Billy Idol has had quite an interesting career, the majority of which I am completely unfamiliar with. From his early days with Generation X to his solo heyday in the 1980s, to his fall from grace in the 1990s, he has been all over the place. Not to mention his near-death motorcycle accident. The man has shown incredible resiliency coming through it all with a sneer on his face and a fist in the air. This concert shows the man doing what he knows, tearing the house down. I believe this was recorded in 2005 while touring behind his last album, Devil's Playground. It is a no frills concert and Blu-ray release, but it matters not as it so finely presented and just a blast to watch....more

In 1992 Batman: The Animated Series premiered with Paul Dini and Bruce Timm’s take on the Dark Knight. The series was leaps and bounds beyond anything fans had ever seen before and it created what’s been affectionately referred to as “the Dini-verse.” The second entry in the Dini-verse premiered four years later in 1996 with Superman: The Animated Series which aired 54 episodes from 1996 to 2000. This would be the fourth animated series for The Man of Steel and it's arguably the best. Tim Daly (Wings, Private Practice) voices Clark Kent/Superman and does a great job of distinguishing between the two voices....more

Whatever your religious leanings, or lack thereof, children and adults alike will no doubt find delight in the highly rated children's book Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth, author, illustrator and artist. The book follows a simple format: three siblings notice with amazement that a giant panda has come to live next door. The eldest, Michael, introduces himself; the girl, Addy, then introduces herself and Karl, the youngest, because he was shy "around bears he didn't know." The sweetness from that sentence alone melted my heart....more

Following previous DVDs of Cartoon Network's Justice League and Justice League Unlimited that offered a few shows and entire seasons, fans can now revel in all 91 episodes with the release of Justice League – The Complete Series. These aren't your daddy's Super Friends where congenial heroes dealt with easily resolved conflicts and infrequently fought supervillians in programs geared towards young children. No, the Justice League is creatively led by Bruce Timm, the man partially responsible for the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series and other DC Comics-based television series. Here, the characters have realistic personalities and interactions and the stories are much more complex. During the two seasons on Justice League, the stories took two or three episodes to complete....more

I have two daughters, one is five going on six and the other three. As with many little girls, they are very much into baby dolls and pretending that they are the dolls' mommies. I know that I'm quite a bit away from that happening, but in the meantime, we have the game My Baby First Steps to tide them over. My Baby First Steps follows a very interesting theme for a game -- bringing up a baby and helping the baby learn all the things they need to learn. In the simulation, the player has a nurse called Clara who helps the player with the baby. The pediatrician, Dr. George, gives advice as well.  The game also features different rooms in the house which provides the background for the different tasks....more

Angels & Demons is an adaptation of the best selling Dan Brown novel of the same name and reunites director Ron Howard and actor Tom Hanks for their fourth collaboration. Even though Angels is theatrically a sequel to The Da Vinci Code, the novel was published years before Code, which meant Howard, Hanks, and Brown had to play the film as a sequel rather than a prequel, which created an interesting challenge for all involved. During the testing of the Large Hadron Collider, a small amount of anti-matter is created and separated in three canisters for testing. At the same time the Catholic Church is in the middle of both mourning the passing of the Pope and trying to choose his successor. The secret society known as The Illuminati is trying to disrupt the Vatican’s search for a new pope....more

As gilded and over-the-top as the Old South itself, the Gone with the Wind 70th Anniversary Collector's Edition Blu-ray release is an impressive tribute to one of the best loved films of all time. The Victor Fleming-directed (at least Fleming gets the credit) classic, based on Margaret Mitchell's book of the same name, looks exceedingly good in high definition, and the bonus items (video and otherwise) which accompany the release are sure to please fans. Everyone knows the tale of Gone with the Wind – Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) comes of age as the Civil War breaks out. It forces her to become an adult far sooner than she, and her family, may have wished, but Scarlett somehow manages – usually through conniving, lying, deceit, and other less than ladylike methods – to hold her family and her fortune together....more

Towering pillars of rage, claws extended, maws gaping – the bear in all of its raw, powerful glory. That’s the look Jill Greenberg was going for when she set out to compose a selection of photographs profiling the bear. Burned by some harsh criticism of her latest portrait exhibit, celebrity photographer Greenberg set out to encapsulate the human aggression she was receiving on a canvas of bearskin. One look at the cover of Bear Portraits is enough to let you in on the fact that she changed her mind during the process....more

Writing an icon’s biography must be a daunting task. You have scads of material to sift through and an adoring public ready to criticize any false turn you may take regarding said idol. That was evident with the biographies of John Lennon and Michael Jackson. Then some rock star biographies have so many career twists and turns to cover, any controversy is just gravy. Marc Spitz's book Bowie: A Biography is one of those books. Spitz explores David Bowie's chameleon-like personas, from Ziggy Stardust to Aladdin Sane to the Thin White Duke. David Bowie championed reinvention long before Madonna. Rock journalist Marc Spitz, (whose last rock bio was about Green Day), obviously did a lot of research via magazines, other books and original interviews....more

The smash-hit musical from the summer of 2008 has been reissued on Blu-ray with a mouthful of a title: Mamma Mia! The Movie - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! More Gift Set. The Blu-ray disc containing the movie, along with a bevy of bonus features, is the same as the previously available edition. What makes this edition unique is the inclusion of the soundtrack on CD, containing 18 songs as performed by the cast of the film. Also included is a 32-page book, filled with behind-the-scenes photos. The box itself is actually rather noteworthy; when pressed in a certain spot, it plays a snippet of music while colored lights flash around the title....more