The Avengers versus The Dark Knight Rises

In the spirit of AvX ...  and because both movie franchises completely rock I look at ten categories after watching both films:

Whedon v Nolan
Battle of the directors. Nolan had three films and a decade with an Oscar dream cast.  Whedon had a stellar cast too, but had to take from five films and multiple directors and juggle a true ensemble.

Scarlet v Anne
The battle of the extraordinarily hot women in black catsuits. This is like choosing between Strawberry Cheesecake or Dulce do Leche ...

Loki v Bane
A good villain is essential, but cannot ultimately be more important than the hero. Loki seems to be channeling one part Zod and another part Joker, with a dash of insecurity neither had.  Bane is just a force of revenge and violence, yet still with personality. In the end, the Loki insecurity draws you in far more.

Billionaire v Billionaire
The greatest superpower is apparently money. With proper funding I could be Batman (so the joke says), but the tech needed to be Iron Man is not within reach, even with billions.  However, both Bale and Downey are totally convincing as The Smartest Man In The Room, which is hard to do.

Costumes v Costumes
Batman's costume as long been established as cool black in the movies.  But, how on earth did they make Thor look cool or Captain America not look dorky? Iron Man completely rocks and looks like the costume jumps right off the page.

Jarvis v Alfred
The voice versus Michael Caine. I do like the voice and the tech, but the humanity of Alfred wins out by a long shot.

New York City v Gotham City
Both cities take a beating.  Both cities are the same city.

Culmination v Culmination
The DKR is a trilogy finale. The Avengers is the end result of 5 previous films coming together spring boarding into more films..

Stark Tower v Wayne Manor.
In essence this is The Batcave versus The Avengers Mansion. The A on the building at the end of The Avengers is cool, but The Batcave is far more iconic.

Casting v Casting
This is a push.  The acting talent in these films is strong. There are Oscar winners and nominees in those tights and behind those masks.

Because They Made Us Get Off The Boat

As part of my "Home Town Tour and bucket list of local things 2012" (TM) I checked off "taking a ferry through the San Juans" for a day.  This is something to do over and over again. Even in Summer the day starts foggy, and let's face it, the wind is cold even when the temp is 75, but it is still sort of awesome and beautiful ... unless you are one of those people that gets on beautiful non-commuter ferries and sits in an inside booth and plays cards instead of looking out the window.

 I found it amazing just how many people could not be bothered to enjoy several hours of beautiful views.  Sitting inside and looking out the windows is totally cool, but how can one not enjoy this.

Did not have a lot of time to do anything other than ride the boat back and forth, so we got off the boat and went through both Canadian and US customs real quick.  "I am in Canada because they made us get off the boat for customs."

Brains!

Red, White, and Dead Zombie Walk 2012

July 7, 2012 - Seattle, WA - Fremont

What do we want? 

Brains!

When do we want them?

Brains!

Days like this are a lot of work, but actually pretty cool.

It was a long day in the hot sun on pavement with thousands of people. It was also an opportunity to be a part of an event that was an actual Guinness Book of World Records attempt.

Oddities of your home town

Actual statue from the old USSR of Lenin in Seattle in front of a gyro joint.

All sorts of random thoughts and images ...

... since I have not been using facebook lately due to the grounding - and also not bothering. I found myself not on fb at all for a couple weeks and - oh no - I was behind on my memes. Once out of the habit, it has been hard to get back into it.  I am mostly just not bothering.  Weird.

Basically, these notes and photos are the sorts of things that would be status updates or short blog posts.  I found I had a couple pages of notes and a bunch of pics so I decided to do a cleansing post that more or less is referencing the past month or so.  I did already have a couple of posts set up in advance so those got a brief amount of info and the pics loaded in order to clear out the queue.

As I look through the notes I realized that there was some clustering about a few topics that might normally make some separate posts, but I just am not going to bother here.

Today is July 1, a noteworthy day of anniversaries in my life and the start of the second half of the year.  It is also another dreary day in Seattle when it should not be so.  Yes, the weather here is temperate, but it has gone beyond that this year.  No more talking about the weather. Instead, let's talk about the Euros.  I decided to root for Italy.  I love that country and have many friends from there.  Also, many years ago I spent a good amount of time playing shopping charades with a truly beautiful girl in Bologna while waiting for a friend.  I was rooting for Italy today for her.  It didn't work.

I recently blogged about the NBA team that used to play here.  I wore my Sonics jacket as a sort of political statement and protest. Basically, I had to root for the Heat, even one year after rooting so hard for Dirk.  I joked with friends about a Kickstarter for a Heat parade in Seattle. LBJ was outstanding in the postseason and watching him turn from heel to face, at least in Seattle, was sort of interesting.  It was more like it was Cleveland's angry fans against Seattle's angry fans.  Since Cleveland got to watch LBJ fail miserably last year it was our turn. In the end I really wasn't that excited for the Heat per se, because I was still mostly rooting against someone else and that sort of feels empty as a sports fan. Eventually Cleveland fans will get to where Seattle fans are on ARod; we boo, but he has been gone longer now than he was here. I understand fans in OKC wanting their city to be known for something else.  LBJ lost his monkey, seems to genuinely get it that he screwed up, and apparently owns a small piece of Liverpool ...

Some random notes of what could have been fb status updates include:

- Cumin and Cinnamon are on the same shelf and alphabetical, but not the same thing.

- No Jedi has triceps, they have "do"ceps.

- Star Wars prequels are the Nickelback of Scifi and the reason I am not getting the Watchmen prequels.

- My job involves dealing with 5 year old streakers.  Not kidding.

- Bus rides are shorter when 7 year old boys entertain you with a Katy Perry medley.

- I need a girl who can kick a little ass.

- Sometimes it seems like I am in a time warp, a girl singing "Shout it out loud" or a kid in a "Saved By The Bell" tee shirt doesn't happen in 2012 often.

- It is absurdly satisfying to blow shit out of the sky with a shotgun blast.

- Classes going well when you are subbing is only surprising because the bar is not very high.

- Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face ...

- Can't you see I've waited long enough ...

- Kids on a bus handle being stuck in traffic better than adults do.

- Just like one of the kids, I too am sometimes surprised mick Jagger is still alive.

- Kids think it is funn when adults fall off of big toys at parks.

- Driving to work feels much longer in traffic when you can picture that leftover pot roast you packed for lunch sitting on your kitchen counter back home.

- It feels good to have my martial arts respected.

Golden Gardens on a walk up into the woods during a field trip.

Another field trip, this time to the PSC.

Timon.

Pumbaa.

In the tunnel from I5 North exiting to Mercer Street, someone wiped the grime off the wall into this drawing.

A solid Friday afternoon lesson plan for Summer Day Camp.

Summer Projects.

The space heater should be long put away this year, but it still has been needed from time to time.  Tiger sort of worships at the altar of The Great Space Heater God.

Steve Buttle, RIP.

Jenny & The TomCats at The Hen.  It had been far too long and was a fun time.  I sort of expected more of the old crowd and some comments on fb when I posted this pic, but nothing of the sort followed.

Some Football on a Saturday Night

Snohomish County Vikings 12
Yakima Mavericks 46
June 23, 2012 - Edmonds, WA
Edmonds Stadium - NWFL Regular Season

WNBA completed

Seattle Storm 72
Washington Mystics 55
June 24, 2012
Seattle, WA - Key Arena
WNBA Regular Season

I have now seen all 12 current WNBA teams play. Current is the key word.

I have to admit though, the crowd size worries me these days.