For a cartoon guy such as myself, I knew it was important to bring up my son into a world where he knew the classics.  Popeye, Scooby-Doo, Batman, all the great cartoons that a boy should know and love.  But one stands above all others and deserves the term legend and that’s Looney Tunes.  I wanted to make sure that my son could know whether its “Duck Season” or “Rabbit Season”.  He also learned that Wile E Coyote was a super genius.  Perhaps teaching my son to have a slight stutter in order to say “That’s All Folks” was too much (I kid, I kid).  Anyhow, it was no wonder that when The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie was released, we knew that it would be a true father and son bonding moment.  Let’s take a look.
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Disney has made a killing off live action films that have proceeded their animated classics.  The Lion King live-action remake made over one and half billion, Beauty and the Beast made a billion and a quarter, Little Mermaid, over half a billion.  The only one to really not work was probably Cruella which barely got to 200 million worldwide but even that was due mostly to that horrible pandemic.  We got one coming for Snow White which is sure to make Little Mermaid numbers if not higher.  So it was only natural that since Lion King did such gangbuster business, they would try their hats at a sequel, err I mean a prequel.  That’s right, we get the story of Mufasa in Mufasa: The Lion King.  Let’s take a look.
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British comedy has always had its fans here in the US (I certainly count myself in that group), but let’s face facts there are only a small section of us who appreciate it.  For instance if you live in the US, quickly name ten people that you know who have watched a Monty Python film or an episode of Absolutely Fabolous.  I’ll wait, knock it down to 5 and if you aren’t British yourself, I doubt that most of the people reading could qualify.  Subjecting your spouse to the Dead Parrot bit during a Friday night doesn’t count either.  Anyhow, the first two films of Paddington both enjoyed a bit of success here in the states but were huge hits for UK, Australia, and many other countries.  Honestly, with the third one I saw some blurb on Box Office Mojo late last year and then not again until one week before release here in the states.  Which is quite sad because I really enjoyed the first two films.  My son has a Paddington Bear so I could certainly convince him as well as my wife to go see Paddington in Peru.  Let’s take a look at how it played out.
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Learning how to read is often a struggle with a child.  Every child has their own path of development with not only speed but also material that they are actually willing to read.  While some stubborn people might be of the sour mind that children should read if we tell them to, it is very much more complicated especially when dealing with special needs children.  My son has had the worst time reading despite going through a plethora of various tools and books on different subjects.  Sure, he could read some of the level readers out there, but he has never took to reading.  Until he found Dog Man.  There in the pages of a half-man, half-dog saving the city against a sinister cat, we found a series he could read easily and actually enjoy.  In fact, he’s read half of the thirteen books out there.  That’s six books, in less than a month’s time.  I’m not sure he finished six books (on his own) the entirety of last year.  That’s a ridiculous improvement and now he’s picking up a couple of Bad Guys books as well.  Heck, he might pick up a true chapter book next.  I hold a great debt to Dav Pilkey, the author of the Dog Man books and would love to shake his hand.  So it’s with my pleasure that I get to write a review about the Dog Man movie.  Let’s take a look.
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Rating –  2 1/2 stars out of 5

Lady Gaga has always went against the norm and performed the unexpected.  She’s had the benefit of a string of #1 albums including even on records such as Joanne or her collaboration with Tony Bennett.  It’s even extended to her acting career.  The remake of A Star is Born soundtrack has reached number one too.   The superstar is a hit making machine regards of genre, regardless of tune.  It is very little surprise that when the soundtrack album for the second Joker movie came out that the megastar wanted her own version.  So, that’s what Lady Gaga did, she went out and released Harlequin, a collection of songs from Joker: Folie a Deux and then additional songs influenced by the movie.  Let’s take a listen.

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Rating –  3 3/4 stars out of 5

I know most people who have read my music reviews would not necessarily expect a review of Beth Hart’s latest album.  Well, I’m full of surprises and actually pretty broad in my music taste despite what seems to be the norm of my reviews.  Truth is, Beth Hart was another artist I discovered in my musical renaissance that happened shortly after my second divorce.  For years, I had enjoyed Taylor Dayne and her extremely impressive “husky” voice.  While Taylor hasn’t done much of note in a while unfortunately, I was looking for someone to fill that ultra strong voice void.  Then I found Beth and started to listen.  All it really took was listening to her albums: Leave the Light On and My California and I was hooked.  Let’s take a look at You Still Got Me.

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Rating –  4 stars out of 5

For those who might have missed it, Kylie Minogue’s Tension was probably my favorite album of 2023. It had a generational hit in Padam Padam and had so many wonderful songs such as 10 out of 10, Hands, One More Time, and of course the title track which I’m still jamming out to.  It was with a lot of surprise that while looking up new albums for the rest of the calendar year, I was quite taken aback by Tension II coming out a mere calendar year after the previous album.  While I was expecting some kind of release since Disco had an extended edition, live edition, etc, I thought it would be along those lines not brand new music.  Furthermore, I really did not expect that Tension II would be almost as good as its predecessor.  Let’s take a listen.

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Rating –  3 1/2 stars out of 5

Well, I am back finally with another review.  Sorry for the long absence, this last project was extremely difficult and I literally had no time to eat and sleep, never mind anything of an extracurricular nature.  I should be off of it in a week or two, but a little sliver of time has opened up for me to crank out a review.

Apparently the second half of 2024 is the time for new music as I’m seeing quite a few things I’m interested in including some new Kylie, Tears for Fears, and even Beth Hart will have CDs out in the next couple of months.  However, this particular review marks the return of someone I greatly appreciate in the world of music, Nelly Furtado.  She has not been seen since her last record, The Ride which was produced in 2017.  So it’s only fitting that seven years later for her seventh album, Nelly has decided to name this album, 7.  Let’s take a listen.

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