Wow, two weeks in a row with new things to share and talk about!
Hope you had a nice Valentine’s Day and your sweetie treated you well.
If, like me, there is no sweetie, I hope you treated yourself well and also bought some half-price candy the next day!
“GOTCHA DATE”
Pug life is going well, but not without challenges.
Miss Xanadu is now up to 18 pounds. I can’t believe when I got her February 25, 2023, she weighed four pounds.
She’s definitely mischievous and naughty. She can be so sweet and so mean, usually within minutes of each other.
While she celebrated her first birthday in late December, we’re celebrating the “Gotcha Date” next week! But, do we really need a reason for cake?
Here’s to many, many more years of fun, pug kisses and a little maturity.
SUPER BOWL AFTERTHOUGHTS
Reba McEntire looked and sounded amazing singing the National Anthem.
But, boy did you see her outfit on arrival at the game? WOW!
I enjoyed the last part of Usher’s performance with the roller skates and Alicia Keyes looked amazing.
NEXT YEAR’S HALFTIME PERFORMANCE
My prediction is they’ll do a multi-artist country concert.
This makes sense because artists like Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, and the racist/not racist (with an apology) Morgan Wallen are staples at Top 40 radio.
BEYONCE GOES COUNTRY
While not exactly Super Bowl-related, in a Verizon commercial last Sunday, Beyonce teased her new album “Renaissance Act II” (March 29).
She also dropped two new country-tinged songs – I’ll pass on “16 Carriages”, but “Texas Hold ‘Em” is incredible.
And, shockingly, it’s getting some airplay at country stations. As of this morning, it gained 1,163 plays since last Sunday at country stations and 1,614 plays at Top 40 radio!
JENNIFER LOPEZ IS INCREDIBLE
Superstar Jennifer Lopez is one of the most beautiful and talented women in the world.
She was actually the focus of a blog I shared four years ago this month called “When I Was Young (and Ignorant)”.
After she performed at the Super Bowl, I realized how much 50-years-old has changed from my youth (the Golden Girls) and now with J Lo!
After beginning her career as a dancer (a “Fly Girl” on “In Living Color”), she was incredible in 1997’s “Selena” and 2019’s “Hustlers” (even “The Mother”, although it was nominated for the Razzies!)
But, she’s had a few misfires in her career — most recently, the movie “Shotgun Wedding”!
Musically, she’s scored ten Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits with four of them reaching #1: ”If You Had My Love” (1999), “I’m Real” (2001), “Ain’t It Funny” (2002), and “All I Have” (2003).
Her latest single, “Can’t Get Enough”, is one of the Top 30 most played songs in the U.S. this week from the new album, “This Is Me… Now”, which was just released.
Her Amazon Prime Video special, “This Is Me… Now: A Love Story” is also out now. This is part of a self-financed, $20 million project!
I’ll be watching it this weekend.
Here’s that 2020 blog entry I talked about earlier about how “50” has changed:
https://anthonypeoples.wordpress.com/2020/02/05/when-i-was-young-and-ignorant/
While I’ve written about her many times in the past, I still haven’t seen her in concert (yes, I missed her Vegas residency)!
I may get my chance since she announced her summer tour this week and I’m eyeing two cities and two dates.
And, one more “girl crush” note: in 2016, I ranked my 20 favorite J. Lo songs when I thought I’d see her in Vegas.
Click on the link below for that countdown and it’ll open in a new window:
https://anthonypeoples.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/my-20-favorite-j-lo-songs/
FOREIGN TELEVISION
I finished “The Crown” and while I await the final season of “You” and the new season of “Bridgerton”, I’ve been bingeing on a four foreign LGBTQ series.
My favorite was “Smiley”, which was cancelled after one season of eight episodes.
While the other three were “coming of age” and “coming out” series dealing with high school, private school, and college, I still found them enjoyable.
One is the Swedish series, “Young Royals”, which will conclude with the third and final season on Netflix in March.
“Heartstopper” is a cute English series that will continue with a third season, which wrapped production in December 2023. The release date has not been announced.
And, the other is a two-season Spanish series called “Merli: Sapere Aude”, which also stars the sexy lead from “Smiley”, Carlos Cuevas.
“GOOD GRIEF”
If you’re a Daniel Levy fan, you’ll love this movie.
If you’re having “Schitt’s Creek” withdrawal, don’t expect the zaniness from this movie, just the angst.
At a Christmas Eve party in London, Marc (Levy) is enjoying the evening as his husband Oliver (Luke Evans) leaves for Paris and is killed in a car crash down the street from the party.
After a year, Marc heads off to Paris with his two best friends.
He’s there to close out matters in his relationship with Oliver and he finds that his future would have been much different if Oliver had not been killed.
GRADE: B+
“THE HANDMAID’S TALE”
If you’re a fan of the Hulu series, you’ll have to wait quite a bit longer for the sixth and final season of the Emmy-winning dystopian series.
Elisabeth Moss told Jimmy Kimmel they’ll start filming the final season this summer. However, it’ll probably 2025 before we see it.
While I was tired of the series after the fourth season, I absolutely loved season five and can’t wait to see how it ends… before “The Testaments” begins!
Yes, a spin-off series based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 book “The Testaments” is coming! Spoiler alert: This is focused on Aunt Lydia and Ann Dowd will reprise her role.
SPEAKING OF GOOD GRIEF & DYSTOPIAN
I saw this headline on Forbes X (formerly Twitter) page and thought, no thanks, I’m good!
Well, the album dropped and is expected to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. Oh well, he’s back!
LEAVING YOU ON A PARTYING NOTE
After those bleak thoughts, I’ll leave you with my favorite song now (it was also one of my favorites in 2002).
Sophie Ellis-Bextor made her American television debut earlier this week on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” with her new-found hit, “Murder on the Dancefloor”. (Thank you “Saltburn” and TikTok!)
You can definitely tell she was singing live and having a blast!
THAT’S IT
With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!
Anthony
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