.: so comes snow after fire :.

We went. We saw.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is awesome.

Great story, great cinematography, all the characters manage to have fascinating personal arcs, and lots of character development. Yes!

For those who have already seen it, feel free to leave a comment! For all the others, this entry shall be the only place with spoilers in my whole blog. Until it has been released everywhere, I won't mention it again. ;)

So guess what I've been doing with my weekend? Marathoning this new series on Netflix, Daredevil. No regrets. :D So here's a little review for those of you who'd like to check it out. No spoilers, obviously.

First things first, it is very violent. It definitely gets a R just for that. The violence is realistic, not splatter at all, and that makes it really unsettling. I spent the whole time thinking it reminded me a lot of Scorsese, and then I found an interview with the creators who said their main inspiration was the movie Taxi Driver. And boy, does it show. I think the only other superhero I've seen who gets beaten up like that is Kick-Ass. Also, bear in mind that the pilot has little to do with the rest of the series: after the first hour all the characters are written completely different. I'd say just skip it, or keep it in mind while watching it. It's not uncommon with pilot episodes, to be very different from the actual series, but this one takes the cake.

I really loved the lesson of this story: bad guys should be defeated through legal channels, put to trial, and violence doesn't solve anything. Matt is constantly at war with his desire to kill the bad guys, and the knowledge that murder is wrong. His best friend is a good, decent guy who actually gets the lines that are usually reserved for the love interest. All the female characters are great: they're strong, complex and all different. They fight for what is right, they're scared but they don't let it stop them. They all have agendas, none of them sit and wait. All actions have consequences, and when someone dies the other characters grieve at length, and do not forget them. Matt cries when he's upset, he's not the classic stoic hero. Very refreshing. There's also this running message that being a lone hero is dumb, that one needs friends and support, and without trusting one's loved ones one'll never get far. Kudos for that!

The bad guy is played by an amazing Vincent D'Onofrio. He feels real, has a faceted personality, has a reason for his actions, he's not a cartoon psychopath. He loves and is loved, and he's still a villain and a murderer. Great writing there.

While it is still set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in thirteen total hours there's only three mentions of the Avengers, and all in passing. It honestly doesn't feel like the same universe at all, and it's definitely on purpose. The Avengers live in the light, this is the dark corners where the bad guys take advantage of what happens in the movies, to get money and power, to oppress. Where the little guy is fighting against giants. It's a fascinating new window in this universe.

There's a couple of storylines that have been left open for the next season. Can't wait to see what they're going to do with them. *______*

Well, it seems I was proven wrong about the Agents of Shield series. That finale was absolutely amazing. It was clever, funny, had plot twists and heartbreaking sequences, snarky one-liners and awesome action sequences, and a beautiful atheist, scientific dialogue about death and life, and everything came together splendidly. And it got me really excited for the next season.

It was really, really slow getting here, with the first 15 episodes being a drag, but it's finally worthy of the rest of the MCU, without having to rely on cameos, but on its own characters, plotlines and character development. It's great. ♥

Plus, in case you haven't heard, they're also making an Agent Carter series. A tv show about spies in the 40s, with a woman in the lead? This is a dream come true! *_____*

Not much happened since my last entry, as we've had a national holiday, but there's a couple of things that deserve a blog entry.

Last week, my grandma had a stroke. A CVA in all of its power. Yesterday, we had a lovely talk on the phone, while she was cooking lunch. In the meanwhile, my grandpa, who's 92, spent the day mowing a field with a freaking scythe. My aunt told me she tried to pick it up and she couldn't. At that point my grandpa told her to 'stick to her numbers' (my aunt teaches economy). My family may or may not come from Krypton. In all fairness, my aunt was just as spooked as me when she told me all this on the phone. Crossing my fingers I got some of those supergenes, because wow.

Yesterday I also finally found out who killed Laura Palmer (it only took me 22 years, go me), and I'm still in shock. That was really super cruel.

In other news I learned how to play Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here (which, by the way, is now my #1 Winter Soldier song) on my ukulele, and I'm so proud of myself I have no words. It's one of the best songs ever written, one of those songs that grow more and more beautiful every time I listen to it, and now I can play it too! *little dance of joy* Although I think I should work on my performance, it's more aggressive than it should be. For some reason my default setting on the ukulele is "play it like it's heavy metal". :D

I had the loveliest time these past few days! On wednesday it was Tati's birthday, and I pulled all the stops: there was music, a trip to the cinema, dancing, and chocolate cake, it was, in a word, BRILLIANT. To be a little more precise, we went to the cinema to watch Captain America - The Winter Soldier, which we absolutely loved (political thriller with superheroes? hard to beat!), and the cake was Sacher Torte, our favourite. As for the music, last week I decided to buy *drumroll* a ukulele. Why the ukulele? Because I'd just seen Amanda Palmer's Ukulele Anthem video and it was very, very convincing. She makes a lot of good points! Less than six hours after it arrived, Tati and I were already dueting on Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and in less than a day I learned all the chords to Science Fiction Double Feature. It's so much fun! \o/



It's a ukulele for beginners, quite cheap, but it does its job splendidly. I named it "Kairi" because good things should always have good names. *_____*

And there's a little review of Captain America 2 under the cut, for those who are interested. Let's face it, a million fics now need to be re-written! ( Spoilers ahoy! )

So in conclusion, lots of love for this movie, lots of questions, and for the first time a superhero movie made me think of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Good job, Captain!

Here I am with another cute meme because I'm waiting for a call from my aunt and I have some time to kill. Stolen from harriet_yuuko. ♥

Choose five of your favourite (and may I add 'current') fandoms

First character you fell in love with
The character you never expected to love so much
The character you're most like
The character you'd slap
The character you'd sleep with
Your five favourite characters
Your OTP
The pairing you love but isn't your OTP
A pairing you hate
Who's more likely to win the Hunger Games
Who's less likely to win the Hunger Games

( Person of Interest, Cabin Pressure, Star Trek (reboot), Supernatural, Avengers (MCU). )

This was fun. :D No call yet, I'll just go and have lunch then. ^^

It's finally here, the first teaser trailer for Marvel's Agents of SHIELD!!!!



It's amazing what fans can do. We all stuck our fingers in our ears when Coulson got stabbed by Loki, started #coulsonlives, and one year later the guy gets resurrected and has his own tv show. I really, really love fandom. ♥

And I'm back from a most wonderful day! Tati and I went downtown, had icecream, took a great walk in the sun, and we went to the cinema to watch Iron Man 3. And it was AMAZING. Completely different from any other Marvel movie, and we loved every second. It's definitely a lot like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, like many reviewers said. I'm not going to say anything else, because spoilers, but I can't wait to watch it again!

In a happy coincidence, the stickers I ordered a month ago from RedBubble arrived yesterday, so I decorated my laptop accordingly:





It's Tony Stark's Arc Reactor over the ASUS logo, the Stark Industries logo and Smaug The Dragon on the keyboard. Now it definitely feels like my laptop! :D

If you want more details, or want to share your thoughts on the movie, do please make your way to the comments! *winks seductively*

What a lovely day! First day of spring, completely unexpected, and I had to take off my coat and sweater and walk around in just my shirt. Loved it. I had my first therapy session in two weeks, so to celebrate I wore my Avengers skirt. Towards the end a nurse came in to ask my therapist something, but as soon as he saw me he stopped on his tracks and yelled "oh my god, that is the most beautiful skirt ever, I adore it, where did you buy it???", and thirty seconds later we were enthusiastically discussing the next Iron Man movie while my therapist looked pretty lost. She calls it my "Spiderman" skirt because it's the only one she recognizes. :D

Back home I decided it was time for some baking (oh yeah), and since just before easter I had bought a new recipe book, all about muffins, I decided to try my hand at making some good ol' fashioned chocolate chip muffins.


The recipe was for 8 muffins, and the pan holds six, I tried to do the fractions for each ingredient in my head, got annoyed, gave up and used six paper ramekins (three each) for the two remaining muffins.


They smell great, and they taste AMAZING. So far my signature recipe was the chocolate brownies, but these cuties take the first place easily. I devoured one in two bites, yum, and now my fingers smell of bakery. Double yum. My plan was to save a couple for next tuesday, for my therapist, but I fear they won't survive tomorrow. I'll have to bake more on Monday. :D

Obligatory entry with pictures I forgot to post the other day because I'm lazy. :D


I finally found Avengers action figures that include Hawkeye and Black Widow! Yessss! The Disney Store in Florence is five times bigger than the one in Venice, and it felt a lot like Heaven. :D The Phoenix Wright game is a birthday gift from juuhachi_go, I started playing it yesterday, and besides a strong deja-vu for all those laywer shows I used to watch when I was a kid (Perry Mason anyone?), I also found out I could never be a lawyer. Five minutes in I was already shouting at my character to just shoot the witness because he was obviously the killer. Oops. I'm having lots of fun. :D


The plan was to put them on the shelf with my Marvel comics, but that's too low a shelf, and Sakura would play with these figures in a second if she could reach them, so I put them on the Tolkien shelf instead. They get to guard Fables and the Walking Dead, it's a good gig. ;)

Got to rush, I just remembered that the second episode of Neverwhere is airing in a couple of hours. I listened to the first episode yesterday and I *loved* it. I'm a huge fan of the book, and was waiting anxiously for this radio show. At first I thought it was a bit confusing for those who hadn't read the book, but after a few minutes it completely won me over. James McAvoy as Richard is amazing, and while everyone is superb, my favourite one so far has to be Anthony Head as Mr Croup. My god, he's brilliant. Also sounds a lot like Herc when he's bitching at Douglas, which is at times both incredibly creepy and absolutely hilarious. Talking about hilarious, Richard calling Hunter a "hooker" over and over again made me almost fall from the couch laughing. I'm a bit sad Romola Garai got such a small part, though. Still, they're all incredible, and I can't wait for tomorrow, when we get to meet Benedict Cumberbatch as the angel Islington. Perfect casting is perfect, everybody go home.