I'll Get You My Pretty....

"I'll get you my pretty....and your little dog too!"

(cackle, cackle) Does that movie line even need to be credited? I mean who among the living has not seen "The Wizard of Oz" ?!
Well guess what's blowing in on the wicked North Wind in March of 2013? (Assuming we have not all perished from this earth in the great 2012 Mayan Apocalypse of course) We will be treated to the latest adaptation of the much beloved movie classic, ala Disney Pictures...."Oz, The Great and Powerful"! "This new take on L. Frank Baum's beloved stories comes at us from director Sam Raimi and stars James Franco as Oz, Michelle Williams as Glinda the Good, Mila Kunis as Theodorah, the Wicked Witch of the West and Rachel Weisz as her sister Evanora." It explores "How the Wizard arrived in Oz and became the ruler. A prequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."
No, folks...we're not in Kansas anymore with this re-telling. "Raimi's Oz isn't the same one we know from Victor Fleming's classic "Wizard of Oz" film and certainly doesn't look as kind a setting. From the haunting music to the dangerous creatures, this Oz doesn't seem like it's going to be a friendly place for our favorite man behind the curtain."
Ooohh! Sounds and looks frighteningly fabulous! I especially love the 'Olde Carnivale' feel of the trailer. Can't wait to see this one. And apparently there are 3 witches this time around....Glinda, Theodora and Evanora! Here is the storyline as taken from the IMDb website....

"Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz. At first he thinks he's hit the jackpot-fame and fortune are his for the taking. That all changes, however, when he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity-and even a bit of wizardry-Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well."

It's got Witches in it....so that alone means I'll go see it! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Witches and Warlocks and Trolls...Oh My!

Okay...as I promised in Friday's post, I will resume posting on more Magical, Halloweeny things now.....like Witches and Warlocks and Trolls, Oh My!

Ah yes....what a fine segue that was indeed. As it reminded me of an article I saw back in March, when I was being held prisoner by my real life. So if any of you have already heard or posted about this, I do apologize, but I've been out of the loop for several months. And although it's nothing earth shattering, I did find it a bit intriguing. I'm sure you will all fondly remember the implosion of Charlie Sheen earlier this year? Ah yes....the Confucius of psychotic, insanity laden quotes!

Now, I am no Charlie Sheen fan by a long shot. And I for one, find the unbridled access we have all now gained into the deepest darkest, crevices of his mind....a very frightening vortex indeed! But I gotta give a tiny bit of credit to that crazy 'Nutter', because some of the zingers he lets loose aren't half bad. For instance, “People can’t figure me out, they can’t process me, I don’t expect them to. You can’t process me with the normal brain.” Or how about this one, “Look what I’m dealing with, man, I’m dealing with fools and trolls.” I mean come on...who among us cannot relate to those two little ditties, right? There is a smidgen of profundity to those statements, is there not?!

But I suspect it was THIS next quote, that landed him in a figurative cauldron of hot water..."[CBS] picked a fight with a Warlock." Really? A Warlock? Charlie Sheen is many things, most of which I'll refrain from saying, but I had no idea that he was a WARLOCK! And apparently his proclamation did not sit well with those who consider themselves to be the real deal....namely the Witches and Warlocks of Salem.It seems they were so 'vexed' by Sheen's comments, that they took to the media to condemn his inappropriate and negative use of the word that they associate with their peaceful religion. But that's not all....their public reprimand was then swiftly followed up with a good old fashioned 'spell casting'! Although in Charlie's case, it may actually be considered an 'exorcism', not sure. All I know is that the Salem Witches reportedly held a 'binding ritual' to psychically 'bind' Charlie, so that he will no longer use the term 'Warlock' in a negative way. Now don't confuse what they are doing as some form of hex or curse, because the Witches say that is not the case. They are in fact, attempting to basically aid him in keeping his big trap shut! They want to RESTORE BALANCE AND PEACE TO CHARLIE SHEEN. Hmmm......I think that ship sailed a long time ago. I'm just saying....

But considering that one of the witches even acknowledged that she "fears him close to death, because his soul has started wandering to the other side"......I think an exorcism for demonic possession might prove more useful in this particular case. What do you think? Is a 'binding' and 'spell casting' really any match for Charlie Sheen's "Tiger Blood" and "Adonis DNA"?! In this epic battle of Hollywood Warlock vs. Salem Witches....who do you think will be 'Winning'? And if you're really curious, you can take a gander at the actual 'spell casting' ceremony via the You Tube video below.
Disclaimer: Those are all real people (aka...witches/warlocks) who live and work in Salem. If you go there during the month of October, you will most likely run into them somewhere. At least I always seem to. (© Charlie Warlock Image - SplitReason.com)

Fly with me to Harry Potter's Wizarding World

Okay....so I mentioned I have a give away and I do! I've had it ready for awhile...BUT, I became sidetracked with something else that I really want to share with you all first. As most of you know, I am from Florida and something quite magical just happened this past weekend in Florida. Do you know what it was? Well I'll tell you...

The grand opening of Harry Potter's Wizarding World is what happened. Being annual pass holders to Universal Studios for many years, we have watched impatiently as that section of the park was closed off to build a new section dedicated to the wonderful world of Harry Potter. So on Friday when the news was showing Harry and Ron and the others at the grand opening, along with a GAZILLION people lined up to get in....reality fled and insanity kicked in. Any witch or wizard with half a brain would have avoided that hot, sweltering mad house like the plague. But I never said I was a 'sane' and 'rational' witch. And apparently neither are my children. The husband is, but sadly for him, he tends to get overruled most of the time because the inmates run this asylum...ha!

So I let them conjure me into going, against all my better judgement, to head out there and brave the crowds just for a glimpse of that magical world. Now we did wait until later in the day to go. You can do that when you live close and have annual passes. So we got out there about 5:00pm and the lines looked like they had shortened considerably. But it turns out that we still waited in line for an hour and 45 min. just to step foot in that section of the park. However, just to see it all was for me worth that wait. The whole area was packed with Muggles and there were additional lines for EVERYTHING from the rides, to the shops to even getting a 'ButterBeer'!

But our timing was pretty good and we did manage to get our sweaty lil' hands on some ButterBeer and Pumpkin Juice. We also rode the amazing new ride called Harry Potter's Forbidden Journey and boy was that INCREDIBLE! Giant spiders, Death Eaters, Flying on Broom in a Quidditch Match....this is a must for anyone who goes there if you can handle the crazy motion. We got off of the ride after 10pm so the section was closed and most people had cleared out. But the stores that earlier had 2 hour lines to get in them, were now open to just walk right in. So we got Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes which are to die for, and a very cool Bethany Lowe Owl/Moon Halloween ornament. All in all.....a fantastic day, but the heat and humidity took its toll and the LONG walk back to the parking garage was grueling to say the least.

We laid around and began our Harry Potter movie marathon week on Sat. and then turned around, got up early and went back out on Sun. The lines were all shorter, but still long and it was so bloody hot...ugh! But the kids wanted to pick out their wands and we really wanted to eat lunch at the 3 Broomsticks Restaurant. The wands are very nice and quite pricey at $28.95. But you can get character wands that match the ones each of the actors used in the movies, or you can get Celtic Calendar wands based on your birth month. These are nice, heavy, good quality wands that are really lovely. My son got Prof. Snape's and my daughter chose Syrius Black's wand. I liked them both, but they made me get Hermione's so they'd all be different. I'll post photos of them later.

But I can tell you that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is nothing short of magical. And it is winter in Hogsmeade Village so there is snow on the rooftops. I think it will be very enchanting to go when the weather is cold and it really feels like you are there in the winter. But we'll go back many times before then I'm sure, because I am a nutter like that. But I wanted to share it with you all so that you too can catch a glimpse of the magic. So I've enclosed a slideshow of my photos at the bottom of this post. And I attempt to tell you what each one is at the bottom, so you'll know what you are viewing. I hope you enjoy it as much we enjoyed going! And my next post here will be a giveaway, I promise.