Cap'n America

I saw "Captain America: The First Avenger" last night, and enjoyed it. It was just a fun summer "popcorn movie," that was entertaining without taking itself too seriously, but which had the right amount of explosions and grand CGI graphics to make it a fun bit of fluff. After so many overblown blockbuster type movies, this one did what it had to do well. Hugo Weaving was great as the Red Skull -- he oozed venom, and it's another notch in his villain case, to be sure (he and Mark Strong really excel at playing villains). I wished that the Skull and Cap had crossed paths a little more -- for a 2-hour movie, it went by pretty quickly, was well-paced, although there wasn't a real sense of the Skull and Cap really properly crossing swords enough for my tastes -- they jump to a montage sequence too early, which advanced the story maybe too much. But the quality of the actors sprinkled throughout it (like Stanley Tucci playing a dissident German scientist in American employ -- didn't see that coming), and the general retro sheen to it made it entertaining. I already know my boys will love it -- B1 will love the Red Skull's apocalyptic Flying Wing. I haven't seen all of the Marvel lead-in movies for next year's "Avengers," but the audacity and scope of the effort is impressive -- I just really hope the story and writing is there to make up for it. We'll see. But as the latest link in the chain (figuratively and literally), this one was a good effort. I was amused by the appearance of the Cosmic Cube -- that's a bit of Marvel lore that only folks who read Marvel Comics might have a clue about (in fact, I've seen some reviewers wonder what that cube was). That's a nice tie-in with the Red Skull, who was in possession of a Cosmic Cube at one point. It's the kind of a comic geek detail that they didn't really have to even put in there, but I was tickled that they did. I purposely didn't see the 3-D version of it, not wanting to pay extra money for it, and being annoyed at 3-D mania, anyway.

It's kind of weird to have Cap coming to this day and age -- his "Aw, shucks" and "Gee whiz" kind of Americana persona up against late-era, decline-and-fall Amerika? Kinda ironic, and beyond the scope of what these movies can even be about, but Cap would look at today's America and think "Holy Moly, the fascists WON World War II??" The Red Skull has the last laugh, I guess!

Its Your Loosing Lightening

Alright, people, seriously, it's time for the Grammar Police. I just see these way, way too often:

Its vs. it's

Its = possessive

Example: Our political culture has lost its mind.

It's = contraction, it is

Example: It's crazy how often people fuck this up.

Your vs. You're

Your = possessive

Example: Don't lose your marbles.

You're = contraction, you are


Example: You're making me angry by getting this wrong so often, people.

Loose v. Lose

Loose = not tight

Example: You've got a screw loose if you use "loose" when you meant "lose."

Lose = to not have something


Example: You're going to lose your ability to speak and think clearly if you keep fucking these words up.

Lightening v. Lightning

Lightening = to make lighter, whether by weight or by color

Example: Lightening the load makes the car drive better.

Lightning = giant arcs of electricity shooting through the sky during storms

Example: Lightning will fuck you up if you're not careful.

Proper use: It's amazing how often you're going to find people lightening their cranial loads with the greased lightning of bad, loose grammar, which wends its way through people's speech, causing them to lose the ability to express themselves with clarity.

Improper use: Its amazing how often your going to find people lightening their cranial loads with the greased lightening of bad, loose grammar, which wends its way through people's speech, causing them to loose the ability to express themselves with clarity.

Makes my teeth ache, seeing that -- and, if you actually parse that second sentence, you'll find that the meaning is different from the proper sentence!

Lucky 13

I am watching "Assault on Precinct 13" (the John Carpenter original), and haven't watched that since I was a kid. Have to say that Laurie Zimmer was hot in it in a B-movie Lauren Bacall kinda way...

Laurie Zimmer. Mrrowl.

Still shots don't even fully do her justice. Her 70s "smolderingness" is better in motion. Her apricot turtleneck amuses me, too -- so damned 70s!

Interestingly, she bailed from acting after only four movies. One of her friends actually made a documentary about her, a long time later. I think Jenny Wright (another ill-starred actress who fell out of the industry for whatever reason, at the height of her game) kind of filled in the niche Zimmer left behind -- that pouty-mouthed, sultry-eyed dirty blonde...

Jenny Wright. Mrrowl.

Soundgardening

Soundgarden right as they began.

I saw Soundgarden with some buds last night, at UIC Pavilion. Great show! The band looked great and sounded awesome. I've never seen a band at UIC, which always seemed conceptually like a bigger venue than it actually is, although that made it perfect, that right blend of size and intimacy that can make a show great. I'm all sore and hoarse from the festivities. This was the first show I've been to in years that actually had moshing, so I'm glad I wore my venerable steel toe boots; it was nice to see some actual crowd enthusiasm, since so many shows have kids just standing there like statues. Not last night; it was lots of thrown elbows and shoulders, putting the boot in, drunken hooligans and ditchweed, tough cookies and bellowing bruisers.


Even though it was a reprise set they played, covering their older songs, it was great, just the same, and they rocked every one of their tunes. Cornell said they're working on a new album, which should be out next year, and that they would certainly come back to Chicago, etc. I broke my usual rule of not spending more than $20 to see ANYBODY in order to catch Soundgarden, but had no regrets about it. It was definitely worth it. Somebody filmed one of the quieter moments of the show, "4th of July," below...



I'm hoping somebody filmed when the crowd went apeshit, during some of the other songs. Cornell really worked the crowd nicely, seemed to genuinely enjoy himself.

Trinity

Happy 66th Birthday to the Atom Bomb, everybody! Woo hoo!

Of course, this video below is merely an atomic cannon shell fired in the 1950s, but it's a good clip, anyway, communicates the power and devastation nukes represent...



Especially since there have been some moves to bring tactical nukes back into the vogue as possible usable weapons, scarily enough.

Anyway, there you go. We've got something like 10-12,000 nuclear warheads in the US, and nuclear weapons are slowly proliferating to other nations. Even though in the face of changing political realities in this century, that hulking shadow from last century is still very much with us.

SYTYCD

Whew. They finally got rid of Ryan. There were some strong dances on the show, and the chaff was definitely getting weeded out, and audience voting seemed to reflect it, and the judges couldn't fan Ryan on without losing some of the stronger other dancers, so she fell this time.

This was the last week of the established couples dancing; henceforth, it'll be individual scoring, the dancers paired with "all stars" from past seasons (debatable point -- I saw the names of some of the "all stars" they chose, and I have problems with a number of them, who are shameless attention hounds and stage hogs -- I almost pity the contestants who have them for their partners; you'll see).

These are my favorites of this week...

Melanie and Marko 1

Melanie and Marko 2

Melanie and Marko had two strong routines, naturally. The first one, a tango, went very well, of course. Their chemistry nailed it, but their moves were solid as ever. The second one was the drippy kind of contemporary dance routine that judges and audiences love. I mean, they danced it beautifully, and the routine was solid, but the emo contemporary stuff always chafes at me. I always feel like lyrical contemporary (or whatever they call it) is an easy category for them to dance, because you just crank up the emo and if you're halfway good at dancing, you can nail it. Since Melanie and Marko are both very good at it, it's a sure-fire win for them as a category.

Jordan and Tadd 1

This was one of my favorites of the night. Trippy and rhythmic. Jordan is not one of my favorites this season, but she's very good, just the same, and they nailed it with this piece. This was the darkest piece of the evening, and was just coolly conceived and executed. Nicely done.

Caitlynn and Mitchell 2

They pulled out the stops on this raunchy number, with Caitlynn busting about every move she had. And it worked very well with Janis Joplin's singing. This was easily the most brazen number of the season, but they carried it off well, and I think audiences dug it. Caitlynn's not quite as good as Jordan or Melanie, but she brings an athletic prowess to her style of dance and has that competitor's instinct that makes her a dark horse favorite. I don't think she can actually dethrone Melanie or Jordan, but she may get close.

Clarice and Jess 2

Clarice is another dark horse. She's better than Caitlynn, but I think is not quite up to Melanie and Jordan level. She is beautiful, and is very good, however, and definitely connects with the audience. The judges didn't quite like the above routine so much, but I dug it, thought it was dynamic, fun, and energetic, and Clarice owned it, and Jess partnered very well with her (Jess is the best showman of the guys, easily. Strong dancer with great performance chops). The above number was hot on its own merits, versus the overt bump and grindery of the Caitlynn and Mitchell number.

Sasha and Alexander 1

Sasha and Alexander danced well, but I feel like they are doomed. Neither of them is enough of a performer to secure a proper foothold with the audience, in my view. That's unfortunate, but it's abundantly clear -- Jess can mop the floor with Alexander, and Sasha's willowy razor-blade style comes up short against the petite riffola of all of the other gals, rather than standing out, somehow. In the above piece, Sasha totally makes Alexander her bitch, which probably cost both of them votes, in terms of audience expectations and what-not. Sasha looks like she would be comfortable as a dancer in Thunderdome or something.

Snicker

This made me laugh...

PMAAS

I have to hand it to the creators of the Pippa Middleton Ass Appreciation Society. What a genteel institution to honor such a noble rump!

P-Middy. *cackle* I love that this blueblood will be forever known for her stellar ass, and how she actually managed to upstage her sister's royal wedding with it. Damned funny.

Jamming

I'm amused at the fall of "The News of the World." Rare to see a Murdoch media property suffer the consequences of its morally bankrupt administration. I doubt anything could sink Faux News -- although who knows?

Speaking of ignoring reality (tip of the hat to global warming, which scientists agree is happening, which the weather is bearing out, but which remains somehow controversial in the US, captive as we are to the petroleum industry), the storm that blasted through here yesterday was pretty intense -- it knocked out power for ~600,000 people! By last night, 490,000 people were still without power. That's one serious storm! I was amazed at how dark the skies got, how quickly, and how fierce it was. Of course, I had left my apartment windows open, so things got soaked that were near the window. D'oh!

We actually had a proper power outage in our building (and/or neighborhood, I couldn't tell), like for about 45 minutes. I have flashlights for the boys and me, so we went into the hall and talked with neighbors, and then the boys and I went upstairs to the deck, where a number of the neighbors had gone to wait out the outage. That was fun, as it was nice and breezy up there, and everybody was in bemused good spirits about the outage (since those happen rarely in my 'hood -- this is the first one I recall in at least five years; other 'hoods in the city are less fortunate, have power outages more frequently). Anyway, the boys and I sat on some lounges and just enjoyed ourselves. I'd already called ComEd to inform them of the outage (as had others, clearly), so we just had to wait it out, and 45 minutes later, the power was back on. It's all good.

I had planted some seeds with the boys a month or more ago, and was pleased to see a tiny lemon tree seedling sprouting in B1's planter. B2 was, of course, flummoxed that nothing had grown in his planter. I told him it happens sometimes, you can't predict whether a seed will grow or not, but can only plant it and water it and hope it grows. But it was nice to see the seedling -- now my Clementine sapling will have a buddy. I can't even remember how long I've had that Clementine. I'll have to dig back through this blog and see. It's been a year or two, at least. It's now about 5 inches tall, I think.

Saw a variety of buskers on the Mag Mile -- some hippie-looking guy with a purple guitar, playing Hendrix-on-Quaaludes groovy jazz kind of stuff (think the opening of "Little Wing," but not as good, of course. He just kinda meandered musically. Then another block or two down from him were a couple of chicks, one with a violin, one with a cello. The cellist looked like a refugee from a Tim Burton movie -- bright red hair and black-and-white striped stockings. Couldn't hear their music, as I was on a bus, but that was an atypical pair of buskers (there is an Asian father-daughter violin duo I used to see, very Suzuki Method kind of thing, the girl sawing away with mechanistic virtuosity while father/grandfather accompanies her). Also, there's this cowboy-hatted guitar guy who frequents one of the tunnels and plays an augmented guitar thing (like he's got one of those miniature karaoke machine things that "accompanies" him). He looks like a cross between Stanley Kubrick and my old school principal Vaclav, which is kind of disarming when I pass that guy. I've been meaning to photograph him at a distance, as his presence in the tunnel in silhouette, leaning against the tunnel wall, looks kinda cool.

Amazed how deep into July we are. How quickly this summer is going by.

Speaking of culture jamming, this piece is interesting. The section on aesthetic brutalism (and the sound clips) particularly amused me.

Unstuck

Today doesn't feel like a Sunday to me for some reason.

I'm catching Soundgarden next weekend. That should be fun.

Been feeling under the weather the past week, which has preoccupied me. Bleah.

Making the Casey

I'm not going to say another word about Casey Anthony after this post, but just looking at her pictures, you can see she has the psychopath eyes thing going, that flat aspect, the eyes of a person devoid of compassion, empathy, or shame. Psychopaths always have that "tell" in their eyes, that inner emptiness at the heart of whatever superficial glibness and serpentine charm they may possess. The eyes say it all.

Not to say they can't cry crocodile tears when it suits them. In fact, psychopaths are known for that, to be able to conjure up the tears when it suits them, but the emptiness of their gaze is something they have a tougher time concealing. In that respect, the eyes really are the mirror into the soul. Odds are that the rather short neuronal path from brain to eye (borne out of evolutionary necessity, no doubt -- you need that visual information FAST), it's probably transmitting faster than the psychopath can react, or they likely have to consciously mask it to try to conceal that emotional emptiness, and maybe it's hard for them to do. Just watch out for folks with those empty, flat eyes...

Ryan's Hope

I figured out why the judges gush over Ryan -- it's because she's a student/protege of one of their choreographers, Mia. Probably accounts for why Ryan got a bit dance part on "House," as well. Makes me feel like there's a bit of a conflict of interest there with her, relative to the other judges. Of course, "America" votes on the people, but if the judges are there to gush about Ryan's performances, they can lead some of the voters. And what's more, if Ryan ends up in the final three (as she did last night), they can choose somebody else, giving her yet another chance. I was intrigued to see Ryan in the bottom three, given how effusive the praise was from the judges. The thing is, she's not as good as the other women dancers. She's a good dancer, but she's up against several great dancers, and I think audiences can tell, even as the judges give Ryan standing ovations and what-not. We'll see how long they can float her.

I was pleased that Melanie and Marko skated through again. Clearly Melanie remains the best of the women, although some of the others are definitely doing their best to try to keep up. This season has more leg lifts than I recall in past seasons, like all of the other women are keen to not cede that ground to Melanie, who can get her leg straight up without so much as a tip of her torso. The other women dancers are doing them, too, like "See? See? I can do that, too!" Melanie's still got great performance chops. I will be very surprised if she doesn't win this season.

Melanie and Marko

Of course, the costuming and Lady Gaga song made me wonder -- "America is a whore?" Bahah! But they performed the dance well (and note Melanie holding that arabesque before they start, still as a statue).

Jazzy Women's Closing Routine

I hate that they call'em "girls." Also, note how they are sure to catch a lot of Ryan shots during the rehearsals. "Quick! More Ryan shots!" And they also put Ryan on the wing of the actual performance, and in the front row, just so you can be sure she gets a lot of camera time. Sucks to be a non-Ryan dancer this season.

SYTYCD

"SYTYCD" was good last night, although I didn't think the numbers were as good as the week before, at least Sonya wasn't on there. She's my least-favorite of their choreographers (and it was interesting to contrast yet another zombie dance routine -- Sonya's fell flat [although they blamed the dancers and music for it, as ever] but this week's zombie routine was much stronger, better-conceived [can't remember the choreographer for that one]).

As ever, the judges seem to love Ryan -- the fraggle-haired blonde. They really love her, and I'm confused as how this protege of choreographer Mia managed a bit part on "House." WTF? Is this playing into their fanning her through and gushing over her performances? I dunno. She's not nearly as strong a dancer as poor Miranda was. And she's definitely not in the league of Melanie, or even Jordan or Caitlynn (surprisingly, Caitlynn has been bringing it, although she's not in Melanie's league). Anyway, Ryan has the favor of the judges, for some reason I can't determine. It is bugging me.