Tag Meeting Minutes, 3/15/13

TAG Minutes

March 15, 2013
Present: Eunice, Caitlyn, Maria, Jenny, Caleb, Izanna, Benji, Fletcher, Angela, Alexander, Zoe, Mya

• Volunteers signed up to attend Friends Foundation Meetings--this is to prevent confusion about who will be attending the meetings.  If you sign up but can't make it, just let the group know.  At least one person from TAG should be in attendance each month.
• April 11 -- Zoe and Mya wil attend
• May 9 -- Maria and Zoey will attend (and maybe Jenny)
• May program -- Blackout poetry and Madlibs
• SUMMER PROGRAMS!!!!  TAG came up with basically the best ideas ever
  
• Rock the Library -- still need a date.  Friday, August 16?
• Harry Potter party celebrating Bill & Fleur's wedding!
• This will be a dance, but maybe with other stuff too?
• Last program of the summer
  
• Hobbit party!  Smaug treasure / scavenger hunt with obstacles
• Possibly have to compete in some obstacles wearing cheap flip flops?
• Have Kris dress up as Smaug for the final obstacle
• Percy Program!  We probably want this to be our kickoff event.  Ideas
• separate everyone into Roman vs. Greek, then separate further into separate cabins
• maybe have a test that divides everyone into their cabins
• have mini-events that you compete in to earn points that go towards your final score
• could also have extra water balloons to use in final battle as rewards
• use pool noodles
• the last battle is a water balloon capture the flag -- if you get hit, you're frozen until tagged by a teammate OR....you die
• The end.

You Had a Good Run, Uncle Vernon

So I'm sure as many of you know, our beloved (and Harry's much despised) Uncle Vernon Dursley passed away this past Thursday in England.

Obviously as you can tell, I haven't posted much (i.e. at all) the past couple weeks, mainly because I've been feeling a little under the weather lately (weird combination of sore throat and migraines; I'm shaking my fist at you, weird and windy Iowa weather!).  But the news of Richard Griffiths's passing stirred me enough to drag myself on to the internet and fire up the old blog again--okay, actually I'm work right now and therefore probably would've been on the internet anyway.  That being said,  I did feel pretty emotional about the loss of the actor who played Uncle Vernon.

Here's the thing about Vernon Dursley, his misunderstood (but also pretty jerky, even if she did sort of come around in the end) wife, and his pretty annoying (again, even if he did sort of turn out slightly okay) son.  Actually,  here's the thing about pretty much all of the "Harry Potter" villains: they are awesome.  They are fantastically awesome.  Yeah, you hate them, because that's what they're basically there for in any story--to be evil and therefore be hated for their evilness while we cheer for the good guys and, you know, their goodness.  But you also kind of love the HP evildoers, too, don't you?*  When I think of say, the White Witch in "Narnia," I don't feel any particular fondness for her; she's just a jerk, and I hate her, and I'm glad when she's gone.

But Voldemort?  Totally fascinating.  I wanted to know everything about him.  I love seeing his weird lizard face on screen and took a strange delight in his quest to rid the magical world of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore.  J.K. Rowling's bad guys aren't just bad guys--they're characters with histories and quirks, and they're interesting.  Maybe you wouldn't want to run into any of them in real life on the street, but from a safe distance, they're pretty freakin' fun.  I'm glad all ends well for Harry and company (well, minus a twin and a few others), but come on, let's be real: what's the HP-universe without a little Voldemort in it?

So back to Richard Griffiths.  Vernon Dursley, as written by Rowling, is a deliciously mean-spirited, fat old man that I absolutely despised, and I felt a lot of satisfaction each time Harry or another character managed to one-up him (which, yeah, was pretty much most of the time).  But Griffiths made that character.  He was the perfect Vernon Dursley--a totally bossy, petty, garish, contemptible, and kinda insecure guy of mediocre intelligence--and portrayed Harry's uncle in a way I doubt any other actor could.  A guy's got to have pretty damn good acting chops to make you not only hate him, not only love to hate him, but also feel genuine affection for.  So I suppose that's the finest praise I can give: Mr. Griffiths, you had some damn good acting chops.  I will think of you fondly each time I watch "Harry Potter" (which will, of course, be many, many times).

*The correct answer to this is: Yes.  Yes, you do.