Category Archives: Fandom

Speculation post: Captain America – Civil War (edited Nov 29)

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I think it goes without saying that I love the MCU. It certainly has its weaknesses, but overall it has managed to make me really care about what happens to the characters while also entertaining me in the best way possible. And my favourites, by far, are Steve Rogers and his long-lost BFF Bucky Barnes. So, needless to say, the first trailer for next year’s Captain America: Civil War makes me really, really happy.

And because I put way too much thought into this, I figured I could share some of the ideas I have regarding what exactly happens in the movie.

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Movie review: Avengers: Age of Ultron

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Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron poster Rating: N/A/10 (N/A votes)
Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: Joss Whedon, Stan Lee (comic book), Jack Kirby (comic book)
Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hayley Atwell, Chris Evans
Runtime: 142 min
Rated: N/A
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Released: 1 May 2015
Plot: When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and it is up to the Avengers to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.

I adore the Marvel Cinematic Universe to pieces, and the first Avengers movie rates very highly in my own personal ranking (a tie for second place with the first Captain America, following Winter Soldier). Also, I love Joss Whedon (mainly for giving us Firefly), and I was very excited to get more Black Widow and Hawkeye (alone or together, I love these two for being normal humans fighting alongside superheroes). Accordingly, I went into Age of Ultron with very high expectations indeed – which turned out to be a mistake, because I walked out of the theatre with a bad taste in my mouth, feeling frustrated and disappointed. (No spoilers follow, I think, except what one could learn from a plot synopsis or trailers.)

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Housekeeping

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Being something of a pop culture geek and avid media consumer (seriously, I spend waaay too much time on my couch *g*), I read and watch in a wide variety of genres. I love fantasy, cosy mysteries, science fiction, romance (straight as well as gay) and crime procedurals as well as non-fiction about history, science & culture. I have recently started to use this blog to post reviews for these things and try to keep to an (at least) one-post-per-week schedule.

You can find additional information as well as links to the places where I keep track of the things I read and watch on my About page.

Yes, this is a Pacific Rim post

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Pacific Rim (2013)
Pacific Rim poster Rating: 7.0/10 (309,826 votes)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writer: Travis Beacham (screenplay), Guillermo del Toro (screenplay), Travis Beacham (story)
Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Diego Klattenhoff, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi
Runtime: 132 min
Rated: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Released: 2013-07-12
Plot: As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.

Why do I feel the need to write about a popcorn action movie from 2013? Because, in internet parlance, this movie gives me the feels!

After seeing the trailer, I only went to see it because friends of mine wanted to, expecting some trashy robot-on-monster fights and no depth whatsoever. I ended up enjoying it so much I went to see it again, and have since then easily watched it 20 times or more. I love it as much as Avengers, and that’s saying something (not quite as much as Winter Soldier, but that’s because I’m obsessed – my Bucky Barnes feels know no bounds *g*).

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I’m Rory Gilmore (except not really)

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Rory, wearing her 'reading is sexy' t-shirtConsidering how long I’ve had this blog, it’s surprising that there hasn’t been another Gilmore Girls-themed post before. After all, my domain name was taken from a quote of how Rory described her mom, Lorelai, in one episode. I’ve kind of adopted the phrase ‘multi-faceted abnormal’ as my motto, more and more in the past few years, as I left behind the teenage phase of wanting to fit in.

But really, I’ve always been really rubbish at fitting in. I knew I was different from most of my class mates, and deep down I didn’t want to be like them – but oh, I wished not fitting in didn’t hurt so much… I wasn’t really bullied, but there were incidents and a constant sense of being on the fringe, of not truly belonging. Still, I was Rory Gilmore during her highschool days in many ways: I was the girl who always carried a book (still do), the one who didn’t feel comfortable in groups and had no real wish to conform.

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Familiar faces

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The new season of TV shows is gathering speed, and I’m enjoying the return of some long-standing favorites (like ‘Bones’, ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and ‘Criminal Minds’) as well as a couple of new ones (most notably ‘Glee’). Work is a bit chaotic still, but I’m looking forward to spending the weekend at my grandmother’s lake house with my family.

Observation of the Day
One of the things I like about walking to work through my neighbourhood is that I pass by the same people pretty much every day. Because this is a city, we don’t nod or even really look at each other, but I like seeing them, noticing absent-mindedly if they’re late or early, what they’re wearing, if they’re alone or with someone. For example there’s a very stunning girl I usually cross when I’m almost at work, model-slim with long red hair, who’s always dressed to the nines – fashionable yet simple, usually in heels. There’s a tiny Thai woman, in casual but elegant clothes, and who’s always smiling. Or a business guy, usually listening to music on his phone, slightly bopping his head.

I don’t know, but I like seeing them, imagining that maybe their life is just like mine or possibly wildly different, all of us on our way to work every morning at roughly the same time in the same area.

The long weekend’s almost over

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I’ve been resting all day (it’s a public holiday here in Switzerland), something I seriously needed, but I’m still not very keen on going back to work tomorrow. Ah well, I’ll survive – and on Wednesday I have the Rejects show to look forward to, so that’s awesome!

Anyways, I finally uploaded last week’s photos. After a horriblehorriblenogood day on Wednesday (including severe anxiety and crying in the bathroom at work), on Thursday my American friend Milo and I went to see Snow Patrol in Winterthur. I’ve been wanting to see them for years – I love their music so much, although in a completely non-fangirlish fashion. In any case, the show was AMAZING – the ice stadium it was in was half-empty until the second opener, so we were in second row, next to a couple of nice girls that we got chatting to. I might go see Jamie Cullum with one of them in July, although his show is seriously expensive.

So here are the pics I took on Flickr. Gary Lightbody makes a great frontman, seriously, and I got a bit of a thrill when he told us that Richard Colburn of Belle & Sebastian was on percussion… 🙂

Snow Patrol @ Eishalle Winterthur . Snow Patrol @ Eishalle Winterthur . Snow Patrol @ Eishalle Winterthur

And then, after the only week in May that I worked 5 days and a second acupuncture session (which again instantly made me feel better, but the holistic doctor also told me that I had acidosis, i.e. the pH factor of my blood is too low and my red blood cells stick together) Milo and I took a daytrip to Lugano in the beautiful Italian-speaking southern part of Switzerland. I’d only changed trains there a couple of times, but the town was just as pretty as I’d expected, with a distinct Italian feel despite the chilly wind, including yummy food and gelati. My photos of that day start here.

Lugano . Daytrip to Lugano . Daytrip to Lugano

Last but not least I spent yesterday afternoon catching up with my parents. They’d been in Hamburg for a conference and to meet some old friends (we lived in the area from when I was 1 1/2 until I was 7, and my dad went to seminary there), so that was good. Also, everything around their house out in the country is in full bloom now – it’s been lovely seeing it change with the seasons ever since I came back to Switzerland. So because I’d taken my camera to show them the pictures from Lugano I managed a few rather pretty shots, starting here.

Summer flowers . Summer flowers . Summer flowers

OMG, holy smokes – STAR TREK!!!!

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Most of you know that the original Star Trek is pretty much my first fannish love. I was in the German fanclub for years and had the biggest crush on Mr. Spock. So I was kind of skeptical at first when I heard the rumours that J.J. was doing an “academy” movie. But some spoilers and reading the ‘Countdown’ prequel comic led to excitement winning out – especially after Märrie and I got to see 4 7-minute clips from the movie last Friday at Fedcon that looked very shiny indeed. (It was all very top secret – there even were special security guards in the room who used infrared to scan for people filming…)

After that I simply HAD to go see it today, right after work. The theatre was half-empty, but the crowd was appreciative – and I think it’s safe to say that I enjoyed every minute! Seriously, go watch it, it’s a great ride and you can really tell that J.J. is a huge fan.

This isn’t to say that I agree with everything. Be warned: Everything after the gap contains SPOILERS!
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