I’d like to first direct your attention to my lovely sidebar. As you may notice, there is an articles side bar. I mentioned before that this is my Del.icio.us feed. I constantly add new links to this feed, so keep checking back to see the most interesting news of the day. Also try visiting some of the other websites I have linked to. They are valuable resources and good reads. :)

Today while taking a break from my studying I decided to find some new podcasts to listen to. First off was the Wall Street journal tech report. I love technology and I love buisness, so it was a no brainer. I went to the top 100 podcasts in iTunes and saw a Harry Potter podcast. It was doing quite well so I decided to give it a listen. What I recieved was very interesting. The producer of this podcast was father Roderick Vonhögen, catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Utrecht, The Netherlands. The podcast series is a discussion of themes and motifs in Harry Potter from a Christian viewpoint. While he is a catholic priest, he doesn’t really force catholic doctrine at you. It’s not preachy, it’s informative. How any good radio show should be. :) When I see this kind of evangelical work being done I smile. Makes me know that there are people in the Catholic Church that deserve my respect.

At the end of the podcast, the website, the Catholic Insider, was given so I decided to research him and the series at greater depth. The man is a fascinating character. :) He is a hardcore Star Wars fan, who ran a popular fan website. He covered the ailing pope, and the resulting conclave. Occasionally he will just do a podcast that gives you insight into his own life and hobbies. I personally enjoyed his podcast about his first forays into radio production while at a pontifical university (what a place to learn radio broadcasting!). On top of subscribing to the Harry Potter series, I have also signed up for his Star Wars podcast. He bridges the topics of pop culture and religious devotion very well. He is very adept at using technology and it shows through in his site and production quality. He even created a podcast called “Praystation Portable” which gives twice daily devotional prayers that are downloaded onto portible devices and able to be listened to. This is the approach towards teaching young people and encouraging them to live a devote life that should be taken.

A few weeks back I read an article that indicated that the Pope had made comments in a letter to an author that indicated the Pope was opposed to Harry Potter. The letter said Harry Potter had “a subtle seduction, which has deeply unnoticed and direct effects in undermining the soul of Christianity before it can really grow properly.” Officially the Vatican’s stance is that Harry Potter is okay and one of the podcasts in this series was a rebroadcast of Vatican radio affirming that. It was fascinating; the transcript can be found here and the podcast, here. Fr. Roderick has began to gain notority around the world and if I read it correctly was instrumental in getting the Vatican to produce their own English Podcast. He speaks many languages and from what I’ve read is very well educated. He’s seems like a charismatic and likable character.

The whole point of these series are to get you to think about the books in a different way. One comparison that was made that I found interesting was the connection between “He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named” (Voldemort) and Yahweh (God) (which is not to be said in Jewish tradition). While the connection was dismissed that Rowling meant to imply God was evil and that it was more of a british humour thing (like between spouses), it is interesting to hear these interpretations. Lots of the discussion revolves around Good and Evil and connections to biblical stories. Topics range from characters to plot developments and settings. The latest two apparently discuss themes in the latest Harry Potter (which Fr. Roderick brags he finished in 2 days :) ) book, the Half Blood Prince, so I haven’t listened to them yet. They just encourage me to get on reading it quicker! (Another site with Potter commentary is here. Another good read!)

I’ve decided to begin to post interesting Wikidepia articles that I’ve visited. I frequently just browse Wikidepia for topics and see where it takes me. The links I post will just be one that stuck in my head while I browsed. It also occured to me to link to song lyrics. Enjoy :)

Currently Listening to: “Superman” - Five For Fighting
Random Wikipedia Article: Brain Shivers