just went to see the watchman movie with purtle pars and kevin only knows. we all read the book, so none of us can judge it as a movie, but the general consensus is: not great. pars said it good, that it’s a really mediocre movie for what is famously one of the greatest comic books. the problem is the same as we always anticipated: the comic book is about comic books, the movie isn’t about movies (or comic books). or it is and who cares?. scott mccloud has an interesting point about what makes comics special, and it’s this: that a comic book character is abstract, and the more abstract it is, the more you see it as yourself. so the watchmen presents these complicated characters and gives you an easy route (you might say a shortcut or even a short circuit) to understanding them (or struggling with them). people on a screen are, at the base level, other people that you don’t have to care about. also, in their quest to be “faithful” to the comic, they left in a lot of things that you can get away with in a comic book that look stupid playing out in a timeline that advances itself, or sound stupid in a voice other than your own. also (and this isn’t a value call, just a note) there was a surprisingly long sex scene, and tons of nudity (male and female)! and not just dr manhattan (who is nude for most of the movie, which rules). i would say that the movie is worth seeing if you read the book and feel the need to see the movie. if you haven’t read the book, read the book. if you don’t want to read the book and just want to see a weird superhero movie with the knowledge that if you like it at all there’s a vast and satisfying work you could read that’s already been ruined somewhat by the movie you just saw, well, whatever. as noted otherwhere, some of the more interesting parts of the comic were excised. but also some of the more sinister aspects were amplified, so that’s something.
cearnaigh was snapping photos all night at the scientifiction movie marathon, here’s two choice ones. we tried to take more than one group shot but the camera was totally full! thanks for the pics, cearnaigh!!!!!!
yug. it’s snowing again and cold and &c.. spring always springs a few (false?) times, this i know. but it’s important to complain in the intermittent winters. also important is taking the fresh chance to appreciate the orange sky of a blanketed city on a still night.
last night’s show was pretty good. dan shea’s band “the needy visions” was really great– total bubblegum, absolutely perfect. annikki dawn was great, and she messed up a few times which was totally endearing and welcoming in a “whatever, we’re buds” way (NB: some people mess up and it’s not like this at all). amongst other things, i played a bunch of covers, three (!) by cool breeze (full album download here) and two by bascom lamar lunsford. i even got everyone to sing the back-ups to “shower me with love” (which i sing on the recording). it ruled.
the weird things about the show were that i played with my back to a huge window, that the stage area was right next to the door and there was no way to come in or leave without everyone looking at you, that the show was too long (five acts including me). at one point a kind of boring guy played and in the huge window immediately behind him people were sledding on the sidewalk, running with sleds, faces full of glee, and then jumping out of view. being bored staring at something fun turns a passive bummer into an active one, and i found myself thinking at the man playing “be as fun as sledding!”. also (this guy was pretty nice but) this guy played a song that started out with that galloping “” rhythm, and, i don’t know, i really thought he was going to play barracuda. he didn’t and fair enough, but then a song or two later, chug chugga chug chugga chug chugga chug, and i just convinced myself “this time it’s DEFINITELY barracuda”. ok, obviously, again, he didn’t, and again, fair enough, but also, come on?. also, it was a free show, which i wasn’t aware of or forgot, and money’s tight… it would’ve been nice to have gotten some money for gas, rather than me and the other traveling bands being the only people who spent money on the show. also, i’ll never understand why every show (in providence anyway) always starts an hour and a half after the time listed on the flyer. why not have a show and then after the show, you can go do fun things, or go to the bar, or watch a movie and go to bed? i feel like people have this idea that late night is the time for “fringe” behavior, and this has a truth to it, but on the one hand, there is truly no “alternative” (smells like teen spirit was playing at the price rite the other day as me and purtle bought carrot cake) and on the other hand, if you’re really transgressive, you should be able to access transgression at exactly 7pm. when you go see a movie you’re on time, how is this different? although part of this is miscommunication– jeremy said the flyer he saw said “doors at 7″, which is a cool fess-up to current attitudes. and as with everything in this paragraph, maybe no one else has a problem with it except me, so whatever.
speaking of my problems, here’s one i found a casual solution to: i always feel pretty weird immediately after i play, and (this is stupid) i try not to make eye contact with people so they don’t say “that was good”, which i think they are just saying because they made eye contact with me and felt they needed to say something, because i just made an ass out of myself. the flip side to this is that i love when people walk right up and tell me i did a good job, or tell me something they liked that i did. this time, by accident, i didn’t finish a story and a bunch of people cornered me afterwards to ask how it all ended up. again, this was unplanned, but i think this might be a good way to segue from performance to conversation and avoid dipping back into dread mode. oh yeah, elaine wang, please report to me your email address (mine is somewhere around here) so i can send you a list of your new name possibilities (although “elaine wang” is growing on me and everyone knows that people with sex words in their name have, uh, good attitudes).
moving backwards in time, friday was a big party with a “time traveler’s ball” theme. it was good to see people and to help them break my dishes on my face. best costume was pars, who dressed as a carrouseller [sic] from logan’s run. second runner up: joanne, who was herself at age 9, 11, and 16, via progressive costume changes, with reference photographs on hand. this is the second time this year she’s had a costume with reference materials! cool move! i didn’t make a mixtape but pars and zacherlino did, and i also replayed the one i made for the sparsely-attended new year’s party (that even i didn’t go to). the important part about the music situation is that i set up my sampler (running into the PA alongside the tape deck) with a bunch of (reggae airhorn, laser sound, bomb, 808 bass drum, 808 clap sound) and let anyone run over and hit it. at first it was getting overused– everyone was into the novelty of it, and everyone wanted to hear especially the airhorn sound. but then i told people to wait for a song they’re really really psyched on, and then it became this like civic duty– your song would come up and you’d be like “this is it, i have to go hit the airhorn button and let everyone know this is my shit”. i only dropped the bomb on a few songs, because the bomb sound signifies a really big deal, and also it was mixed loud enough that it would totally drown out whatever was playing at the time for maybe four seconds, which would get annoying. but when i did drop the bomb, it was really awesome, and everyone knew to get real hyped. there was also a long air raid siren that was perfect for when the tape had to be flipped- everyone got tense in a fun way and the next side would usually start before it faded all the way out. perfect.
