ZAK Entertainment: Solar Eclipse Aftermath in the Chamber of Secrets and Daredevil Knits

Well, we’re still here. The Solar Eclipse has come and gone and no cats and dogs rained from the sky so Bill Murray can rest easy. How did you all enjoy it? Me well I only got to see about 80% of the Eclipse but it was a sight to behold regardless, an eerie sight. Admittedly this was my first Solar Eclipse in my entirety of my life; sure I’ve seen Lunar Eclipses but never a Solar Eclipse. With our Solar Viewers we got from our Local Library my sister, my mum and myself all spent the day pretty much outdoors, despite the heat, watching the moon intrude it’s way over the Sun. Sadly I did not have the equipment to record it and I was not willing to risk my camera frying but Mum actually got a few photos by covering her iPhone camera with one of the lens of the glasses. This worked for the most part I’m not exactly sure if her camera ended up completely unscathed but she got a very few blurry photos.

Despite the solar viewers my eyes still felt a little bugged out after viewing this Eclipse but my eyesight isn’t perfect anyway so it’s probably no big deal. It took way over 20 years for me to finally see a Solar Eclipse so this will be an experience I’ll never forget. Funny enough it seems another one will be occurring in April 8th, 2024 but I’m not sure of the full details other than the fact it’s going to be in America again, are we going to be having more regular Solar Eclipses or is this just a rare round 2 happening?

After the Solar Eclipse had ended we wrapped the day up with what Mum is now dubbing the Solar Eclipse Chicken Pie.

I don't think we could of had a more perfect meal then this on the day of the Solar Eclipse and it was delicious to make it even better.

Now let’s dive into the next movie I watched recently, well actually it’s apart of 8 movies I’ve watched in the past few weeks, Harry Potter. A week ago, as it’s now the 20^th anniversary of the series, I dropped a nostalgia Harry Potter blog about the very first outing of Harry, Ron and Hermione in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (Or Philosopher’s Stone in countries outside America.) as they discover a friendship that would last them throughout their years at Hogwarts of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which you can read here: https://zakentertainment.blogspot.com/2017/08/harry-potter-and-sorcerers-stone.html. Spoilers ahead for the ending of the first Harry Potter movie and I say this with all blogs that discuss sequels there’s quite a few spoilers I just can’t avoid so please go read the first blog, watch the first movie or read the first book before trekking further but if you have already done so as I’m sure all of you have (We’re all Wizards on this blog) let’s dive into the next magical story by J.K. Rowling aka Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Directed once again by Christopher Columbus and of course written by J.K. Rowling the story takes place after the battle (And a game of Wizard’s Chest) to save the Sorcerer’s Stone from a weak Voldemort who had his influential claws in Professor Quirrell the former Defense of the Dark Arts teacher Harry returned home to the Dursleys to find them as Dursley as ever and just as abusive. Harry Potter isn’t the boy in the cupboard under the stairs now though he now sleeps in Dudley Dursley’s spare bedroom which might seem like a generous move by Vernon Dursley, Harry’s Uncle but you’ll find in the book the reasons behind this are not so nice after all. While in his new room Harry thinks over his memories from his first year at Hogwarts but also feels sad at the fact his friends haven’t been writing to him… Well they have been but a certain house-elf has been pinching them. This house elf is known as Dobby and he might be one of my favorite characters from the book hands down. Dobby is part of the house-elf enslavement despite most house-elfs being set free after the fall of He-who-should-not-be-named. Dobby doesn’t want Harry to go back to Hogwarts for his own protection which ends up causing quite a messy scene with the Dursleys.

Angry at what transpired Harry waits in his room until out of the blue a peculiar looking flying car (This is weird even by Wizard Standards) pulls up to his window. In this car are Harry’s Best Friend Ron Weasley and his older and twin brothers, the pranksters known as Fred and George Weasley, though I'm not sure any of these three were legal to drive but hey when you're a Wizard with a floating car I guess it doesn't matter. As a car fan and as someone who posts car blogs here on ZAK Entertainment this car is actually a Ford Anglia 105E Deluxe. As a kid I just thought of it as the Weasley’s flying car but this is a pretty cool fun fact.

Early on in the movie and book the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher makes an appearance, the infamous and conceited autobiographer Gilderoy Lockhart and oh boy this guy is a piece of work but might be one of funniest characters in the book/movie. I know these books and movies have been out for years but you have to watch/read it for yourself.

After a snide encounter with Draco Malfoy’s father Lucius Malfoy (That gets pretty rough in the book) Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest of the Weasley family including Ginny Weasley, Ron’s 1 year younger sister who’s starting her first year at Hogwarts. Ginny plays a major role in this story which involves a dark chapter of Hogwart’s history returning, the Chamber of Secrets is open and it’s looking to be a dark year at Hogwarts. Regardless of the dangers Harry and friends seem to get into some fun hijinks along the way.

Besides Gilderoy Lockhart, Dobby and Lucius some other new characters are introduced such as the mysterious Tom Riddle (Christian Coulson) (Don’t spoil anyone in the comments about who this is).

Professor Sprout the Herbology professor is also introduced and played by Miriam Margolyes, as well as teaching you to never neglect your earmuffs; seriously those Mandrakes will make you go deaf.

Arthur Weasley is introduced as Ron’s father and a man ever curious about the muggle life. (Seriously what is the function of a rubber duck?). He works at the Ministry of Magic. Mark Williams plays Arthur Weasley and recently starred as Father Brown in… Well Father Brown which is a BBC series that’s still airing, it’s on Netflix for those who want to check that out, it’s about a catholic priest who solves mysteries.

Speaking of the Ministry the late Robert Hardy (Who passed away at the age of 91 on August 3 a few weeks ago) appears as Cornelius Fudge. His appearance is brief and I think a lot more is said in the book. Robert Hardy was probably more famous for playing Siegfried Farnon in the 1978-1990 BBC series “All Creatures Great and Small.” He was 91 so he lived a long life but it got me thinking, a lot of people from the Harry Potter movies are no longer alive such as Richard Harris who played Albus Dumbledore. Robert Hardy also played one episode each of “Inspector Morse” and “Midsomer Murders” and Sir John Middleton in “Sense and Sensibility.”.

Oh yeah back onto Gilderoy Lockhart did you know Kenneth Branagh played Henry V in the 1989 King Henry V? I did not put the two and two together until now, for some reason. He’s also starring in the upcoming new version of Murder on the Orient Express which perhaps I should talk about more in a future blog. You can check out a trailer for that here: . I’m not too sure about the mustache he’s wearing but it could be a good movie. He’s been in quite a lot of popular roles.

Back onto the actual movie setting can I admit that I loved the actual Chamber of Secrets dungeon as a kid? Is that creepy? I don’t know why but it seemed so enticing for being a creepy underground dungeon. I think the Chamber of Secrets book and movie in general fueled a lot of my imagination more than any of the other movies in the series.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets also dives into the lovable Hagrid's backstory which cemented him as an all time favorite Harry Potter and storybook character in general of mine. Seriously you tell me anyone else who's cool enough to keep a giant spider as a pet? I shouldn't of said that though. I should not have said that.

Like the previous movie this movie follows the book for I would say 80% of it. There’s a lot of detail in the books that wasn’t translated to the movie such as Peeves the Prankster Ghost (Who wasn’t in any of the movies, sadly), Professor Binns the History of Magic professor, as well as some scenes playing out differently. Regardless of the sometimes unnecessary changes this movie is just as magical now as it was back then and perhaps surpasses the first movie in some aspects. This movie and book introduces a lot of story elements that come into play in later books such as The Half Blood-Prince, which funny enough was a working title for Chamber of Secrets before J.K. Rowling changed it. The plot of this movie really sets up the rest of the series but also works well as a powerful, engaging and pure magical adventure.

I absolutely love this movie to the point I could possibly say it’s my favorite but it’s hard to choose… Yeah it’s my favorite who am I kidding? It takes the magic of the first film and amplifies it with a few new characters, a more engaging storyline with a premise that sets up the films to come and while I think the book surpasses it I recommend, as with all of the Harry Potter series, to read and watch both because they really do complement each other. If you don’t have it already you can buy the book from Amazon Kindle for $8.99 but don’t forget you can read this for free if you have kindleunlimited!

You can buy the movie from iTunes but if you’re interested there’s also an extended edition with a few deleted scenes, this is the version of the movie we have but I’m not sure if it’s any better than the normal edition other than being longer. If you’re wanting to upgrade from VHS (Which is what we did) this would be a perfect way to have the magic of The Chamber of Secrets on demand wherever you are while still watching it on TV. Both editions are the same prices so you can check them out below.

Normal Edition:

https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/movie/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets/id272931585?mt=6&at=1001lsFH&ct=1001lsFH

Extended Edition:
https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/movie/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets-extended-version/id397997690?mt=6&at=1001lsFH&ct=1001lsFH

This is blog 2 of an 8 part blog series for the Harry Potter 20^th Anniversary so hope you come back next time for the Prisoner of Azkaban! I hope these blogs get you younger viewers into the series that held a huge part of my childhood. All you have to do is follow the spiders.

So aside from Harry Potter I’ve finally began watching Marvel’s Defenders which just released its first season on Netflix.

Defenders stars Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage as they have to come together to protect New York City from “The Hand” a mystical organization of Ninjas. I probably should have watched Iron First before watching Defenders because I was a tad bit confused. Actually the only two I knew about were Daredevil and Luke Cake because of being a fan of their comics and show. I was pretty excited when they announced this despite not seeing Jessica Jones or Iron Fist; I mean Marvel was setting up yet another Superhero team up how could I resist that, especially when I believe this may be connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie series. Marvel’s Defenders is more down to earth then the Avengers and doesn’t get as crazy which is a nice contrast to the Movies. So far I’ve warmed up to the series but I have to say it started off a little slow and due to my confusion with who The Hand was (Forgive me I’m not sure I ever read any comics featuring them for some reason). Regardless it’s now picking up and has been pretty thrilling so far. I have to say Marvel’s Defenders has prompted me to check out more of Jessica Jones and Iron Fist’s lore so that’s going to be a fun task, especially Jessica Jones with her dry sarcasm, for some reason I love her character for that. I’ll be talking more about this in its own blog when I finish watching the series.

What is really great about this show is what happened behind the scenes of filming this show. Daredevil won’t have to worry about suit damage because he can now just knit himself up one! Yes Krysten Ritter, who plays Jessica Jones, has taught Charlie Cox who plays Daredevil how to knit which is just completely awesome in every way. As a male knitter I proudly accept you into our ranks, Charlie Cox. Seriously though this is pretty awesome so thanks Krysten you’ve done a great deed. As proof you can check out the instagram photo below where you can see the two co-actors knitting together.

PROOF! I taught my friend, the already wildly-mind-blowingly talented Charlie Cox, a new skill set. #krystenknitter #knittersofinstagram #jessicajones #daredevil #defend

A post shared by Krysten Ritter (@therealkrystenritter) on Aug 20, 2017 at 9:26am PDT

I have to ask however, with his senses can Daredevil actually knit? I mean he can fight pretty well without sight maybe the art of knitting is a breeze to him.

For today’s FREE knitting pattern I’m featuring a pattern I bet Charlie Cox couldn’t resist. No need to worry about damaged suits anymore when you can just knit this “Daredevil Hooded Scarf” pattern from Alison Blakely.

I can’t believe I actually found this pattern. This may be one of the coolest patterns and coolest comic related pattern in general yet. This is actually a VERY creative pattern, it’s a hoodie and scarf hybrid and seems easy to knit too with only decreases and increases for the hoodie and the rest being straight knitting. She doesn’t specify which size needles are recommended but Alison used 6mm(US Size 10) needles to knit the test knits. Alison used two balls of Lion Brand Heartland in Redwood, this is a bulky weight yarn you can buy here: http://amzn.to/2g34Mi4 and Four Seasons Marvel in Red and Claret for contrast colors. You can also buy that here: http://www.4seasonsyarns.com.au/ but any similar colors in any yarn will work but I believe it must stay bulky yarn for the pattern to work.

You can download this awesome pattern and head out to kick super villain butt here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/daredevil-hooded-scarf There’s three different downloads as the pattern is mostly in separate color charts so make sure you download all three. Hey if you ever read this Charlie Cox, keep up the knitting! It’s a great pass time and well you can knit up this awesome Daredevil hoodie for yourself.

For now however I’ll leave you guys for today but before then just a reminder that ZAK Entertainment is now on Redbubble! From this comes T-Shirts and all sorts of other merchandise with the ZAK Entertainment logo and my watercolor artwork (Well the non Dream Eclipse related Watercolor work) will all be available for you to purchase. You can check out the full selection at: https://www.redbubble.com/people/zakentertains . So happy to finally bring you guys merchandise as a love letter for viewing this blog for the past year.

This was ZAK Entertainment

See you on Friday!

[Photo Credits: Didomum, Warner Brothers, Pottermore, J.K. Rowling, Krysten Ritter, Alison Blakely]

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Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Solar Eclipse Aftermath in the Chamber of Secrets and Daredevil Knits

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