Awesome Things Happening In May

Some people call May the “premature climax” of the year - a month right before summer, not even halfway through the calendar, when a bunch of cool shit happens - and this year’s May is totally living up to its title. Here are some of the things happening in the next month that have me super-super-stoked. Super-stoked.

MOVIES

You might not have gathered this, but I like movies a lot. Here are four movies opening this month I plan on seeing.

Iron Man 2

As much as a clichéd “blockbuster” the original Iron Man was made out to be, it turned out to be a superb movie, action-packed and sometimes serious, with an extremely well-chosen cast (I would consider Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark one of the top three castings of the decade, easily), and probably the best Marvel movie to date. As a result, I am excited to see the sequel, which premiers this Friday, May 7. In addition to seeing some more Downey Jr. and smoking hot Gwyneth Paltrow (a.k.a. Pepper Potts), we can expect to see Sam Rockwell (an actor who gets huge props for his role in Moon), Mickey Rourke, and Don Cheadle, who is replacing Terrence Howard in this film. And even if this one does turn out to be a watery blockbuster, I think the support of the actors, and some big explosions, will elevated Iron Man 2 to at least “worth it” status.

Babies

That’s right, you heard me, babies. I have pretty much no info about this film other than the fact that it’s a documentary following four babies around the world for one year. That, and it has the most adorable trailer ever made. So that pretty much clinches it. Opens May 7.

Robin Hood

Director of Gladiator? Check. The Gladiator from Gladiator? Check. Galadriel? Check. A hardcore retelling of the medieval Batman? Check. Pretty much everything is going in this movie’s favor. It looks gritty and intense, like a deliberate attempt to take any gloss off of the tale of Robin Hood, and I’m all for that. This one opens May 14th.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Ok, ok, hear me out. So, I really don’t like Jake Gyllenhaal, or his sister (she totally ruined Batman Begins), but let’s be honest, the Prince of Persia video games were superb, and so I feel an obligation to see this movie. And who knows, maybe it will turn out to be really good. I know the visual design looks beautiful. But with Donnie Darko masquerading as an Arab with a bone to pick, I can’t really take it that seriously. Opens May 28th.

HOLIDAYS

Oh yes, holidays, full of merriment and cheer. I found a list of May holidays and month-long observances, and here are some of the ones that stuck out:

Asparagus Month: what better way to celebrate the end of spring with a nice crisp stalk?

National Salad Month: once again, fibers do the body good in preparation for the summer’s many activities!

National Strawberry Month: okay, I’m detecting a theme here…

May 8th, No Socks Day: alright, here we go! Some practical holidays geared towards doing something with the environment maybe? Or like, protesting sweatshops that make socks? Oh hey, looks like I was kind of right; according to this site, no socks means less laundry, means save the environment! I’ll give it a B for effort…

May 11th, Twilight Zone Day: what?! I did not even know this existed, but if there’s one thing I can get behind, it’s an entire day spent watching the Twilight Zone. If you’ve never watched this TV show, which is in many ways the pinnacle and stylistic genesis of modern supernatural film, then you’ve got some catching up to do - there are 156 episodes in the original series! If you’re looking at episodes to watch online, I would suggest “Five Characters in Search of an Exit”, “To Serve Man”, “Time Enough at Last”, and “Long Live Walter Jameson”. Spectacular stuff.

May 25th, National Tap Dance Day: yeah!! Just to enlighten you readers, I happen to be something of a tap dancer myself. The true art of tap dance kind of fell out of the public eye after the big films of the 30-50s with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Bill Robinson, and the like. But there has been a modern revival of tap dance as a legitimate cousin to the jazz music tradition, with the works of people like Savion Glover and the late Gregory Hines. Go learn about it!

VIDEO GAMES

Monster Hunter Tri: Okay, so technically this came out in late April, but it looks so awesome I had to put it in. I don’t own a Wii, but watching footage from this game makes me seriously want one. Monster Hunter Tri is essentially an optionally huge single-player or huge online multi-player world in which your character goes around with a giant weapon and slays even bigger monsters. The key word here is big. You think you know how big these monsters are, but I mean some of them are like, Shadow of the Colossus big. Check out this trailer.

BOOKS

Books? Books are for suckers.

I hope all of you readers take full advantage of this painstakingly compiled list of awesome stuff happening in the next month. I’ll edit this post if I find anything else that just has to be done in May 2010. Until then, farewell!

P.S. nobody calls May the “premature climax” of the year. I made that up.