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 |
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THAT’S RIGHT! GET READY FOR SEASON 6!
Details forthcoming…
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.”
Tune in next-next week! (Podcast to follow, of course.)
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!
On tap this week is ancient magic, that is, magic of a most powerful sort! We discuss (and ultimately, ask a lot of unanswerable questions about) the kinds of magic that are either extremely old, extremely powerful, performed without wands or all of the above. We touch on ancient beasts like dragons and basilisks, as well as enchantments such as blood sacrifice, life debts, Dumbledore’s protections over Harry while he lives at the Dursley’s and more! It’s a really diverse bunch of music, so enjoy. Unfortunately we ran out of time at the end and couldn’t fully discuss Unbreakable Vows, Hallows or Horcruxes, so maybe we’ll have to save those for another time.
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Ancient Magic~*~*~*
“History of Magic” by Gred and Forge
“It’s Dragons! It’s Mermaids! It’s a Maze!!!” by the Mudbloods
“Dragons and Beasts” by Ginny and the Heartbreakers
“The Art of Parseltongue” by Hawthorn & Holly
“Basilisssssk” by Alas Earwax!
“Fawkes’ Lament” by Talons & Tea Leaves
“Phoenix Tears” by Harry and the Potters
“Follow the Red Sparks” by the Weasel King
“Keeping Secrets from Me” by Harry and the Potters
“Petunia” by Obliviate!
“Petunia” by RiddleTM
“Petunia in September (1981)” by the First Task is Dragons
“Lily and You” by 2 Animagi and a Werewolf
“Lily” by Ministry of Magic
“It Burns” by Halfblood Princess
“Open at the Close” by Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls
“Sacrifice” by Stephanie and the Quaffles
“The Weapon” by Harry and the Potters
“Peter Pettigrew (That Rat)” by Catchlove
“Ballad of Wormtail” by Tom Riddle and Friends
“Unbreakable Vow” by the Purebloods
“The Hallows” by Oliver Boyd & the Remembralls
“So This is It (Taking Off This Locket)” by the Hermione Crookshanks Experience
“Seven Shadows” 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
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.
