Music & Masterpieces

Last night was Cantilon Choirs big fundraising event, Music & Masterpieces. We were lucky that Tara and Jerry, James and Glen, and Bryce and Sara were able to join us in watching the various choirs perform, as well as participating in the silent and live auctions.

This year's venue was the Enjoy Centre in St. Albert, a wonderful place for such events. Don't get me wrong, All Saints Cathedral downtown is nice too, but being able to enjoy a pint of Yellowhead Lager while I waited for the others to arrive was absolutely delightful. The acoustics leave a bit to be desired, but the space and decor more than made up for it,and all 500 attendees had room to roam once additional tables had been found.

The biggest highlight for me, by far, was watching Fenya perform a duet as part of the Chamber Choir performance, a wonderful cover of "One Voice" by the Wailin' Jennies (surely one of the best names for a folk group ever). Fenya had told me about this the night before, but wanted to keep it a surprise for Audrey, which she certainly did. Unfortunately, I couldn't see Audrey's face when she realized, having already clambered down to the floor in front of the singers so I could try to record it on my iPad, the only device available at the time. My apologies for the crappy sound, between the tiny mic and my death grip on that part of the tablet, it's a wonder you can hear anything.

Now, because our house already looks like a flea market and the walls are pretty much spoken for. I had no intention of bidding on any sort of hung art when I arrived. Once I saw the painting that the Chamber Choir had produced collaboratively though, my resolve dissipated more quickly than the sugar in an Old Fashioned. It's the one on the left in the flyer below.

I have nowhere near the insight, experience or vocabulary needed to be an art critic, but know what I like, and this bright, kaleidoscopic image of trees and sunlight resonated heavily with me the moment I laid eyes on it. I've never had a huge appreciation of pointillism, but for a piece that allows two dozen excellent young people to fully participate in, it made perfect sense.

Each choir, from the 4-5 year-old Kindersingers to the adults of Belle Canto had produced pieces for the live auction under the direction of an experienced artist, and they were all wonderful. The abstract circles of the Children's Choir had a vintage grooviness about them, and the Kindersinger's handprint collage was adorable, but something about those trees made me feel like I was on my back in a meadow, looking straight up...and Fenya had also taken part in making it. I quickly conferred with Audrey, and decided we would tak ea shot at it, if the bidding stayed in our range.

You can never tell what items might go for at these sorts of events; I've felt embarassed watching undervalued items sold off under the disappointed eyes of the artist, and I've watched what I would consider middling items fetch top dollar due to 'auction fever'. One of the earlier items at the live auction was a seaside village painted by the Belles, and we were gratified to see it go for $1400. Well, all of us except Tara, who really liked itand hoped there would be little interest so she might have a shot; the bidding started around $400 and shot up in hundred dollar increments very quickly.

The Chamber Trees started much lower, and in the range we had agreed on, so I threw in a bid and held my breath. All the other parents were here as well, surely my single bid wouldn't be sufficient?

But it was.

When we got it home and unpackaged it, Fenya was able to point out the orangey-yellow section she had worked on. The next challenge will be finding a place to hang all 9 square feet of it, but it is a nice problem to have, really.

Glory had opted to go to a sleepover instead of coming to Music & Masterpieces, but in walking around within her friend, had come across a gorgeous sunset she was determined to capture on her iPod.

There are so many things you want to pass along to your children in order to help them become healthy, happy, productive adults, and it can be hard to cover them all to the degree that might be needed. At least I can rest assured that my daughters clearly have an understanding and appreciation of beauty, both the kind that we make, and the sort we are given.

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"Who Is This 'MacTavish' Of Which You Speak?"

Picking up some beers for Saturday night, I found myself going back to familiar territory; since Sherbrooke hadn't re-supplied on the Rauchbier I had come to purchase, I grabbed some Reverend James, a smoked Porter by Mikkeller called Texas Ranger, and thought I should try something new.

When a researched and informed choice is impractical, whimsy should ever be your guide; why shouldn't I pick a beer based solely on the label? In fact a Quebec beer with a Scottish surname had caught my eye for that reason, so I went back and grabbed a bottle of MacTavish In Memoriam.


The brewery, Trou du Diable, has a reputation for arresting label art, such as their infamous Shawinigan Handshake, which featured a caricature of Jean Chrétien choking a devilish looking fellow. The frenzied warrior on the MacTavish label brought a lot of mystery with him, which I appreciated.

The beer itself is hoppy and crisp, with hints of citrus and perhaps green apples, but not to the degree that fellow Quebec beer Ephemere does. Refreshing and quenching, it complemented the polish sausage we had grilled up rather nicely, though perhaps not quite as well as the smoky Rauchbier that Mike had managed to find.


Why did I find the label so compelling? Initially it was the dynamism of the pose, and the coloration of the menacing figures in the foreground; from a compositional perspective, it was like an amalgam of Frank Frazetta and Mike Mignola or Michael Wm. Kaluta. The drawing of MacTavish himself was more evocative of the classic Conan comic covers by John Buscema and the like.


Looking more closely though, how interesting is it that a warrior with such a decidedly Scots name would be wearing armour more suited to the Middle East, and wielding not a claymore or broadsword, but some manner of scimitar or tulwar?


One gets the impression from the 'In Memoriam' that the real MacTavish is a recently departed colleague, but label MacTavish might be some sort of Crusades-era adventure, or perhaps a transplanted Janissary, a mercenary fighting his way across the Holy Lands. The shadowy figures surrounding him with claws outstretched seem more a part of myth than history, however; perhaps monstrous savages from a lost city, or the restless dead awakened by the breaking of an ancient curse.


I'm not sure if such a mystery was the artist's intention, but both the beer and the label were a perfect counterpart to a Saturday night spent with friends, rolling oddly shaped dice.


Update:  Poking around the brewery's website and aided by Google Translate, I found this:

The old MacTavish left us in spring 2008. At Bicolline he was Count Echternach Reikswart and father of two celebrities Lord Machiavelli and industrial Baron Vandegaar. But above all, he was respected for his wisdom, courage and good humor. We invite all lovers of good redheads to cool this beer honoring him. Rest in peace ancestor!

Could he have been a reenactor of some sort, or perhaps a LARPer? Either way, MacTavish was obviously very highly regarded!

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Irresistible Forces - Gravity, Reviewed

Alfonso Cuarón's first feature film in seven years, Gravity, is a breathtaking achievement in filmmaking that refuses to let some of the best movie visuals in years overshadow a moving and personal human story.

Cinematic space films, especially science-fiction, have done a wonderful job capturing the immensity and grandeur and awesome potential of life in space, but not nearly as comprehensive a job in depicting the inherent danger.  Space is so inhospitable, so fundamentally contrary to our existence that it is almost impossible to overstate the equipment, training and precautions necessary to exist in it for even a short period of time.  The fact that we hairless apes have managed to do this to such a degree that it has become almost routine is at once a triumph and a tragedy for our species.

Gravity takes place almost exclusively at a point 250 miles above the surface of the earth, where the space shuttle Explorer has carried mission commander Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and payload specialist Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) to effect an upgrade to the Hubble Space Telecope.  No time is wasted in setup or explanation or, thankfully, a training montage; you are dropped in as an eavesdropper in the middle of some finicky hardware adjustments just moments before an unforeseen event renders every goal except survival completely moot.

I went in knowing very little, in fact, almost nothing about this film, and I believe this is the best way to see it.  So what can I tell you?  Once the accident happens, you are made very aware of just how deadly an environment space is, compared to other dangerous places we've seen in movies.  Stone's dizzying perspective as she tumbles head over heels away from the shuttle with no tether or maneuvering jets on her spacesuit makes you keenly aware of human helplessness in such a scenario; with no purchase or means of stopping, limited air, no hope of rescue from another quarter, and the voice of the only person who can assist her getting fainter and fainter, you are very likely to find yourself gripping your armrest, clenching your teeth in sympathetic frustration, and probably holding your breath.

Cuarón does a fantastic job depicting the beauty of our planet from orbit.  Regardless of how Neil DeGrasse Tyson might feel, the writer/director takes no unreasonable liberties that I can see with regards to the manner in which objects behave in space; the lack of sound, the speed of orbital velocities, the delicacy of a satellite's solar array contrasted with its relentlessness once it or items around it become ballistic.  You really should see Gravity in a theatre, on as large a screen as you can manage (we couldn't make it to IMAX, but did see it in UltraAVX), and yes, you will probably want to see it in 3D; Cuarón is the kind of director that uses this increasingly sketchy medium to its fullest potential (which make sense when you realize he both idolizes and is friends with James Cameron).

I can't tell you how long some of the shots are in Gravity, as every time I noticed, I was quickly swept up into the story or gobsmacked by astonishing visuals to count.  Cuarón's decided to go with wire work instead of actual zero-G, as the NASA reduced gravity aircraft, affectinately nicknamed the 'Vomit Comet', only provides about 25 seconds of floating at a time.  As much as I appreciate this recent regression towards practical effects instead of CGI, you still feel like you are actually in space, watching the events transpire from a variety of perspectives; most convincingly while looking out the imperfect and sometimes foggy viewpoint of an actual spacesuit helmet.

Gravity is not a movie that just anyone could make.  Without a compelling human through-line, it could very quickly devolve into competence porn, but in the second act, the question is asked: why go on at all? and this is where the movie picks up the bulk of its emotional heft.

You hate to use words like existential when describing a movie, especially one making as much money as Gravity has, but it fits.  Like Tom Hanks in Castaway, Bullock spends the majority of her screen time alone, much of it without even a friendly voice on the radio.  Seeing her come to grips with this solitude, as well as her realization that perhaps she is not quite as alone as she might have feared, is to watch an Oscar-winning actress proving that she didn't get it by chance alone.

Clooney is a great choice for an experienced astronaut commanding a space mission; his confidence and swagger doesn't cross the line into arrogance, but you can see it from where he is.  More importantly, he needs very little screen time to establish himself as someone who will do whatever it takes for the sake of those in his care.  You can hear some of the same tones in the disembodied voice of Ed Harris, the voice of Mission Control in Houston.

While not appropriate for very young children due to its intensity in places, Gravity is a film suitable for almost everyone else, not just those who might enjoy a 'space' movie.  While it is more science fact than science fiction, the largest journey is the one taken by Bullock's reluctant voyager, and it is one that anyone should be able to relate to and appreciate.  I'm just grateful to Alfonso Cuarón  for having chosen such an amazing canvas for an intensely human portrait.

Freedumb In The Woods

Hello there, in the cabin!  Can you hear me?

DON'T COME ANY CLOSER, THIS IS AN EMBASSY.

No problem sir, I'll stay right here.  An embassy, you say?

YES, THIS IS SOVRAN SOIL, AND I HAVE FILED A NOTICE OF UNDER-

I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I've brought a second bullhorn here so you don't have to shout; can I have it brought over to you or anything?

...

Hello?

NO THANK YOU.

All right then, you were saying?

I HAVE FILED A NOTICE OF UNDERSTANDING AND INTENT WITH HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II DECLARING THIS CABIN AND THE CLEARING SURROUNDING IT TO BE THE EMBASSY OF A SOVRAN NATION.

I see.

IT WAS NOTARIZED BY MISTER ISAAC J-

That's quite all right sir, I have no interest in disputing the validity of your claim, but I do have a couple things I need to clear up; can I have your name, please?

DO YOU HAVE A CLAIM AGAINST ME?

Can you explain what that means?

UNDER COMMON LAW I HAVE THE RIGHT TO ASK IF YOU HAVE A CLAIM OF PROPERTY AGAINST ME.

Well sir, this cabin and trapline are registered to a Brian Cogswell, and I need to establish that you aren't him.

THAT'S NOT MY NAME, AND I FILED A LIEN ON THIS PROPERTY PRIOR TO MY NOTIFICATION OF UNDERSTANDING AND INTENT...

I see.

...AND COPIES WERE ALSO FILED WITH PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER AND THE GOVERNOR GENERAL, SO THIS IS NOW AN EMBASSY.

I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think that actually gives you the authority to take a cabin away from a man who built it with his own two hands.

HIS OWNERSHIP IS A CONTRACT UNDER STATUTE LAW, WHICH IS CONTRACTUAL, AND AS SUCH IS ONLY APPLICABLE TO INDIVIDUALS WHO CONSENT TO BE GOVERNED BY IT.

I'm to assume that you don't, then?

THAT IS CORRECT!  I AM A FREEMAN ON THE LAND, AND I HAVE EMANCIPATED MYSELF BY DISTINGUISHING MY LEGAL PERSON FROM MY PHYSICAL BODY, AND EXEMPTING MYSELF FROM NATIONAL OBLIGATION.

Thank you for clearing that up.  Could I have your name, please?

...

Sir?

MY STRAWMAN  NAME IS JACOB OF THE FAMILY BRONZYN.

Thank you.

YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS NAME DOES NOT REPRESENT MY LEGAL ENTITY, ONLY THE NAME FROM MY CERTIFICATE OF BIRTH.

That's quite all right Mr. Bronzyn, I am not here to interpret legality, I've just been asked to get you out of Mr. Cogswell's cabin.

NO PEACE OFFICER CAN ENFORCE ADMIRALTY LAW UPON THE UNWILLING! WE ARE PREPARED TO DEFEND THIS SOVRAN STATE BY FORCE OF ARMS IF NECESSARY!

I understand and I do apologize, but there seems to have been a misunderstanding; I'm not a peace officer, Mr. Bronzyn.

YOU'RE NOT?

No sir.

...

Mr. Bronzyn?

YOU NEED TO IDENTIFY YOURSELF.

Of course, sir.  My name is Captain Marc Gunderson, and I am here representing Her Majesty's Royal Canadian Army.

WHAT?

I said, my name is...

WHY IS THE ARMY HERE?

This is only a guess, but I assume it is because you are refusing to leave property that belongs to someone else, and because when the Fish & Wildlife officers asked you to vacate the area, you told them that this was the land of a sovereign nation.

EMBASSIES ARE TREATED AS FOREIGN SOIL AS A MATTER OF INTERNATIONAL TREATY.

Yes sir, and as I said, I am not here to dispute the legitimacy of your claim; my job is to defend Canada against foreign aggression.

WHAT?  WHAT AGGRESSION?

When you unilaterally claimed that soil for your embassy Mr. Bronzyn  you were taking it away from the nation of Canada.  I'm here to get it back.

YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY TO FORCE MY COMPLIANCE TO LAWS THAT DO NOT APPLY TO ME!

Mr. Bronzyn, we've been over this.  I am not here to arrest you.

THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE?

I'm here to defend my nation's sovereignty.  My job is to remove all uninvited foreign nationals from this area using, and I am quoting from my operational orders here, "any and all means necessary".

...

As such, if I need to use force to accomplish the directive I have been tasked with, there is, unfortunately, a very good chance of you and anyone else in that cabin being injured or killed.  You've stated your willingness to use potentially lethal force to defend what you refer to as your embassy, and I have no intention of risking the lives of my men unnecessarily.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN BY THAT.

Well Mr. Bronzyn  I don't know who or what you you might have in that cabin, so in addition to a number of highly trained, highly motivated and well equipped men and women, I have also brought two 'Coyote' reconnaissance vehicles.  Have you ever seen one of these?

ARE THEY LIKE A TANK?

Oh, heavens, no!  They have wheels instead of tracks, and not nearly as big a gun.

OH, GOOD.

Still, I hope you don't think a log cabin will provide much cover against a 25 mm chain-fed autocannon. Now, allowing for the possibility that you may have reinforced your position, I took the liberty of requisitioning a case of armor piercing discarding sabot rounds that we normally use against other armoured vehicles and the like.  Mr. Cogswell will almost certainly have to rebuild from scratch.

THIS IS OPPRESSION!  YOU  ARE GOING TO TURN THIS PATCH OF WOODS INTO A NEW TIANAMEN SQUARE!  I AM RECORDING THIS CONVERSATION SO THE TRUTH WILL BE KNOWN!

Very good sir; my adjutant is doing the same with a high-definition video camera.

HE IS?

Although he is asking me to turn on some of the vehicle spotlights because the cloud cover is apparently impacting his 'white balance'.  Recording these interactions can help to clear up any misunderstandings after the fact, and can also be useful for training purposes. This is not some sort of conspiratorial 'black helicopter' operation; we are doing our level best to keep everything by the book and above-board.

THANK YOU?

Mr. Bronzyn  it is important for you to understand that once I commit my forces, you will be treated as an enemy combatant, and not as a Canadian citizen, which I believe to be in keeping with your wishes. If you should be captured alive, you will be given any needed medical aid, and then treated as a prisoner-of-war.

AND THEN WHAT?

Honestly, I have no idea.  Like I said, sir, I am not a lawyer or a peace officer, so your future disposition is a matter far above my pay grade.  Now, as you clearly feel you are defending your own national interests, I will fully understand if you reject my invitation to surrender yourself into my custody, but formality demands that I give you that opportunity before I give the order to open fire.

...

Mr. Bronzyn, will you kindly come out of that cabin with your hands raised above your head?

CAN WE HAVE A MINUTE TO THINK ABOUT IT?

By all means, take your time.  I'm not in any rush, but some of my men are keen to get back to base before the hockey game starts.

Photo by Colleen De Neve, Calgary Herald

(Author's note: This little tale is not presented as a recommended course of action, and shows a gross oversimplification of military authority as well as almost total ignorance of international law, but I was unable to resist following through on a daydream initiated under the auspices of 'wouldn't it be funny if...?'  

In addition, I take full responsibility for any inaccuracies in my depiction of how our Royal Canadian Army would actually conduct themselves in such a ludicrous situation!)

Campain Relief - Edmonton Election 2013

I try to be a good citizen; I do my best to keep abreast of the issues, I try to make informed decisions, I not only make a point of voting every chance I get, but I encourage others to do the same.

And then I find myself at the ballot box looking at a list of school trustees and trying to pick one based on their name, often based on alliteration due to my being a comic book fan.

This year I decided to be different.  I would try to put at least as much thought into my selection for school trustee as I did into my last toaster purchase.

It took quite a bit of research through the City of Edmonton website, clicking through multiple links, determining what Ward I'm in for trustees (because it's different from councillors, don't you know), but eventually I was able to determine...that I don't have a choice to make; the post was filled by acclamation.

Well, fine, it gave me the shove I needed to really start looking at the candidates for Mayor and Ward 2 councillor.  I've been a fan of Kim Krushell for years, and while I am glad she is making time for her family, I'm sad I won't have the opportunity to vote for her again.

Looking at the 7 candidates, the only two bits of name recognition for me are Don Koziak, who has run for both mayor and council on an anti-airport closure, pro-business platform as the number two go-to guy for Envision Edmonton (so, no), and Bev Esslinger, an experienced former public school trustee, and who I am neither here nor there on (but lean towards there as she has run as a provincial PC).

It could be worse; ward 6 has a whopping 16 candidates to select from, including writer Candas Jane Dorsey and former Journal columnist Scott McKeen.  But even with only a half-dozen to choose from, where to start separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak?

Well, one group has started doing some of the legwork: calling themselves activatED!, a group of young and engaged types took it upon themselves to evaluate all the candidates for mayor and council and use a predetermined list of criteria to assess which of each was the most progressive.  In this case, 'progressive' means things like a commitment to sustainable transportation, opposition to urban sprawl, and disclosure of funders prior to campaign day.  They have given their endorsement to a single candidate in each ward, and in some wards, no endorsement at all, which I found interesting.

Even if you don't agree with their endorsements, it gives you a good starting point, and if you are, I don't know, regressive? you can use their list to determine who you aren't going to vote for.

In terms of their council pick for ward 2, I am warming to Ted Grand, a good guy with a well, let's say design-challenged website.  He's got a tremendous record of community league involvement and leadership, and was even awarded the Alberta Centennial Medal.  If you like a meaty platform, there's lots to read on his website, and some of it is pretty substantive, which is a nice change of pace from candidates trying to get by on being responsive, good listeners, and people persons.  I have a week to make up my mind, but at this point, he's my pick.

Mayor is a little trickier, but only between Don Iveson and Karen Leibovici.  Even if he wasn't a ginormous negative Nancy obsessed with potholes, Kerry Diotte has no vision for the city, and I have a hard time seeing him building any sort of consensus on a rookie council if he did.  If he does have a vision for Edmonton, it is a colorless, grey box of a city... with roadways the envy of the developed world.  I don't want to live in that city.  You know, again.

Karen Leibovici has a lengthy and distinguished council record, and could bring both experience and diversity to a council whose two primary characteristics could be the number of rookies and older white guys sitting on it.  She is a social progressive with a great reputation for budgeting, but I just can't get excited about her, and with a four-year term, vision, energy and excitement are what I am looking for.  

On top of that, she moved very quickly to negative campaigning, and comes off kind of shrill at times.  For example, a 'mayoral forum' was cancelled following Iveson's and Diotte's pulling out when it was discovered to actually be a Progressive Conservative fundraiser.  Leibovici was slow to respond and when she did, the peevishness was evident: The only reason that we agreed to participate it because our opponents agreed to. We’re not participating. We will debate our opponents on the issues anywhere, anytime on any subject. We have more experience than they have because this election matters. (Does that last sentence even make sense?  Or sound like it was written by someone out of elementary school?) At one of the mayoral forums, Paula Simons described Leibovici's responses as "probably the most thoughtful - but she needs to lose the cliches and jargon. And stop saying 'champion'."

I remember Don Iveson for his angry response to the 2009 development plan, entitled "The Way We Grow", and which he said might as well have been called "The Way We Sprawl".  He walked it back a little afterwards, but stated his position eloquently on his  website.  ActivatED! has picked him as their progressive candidate of choice and written a fantastic endorsement, as has political blogger Dave Cournoyer at daveberta.  (Dave also does a great weekly recap of municipal election news called Substance and Style which is quite enjoyable.)  People I like like Iveson, from my formerly apolitical friend who is volunteering for him because of the energy he brings, and even The Duchess patisserie on 124th street.

Most important, Iveson brings vision and vitality to the role of mayor, something it has always needed, and has often lacked.  As far as I am concerned, it's Iveson for Mayor.

As the election enters its final week, I encourage everyone to start looking now, before the last minute mudslinging and rhetoric makes it even more difficult to find out.  Most importantly, get out and vote; Diotte appeals a lot to  older and angry voters, both of whom can be counted to turn up on election day October 21st.  As another Edmonton blogger, Maurice Tougas, says, "gruntled voters stay home; disgruntled voters go to the polls".

JARVIS Redux

Marvel's Mouse-led marketing mavens have manufactured a marvelous movie tie-in featuring a metal man's mechanical major domo.

I enjoy Iron Man 3 a little more every time I see it, and watched it twice last weekend, once on my iPad while travelling, and on BluRay at home. I'd seen an article about Marvel's JARVIS: Second Screen Experience ipad app and downloaded it on a whim, and let me tell you, it is a genuine treat.

Paul Bettany, the voice of Tony Stark's virtual valet, Jarvis (Just A Rather Very Intelligent System), voiced 20 additional hours of dialogue for the app, which would be a novelty even if all it did was tell you the time. Jarvis can tell you the current weather and temperature, what time the next appointment in your calendar is, and post updates to your Facebook, if you are into that sort of thing. And it does it all via voice actuation to boot.

It is supposed to be able to serve as a voice-controlled remote for your BluRay player as well! but that functionality never worked for me, unfortunately.

 

The app also comes with a number of ringtones you can email yourself so you can have Bettany's bemused tones announce, "incoming call; unfortunately, we cannot ignore the inevitable or the persistent."

For the fanboys among us though (and fangirls too; Fenya brought Jarvis to school today to show her friends), there is a neat Easter egg hunt tied into the BluRay. Jarvis contains a sort of fieldguide to the various armours depicted in the film, but you have to unlock them in order to view them. By navigating around the menus and watching some of the featurettes and the Marvel One-Shot Agent Peggy Carter (which is quite enjoyable in its own right), a type of QR code is displayed on your television. You then scan this in and Jarvis will announce that you have decrypted a number of the suits, needing 13 codes to unlock all 42 variants. Glee!

 

If you've seen the climax to IM3, you may already have a favourite suit, either by look, or effect, or perhaps just by name, like 'Heartbreaker' and 'Red Snapper'. If I had to pick one, it would probably have to be the heavy-lift model most people mistook for the Hulkbuster configuration from the comics, nicknamed 'Igor'.

Oiler fans might like the colour scheme of 'Disco' though...

There is some interesting colour text behind many of the suits too; a deep sea diver load out, high altitude, high speed variations, and a non-armoured exoskeleton called 'Bones', but the most intriguing to me is this one, designed for operations in space.

There was a rumor (almost certainly nonsense), that the original post-credits sequence for Iron Man 3 was to show Tony Stark somehow receiving a distress transmission for outer space that he would then respond to in a suit like 'Starboost'. This would then serve as the first tie-in to the more 'Cosmic' Marvel Universe, and lead directly to 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Thankfully they opted not to do that; in addition to being a bit ham-handed, it totally would have undermined the emotional finale to the film. I mean, it's no secret that "Tony Stark will return", it says so right in the end credits, but that turnaround would have been a little too abrupt.

 

As mentioned, the app is free; having Paul Bettany read you the weather is charming, and it's quite a bit of fun overall for the nerdy among us. If you do happen to get it, at some point you will want to push Jarvis's 'button' repeatedly for a bit. Give him a chance to reply, then push it again. He will eventually warn you not to...but you really should anyways, just to see what happens.

Ooh, and also, when you unlock the last set of suits, you get a little 'Classified' folder, which will show you the teaser footage from this year's Comic-Con where they revealed the subtitle of Avengers 2: Age of Ultron .

 

It is nothing short of ridiculous for me to get excited about this: there is no new dialogue, no substantial reveals, but hearing Hall H go absolutely batshit when they get just a glimpse of the evil robot's iconic helmet, well, it's pretty hard not to get dragged along.

 

Still, the joke's on you, Marvel/Disney marketing geniuses: I was gonna see it anyways. Hah!

 

Thanks for the cool app, though.

 

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