The Witching Hour ϟ wizard rock radio
The Witching Hour is a wizard rock radio programme. During regular seasons it airs on the Whitman College radio station, 90.5 FM Walla Walla, and streams online at KWCW.net. Find us on Facebook, on Twitter, or in iTunes!
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The Remus Lupins | ALL CAPS | Harry and the Potters |
LeakyCon
Mehera
“It’s a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up.”
Sara
This statement rings incredibly true for us as Mehera and I sit in the studio for the last time. It also rang pretty true for Harry Potter, when he was facing an imminent battle with a dragon in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
M
Believe it or not… we have always loved the Harry Potter series. As a kid I would wait eagerly for the hefty, hard-cover books, excited to tear through the story in one six-hour sitting, and read nothing else for the few days afterwards. I felt a sense of belonging when I read them, and in the books I felt I had a community with which I could identify.
S
For the uninitiated, J.K. Rowling’s seven-part story follows the coming of age of boy wizard Harry Potter as he navigates classes, friendships, awkward dates, and evil wizards at his school, Hogwarts. It was, without a doubt, a literary and cultural phenomenon. It sold almost 500 million copies, won numerous awards and inspired children and adults around the world to pick up a book and read.
M
We felt the sensation of time speeding up to a dreaded moment when the final Harry Potter book released in 2007. We felt it again last summer with the eighth film. And we’ve been feeling it for the last few months when thinking about the end of our time here at KWCW.
S
As some of you know, Mehera and I have had the pleasure of hosting a weekly radio show on K-Dub about Harry Potter for the past two and a half years. Over five seasons with The Witching Hour, we’ve come to realize that for us, Whitman has become a sort of Hogwarts. Whitman is a community that helped us pursue whatever dream we wanted, be it in politics, BBMB, visual arts or wizard studies.
M
(We’re kidding about the last one.) But really, Whitman has been about so much more than academics. Through our friendships, through experiential and social learning and the other ten million activities we juggle, we learned to make choices. We learned to challenge our mentors, peers, and ourselves. We learned to question ideas presented to us, and to trust in our own skills, capabilities and convictions. We learned that it’s okay to make mistakes, and that there’s nothing wrong with asking for help. Whitman has taught us that a strong community, like Harry’s, can be a force for positive change in the world.
S
When we were young, we looked up to characters like Harry, Hermione and Ron. They were our role models for standing up to inequality, even when it wasn’t popular or easy. They taught us the power of choice, and that we are defined not by our abilities, but our actions. And now Whitman has given us the opportunities to become those people ourselves, both on campus and in the future. Because, in your first year, the possibilities seemed endless. You think, man, four years is FOREVER—
M
(It seems like so recently we were being dragged all over campus for Pinging.)
S
—but time passes quickly. Suddenly you’ve reached the end, and you don’t always know what’s coming next.
M
As we also learned in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, “[There’s] no point worrying yet, [Harry] told himself … what would come, would come… and he would have to meet it when it did.”
S
We might stress and worry about leaving the comfort of Whitman and confronting new challenges—
M
Like dragons.
S
But now that our experiences here have shaped us into capable and thoughtful people, we firmly trust that if we live in the present, and enjoy every day fully, the dragons won’t seem so dragon-ish and, well, we’ll face them when they come.
M
We have faith that each and every one of you will meet whatever is to come with knowledge, respect, and courage. We know all of us will continue to support each other in the years to come just as we have in the past four. And we really look forward to hearing about what the future has in store for each of you.
S
At the end of the seventh and final Harry Potter book, we felt a sense of closure with the epilogue, in which we learned everyone is more or less living happily ever after. Even though the series has ended, we can always return to the books and find comfort in them.
M
We are years away from our own epilogues. We teeter on the edge of the chapter, both excited and nervous to turn the page and continue our own stories. We’re unsure of what future battles we will face, whether they be dragons or debt.
S
Although in all fairness, the two are pretty similar.
M
Truth. But we worry about where we’ll be in the next five, ten, or fifteen years. From this point, the next chapter seems too great an unknown.
S
Fortunately, like Hogwarts was for Harry, Whitman will always be here as our home. We can always look back on our years here, and remember the immense strength and support of this community. We can always look back fondly on fantastic student performances at Coffeehouse—
M
—on warm days spent sitting in the birdbath near Hunter—
S
—cheering our friends on in IM Flag Football games—
M
—and attending what, to us, will always be known as “Core” class.
S
We can go into the future knowing we can always come back to this place.
M
When we were young, we thought we needed some of Harry’s magic to overcome our own evil wizards. But as it turns out, magic isn’t real.
S
That was a tough one for us to learn!
M
But really, in the wise words of JK Rowling: “We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.”
This week we bring you the etymology of various names, spells, places and things in the wizarding world. It’s an educational lesson in Greek and Latin, in Norse mythology and English geography, so sit up straight and listen, sonnie!
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Wordz
“Dumbi VS Voldi” by Fresh Dumbledore
“Viva la Voldemort” by the 8th Horcrux
“APWBD” by the Remus Lupins
“Teenage Werewolf” by the Remus Lupins
“Hey Remus” by the Whomping Willows **
“House of Black Christmas” by the House of Black
“Black Family Anthem” by the Parselmouths
“The Black Family Tree” by Tonks and the Aurors **
“Felix Felicis” by the House of Black
“Accio Love” by Ministry of Magic **
“Broomsticks and Apparations” by Fawkes
“Expelliarmus Kid” by Peeved
“It’s a Slytherin World!” by Draco and the Malfoys
“Draco” by RiddleTM
“Draco Malfoy” by Swish and Flick
“Snape vs. Snape” by Ministry of Magic **
“Hey! Mr. Ollivander” by RiddleTM
“Secret Keeper” by Blue and Bronze
“My Baby” by Ministry of Magic **
“Bonjour Fleur” by the Hermione Crookshanks Experience
“Chez Fleur” by Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons
“Bridge to the Other Side” by Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls
“Hedwig’s Jam” by the Weasel King
“Tarantellegra” by Xenophilius
“Mean Mr. Filch/Lavender Brown/She Died in an Upstairs Bathroom” by Gred and Forge **
“The Mirror of Erised” by Stephanie and the Quaffles
If you can’t tell why certain bands have ** asterisks next to them you need to read our earlier posts!
The episode in which we discover Drapple. Draco + Apple. Talk about true love! For our Valentine’s show we chose our favorite wizard rock love songs. So, yeah, guys, that means a lot of Ministry of Magic. A lot of Harry/Ginny. A lot of Ron/Hermione.
Season 5 - Episode 4 - LOVE
“The Weapon” by Harry and the Potters
“Love (Intro)” by the Weasel King
“Portkey to your Heart” by Into the Pensieve
“Catalyst for Love” by Ministry of Magic
“Secret Kisses” by 142 Staircases
“I’ve Just Seen a Witch” by Madame Pince and the Librarians
“Caught in your Devil’s Snare” by Into the Pensieve
“The Valentine’s Song” by Ginny and the Weasleys
“Meet Me on Diagon Alley” by MOM
“Oh Ginny” by Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls
“Love, Ginny” by Obliviate!
“Ginny Gets Around” by Gred and Forge
“Save Ginny Weasley from Dean Thomas” by Harry and the Potters
“Orchideous Symphony” by Ministry of Magic
“Won Won” by Ode to Lav Lav
“Smoochey Smoochey Pukey Pukey” by Harry and the Potters
“Hermione’s Birds & Boys” by Harry and the Potters
“Broken Hearted” by the Hermione Crookshanks Experience
“Hermione’s Song (You & Me)” by Oliver Boyd and the Rememberalls
“Whatever You Like” by DJ Ronald B
“Accio Love” by Ministry of Magic
“Sonorous Love” by Ministry of Magic
“Bill’s Hot Girlfriend” by Gred and Forge
“No Matter How Far (I’ll Still Love You)” by Talons & Tea Leaves
“Great, I’m in Love with a Flower” by Padfoot & Prongs
“Lily” by Ministry of Magic
“A Pensieve Full of Unrequited Love” by the Mudbloods
“Werewolf Love” by Tonks and the Aurors
“For Those Who Are Desperate, For Those Who Are Lost, For Those Who Have Acne” by Bella’s Love
“I Believe in Nargles” by the Whomping Willows
“Lovegood” by Ministry of Magic
100th blog post!!
Check out our Valentine’s special next week!
Time to get sorted!! As we all know, as soon as first-year Hogwarts students arrive, they must sit before the entire school in the Great Hall and be sorted by the Sorting Hat. Once owned by Godric Gryffindor himself, the hat uses Legilimency to look into kids’ thoughts and place them into one of the four: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin. What house do you belong in?
Season 5 - Episode 2 - The Sorting
“The Sorting Hat” by Talons & Tea Leaves
“House Chants” by Blue & Bronze
“House Song” by Ministry of Magic
“Hogwarts House Party” by Swish & Flick
“House of Awesome Theme Song” by the Whomping Willows
“Gryffindor Rocks” by Harry and the Potters
“Original Gryffindor Gangsta” by MC GRYF
“Gryffindor Rally Cry” by Ministry of Magic
“Go Go Gryffindors! ft. Obatr” by the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office
“Made to by a Gryffindor” by the Nifflers
“Just a Hufflepuff” by Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls
“No Shame in Hufflepuff” by Blibbering Humdingers
“Voldemort Killed the Hufflepuff Star” by Kwikspell
“For all the Hufflepuffs” by the Remus Lupins
“The Ravenclaw Theme Song” by the Luna Lovegoods
“We are Ravenclaws” by Dj AcCiO
“Ravenclaw” by Heath of Ravenclaw
“Ravenclaw Seeker” by the Remus Lupins
“It’s a Slytherin World!” by Draco and the Malfoys (An Anthology of Slytherin Folk Music version)
“Slytherin Pride” by Draco and the Malfoys
“S-l-y in Slytherin” by Swish & Flick
“Snape vs. Snape” by Ministry of Magic
“Insufferable Know-it-all Hermione Granger” by Gred and Forge
“Peter Pettigrew (That Rat)” by Catchlove
“We’re the Students at Hogwarts” by Catchlove
“Taking You 2 Skool” by Dumbledore
It’s SEASON FIVE! And we’re back! The Witching Hour will now air live on KWCW 90.5 FM Walla Walla Mondays 8-10 pm. It’s almost full-circle for Mehera and Sara, as Monday 10-11 was our first-ever time slot. Ah, those were the days.
For this first episode, we’ve decided to take it allllllll the way back to the true origin point of the Harry Potter series: Trelawney’s prediction to Dumbledore about You-Know-Who and the wizard that would challenge him.
As we all know, that wizard could have been two boys: Harry Potter, or Neville Longbottom. This week we talk about the prophecy, how it might have turned out, how it did, and also pay tribute to both Harry and Neville with some wrockin’ tunes.
Season 5 - Episode 1 - The Chosen One
But on to the tunes…
“Finding the Prophecy” by the First Task is Dragons
“Sybill Trelawney” by Catchlove
“Trelawney Predicted That I’d Die 10 Times” by the Quaffle Kids
“Prophecies are for my Lovers” by Bella’s Love
“My Prophecy” by the Butterbeer Experience
“The Chosen One” by the 8th Horcrux
“The Boy Who Lived” by Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls
“I’ll Follow Their Son” by the Remus Lupins
“Hallelujah (The Boy Who Lived)” by Talons & Tea Leaves
“You Wanna Rock at Quidditch?” by the 8th Horcrux
“The Year Harry Went Emo” by Peeved
“Ascendio” by Ministry of Magic
“I Can Stop Voldemort” by the 8th Horcrux
“The Weapon” by Harry and the Potters
“Sacrifice” by Stephanie and the Quaffles
“Open at the Close” by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls
“The Longbottom Legacy” by Ministry of Magic
“Messing with a Passed-Out Neville” by Draco and the Malfoys
“I Need Some Mistletoe” by Neville Longbottom
“Neville” by Imperiused! At the Broomsticks
“Neville” by MC Chris
Wow—a lot of characters in HP die. This week on TWH, we discuss the important role that death plays in the Potterverse. For a while we discuss this article about who “deserved” to die and who didn’t, we tangent about LOTR and Twilight, and—shockingly!—we acknowledge one passing that we’ve been denying for years.
In retrospect, we should have talked about thestrals. The concept of “seeing death” is fascinating. Ah well, there’s always next time!
Season 4 - Episode 12 - And then I died
“The Avada Kedavara song” by the 8th Horcrux
“And Then I Died” by the Moaning Myrtles
“The Dark Lord Lament” by Harry and the Potters
“Bring my Body Back” by the Cedric Diggorys
“Remember Cedric Diggory” by the Cedric Diggorys
“Bridge to the Other Side” by Oliver Boyd & the Rememberalls
“The Godfather” by Harry and the Potters
“Ode to Sirius Black” by the 8th Horcrux
“Aragog Tonight” by Bella’s Love
“APWBD” by the Remus Lupins
“Dumbledore” by Harry and the Potters
“Legacy of the Fallen Wizard” by Catchlove
“Through and Through” by the Weasel King
“Fawkes’ Lament” by Talons and Tea Leaves
“Falling Sidecar” by Ministry of Magic
“Here Lies Dobby” by Fred Lives
“Evanesco Dobby” by Ministry of Magic
“Fred’s Dead” by Gred and Forge
“Werewolf Love” by Tonks and the Aurors
“More than Just a Werewolf” by RiddleTM
“Bravest Man I Ever Knew” by Ministry of Magic
Happy Christmas everyone!
So make sure you tune in to catch (a possible shortened version of) the holiday show! and as always, we hope you have yourselves a Harry little Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Solstice or whatever other excellent holiday you celebrate).
Also, a few announcements: As our closest followers may notice, this posting is out of order. Sara’s way behind on the podcasts (as usual) so we’re gifting you all this episode as it is, after all, Christmas.
After that, there will be some big changes coming to TWH! We’re switching podcast hosts, and we’ll soon be moving our blog to tumblr. Look for that, and the rest of the episodes from season 4 in the next few weeks.
Season 4 - Episode 14 - And a Partridge in the Whomping Willow Tree
“The Cold Wild Yonder” by Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls
“Xmas Rules, Voldemort Drools” by Harry & the Potters
“Christmas at Hogwarts” by Hungry Hungry Hippogriffs
“My Wish List” by MC Kreacher
“Help Me Hagrid” by Justin Finch-Fletchley & the Sugar Quills
“Have Yourself a Harry Little Christmas” by Gred & Forge
“Drop the Needle, it’s Christmas” by Dumbledore
“Yuletide Anthem” by Kwikspell
“Seasonal Depression” by the Whomping WIllows
“A Ministry-Approved Christmas” by Peeved
“So Much Love” by Snidget
“I Need Some Mistletoe” by Neville Longbottom
“The Twelve Days of Wizard Christmas” by Gred & Forge
“The Sweater Song” by the Hermione Crookshanks Experience
“Happy Christmas Day” by Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls
Dear listeners,
Finally!! Our special one-hour episode with Harry and the Potters is now available here, and on iTunes!
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Harry and the Potters take over TWH
Backstory: The guys came to Whitman and performed on Saturday, Oct. 29. After the show, we snuck up to the KWCW station and did a special show from midnight to 1 am. They picked the tracks, told some jokes about Walla Walla, took some calls, and generally had a blast.
In fact, they had such fun that we should offer our apologies for the poor audio quality at points—the guys were just super excited and making the levels crazy. I did a bit of editing, but c’est la vie. ENJOY!
Here’s a sample of the guys’ selections:
- Hot Chocolate
- Fugazi
- Weezer
- Clarence Clemens & the Red Bank Rockers
And Jacob: We’re still wondering. Did Bobby ever get his prize?
Woah. It’s been over 10 years since the release of the film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Begin chills now…
This is so terribly belated, I knoooooow! Sorry, dear listeners! (My computer crashed. Sympathy plz?) But finally, we present to you our special episode devoted to Dear Mr. Potter, the book that collected fan letters written to the characters who changed their lives—Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Luna and the others. In the episode we read a few of the letters, talk about role that HP and the fan culture has played in our own lives, and play some sweet meta-wrock (that is, wizard rock about wizard rock and wizard culture!) Speaking of which….
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Dear Mr. Potter
“The Leaky Con Theme Song” by the House of Black & Swish and Flick
“Potter Addict” by the House of Black
“Wizard Rock Heart Throb” by the Whomping Willows
“I’m Bringin’ Sneakoscopes” by the Sneakoscopes
“Wizard Rock Twist” by the Remus Lupins
“This is Never Going to End” by the Parselmouths
“Post Potter Depression” by Lauren Fairweather
“Rock with a W” by Buckbeak’s Flight
“Big Magic Wreggae Party” by Mimbulus Mimbletonia
“For Jo” by RiddleTM
“Open Letter to the Entire Wizarding Community” by the Whomping Willows
“Wrock Fan Girl” by the House of Black
“My Parents are Muggles” by Seen and Unforeseen
“Like It’s Quidditch” by the Station
“Book 6 Made Me Cry” by Danny Dementor
“Bring Back Richard Harris” by Harry Potter and the Magic of Music
“Needlessly Complicated” by the Butterbeer Experience
“House Song” by Ministry of Magic
Get your copy today! Just don’t spoil the special features for us—we haven’t been able to see them yet.
xoxo
TWH
HALLOWEEN, 2011, is the 30th deathday of James & Lily Potter. Wow.
So, uh, yeah. This is a bit belated, too. This past Halloween was the 30th anniversary of Harry’s parents death, so we took the opportunity to remember them, while also enjoying the good parts of October 31—the feasts, the bludgeoning of a troll, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, the moment Harry became the 4th Hogwarts champion, and so on.
This was our first chance to actually have our show on Halloween, so that was pretty exciting too!
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Halloween Special
“Viva la Voldemort” by the 8th Horcrux
“Trollin’ for Lovin” by Justin Finch Fletchley and the Sugar Quills
“Werewolf on the Grounds” by Ninen 3/4
“Deathday” by Crookshank
“Halloween at Hogwarts” by Ginny and the Heartbreakers
“The Dark Lord Lament” by Harry and the Potters
“Marauders” by Danny Dementor
“Lily” by Ministry of Magic
“Troll in the Dungeons” by Stephanie and the Quaffles
“This Is” by Go! Go! Gryffindor!
“Deathday Party” by Hungry Hungry Hippogriffs
“The Marauder’s Map” by the Remus Lupins
“They Creep and They Crawl” by Slytherin Soundtrack
“Halloween is Fun” by Room of Whateva
“The Basilisk and the Halloween Feast” by Seven Potters
“Great, I’m in Love with a Flower” by Padfoot and Prongs
“I Want Harry Potter Back” by Lily & James
“Marauder’s Map” by Ministry of Magic
“Wormtail Soup” by the Marauders
“Marauders Forever” by the Remus Lupins
“A Slytherin Halloween” by Shrook
“Tarantellegra” by Xenophilius
“Deathday Party ‘92” by Stephanie and the Quaffles
“A Wizard Halloween” by Hungry Hungry Hippogrifs
“Godric’s Hollow” by Romilda Vane and the Chocolate Cauldrons
Wowee, lots of press coverage for The Witching Hour this week! We were in our college’s newspaper not once, not twice, not thrice, but FOUR TIMES! It’s almost like people know who we are, crazy~~
First, we were interviewed in an article about our radio station, KWCW, and its involvement in the Walla Walla community. Second, we were voted the most-listened-to program on KWCW! (Thanks, listeners, for voting!) Third, we were featured as the KWCW show of the week in the A&E section, and mentioned along with HATP in the Pio Picks, a list of must-do events for the upcoming weekend.
Of course, much of this coverage has to do with Saturday’s HARRY AND THE POTTERS show, but we’ll take what we can get. Speaking of which… here’s us with the guys at the concert!
So anyways, pick up a Whitman Pioneer today on campus, or visit their website to read all about us!
Here are the links:
Click the article to view larger!
Finally: Hopefully the last few podcasts (Dear Mr. Potter, A Hogwarts Halloween, and today’s show, The Mystery Hour featuring Theo Pratt of the Freestyle Mystery Tour) will be up in the next few weeks. We also did a SPECIAL live show with Harry and the Potters after their performance, so we’ll have that one up too!
Season 1 - Episode 9 - TeEnAgE AnGsT
Nobody understand you? Feeling all alone? Hate the world and everyone in it? Also happen to be a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? That’s because I forgot to post this last week. Sorry, kids. It’s been a busy summer.
