Batson's Blog

As far as I know, Cupcrazed , out of Fort Mill, SC, is the only cupcake shop in the Charlotte area that was once featured on Food Network's Cupcake Wars and Cupcake Champions. They had a Sunday special that they'd posted on their Facebook page, so I made the trip and got some. With several interesting flavors to choose from, I couldn't pick just one or two. I had to get four cupcakes. Blueberry Pancake This cupcake was the reason I went to Cuprazed in the first place. I saw a photo of it on their Facebook page and my jaw dropped. I'm pretty sure I let out a few comments of disbelief at my the phone I was looking at the Cupcrazed Facebook page on. Blueberry pancake as a flavor of a cupcake??! I had to try it first. Wow! It really did taste just like blueberry pancakes. There was almost a taste of blueberry muffin in the cupcake too. It tasted incredible! The blueberry syrup on top was the perfect accent to the cupcake and the frosting. The funny thi...

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.