Batson's Blog

I’m behind the times on this one, but it was just a couple of weeks ago that I was listening to the radio and I had to do a double take. I heard a song that sounded eerily similar to the song that played on the trailer for Where The Wild Things Are . Logic told me this wasn’t possible. The song used in the trailer wasn’t one that got radio play when the movie was actually out in the theatres, so why would it be on the radio now? The song was called “Home.” Upon listening to it a few more times it doesn’t sound all that much like the Where The Wild Things Are them. It also doesn’t sound like anything else that is on the radio right now, so it was easy to take notice of. It turns out the song was by a guy named Phil Phillips . Thankfully the radio personality clued me in to who he was because I had no idea. He’s the latest winner of American Idol. I caught bits and pieces of the season that Scotty McCreery won, but I didn’t see any of last season. I guess "Ho...

They say not to judge a book by its cover. To that, I say: hogwash. Fair or not, if a book doesn’t have some interesting cover art, I usually pass on picking it up for a read. I gotta’ say, from my experience, it usually works. I recently learned the hard way, however, that the same can’t be said for DVD covers. While going through the $5 bin at Best Buy, I saw the Planet of the Apes (the Mark Wahlberg version). The cover art looks pretty epic. A few days and a Netflix DVD later, it was in my mailbox. My initial reaction was surprise. I was kind of surprised at how limited the special effects seemed. Since the movie was made in 2001, I was expecting more. Anything that’s post-2000, I kind of automatically assume it will have some realistic special effects. Then again, it’s a story that is about talking apes. I suppose no amount of special effects will make that look completely convincing. Still, based on the picture quality, it seemed like it was filmed in the 197...

Lotus is Christina Aguilera’s best album to date. Granted, I never listened to a complete Christina Aguilera album before. In fact, just about the only songs of hers I’ve heard in their entirety are the singles she’s had on the radio. The past few years that hasn’t been too many. Christina can sing. I’ll give her that. My problem with her has always been that she adds too many unneeded “aahhhs” in most of her performances. She always likes to showcase her vocal abilities by adding extra syllables in places where they don't belong. Sometimes simpler is better. She always rubbed me the wrong way too. Christina seemed conceited – someone you wouldn’t want to hang out with unless you absolutely had to. Kind of like those girls at school who thought they were too awesome to associate with anyone. On Lotus Christina seems more mature and more comfortable with herself. She seems less worried about everyone thinking she’s the best. As a result, all of her tracks have...

Disney announced a few weeks back, after buying Lucasfilm Ltd. from George Lucas , that there are plans to release new Star Wars movies and Indiana Jones films. The earliest could apparently come in the form of Star Wars VII in 2015. I’m sure hardcore fans will turn out for that film. I may even be one of them. However, I think it’s a bad call. Sometimes it’s best to just leave an untarnished legacy alone (well, mostly untarnished – let’s not forget Jar Jar Binks ). The film would need the original actors and an innovative new story line to truly live up to the original trilogy. Even with the original actors, what can be done? The actors themselves are all old. Is Harrison Ford really capable of providing an awesome action sequence with a light saber at his age? Does anyone want to see Carrie Fisher in a metal bikini anymore? Meanwhile, after Indiana Jones 4 atomic-ly bombed (who can forget that horrible refrigerator scene ?), they still feel a need to revisit that fr...

All I knew about Prometheus was that it was some kind of space adventure movie – most likely involving alien life forms of some kind. I didn’t know, until the last scene, that it was a prequel, of sorts, to the Alien movies. Maybe if I’d known that ahead of time I would have enjoyed Prometheus better than I did. Or, maybe not. I’d put a spoiler alert here, but there’s really nothing worth spoiling, so I won’t bother. It peaked my interest at the start, when an albino human-like being is shown next to a large waterfall. While a ship seems to be taking off into the atmosphere, he takes a sip of something out of a canister and it changes his molecular structure. He falls into the waterfall and then decomposes in the water. All right, so who’s the guy? What did he drink? Why did he decompose? I’m interested in finding out what happened. We go to a scene in Ireland, as two scientists find a cave marking – the same as what are apparently in several other places on Eart...

It’s been a while since I’ve been in the blogosphere. That’s because I’ve been busy watching the greatest sitcom since Seinfeld . I’m talking about The Big Bang Theory . Yes, I’m just realizing the awesomeness that is Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, Wallowitz, and Penny (knock-knock, Penny, knock-knock, Penny). I’m usually a few years behind when it comes to TV shows. When a show hits syndication and starts airing on TBS, FX or some other cable channel is when I start watching it. With the exception of Lost, I’ve never really watched a television show as it was airing. It was always too much work to remember to watch it each week. Being able to set recordings on VCRs and DVRs made it easier, but, even then, I’d forget to set the VCR or my DVR would be too full to record. Anyway, I got The Big Bang Theory on DVD. Several people were telling me what a good show it was, so I decided it was time to catch up to speed. I caught up through the fourth season and now I’m thoroughly add...