and that villains always blink their eyes
Holy crap, it was cold this morning. I know there have been colder days this winter, but the wind today was just non-stop as I walked to the bus stop and then waited longer than usual for a bus. Ugh. YOU CAN GO NOW, WINTER. NOBODY WANTS YOU HERE ANYMORE.
Then I was late to work because subways, and of course there was a small cascade of emergency things that needed to be taken care of RIGHT NOW, and then it was time for the City Council Budget hearings, so it was back out into the cold. Sigh.
On the plus side, they both started and ended pretty much on time, and I stopped off at Potbelly for a tasty chicken sandwich and then for an iced coffee at the nicest Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf I've ever seen (the one on Broadway next to Potbelly). Since I bring my lunch every day, this was a special treat!
Since the sandwich was so big and filling, I got a blueberry and pomegranate smoothie from Pinkberry for dinner. Sometimes I make the best life choices.
I totally blanked that yesterday was Wednesday, so have the weekly reading meme a day late:
What I just finished
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, which I highly recommend, because the writing is amazing and makes history read like a novel. Also, okay, so I started reading the WWII books because I was feeling my lack of knowledge there, but in reading those, I was feeling my lack of knowledge about WWI beyond the very vague outlines and that seemed important to fix. And I do have a couple of more recent, more complete histories on my reading list, as well as a couple of things that purport to cover both wars and the interwar period, but this I would recommend just for sheer reading joy at the way Tuchman spins a sentence, even if sometimes you want to reach through the page and slap all those involved and tell them to stop being such egotistical morons. I only have two complaints: 1. the maps in the kindle edition are basically unreadable, and 2. there's a little too much untranslated French that might have been familiar to the reader when the book was published but which was opaque to me since I don't speak/read French
What I'm reading now
Back to The Second World War by Antony Beevor. Just finished the Battle of Kursk and now we're onto the invasion of Sicily. Beevor's not as compelling a writer as Hastings, imo, but he's very clear and easy to follow.
What I'm reading next
*hands*
I don't know why I keep this question on the list. I never know the answer.
***
Have some Captain America/Winter Soldier links:
= Scarlett Johansson: I Rode Sebastian Stan Like a Mechanical Bull.
If that headline doesn't make you want to see this movie, I don't even know what to tell you.
= Why Chris Evans Almost Turned Down 'Captain America'
= Sebastian Stan on Becoming the Winter Soldier
Eta: Apparently these videos play automatically, so I guess be aware of that. I use flashblock so I didn't know that was a thing. /eta
= Sebastian Stan and His 9-Picture Deal, which features this:
Nrama: One big change in Bucky from the comics to the movies is that in the comics, Bucky was the teenage sidekick, while in the flicks, he’s a peer to Steve Rogers. In the comics, Cap was the alpha dog, and Bucky was the puppy. Now it’s almost reversed. Bucky, in many ways, is the stronger one in the relationship. How do you think that changes the dynamics of the characters, and was there anything you and [Cap actor] Chris Evans did to highlight that?
Stan: That switch, per se, was right there in the script for the first movie. So to me, it’s kind of always been this way. I think Marvel looked at that relationship between those two in the comics, and wanted to update it to something more relatable for the screen. I think that bit kind of had to be retold a little bit. I don’t think it could have worked the same way as it did in the comics when it was transferred to the movie. I think Cap needed a real camaraderie, a real friendship, a real brotherly love to be there. That’s the way I read it right from the first time I read the first script. They were close as brothers.
Mmhmm... And in conclusion...brothers.
But seriously, I like that he read the comics and has really thought about Bucky and his relationship to Steve etc. IS IT APRIL YET?
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/646086.html.
people have commented there.
Then I was late to work because subways, and of course there was a small cascade of emergency things that needed to be taken care of RIGHT NOW, and then it was time for the City Council Budget hearings, so it was back out into the cold. Sigh.
On the plus side, they both started and ended pretty much on time, and I stopped off at Potbelly for a tasty chicken sandwich and then for an iced coffee at the nicest Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf I've ever seen (the one on Broadway next to Potbelly). Since I bring my lunch every day, this was a special treat!
Since the sandwich was so big and filling, I got a blueberry and pomegranate smoothie from Pinkberry for dinner. Sometimes I make the best life choices.
I totally blanked that yesterday was Wednesday, so have the weekly reading meme a day late:
What I just finished
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman, which I highly recommend, because the writing is amazing and makes history read like a novel. Also, okay, so I started reading the WWII books because I was feeling my lack of knowledge there, but in reading those, I was feeling my lack of knowledge about WWI beyond the very vague outlines and that seemed important to fix. And I do have a couple of more recent, more complete histories on my reading list, as well as a couple of things that purport to cover both wars and the interwar period, but this I would recommend just for sheer reading joy at the way Tuchman spins a sentence, even if sometimes you want to reach through the page and slap all those involved and tell them to stop being such egotistical morons. I only have two complaints: 1. the maps in the kindle edition are basically unreadable, and 2. there's a little too much untranslated French that might have been familiar to the reader when the book was published but which was opaque to me since I don't speak/read French
What I'm reading now
Back to The Second World War by Antony Beevor. Just finished the Battle of Kursk and now we're onto the invasion of Sicily. Beevor's not as compelling a writer as Hastings, imo, but he's very clear and easy to follow.
What I'm reading next
*hands*
I don't know why I keep this question on the list. I never know the answer.
***
Have some Captain America/Winter Soldier links:
= Scarlett Johansson: I Rode Sebastian Stan Like a Mechanical Bull.
If that headline doesn't make you want to see this movie, I don't even know what to tell you.
= Why Chris Evans Almost Turned Down 'Captain America'
= Sebastian Stan on Becoming the Winter Soldier
Eta: Apparently these videos play automatically, so I guess be aware of that. I use flashblock so I didn't know that was a thing. /eta
= Sebastian Stan and His 9-Picture Deal, which features this:
Nrama: One big change in Bucky from the comics to the movies is that in the comics, Bucky was the teenage sidekick, while in the flicks, he’s a peer to Steve Rogers. In the comics, Cap was the alpha dog, and Bucky was the puppy. Now it’s almost reversed. Bucky, in many ways, is the stronger one in the relationship. How do you think that changes the dynamics of the characters, and was there anything you and [Cap actor] Chris Evans did to highlight that?
Stan: That switch, per se, was right there in the script for the first movie. So to me, it’s kind of always been this way. I think Marvel looked at that relationship between those two in the comics, and wanted to update it to something more relatable for the screen. I think that bit kind of had to be retold a little bit. I don’t think it could have worked the same way as it did in the comics when it was transferred to the movie. I think Cap needed a real camaraderie, a real friendship, a real brotherly love to be there. That’s the way I read it right from the first time I read the first script. They were close as brothers.
Mmhmm... And in conclusion...brothers.
But seriously, I like that he read the comics and has really thought about Bucky and his relationship to Steve etc. IS IT APRIL YET?
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/646086.html.
people have commented there.