One’s perception makes a world of difference:

I’m rather loving this whole “Coulson is badass” meme…

In a televised interview on Wednesday, President Obama announced that he personally supports the concept of same-sex marriage.

This, of course, happened during a big information blackout for me (network problems at the office, followed by a lengthy subway jaunt and a stopover in Faerûn), so I haven’t really had the chance to react right away.

My reaction to this is basically – “Good on ya, Mr. President!”

All kinds of people are reading into all of the political calculus that went into the announcement, and what it means in terms of the election and how it hurts or helps either or the candidates come November, how the timing might or might not be related to North Carolina ballot initiatives or Joe Biden’s big mouth, and what it actually means in terms of message and et cetera et cetera et cetera.

All that will provide lots of grist for the ideological mills of the commentariat in days to come. However, for me, it signals that the position of supporting marriage equity is finally becoming the mainstream position in this country (because Obama, or any politician concerned with job security, wouldn’t make such a clear-cut public declaration on any “controversial” issue without first considering the potential benefits and drawbacks of doing so). If the President, in an election year, feels that taking a public position on an issue won’t hurt his re-election chances, it pretty much indicates that the issue isn’t particularly controversial.

That in itself is encouraging. It just feels wrong to live in a world where the idea of equality under the law for all people, regardless of their differences, remains a controversial idea. We could use a bit more “evolution” in that direction, and I expect we’ll be seeing more of it.

In any case, it was nice to hear the President agree publicly with my belief that the law ought to apply equally to everyone, and that so many wonderful people I know (and so many more people that I don’t) deserve to have the same shot at happiness and legal partnership that I do. It may only be symbolic at this point, but symbols have power, and this time, that power’s flowing in the right direction.

Starting right now, I resolve to live my life more in the manner of the stick figure narrator in today’s xkcd comic, because I suspect that it’s more fun that way:

Introducing people to new stuff is fun. Watching someone discover something you love for the first time is sometimes just as good, if not better, than when you discover something yourself. So, go forth and find these moments; they’re worth it.

I must be doing something right if, inside a week, I can do more than fifty trail miles on a mountain bike, and top off the week by actually climbing a mountain:

Also, along the way up that mountain? “Bear Resistant Food Storage Poles”.

Yeah, I’m not nearly as sore and winded and beaten as I was when I made almost this same trek five months ago (when I didn’t have a bunch of biking behind me). All this effort of mine might be working a bit.

Anyway, thanks to Jason and Rebecca for hosting us for this adventure, and the beer and burgers afterwards!

Around 3:30pm yesterday, I started putting together some disparate facts. I didn’t have to work on Friday. After a bit of checking around, I found that there were plenty of seats available for the midnight screenings of The Avengers in town. I wrestled with the implications of these facts on my afternoon bike ride (fifteen miles through the woods, 50 miles for the week. I kind of rock). The plan seemed just crazy enough to work, and the spouse agreed with it.

So, it came that we found ourselves sitting in a rowdy movie theater last night at midnight, watching the movie I’d been looking forward to since before I knew it was even a possibility (for those of you keeping score on this here blog, and have seen me talk about stuff as “not my thing” – as a Marvel Zombie for more than three decades, this was my Twilight), at the earliest possible moment it was kosher to project it in the United States(as I was in the wrong city for the preview screenings this week).

So…about The Avengers: It was totally worth staying up 22 hours straight and going to bed at 3am. Oh yeah.

I can safely say that most of the reviews out there (save, perhaps, the NYT, though they’ve got issues with geek/genre stuff in general – Preach it, Brother Tee!) are pretty much on target: It’s not a perfect film – there are a couple of plot holes and a few slow spots toward the beginning, but you’ll likely forgive them because you’ll have a huge smile on your face from all the great character beats, action spectacle, and pure fun. It’s a summer blockbuster, but if you’re going to point to one of the best examples of that particular category, this is pretty much it. There is a reason that phrases like “game changer” and “new paradigm” and “template going forward” are being tossed around. That reason is that they really do apply here.

I’ll describe what I liked about it in broad strokes, so as not to spoil the experience (not that there are any huge, unexpected twists – the plot is about what you’d expect it to be). There’s a lot to like – the performances are uniformly good, and all the heroes get their chance to shine, which didn’t surprise, given director Joss Whedon’s experience working with ensemble casts.

It was funny. Really funny. It had lots of well-crafted action. I liked seeing the thought that went into having these strange, disparate characters work together in clever ways. Iron Man arcing a repulsor blast off of Cap’s shield to hit an enemy he couldn’t reach otherwise; The Hulk stabbing a huge beast with a bit of scavenged shrapnel, and Thor hammering it home with his, well…hammer. They were nice touches that I appreciated, that didn’t need to be there for the film to work, but showed that the people making this thing really thought about how to make use of all the tools in their toolbox; it’s either a devotion to craft or a love of the material, or both – it doesn’t really matter what it is; what matters is that it adds that extra little something to push this film a bit higher over the bar than the rest of it’s action bretheren.

I really liked the fact that this film totally embraced the comic book universe reality it created for itself – it doesn’t run away from the fact that it’s populated with Gods, Aliens, Monsters, philanthropists in macguffin-powered armor and guys who survived being frozen in the Arctic for almost a century – it revels in it, with all it’s larger than life four-color glory. It’s a comic book movie that truly celebrates that it’s a comic book movie, and it’s all the better for it.

Also, between Joss Whedon’s script and direction and Mark Ruffalo’s performance, they finally got the Hulk right; I want to see more of this version of him. I’m not sure that The Hulk is a marquee lead character for another film – he works best with a foil, and the comics have known this for years – Rick Jones, Amadeus Cho, Doctor Strange – the brutish Hulk needs an intelligent cohort to play off of. Ruffalo’s got a six picture deal with Marvel now – have him show up in Avengers 2, Iron Man 3, etc…but what I really want is a series of Marvel Team-Up: Featuring the Hulk and… films introducing other minor-leaguers who would fit into the universe, but might not carry their own film. That’s the way to give the Hulk a character to play off of, and a really effective gateway to get c-listers like Cloak and Dagger, Starfox, Heroes for Hire, or Moon Knight up on screen, making them available to stick into future Avengers films without having to start from scratch.

Marvel – call me.

In any case, when you see it, be prepared to smile at the little character moments, the snappy dialogue, the heroic action, and be sure to stay to the end, because there are two tacked on sequences, one which sets up a big sequel in a couple of years, and one that simply pays off big time on a little throwaway line earlier in the film. Both are worth sticking around for.

So yeah, go see it. Early and often. You’ll enjoy it. It’s a great example of the summer blockbuster species, and it honestly deserves to earn the billion or so dollars it’s going to make in it’s run.

Things have been really loud today, so I’ve been hiding inside the friendly bubble of insulating sound that my headphones provide. Why not track some of the stuff coming out of them?

1. “Ribbon of Honor” – Innocent Nixon
2. “Cool Rider” – Michelle Pfeiffer
3. “Shut the Club Down” – Girl Talk
4. “Stupid Thing” – Aimee Mann
5. “I Would Die 4 U” – Prince & The Revolution
6. “Last Day of the Miner’s Strike” – Pulp
7. “Wasted Hours” – Arcade Fire
8. “Way Back Home” – The Badlees
9. “Firewalker” – Liz Phair
10. “All The Way Down” – The Swell Season

I really don’t even have to point out the date anymore, do I? You people know what to do:

Consider this your annual public service announcement.

So, last night I tagged along with the cub scouts on an outing to go see the local AA minor league baseball team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels, totally pound the Bowie Baysox into a pulp. It was a reasonably nice, if overcast evening out.

If you’re familiar at all with minor league baseball, you know that they’re shameless about promotions to get people into the park. It seems that one of Richmond’s ongoing themes this year is “Legends of Wrestling”.

So, who threw out the first pitch? Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, the man that inspired millions of little boys in the 80s to leap fearlessly off of many a convenient couch, bookshelf, or porch railing.

I haven’t thought of professional wrestling in decades – it’s one of those things most people (except this guy, I guess) outgrow by the time they hit their teens. However, this guy’s presence made many a Saturday morning more interesting by his antics on television in my youth.

So, Did I manage to meet this legend of the squared circle? You bet I did, Mene Gene:

And you know what? It was pretty cool.

Why? Because I felt like it. I figure I owe the wonky shuffle feature one last hurrah before I wipe and reload my Sansa with some of those CDs I just got around to ripping.

Yeah, you can keep your ipod. My mp3 player has an FM tuner, plays well with linux, and is named after a freakin’ Stark of Winterfell!*

1. “Holy Smoke” – Iron Maiden
2. “Nobody Loves You Like Me” – Jonathan Coulton
3. “After the Storm” – Mumford & Sons
4. “Captains of Industry” – MC Frontalot w/ MC Lars
5. “A View To A Kill” – Duran Duran
6. “Call It Off” – Tegan and Sara
7. “Never Say Never” – that dog
8. “Strangerous” – Miracles of Modern Science
9. “Accelerate” – REM
10. “Devil in My Car” – B-52s

gotta say, I’m very partial to #6 today. Great stuff.

_________________

*-sure, it’s the whiniest of the Starks, but not everyone can be Arya.

I’ve praised the whole crowdfunding model that’s become rather popular today thanks to the efforts of web sites like Kickstarter before; it’s really kind of wonderful to be able to kick in a few bucks to help someone with an idea for a piece of art or music or whatever that sounds like it woudl be of interest to you. It’s the “voting with your pocketbook” model that everyone always talks about, but it brings the consumer into the equation earlier in the process – rather than simply choosing amongst the products the market presents to you, you as the consumer get a say in what gets produced, which is always a good thing.

It’s really not that new of a model, really – wealthy patrons have been commissioning artwork for as long as there’s been money and artwork, after all – though the idea of “crowdsourcing” – getting lots of people to kick in a few dollars here and there in order to finance the creation and distribution of something, is one of the great internet ideas that really makes this series of tubes worthwhile.

Plus, you know, there’s the whole concept of “rewards” for backers, which are often pretty creative (the high-dollar rewards on Mikey Mason’s Impotent Nerd Rage project for example, are tons of fun – it begins at $50 and goes downhill from there). Most often, these rewards are copies of the funded work, and things like “thank you” acknowledgements and “producer” credits, which in themselves are cool, and add a personal connection between the patron and creator.

Also, many creators send out regular updates about the work, giving backers often interesting insights into the creative process.

So, the point of all this, really, besides my giving props to the model, is to point out a couple of projects I’ve contributed to, at least one of which could currently use your help!

♦ A Teddy Bear Tale, by author Nick Davis – This is a fun little children’s book that I found out about when I learned my comicon aquaintance Dan Nokes was contributing illustrations. For my totally reasonable donation, I got a copy of the book signed by author and illustrator, “producer” credit in the book, and a print of the book’s protagonist dressed up as fourth Doctor Tom Baker.

♦ Quantum Roleplaying Game: An ALL NEW Science Fantasy RPG, created by Joshua Frost – I learned about this one via fark, as the creator is, like me, a longtime farker with a sub-10k account number. Also, the idea of an RPG with magic, ray-guns and strange aliens happening on a Dyson Sphere world sounded cool. This project’s funded, and moving along. For my trouble, I’m getting a limited edition hardcover copy of the game, access to the pre-release beta playtest, some fancy maps, and acknowledgements in the book itself. Cool!

♦ Another Creepy Christmas – music from Jonah Knight; a collection of creepy christmas songs from the star of many a mid-atlantic sci-fi con music programs. Should be lots of fun, given the bit of a preview I’ve gotten so far.

♦ A Teddy Bear Tale II: Faithful, again from Nick Davis – Nick and Dan are currently funding the sequel to the first project I mentioned, and need a little help before the funding deadline. I can vouch for the quality of the first project, so if you have the scratch, please go toss a few bucks at this project before May 2, okay?