We just got the following information:

UPDATE: Night of a Thousand Wizards schedule & ticket sales
Universal has released about 200 additional tickets to Night of a Thousand Wizards, so we have about 400 left for sale. We are closing ticket sales on June 23, unless we sell out before then, and no tickets to NoaTW will be sold on-site, so purchase your tickets now at http://tinyurl.com/InfinitusReg
Learn more about Night of a Thousand Wizards at http://www.infinitus2010.org/ticketinfo.html

Speaking of Sell-Outs…
We have only a few Full registrations still available, as well about 100 Merlin’s Circle registrations and under 20 add-on tickets to the Welcome and Leaving Feasts, so if you want to attend the Infinitus Feasts, we highly recommend registering (or upgrading) as soon as possible. No Full or Merlin’s Circle registrations or Feast tickets will be sold on-site.

Hotel Room Update
Our room block at the Royal Pacific is already sold out, but rooms are still available at the Portofino Bay Resort ($210+tax/night) and Hard Rock Hotel ($255+tax/night); suites are available at a 25% discount over the standard rate. The hotels will be running shuttle buses between the Royal Pacific and each of the other hotels all day, and until 2:00 on Sunday morning, after the Night of Frivolity Ball, so you can enjoy yourself without wondering how you’re going to get back to your hotel room afterwards. Also, if you park a car at either the Portofino Bay or Hard Rock, you’ll be able to self-park for free at the Royal Pacific from Wednesday through Sunday when you’re Infinitusing.

And don’t forget, with paid theme park admission, on-site hotel guests get Early Park Admission to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, one hour before the park opens.
Our room block will only be held until June 16, so make your reservations now, as the rates will go up on June 17.  You can reach group reservations by calling

HEY PEOPLE! We’re back for another great episode of Harry Potter Prognostications!  In this weeks episode, we interviewed Aziza and Jenn from HPEF about the upcoming event, Infinitus 2010.  Believe us when we say that you will WANT to listen to this interview.  And believe us when we say that after you listen to the interview you will WANT to attend Infinitus which is taking place in Orlando Florida during July 2010!

Also, check out HPEF’s latest episode of their podcast HPEF Presents!

We also talk a bit about some of the stuff we’ve been reading lately.  What are you reading? Let us know!

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp

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So as it turns out we weren’t really finished discussing the Half Blood Prince movie. In this week’s episode we discussed how the movie fits in with the overall theme of …..say it……Ambiguity about good and evil within Harry Potter and specifically within HBP itself. We hope you enjoy the episode and we can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it!

Also, registration is officially open for Infinitus 2010!! You can get your early bird registration rate now so make sure to head on over to infinitus2010.org and make sure to write “hpprogs” in the referral box!

Also, make sure to keep an ear out for Travis Prinzi’s latest pubcast where he interviews US! Also, listen for Travis’ new spot on PotterCast as  a PotterCast Pundit!

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp

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Hey Everyone! Welcome to another edition of HPProgs.

In this week’s episode we reviewed Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince….sure took long enough for this movie to come out! We were joined by our friend and special guest Greg in Toronto who had some great insights into the movie. We talked about our overall impressions, the acting, the theme of the movie, the rating and many other very interesting subjects!

We also gushed about Azkatraz 2009, the Harry Potter conference we attended last week in San Francisco, CA. If you like what you heard and are interested in Infinitus 2010, check out the Infinitus website and get on their mailing list ASAP!

We also briefly discussed the move of the Harry Potter Exhibition to Boston, come October 25, 2009. The exhibition will be held at the Museum of Science in Boston.

Listen to Greg’s guest spot on the live Hogs Head PubCast from Azkatraz. They talked about Harry Potter as Legitimate Lit.

Also, check out the newest article about our Hitler Video that Greg was quoted in.

Make sure to let us know what you thought of the Half Blood Prince!

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Hey everyone! Welcome back for episode 101. Steve Vander Ark joined us this week to talk about his book, The Lexicon: An Unauthorized Guide to Harry Potter Fiction and Related Materials. We enjoyed discussing the book and the process behind publishing it as well as some of the many different entries and ideas in the book. Steve even graced us with a reading of two of his favorite entries. You will enjoy hearing Steve talk about Harry Potter in general as well in this episode.

We look forward to hearing your comments and thoughts. Enjoy!

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp

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CELEBRATION TIME!!! We made it to 100 episodes (even more if you count all of our mini and .5 episodes)! Needless to say we are so happy to have reached this point and we have to thank all of you for being such a big part of us getting here. We honestly wouldn’t have reached 100 episodes if it weren’t for all the comments, emails, facebook friends, friendly little nudges to keep going…you name it.

So we dedicate this episode to you, our listeners. Thanks for being the best!

In this week’s episode we decided to take a stroll down memory lane and visit the prognostications of the past. You will be surprised at how many predictions we made that were spot on. You will be even more surprised at the few which were way off.

We hope you enjoy this episode, we had a great time making it!

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp

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Sorry, Episode 100 has not arrived yet. That episode is going to be pretty epic and we didn’t want to release it without giving it the preparation it deserves.

This is a VERY SPECIAL episode of HPProgs though. Join me (Penny) and my son, Ezra, as we bond over Harry Potter. It is definitely different than every other episode of HPProgs to date, yet no less special, in my humble opinion.

We can’t wait to hear your thoughts and Ezra is ready to correspond with you all

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp

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Hey everyone! In this week’s episode, we had on two LOVELY guests who we met at Portus: Nikki and Darcy. They are a lot smarter than we are and actually have an educational background in Literature, so we picked their brains a little on the different aspects of literary criticism and how they relate to Harry Potter. Better get your thinking caps on because this is an episode for intelligent folks (like yourselves) and we think you’ll enjoy it!

We also briefly (notice how the word is both bold and italicized) spoke about the new Harry Potter Exhibition….well mostly about our failure to take anyone up on the offer of preview tickets. And we asked for some advice and help in planning a special party!

So please enjoy this episode and as usual we look forward to hearing your comments, thoughts, and suggestions!

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp.

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What? No way! An actual podcast? Yep! We know you have been missing your HPProgs and we missed you all too! We took a little time to record our thoughts on the LAST Half Blood Prince Trailer.

The episode is short and sweet, but full of content and info.

We can’t wait to hear what you think of the trailer, so please make sure to leave your comments below!

ou can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download it directly as an mp3

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Welcome back. We actually recorded an HP Progs podcast!!! In this week’s episode, we talked about Dumbledore’s self loathing behaviors. Specifically those that were evidenced at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as well as in Dumbledore’s commentary at the end of Beedle the Bard.  We talked about the anguish that Dumbledore must had to make him feel so horribly about himself and we also talked about how this related to his relationship with Harry. We hope you enjoy this topic and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it.

In other news, please remember to enter “The Next Biggest Podcast Idol Survivor” contest for Azkatraz 2009. It is going to be great!

Also, please check out our listener and friend, Michal’s youtube channel. She did a phenomenal job narrating “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” in a fantastaic British accent. We now know that we should have hired her to play JK Rowling in our re-enactment of the JKR/SVA trial.

As we mentioned, you can now check out the Smart Mouth’s Podcast, which is our new podcast endeavor with some of the Mugglecast Crew.  This is a general news/entertainment/politics podcast and we hope you will enjoy it!

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp.

As always, we look forward to hearing your comments, thoughts, and suggestions about this latest episode of HPProgs.

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

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We’ve started to have this conversation many times over the span of HPProgs. Do the Harry Potter books get ruined or spoiled because of the movies? Does it hurt our reading imagination to be able to visualize the books based on the film makers’ choices? Are there any characters who were either ruined for us or made popular BECAUSE of the movies (Snape, anyone?). Can someone be considered a true Potter fan if they have only seen the movies?  Join us as we answer and discuss these questions and more in Episode #96 of HPProgs!!

Also, check out the links we mentioned on this week’s episode:

• Candy Bar Lab : A blog exclusively about candy bars. They track down candy bars from around the world and write thoughtful, in-depth reviews with pictures.
• collativelearning.com: An incredible film review website. Make sure to check it out, it is brilliant!!

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp.

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download it directly as an mp3

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If you thought there were no more Harry Potter books…THINK AGAIN! We got our hands on The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and made our way through it just about as quickly as possible. The first thing we did, of course, was sit down and put a podcast together.  There’s really not much else to say, just download and listen already (but watch out: this podcast is full of spoilers)!

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp.

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

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HPEF is celebrating Black Friday and CyberMonday for the first time!

You can save ten dollars on your new AZKATRAZ registration (full registration, MPA or Merlin’s Circle only), *or* on an upgrade from any lower-level registration (single-day or full registration) to a higher-level registration. This discount will last from a minute after midnight on Friday, November 28, 2008 (Eastern Standard Time) until 11:59 PM on Monday, December 1, 2008 (Eastern Standard Time).

To qualify for the savings, register or modify your registration this weekend and use the coupon code CYBRWKND when you check out. This offer can only be used for registrations paid by a credit card or PayPal. Payment must be recieved by 11:59 PM on Monday, December 1, 2008 (Eastern Standard Time).

Purchase a new registration for yourself or a friend, add the Masters of Potter Administration (MPA) session, or upgrade to a Merlin’s Circle registration and save.

Also, anyone who registers during the CYBRWKND sale period will receive a shiny AZKATRAZ keychain, which can also be used as an inventive Christmas tree ornament.

Click here to register, and happy shopping!

Make sure to write “hpprogs” in the referral area of the registration!

The folks over at the HPEF and Azkatraz 2009 have a unique opportunity for us to help support HPEF events:

From December 4th through 10th, 2008, Barnes & Noble will host a Bookfair benefiting HP Education Fanon. Every purchase made during those days and attributed as an HPEF purchase will have a portion of the sale donated back to HPEF. You may purchase anything in the store or anything available through the store to have shipped to your home* using the Bookfair voucher or number. And don’t forget that the Bookfair starts on the release day for The Tales of Beedle the Bard! Every Beedle purchase helps the Children’s High Level Group in addition to supporting our Bookfair.

Do you have books, CDs, or DVDs you want to buy this holiday season, whether for yourself or as a gift? Save your purchase for the December 4th through 10th! When you make a purchase at a participating Barnes & Noble during those days and use the Bookfair voucher or the HPEF Bookfair number 352096, a portion of your sale will go back to HPEF to help us continue our literacy endeavors.

Here’s how you can help…
Go to any Barnes & Noble and shop for any product you wish to buy, including The Tales of Beedle the Bard and other books, CDs, DVDs, gift product, magazines, and café items-or make a purchase for the store’s Holiday Book Drive.* When you go to the cash registers, give the cashier your HPEF voucher or the HPEF Bookfair number 352096, and make your purchase. You must have the voucher or HPEF Bookfair number 352096 to have your purchase count towards the HPEF Bookfair. Feel free to use your Barnes & Noble Membership card or Educator Discount card to save on your purchase. Don’t forget to use the voucher/ Bookfair number at the Barnes & Noble Café, too! Every purchase counts!

More information can be found at the Azkatraz Website.

In this week’s episode we discussed the idea of female role models in the Harry Potter series. It is somewhat ironic that JK Rowling, a female author, chose to create a wonderful male role model as her main character. Many people have complained that there is a serious lack of quality feminist role models in the Harry Potter Series. Whether you agree or disagree with that, it is an interesting discussion to have. One critic of the feminine characters in Harry Potter is Elizabeth Heilman who wrote the essay titled, “Blue Wizards and Pink Witches: Representations of Gender Identity and Power.” She presented this essay at the HPEF conference, Nimbus 2003. Obviously, the series wasn’t complete when she offered her thoughts, but excerpts from the essay are a great springboard for an interesting discussion on the female characters of Harry Potter.

As always we look forward to hearing from you. You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.

Remember, you can now pre-order Travis Prinzi’s Book: ““Harry Potter and Imagination”. Also, make sure you register for Azkatraz 2009 (remember to write hpprogs in the referral area!)- we can’t wait to see you there!

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp.

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

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