Batson's Blog

Ever since I started doing these cupcake blogs I've heard about SAS Cupcakes . There are a few cupcake shops that have gotten lots of word-of-mouth publicity around Charlotte and SAS is one of them. SAS has two locations in the Charlotte area. The one I went to is located in a small shopping center at the intersection of Ardrey Kell and Rea Roads. The outside looks is unimpressive. It blends into the surroundings very well. The storefront doesn't stand out as a, "I have to stop in there!' kind of place. The inside of the store isn't as plain. It looks like a Party America that's been flipped into a fairy princess castle. There are cases of candy that can be bought by the scoop. Large lollipops, cupcake photo frames, and pointy princess hats decorate the counter and shelves. It's like a candy store, Party America and cupcake shop all rolled into one.

Dreams do come true! Alright, this may not qualify as a dream coming true, but it is pretty cool. It was announced this week that Sony Pictures is in final negotiations to make a live action Captain Planet movie is in the works . I've already blogged about what direction I think they should take with the movie and why I think it will work . I hope it's successful, the way Transformers have been. The project is already off to a good start since they have some good people on board. Don Murphy (one of the producers in the Transformers franchise) and Mark Gordon (a producer of Speed, Saving Private Ryan and Grey's Anatomy) are producing the adaptation. Related Content: • Could a more bad-ass Captain Planet work? • TV Shows That Should Come Back • 10 TV shows and movies that aren't on DVD, but should be • The Big Bang Theory (Seasons 1 - 4) - reviewed.

As much as I didn’t enjoy watching Jack and Jill the other day, I do have to hand it to Adam Sandler. He did a decent job pulling double duty --- playing two different characters in the same film. Obviously it was Sandler playing both Jack and Jill, but he did a good enough job using different mannerisms, facial expressions and voices that it almost seemed like two characters weren’t both played by Sandler. I’m no actor. I’ve never played two characters on the same stage or in the same movie, but I imagine doing so would be fairly difficult. Several actors and actresses have pulled double duty over the years, successfully playing two separate characters and making them seem different. Here’s some of the more memorable performances: Who can forget Mike Myers playing Austin Powers and Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies? This is one case of double duty that isn’t as evident. I watched the movies when I was younger and didn’t realize it was Mike Myers acting out both cha...

If you remember seeing the previews for Jack and Jill and thinking, ‘That movie doesn’t look very good,’ then you were right. I watched Jack and Jill the other day and it’s kind of a shame I did. That’s close to two hours of my life I won’t get back. I’m being a little too harsh, but it wasn’t a very good movie. I’m kind of shocked, reading up some statistics on it now, that the movie wasn’t a total box office bomb. Critics dogged it (rightfully so), but the movie didn’t lose money. I guess that says something about Adam Sandler’s star power. The entire selling point of the movie is that Adam Sandler pulls double duty, playing the roles of identical twins Jack and Jill. That’s also the problem with the movie. Sandler is so over-the-top while playing Jill that it becomes a very unrealistic movie. I know it’s a comedy, but can we at least keep one foot on the ground with reality? I’ve always been so-so on Adam Sandler movies. His exaggerated and loud acting doesn’t a...

I went looking for The Blushing Bakeshoppe in Ballantyne, but I’m assuming it closed since I spent an hour walking around the Ballantyne Village looking for the shop. I tried calling the phone number that was listed on the Blushing Bakeshoppe Facebook page. It was still working, but I got the voicemail. Turns out, there’s a new bakery right across the street. I stumbled upon Decadent Designs Bakery . There’s a large display case of cupcakes inside, along with a couple of high tables in case you want to eat inside. I wasn’t sure which cupcakes to get as there were several flavors to choose from. Three of them caught my eye though: a chocolate-covered Boston Cream Cupcake, a Key Lime cupcake with light green frosting and a larger Strawberry cupcake that was intricately decorated.

Iron Man isn't the only super hero returning to the big screen in the next several years. You'll be seeing a lot of Spidey too. "Sony's film studio announced Monday it has OK'ed the third and fourth editions of the webbed franchise, and that they will hit theaters on June 10, 2016 and May 4, 2018," USA Today reports . Andrew Garfield is already resuming his role as Spider-Man. He's in New York filming the sequel to last year's The Amazing Spider-Man . It's set for a May 2014 release date -- the same month that X-Men: Days of Future Past is set for. Related Content: • Iron Man 3 - reviewed. • More Iron Man to come • The Amazing Spider-Man - reviewed.

After some speculation that Robert Downey Jr. may have put on the Iron Man suit for the last time, Marvel announced that he's signed on for more appearances as the high-tech super hero. " ... Marvel is pleased to announce the signing of Robert Downey, Jr. to reprise the role of the “billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist," they said in a statement on Marvel.com. There may not be any additional individual Iron Man movies, but Downey will return in The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3 . Marvel also revealed that the sequel to The Avengers , being written and directed by Joss Whedon, will feature new Marvel characters that haven't been on the big screen before. It's slated for production in 2014 and is set to be released May 1, 2015. Related Content: • Iron Man 3 - reviewed. • The Avengers - reviewed. • Stan Lee's Top 15 Cameos

Christopher Nolan succeeded in creating an incredible Dark Knight trilogy. I’m not quite sure he succeeded in creating an incredible part one in Superman’s story. In a way, the movie was really good. It introduced us to Superman, his allies and his foes. Yet, it kind of fell flat for me. When it comes to super heroes, I make it no secret that Batman is my favorite. I never really became a big fan of the Superman character until I rented the Christopher Reeve movies about five years ago. After I saw those movies, I was very eager to see Superman Returns . After I saw that one, I wanted another, but that possible franchise fell apart. When it was announced that Man of Steel was in the making, I was anxious to see what kind of magic Nolan would produce with Superman. I don’t regret going to see the movie, but I wasn’t blown away either. That being said, the Batman trilogy didn’t really pick up until The Dark Knight . Even though Batman Begins wasn’t the best film of th...

There’s at least two closed cupcake shops I’ve run into in Indian Trail, but along Indian Trail Road, there’s a cupcake shop that’s in business. It’s A Piece of Cake is located in a small strip mall near the Ace Hardware. I drove by a couple of times before, but each time the store looked like it was closed. I called ahead to make sure it was actually open. It was, so the Indian Trail cupcake taste test was good to go. The cupcake shop isn’t much to look at inside. There was a display case, but there were a bunch of seemingly random things in there as well. It was almost like a garage sale. It was like a pawn shop-turned-bakery. Nonetheless, there were a few different flavors of cupcakes in plastic six-packs in the display cases, so I chose three of them: a Twix cupcake, an Almond Joy cupcake, and a chocolate cupcake.

If you look at Wikipedia's page for June 16th , you'll see a slew of historic events. Perhaps more exciting than anything listed on the Wikipedia page is the fact that June 16th is also Captain Picard Day. Captain Picard Day is celebrated on June 16th because it is the equivalent date to Stardate 47457.1, mentioned in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode entitled The Pegasus. In that episode, Captain Picard Day is an occasion for the Enterprise to host schoolchildren and show them what Starfleet is like. Read more at http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/06/16/captain-picard-day/#X2HFaaImDHTg3UPx.99 Here's a list of other great captains: Captain Planet Who else can save the planet from pollution-loving bad guys and be a good role model -- all while rocking green hair? That's greatness all by itself. Add in his super powers and his always cool attitude, and you have a great captain indeed. Captain Hook He loses battles to a flying teenager in tights who...

Straight out the gate: if you want to go to Black Velvet Patisserie , you’d better have your GPS or be a Mooresville native. Black Velvet is actually right on Main Street, but I had a heck of a time getting to Main Street. Off the Interstate, around curves, and across railroad tracks to get there. It was my first time in Mooresville. I did have my GPS, but somehow I still ended up parking about 3 blocks away from the bakery. There are a couple of small cafe tables inside the shop. It seems like it would be a nice place to have a cupcake on a sunny afternoon. The day I went there were about seven different cupcake flavors to choose from. I ended up picking out three of them.

American Idol producers Nigel Ythgoe and Ken Warwick have been fired after season 12 of the hit TV show. The show has been in major makeover mode ever since it began dipping in the ratings, facing new found competition from NBC's The Voice . So far American Idol got rid of two producers and lost three members of the judging panel: Nicki Minaj, Mariah Carey and Randy Jackson. They can give the show a new look, introduce new rules into the competition and get an entirely new staff, but the problem they are facing is one a lot of other reality TV shows face as well: how far do you go in revamping the show?

This week I did something a little different. I got some ice cream cupcakes. I got them from Maggiemoos , in the University area. Oddly enough, Maggiemoos seems to be the same company as Marble Slab . They didn’t have a lot of selection to choose from, but I got the Cookies and Cream four-pack. At first bite, there was almost a mint taste to the cupcakes – something I liked. After the mint taste disappears, the whipped cream (kind of a less fluffy version of Cool Whip) takes over. Then comes the Maggiemoos ice cream, which reminds me of a delicious dish from Dairy Queen . It’s very plain, but very good too. Finally it’s a firm portion of chocolate cupcake that finishes off the taste. As if the combination of cupcake, ice cream and whipped topping wasn’t good enough, there’s a soft Oreo cookie on top, along with a few cookie crumbles. The cupcake was amazing because there are so many different flavors to it. In each bite you literally get a mouthful of different flav...