Film: Ted (2012)

This weekend was the opening of Ted, the first motion picture written, directed and produced by Seth MacFarlane. You might know him as the creator behind the FOX animated shows Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show. As an animator and writer, he got his start on such Hanna-Barbera shows as Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, and Dexter's Laboratory.

Ted stars MacFarlane as the voice of the title character, a talking stuffed animal wished for by a lonely child. The two grow up together as best-friends forever, but things get complicated for John Bennett (played by Mark Wahlberg) when it is time to get serious with his girlfriend of four years Lori Collins (played by Mila Kunis).

Limahl - 1983 (EP)

This week saw the single and EP release of 1983 by Kajagoogoo lead singer Limahl. Working with Tommy Olsen and writer/producer team Rune Maurtvedt and Stig Erik Antonsen, he has crafted a highly danceable track that has both a modern sound and a touch of nostalgia too. It can easily appeal to a new audience of youth today and those forty-something folks like myself who are parents of said teens and young adults. It is a song that can bring generations together.

Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year and welcome to 2012.

2011 was an amazing year for my blog and I owe a lot of that you all, my readers. I went from having barely a couple hundred hits of month at the end of 2010 to over a hundred hits a day (leading to thousands of hits a month). The final three months of the year have been record breakers with each month greatly exceeding the previous one. The fact that December's number of hits nearly reached 5,600 is more than I ever could have imagined! I would love to see the traffic levels to sustain and/or continue to grow as word of mouth spreads. If you like what you are reading, please share the links with others (repost, retweet, etc.).

So, you're probably wondering what to expect here at Martin's View for the new year. I actually did a little bit of thinking about that as December 2011 was coming to a close.