The comments, reviews and rantings are for entertainment only. If you are offended then someone else is getting entertained. Welcome to the internet. Have at it. This is where I sound off on what I read in comics this week, and occasionally ramble about other things.
I went into this movie a little tentative. I loved the first Thor movie. THE AVENGERS picked up very well from that. I really did not like IRONMAN 3, and I was hoping that this movie would redeem the Marvel stage 2 for me. I got exactly what I wanted. I loved every bit of this movie. For those wondering what's the 411 on this and haven't seen it, its been two years since the events of the first movie. We also find out what happened when Loki was returned to Asgard at the end of THE AVENGERS. Beings called the Dark Elves who were defeated by forces led by Thor's grandfather are setting to return to destroy the "Nine Realms" which does include Asgard and Earth. Everything in this movie is bigger than the first movie. The first movie was more Earth centered. In this film you see so much more of Asgard, and its all absolutely stunning. The effects in the film were very well done. The amount of production and post production that went into this really show in the final product. Of course, being me, I love the fight scenes, and there's plenty of those to be had. Chris Hemsworth once again did a wonderful job playing Thor. Yes ladies, he does take his shirt off. I know this is important to many of you. That aside, he really delivered with everything asked of him be it the big action heroics, the heavy drama, the romantic parts, and the humor. Natalie Portman is great as Jane who is once again in way over her head (not a short joke, honest) but shows a lot of guts in dealing with the fantastic things she's experiencing. Anthony Hopkins shows a lot fo gravity and restraint in playing Odin. It would be so easy to go over the top with the role. Chris Eccleston plays the big bad in this and he's quite monstrous in his quest to destroy everything. There's no liking this villain. Three people in this really made this a memorable movie for me. Kat Dennings as Darcy was a joy. For the most part she was comedy relief, but she so great here that you can't help smiling whenever she's on screen. Rene Russo as Frigga was magnificent. She was quite under used in the first film, but this movie gives her these really great scenes that made a lasting impression on me. Finally, I have to talk about Tom Higgleston as Loki. Yes, I know there's a lot of fan-girling over him. I wasn't too sure about how they were going to be using him in this film. Tom Higgleston gave an amazing performance, and he's given so much great material to work with. The character's motivations are constantly questioned both by the other characters in the film and the audience. He keeps everyone guessing, but is so consistent that who can really latch onto him as a character. The actor has gotten a lot of praise for the role, and earns every bit of it. This movie had a lot of action and drama. Outstanding effects. The final battle was completely nuts, but I loved every bit of it. They also did a great job in lightening things up with great humor at all the right times. There were real laugh out lot moments. Lastly, this movie succeeded where IRONMAN 3 failed. IM3 felt like a final chapter, as if that part of the Marvel Universe was closing down. This movie expanded on thing in the finale which will leave viewers wanting more. Also, make sure to hang in for both of the bonus scenes. The first one mid-credits surprised the crap out of me. The one at the end of the credits was a lot of fun. Great film. I'd pay to see it in theaters again.
Hey gang. Its Wednesday, April 8, 2012, and this is The Side. The Missus's trip to Kansas has gotten extended a bit. I'm pretty much exhausted, so I'm not terribly clever today. Being sick doesn't help either. Right now I'm functioning on vitamins, pills, and caffeine.
MOVIES!!!
THE AVENGERS knocked it right out of the park. Pretty much the only people who didn't like this movie are snobby twit critics who take their jobs way to seriously. It broke the box office record, and a sequel has already been green lit. This is going to follow sequels for Thor, Ironman, and Captain America. There's a lot of expectations going around, so I'm going to share mine.
As far as over all, I like how they've handled things. Going into the next sequel cycle, I'd like some build up to a show down with the big bad they showed during the first extra scene in the credits. The Infinity Gauntlet was shown during Thor, so maybe play with that a bit.
As for the Thor movie, I think an obvious choice in villains is The Enchantress along with the Executioner. I'm not too stoked with piling on villains for movie sequels, but these two go really well together. The Enchantress can be a fun foil to the Natalie Portman played Jane, and make for an interesting pseudo-love triangle bit. Meanwhile you've got The Executioner there for the big time throwdowns that are a must for these flicks. And if during a big battle a certain glove gets lost and the six certain gems get scattered, I'm seeing no problem with that.
The Ironman movie is a bit trickier. Marvel isn't wanting to use Chinese characters as major villains in these movies for fear of a possible backlash and maybe accusations of racism. This sucks because a lot of fans are wanting to see the Mandarin, especially with everything they hinted at in the first movie. This also rules out The Radioactive Man. My next thought would be The Titanium Man, but using him right after the Whiplash/Crimson Dynamo gestalt seems too soon. Back-to-back Russian armor wearers might not go over very well. This is where we hit tricky ground because we're ruling out a lot of top flight opponents. I'm thinking its about the right spot to put in M.O.D.O.K. and introduce AIM. Probably won't have the goofy yellow jumpsuits, and the M.O.D.O.K. design will need a bit of tweaking, but I think that would make for a fun ride. Might also be a good place for a missing gem or two to be recovered.
The Captain America movie has no shortage of bad guys to pull from. The great thing is he's got a ton of Neo-Nazi baddies, and if you can't kick the crap out of a Nazi, then there's just no point anymore. Still, I think it would be a good idea to have the main baddie be someone more current, and not a WWII hold over. At this point, as we saw in THE AVENGERS, Cap is still getting adjusted to the modern world. Having a modern villain can really build conflict, not just between the two foes, but with Cap's whole situation. I'd like to have Crossbones for this. He's got ties to the Red Skull, and would be a good bridge character. Taskmaster trained him, so having him in there for a bit would also be fun.
After Mark Ruffalo's brilliant performance there's been a bit of buzz about a possible Hulk movie. I'm game for it as Ruffalo was really, really good in THE AVENGERS and the Hulk had many of the best scenes. Since I'm picking villain's here, I'd go with The Leader. Some of us got to chatting about this on Google Plus, so I've thought about it a bit. I'd have Banner up north, and have him run afoul a Wendigo. This way you get some good monster on monster violence. Have the Leader be behind the scenes a bit looking to tap the power of the Wendigo, but he goes after the Hulk instead. His quest for the Hulk's power turns him into the big headed green guy we all know.
There's also been a lot of call for an Ant-man movie. I really don't know about that one. Sure, I'd love to see The Wasp, but I don't think Ant-man as a character has enough to him to carry a movie. Yes, I do know he was one of the founding members of the Avengers. However, that's not quite enough to warrant getting your own major motion picture. Thor, Cap, and Ironman are the Marvel Trinity characters. Hulk as been immensely popular for decades. They make sense. Ant-man just doesn't rank up there. Introduce him in one of the sequel flicks and work him in there. The next Ironman film would be the best fit.
There's a lot of characters I think of when I think of The Avengers: Wonder-man, The Vision, Ms. Marvel, The Scarlet Witch, Beast, and The Black Panther. I doubt you'll be able to had too many more characters into the sequels as it would make AVENGERS 2 an unwieldy mess. We don't want that. Work in Ant-Man and The Wasp, keep the cast they have.
For the sequel, everyone's looking to have the team take on Thanos. May as well give the people what they want. Whether or not they use the Infinity Gems as a plot device is fine with me. My favorite Thanos stories involved the gems so I'm obviously biased here. Either way, it should be a bunch of good summers coming up if you're a fan of what Marvel's been up to the last few years.
That said, if you're wanting to check out the movie and haven't, go to a theater, and don't be a dick downloading the thing. The studio makes more money that they can use to continue to entertain us. besides which, watching these flicks on the big screen is completely awesome.
MUSIC!!
Yeah, been a rough few weeks, so I'm tossing this one on out there.
Howdy! Its Sunday, May 6, 2012, I'm getting my geek on, no surprise, and this is The Side. Got a bunch of reasons to be nerding out this weekend. Yesterday was free Comic Book Day and I took the girls up to Kings. We got up there pretty late so most of the free releases were already gone. Heard they went fast too. Still, there were some boxes of old comics out and you could grab 10 each. The girls loaded up, quite pleased with their hauls. I didn't grab anything, because I think Free Comic Book Day should be about getting new readers, not guys like me who already have a pretty regular reading list. Sure, if there were some of the releases out that looked interesting I'd have grabbed one to check it out and maybe add something new to my reading list, but first come, first serve, and I certainly wasn't early.
Other big reason for nerding out. SHERLOCK season two is coming on PBS!
If you haven't seen season one yet, shame upon you. Netflix instant streaming is your friend, however, and you can watch them on there. Brilliant series, and I can't wait to sit and enjoy this new season.
So that's more nerding out. Wasn't there something else? Some movie coming out this weekend?
MOVIE REVIEW: MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS
Which I'm glad they clarified in the title because I might have gone in expecting more adventures with Peel and Steed. But no, this is indeed Marvel's big guns gathered together for the movie fans have been waiting for. Now, at this current time, we are at a point in which we have multiple comic book based movies coming out in theaters every year. This was absolutely not the case for me growing up, so unlike in my youth I'm not as forgiving of them. I used to feel a definite need to defend comic book movies even if they weren't very good, because I feared they'd become fewer and further between. Now, they're a hot property, and they don't seem to be slowing down, so I have no qualms about calling out a movie's flaws, even if the majority of comic book fans loved the films. Its refreshing to be able to be completely honest about a movie and reviewing it based on its merits, and those alone.
So I can be completely honest in my opinion of this movie. Let's face it: this is an unprecedented move by a any studio. They've released separate films introducing these characters to movie going audiences. They made these movies with big budgets, and very talented actors, writers, and directors, not sparing anything in terms of quality if they could help it. Multiple individual franchises have been launched, and the intent has been there since they really started rolling with this to eventually make the movie that was released here in the States this weekend. Expectations from fans were through the roof. Joss Whedon was signed on as writer/director. Expectations rose higher. It was to the point that there did not seem to be any way that the fans' expectations could be met. I had to make a conscious effort to go into this movie and try to leave my personal expectations for what I'd want this movie to be in the lobby and try to form an honest opinion of the work.
So, with that out there I can say completely honestly, and checking my nerded up expectations at the door: this was one damn fine piece of work.
Let's start this out with the writing and directing from Whedon. What he did that was really amazing here is take these characters from their separate franchises and place them in one film and still had them ring completely true to how they were depicted in their separate films. This didn't feel like Whedon's take on these characters. It felt like the separate writers all had gotten together to handle their particular characters. At the same time, Whedon managed to have these character playing of of each other beautifully. It was as if he had had a hand in everything from the beginning of Marvel's big movie push.
This is a long movie at two and a half hours long. It didn't feel like it because of the excellent pacing. Its kinetic, without being rushed. The quiet moments are still packed with juicy, fun conversations that really give you a good feel for these individuals. Certainly you have to have suspension of disbelief when in this genre, but that's not taken for granted here, as Whedon keeps the story on track. Its fairly straight forward. Loki is back and he's ticked over what happened in the THOR movie and he's got a plan for some big time revenge and looking to take Earth in the bargain. There's not a lot of twists, but that's fine because the speed this roller coaster moves at, any hairpin turn in things could easily send it right off the rails.
On to the performances, and here's where this movie shines. Everyone brought their "A" game to this. There's been a lot of buzz about Mark Ruffalo coming into to playing Bruce Banner. Initially there was some dismay from fans who were miffed about having a different actor for the role when every other role was being reprised by the actors from the separate movies. This has shifted to glowing praise of Ruffalo in his work in this role, and that praise is completely justified. He was remarkable, especially in his scenes with Robert Downey Junior. Downey delivered the Tony Stark that the fans love with style, wit, and panache. Chris Evans was a really fun Captain America. Chris Hemsworth gave us the Thor we know and love, albeit with a bit less humor than in his movie. That's easily forgiven considering the circumstances of the story. I didn't get quite enough Jeremy Renner. It seemed like Hawkeye got the short end of the arrow this go around, although he did have some really cool moments. Scarlett Johansson was amazing in this. Whedon shines at writing strong women, and his Black Widow is no exception. Some fans have sort of rolled their eyes at her inclusion in this with a "What's she gonna do? Flash her boobs at the bad guys?" attitude. To say she holds her own in this is an understatement. Samuel Jackson's portrayal of Nick Fury is slick and stylish with enough gravity to it to really anchor the film. We can't forget Tom Hiddleston as Loki. He's gotten a lot of praise for his performance, and its well earned. This is a very nuanced character, and and it shows down to every little facial expression.
Big props to Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson. He's been around since the first Ironman movie, and is really great here. He may not have had the flashiest moments in the marvel movies, but he's always kept things very grounded, and I've found myself really liking the character even though he's been a bit antagonistic in previous films. He had all these great little moments in this, and it was really made things fun.
Overall, this movie gave me everything I could have asked for. It got me engaged in the story. There were parts that totally cracked me up. There were parts that made me grin like a child that has been thoroughly indulged. The movie had a definite purpose and didn't fall into the trap of having unneeded and distracting sub-plots. The action was incredibly over the top and was still easily followed. You could see and appreciate every impossibly blow in these battles. The fast clip editing that is completely annoying in many fight scenes is used very sparingly, and when it comes to the big hits, the camera hides nothing.
I'd pay full price to see it again.
Also, make sure you stay through the credits for some fun little Easter eggs, and a hint as to where a possible and probably sequel will be heading.
MUSIC!!!
Yeah, I'm sticking with my theme today.
I think that'll do it for me today. Time for some coffee. See y'all Wednesday.
FOR ASGARD!! Its Sunday, May 8, 2011, I'm one happy nerd, and this is The Side. Spent the day cleaning up around the house, so no Free Comic Book Day for me, but last night I was totally getting my geek on.
MOVIE REVIEW: THOR
Marvel's first movie of the year opened this weekend. Chris Hemsworth plays Marvel's Norse god of thunder with Natalie Portman playing love interest Jane Foster. So, right off the bat: is this movie any good? Well, now we've got so many superhero movies out there that I, as an avid comic book reader and lover of movies, can be discerning about what I think about superhero flicks. I don't feel any need to try to defend a superhero movie like I'm circling the nerd wagon from those who like to mock geekdom. In fact geek chic is currently hanging in pretty well in pop culture. So, that said: THIS MOVIE WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!! This is easily, EASILY the best comic book movie I have ever seen.
The scale and magnitude of this movie can only be described as epic. The effects in this movie were remarkable. This is one of those movies in which you have to use CGI to pull off what the vision of this movie is. I'm not a fan of CGI, but they used it so well here. As good as the effects were, the acting was better. Hemsworth is amazing as Thor. You see such amazing character growth in him through this movie. People were a bit surprised by the folks signing on to this project. Anthony Hopkins playing Odin? Believe it. He completely owns the role. There's been a bit of guff towards Portman as Jane Foster, but I thought she was great. She was fun, feisty, and pretty sharp. There's been a bit of controversy over some of racial casting in the movie, specifically Heimdall being played by a black guy when the character in the comics and in the mythology is white. Many were saying its a bit of forced diversity, but damn was this guy good!
The story is a bit different from the classic comic stories. Jane isn't a nurse here, but a scientist studying a strange phenomenon in the desert and (literally) runs into Thor who has been banished by his father from Asgard for his arrogance. She's not sure what to think of him, but he's a big, charming stud so she's digging him. Meanwhile, Thor's brother Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) is up to no good and making a play for power. Hiddleston is so brilliant here that I could tell whether whether Loki was being portrayed as a jealous brother questioning his own origins, or just a completely manipulative bastard. The answer is somewhere in the middle, but he's so good at this role its nearly impossible to nail it down. Thor does a lot of growing up on Earth as Loki makes his play in Asgard. There's huge battles and great fight scenes. We get to see a really powerful guy become a really great, and likable hero.
SPOILERS! Hawkeye makes an appearance. He doesn't do a whole lot, but its pretty damn sweet that he showed up. Lots of SHIELD stuff going on. Stan Lee's obligatory cameo was hilarious and a good old boy who tries to move Thor's hammer with his truck. Sif and the Warriors Three are there in full force, well maybe not full force as it looks like Volstagg did a stint on The Biggest Loser. Make sure you sit through the credits!!! Marvel has been putting in little scenes after the credits to get folks hyped for their next movie. Its always been something kinda cool, like Sam Jackson showing up in IRONMAN or seeing Thor's Hammer in IRONMAN 2. Not this time! This was major!! This has me wanting to time travel into next year and see THE AVENGERS right now! Nick Fury has the Cosmic Cube! Holy crap!!!
END SPOILERS. The wrap up? Best movie I've seen in a long time. I'd go see it again today if I could. Flat out great from start to finish.
YOU SUCK!!
I draw things from time to time. Haven't done it lately, but I probably should be getting back to it. I have drawn one thing lately and that's a picture for a vlogger I follow to put on his wall. Right now there's not much behind him when he shoots his videos, and some folks have complained about it, and I've chatted with the fellow a bit and told him I'd draw him something. I finished the picture and got his address, and he's in the UK, which I already knew because he has a little bit of an accent.
Now, I've done artwork for people and sent it to a few places. I usually use Pak Mail, and have had nothing but great results. Well, its been a while since I've send anything and they're now closed. Crap. But there was a Fed Ex/Kinko's right by there so I went in. Sure they could send it. It would get there Wednesday. The price?
$91.87
I thought they were joking. Its basically a large envelope they're sending. I've sent bigger stuff to Hawaii, which is further away from me, for a fraction of that. So I walked out, obviously.
Lee will be getting that picture one way or another even if I have to find the biggest, baddest carrier pigeon in existence. Moral of the story? Fed Ex: you suck.
YOU SUCK: PART DEUX!!
The Nozz Compound fell on a bit of hard times last year. The Missus lost her job, and I was scrambling to make up for it. We contacted our mortgage company to see about getting a loan modification, because we could pay our principle, but the interest rate was a bit high. We were told that there were programs just for people in our situation who have hit a bit of a rough patch, and we would be put through for a loan modification. The process would take about three months, and we were told not to make a payment until its put through, which was great because we would need to bank whatever we could.
Couple of months later we were told we were not approved for the modification and they wanted their money. You see, even though we were hoping to get a modification because were were in a rough spot, we didn't make enough money to get a modification. Since then we haven't missed a payment. We wouldn't have missed the ones we did if they hadn't told us not to pay them. Of course now they say that they never said that.
There's law firms of course to help with these matters. They're all useless. Most of them are scammers anyhow.
So Suntrust Mortgage: you suck. Thanks for lying to us and putting us behind the eightball. Jerks.
MUSIC!!
Theme song from THOR by the Foo Fighters!
That's it for me. I'm going to out and get some breakfast for one hard working mom. Happy Mother's Day to to all the Mom's out there! See y'all Wednesday.
For Asgard! Its Sunday, February 20, 2011, I'm ready for ale and wenches, and this is The Side. I don't drink nearly as much as I used to, but just last night I dreamed I was drinking a MGD and it was good. Things must be bad when my subconscious is telling me to go have a cold one.
As for the wenches, well, someone needs to clean up around this joint.
CHANGE. BELIEVE IT.
New Thor movie trailer hit the web this week. Looks great. I was already looking forward to this flick, and this just makes me more excited for it.
There's is a few things that strike me as odd. I already discussed having a black guy running around Asgard. They're also changing things up a bit in having Jane Foster (Played here by Natalie Portman) be an astro-physicist and not a nurse. That's not too big a deal. What does seem odd to me is this movie's take on Asgard itself.
According to this movie Asgard is so technically advanced that their technology takes on the trappings of magic. I just seems odd that the concept of magic is getting explained away in this manner. Its interesting as hell, but its just such an odd shift for a set of characters based of Norse Gods. Maybe they wanted to take this direction to distinguish themselves from the slew of other movies that have magical characters. It could be that they have a lot of really cool ideas to put up on the screen that they've based on this concept. Its not a deal breaker change, and its not even a dumb one, but its just so striking to me. I think that comes from Thor being the part of the Marvel Trinity that represents magic and mythology, and this shift sort of removes him from that spot and places him more in the science fiction slot.
But yes I am definitely looking forward to this movie. The guy playing Thor looks absolutely spot on. I spotted the Warriors Three in the new trailer, and I'm a fan of them. Really the only thing that's a drawback is the 3D thing, but I'm sure I'll be able to find showings that aren't 3D. Bottom line: the new trailer is cool, and I'm very excited for the movie.
NOT FAIR!!
There's a lot of people concerned with things being "fair". Sure, things being fair is fine and dandy, but its easy to go overboard. How can you go overboard on being fair? Isn't fairness a good thing? If something is good then there should be no such thing as too much of it, right? Wrong.
Let's look at a very old game. By old I mean a few thousand years. Its called Go, and its still very popular. It originated in Asia and the premise of it is pretty simple, but the game itself is very complex. Its played on a board with a grid on it and two players take turns placing stones where the lines intersect to gain territory. You get points by successfully surrounding space on the board. You can also take your opponents stones if you surround them and cut them off from any openings. It takes little time to learn but a lifetime to master.
Its a very simple game but when you have someone who is very good at it playing someone not as skilled they can receive a handicap. There's 9 key positions on a Go board and depending on the handicap a player can allow his opponent to start the game with stones in these locations. In a game where one well placed stone can turn the tide of a game this is a huge advantage which can sufficiently counter gaps in skill between players.
Over time it was determined that even going first was a huge advantage so the concept of komi was developed. Black always goes first, so in a match between evenly skilled opponents where there is no handicap, the player with the white stones receives 2 1/2 points to off set the disadvantage.
These rules have been in place for a very long time. They weren't just created on a whim. The game was analyzed and proper ways of keeping the matches even were developed. But what if someone still doesn't think that's enough to make things even? I knew a kid who cheated in pretty much every game I ever saw him play. When I attempted to teach him Go he would blatantly attempt to place more than one stone during his turn. The game had been explained and he understood how it worked. Still he attempted to place multiple stones even after I told him it was against the rules. In truth there is a rule about placing multiple stones in one turn and I enforced it the very next turn when he tried to do it again.
"You lose."
"What?"
"You just lost this game. If you place more than one stone during your turn then you automatically lose."
Thus ended his playing the game. Once he found out he could not manipulate the game to his liking he had no interest in playing anymore. This mindset isn't limited to children. In life you cannot expect everything to work out your way. Fairness means everybody has the same opportunity to be successful in their ventures. It doesn't mean you can change the rules just try to stick it to someone you don't like. Its like the movement to up the Capital Gains Taxes. Some people want this don't because they say that wealthier people aren't paying their fair share even though wealthier people pay the majority of the taxes taken in by the government. Its been proven that upping this tax actually decreases the amount of revenue taken in by the government, but still they push for it in the name of "fairness".
We play games as children, but what we learn is how to deal with life. Some people are winners. Some people don't win quite so much. I'm still waiting on my ship to come in, but unfortunately I think its off the coast of Somalia. So you shouldn't get all butt-hurt when you think of successful people. They just happen to be winning out a bit more. If you're smart you should look at them as you would a person you beats you at Go, Chess, or anything competitive. When I put the gloves on and get my ass kicked, its a learning experience, and I look to the person who beat me and ask "How can I do this better?"
When the world stops being a level playing field because whiny little pansies claim "its not fair", look at them as the children they're acting like and do what I do when a student gripes about something not being fair. Laugh right at them, and then get back in the game.
SHAMELESS PROMOTION!!
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That's the shooting match for today. I'm going to see if my sinuses will actually explode with the temperature bouncing up and down over the next few days. If they do explode hopefully a hippy will get caught in the blast. Nothing says "TAKE THAT!" like a snotty sinus detonation, except for Phoenix Wright. ASK NOZZ DAY #2 will be this Wednesday! So, if you have any questions about anything you'd like me to answer you can leave a comment here or e-mail it too me at martynozz@yahoo.com and I'll have the answers up next time around. See y'all then.
By everything good and sweet in Odin's beard! It's Sunday, December 19, 2010, I'm not frozen, and this is The Side. Most of the snow is finally gone. We were supposed to get more last night but were spared. Its been an unusually cold December here. I was wondering why and then I saw that there was a United Nations Conference on Climate Change. Then it all became clear. I don't know why they keep deciding to do these things around winter time, but it always gets damn cold when they do.
I don't blame the Metrodome collapsing on Climate Change. I blame it on the goofs that keep having big meetings about it.
DOIN' IT AND DOIN' IT AND DOIN' IT WELL
Sex is a complicated matter. First, you've got to find a willing partner. Then you've both got to be in the mood. Then you should make sure that proper protection is in place, which can be a pain, but it beats the hell out of the alternative. Then you've got to be careful not to yell out weird shit in the middle of things, because no matter how into things you both get, yelling out "MOMMY!" does not tend to go over very well. Then there's the afterward which may involve cuddling, which is fine but sucks when your arm goes to numb because she's laying on it. Then there's the next day which can be awkward if its a random hook up or someone did yell out weird shit the night before, but often that and the occasional soreness are over come by the afterglow provided everyone was throwin' it proper.
That's just glossing over all the hoops people jump through just to get to the sex. But then without all those hoops the romantic-comedy genre wouldn't exist, and where would we all be without that?
I get baffled by people who make the entire thing a lot more complicated than it has to be. Provided you're not some complete freak who likes kids, corpses, or giant weird machines you've got four options.
1: Liking to have sex with men. 2: Liking to have sex with women. 3: Liking to have sex with both. 4: Not liking to have sex with either.
That about it. I do understand on some of these cold, lonely night when a poor fella is alone but he lives near a farm. They've got sheep. He's got hip-waders. I do understand. I lived in Harrisonburg, Virginia so you just have to accept these things when the lead story in the local paper is that the authorities have discovered the reason why cows kept getting their heads stuck in certain spots in a fence. (Two words: "mooing violation". True story.)
But part of it is trying to find one specific little group for ourselves that makes us feel like part of a special little club. If describing your sexual preference sounds like you're ordering sissy coffee from Starbucks, then you're just sounding pretentious.
Going back to good old Harrisonburg and my college days, there was a guy there would was transgender. He had all the male parts, but he identified with women. He preferred to dress as a woman. He preferred to go by the name "Jenn". He also liked men in a romantic way. So, Jenn AKA Jeff was gay, and that's cool. What isn't cool is when dummies went to correct me saying he wasn't gay, he was transgender. "In her soul, she's a woman." "Sure, but in his pants, he's a dude."
All these special little tags do is overly complicate matters, when they're already complicated enough. There's not problem if you're straight, gay, bi, or asexual. Its when you start rambling off about being transquadpolyramalamadingdongsexual that your start sounding like a loon. In fact, if you identified yourself with one of the kooky titles back in the day you'd likely find yourself being forcibly asexual as no one would want to even deal with that nuttiness. However the internet is here, and for every weirdo title or fetish or whatever, I'm sure there's a chat room somewhere with their name on it.
RACISM... sorta...
As many of you may have heard there's going to be a Thor movie coming out in May. No, seriously! I have proof!
Pretty cool stuff. I like Thor, and the movie looks like a lot of fun. However, some folks don't think so. Yep, there's a black guy in Asgard and a group of racists ain't happy about it. Now, the article states that its a group of conservatives that are pissed off. Let's just clear one thing up now: speaking as a fairly conservative fellow those jerks are nuts. All conservatives don't share that kook fringe group's views. They're nuts, so let's nit turn this into a political indictment. Already groups have slammed these morons. Now, I'm not too keen on on calling Norse mythology a bunch of stuff "made up by medieval drunks", because there's a few people out there who aren't nuts and believe it. We're supposed to respect all religions so calling it a bunch of made-up crap is a bit uncalled for.
So, let's call things for what they are. Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby drew upon Norse Mythology when creating Thor. They didn't do a whole ton of research and just kinda went with things, but it grew and evolved. So, the Asgard and Norse Mythology elements in the Marvel Comics are not exactly 100% true to the actual Norse Mythology. This is much the same as how Greek Mythology is treated over at DC with Wonder Woman. It's all fiction and not to be taken too seriously as both companies treat the mythologies they borrow from with due respect.
Here's the problem: there's no black guys in Norse Mythology or are there any in the Mythology as interpreted by Marvel. However in the movie there's Heimdall (Ironically known as "The White God) being played by a black guy. Now, I'm sure Idris Elba is a fine actor. I'm sure he'll do a great job with the role. But seriously, isn't it kinda nuts to cast a black guy as a character who it makes no sense whatsoever to depict as black. This isn't like making Nick Fury a black guy, this isn't even like when there was that online campaign to cast a black guy as Spider-man. This is like casting Kevin Spacey to play T'Challa. This just seems like a really heavy-handed attempt at multiculturalism. Don't get me wrong, multiculturalism is cool. Other cultures should be shown and celebrated. Still, looking at the clips of the movie he looks like the token black dude of Asgard.
Ah well. The movie still looks like fun and I'm looking forward to it. Here's the scorecard. Casting Elba as Heimdall is dumb, but not unforgivable. The groups boycotting the movie are morons, and should just be written off. And the flick opens in May, which means I need to to start saving up now if I want to have my popcorn and Cherry Coke when I watch it.
MUSIC!!
Because some things aren't complicated.
That's all for now. My dad's in the hospital, so any prayers and well wishes sent his way are very much appreciated. He should be alright, tough old dude that he is, but its still a bit jarring.
