This summer at summer camp, I met a young boy that I had a real connection with. This connection was Harry Potter. At 5 years old, this boy had never read a Harry Potter book or seen any of the movies, but he was curious. It began with Harry Potter trivia cards that were scattered around our camp's room, clearly misplaced from a Harry Potter board game that use to exist. He would bring the trivia cards to me and ask me to read them to him. He did have a limited knowledge of the characters, answering "Hagrid" to most of the questions asked, but he knew nothing of the game Quidditch, didn't know what "Hogwarts" was and didn't know the name "Dumbledore". Finally, after explaining many of the stories behind the answers from the trivia cards, I said, do you want to hear the story of Harry Potter?

And so I began from memory telling the story of "the boy who lived" and found myself quite capable of remembering the first book chapter by chapter, all the while a bright eyed 5 year old hanging onto me asking "what else" each time I paused to collect the story from my memory files. After two days of telling the story of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the question "what else" remained. So, I began delving into my memory for the story of the second book, The Chamber of Secrets, and my memory did not serve me so well. Was that the book where they drove the enchanted car to school and got caught up by the womping willow? No, wait, the womping willow is in book three with Sirius Black...
so, I had to pick up the books once again and refresh myself. Well, the curious 5 year old had his last day of camp six weeks before I had mine and I ended up never needing to know the second book as well as I remember the first, which was also good, because I began hitting some moral deliemas about whether I should be telling this story about the memory of a Dark Wizard possessing a little girl or about a gigantic snake that wanted to kill people to a 5 year old at summer camp. But, I myself was once again hooked back into J.K. Rowlings' world and had become acostom to falling asleep with the book in my hand every night.
And that is my story about how I am again reading the Harry Potter books, for at least the fourth time and maybe the fifth. I am TRYING to read some grown up books, but they just don't keep my intrest the same way.

The Ovulators winery gig has been postponed, but we will be playing in Scobert Park next week. How fun. All ages and free. This Wednesday, being Tomarrow, The Costars will be rockin' the park out. Scobert Park is the place across from Tiny Tavern, located at 4th and Blair. There's a performance every Wednesday, I think, and The Ovulators will be ending the summer of performances on Aug. 30th.
Wow. Is the summer over? If Burning Man and the 4J school schedule denote the beginning of Fall, then, indeed, it has come. I refuse to let it end until the rain begins to fall and I am planning many outdoor adventures for Sept. Its not really until the Eugene Celebration that summer can end.
But this is My last week of Summer Camp, and next week I begin prepping for the school year. I guess I better go clothes shopping.

I have not showered since I worked out after work.
I have one beer chilling in the freezer.
I left the sprinkeler for the garden on for two hours.
I want to smoke.
The Big Orange Boy Cat says "meeeroow".
My roommates seem to be on washing-dishes strike.
I am watching The Monkees. It is research.
I have blogged.

HEY!! Look at me, I'm writing. Last night, My Dirty Little Secret got together at Chez Random for a drink before heading out to Tiny Tavern to check out The Slow Poisoner, and The Dead Americans. As usual, The Slow Poisoner was decked with new arty merchandise and put on a spectacular one man show. I know that Tiny Tavern is a fun place to see loud raucous rock bands, but an act lik the Slow Poisoner's really shines there. Booming bass drum, well balanced guitar volume and crystal clear vocals. I really scored with a CD trade with the Dead Americans and gifted the new Slow Poisoner EP, stapled comic book as well as a bound published comic book and TShirt!!!! Whew, and all simply because I had a couch to offer up to Andrew!
Beyond my evening that was last night, exciting things are happening in the world of Stardustian music. Th Ovulators are playing at a winery in a couple weeks, and then Scobert Park a couple weeks later. We are also beginning to work on a Video EP. And the Secret is almost out. Its really happening, the debut My Dirty Little Secret performance. We're not sure where yet, but the stars are clearly pointing us in the direction of sharing the Secret with you. Do you dare listen?
And beyond music, I am volunteering at the Autism Rocks weekend get away. I'm excited.
And my good friend from high school just moved to town. Wow. Thanks for reading! Bye!

OK, since I can't seem to blog, I will quote another's blog... This is from my friend, Shelly's blog...

Stardust upon awakening
Current mood: indescribable

SO I woke up this morning, lying in my bed, this whirlwind of thought came rushing through. This thought about how everything is connected, I mean EVERYTHING, it just started flowing through my mind. I have had this thought before but it came with such great detail today. I took this Astronomy class once called the Birth and Death of stars. It talks about all the stages a star goes through in its path of life. I remembered how there are two types of stars. Type one, and type two. Simple enough huh? Well, the type one stars are the oldest ones. They have been there the longest and have only one element burning within it. The type two stars are the youngest and they have a combination of elements connected together, and this is why; When a star is at the end of its life cycle it explodes leaving all its elements and dust, if you will, in the black matter of space, spreading- floating until it connects with other star's dust and elements that have exploded. The matter collects together, condenses and then reforms a new star. This new star now has all the elements from possibly many different stars that have exploded, creating a mix of elements burning within it. Our star, the sun, is a type two star. It is young, and has many elements in it. So I began thinking about things from that point. Once a star is formed it spins and pushes off debris into the space that surrounds it, creating planets and moons. A solar system. Within these planets, only a slim area has the shot at the right conditions to create life. And only certain stars actually get to the point of having a solar system. Not all stars do. So in this slim area that life can develop, it flourishes. The star helps things grow because the life came from the star. The elements that the life is made of are the same elements in the star. Everything on our planet has the same element make up as our Sun. Including us. Have you ever noticed how much you feel better once you sit outside and soak up some rays from the sun? It actually does give your body the nutrients it needs, because if you think about it deeply, we are ALL stardust. I continued to lay there this morning and look around my room and realize that everything else in any physical state, is made up of the same thing too... the bed, the walls, the floor, the tree outside my apartment. Everything we see, touch, feel, comes from the same elements that spun off of our sun when it was formed. Everything around us is connected because we all came from the same source, and that same source came from other stars that blew up at the end of their life cycle. And all those stars are from deep in the Universe. Who knows how long they have all been blowing up and recreating themselves, and how long that went on before our Sun was created. Its just interesting to think about how related we might be to the stars that we see at night in the sky, and how closely we are connected to all we see around us on this planet. I think if people could see that more clearly they would know that we are all connected on such a deeper level, and realize it is foolish to hate one another. Essentially you're just hating yourself at that point. If you look closely you can see yourself in everything. The stars, the moon, the earth, the coffee cup your drinking out of right now, and especially other people. Because essentially, we are all stardust that has manifested into life. It's all a cycle of the same energy.