Last night at Manhattan’s Bowlmor Lanes / Greenwich Village Country Club, Axe previewed its new interactive global gaming experience, “AxeMan,” at a special, exclusive event shrouded in secrecy. Guests were taken by pre-paid car service to the venue near Union Square, where we were served complimentary food and drinks such as Axe’s signature drink, the “AxeMan” (basically just a good, strong Manhattan), and uniquely delicious breaded-and-fried mac & cheese bites.

We quickly learned the reason for the event’s top-secret, exclusive guest list: as we were seated with our drinks, all the event’s guests were provided with complimentary iPads on which we were given a tutorial on how to play “AxeMan.” In this case, the “axe” in question is an electric guitar played by a tough-looking bro reminiscent of Jack Black‘s “Brutal Legend” character, Eddie Riggs, but with shorter hair and nicer clothes. The game itself combines “Guitar Hero” with a first-person shooter, such as the classic “GoldenEye 007,” though its game-play is a much less complex horizontal scroll.

The object of the game is to collect curvaceous, scantily clad women (hereinafter referred to as “honeys”) to your “crew” while simultaneously defeating bad guys, just like in real life. The game’s setting is the fictional university “PWN U,” and the bad guys are frat-boys who throw either dodgeballs, beer bottles or free-weights at you as you attempt to gain honeys. You can block these by tapping them as they come toward you, and you kill the bad guys by strumming guitar notes at them from a fretboard at the bottom of the screen. The “boss” at the end of the game’s first level is the school’s mascot, a huge bull that comes to life and charges you, depleting your supply of honeys until you defeat him or die. It sounds pretty stupid, and to be honest it is, but it’s also surprisingly fun and addictive.

In addition to the “AxeMan” game, Axe has also launched “Planet Axe,” a social networking hub containing “AxeMan” and other games, where players can connect to share their high scores and talk trash. “AxeMan” also features a user-generated soundtrack of songs supplied by your own iTunes or other music player, so if you prefer to shoot bad guys to the sound of heavy metal, while your friend would rather pick up honeys to the sound of smooth jazz, everybody still wins. Watch out for the bull at the end, though – music of any kind will not likely sooth that savage beast.

Tonight marks the return of “Dallas” to the airwaves, with TNT offering viewers a look at the latest generation of Ewings while also giving original cast members Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy, and Linda Gray an opportunity to get in on the fun. For what it’s worth, I quite enjoyed the pilot, but I’ll freely admit that the only reason that I was interested in revisiting Southfork Ranch in 2012 was because of those original cast members.

No matter how brilliantly or badly they turn out, I’ve always been a sucker for TV series revivals, be it as a “next generation” sort of series like this one or as a reunion movie, so I thought I’d throw together a list of some of my favorites for your reading enjoyment. The only caveats: I’m not counting occasions when a series jumped to the big screen, i.e. the not-very-good theatrical “Get Smart” movie, “The Nude Bomb,” nor am I including animated series in the mix…although if I did, you can bet the animated “Star Trek” series would be at the top of my list.

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We’re always looking for great T-Shirts, so we were very happy to receive some samples from WornFree.com. Their shirts inspired my music greats like Bob Marley and Joe Strummer and the designs are some of the best we’ve seen.

The Bob Marley classic from above was included with the samples sent to use. Apart from the cool design, the first thing we noticed was the super-soft, pre-washed and shrunk all cotton feel of the shirts. The comfort and fit were excellent so we were very happy with the product.

Browse through the selections of t-shirts, hoodies and sweats and it’s like browsing through the classic rock section of your music collection, with designs inspired by John Lennon, Joey Ramone, Iggy Pop and so many more.

The collection is so cool that we added it to our Father’s Day Gift Guide for the dad with excellent taste in music and t-shirt design!

It’s very easy these days to record sound as so many people have iPhones and other smartphones. But getting “good” sound is much harder from a portable device.

The H1 Handy Recorder from Zoom is a lightweight, pocket-sized recorder that features two studio-quality mics, thus offering a great option for anyone looking for superior sound from a portable device. It delivers high resolution 24-bit/96 kHz stereo recordings Large LCD display and onboard speaker for a truly professional experience. You can see from the photos that the onboard microphones are configured in an X/Y pattern for stylish stereo imaging. Key functions like track marker, auto record, low cut filter, level and volume are controlled with user friendly on-board buttons, and it accommodates up to 32GB SD providing over 50 hours of recording time.

Check it out at their website or at Best Buy, and it could be a cool gift for the right dad on Father’s Day.

Following last week’s windfall of new releases, I’m happy to report that the rest of June looks just as bright, with a number of noteworthy Blu-rays arriving in stores today. In addition to the titles featured below, there are several other releases that I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, including the new “Sherlock Holmes” sequel, the eighth and final season of “Entourage,” and Criterion editions of Hal Ashby’s “Harold and Maude” and Danny Boyle’s “Shallow Grave.” Those would have made for a pretty killer column on their own, but due to what has become a standard complaint around these parts, they weren’t sent to me for review. Nevertheless, it speaks volumes of the quality of this week’s Blu-rays that I was still able to conjure up three more titles worth talking about.

I’m not exactly sure why Sony would want to remind moviegoers about the original “Spider-Man” trilogy when the studio is only weeks away from rebooting the lucrative superhero franchise, but if you never got around to buying the films on Blu-ray, it’s as good a time as any to get them now. Granted, the cover art for all three movies is an appalling Photoshop hack job that shows just how little work went into these re-releases, but it’s what’s inside that really counts. Though “X-Men” was the first movie to revitalize the comic book genre, Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” films are what turned it into Hollywood’s obsession. Though the legacy of Raimi’s trilogy may have been marred a bit by the tepid reaction to the third installment (although for the record, I actually liked it quite a bit), it still contains some of the best superhero movies to date, especially the well-received sequel featuring Alfred Molina as classic Spidey villain Doc Ock. And no matter how amazing Mark Webb’s reboot may turn out to be, it wouldn’t have been possible without the spectacular trilogy that came before it.

Blu-ray Highlight: Fans will be happy to learn that the bonus material for “Spider-Man” and “Spider-Man 2” has been reinstated on their respective discs (unlike their Blu-ray debuts), even if “Spider-Man 3” was shortchanged in the process. Although it’s hard to pick just one highlight from the treasure trove of special features, the 12-part “Spider-Man 2” documentary “Making the Amazing” is an incredibly in-depth look at the amount of work that went into making the film. If you’re not a big fan of production featurettes, however, the numerous audio commentaries that appear on each disc are also great.

Mark Steven Johnson’s 2007 attempt to bring Ghost Rider to the big screen didn’t turn out particularly well, and although many believed that would be the last we’d ever see of Marvel’s B-list antihero, Sony decided to give the character another shot with this equally shoddy reboot by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Though the directing duo behind the “Crank” films seemed like a natural fit to take on such a bizarre character, “Spirit of Vengeance” is only slightly better than the first movie. One of the few things they do get right is the scenes with Ghost Rider, emphasizing his demonic nature by making him as frightening and intimidating as possible, but he’s used far too sparingly. And unfortunately, that’s where the magic ends, because the rest of the film makes many of the same mistakes as its predecessors, with plenty of bad dialogue, poor attempts at humor, and a laughably bad performance by Johnny Whitworth. Neveldine and Taylor’s version at least seems to have been made more with fans of the comic in mind, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still bad.

Blu-ray Highlight: In addition to an excellent six-part documentary that runs the entire gamut of production – from location shooting in Romania, to Nicolas Cage’s (creepy) performance capture of the Ghost Rider, to special effects and more – the Blu-ray also includes a feature similar to Warner Bros.’ Maximum Movie Mode where directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor dissect the film (sometimes pausing it to discuss certain scenes in more detail) with the help of behind-the-scenes footage. Both extras are definitely worth your time, even if it means having to watch the movie more than once.

Call me crazy, but I’ve never quite understood why Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush” was considered to be a cinematic masterpiece. Although there’s a lot to love about the movie – particularly the first 30 minutes in the cabin with the Tramp, Big Jim and Black Larsen – the second half is incredibly uneven. The gags that do work are still hilarious to this day, however, and it’s no doubt the memory of those iconic scenes that has led people to hold the film in such high regard. From eating a boiled leather shoe, to getting caught in the middle of a crosswind, to the dancing dinner roll routine, “The Gold Rush” contains some of Chaplin’s best movie moments. Unfortunately, the film’s dramatic beats only get in the way of its comic genius, while the big finale in the teetering cabin isn’t nearly as funny as some of the earlier scenes, like the bit where Chaplin tries to avoid the barrel of a shotgun, or when Big Jim imagines the Tramp as a giant chicken. It’s definitely one of those movies that you need to see at least once in your life, but it’s hardly the definitive Chaplin picture.

Blu-ray Highlight: There’s some really great bonus material included on the disc, but the standout extra is “Presenting ‘The Gold Rush’,” a 16-minute featurette about the film’s long history that covers its initial theatrical release, Charlie Chaplin’s reworked 1942 sound version, and the various re-releases throughout the years, including the restoration of the 1925 original completed by David Gill and Kevin Brownlow in 1993.