After Man of Steel, Gimme Some Elysium

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We watched Man of Steel this evening. I’m not going to post a review as my opinion of the movie pretty much falls on the fence between good and bad. I found it rather uneven on the whole, though very entertaining, and I’m too tired to be more specific / detailed about that.

On a superficial level, (a) I’ve always loved the Krypton back story and still think that Superman has the best origin story of the superheroes I’m familiar with (obviously, I’m no expert, but there you go), and (b) the one-on-one battle between Kal-El and Zod were the best action moments (airborne fistfights at hyper speed, YEAH!), though the movie’s destruction sequences took up a pretty big chunk of the time. Overall, I’d rank Man of Steel a little above Star Trek: Into Darkness and way above Iron Man 3 in entertainment value.

Writing and plot? I find the three movies to be the same. But they’re blockbusters meant to be pure escapist entertainment, and they all delivered in different ways, regardless of glaring plot holes, the directors’ ADHD techniques, and some unsympathetic characters.

That said, Andy and I are now all escapist entertainment’d out, and we’ve been eyeing August for sci-fi entertainment with more heft. Oh, look, social commentary! And it’s Neil Blomkamp! He gave us District 9 (hello, District 9 fangirl here!)!

Though Elysium has that obvious Hollywood polish that District 9 didn’t – one of the many reasons why I love D9 – it looks like it’ll be offering us something different even if it’s not as radically different as D9, plot-wise. At the very least, hopefully, a different approach to pretty common and pressing issues that concern us nowadays.

Have I mentioned how much the cast rocks? Sharlto Copley even plays the villain this time around. I’m crossing my fingers for this baby.

Reminiscing with Locatelli

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Or “The Piece of Music That Started It All”. I put together this video to share and for posterity purposes because it’s an old recording that’s no longer available outside the used CD universe. It’s a piece of music that was part of my first ever classical music collection (in cassette tape form), and my younger sister got it for me for Christmas back when she worked at The Record Factory. It was also my favorite track in that tape.

I completely wore down that cassette tape throughout my undergraduate years, even with other classical music tapes popping up in my collection. And it’s because of that, this particular composition carries with it the most memories or at least the most emotional connections that still affect me twenty years later.

I don’t know if it’s a sign of age that I’m doing quite a bit of reminiscing lately. Not that I’ve never done that in the past – I do have a predilection to get all nostalgic at the drop of a hat, but never in the frequency I’ve been experiencing recently. Is that even grammatically correct?

As of late, something – almost always a song – triggers certain feelings associated with whatever it might be, and those feelings take me back to different points in the past that coincide with them. Locatelli’s violin concerto (this specific one, anyway) always, always brings back the best days of my freshmen and sophomore years in college, particularly those terms when I was studying Art History or Costume History or Drawing. English Literature classes didn’t happen till my junior year, when I switched majors, and I was a lot less carefree by then and was ready to dive into those classes with all guns blazing.

As with all things nostalgic where I’m concerned, this seems to be a fond hearkening back to those idyllic days, when I didn’t feel so worn down by responsibilities and world events. It’s definitely not a sign of my wanting to turn back time; good lord, I do not want to be in my twenties all over again. I might be feeling the beginnings of time’s ravages in my mid-forties, but my past is my past, and while I’m not as carefree as I used to be, I’m sure a great deal wiser, and there’s no price I can put on that.

That said, these occasional moments of nostalgia are fun – a touch bittersweet in some ways, depending on what memories were triggered – and definitely very humbling. From where I am now, I’m amazed at where I was back then, and maybe in another twenty years, I’ll be looking back to my forties and might be just as surprised at seeing where I’ve been and how far I’ve gone. Hmm. Lots of thinky thoughts for a Wednesday…

The Desolation of Smaug

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It’s always been said that writers have to compete with so many distractions when it comes to catching a reader’s attention. But, oh, boy, are writers just as scattered. I woke up this morning with grand, noble ideas on how to go through today (a day off from work), which includes avoiding the bike till tomorrow in order to push forward with my WIP.

What do people say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions?

I walked into the living room and found Andy practically bouncing off the walls in extreme excitement, his laptop glowing from videos on Man of Steel, which opens this Friday. There went half my brain cell count as I hovered nearby, gawking and bouncing on the balls of my feet and letting out little kitten squeals over the movie. Mind you, when I first saw the earliest teasers for Man of Steel last year, I was totally underwhelmed. Superman isn’t my favorite superhero (too damned perfect, but that’s my post-modern cynicism tainting my views, I suppose), but the more trailers I see, the more I waffle until I’m now hopelessly caught in the advertising net that Warner Brothers so craftily used. I can’t wait to see it, and I know I’ll be giggling my way through some of the action scenes as Andy’s now hopelessly drooling over Antje Traue, who plays Faora-Ul. I don’t mind. I drool over ass-kicking women all the time.

Then, just when I was about to get started on my WIP, an update from the Guardian UK pops up in my Feedly page.

YES! :D

I’ll admit to being overall fairly underwhelmed with the first installment of The Hobbit, though I really enjoyed it for what it was. I had a pretty high expectation of it coming into the film because of Jackson’s LOTR trilogy, and while I was able to adjust it as the first installment played out, there was still that “Sigh. Wish they gave us more meat.” The first film’s purpose was also largely buildup and backstory, and, yes, I love the changes they made to Thorin and Bilbo’s relationship, i.e., from condescending doubt to acceptance and the beginnings of a friendship that, obviously, will affect Bilbo years down the road. That was something I had to keep in mind, and that helped me appreciate the initial effort at bringing this book to life.

The second film looks like we’ll be in for a good deal more, now that we’ll get to see Smaug and hear him speak. Emphasis on “speak” because Benedict Cumberbatch voices Smaug, and damn me if I’m going to miss that. Pun unintended, Smaug’s going to be one HOT dragon. There are very clear deviations from the book judging from the trailer, but at this point, I expect quite a bit of padding and rewriting.

Okay, so giddy silliness over, I can now really get back to writing. Wish me luck.

Random Fangirl Whine

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Oh, for the love of Hank’s ass! *cries* Hesjedal isn’t having a good season this year, but Dan Martin is, at least. Scheisse. Hope his injuries aren’t serious and that Ryder gets plenty of rest and his mojo back, and here’s to my favorite Irish rider taking up the mantle of leader. I wonder now if Martin’s going to be the squad’s main man for the Tour de France, but Garmin fanpoodles like me won’t know till the last freakin’ minute because CRAZY. -____-;;;;

Will return for more coherent, less dribbly updates.

Shifting Gears (Yay, Middle Grade Fiction!)

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I checked out Holly Black’s Doll Bones from the library and am looking forward to reading it. It’s been ages since I picked up a middle grade novel, the last adventure being Philip Reeve’s Larklight series (highly recommended, btw). I must confess that writing middle grade fiction has crossed my mind multiple times, and I’d like to expose myself to more titles – especially dark fantasy or just plain fantasy (Reeve’s novels are Victorian steampunk / sci-fi).

I wonder if there’s anything out there like these books that are specifically for an LGBT readership. That said, I wonder how viable that is, seeing as how the only middle grade stuff I’ve read for gay kids was Totally Joe. I’m guessing that anything middle grade for that market is more heavily skewed toward real life issues (coming out, bullying, parents, family, friendship, school, etc.), no differently from the way LGBT YA fiction skews more heavily toward those as well. Hmm. Uncharted territory, here we come.