rain, or three days of that over-cast gloomy nippy stuff, three days of an over-100 heatwave, or…
well have fun in it, whatever it is. I’m going to Arizona where they have summer on steroids!