Business Insight Zone

A couple of years ago my wife and I took our kids to a free public concert held in the city park next door to Austin’s main public library. Performing that afternoon were two bands, Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys. (Actually DatM opened for HatP, which only seems fitting.) Not exactly a double bill of The Who and The Stones circa 1970, but the crowd — dominated by adolescents, but with plenty of little kids and grown-ups, too — loved it.

Each of the bands centers around a pair of brothers, and the acts often travel and play together. And if their Web sites are any indication, these kooky kids stay busy. They’re only the tip of the iceberg, too: there are several other bands that perform in the same genre, including The Whomping Willows and The Hungarian Horntails (okay, that one may be a joke — these kids seem to be about seven years old).

Anyway, it’s amazing to me just how pervasive Harry Potter is at this point, whether I consider road-warrior bands like these, the “Republicans for Voldemort” bumper stickers I see around Democrat-heavy Austin, or just the intelligent conversations I’ve had with other adults who got into the books because of their kids . . . and are now waiting eagerly for the arrival of Book #7. [Update, 7/19 at 11 a.m.: Here's an example from Doc Searls of what I'm talking about.]

Speaking of which, the slick worldwide simultaneous rollout of the English-language edition of the book this coming Saturday didn’t take into account a few key details — like that fact that many Israelis take the Sabbath quite seriously.