Sunday 27 April 2014

In Praise of Anthony Mackie

I went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CATWS) on opening night and I really enjoyed it. (I also really enjoyed telling everyone about how I ran into a sizable component of my company's IT department who were also seeing it opening night because of course they were.) I raved about it to friends, coworkers, family, random people at bus stops, and my cats. Especially my cats.


 Because so many of my imaginary friends live there, I also took the Internet to see what it had to say about the movie. My favourite pastime became trawling my Tumblr account for CATWS related posts. What kept coming up a lot were gifs of Anthony Mackie in interviews and it was immediately apparent that the man was having a blast. He had a blast making the film and he was having a blast promoting the film. I wanted to high five him.

 


I had enjoyed Mackie as the Falcon. I thought the role was well written, I thought he was good in it, and it seems like he is going to be around for Captain America 3. But as each gif set appeared on my Tumblr dashboard, I fell a little bit more in love with Anthony Mackie as a person. Oh, that we could all have that much unabashed enthusiasm at some point in our lives for something, anything.

 



And then I saw this quote from him.

When I first got this role I just cried like a baby because I was like, “Wow, next Halloween, I’m gonna open the door and there’s gonna be a little kid dressed as the Falcon.” That’s the thing that always gets me. I feel like everybody deserves that. I feel like there should be a Latino superhero. Scarlett does great representation for all the other girls, but there should be a Wonder Woman movie. I don’t care if they make 20 bucks, if there’s a movie you’re gonna lose money on, make it Wonder Woman. You know what I mean, ’cause little girls deserve that.
~Anthony Mackie
This man gets it.

I was four years old the first time I was told I couldn't like something because of my gender. The thing I couldn't like was He-Man. My friend was five and explained how I couldn't love He-Man because He-Man was a boy so it was meant for boys and I was a girl. This conversation replayed itself over and over in my childhood. G.I.Joe? Boys. Star Wars? Boys. Comics? Boys. Star Trek? Boys.

While the idea that comics are just for boys is changing, it still exists. (Even worse, the long-held belief that comics are only for white boys. Racism, sadly, is alive and kicking in an imaginary world in which many of the characters are supposed to hold better ideals than the world we current live in, but that is an entire series of posts which I am woefully under-qualified to even begin discussing.) As a grown woman, I still encounter this problem on a regular basis. I would give anything, ANYTHING, to have a comic movie with a lead female protagonist because nothing says "you are welcome in this place" to a little girl than seeing a hero on the screen that she can emulate. (That lead female protagonist could be a stand-alone Black Widow movie. Hint, hint, Marvel. Scarlett Johansson is fantastic in that role and I would gladly watch a movie based around that character.)

So thank you, Anthony Mackie. Thank you for talking about it. Thank you for standing up for the dream of geek girls everywhere. Mostly, thank you for being an awesome person who is so clearly in love with his lot in life.

And if our paths ever cross, I am so chasing you down just so we can high five.

Saturday 5 April 2014

How to Start Another Year

So, this is what I ate for breakfast today:



You only have a birthday once a year so you might as well do it right!

Being the mature adult I have grown into, I ended thirty-three by going to a showing of the Sound of Music movie which was a sing-along. All I can say is that my friend who isn't a huge fan of the movie used expressions like "best night of my life" and "let's do it again". If there is ever a Sing-A-Long-A-Sound-of-Music showing in your neighbourhood, iron your best dirndl, gather your group of friends, and go.

Can we also talk about what a fox Christopher Plummer is?
I'd leave a nunnery for him.

Tonight, I start thirty-four by going to see Danny Bhoy. Just in case you don't know who I'm talking about, you should check out this video.


I've only set myself one 'goal' for this year - and it's not really a goal, let's call it a plan- and that's to read all the books in my house. A seemingly ridiculously simple plan, really. See, I suffer from a horrible affliction in which I buy books and then never read them. Sadly, there is no known cure for this affliction despite so many people I know suffering from it.

If I had a staircase, it would look like this.

I have tons of books that I have bought and either a) started but not finished because a hold came in at the library and I needed to finish that first or b) never started because I was already in the middle of a book. I actually set this plan roughly a month ago... and then had six holds come in at the library. SIX!! Those six holds will have to be back by mid-April so then I'll only be reading books already in my possession. I've started making a list of all the books that fall into either of the categories.

By this time next year, I should have a pile of books that I can take to Russell Books and a couple of empty shelves... which I will probably fill up with more books, let's be honest. (And I don't plan to get rid of all the books, just the ones that I don't plan to read again or brag about.)

Question: On a scale from 1 to Christopher Plummer, how sexy do you think Christopher Plummer is?