Captain America: Winter Soldier

The first movie I'll talk about in this blog should be a great one, and the second Captain America movie meets that requirement.

I completely enjoyed this film. It's a fun and engaging movie that continues to develop the title character as well as all the supporting characters. It managed to maintain the integrity of the comic book hero while facing contemporary problems. There were beautifully choreographed fight scenes, touching character moments, and a well structured plot that kept me completely engaged through the movie.

I also happened to see it with three "nieces" who were visiting us and who offered to treat me as a payback for hosting. I'm usually reluctant to see a genre film for the first time with others, because I hate people talking to me during the movie, but these three gasped, exclaimed and cheered at exactly the right times and made it more like watching opening night with a theater full of geeky fans. I had the best time at this movie because it was a great film with great company.

Also, this movie had so many Easter eggs and comic references that kept me finding little treats. I've seen it twice now and I'm still discovering new things discussed on other fan sites. All the character names (good, bad, and inconsequential) seem to be taken from the comics. They referred to other characters in the Marvel Universe that haven't been seen in any movie so far (Steven Strange!) They're also some clever nods to other movies. Robert Redford plays a major role, and apparently in a scene where he's at home opening the refrigerator, you can see he has a bottle of Paul Newman's Own salad dressing (Paul Newman was Robert Redford's co-star in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.)

Natasha Romanoff (played by Scarlett Johansson) has a major role in the movie, and once again, she has some of the best fight choreography I've ever seen. Sam Wilson (played by Anthony Mackie) made perfect sense as a developing friend and partner to Steve Rogers, and his Falcon alter ego was believable enough and looked fantastic. Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) had a significant role and had an amazing car chase/combat sequence. And the Winter Soldier (played by Sebastian Stan) was a dead accurate portrayal from the comic book.

Have I made it clear how much I loved this movie? I have to say that the second time I saw the movie, it wasn't as wonderful as the first time. I don't know if that's because of the difference in company, or if the suspense was lessened once I knew what was coming. The fight scenes were just as amazing to watch, but the plot didn't keep me as engaged. That would probably argue for the latter reason.

I can't recommend this movie enough. It was great fun and so far, my favorite movie of the year.

Star Wars Improv

As we all know, May 4th is Star Wars Day. As you may not know, my improv troupe performs on the first Saturday of every month. This year, the first Saturday of May fell on the 3rd, and so on Star Wars Day eve we had our second annual Star Wars themed improv show.

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Typical improv show warm up exercises.

Last year was our first Star Wars themed show, since it fell on Star Wars Day itself. We each took on a Star Wars character and tried to play that character through the show. I was Yoda, but at one point I did a scene as Luke that was well received, so this year I played Luke all the way through the show (yup, with a wig). And we made the show even bigger with light sabers, cardboard cutouts, and a Darth Vader helmet.

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The cast for the show, and yes, I'm in that line up.

Our MC, Julianne, was also the one who organized the show. She made sure all of the games were Star Wars themed, and it was up to the players to keep in character. We played about 15 games by the end of the night.

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Julianne and I as Comic-Con volunteers registering cosplayers - in this case they're Anakin Skywalker and Admiral Ackbar

Probably my favorite game involved a setup where Julianne and I were at the registration desk at Comic-Con. Before the show, the audience filled out suggestion cards with the names of characters from any fan supported universe (comics, TV, movies, etc), and they were all placed in a hat. During the game, a player would draw a suggestion from the hat, and then walk on stage as a cosplayer in character. We had to guess who they were. We did 20 walk-ons representing 30 characters (several walk-ons involved two characters). We only missed guessing two characters.

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An audience directed scene where Mike and Julianne were trying to recreate Scott and Kimberly's first date.

I thought the show was very good and at some point I'll edit the video I recorded and post a link to the show here.

The grape pick-up

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When grapes go bed...

Due to an unforeseen series of events, I had the opportunity to play a bunch of grapes for this year's Earth Day festival. Of all the pictures taken of me in this costume, I like this one the most. The look on that woman's face is perfect.

Every year, Santa Barbara puts on an amazing Earth Day festival. For the last 5 years, I've staffed the Edible Santa Barbara booth because the magazine is published by good friends and neighbors, and the other folks who staff it are wonderful to be with. As we were setting up this year, one of the people who organize the event and knows that I'm a cosplayer, mentioned that one of the other booths had a grape costume this year. I asked her to introduce me, but when I got to the booth they lamented that their guy who was suppose to wear the costume had to back out.

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My job was to let folks know about the Vintage 2014 multimedia documentary on local wine production.

Well, I volunteered to fill in (begged them may be more accurate). At first, I think they were just happy to have someone be in the suit, but it didn't take long to realize they had more than they could ask for. When I cosplay a bunch of grapes, no one is safe.

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I wasn't normally in the glamour photos, but several people requested that I join them.

Vintage2014 is a multimedia documentary about making wine in the local area. They put up a booth to promote their work, and inside was a backdrop for taking pictures. They offered to take free glamour photos of anyone who came by.

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I had a great time interacting with the crowd, and the kids loved it - like the one you can see on the right side of the photo about to whack me with his balloon sword.

My job was to bring people to the booth. And once we got going, the booth had a continuous line of people asking about the project and getting their pictures taken. I had a great time interacting with the festival attendees as well as the folks staffing the other booths.

I realize that there's nothing else like this at the festival, and it's the size of two city blocks. So few people get a chance to interact with a cosplayer or mascot (I'm not sure how to categorize this) that they just went wild when they came across me. And I had a great time being big and bold. I need to make one of these costumes for myself.

The other nice thing that came out of this experience is that friends finally got a chance to see what I can do in a costume. Now the Edible Santa Barbara folks want to come up with a costume that I can wear next year. And I'll bet they're not the only ones. I've made it clear to the organizers that if they can come up with a concept, I'll make and wear the costume.