The ‘Buzz’ About Upcoming Sequels

Hey, movie fans! Here’s news that’s really hot. While every Disney+ fan awaits the premiere of “Disenchanted” on November 18, This latest news even has this blogger excited. Here’s the ‘buzz’ about upcoming sequels.

Hogwart’s Legacy a movie slated for release February 10, 2023, hopes to have the three main actors return and their student enemies too, as well as the surviving cast members. This is still iffy because nothing is concrete yet. There is a role playing game with the same title that takes place in the 17th century, predating the books, movies, games and includes Fantastic Beasts, film series, with the same release date.

Princess Diaries 3 Disney will also return to Genovia for the third installment of this movie. Anne Hathaway hopes to reprise her role, according to Variety. While the plot and storyline remain unidentified, Hathaway also hoped to work with Julie Andrews again. Also, according to E News, “Petty Mona” will somehow make a return.

Freaky Friday Sequel Both Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are set to film a Freaky Friday sequel. According to Variety, Disney is interested and both stars have the ear of the right people. This blogger agrees with her statement that it was more important to make the sequel, not worry about whether Disney was ready for more than one movie sequel. Like the other two, everything is still being decided.

Mean Girls Movie Musical There is another Mean Girls screenplay being written by Tina Fey, who wrote and starred in the original film. This will be based on the Broadway musical. Digital Spy reported last September that they hired directors for the film. Ok Magazine reported that Daniel Franzese, Damien, in the film, was receptive to making another movie. Cast members have not been chosen yet, even though Linsay Lohan made her point about the iconic movie in her holiday Netflix film, Falling for Christmas.

This blogger eagerly awaits for these sequels.

Harry Potter Puzzles and Spells a challenge, but fun

While we were all deeply saddened by the death of Robbie Coltrane, ‘Rubeus Hagrid’ in the Harry Potter films, his likeness and voice remained in this game. On a good day, my solving four Forbidden Forest puzzles, all of the professors puzzles, and the club challenge, got me an MVP tag. This only happened one time in the Harry Potter Puzzles and Spells game.

As a player progresses in the game, the challenges become harder. It helps to have access to boosts like the magic bag, power surge, the bomb and the winged key. Mix the magic bag with either the power surge or the bomb and this will cover most, if not all, of the obstacles in the puzzle. Mixed with the winged key, it changes them to rainbow colors and helps get rid of the most difficult parts. The bomb amplifies the explosion from a power surge and is also carried by the winged key to help with the hard parts.

I like these six characters because they help the players:

  1. Harry Potter
  2. Ron Weasley
  3. Hermione Granger
  4. Rubeus Hagrid
  5. Professor Dumbledore
  6. Dobby

Getting them to the bottom of the puzzle to receive their help can be a problem, especially when mixed with foes like:

  1. ogres
  2. frogs
  3. memory balls
  4. spiders
  5. Devil’s Snare
  6. flowers
  7. lanterns

This player has never used the cheat sheets that exist online because cheaters never prosper. That’s why it’s a challenge trying to solve difficult puzzles. It’s still fun though. Play the game to see how the helpers work.

What’s with Disney+?

What’s with Disney+? Last week, a friend and I were watching Season 31 of “Dancing With the Stars” Episode 4 Disney Night when a major issue occurred. Ten minutes before the show ended, it was removed from the site.

My friend paused the program to bring something in the kitchen for me and found the show disappeared from the DWS show line up. Neither of us experienced anything like this before, except when Pluto TV, or FreeVee TV are on the list as other watching options. Even then, the window didn’t stay open very long. At least “Tyler Perry’s: Madea’s Witness Protection” still remains within reach and free.

My biggest problem with Disney+ was the constant buffering when trying to watch a Disney classic, like Mary Poppins. Marvel’s X-Men or Marvel’s X-Men United. In spite of this, the entire series was seen by me, as were the Harry Potter films

Anyway, after 45 minutes trying to verify my account and trying to solve the issue over the phone, it was discovered that last week’s episode wasn’t supposed to be shown. To regain access, subscribers of the Disney + channel had to wait 24-48 hours or more. Luckily, my friend and I only had 12 hours to wait until the episode was reinstated.

By the way, be sure to watch this week’s episode of DWTS. I’m sure it will leave an impression on fans of the show.

Staying Entertained During the Texas Power Outage Difficult

Now that the blackout has ended, it’s back to ‘normal’, so to speak. The recent Texas storm caught everyone by surprise in that no one was prepared for northern type temperatures. It was doubly bad for me because with no light or heat for 33 hours straight, it was difficult to stay entertained.

The ironic thing was, I always knew when my electricity was going to be turned back on:

  1.  All my smart lights would be on as well as the heat. I had to manually turn them off using my cell phone.
  2. City crews would be working outside my window.

When we lived on Okinawa, one always knew when the water was going off while living off base during water rationing. Someone who spoke Japanese got on the intercom from his car and told his people. Once on base, water rationing went by house number. Odd numbered houses were Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Even numbered houses were Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Conserving water was paramount. The color code determined how much water to conserve, yellow amber or green.

Since my apartment felt as cold as a meat locker, my ‘warming station’ was my bed. I only got up to use the bathroom or eat enough to take my vitamins and pills. Even though there was no way to entertain myself by usual methods, like watching television, listening to music, or surfing the internet, I kept in touch with family and friends by putting my cell phone on maximum power save, which gave me three days of power by shutting down unnecessary apps. I did scroll Facebook though to keep up with the progress of the power outage and send notice to Oncor twice.

When I wasn’t scrolling Facebook, I entertained myself by thinking of sitcoms like:

“Happy Days”

“Laverne & Shirley”

“Three’s Company”

“The Jeffersons”

“Good Times”

Anything that made me laugh kept me entertained enough to keep my mind off the cold. The beauty of this nostalgic trip down memory lane was that the top three shows above could be found on the Pluto app on my Firesticks installed on both my televisions in the bedroom and living room. The other two could be found on YouTube. Truth be told, I favored “Little House on The Prairie”, found on IMDb TV because they used kerosene lamps for light and a fireplace for warmth and to cook their food. While I did have a fireplace, it remained unlit because my mother did not trust me.  At least in the episode, “Survival” mother and the daughters kept warm by playing hopscotch and Simon Says.

The worst part of the Texas storm was that my apartment complex turned the water off Tuesday evening due to pipes bursting. With it being so cold, the notice to leave my faucet dripping to prevent pipes from freezing was not seen for three days.Water was not fully restored until the following Tuesday, even though it was on and off between that time. With the rolling blackouts, I did two things:

  1. Ate food from my fridge and freezer that did not roll my stomach. Flushing the toilet was difficult without water. What did one do during a bad storm when they had to use the outhouse? Even “Christy” did not have indoor plumbing. Their bathtub was sectioned off outside. In the book I read, it said the cabin Christy visited smelled like urine.
  2. Switching from coffee to tea. It took less water to fill a tea kettle than a coffee pot. Someone did give me four bags of bottled water, which I used in the bathroom and kitchen until my sister filled my plastic jugs in the kitchen and bathroom.

Even when the rolling blackouts ended, I still had trouble with my electronic devices due to intermittent internet, which Spectrum knew about:

  1. My Echo Show had to be rebooted by unplugging it and replugging it in from the back. I have two, but once the first was set, the other in the dining room came online with the correct time.
  2. My Firestick in the bedroom had to be reset the same way because it blinked between ‘no signal’ and actually showing my apps.
  3. My phone in the kitchen was off line during the outage. My sister found the switch to turn it back on. The home health service sent the county sheriff on a welfare check when they couldn’t contact me via the land line.
  4. Both my cell phone bill and my electric bill remained manageable. AT&T and TXU Electric made allowances during the outage and either adjusted large bills or vowed not to charge extra fees. My electric bill was $72.20.

The Oscars: Bringing Back the ‘Bling’

First off, congratulations to our Grammy winners. This year’s Oscars will be different also due to the pandemic. It’s anyone’s guess what to expect.

  1. Like the Grammy’s, the date was pushed up to become COVID compliant from February 28 to April 25. The deadline for nominations was pushed to December 31, 2020
  2. Also similar to the Grammy’s, the Oscar’s will be filmed in two different locations.

Now here is where the award shows differ:

  1.   The Oscar nominees are asked to be at the show.
  2. The people that do not show up because of the pandemic, will not have access to the show online.
  3. There is a standardized dress code. No casual wear allowed, like warm up suits. They want to bring back the’ bling’.
  4. Movies did not have to be in theaters.

This blogger concurs with the last rule. If one could afford expensive cars, houses and jewelry, there should be enough money in the budget to afford a tuxedo or evening gown. I did this in 1993 when my friends and I went to see a musical production of “Phantom of the Opera” in Dallas, Texas. Granted, there was no gown for me, but the dress was nice.

The good news is, the acting categories will be a generous mix of color after a complaint that the Oscars were predominately white a few years ago. One can also expect some major competition between Amazon and Netflix for their streaming movies.

One thing did impress me. In spite of the snubs that get news coverage, women are making history in the “Best Director” category.. This reminded me of the time when A Taste of Honey won a Grammy for their single, “Boogie Oogie Oogie” This makes me wonder if ‘Coming 2 America” will get the best costume award like they are predicting? A list of nominees can be found here

One other thing about the Oscars, Elton John was supposedly opening up his after party celebration to everyone for the first time.