The power of Thor in cake form

In honor of the visit of aurora_knight* this weekend, I decided to make a little present for her.

It's a cake in emulation of a much better made one I found on the Internet, meant to emulate the the look of Mjolnir stuck in the mud in the movie Thor, waiting  for someone worthy of it to pluck it from the ground. It's a two-layer eight inch round devil's food cake iced with Hersey chocolate frosting. The best part was getting to gouge the top up with a spatula so I could make it look like mud to lay the hammer in. I got the toy Mjolnir from Target for twelve dollars. It is nicely modeled for a cheap toy, made of a bouncy Nerf foam. Jane gets to take that home with her after we eat the cake. It tastes pretty decent, but I know my cake baking skills could use some work. Unfortunately the problem with practicing is that then I'll have a ton of cake lying around that I won't be able to stop eating.

Early thoughts on Marvel movies to come

They've released the titles for the upcoming Marvel movies. We knew it was going to be Iron Man 3, but the others are Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Lately I have been trying to avoid to much Internet mumbling about new media I want to see, because I was spoiling myself right and left. So I am mostly just going to wait and see how these three films are, but I still like to muse about what's coming even with no information to go on.

I've heard rumblings about finally dealing with Tony's downward spiraling in Iron Man 3. I was a little disappointed with Iron Man 2 in that he acted like such a self-destructive ass and got basically no consequences for it. We even see him and Pepper happy together in The Avengers. What I wanted was for his asinine behavior to destroy his relationships, and while he is able to pull it together to defeat the bad guys and appear to the public as a hero, to feel like he has nothing because in private his personal life has been ruined. Then the challenge for the next film would be to rebuild it. Sad that couldn't happen. But at least they're hinting that they're going to be dealing with those things in the third installment. I love the character of Tony, his asshole tendecies and all, but I would like him to see consequences for all that garbage.

Basically I have no idea what The Dark World is going to be about. (Chris Hemsworth's bare chest is my personal hope.) All I can say is I've got my fingers crossed that it has Loki in it. He's been roundly defeated in the last two films he was present in, so they may be done with him as a villain, but still, he's such a fabulous character and Tom Hiddleston's performance is so good that I hope he's present in some capacity. It actually might be interesting if he's NOT the villain, but a side character of some sort that has vaguely antagonistic but complicated interactions with Thor. I find the brothers' relationship very interesting, given the whole love/hate thing, and that could add interesting growth and dimension.

As for Captain America, I am SO HAPPY that the next plot will involve the Winter Soldier. So much opportunity for emotional conflict when Cap realizes that his dear friend, whose death he thought was his fault, is not only alive, but now is his enemy. With this vulnerable portrayal of Cap, that will be so awesome. I hope they bring back pretty, pretty Sebastian Stan back to play him. Even if they have to grow his hair our and fuck up that gorgeous face a little. I must confess at first glance, seeing that dark-haired fox in that WWII-era military uniform, I thought he might have actually been hotter than Cap. Given that we first encounter him beside Scrawny Steve (TM) probably didn't hurt. But you know how it goes-- girl meets boys, girl first goes after the hot friend, girl ends up falling in real love with boy standing beside him. A love story with a classic twist. ;-)

You know what I don't want? I don't want Sharon Carter. I don't want Sharon Carter. Have I mentioned that I really really don't want Sharon Carter? It is completely creepy to date somebody because they remind you of a younger version of a relative of theirs. Do not make Cap creepy. I have been creeped on by people with, "My God, you look just like your mother." It is not a socially acceptable thing to do. Do not make Cap do that. Please, please, please.

I get that he and Peggy missed their chance and now he has to deal with that. I find that gorgeously tragic. But a huge part of this character, that his first movie went out of its way to established, is that he was waiting for the One. Lots of people are capable of loving many people, but Steve isn't like that. That's not his character, he doesn't fall lightly. To him Peggy was special enough in a way that is not easily replicated. Now that he can't be with her, that's going to rip him up because of how singular their connection was to him. It's going to take him time to DEAL with that, a LOT of time before he could realistically get over that-- I want to see at least one more movie of him going through that grieving process, as there was pretty much nothing about it in Avengers. I heard that for time issues they had to cut a scene of him visiting a ninety-year-old Peggy, but that's going to DRIVE HOME the tragedy in a tangible way, not get him passed it. We need at least one film where we get to watch him grieve.

Frankly, I would find it so much more moving if they left him single and never had to hook him up with anybody else. I like the idea that his value system makes him act in a way that's markedly different from most others. So, for contrast, let's watch Tony schtupp Pepper, Clint and Natasha hook up, Bruce bang Betty, and Jane Foster ride the lightning with Thor... and then have Steve quietly love Peggy and miss what they might have had. I know that "moving on" is usually considered to be the universal healing act for all romantic loss, but I think it would suit Steve's singular character and make for a beautiful tragedy if there could never be anyone else. I am admittedly a sucker for lovers who find the One, and there can never be anyone else. I know that's not for everyone, I'm not saying it should be, but I think it's beautiful when that's how a soul works out. But if they absolutely HAVE to make him "move on" to someone else-- which I'm sure they will, because God forbid there be no romance for the hero, despite the already nonstandard way they've portrayed Steve's sexuality so far --I just want one fucking movie where he takes the time to grieve, and after that the new woman is anyone but Sharon fucking Carter.

It's going to be Sharon Carter, isn't it? Gross.

Some reasons why I love Movie-Cap

As I’ve mentioned, I always found the comic book Steve Rogers to be completely boring. I understand that they wanted his true power to be his unerring moral compass, but he’s perfect in every other way too—he is always sure of himself, he has no fears, no psychological damage… no personality, really. Some like Bernie will debate this to the death with me, but that’s how I see it. But now that he's been depicted on the big screen... I am in love. I find the move version of the character fascinating, and I wanted to ramble a little bit about why. And I swear, it's not just because I want to jump his perfectly formed bones.

Traditionally in comic books, male characters are depicted as masculine self-insertion fantasies. They are extremely strong, emotionally invulnerable, and of course they are very attractive to the women in the universe. This is not because they are depicted as what women actually find attractive, but because the female characters are acting in the service of the masculine fantasy. They look like what male readers supposedly want to look like, and the women are attracted in the way the readers would like them to be.

But this tendency is what contributes to that huge big problem that comics book have in how often they give off a powerful vibe to women of “THIS IS NOT FOR YOU.” Superhero comic books often indulge hypermasculine fantasy concepts— such as high violence, low emotion, powerful men and sexualized women —and most of the people who are conditioned to find those fantasies appealing are men. And if you don’t have that conditioning, you don’t often find shaved bear men built like refrigerators to be all that relatable. I mean, in one particularly egregrious example, take a look at how notoriously terrible artist Rob Leifeld depicts Cap:

Um... yuck? This is exaggeration, not idealization. And yeah, this is worse even than usual, but it's the extreme of a ubiquitous problem. And I find it stomach-turningly offputting.

Given this theory of what masculinity "should be," there is a long history of when a lot of women find a certain man particularly alluring, other men start deriding that man on the grounds that said alluring qualities make him unmanly or even gay. Often it's for excessive prettiness, or just for not being as traditionally masculine as a desirable man should be under their schema. I read that Rudolph Valentino got a lot of that back in the day, and modern day examples include Orlando Bloom and even Justin Bieber. It stems from a combination of envy for their desirability with ideas about how caring about one's looks is supposed to be a feminine responsibility, how men can't be hot because only men care about hotness, so if a man is hot it's gay.

But to play Captain America in the film, they didn’t find a shaved bear of a man with a shape like a refrigerator. Quite the contrary, they found an exceptionally beautiful man. And the difference that makes is unbelievable. It’s not just the fact that I’m a shallow person who really enjoys looking at beautiful men. (Though I am.) It's that in presenting me with a person who is pleasing to my eye, as opposed to an earlier conception of the same person who is less so, they are acknowledging that my eye and others like mine are in the audience. And more than just acknowledging me, they are are courting my viewership. This beautiful man makes me want to come look, to join that audience. For rising out of a medium that has so much history of scaring the female audience off, that is a remarkable turnabout.

But that's not the only subversive, even progressive aspect of how the film portrayed Steve. For how sexy and gorgeous he is, and how we are allowed to regard him in that capacity, he is not excessively or inappropriately sexualized. He's actually a virgin, pretty explicitly so. This is in the face of the enormous cultural stigma against men with no sexual experience. But the film does not portray this as a negative, unmanly thing; far from it, it is one more thing that shapes the admirable man Steve is. Yeah, he was the kind of dork that some associate with being a virgin, but more than that, it's about his personal value system. He has his own strict code of conduct, something that's very important to him. He's the sort of person who wants to wait for the one, for real love, and anything less isn't enough for him. It's so earnest and decent that we respect him for sticking to this belief system even though it doesn't conform to our own. I find that massively progressive. I mentioned this in my initial review of the film, but it bears repeating: how cool is it that they made a tough, masculine action hero that dudes want to be like with VIRGIN stamped on his forehead? And frankly, I find incredibly attractive.

And you know what, I just plain like beautiful men. Not even necessarily in a stroke material sort of way. I DESPISE how often it is a asserted that by "objective aesthetic sensibilities" the female form is inherently more beautiful than the male one. That's such male-gaze-influenced garbage. I love the masculine figure, and even beyond sexual attraction, I just enjoy basking in the beauty of it. Especially a man like Chris Evans. Dreamy blue eyes, perfectly styled good boy hair, full lips, lovely cheekbones, strong jaw. And that body-- well, suffice it to say, like a work of art, I could just look at him all day.

There are other small adjustments that make the character more human and appealing. This Steve Rogers is young. In the comics he’s a more mature presence, but in the movie they made him more of a boy. This I think was an excellent decision. (Especially in contrast with Tony, who is more of a man, but that's another discussion entirely.) Young people are less formed, have had less time to grow past their issues and figure themselves out. This allows for Steve to not be totally sure of himself, to not have a complete handle on the things that he's insecure about. And he's insecure here, in a beautiful, human, sympathetic way. Leading up to the procedure, he was a complete dork. Even when people are no longer the person that they used to be, the self-image created by their previous state doesn’t just disappear. Having spent more than twenty years as a skinny, awkward nerd that got picked on and ignored, a modest guy like him is not going to shake feeling like that nerd right away. Even after a magical transformation into his current Adonis-like state. That insecurity adds a dimension of humanity, that he may look perfect on the outside, but on the inside, he sometimes feels awkward, unsure, and not very special, just like real people do. And you know what else? Sometimes even perfect Captain America is awkward! Steve Rogers is not a smooth operator. I find it unbelievably cute that he's not worldly, doesn't know how to talk to girls, and sometimes trips over the right thing to do or say. I get the feeling that we sometimes think really desirable guys often have a really arrogant attitude in regards to other people, like "I can have any woman I want, what makes you good enough for me?" But there's no superior attitude there at all-- in fact, he sometimes isn't comfortable with himself. So he would never make anyone feel like they're not good enough.

Finally, I was reading a well-written article on The Good Men Project that was about how female dominants more often exist in the form of desiring the position of control and comparative emotional strength, rather than the classic image of the smacky woman in black leather. I was not so interested in the BDSM aspect of it, but I did connect with how it posits, quote, that “The key component of the female gaze… is vulnerability.” Emotional nakedness rather than emotional armor. I had never thought about it that way, but upon reflection it feels true to me. The fact that they included that youth and insecurity in this conception of the character confers a real vulnerability on him. I love that he's such a good man, the fact that that goodness is his real power. He's endlessly courageous, self-sacrificing, and decent. But he's not always sure of himself, not full of himself despite his own goodness. And yes, yes, that vulnerability is SEXY.

This has gone on way too long, so best to stop there. But those are some of the reasons I can't stop thinking about Movie-Cap. <3

Choreography with Charlotte and Carolyn!

Yesterday I went to the Gosman dance studio with Charlotte and Carolyn and had a great time working on the Avengers-themed dance piece idea. I had all these ideas, images of what the dance would look like as I listened to the music, but I was having a hard time figuring out how to externalize those images into something physical. Charlotte and Carolyn were amazing with that. I'd tell them "blah blah random thing I was thinking for this section," and they'd be like, "Oh, what about this?" and bust out some really cool moves that worked both in a practical sense and the idea I was trying to get at. It was a blast, and they are super-creative. They worked together on Charlotte's independent study in dance, and did an amazing job, and they were just as amazing here.

We worked on I'm Alive by Shinedown, which I decided that the arrogant tone could only be suited to Iron Man. I thought it might be fun to have the song show that character bullying the Bruce Banner character into stepping up, getting involved in the hero game. I thought Carolyn would make the cutest Iron Man dancer, and I've already got some great ideas for her costume. But between the three of us-- mostly me babbling semi-coherently, and the two of them translating it into dance --we worked out the first forty-five seconds of the song! And it's good stuff, too. I'm incredibly pleased. We need to work out when we can do it again, because I am feeling incredibly energized to work on this.

A gorgeous contradiction

Whenever new people discover my blog, I get anxious about my content. Should I hold off on the silly nonsense for a while and only post, say, polished writings or serious intellectual musing, so as to convince the new readers that I have worthwhile things to say?

But fuck it, this is who I am. My brain gets eaten by larps, I rant about silly pop culture phenomenons, and I drool over pretty boys. Especially the pretty Avengers boys. Which I want to do right now.

I read a Penny and Aggie comic from a few years ago doing a who's who strip of the large cast of characters. They made a point of explaining how, of the two main sought-after male characters in the strip, one is even hotter because he realizes how masculine he is, and the other is even hotter because he doesn't realize how feminine he is. The strip acknowledges how bizarre this contradiction is. And yet, still true. It makes me think of one of my favorite things about some of my favorite Avengers. Tony and Steve are both fabulous, but in a way they make each other more delicious in their contrast, like the salty and sweet in a chocolate-covered pretzel.

You see, Tony is arrogant, splashy, slutty, a smoking hottie and he knows it. Which makes him even more attractive.



Steve is modest, quiet, a little-self conscious, a smoking hottie and he doesn't even know it. Which ALSO makes him even more attractive.



Yeah, I don't know how that works either. But, oh, how it does. How ever how it does. And I'm not ashamed to think that.

...This entry was friends-only for a while. Thought it best not to overwhelm the newcomers right away. ;-)

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message."

Well, believe it or not, the Avengers movie just about lives up to the enormous hype. Our intrepid little band of midnight moviegoers had a blast last night seeing it, and despite nearly losing my phone and getting no more than two hours of sleep, I am pretty damn happy with the experience.

I will do a full, spoilery review shortly, but I just wanted to say how fun it was, and address how well it met my hopes and expectations. The story was good. The cast did have great chemistry. The balance of action and character was better than on EMH, though that's setting the bar pretty low, but while I could have used a smidge MORE character, that's mostly just out of loving what there was and wanting more. Cap was not really used as what you would call an entre character, but he still was well done, and he and Tony squared off exactly as I hoped they would. The BMF was a BMF, RDJ was as bad as bad boys can be, and Loki's bastardy was indeed magnificent. As for the beefcake, well, there were about a hundred percent more shirts than I had been hoping for, but a pretty man is a pretty man, and Steve, Tony, and Thor are very, very pretty.

To illustrate, I give you a pretty picture of Steve on a motorcycle.

Now I'll give you a prettier one.

Oh, bless you, smutty DeviantArt photo editors. <3

Assemble at midnight tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the midnight opening of The Avengers movie in Boston. The lovely aurora_knight* has planned a trip to go to Boston Commons to see the show at the earliest possible moment at its 12AM debut. I'm really excited for this movie. I thought the new generation of Marvel movies were remarkably good (Iron Man and Captain America), or at least significantly better than I expected them to be (Thor and Incredible Hulk.)  And the reviews for The Avengers have been uniformly good, from both film critics and fans alike, groups that approach comic book movies very differently but have demanding standards each in their own way.

Things I am excited for: the story is supposed to be good. The cast is supposed to have great chemistry. A better balance of action and character than Earth's Mightiest Heroes manages. The entre character is Cap, whose struggle I am extremely interested in. The hoped-for Cap-Iron Man dynamic. More of the BMF as Nick Fury. More of bad, bad RDJ as Tony. Loki being a magnificent bastard.  Also, YAY BEEFCAKE MOVIE!

Sorry, I have to bring it up. :-) How often is it that a movie is packed with a cast of fit, conventionally attractive men put on such display? Robert Downey, Jr. is a fox, Tom Hiddleston's a dark horse, there's some  Chris Hemsworth is classically beautiful, and well, how I feel about Chris Evans has been well documented in this space. I've already obsessed over all the pretty pictures from the Captain America movie, I need more material! Though I think his new costume looks stupid and he should spend as much time out of it as possible. Also, can I say how much I love that somebody looked at behemoth Chris Hemsworth and said, "You know what, he should be EVEN BIGGER for the next movie." He even gets prettier hair. <3

I'm also going to see it a second time on Friday, with a group of either repeaters like me or those who don't want to stay out all night on a work night. I am really grateful to Jane for putting this all together. She's the most excited of all of us. I even got her a little present to thank her. This is going to be so much fun.

Notes from the weekend

This Easter my mom gave me her slow cooker to take back up with me. She bought it years ago and barely used it; she found most of her recipes came out better in the oven or stove stop so she didn't bother with it. But she thought that with my busy life I might be able to make use of it, so up with me it came. This weekend I decided to try it out and made a boeuf bourginnone, a recipe I make frequently. It wasn't bad, but I didn't have enough time to let it cook for the full five hours it was supposed to take, so it wasn't quite as tender as it should have been. On the stovetop I've made it in three or so, but on days when I can't watch the pot (and can time my presence in the kitchen just right) this could be of use.

Bernie also hosted an Avengers movie marathon leading up to the release of the new movie. Jane was kind enough to organize a group trip to the midnight opening in May, so this was to refresh its predecessors in our minds. I had to come in and out because of other obligations, but it was fun to watch and spend time with the fun people who were present. I hope they all forgive me for my catcalling directed at Chrises Evans and Hemsworth. Avengers apparently has pretty much uniformly good reviews, so I'm very excited. Unfortunately I have to go to rehearsal beforehand, but I'll get out in plenty of time to meet up with everyone a little later, well in advance of showtime.

I learned Singer is holding a sewing machine sale right now. Go here if you'd like to take a look. I am very tempted to purchase that two hundred dollar serger they're offering. That seems a little cheap for a serger, so maybe it's not all that good, and I should practice my regular sewing skills before I worry about how I finish my seams, but still... I kinda want one. I still have two more weeks to think about it, so maybe this would be worth dipping into my savings.

This is the last week before Festival of the Larps and I'm in pretty good shape. Paranoia is packed, thanks to Bernie, Matt, Mac, and Tegan, and The Stand is close to it. I have all my sheets and my costumes are in order. I just need to finish reading all the materials and I am going to be good to go. This promises to be an awesome weekend, and I'm excited to throw myself in. Thanks to our lovely con chair ninja_report* for putting it all together! Great work, dear!

When lust shuts down your brain

Pondering some things lately that I want to explore here. I've been having thoughts on standards of beauty and dynamics of attraction again, spurred by certain things I've been finding lately in myself.

When women are objectified, they tend to be objectified as sex objects-- that their value lies in their sexiness. When men are objectified, they tend to be objectified as success objects-- that their value lies in their monetary and career success. I get that men get stuck with that lot because society expects them to be providers, but what I wonder is why they get away with being sexually objectified so much less frequently. Women have sex drives and eyes just like men do-- why don't they provide enough demand for pretty men to show up in the media?

I hate to say it, but it seems like in most cases they don't. One thing that's always troubled me in my pondering gender equality is the fact that in my personal experience I have found women to be significantly less invested in the physical beauty of men than vice versa. I know that of the men I have been most attracted to, it wasn't necessarily because of the way they looked, and how far, far more often I have seen couples where the girl was significantly more attractive than the guy than the other way around.

This bugs me because it supports those unequal expectations of beauty that I wrote about once before. It seems to verify the idea that women need to be more beautiful in order to be attractive to men, while men can be less beautiful and still be attractive to women. Which leads to women having to work harder on their appearance, to stay fit, to work on their hair, to dress better, to "put on their faces," while men can get away with putting on weight, or presenting themselves with less polish. That's really unfair, and it encourages women to think that desiring male beauty is basically pointless-- or worse, that there's something weird or unnatural about desiring it.

But still-- it does happen. Maybe less often, maybe less universally, but it does happen. On the rare occasions I DO find myself really, really struck by a man's physical beauty... the feminist in me is kind of happy. Yeah, I know nobody should sexually objectify anyone, it's definitely not feminist to do so, but I must confess I feel weirdly pleased when I find myself drawn to do it. It supports the idea that women and men AREN'T all that different after all, that it probably happens to all of us in differing amounts, and maybe women are just socialized not to do it as often as men are allowed to.

Right now I really really like Chris Evans Captain America. Like, whoa, a lot. Like I'm wasting entirely too much time browsing for NSFW photo edits on DeviantArt I like him so much. I like pretty people, sure, but frankly, any feeling of attraction based solely on appearance occurs rarely for me. Hell, there aren't that many people I feel attracted to at all! What's funny is that with me, there must be a perfect storm of little details about a man's appearance for that to even happen. I couldn't care less about Chris Evans when he looks like this...

But when he looks like this, it knocks the breath out of me. :-)

It's not that I can point to anything in particular, like, oh, I like him clean shaven or whatever, because that's not it. It's just there's a particular confluence here that works for me in a big way, helped along by the "I am a super good guy but also a little awkward" built into the character he's playing. Actually, that's one of the reasons why I don't think it's fair to us straight ladies that guys get to toss off how they present themselves, because sometimes sometimes little details as small as how somebody dresses or parts their hair (see above, heh) that can make the sexy difference.

What's also funny-- or creepy --is how much it makes me lose my mind. I can actually feel it pushing out higher thought. I have heard of this phenomenon, men are accused of giving in to it all the time, but it's a relatively infrequent experience for me. As I said, I'm attracted to very few people in general, much less to the point where I find myself objectifying them. So it's kind of freaking me out how strongly looking at Chris Evans Captain America threatens to push me into thinking like an absolute pig-- to let the feeling in my guts and elsewhere completely overtake the working of my brain. I am at the point where I can't even watch the ads for the Avengers without being all, "Fuck this noise, just take off your shirt and stand there." That, my friends, is pretty much textbook sexual objectification. Who even am I, that that's something that I do? Jared has actually been kind of weirded out by this, saying things like, "What if I did this about Scarlett Johansson? Wouldn't you think I was being tacky?" Hmmm, maybe I would. More likely what I'd think is, what's the big deal? Why so strong a reaction? And yet here I am, having my sensibilities and my good taste swept away by something that in normal circumstances wouldn't be that big a deal for me.

And yet... and yet. Lousy as it is, I am glad that it can happen. I'm glad for the proof that this is something I can experience. There's this one ad for Marc Jacobs cologne that looks like... well, I guess I'll just post it, despite what its presence may do to my blog traffic.

I mean, look at that. Wow, that's... unsubtle. I have a very complex reaction to it.

It's sexualized so blatantly. The man is ripped, naked, and oiled up with just some fake cologne bottle hiding his junk. On one hand, it's tacky. I tend to dislike such unsophisticated, nuance-free depictions of sexiness, and find them more gross than appealing. But being of an idealized standard of beauty and put on display to appeal to sexual interest, this sort of depiction is a rare example of a man being sexualized in a way that is usually reserved for objectifying portrayals of women.  I am very very pleased to see something equalizing in that manner, as well as something that tries to appeal to the female gaze for a change. (Presumably. I have a vague memory of reading that cologne is mostly bought by women as gifts for men.)

Also, I have to say... I find it kind of hot. I really shouldn't, see above about how such depictions are usually gross instead of sexy to me, but for some reason I do. I'm embarrassed to be taken in by such a display. I wonder if this is what it's like when men don't really find exaggerated porn actresses with fake breasts and stylized faces attractive, but are turned on enough by them anyway. But at the same time, for reasons of equalization there's a part of me that is pleased that I am. The argument that men aren't sexualized because women don't like them to be falls flat.

I'm curious-- how often does that happen to other people? When you gauge someone's raw attractiveness largely divorced from their actual self, how often does anyone experience that feeling of lust that you feel it pushing out your higher thought (whether you allow it to or not)? Does it happen to men as often as we seem to think it does? And does it happen to women as infrequently as we think it does? As with the stereotype, I will admit that it happen to me very rarely. But sometimes, one rare occasion, it definitely does happen.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween...

Had my Halloween celebration this past Saturday. Here are our Avengers assembled, with me as Black Widow, Jane as Loki, Bernie as Captain America, Mac as Bruce Banner, Jared as Iron Man, Mike as Nick Fury, and Matt as Hawkeye. This is the first year I participated in the group costume, so I was drafted into being Black Widow to fill out the group. Black Widow was easier and I didn't feel like doing a Wasp costume, though it would have been fun to have an Antman action figure in my pocket that I could periodically pull out and go "Say hello, Hank." I confessed I kind of half-assed it, using my black leotard, leggings, tall boots, and the cell phone holster Rachel gave me. As usual, by the time Halloween rolls around I'm too burnt out from everything else to make the costume a priority. Still, I managed to spray my hair with red temporary color, thanks to some help from Steph. It flaked off on everything and stained the skin on my back, but it sort of made me look more like Natasha Romanov.

The evening was lovely, so I'll just include some more fun costume pics.

SHIELD directors Stark and Fury.

The no-face off between Prentice's Slender Man and john_in_boston*'s the Question. Jenn had a suggestion they should switch costumes, then remove their masks and freak the fuck out of everyone.

morethings5* as a German serial murderer of children from one of the earliest movies about serial killers. Of course.

nennivian* and bronzite* as Peter Pan and Tootles.

twilighttremolo* as a candle, one of my favorites I saw all Halloween. Look at that fabulous hair and lovely dress!

niobien* as a creepy yet still adorable ghost. I think it must be very hard to make her not adorable.

thefarowl* and Plesser as characters from Slings and Arrows, katiescarlett29* as Carmen San Diego, Carolyn again as a ghost, polaris_xx* as not-Xena, Prentice Slender Man, and April in a cosplay outfit for some anime character I've never heard of.

Cutest Zatanna EVER.

The Cap-Iron Man dynamic I want to see in Avengers

I just saw the new trailer for the Avengers movie. It didn't really give me much of what I was hoping for. Yeah, yeah, action's great and all, but frankly the only thing that really interested me was the tiny little character moment between Cap and Iron Man near the end, when Cap asks "Take away the suit and what does that make you?" and Tony's answer is, "A genius billionaire playboy philanthropist." This moment, brief as it was, gives me hope that the movie will contain what I feel is the most interesting aspect of this story, the potential fraught relationship dynamic for Steve and Tony.

Though I do like them eventually becoming friends, when they first have to work together I want them to clash. They are so different, they come to superherodom from such disparate places. Steve is politeness, waiting for the one, and all-American values, where Tony is glitz, sass, chicks, and booze. Steve just wanted to serve and do the right thing, Tony's got a lot of self-aggrandizement in there. And both of them have some reason to be considered for the leadership of the group (Tony because he wants it and Steve because it's kind of his natural place) which puts them in competition. Given that, I will be extremely happy if we see conflict between them not just based on the ways their personalities clash, but also because of the massive insecurity each inspires in the the other.

One of my favorite things about the way Cap was portrayed in his movie was that he was adorably still just a little bit awkward. Yes, post-serum he's gorgeous and built like a god and becomes a capable and respected leader, but he's still more used to being the dorky ninety-pound weakling that got beaten up and made fun of. He's not that smooth when dealing to other people, he's not used to women wanting anything to do with him, and he doesn't have complete confidence in himself. He clearly thought of himself as just a guy, nothing that special, just trying to do the best he can. I tend to find the version of Cap in the comics so perfectly awesome in every way that he's always been very boring to me, but that dash of awkwardness and insecurity in an otherwise strong, capable, and gorgeous man made me love the Cap in the movie.

Given that conception of Steve, I want Tony to make him really feel like he's that dorky kid again. It might seem like a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but it tends to stick with people when they grow up feeling like they're just not that awesome. Tony's this rich, handsome, urbane playboy genius, the cool kid that Steve has never really gotten to be. Also Tony's sort of a jerk, which I imagine would make it even more irksome. Remember how he got insecure about Howard Stark, assuming that of course Peggy would go for a rich ladies' man rather than a geek like him? I want to see that same thing, only more so, because it's one thing if you're aware that someone's much cooler than you, it's another if you're placed in a slightly competitive position with that person while they're also kind of an ass. So Cap will focus on what a dick Tony is so he doesn't feel so awkward about being less cool.

And on the flip side, I want to see Tony getting insecure about how much a better man and a greater hero Steve is than him. Steve is principled, valiant, strong in ways that should make Tony very aware of the ways in which he is weak and venial and vain. He probably grew up hearing stories from his dad about what it was like to work with the great hero. Tony is trying to see himself as a hero too, but who is he next to Captain Freaking America? So he's going to try to compensate for it by playing up the significance of his coolness and success, and they're both going to bluster the hell out of each other in order to hide the fact that each one feels just a little bit inferior to the other. And then over the course of the movie they'll come to respect rather than envy each other, and in time go from rivals to friends.

Anyway, that's what I'm hoping for. I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. Doesn't look like I'm going to get my All-Shirtless Avengers like I wanted, so please, powers that be, do at least this much for me.

Biweekly Theater Writing Challenge #3 (Or, why I should be thanking God I saw the Cap movie...)

I wrote this little scene as a school assignment to write down a conversation that happened in real life and then dramatize it into a theatrical piece. Being utterly stuck as I usually am when I don't have an idea going in, I decided to base it off a conversation Bernie and I had about the appeal of Batman versus the appeal of Captain America. It's silly and kind of pathetically short, but I like how far I managed to extrapolate my source material. Funnily enough, though, the other creative piece I'm turning in for this assignment was also slightly Captain America-inspired. I now roll my eyes at myself so hard I have to chase after them down the street. I don't know whether to hope my advisor is a comics fan so she doesn't judge me if she gets it or pray that she's never ever heard of any of this, so she doesn't pick up on it at all. I guess I should thank God I saw that fucking movie, or I wouldn't have had any goddamn thing to write about.

(A man in a suit, BRODY, walks into his superior MARKOFF’s office. MARKOFF is sitting at work at a desk.)

BRODY: Have you made your selection?

MARKOFF: I believe I have, Mr. Brody. I’ve settled on Agent Rowan as the right man for the job.

BRODY: Agent Rowan? Excuse me, sir?

MARKOFF: You disagree with my assessment?

BRODY: Well, sir, it’s only that, well… he’s never been tested in the field for an operation of this kind, and he’s hardly the best we have with the equipment. I expected you to choose someone we knew could handle the pressure.

MARKOFF: It seems to me that your only objection is that he isn’t Agent Black.

BRODY: Don’t get me wrong, Commander, I have nothing but respect for Rowan. He’s a good man, certainly. But Black is qualified in every way, with a great deal more experienced in this class of mission. And, if I may speak freely, I frankly think the man’s made of sterner stuff.

MARKOFF: And you think that’s what’s what we need here.

BRODY: It’s just such an important job. We have to be careful who we trust it to.

MARKOFF: Well, you’re right, Brody. It’s a delicate mission. Human life and security hang in the balance. If we fail… the cost will be enormous. It would be all too easy for an agent of a certain sort to start justifying any means necessary to see that we prevail. It’s just as you said. Black’s a good agent, but Rowan— Rowan is a good man. In a bind like that, I would sooner put my trust in the one I know is a good man.

(Pause.)

BRODY: So that’s your decision?

MARKOFF: That’s my decision.

BRODY: If you say so, sir. I truly hope you’re right.

(BRODY turns and exits the office.)

"I've knocked out Adolph Hitler over two hundred times."

I had the privilege of going to see Captain America: The First Avenger with a lovely group of friends this past Monday, and I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it immensely, way more than I expected to. 

I confess, I’ve never really been interested in Captain America as a character. Yes, I know I tend to penalize superheroes too much for the crime of not being Batman, but while I’m not saying they all have to be dark, gritty angst-fests bordering on psychosis, I tend to prefer my heroes with a little more inner struggle. I always found Cap slightly boring because his unerring moral compass always directs him exactly to the one true right thing to do, with the only conflicts he ever encounters being external ones brought by the bad guy. And what is to me the most interesting part of his character, the “a man out of his time” thing, never gets explored much because of course the comics would rather spend more time depicting him fighting evil or saving the world from crisis.

And yet in this film, far from finding it boring, I was oddly charmed by Steve being simply and purely a Good Guy. Like, not even in the “hero” sense, but in the sense women talk about the men they date— “He’s a Good Guy.” It actually really was, as some of the critics have said, a refreshing change from reluctant Spider-Man, dickish Iron Man, or even my beloved dark Batman. My biggest fear about this movie was that Chris Evans was going to blow it. He would not have been my choice at all, both because he already played one Marvel character (the Human Torch) and because he was pretty lousy at it. But he nailed it. He was so unaffected, so forthright, and God damn it, I really liked this genuine, honest, brave, moral, modest, uncomplicated little virgin who didn’t want to kill anybody; he just doesn’t like bullies.

I mean, seriously. When was the last time you saw a movie portray a tough, masculine hero who basically had the word “VIRGIN” stamped on his forehead? I found that extremely endearing.

Yeah, Captain America is intrinsically at least a little bit corny, something I usually have very little tolerance for. But context is everything. The movie actually addressed that by putting it in context. Captain America, both as a comic book character and as a superhero identity in-universe, was conceived in the forties, a time when people’s sensibilities were not so jaded and, perhaps more to the point, advertising was still a young medium without all the baggage and tiredness it has today. The fact that the government in this movie originally comes up with the idea of Captain America as a living propaganda piece, a cheesy stage show character Steve would play to encourage people to buy war bonds, is so fucking period that it’s perfect. That is totally something the WWII-era government would do. Steve has to desire to be something more than that in order to transcend that cheesiness become something that we can take seriously.

World War II-era America is a fascinating setting. I love the aesthetic and the attitudes. It was a war people believed in, that young men showed up in droves to enlist for, so it’s the perfect milieu for a story about a brave, goodhearted young man whose desire to serve the country and cause he finds righteous leads him to becoming the ultimate valiant soldier. The moment I saw Bucky show up in that uniform, I flashed to the framed photo we have in my parents’ house of a young man, handsome as a movie star, wearing that same uniform in a picture taken the day he enlisted at no more than nineteen years old. That was my grandfather Arthur Roberts, who served as an infantryman in Britain and Germany. He still has shrapnel in him from combat. My other grandfather Joe Leone was a little older, and was an airplane mechanic stationed in the Pacific. Both of them volunteers who went because it was the right thing to do. That resonates with me, and probably most people, which explains why World War II is such fertile ground for heroic storytelling.

Abraham Erskine was played by Stanley Tucci, who I’ve loved since I saw him in an embarrassing disaster movie that I like to this day just because of him. His Erskine was ponderous and warm, the articulator of the heart of the movie in how he saw the real goodness in Steve and gave him a chance to have it make a difference in the world. For flavor-of-the-times reasons, I wanted him to get a bit more trouble for being German in America, but as Hyde pointed out, he is supposed to be Albert Einstein. Though I knew it was coming, I was sorry when he died, as I tend to like the character who has his eye on the bigger picture when everyone else is caught up in the smaller things of the here-and-now.

I really, really liked how they portrayed the romance between Steve and Peggy. It feels both genuine to the way things worked in that period and to Steve’s character. In the forties, respectable boys and good girls dated around if they pleased, they treated each other like gentlemen and ladies, and they didn’t sleep with each other until they were quite serious, or possibly not even until they were engaged or even married. Peggy may be worldly, but Steve has always been invisible to girls and too shy to seek them out— a Nice Boy with “VIRGIN” stamped on his forward. It takes time for them to be charmed by each other, and their progress toward romance is slow and careful. A few vaguely meaningful conversations, an exchange about dancing, the newspaper-cutout picture of Peggy Steve puts in his pocket watch. It takes them the whole movie to even arrange a date. I also liked how they started building it even while Steve was still a scrawny wuss boy— it wouldn’t have reflected well on Peggy if she weren’t starting to develop esteem for him until he got the sexy sexy abs and pecs.

Which brings us to the obligatory beefcake portion of my review. What can I say, I have a weakness for cut abs. Chris Evans is pretty hot, as he is good-looking, the uniform suits him, and he really works the neat, clean-cut forties hair, but he’s too delicately pretty for my tastes, so I confine my dirty, dirty objectification of him to below the neck. When he first comes out of the chamber after treatment with the super-soldier serum, I had to put my eyes back in my head. But to be honest, I thought the handsomest guy in the movie was his sidekick Bucky. First let me say that they made the choice to make Bucky Steve’s old friend and age contemporary, who enlisted before Steve was able to. It surprised me but I found the choice really worked and made their friendship more genuine. And more to the beefcake point, Bucky was played by a pretty, pretty man with the more overtly masculine aspect I prefer who ROCKED the uniform like whoa. Though I find myself slightly weirded out by the notion of being attracted to Bucky, particularly finding him significantly more attractive than Cap. Shouldn’t be surprised, I guess, I almost never go for the blond if there’s a hot brunet.

I enjoyed Peggy Carter quite a bit, though she brought a lot of little nitpicky issues for me. For one, I think she should have been an American. It’s slightly weird to pair the All-American Hero with an Englishwoman. I liked how capable and non-squishy she was without having to be a ball-buster, and how she was practically an officer like any other, but it seemed a little whitewashed that a woman in the army in the forties should get so little flak. And I loved her styling, with her fabulous victory roles and her awesome on-period clothes with their square shoulders and nipped-in waists, but it irked me that all the skirts were knee-length when they should have been tea-length— more flattering, sure, but less accurate. Still, I think she narrowly beats out Pepper as my favorite Marvel movie love-interest, because the Iron Man movies couldn’t balance her being put-upon with her being impotent, because Betsy Ross barely registered on me, and because I thought Jane Foster was a totally unbelievable character in every conceivable way.

Now let’s just hope if fucking Sharon Carter shows up she is not Peggy’s daughter, or granddaughter, or niece, or grandniece, or any other kind of close descendent or relation, or if she is, she does not get together with Cap. I AM SORRY, but even in Cap’s weird situation, being attracted to somebody because SHE REMINDS YOU OF HER MOM OR GRANDMA is CREEPY AS SHIT. Hate, hate, hate that.

I was pleasantly surprised by how involved Howard Stark was in the plot. I thought he was basically just going to be a neat little cameo to connect Steve and Tony, but it turned out he was around a lot and served as the American army’s primary mechanical engineer. I liked the actor who played him, even with his slightly exaggerated forties speech style, and he even looked a bit like Robert Downey, Jr., but I was slightly disappointed that they didn’t get the silver fox back from the Disney-esque filmstrip in the second Iron Man. His name is actually John Slattery and he’s most recently been known for being on Mad Men, but I can never remember and always just call him the silver fox. Anyway, I look forward to seeing Steve knowing Tony’s father factors into the Avengers movie.

As a total side note, I liked the little moment where Steve was drawing. It was a nice nod to the fact that in the comics he was an art student and illustrator before he enlisted. By the way, the similarity that bears to Hitler’s pre-political career always jumped out at me. Was that intentional? If so, what in the world would they mean by drawing that parallel?

The Howling Commandoes were fun. Dum Dum Duggan was a fabulous representation of the character. I had to roll my eyes a little at their politically correct racial diversity that nobody ever commented on, which is not exactly the norm for the period. I can’t exactly remember the makeup of the team in the comics, but I was a bit sorry the black guy wasn’t Jack Fury, granddad of Nick, and I know that in some continuities Wolverine was a member, which would have been a pretty hilarious cameo (if not quite as hilarious as the one in X-Men: First Class.)

I thought Bucky’s death was well done and mostly stuck to the canon, though it came earlier in the movie than I thought it would. I believe it traditionally basically happens at the same time as Cap’s “death,” but I guess they moved it up to give Cap an emotional blow for the end of the second act of the movie. (See, I have paid attention in my screenwriting classes.) I liked the bit where Steve realized he can’t get drunk anymore because of how his super-body now works, and I loved how when Steve was blaming himself for not protecting Bucky, Peggy told him that he can only shoulder that blame if he didn’t trust and respect Bucky enough to allow him to accept the risks for himself. It’s a remarkably pointed contrast with an issue of Batman’s—Batman never allows any of his teammates to become true partners because he’s incapable of trusting them enough to let them shoulder the same burdens that he carries. It leads to them feeling disrespected and pushed away, so they all eventually leave him. Captain America does, and respected Bucky enough to share his burdens. Which is why Cap makes true friends, and Batman is forever alone.

Hugo Weaving was of course awesome as Johann Schmitt the Red Skull, THE MAN HITLER KICKED OUT OF THE NAZIS FOR BEING TOO EVIL. I’ve always particularly liked him as an actor, and I love the sound of his voice. I’ve read he based his German accent on Werner Herzog and Klaus Maria Brandauer. I was surprised to see that he spent the first half of the movie looking human, as opposed to like the Red Skull, but that way it makes for a better reveal. How about the neat little detail of the portrait artist looking extremely distasteful as he was painting Schmitt’s portrait sans human mask? The depiction of the Skull was really cool, all the way down to his awesome floor-length leather duster. As witticaster* said, his tailor must have had the most job security of any member of the organization.

Speaking of that organization, my feelings are very ambivalent in regards to HYDRA. I guess it makes sense as a “deep science,” as Peggy says, division of the regime that went off the deep end with it. The idea of obscure “Nazi occultism” is a common story trope. But I just can’t decide whether I think its inclusion is appropriate or not in regards to respectfully portraying a story in the WWII setting. Part of it feels like an excuse to just not have to talk about Nazis, which surprises me, since them and large corporations are one of the few totally acceptable real-world generic movie villains. I certainly don’t like the way the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoon uses it as a wholesale replacement for the Nazis. But still, torn about it even as a Nazi-offshoot. On the one hand, I don’t know if it’s totally respectful to the REAL soldiers who did this huge thing of defeating them to include an EVEN SCARIER VERSION RAWR that we need a superdude to take down. But on the other hand, maybe it allows Cap to not take credit away from those real soldiers if he’s busy with a personal, separate but still related nemesis while everyone else tackles the main threat.

I was fine with the ending, though I can see why some people might have felt it was a bit off. I liked how you could be easily tempted into thinking the Red Skull was destroyed, but the way he disappeared looked so much like the expression of Asgardian magic that you can guess something else entirely happened. I loved the last conversation between Steve and Peggy; I was very touched, and found myself both simultaneously wishing that he’d told her he loved her and glad that even then he didn’t—because he knew something that important couldn’t be forced, that they weren’t at that point yet, and he still wasn’t without hope that they still had the chance to get to that point together. That’s why he made the date with her, because he never ever loses hope. I think many found the need to run the ship into the ground a bit abrupt. I am steeped in the comic continuity, so I got that Cap had to end up buried in that ice one way or another, but several of the others I saw it with thought that if you didn’t realize that, you might have found the fact that Cap couldn’t do anything but crash the ship out of the way kind of... weird. 

And then Cap wakes up in the present day. Unfortunately he did not body slam Nick Fury, yelling about how he knew all seven Negro agents of SHIELD and Nick sure wasn’t one of them. Heh. I love how easily it is to update the Captain America timeline—just add to the amount of time he’s been frozen since WWII! I really hope they’ll include him having to deal with some “man out of his time” stuff when they bring him back in the Avengers movie.

Ah, yes, the Avengers movie can happen now. That means Chris Evans, Robert Downey, Jr., and Chris Hemsworth. If that is the case, I have but one request, and anything else can be forgiven.

No shirts, please.

Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Jared and I have been watching the new Avengers animated series, Earth's Mightiest Heroes. I enjoy it more than I expected I would, not being a huge fan of the Marvel characters. The representations of all the characters feel reasonably authentic, and they are doing a good job of balancing how things worked and went in the comics with the restrictions inherent in translating it all to a half-hour kids' television show. The art is in general very good, especially on the men. They have managed to accurately represent the characters and keep their physical dimensions imposing and powerful without verging into Liefeld territory. Tony's design is excellent, and I really like how they've depicted Steve, Hank, and Nick Fury as well. (I think the rarely-seen Bruce Banner looks like a cancer patient with a mullet, but I'm okay with that.) The women look good too, I guess, but I'm slightly irked by how they all look alike to me, lots of tall thin modelesque creatures with different hair and color palettes. At least Wasp, the most prominent female character in the series, is a little distinctive. The animation quality is high, and even the most complicated fight scenes are well-choreographed and visually well-expressed. The voice acting is solid if not necessarily fantastic; I don't like the guy they have playing Iron Man though not for really any good reason, and I'm not sure if they mean Thor's guy to be as hilarious as I find him, but Cap's guy sounds exactly like I always imagined Cap sounding in my head. So all in all, a well-put-together piece of television that I am enjoying watching.

The only real problem I have with the show is that while they've got all this high-quality production stuff going on, the show is about ninety percent fight scene and only ten percent character anything. I guess that's to be expected in a modern kids' action show about superheroes (read: aimed at little boys), and don't me wrong, I enjoy battle scenes too, particularly ones as well done as they have... but frankly I find that stuff less interesting than character development and there's precious little of it happening there. I wanted to see Tony's cavalier, self-centered confidence get him into trouble with the people who care about him, and watch Steve struggle to adapt to a society with completely different social mores than the 40's had. I know, I know, I'm such a woman. ;-) But I feel other superhero shows, like our favorites from the nineties, were better at striking the balance between cool action and real character. I guess modern sensibilities don't expect kids to want that stuff, which makes me sad. My favorite shows from when I was a kid (like Gargoyles, TaleSpin, and Batman: The Animated Series) still hold up for me to enjoy as a twenty-four-year-old, with genuine investment and not just nostalgia, because they nail that stuff. So it makes me a little sad that a show that seems capable of delivering good storytelling can't quite hit the most important part for me.

Thoughts on Iron Man II

Last night Jared and I saw Iron Man II. It was fun, and there was a lot of entertaining stuff, but about every ten minutes I saw something about which I had to declare, "I call bullshit." I enjoyed the movie, but it was not the second Iron Man that I wanted to see.

I really like the character of Tony Stark, especially as played by Robert Downey, Jr. And I hate to say it, but I love how he's an enormous dick that still manages to be hot. And see, my favorite Tony Stark antagonist is Tony Stark. I find him most interesting when he's his own worst enemy. Basically the film I was hoping to see had that same Tony be successfully protecting the world but totally destroying his personal life, descending into alcoholism and acting progressively more reckless due to his growing arrogance and his fear for his life. I wanted him to be alienating Pepper with all his difficult behavior, the breaking point of which is being seduced by Black Widow, who was actually trying to infiltrate Stark Industries and help Whiplash, and that drives her to finally leave him and go to Happy, who I expected to be in the film for this purpose. I wanted him to be screwing up his life, and I wanted there to be consequences for it. There weren't really consequences for anything he did, even using the Iron Man suit while drunk, a moment which offended me probably more than it should. But nobody on the Earth should get away with playing with a weapon while intoxicated, and that kind of pissed me off. I call bullshit.

Then there was the very Walt Disney-style presentation of Howard Stark's city of tomorrow. I didn't mind that, but I did mind the very Da Vinci Code-like hiding of the new-element theory in the park model. Now, I totally buy that a scientist could theorize the existence of a new element before he has the technology to try and synthesize it, which later generations do. I believe that's even happened in real life science. But people leave these things in notebooks, they do not hide them cryptically in models for vanity theme parks. I call bullshit.

Did not enjoy Black Widow. Or maybe I shouldn't even call her that, because she didn't have anything in common with Black Widow except her real name. Maybe I would have enjoyed her more if I liked Scarlett Johansson (as either an actress or as eye candy) but I really don't. I found her character to be totally gratuitous. Basically, "Sexy girl. Sexy girl beats people up. Sexy girl looks sexy. Sexy girl changes in backseat of car in a scene so pornographically choreographed as to be absurd." And Tony is a complete dumbass for being a man in his position and not thinking, "Huh, this woman can do CRAZY MARTIAL ARTS even though she's supposed to be from THE LEGAL DEPARTMENT. SHE CLEARLY ISN'T A SPY, NOPE, NUH HUH." God, I wanted Pepper to be like, "If all the blood hadn't abandoned your brain right now, it might occur to you that that's a little suspicious!"

I can't believe they didn't have her be villainous in any way. I kept waiting for her to betray them and help Vanko, but nope, never happened. Natasha Romanov was a Soviet double-agent in the comics. If they just wanted a sexy secret SHIELD agent, why did they use the Romanov character? Wasn't there some other character they could have had play that role? Maybe Sharon Carter, like Jared suggested? I call bullshit about pretty much every aspect of this character.

I wanted this movie to show Tony destroying everything that was really important to him. And then have the next movie be him putting it all back together. They could have even still had the last scene kept as it was, because I like the idea that Tony manages to publically save everyone while still having ruined his life. But I felt they could have made a much deeper, more believable movie if they hadn't just let the comic-book-logic run wild and let Tony get away with whatever he wanted. He's a douchebag by nature and we enjoy him that way, but douchebags usually get some sort of repercussions for their behavior. 

No Iron Man this weekend

My parents have come and gone, taking my brother back to our hometown with them. It was a nice visit, culminating in a lovely dinner at Bricco's, one of the best restaurants in the North End. I am not as a rule a pasta eater, but the pasta at this place was authentic, homemade, and delicious, so even I couldn't resist. It's so good that Jared and I would like to buy some of the homemade pasta from the specialty store owned by the restauranteur and make it at home.

The new Iron Man movie is out now. We were going to go see it with a group yesterday, but I didn't feel well (big surprise there) and Jared wasn't done with the takehome final he had to finish for today, so we didn't make it. I still want to see it; I heard it was pretty good. Other than Dark Knight, I thought the first Iron Man was one of the best comic book movies to come out in forever, so I have high hopes for the sequel.

As a side note, I dislike when an actor plays more than one major superhero in the movie versions. I just heard that Chris Evans, the guy who played the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies, is up for the role of Captain America. That irritates me, especially when they're from the same comic universe. It's like they're not distinct entities. It was bad enough hearing that Ryan Reynolds was Deadpool and might be (will be?) the Green Lantern, but at least one is Marvel and one is DC. Captain America and the Fantastic Four are both Marvel. Not that it's particularly necessary, but now they can never appear together, and now they're too much the same person. I don't like that. I'm not a huge fan of either title, but still, it gets on my nerves.