Batson's Blog

Britney Spears has been a singer/dancer/entertainer for more than a decade now. " Work B*tch " has been growing on me, but let's face it: Britney Spears isn't known for her singing talent. She's a decent dancer. She looks good. I still remember her 2003 American Music Awards outfit. That's one hot woman right there. Some of her early work featured more vocal range -- or attempts to display singing talent. These days, she gets her British on, has will.i.am throw some club beats down and she releases a single. You don't ever see her doing AOL Sessions or performing an a cappella version of "Oops!... I Did It Again." Considering she makes her living as a singer, she's not the best actual singer. It all makes a lot more sense now. Her kid sister -- 22-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears -- just released her first single, "How Could I Want More." Guess what? She can actually sing. Who would've guessed?

Fall Out Boy returned this year with an entirely new album ( Save Rock and Roll ) full of tracks that have the kind of energy only they can provide. Their second single -- "Alone Together" – is picking up some traction after “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark” peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Their album is full of energetic rock and roll. They branch out in some ways, but stick to their roots on every track. Here’s the track-by-track review: The Phoenix This one kicks off the album. It’s a good start. It’s got lots of high impact beats and some good vocals. It’s the kind of song one would expect from Fall Out Boy. The fast-paced music and high-impact drums kick in right away. After a short bit of soft-spoken words, the chorus kicks in: "Hey young blood Doesn't it feel like our time is running out? I'm gonna change you like a remix Then I'll raise you like a phoenix" Very good track. It wouldn't be my...

Amidst all of the movies I was looking forward to seeing this year ( Man of Steel , G.I. Joe 2 , Thor 2 , etc.), there’s one that fell off my radar: Red 2 . I’m not sure why I forgot all about this one, but I did. I enjoyed the first one. Red was about a group of retired special agents who were trying to be taken out of action permanently. Red 2 is every bit as hilarious as the first one. Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, I was laughing out loud. So was the rest of the theatre. It’d been a while since I’d seen Red , so I’d forgotten a good deal of the specifics of that movie. Thankfully, you don’t need to know much about Red in order to enjoy Red 2 . There’s some typical action movie scenes, including car chases, sneaking into a high-security government facility, and explosions. Somehow it didn’t feel like it was ‘been there, done that’ though. Just like in Red , this time around the characters find themselves dodging bullets (literally) and trying to avoi...

I got this album several months ago, when it was still on the end cap in the music section at Target. I wasn’t blown away by the songs, but here I am, several months later, and I find myself singing along to a lot of the songs when they come across my iTunes shuffle list. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I figured I may as well give credit where credit is due and deliver a review of Ke$ha’s sophomore album: Warrior . After the success of Animal , Ke$ha came back with electropop music and more politically incorrect, outlandish lyrics. All in all, it's a lot of fun. Warrior This song was somewhat lackluster. It’s a Ke$ha party track, but it doesn’t have a distinguishable hook or chorus – at least not compared to the other ones on the album. The main chorus of “Warrior-ior-ior-ior. Warrior-ior-ioooor,” doesn’t really stick inside your head. That being said, Ke$ha’s vocals are pretty good on this one. "Warrior" utilizes a lot of forms of music dis...

I checked out Oprah's Favorite Things list recently. Sorry, O, but I can't say I'm intrigued by almost any of it. To counteract that list, I'm presenting to you today: Batson's Favorite Things 2013. 10. That 70's Show (the complete series) You can find this series at various places online, but I got this for under $40 at Sam's Club recently. Talk about an amazing deal! Considering The Big Bang Theory is going for around $30 a season, I was thrilled to see this deal. I know it's all about supply and demand. That 70's Show ended in 2006 has been played several times over in syndication since then. One day the complete series of The Big Bang Theory may be going for $35 too. If Sam's Club is offering up That 70's Show for $39.95, I'm taking it! Outside of a handful of other sitcoms, That 70's Show is my favorite. It's one of those shows that you can put into the DVD player and watch at all times, no matter wha...

Wow! I almost didn’t stop at Bowtie Bakery . That would have been a huge mistake. I was up at Concord Mills Mall and I decided to check out Purple Cow Bakery . I arrived at the address I had for Purple Cow, but there was no bakery there. I Googled the store and one of the search results that came up was “Bow Tie Bakery.” It looked like Bow Tie Bakery was near the Carolina Place mall. Frustrated that Purple Cow evidently moved or went out of business, I was going to call it a day and head home. While driving towards Interstate, I passed the mall. I did a u-turn and found Bow Tie Bakery – located next to Sogo Japanese Seafood and Steakhouse in a strip mall. I’m not sure what I was expecting, if anything, when I walked inside. What I got was a huge selection of cupcakes. Each one was a different, enticing flavor and was visually impressive. I probably spent 10 minutes trying to decide which cupcakes to get. I ended up choosing five of them. I ended up sharing them sin...

When I heard that Daughtry was coming out with new music I was ecstatic! Besides the fact that he's a fellow Batman fan , I was a impressed with Daughtry , the 2006 album Chris and the rest of the band released. Their 2009 follow up -- Leave this Town – was even more impressive with more of a rock sound on several of the album’s tracks. Break the Spell was far and away their best work though. That album has more plays than any other that I have imported in iTunes. This time around, Daughtry apparently worked without his band mates. How does Baptized compare to Chris' previous work? There are some decent songs on it. I don’t know that it quite measures up to Break the Spell . It’s a solid effort though. Baptized "It was one of the first songs written for the record and it's probably my favorite song on the album," Chris told The Hollywood Reporter . It's not my favorite, but it works. I was waiting for that high note -- the climax of ...

Terrence Howard opened up about being replaced by Don Cheadle in the Iron Man movies. He was on Watch What Happens Live and hinted at the reason he was replaced by Cheadle as Lt. Col. James "Rhodey" Rhodes. The reason? Apparently it's Iron Man himself. Yep. Howard says Robert Downey Jr. is the reason he got booted...more or less. He told host Andy Cohen: "It turns out that the person I helped become Iron Man ... when it was time to re-up for the second one, (he) took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out." Iron Man, of course, is Downey. I guess he and Downey had some kind of falling out. "We did a three-picture deal, so that means that you did the deal ahead of time," Howard said. "It was going to be a certain amount for the first one, a certain amount for the second one, a certain amount for the third. They came to me with the second and said, 'Look, we will pay you one-eighth of what we contractual...

I reviewed Jewell Treats way back in April, but this summer they moved to a new location at Hearst Tower in Uptown. I stopped by to check out their new digs. The new location on the second floor of the Hearst building is handy if you’re in Uptown and need a cupcake fix. Outside of the regular flavors they feature, they experiment regularly. In fact, one of their customers recently won a ‘you pick the flavor’ contest. She chose a chocolate cupcake with whipped cream in the middle, a Nutella/vanilla frosting and some caramel drizzle on top of that.

I'd been to Charlotte Cupcakes - Cupcrazed">Cupcrazed before, located right off of I-77 in Fort Mill, but I'd never been to the actual heart of the town. I decided to change that, so I sought out the only other cupcake shop I could find in the entire town: Savannah's Dining, Bakery and Catering . Taking the back roads into Fort Mill on a sunny Fall day? Very relaxing. Well -- except for taking a couple of wrong turns and then my GPS telling me I was at Savannah's when I was actually three blocks away. Other than that -- very relaxing. Savannah's is house-turned-cafe, located in a brick home on Confederate Street. When I went they didn't have a very large collection of cupcakes. Like a lot of bakeries I've been to, the focus isn't just on cupcakes, so the selection seems to be smaller. With a smaller selection, there obviously wasn't a lot of unique or interesting flavors either. There were actually only two options to choose ...

How the mighty have fallen. Lady Gaga has always been unusual, but when she first took the world by storm a few years ago, she at least made good music. “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” “Bad Romance,” “Alejandro,” “Paparazzi,” and even “You and I” were all great, catchy songs. They were different than what anyone else in pop or rock music were doing at the time. Her latest album – ARTPOP – proves that she’s run out of tricks. With Gaga essentially making claims of being a large part of pop culture in “Applause,” I was hoping she’d innovate on this album. Instead she’s settling for the techno, ‘futuristic’ sound that Christina Aguilera bombed with on Bionic . There are incredible vocal abilities put to use on Gaga’s fourth studio album, but it’s painfully obvious that she has nothing meaningful left to write or sing about. The ruling theme on ARTPOP is about sex and drugs. Considering Miley Cyrus has already owned that market this year, I’m not sure where Gaga is hoping to fit...

Angela Lansbury, perhaps best known for her role as Jessica Fletcher on Murder, She Wrote , voiced her opinion on the reboot of the 1980’s TV show. She’s not happy about it . Last week, NBC announced that it would be rebooting the Murder, She Wrote show with Octavia Spencer playing a nurse/self-publishing author/mystery solver. I wasn’t sure what to think about it, myself. A lot of times Hollywood likes to remake and reboot and sequel things to death. Sometimes it works. The Amazing Spider-Man was an awesome movie, despite being released just 5 years after the last Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie. Ben Affleck will be the new Batman, just a few years after Christian Bale owned that role.

News broke this week that Kassius Ohno (formerly Chris Hero of Ring of Honor fame) was released from his WWE contract . I don't think anyone who's been following the newsboards would be too surprised by this announcement. WWE signed Hero and Claudio Castagnoli in September 2011. While Castagnoli debuted as Antonio Cesaro in April 2012, Hero never appeared on Raw or Smackdown. He was stuck in NXT. Rumors began circulating that WWE management wasn't happy with his efforts. Whether that's true or not, it was put out there. Given that Hero has now been released, there was evidently some truth to WWE management not being happy with his progress. Hero addressed his release on his Facebook page, saying: "I’m leaving WWE on good terms so, if it’s meant to be, I’m sure I will be back. If it’s not meant to be, I can guarantee you that I will still be trotting all over the globe doing what I love (and what I’m damn good at) at the highest level possible." ...

Wow! I’m so glad I saw this movie! Star Trek 2: Into Darkness was, by far, my favorite movie this year so far, but Thor 2: The Dark World could give it a run for it’s money. The Dark Knight is probably my favorite of all time. Hmmm...maybe it has something to do with the word 'dark?' Anyway, let’s get this out of the way first: stay until the very end of the movie! Even when you think it’s the end…stay a while longer. That’s right. A movie with two extra scenes, mid and post-credits! Back to the beginning though. Sometimes it’s hard to set up the background of villains, but this movie wastes no time doing that. They make it clear right away: beware of the evil elves. Malekith the Accursed, played by Christopher Eccleston (though you wouldn't know it, thanks to the make up and effects), isn't the best villain of all time. I don't know if he'd crack the top 25. He fills the role for this movie and does it well though. Mostly, I was just i...

Part 1 and Part 2 were good, but I think there's some definite look-a-likes this time around. I'll get right to the comparisons, but let me know what you think? Am I spot on or what? I saved the very best (and closest comparison) for last this time, so make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page. On the left: Edge On the right: Jamie Campbell Bower May as well start with a wrestling-related one. It seems those pro wrestlers have doppelgängers all over. I'd mentioned before that Wilson Bethel resembles Edge . I still stand by that statement. However, I think Jamie Campbell Bower looks even more like Edge. Jamie Bower, for those who are unaware like I was, is an actor who has quite an impressive resume already. I just watched The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (review to come later) and that's the first time I saw him...or so I thought. Jamie was in the final three Twilight movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Parts 1 and 2 , and t...

It's back to Concord this week. After trying DOUGH Bakery last week, I went closer to the downtown area and found The Sweet Life . I had to double check the address. My GPS said I was at 196 Church Street, but it the building didn't look like a bakery from the outside. After getting out of the car I realized there were two large banners with a cupcake and the words, "The Sweet Life," on it. However, when driving by, trying to pay attention to traffic (minor details, you know...), the sign didn't jump out at me. The Sweet Life is located inside an old house-turned-business. Apparently there's an invitation/graphic design business inside as well. I'm not sure if it's run by the same people as the cupcake shop or not. When I went inside, the only thing I spotted was the bakery. The first thing I noticed was the interesting choice of flavors. They had banana pudding, vanilla chai, peanut butter and jelly, and caramel apple. Each cupcake lo...

With shows like The Vampire Diaries , The Walking Dead and The Big Bang Theory dominating current TV ratings, it's easy to forget about some pretty awesome shows from the past. Friends , Seinfeld and C.S.I. will probably forever have prominent spots on syndicated television, but other shows aren't that fortunate. Some shows, for whatever reason, aren't shown in syndication as often. If you don't stumble upon them on Netflix or at some random department store, you may forget they ever existed. Here are five awesome shows you may have forgotten about: 5. Father Dowling Mysteries (1987-1991) I recently found the Father Dowling DVDs at BJ's for $9.99 a piece. I bought the first two seasons and hunted down the third season at Barnes & Noble (for a hefty price of $40!). I remember watching this show when I was a kid in the early '90s. I'm a fan of murder-mysteries, whether it's Murder, She Wrote , C.S.I. or the more contemporary Sherloc...

I haven't seen Thor yet (it's out today!), but I did see one of the production photos. Whoever the villains are in this movie look pretty cool. I'm a fan of the masks and the gold and black color scheme. I'm not sure how effective these troops will be, but chances are they'll make good henchmen. Of course, there's some pretty large shoes to fill in that territory. When it comes to spectacularly mediocre henchmen who end up being good punching bags for the hero of the story, there's a decent group of candidates out there already.

Thor 2 is in theatres tonight! I’m very excited to see this movie. I’m more excited to see Thor 2 than Man of Steel actually. Thor has always been a fun super hero. He’s kind of like a mix between Superman and Hercules. It’s been impossible to completely avoid the trailers (I have been trying!), but from what I’ve seen it looks like it won’t disappoint. It also looks like there will be some cool fight scenes involving Thor’s trademark hammer. I came up with a list of the coolest super hero weapons. Thor’s hammer was one of them that made the list. Check out the rest of them below. 10. Ghost Rider’s chain When fighting demons and the dead, you need to have a few good weapons handy. Ghost Rider’s flaming chain is his go-to weapon. I’m not sure exactly how long the chain is, but it looks to be a decent length. Ghost Rider uses it like a whip sometimes. Other times he uses it as a lasso, wrapping his enemy up in it. The chain is essentially unbreakable. Once th...

It's a double dose of cupcakes today since I missed posting last week. I'd heard about DOUGH bakery several months ago. I was at an event they provided treats for and ended up with one of their business cards. I went online to the DOUGH website , but it didn't list cupcakes as one of the goodies they bake. That left me with the old fashioned option: I called them. I asked if they had cupcakes and the man on the other end told me they did. They had chocolate, vanilla and, the new standard, red velvet. Obviously, they didn't have the selection of a shop that's dedicated specifically to cupcakes. I figured I'd give them a shot. When I got to the store, it was just as the man on the phone had said. There were a handful of cupcakes available in three flavors: vanilla, chocolate and red velvet. They added some variety by mixing up the frosting. Some chocolate cupcakes had chocolate frosting while others had vanilla. Some vanilla cupcakes were topped ...

This week I made another stop in Cornelius. I’d been to Just Baked and Maddy's Fatty's , but somehow I missed BW Sweets Bakery . The funny thing is: it’s right on Catawba Ave., one of the main streets that goes through the town. Free parking is available on either side of the street, though crossing the street proved to be difficult because there’s no stoplight nearby. Thanks to a driver who slowed down for me, I made it across the street after about a minute of waiting for the traffic to break. It's a small shop inside, but there's a decent selection of cupcakes available. It wasn't hard to choose three different flavors to get. Cinnamon Roll Cupcake I’m pretty sure Granny Mac’s forever ruined me with their massive cupcakes. What this Cinnamon Roll cupcake lacked in size, it made up for in flavor though. I love cinnamon, so the abundance of cinnamon flavor on and in this cupcake made it an exceptional treat for me. The frosting was probably the ...