Batson's Blog

In Chinese culture it may be the year of the snake , but globally, it seems to be the year of The Rock. Years ago (feels like a loooong time now that I'm at the elderly age of 27), when I first started watching pro wrestling, The Rock was just starting to break out on his own. I started watching in 1997, less than a year after Rocky Maivia debuted.  He was supposed to be a fan favorite, but when fans weren't reacting favorably, the World Wrestling Federation made him a heel (or villain). That's when he showed some personality and became very popular -- a household name in fact. Still, predicting that he would one day be a box office draw for major motion pictures would have gotten a lot of laughs. Yet that's exactly what happened. I figured he'd do well in the action genre, but I had no idea that he'd end up being all of the place. On May 24 he'll be in Fast 6 . That will be the fourth movie he's been in this year. He's signed on to be i...

There were rumblings that Nicki Minaj may not be back for another season of American Idol, but it turns out that AI original, Randy Jackson, won't be returning next season . As American Idol struggles to stay relevant and remain on top of the ratings battle, they've pretty much resorted to musical chairs with their judges. First Paula ABdul was out. Then Kara Dioguardi and Ellen DeGeneres were in. Then Ellen was out. Then Kara was out. Then Simon was out while J'Lo and Steven Tyler were in. After a very boring season with Lopez and Tyler as judges, they switched it up, signing on the level-headed Keith Urban along with the feisty Nicki Minaj and "the Diva" Mariah Carey. That's a lot of switching around. With so many judges swapping spots, leaving and coming on board, it kind of takes the attention away from the aspiring singers. This is supposed to be the search for the next big music superstar -- so why so much focus on the judges? If Minaj en...

Finally! This week I snagged myself a FuManChu cupcake. Unlike some other cupcakes in Charlotte, there are some very original flavors at FuManChu -- several of which include alcohol. It's a business started up by a man in Charlotte. His website says he's trying to open up shop someplace. I stumbled upon the site last year, when it said a shop would be opening in December. Plans fell through apparently because the shop is still in the works. That means the only way to get a FuManChu cupcake is to pick it up from one of the bars that sells them. Each Tuesday and Thursday they are available at a bar or restaurant in NoDa, on North Davidson Street. I tried to pick one up a couple of month's ago, but the bar they were being sold at was closed because there was some kind of small group theatre production happening. I tried the following Thursday, but Mr. FuManChu was sick, so there were no cupcakes available that day. Needless to say, I was happy to see a tweet...

Congrats to Pink and Nate Ruess on the success of "Just Give Me A Reason." It was dethroned by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' "Can't Hold Us," but Pink and Ruess' collaboration was number one for three weeks in a row. Time for a little bragging now. When I reviewed The Truth About Love , I pointed out that "Just Give Me A Reason" was a song worth some serious radio play: "Just Give Me A Reason – It’s an incredible song – exactly what you’d expect in a collaboration between Nate Ruess, the lead vocalist of fun., and Pink. I didn’t even know Nate Ruess’ name before I Googled it to write this review, but I knew, right off, that it was ‘the guy from fun.’ when I heard him chime in on this track. I’m hoping this one hits the radio because I think it’d do really well. Let’s hope those in charge strike while the iron is hot and fun. is popular. Once again, it's something totally different from what Pink usually delivers." Nice to ...

As if he doesn’t have enough advanced weaponry, Tony Stark created a lot of new weapons for his arsenal – thanks to the high level of stress that kept him up for nights on end. The coolest of them was probably the sensors he installed into his arms and legs. When he put his arms out, it triggered the Iron Man suit parts, which came flying across great distances and assembled together on Tony Stark’s body. He also rigged up a way to make the Iron Man suit maneuver without a body being inside of it. All Tony had to do was wear his headpiece and he could control the suit from a different location. Iron Man may be the king of super-cool technology, but there are a few other super heroes who have a pretty wide arsenal of weapons, machines and gadgets:

I reviewed Iron Man 3 yesterday, but one thing I didn’t mention was the fact that the previews leading up to the actual movie were almost as entertaining as the movie itself. It was basically 10 minutes of fast-paced action movie previews. Star Trek: Into Darkness Watch the trailer I was anxious to see Star Trek before I saw the preview, but even moreso now that I have. It looks like Captain Kirk is really going to have his hands full with this new villain. Like with other trilogies and multi-film movies, there’s usually a darker movie – one where the super hero faces very threatening foes and not everyone makes it out of the film alive. The Dark Knight was that movie in the Dark Knight trilogy. Iron Man 3 was that movie in the Iron Man series. Spider-Man 3 was that movie in the Spidey movies starring Tobey Maguire. Into Darkness looks to be aptly named, as there are shots of crew members jumping off large buildings, falling towards the ground below. It will be inte...

Can we talk Iron Man 3 ? I was told by a friend of mine on Twitter that Iron Man 3 stopped being cool on Sunday. True, I was not one of the many people who saw it opening weekend, but better late than never right? The third installment in the Iron Man series (and the sequel to The Avengers ) was definitely very cool! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had high hopes after the first two Iron Man movies, Thor , Captain America and The Avengers . Marvel has been on a role the past few years, so I was hoping they’d deliver a kick-ass movie in order to keep that momentum going. Based on the one trailer I saw for Iron Man 3, it seemed that Tony Stark faced a threat like never before. The preview I saw showed some of the Iron Man suits getting blown up. Iron Man 3 almost immediately started with that very same image. It wasn’t all explosions though. In fact, perhaps more than in the previous Iron Man appearances, this movie had a back-story, characters with different al...