New releases

July 14, 2008

The short-lived WB series was set in the Batman "universe," as cult aficionados like to say. Starring Ashley Scott as Huntress (daughter of Batman and Catwoman), Dina Meyer as a disabled Batgirl now called Oracle, and Rachel Skarsten as a telepath, the series took place in New Gotham City now deserted by Batman, leaving the trio to take up his mantle of crime-fighting and Dark Knight angst. The DVD contains the 13 episodes, an unaired pilot and all 20 episodes of the animated "Gotham Girls" series. It's not quite the "Buffyverse," but it does tweak the DC Comics canon.

Drama: The Bank Job
TV: Eureka, season 2
Horror: Shutter
Comedy: Meet Bill
Comedy: Trafic
Horror: Asylum
Comedy: College Road Trip
Classic TV: Dallas, season 9
Classic film: Monsieur Vincent
TV: Reno 911, season 5
TV: Saving Grace, season 1

Grass Is Singing (Crammed Discs)
Tanja Frinta, a sweet-voiced, alternative pop singer from Austria, sings a kind of neo-cabaret in "Grass is Singing," an album she describes as a reflection of romance in Barcelona. Filled with sounds like a clacking typewriter, a surging sea, plus smart backup and arrangements by Spanish pianist Marc Melià Sobrevias and Italian drummer Giorgio Menossi, the tracks showcase Frinta's evocative melodies that alternate between plaintive and joyous.

Rock: John Mellencamp / Life Death Love and Freedom (Hear Music)
Indie: The Hold Steady / Stay Positive (Vagrant)
Pop: Ace Young / Ace Young (Pazzo)
Country: Randy Travis / Around the Bend (Warner Bros)
Pop: Delta Goodrem / Delta (Decca)
Broadway: Original Cast, Passing Strange (Ghostlight)
Rap: Nas / Untitled (Def Jam)
Dance: Atjazz / Full Circle (Mantis)
Techno: Hardfloor / The Life We Choose (Hardfloor)
Rock: Jesse James Dupree & Dixie Inc. / Rev It Up and Go-Go (Mighty Loud)

Multiple platforms (Brash)
Call it de-evolution, but it seems lately that a large number of games feature simians doing what we mere Homo sapiens can't. In this game spin-off of the movie opening this week, Ham III, a circus chimp, is recruited into the space program as part of a plan to find alien life. You may play as either Ham or Luna, his female astro-chimp counterpart, as you battle up 13 levels, with heavy doses of humor as well as action.

Perri Klass (Houghton Mifflin)
Like a wary yet intrepid explorer, Perri Klass ventures into the territory of the American family, finding both the wonders and horrors therein. Klass, a pediatrician and author ("Love and Modern Medicine," "The Mystery of Breathing," "Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor"), is equally adept at fiction and exposition. In the new novel, the high-achieving mother and doctor Lucy Weiss must decide what makes a good parent, with her own wretched childhood as background. Klass will be at the Porter Square Bookstore tonight at 7.

Stephanie Schorow can be reached at sschorow@comcast.net.