investing sux

Us, on May 21st, a Play

Me: We should buy some facebook stock.
M: Yeah?
Me: How much is it?
M: about 33 dollars.
Me: Let's get some, just for funsies.
M: Really? OK. 
Me: What could go wrong?

I guess you don't make 1 million friends without making some dubious financial maneuvers with obvious questionable ethical implications with "long-lasting negative implications for an industry that can ill afford this kind of blemish." (source)

The Avengers!

We saw the Avengers this weekend and it was really great.  M's a big fan of the Avengers... I thought the whole thing sounded really stupid, but Joss Wedon wrote and directed it, so I figured it would probably be pretty good.  I guess I don't really understand the concept of putting a bunch of random superheros together, but apparently that is a not uncommon superhero comic book conceit.  So, like, for various reasons, all these superheros need to fight together for the fate of the planet and whatnot, but they don't exactly like/trust each other, so first they have to fight each other (this is also not uncommon, I guess.)  I don't think I'll ruin it for you by saying basically every combination of superhero has to fight another superhero.  The best was when Thor? He's like this demi-god from another universe and really hot?  He has to fight the Hulk for some reason?  And, anyway, when he realizes the Hulk is actually really strong and he can go ahead and beat him with his special hammer, he gets kind of excited.

There have been a couple of REALLY bad Hulk movies in the last decade... all I really care about is, what's the deal? He grows like 5 times his size but his pants still fit?  Come on.  Anywho, the Hulk is ably played in this movie by Mark Ruffalo.  Robert Downey Jr. is back as Iron Man, with le Gwyneth making an appearance, wherein they show of their amazing lack of chemistry (zing!).  The Natasha (Black Widow) character is played by Scarlett Johansson.  I don't think she has a previous movie and M doesn't know much about her.  She's in love with the Green Arrow, maybe?  The only thing is, as far as I can tell, she's not really a superhero, she's just really smart and a good fighter, so when they have to fight these giant whatevers and all the other guys are all tricked out with the flying whatnots, she pulls out this little gun, and it's like, damn girl, whatchugunnado with that gun?  


I could have stood for a few more quips, it being a JW film and all, but M felt it was plenty quippy.  Me? I was waiting for the moment when someone inevitably said, "We've got to figure out a way to close that PORTAL!"

Ooooo - Chris Helmsworth (Thor) is also the handsome boyfriend in Cabin in the Woods.  It's all coming together now!   So, it was great.  And, I think there's for-sure going to be a sequel - and maybe like, a Black Widow thing (let's try to get that started!).

awkward!

(Hulk) Smash

So, I did go ahead and delete Smash off the DVR - I just read this hilarious article in the New Yorker that sort of epitomizes how I feel. This Katherine McFee person, I suppose can really sing, but more and more her voice sounds like it came out of a can.  Megan Hilty is fabulous, though.    Nussbaum writes, "She has also delivered a few truly thrilling musical performances, a fact made possible by perhaps the most horrible thing about “Smash”: how good the songs from the musical within the musical are. The songs written for “Bombshell,” the musical about Marilyn Monroe, are generally zippy, magnetic numbers created by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman."  Did you know that?  I didn't know that.