Annie Clements Music

Harry Potter Experience

Posted on 02. Aug, 2009 by annie in Notebook

I have to confess, I’m currently reading The Secret, which is the book that tells you that all you have to do is imagine all the wonderful things you want to happen in your life and, whammo, just by imagining them long and hard they’ll all come true. When the Sugarland band organized an outing to see the new Harry Potter film dressed in costume and being transported to the theater by stretch SUV limousine, it was an experience beyond the scope of my imagination. So I consider myself lucky.

I do believe that the powers of manifestation and visualization may have brought me together with a group of like-minded Harry Potter enthusiasts with which to make music for a living. That in and of itself is fairly remarkable. But this thing got taken over the top the night we went to see “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

Let me explain.

As a band, we had decided weeks ago to go see the new Harry Potter when it came out. Then Jen and I set to work deciding who would dress up as which character. (The rest of the band very graciously allowed us to make those decisions for them.) Here was the final lineup when we left the hotel:

Jennifer Nettles: Professor Trelawney – a bespectacled fortune teller with wild hair who keeps telling Harry he’s going to die.

Annie Clements: Harry Potter. Naturally.

Kristian Bush: Went to a costume shop but came back empty handed. There had been a run on Harry Potter-themed costumes in light of the new release.

Thad Beaty: Mad-Eye Moody – an eccentric professor with a giant magical eye that can see through walls.

Scott Patton: Hagrid. His hair made him automatically eligible for the part of the hairy groundskeeper.

Travis McNabb: Professor Lockhart. Trav didn’t really go in costume but his dashing good looks and devil-may-care attitude made a convincing stand in.

Brandon Bush: Brandon decided to make up his own character and go as a Ravenclaw alumni who graduated a few years before Harry started school at Hogwarts and was just hanging around.

Hellen Rollens: Cho Chang – Harry’s hot asian girlfriend whose relationship with Harry is awkward and short-lived. Being that Hellen is hot and asian, this was a no-brainer.

Here’s a photograph of the whole gang heading out the door.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, we walked past a stretched SUV limo and jokingly said to each other, “What if that was the car that was taking us to the movie?” We shared a hearty chuckle while Hellen phoned the car service. After a few moments of chatting she hung up and informed us that this was in fact our mode of transportation to the theater. Sweet. We all piled in. Check it out.

Life really can’t get much better for me at this moment, even without having seen the movie yet. I’m in a limo with the awesome people I work with. We’re all dressed up like characters from Harry Potter. I’m casting spells all around the limo and no one thinks anything of it.

We arrive at the theater, get our snacks, and go on in. Here’s a pic of the poor girl taking a ticket from a grown woman dressed as Harry Potter.

Sweet.

Here’s a pic of me and Jen. She’s a dead ringer for Professor Trelawney.

And here’s a picture of me pretending to be on an awkward date with Cho Chang (Hellen).

We took our seats and proceeded to enjoy an awesome installment of great cinematic achievement. Here’s a pic of me wondering if the movie is gonna be awesome or super duper spectacular.

It was super duper spectacular.

I’m gonna keep manifesting here so look out world! Things could get crazy…

Tags: annie clements, harry potter, sugarland