The Rabbit Hole

So President Obama says he thinks gays should be able to get married. I'm going to choose not to be cynical and focus on how he then backed up to say "But, uh, states should do what they want," especially since North Carolina (state motto: "One day, we'll catch whatever venereal disease our power bottom state has and be twice as crazy!") just happened. I'm going to recognize the significance and urge people to continue putting the pressure on and the reinforcement coming. The POTUS said gays should marry. It's a big deal. We need to continue to work on tolerance issues (bullying, anti-gay hate crime, job discrimination) on the small scale to drive home the point that gay people ARE PEOPLE such that states will eventually catch up to the newly evolved Obama.

Speaking of the gays, you know what I saw five minutes of this weekend? Urban Legends: Final Cut. Which features a sexy lesbian (played by Eva Mendes, no less) who just happens to be a lesbian. ASTONISHING, RIGHT? I cannot believe I'm saying this about that shitty movie, but we could really do with more of those. Just, you know, to have around. And while I'm throwing out magical liberal wishlists for the motion picture industry, please employ more people of color and more women in roles other than "mother" or "girlfriend." K THNX BAI.

Okay, time for more fun Avengers stuffs. Check out the comments on this io9 post (careful, spoilers) for some truly awesome Hulk animated gifs. I could watch the top one alllllll day. And while we're on the subject of Hulks, why don't we let one tell us what makes an interesting one? (Again: SPOILERS) No spoilers here: a truly awesome Black Widow poster. It reminds me strongly of James Bond's credit sequences in the 1960s. Very mod, very chic, very sexy, still powerful. And there's a Hawkeye one, but it's got nowhere near the level of sophistication and class, I'm afraid.

I have some hope that more theaters are going to announce non-3D versions of The Avengers before Friday, but it's fucking ridiculous that it's the Monday before and there are all of three theaters in Manhattan that have showings announced. Goddamn it 3D, I hate you, go away.

On the plus side, there aren't too many showings up for the 3D version either, so maybe they're just slow all the way around.

Best new blog I just discovered today: Literally Unbelievable, a blog dedicated to making fun of people who think The Onion reports serious news. It's one thing to have a random incident where Poe's Law gets a person who might otherwise be pretty savvy about sarcasm, even on the internets. But to be fooled by The Onion takes a whole other level of ineptitude quite worthy of cataloging.

Best new thing I saw today: EXPANDED AVENGERS TRAILERASFK@(!^$!#*!&#!!!!! I know I'm setting myself up for disappointment, I know it. Shut the fuck up and let me have this, okay?

Something that puts fannishness into perspective? Looking at things others are obviously fans of--that, in fact, I might be a fan of--and the merchandise associated therewith that is too ridiculous to be compatible with reality. Exhibit A: a "swim like Michael Phelps" Kinect game. I am a fan of Michael Phelps (....'s body), but this is pushing it. How much garbage do you expect his fans to swallow?

...which is "Hello, Ms. Pot, have you met my friend, the much-maligned Mr. Kettle?" talk that I ought to wink out of existence in a fit of cosmic irony, or something, given my earlier reaction to The Avengers trailer being released. I did promise to be more coherent, eventually, on that. (The other post is and will remain a CAPSLOCK paradise, I warn you.) Here's what I have to say, now that I can be marginally less giddy.

-For a movie that has only just finished wrapping, they've got some decent CGI shots already done. The Hulk is looking, well, Hulkish, but more The Incredible Hulk-ish than Hulk-ish, which is acceptable. There were lazers and some lightning for Thor. All of which could stand to be improved, obviously, but that they have that much is impressive. I mean, it could be a warning that they're rushing things--they have a trailer online seven months before the movie premieres, which is only about four months earlier than Captain America did--but I choose to have faith.

-They explained "the Avengers"! By which I mean the name, which, since moonlightalice brought it up--"What, exactly, are they avenging?"--has not failed to bother me. Stupid smart people with their words and things mucking up perfectly good superhero team names!

-Nine Inch Nails in the trailer: On the one hand, LOVE IT. "We're in this Together" is one of my favorite tracks from my favorite NIN album ever, The Fragile. The Downward Spiral is the most famous/commercially successful NIN album, but The Fragile kicks its ass in every way that matters. The songs are better, they make you feel more and more strongly ways about stuff, the entire album flows better, start-to-finish, and it is artistic while still being incredibly catchy. I'm a piss-poor music critic, but The Fragile is an album about which I get worked up, so it's good. "We're in this Together" is even used passably well in the start of the trailer. On the other hand, it's used incredibly poorly towards the end, with the twisted dialogue of the chorus being made into rah-rah nonsense. I mean, shoe-horning in the words "we're in this together now" to play over the images of the Avengers is just too on-the-nose. The riffs also don't work as well as a closer--it's too unfinished a sound. Maybe that's just me and me knowing that that riff is in the middle of the song. But they needed to transition it better.

-I see that Joss Whedon and Robert Downey Jr. go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Some of the lines felt a little forced, though. I worry about that. Joss' best lines don't go hand-in-hand with action scenes a lot of the time.

There. I said some things that didn't amount to typed flailing. I'm proud of me.

This arrived yesterday evening in the mail. Despite that, I actually got to the store for kitty litter and other essentials. I'm proud of me.

Alas, no toplessness inside, but still! MAY MOVIE AVENGERS OMFGBBQ!!!!

My girls weekend was cancelled on account of Hurricane Irene fucking things up for everyone to such a degree that the damage was still ongoing come this past Thursday. My mother, in a flurry of activity related to throwing shit out from the foot-plus-of-water-damaged basement, wrenched her back but good. My sister's move-in date to college was delayed, and my cousin, vying for title of "Better Daughter/Sister Than TrinityVixen" was going to help with one or the other. (She ended up helping with the moving in because she's in Boston, and it's a long drive to Westchester just to be, like, "Poor baby, I hope your back feels better.") I, on the other hand, went upstate with feiran.

Where I proceded to live life like I was in college again, and, lo, it was awesome. We didn't even arrive until nearly 3 am on Friday morning after a late start, but which was followed up by us sleeping until two in the afternoon which is so fucking boss, I cannot tell you. When we did finally motivate our asses to do something, we went to the Vermont State Fair, where we watched a trapeze artist do things on a tall tower swaying in the breeze that made us both want to die of fear on her behalf since she hadn't the sense to do it herself. There were also animals to pet and a tiger show that simultaneously made me feel awful about liking because that sort of thing is not natural and also made me want to own a baby tiger like whoa.

The rest of the weekend was a haze of late morning wake-ups, staying up until 3 pm, and playing board games and PS2 games that should have stayed in their box because holy shit I do not need to waste this much time on Dynasty Warriors 3 any more. Like I said, it was college all over again, including our only having food that required the most basic of additions to render edible. (Frying eggs was as complicated as it got.) That, and eating so much ice cream. Even feiran looked a little green-at-the-gills over ice cream at points. (But only, you know, right after she finished one. In another hour, she'd be good to go again.)

The only thing I regret is that I apparently missed filming of The Avengers in NYC while I was away. I find it funny that they built a full-scale replica of Grand Central Terminal in Cleveland but came to the city to film in Central Park, which could easily have been recreated elsewhere. Oh well, don't actually mind missing the filming. I prefer my illusions. Also, film crews are damned obstructions. There was a movie filming on my bike route last week (being a New Yorker, I didn't ask what it was, but I don't think it was The Avengers, unless, like, the Cap and Thor were going to this cute little restaurant on Lenox for a date or something), and it's just a pain. Plus? The crew members, even the non-sketchy ones, just sorta stare at you while you wait for the light to change. It's unwelcome.

ETA: I figured out from the YouTube description where that clip was from. I'm sorry I went looking. Now I will have nightmares about rubbery superhero "dancing."

It's a fan trailer. I want it known, upfront, that I know it's a fan trailer. (New point of interest: where is that footage from what Chris Evans movie that they used that isn't Captain America?) I know that this is a fan creation.

That said, I'm still kinda excited, u guyz:


For balance, so as not to let my fangirl run away with me (TOO LATE), I offer this obvious but necessary recut of the only Captain America trailer we have to date:


I'd like you all to welcome a new LJ tag debuting today. See if you can guess which one it is.