Shuffle | Corrine Kenner's Tarot Blog

1023

The International Language of Tarot [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whbYmurQdHM] Thanks, Andalusia, for pointing out this Phillipines' TV report on tarot cards. The report seems to focus on a horror movie called "Tarot" -- which I need to investigate. Most of it's in a language I don't recognize -- but there are plenty snippets in English. Even if there weren't any English, though, the visuals alone would tell the whole story. I have to say that the clip of a guy reading Mystic Faerie tarot cards -- in his underwear, on his bed -- made me laugh out loud. He's almost TOO authentic!

King of Wands

Here's a cute story from today's Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Muggle wand-maker's tale kicks off blog
An Edina "Harry Potter" fan creates Oliver's Wands -- and a little magic for himself.

By Maria Elena Baca, Star Tribune
Photo by Joey Mcleister, Star Tribune

When Bill Pine overheard his kids reading the Harry Potter books with their mom, he didn't know that the snitches of story he heard would have the magic to change his life.

Over the past four years, a wand-making project for his kids has transformed into a wood-turning business called Oliver's Wands that allows Pine to work from his Edina home and spend time with his kids, Mackenzie, Brien and Calvin, ages 11, 10 and 5. He's sold thousands of exotic hardwood wands to Potter fans and others who believe in magic.

Pine's story is the first of many you'll read on the Potter Blotter blog on startribune.com starting today. The blog will run past the July releases of the "Order of the Phoenix" movie and the seventh and final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The Potter Blotter will be a place where casual fans and uber-fans of all ages can share thoughts about J.K. Rowling's franchise.

Here's Pine's Potter story:

Q How were you introduced to the Harry Potter books?

A I started listening to it; the kids would fall asleep and I would keep reading. I got addicted.

Q How did you start making wands?

A My kids wanted a wand. I had a drill, maybe a hammer if I was lucky. I bought some dowels and thought I'd try to hand-carve one. That turned out just horribly. I got upset and bought a lathe and taught myself how to use it, and made some wands. Parents at school wanted them for their kids, and it kind of went from there.

The rest of the story is here.

The Scoop on " Scoop "

   (Click the image to see a larger version)

Dan and I -- along with my daughter Emily and a few other members of the Twin Cities Tarot Meetup group -- saw "Scoop" on Saturday night. We went, of course, because it was billed as a tarot movie.

That's a screen capture of the film's official website, above. Hugh Jackman is holding the Death card from Aleister Crowley's Thoth deck. That's how you know he's the bad guy. The cards that make up the background behind Scarlett Johansson are also Crowley cards. And the animated Flash cards -- the ones you click on for information, photos, video, and updates -- are from the Rider-Waite deck.

I was really excited about the movie. I tend to get a little giddy whenever tarot cards show up on TV or the silver screen. I don't care how they're portrayed: just show them, I say! There's no such thing as bad publicity!

And in this case, the publicity wasn't bad. It was negligable ... but not bad.

While the movie is all about a "Tarot Card Killer," tarot cards are onscreen for all of -- oh, I don't know, so I'll take a rough guess -- 2 seconds. (At first I said 5, but my husband said I was being overly generous.) The heroine, Scarlett, finds a tarot deck hidden in a music room, and the camera zooms in on the cards, and the audience gasps. That's it.

At that point, I shouted "Hey! False advertising!" because the deck in the movie was actually a Marseille variant -- not the Crowley, which is what I expected to see based on the posters. Hugh Jackman called it an "Old English" deck, too, which wasn't true. "It's French!" I yelled at that point, and the other theater-goers all turned toward me and said, "Shhhh!"

Okay, I didn't really say anything out loud. I am much too polite even to whisper -- much less shout -- in a movie theater. Plus I was working my way through a large tub of popcorn slathered in real butter.

Despite its notable lack of tarot cards, the film does feature some clever tarot-like imagery. There's the dark and shadowy specter of Death, garbed in his black hooded robes, holding a scythe. When he first showed up on screen, everyone in the theater laughed -- I kid you not. There's a Six of Swords-like ferry on the River Styx, carrying the souls of the recently departed into the Afterlife. And there's a Magician -- although in this case, it's actually Woody Allen, with his signature nervousness, working his way through a few cheesy card tricks.

All in all, I have to say that Scoop really is a cute movie. If you get the chance to see it, go! (Here in Minneapolis, it's playing at the second-run theater, so our tickets were just $3.)

Hugh Jackman is hot, Scarlett Johannson is beautiful, and Woody Allen is actually pretty funny. My 13-year-old daughter howled at the jokes. I laughed appreciatively, and my husband chuckled. And at the end of the film, as the credits rolled, several dozen people in the theater applauded.

My rating: ****1/2 ... Four and a half stars, for a fine evening's entertainment.