El Zorro & Honest Abe

I grew up watching old Zorro movies. At least I think I did. I remember watching them several times when I was little, until the film with Antonio Banderas came out in 1998. When I graduated from kindergarten in 1994 (or whenever), they gave us, in addition to paper mortarboards, excellent real-cloth capes with yarn drawstring ties. That cape turned me into Zorro. I often snatched up my little brother's wooden sword, donned the cape, and tied a handkerchief over my face as a mask.

I would then proceed to run rampant all over the house, waving my sword in a "Z" pattern, pretending to ride my horse, and I assume saving the world. You know how it is.

Anyway, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for The Fox, especially growing up in California, where we had to learn constantly about the colonization of Alta California and build models of missions and all that stuff. The 1998 film is, in my opinion, totally excellent. Sometimes the theme song will randomly get stuck in my head, and I wander around singing it under my breath. And OH whenever I hear the zing of the guitar and the clapping and snapping of the castanets it makes me want to bust out into a flamenco dance (which I can't do to save my life. But that doesn't stop me from trying). Don't talk to me about the second Zorro film. It was dumb. Horses with cartoon expressions? Gag.

But I have just heard news that Fox (irony!) will be doing a modern remake of the "Zorro" tale...and I am incredibly intrigued. It's not set to be released until 2014 according to IMDb, but MTV Movies Blog is already talking about it, so I'm allowed to be excited about the potential of Zorro Reborn (it seems this is the working title, but we all know that could change).

Oh, and it's starring Gael Garcia Bernal (from Letters to Juliet and better things I haven't seen). Who I don't mind looking at.

Speaking of movies, I'm super stoked for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Since around this time is also the anniversary of the Confederacy seceding from the Union (last year being the 150th anniversary), here are some interesting stereographs (clickable to animate so you can view them as through a stereograph-viewer!) I came across from the Civil War, as well as The Atlantic's 150th Anniversary stuff from last year, which includes a lot of cool articles, stories, poems, and photographs from people you better have heard of and were THERE (Harriet Beacher Stowe, Frederick Douglas, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, and on and on!)
Okay, okay, here's the trailer for Lincoln, because it excites me so: