Me: “What’s that?”

Luc, in a serious voice: “Hulk’s willy.”

HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!

Come on, you know he’s packing.

Well, no surprise, we LOVED it.  And in case you’re [...]]]> Yep, along with the rest of the movie going world, we went to see Avengers this weekend—and I know everyone else went to see it too, because the dang thing has crossed 1.2 billion dollars worldwide in three weeks!  Go Joss!

Well, no surprise, we LOVED it.  And in case you’re new to the blog, we are huge Avenger’s fans around here, due mostly to Luc, 6, who adores the recent cartoon reboot (now in its second season) which he has watched, many, many, many, times (first season is streaming on Netflix, if you’re interested).

We started our Avengers journey back three years ago with Incredible Hulk, but didn’t hit true Avenger-team-up story lines until last summer when Luc broke his arm.  He and I sat curled up on the couch that first week after his surgery, him groggy on pain medicine and me just freaked out beyond the beyond, the two of us watching Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes over and over for days.  After I couldn’t take that anymore we started working our way through the live-action movies starting with Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, watching them all multiple times, especially the little tag scenes at the end after the credits.  Luc loves the little tag scenes.

Needless to say, after all of this prep, we have been STOKED to see the new movie, and finally, this weekend, we had all the family, plus the money, and we saddled up, woo hoo! And anyway, I’m a huge Whedon fan, so there was really no doubt we would go.

What a rocking FUN movie!!!

SPOILERS (Although since everyone in the world has already seen the movie, I reckon spoilers are moot.)

Luc sat on my lap for the whole thing, intensely whispering insider secrets into my ear.  “The name of the hammer is Mjolnir.” “Why isn’t Hawkeye’s outfit purple?” “Black Widow is supposed to have long hair.  She’s Russian.”  “I don’t think he can be a skrull, they do have wrinkly chins, but they aren’t red.” “This music is bad-ass.” He could not sit still.  When he got home he watched the whole of the cartoon season 1 again, and then jumped on Tux Paint to draw super-heroes for days.  He is totally smitten with the whole thing.

For myself, I loved Black Widow, I thought her scene with Loki was FANTASTIC.  That she knows how to play men into thinking she is a Weak Emotional Girl and then uses that to get them to spill all their secrets while they gloat and boast over her fake tears and her pretty face (even if the tears have a core of truth, and her face really is very pretty).  I adore that this whip-smart, bad-ass woman was holding her own with a band of Super-hero Manly Men even though she has no super-powers.  How cool is that?

And Tony Stark was fabulous, of course.  Robert Downey plays that character so perfectly, pushing him (almost) farther in audacity than I can stand (like the bit where he can’t help but jab Bruce Banner to see if he’ll turn??? HAHAHA).  Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist for the win!  Best line: Loki-”I have an army.”  Tony-”We have a Hulk.”

But the best for me, I think, was Mark Ruffalo’s wonderful Hulk.  Let me say that I have probably seen every rendition of the Hulk that there is over the last three years, forty year old cartoons (terrible), the live action show with Lou Ferrigno, the cartoons from the nineties, the two live action movies of the last decade, etc etc etc.  And something  has always driven me nuts about them: how the fucking idiotic people chasing him, the Hulk Busters, the military, Betty’s dumb-ass Dad, all of them, how they always use escalating force to try to capture the Hulk.  Force just makes him angrier, which makes him stronger and more violent!  Why can’t they understand this?  The Hulk is essentially a defensive creature, not an attacking one.  But instead of sending him chamomile tea and yoga instructors, they chase him with bombs and tanks.  DUMB.  It’s like they can’t wrap their mind around the fact that the Hulk is also Bruce Banner who is a pretty decent guy.  Banner doesn’t want to destroy stuff, and he’s super smart, probably the only person on the planet that could research what has happened to him.  If he stays calm, no Hulk.  They should be helping him.  Duh.  Why do the Hulk Busters never think of this?

But Joss has thought of this!  And so, for the first time that I’ve seen, the forces around Banner (in this case, S.H.I.E.L.D.) pursue Banner for his scientific brilliance and help him (or try to) stay calm so he can use his brains to help them.  Finally!  I mean, yeah, they’ve got the cage (like that ever works) ready, just in case, but they’re working with him for once.  What a relief!  What a big green ginormous freaking relief!

Mark’s Bruce Banner seems older, too, grey hair, haggard, sad expression, but also a wry smile like he gets how absurd his situation is and he is just struggling to live through it.  I liked that.  The fact that he seems to have gained some control over “the other guy,” has learned that he can’t suppress his anger, but rather must work with it, this is a very cool evolution of the character.  Again I had this feeling of FINALLY.  Finally they are looking at this beyond “set up Banner to hulk out and watch the explosions.”  Explosions aren’t what makes Hulk a compelling character.  It’s that Banner is a good guy struggling with massive force inside him that can be terrifically destructive and he is terrified of it, but forced to deal with it, over and over. Plus the fun that he is a big Id crashing through the world and gets to beat the shit out of everybody.  You need both.

Indeed, Banner/Hulk got many of the best moments of Avengers for me, from the simply terrific scene between Stark and Banner in the lab—so textured and interesting!—to the hilarious side-punch of Thor. And of course, the Loki smack-down.  “Kneel before me–” Slap-wham-smash-flap! “Puny God.” HAHAHAHAHA!

I ran across this post by another Hulk, Film Crit Hulk, which said a lot of what I was thinking, only better.  If you like Hulk stories, I highly recommend his break-down, and totally agree with his conclusions about why Joss and Mark’s Hulk is so good.

So many great character moments!

Best scene hands down: the post-credit tag.

Did you see it???  HILARIOUS.  So PERFECT.  I adore that 60 seconds of film more than 98.99999% of any other 60 seconds of film EVER.  I could watch them eating shawarma all day and not get enough.  They’re all so totally exhausted and out of it.   Who wouldn’t be after the day they’ve had?!  Totally worth sitting through ten minutes of credits.

The movie isn’t all perfect. For example, there were a couple of bits where I thought, “oh another flying bone turtle thing,” yawn.  Which just goes to show you how fast you get numb to spectacle.  Because holy shit FLYING BONE TURTLE THINGS! But still, the movie was at it’s best, for me, in the character moments, like naked Bruce Banner waking up after Hulking Out against his will, and the first thing he asks is, “Did I hurt anybody?”  Or his admission of his suicide attempt, told with emotional complexity while being read almost matter-of-fact, so much packed into a few minutes in that scene!

So much packed into this one movie, and its still totally fun, funny, even endearing.

How does Joss do it?

I won’t tell you to go see this movie, because you probably already have.  But I will say, I can’t WAIT for the dvd extras!!!!!

Deleted scenes!  I want lots of deleted scenes!

You might notice that the title has changed.  If you feel like commenting, I’d love to know what you think this book is about—I don’t mean in-depth analysis, just that sense you get when glancing at a cover, “oh, that’s historical romance,” or, “that’s kick-butt [...]]]> The current iteration of the cover…

You might notice that the title has changed.  If you feel like commenting, I’d love to know what you think this book is about—I don’t mean in-depth analysis, just that sense you get when glancing at a cover, “oh, that’s historical romance,” or, “that’s kick-butt heroine and vampires,” or, “that’s literary family drama with a touch of magical realism,” or whatever.  I’ve gone through a gazillion iterations of titles, covers, fonts, etc, because I became worried that the other cover/title was too pretty and seemed to promise a romance.   I don’t want people buying the book expecting story A, but getting delivered story X, and then getting GRUMPY.  Grumpy people become anti-fans, and then leave 1 star reviews, oh THE HORROR *shudder*.  No no, we must avoid THAT.

So, informal survey: any comments on this cover?  Would it draw your eye if you were scrolling through amazon?  And what does it make you think this book will be about (in very rough terms)? THANKS.

The notes from my editor were terrific and really pushed me in a great way.  Translation: I am working through a TOTAL REWRITE of the ending.  Meta-translation: RISK MORE.  But really, this is exciting because I think the book will be much better if I manage it.  So.  YAY.  But it’s a lot of work and I’m getting my sleepy self out of bed at stupid-o’clock in the morning to get ‘er done.  The goal is to get it to the copyeditor by June 1 and I think I’m still on target for a Summer Solstice release.  SUMMER SOLSTICE, oh my god, I’ve got to get to work.  It always takes more time than I thought it would….

But it’s so much fun to be doing all of this.  I love love love putting out my books, designing covers, editing, all of it.  Especially fan mail, I LOVE fan mail, haha, woo hoo for fans!!!!!  I’ve been getting some really nice ones, thanks you SO MUCH.  Y’all rock my freaking world!  Because, really, I’m absurdly insecure and write mostly to get external approval and bolster my pathetically low self-esteem.  And also because if I don’t write I get, you know, symptoms.

But I won’t trouble you with my madness now.  That’s for another post.

We went on a hot air balloon ride!  How cool is THAT?  It was just a little ride, tethered, but still, really fun.  And free!  Even better.

We got there early and got to see them fill the balloon, which was surprisingly fast. They [...]]]> Look what we did yesterday!

We went on a hot air balloon ride!  How cool is THAT?  It was just a little ride, tethered, but still, really fun.  And free!  Even better.

We got there early and got to see them fill the balloon, which was surprisingly fast. They just lifted the mouth and opened the throttle on a huge fan and whoosh! HUGE waves of ooos and ahhs from the crowd and the little band of kids were screaming with excitement.

Isn’t it pretty?  I wonder who gets to design hot air balloons?  That seems like an awesome job to have.  Anyway.  They didn’t start with the hot air until nearly the end of filling.  The propane flame thingy made a terrific roaring noise.

Gusts of sporadic wind added excitement and action to the proceedings as the balloon people wrestled the basket and ropes, roaring the propane jets and being dragged across the pitch.  Who hoo!  And some nervous looks like, are we really going to get in that thing?

In between gusts, however, waiting for our turn, it did get a little dull.  Waiting is always boring, can’t be helped.   Cinnamon buns to the rescue!

Yum!

They couldn’t take all four of us at once, so Paul went first with another group, and the kids and I followed.   Here is Paul climbing into the basket, the little dude in the black jacket.

We climbed in next and I was glad I do yoga because it took some dexterity and flexibility to hoist one’s leg over the edge.  The kids got lifted in like “a sack of potatoes” as the guys said.  It was physical work for them, but they were all smiling.  Quick instructions, hold here, not here, don’t rest your chin here (you might bump it if we come down hard) keep your knees bent, and then whoosh, with a roar, we went up!

Sorry I don’t have a picture from the basket, looking down over our town, but it was much too exciting to miss any of it fiddling with the camera.  Besides I was hanging on to the kids for their dear lives, as if, should they fall, I would be able to save them, despite the high probability I, too, would be falling.  It’s a mom thing.  It’s coded in our cells, I would have thrown my body to the ground first for them to land on, wouldn’t have thought twice.  Which is kind of weird, but good.

Anyway, Sophie squealed and bounced up and down (no jumping in the basket), and at first Luc was scared of the loud roar of the fire, but he got used to it and was soon peeking over the edge and waving his little hand frantically to Paul on the ground.  It was surprisingly exhilarating!  I mean, given that we were not all that high.  Part of my brain was noting, we’re only maybe 50 feet up, you’ve been in planes a heck of a lot higher than this, but it didn’t matter, I got totally high (ar ar), a huge grin on my face, we all did, everyone clambering out of the basket looked like that.  What a cool job to be the balloon guy who gets to make people smile like that for a living!

(The guy going up in the basket with us told me he has been flying for 53 years and doing balloons for about 5.  He was smiling big, too.)

Maybe it’s that you’re standing on unstable wicker that sails this way that that with every breeze?  Maybe it’s how quiet it is (when the propane isn’t roaring)?  Maybe it’s the change in perspective?  I don’t know but from what I can tell, a hot air balloon is a perfect storm of variables for making a person happy and exhilarated, but also somehow quiet and internal.

A giant gust of wind blew up just as the kids got out and swept me and the balloon guy across the pitch.  Here we are just before it happened, the kids off to the left grinning, the guys to the right, starting to feel the tug of the gust, me oblivious in the basket.

Whoosh, the wind grabbed the basket, and all the people holding on, and dragged us all a good twenty or thirty feet.  The basket was all tipped sideways like it was going to dump me out.  I’m pretty sure I screamed, although I wasn’t scared so much as surprised.  Although I did have one of those bizarre thought flashes, if I die, won’t that be an interesting story the kids will have to tell the rest of their lives, “we lost our Mom in a hot air balloon accident.”

But I was fine.  Here I am in my borrowed coat, walking back to the crowd and Paul, who snapped the picture.

If you get a chance to go up in a balloon, I HIGHLY recommend it!

But, as if that wasn’t enough of an adventure for one day, in the afternoon we went to a birthday party, very fun, loads of kids and, what a great idea: about twenty giant boxes to play in!  The kids all saw them and went mental.  There were box battles, box villages, rolling down the hill in a box, beat the box, hide in the box, etc, etc.  Very cool.

Then, our lovely hostess brought out this giant, super tall, round layer cake and I thought, hmm, I wonder what flavor, chocolate? Vanilla?

And then BAM, she cut it open and …..

The most amazing cake you’ve ever seen!

I was TOTALLY impressed.  The whole crowd gasped.  One kid summed it all up by saying to the baker, “You could totally work at Honeydukes!”  I heartily agree.  The layers were different flavors, too!  I tasted rose, lemon, vanilla, almond….

So, our day was full of surprises, balloons, rainbows, and cake.  Probably a unicorn or two were also present, but I was too bowled over by the rest to notice.  I mean, by Indiana Jones standards, it was a tame day, but for me, it was thrill a minute.  I’m just a simple girl, really.