Harry and Bono and Ralph and Norman*

Harry rocked!

I liked this movie better than all the others put together. Maybe because I liked the book better than all the rest until #6 came out this summer.

I will say that there are whole plot lines left out (like Fred and George and the goblin gold) and whole characters who never appear (like Dobby the House Elf). And the Quidditch World Cup sequence was woefully short. That was disappointing. Yet I understand why... it was truly amazing that they were able to cover as much as they did, given the time limitations of a movie audience's attention span.

I think I will see it again, before it leaves the theaters.

One more event I am able to review after the weekend is... the Vertigo Tour! I've been a U2 fan for oh, 20 years, and I have never seen them in concert before now. They just sell out too quickly and I have always been unwilling to pay $500 a ticket for a 2 hour show. (Unwilling and unable! grin) But about 24 hours before the show, a friend called and said she had a lead on some tickets in the nosebleed section (read: relatively cheap) and did we want to go? Indeed we did!

The verdict? U2 puts on a great show. They seem to care about giving the audience its money's worth. They did all of my favorite songs, including "Still Haven't Found What I'm Lookin' For," even though they probably gag in private about ever having to sing that, or Sunday Bloody Sunday, or Pride, ever again. But you'd never know it, if they do feel that way. They really gave it their all, which to me is the sign of a real pro.

The best part of the show came at the end, in the encore, where Bono pulled a woman up on stage and held her in an embrace for the entire performance of "With or Without You." A collective sigh went up from every woman in the audience. Who can resist a man singing to her? Not me, that's for sure.

Okay, gotta go for now. Tomorrow is the apogee of my weekend (even if it is on Monday) because tomorrow WE GO TO THE AQUARIUM! Whale sharks! Belugas! And PENGUINS!!!!!! Oh my!

*Ralph and Norman of the title are the names of the two whale sharks featured at the Georgia Aquarium which opens tomorrow.