Tonight, I Googled “boston music blogs” and came up with one I’ve looked at a few times before, but had forgotten about: Bradley’s Almanac. Bradley’s latest post details his playlist from a DJ set where he exclusively spun tracks by bands coming to Boston in the near future. Since I’ve been in Boston for a year now and only gone out to three shows, it’s probably time to start visiting the clubs a little.

Scrolling through Bradley’s list, I came up with a few that piqued my interest:

Lucero, playing at something called “GreenFest” tomorrow, Aug 22. Lucero is a band I’ve opened for. Nice guys, though they ate almost all of the pizza. A very rough, whisky-soaked y’all-terna-rock sound.

Dinosaur Jr, two shows at the Middle East in October. The original line-up, back together and going strong. I don’t really like the first couple D Jr albums, but it’d be cool to see they play together. I did a recording session with Murph once, a cover of Paperback Writer for a documentary soundtrack.

Sunny Day Real Estate, Sept 28 at House of Blues. In addition to their Boston show, they’re also playing 930 Club in Washington, DC and Terminal 5 in NYC, two venues I’ve also played.

RollingStone.com has an article on SDRE’s press release confirming their Fall Reunion Tour.

Also, here’s info on GreenFest: http://www.bostongreenfest.org/index.html

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian in Zack Snyder's film of the Alan Moore graphic novel "Watchmen"

I went to the Jordan’s IMAX Theater to see Watchmen last Sunday night and the experience has left me feeling kind of strange. I can’t stop thinking about the movie, and even dreamed about it a little bit — although I can’t remember the context of the dream, only that Watchmen was in my head while I slept.

(Let me say first off, in case anyone actually reads this post, that I’m obviously going to be writing about the film here, although it may take a while to get to it. That means there may very well be spoilers and the like, so if you haven’t seen the film and don’t want to know anything about it until you’ve seen it, don’t read any further. )

Leading up to the release of the movie, I wanted to know as little about it as possible so that I wouldn’t taint my experience by building up expectation. I did let myself check out the trailers, and I made the rule that it was okay to read coverage about the reviews, but not the reviews themselves. The trailers seemed to paint the film as a meditative and seductive take on the superhero genre, and proudly proclaimed that the greatest graphic novel of all time — the one that it’s own creator famously proclaimed “unfilmable” — was being turned into a movie by up and coming acclaimed filmmaker Zack Snyder, the guy who directed 300.

I had seen 300 in the theater just like everyone else, and I liked it a great deal, just like pretty much everyone else. I own a copy and it sits on my DVD shelf. The movie is a solid, though fairly mindless, thrillride. It’s entertaining and looks pretty darn good. It’s based on one of my favorite comic series by one of my favorite comic creators at the top of his game. But, the film didn’t strike me as the work of a director that I’d need to keep tabs on.

As a counterpoint to that observation, when I saw the movie Pi, I instantly became a fan of Darren Aronofsky. When I saw the movie Memento (and then went back and found Following), I instantly became a fan of Christopher Nolan. 300 made me a fan of 300, but not necessarily of Zack Snyder. So, looking ahead to the Watchmen film, I was excited but also somewhat ambivalent.

In February 1986, I was in 6th grade and trips to the comic store were a weekly experience. I would head to the store on Fridays, after school, while my mother went to the fabric store or K-Mart, and I’d peruse the racks and pick up what looked cool — as many as I could for $10. One week, I saw the first issue of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns on the shelves. Gorgeous artwork by Frank Miller, inked by Klaus Janson and colored by Lynn Varley (who also, coincidentally, colored Miller’s 300 and was brought in to work on the backgrounds for Zack Snyder’s film version). I had missed the first printing because I hadn’t known about the book coming out, but I snagged a second printing of issue one and immediately added the series to my pull list, to be certain I’d have first prints of the remaining issues. I was smitten on the first read-through because this book spoke to pretty much all of my sensibilities at the time.

The Dark Knight Returns wrapped up in June ’86, and in September everyone in the stores was talking about the next great series that was just starting, called Watchmen. That’s a stupid name, I thought. I can remember people saying, “It’s the next Dark Knight,” or something similar. I picked it up off the racks, and flipped through. It didn’t seem like The Dark Knight at all. Dave Gibbons’ art was nothing like the kind of art I was seeking out at the time. I liked Frank Miller, I liked Mike Zeck (the Punisher mini-series from Jan ’86 to May ’86), I liked John Byrne (whose “Man of Steel” 6-issue retelling of Superman’s origin had thrilled me from July to September of ’86). And, there were pages of text, another big turn-off. I really didn’t get the look of Watchmen, I didn’t recognize the characters, I didn’t know anything by Alan Moore, and I didn’t buy it.

Over the last twenty-three years, I’ve sometimes regretted that. I’ve had friends recommend it. I’ve read over and over about the awards its won, and the new ground the series broke, how comics changed forever after it was published. I’ve read interviews with Alan Moore where all the interviewer wants to talk about is how the movie should never be made and how Terry Gilliam tried, twice, and gave up. I’ve read countless interviews with comics creators who all, at some point, mention Watchmen as their favorite book of all time. The thing even won a Hugo Award and was in Time Magazine’s list of All-Time 100 Novels. All of these things should have been enough reason to just go buy the darn book. For some reason, though, I just could never get to it.

As the excitement in the media and on the web built to a fever pitch leading up to the release of the movie version, I kept finding myself in bookstores, holding a copy of Watchmen in my hands. The book seemed to be everywhere, calling to me. I decided to resist the temptation yet again, and continue my media blackout leading up to the movie. I didn’t want to know anything more than I already knew. I didn’t want to be one of those guys going into a theater with every single detail of the original in my mind, constantly analyzing and comparing as I watched. I wanted it to be a fresh, untainted viewing experience based on the film and the film alone.

One thing that I couldn’t help but absorb, though — since it was practically hammered into our heads by every news source on the planet — was the sense that director Zack Snyder treated the original material as a sort of shot-by-shot Bible, constantly working from and going back to the details and panels of the book to inform his decisions as the film was being made. By all accounts, he was working towards the the most faithful representation of the book possible, trying to capture every nuance and subtlety just as it was presented by Moore and Gibbons. His production video diaries and blogs showed panel to screen comparisons of shots and bragged about the meticulous detail they were putting in to capture just the right image of New York based on the comics. Snyder wanted to do the book justice by recreating it detail by detail on celluloid. It sounded like the film was going to be amazing.

And yet, as I walked out the theater and drove home this past Sunday, I realized that as noble as that approach sounds, it really isn’t the way to make a good film.

I’ve been struggling since I saw the movie to figure out exactly what I thought about it. I suppose that the simple fact that it’s stayed with me means something about the merit of the movie, but the more I think and consider, the more flawed it feels.

Overall, the story arc of the film is a fairly compelling one. The U.S. and Russia are close to nuclear war as a result of Russia feeling outgunned by the United States’ use of superpowered individuals (particularly the near-god Dr. Manhattan) to end the Vietnam conflict. At the same time, one of those costumed heroes turns up murdered and the other members of his old team begin to investigate who was responsible and uncover how it all may tie in to the impending conflict between nations, all the while nursing their own neuroses, quirks and perversions.

Plenty of room for good stuff, but somehow it doesn’t quite work in the film. And I think this is the crux of what I’m struggling with as I keep thinking about it. It should have worked, but didn’t. In some ways, it feels as though striving so hard to be faithful and exacting left little room for the filmmakers to react to what they were creating.

It feels to me as though the filmmakers behind Watchman were trying so hard to make something that literally translated every aspect of the graphic novel into film that they forgot that they were making art of their own. Perhaps that was their goal, to not imprint any aspect of their own artistry out of some reverence and high regard for the source material. If that’s the case, that’s fine, but there’s a danger there of leaving everyone else out in the cold if they don’t share the same level of reverence.

The book has always been typically referred to as a “deconstruction of the superhero mythos,” which essentially means is that it’s a dark and brutal examination of “heroes” with questionable morals. In 1986, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen were the first comics to really take that approach, and they changed the genre.

But in 2009, it’s the flavor of the week as far as superhero films go. You only need to cue up last year’s Dark Knight, Hancock, or The Incredible Hulk to see darker takes on heroes struggling with their inner demons (literally, in the case of the Hulk) and sometimes doing very dark things indeed. The first third of Iron Man, a film that was praised as being a return of the light-hearted superhero flick, brings us a tense origin sequence involving torture and graphic imagery not for the squeamish (care for a nice hole in the chest, anyone?). Hellboy II, itself a pretty light film, has an entire sequence of carnivorous mini-demons devouring people alive.

It’s not Watchmen’s fault that this darkness seems rather ho-hum. It’s simply the climate of the superhero film right now. Chalk it up to bad luck and bad timing that what originally set the graphic novel apart just makes the film seem like one of a bunch.

One major misstep of the movie is in it’s musical choices. The score itself was fine, but the soundtrack was a mess. Every single song used in the film felt so superficially tacked on that it was difficult to take them seriously. There wasn’t a single piece of popular music that felt natural or appropriate in the situation it was used, and some that seemed to forced as to be laughable. The closest to “non-laughable” that the film came with it’s somg choices was the use of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin” during the opening credits, but even that was not an easy pill to swallow.

The cast overall was fairly harmless (and unmemorable), but there were a few standouts. Jackie Earle Haley was very, very good as Rorschach, the ruthless vigilante of the team (as opposed to all the other forms of vigilantism the others reflected…). Jeffrey Dean Morgan was very good as the Comedian. Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias were completely miscast — Billy Crudup, when he was actually on screen, seemed too soft and Matthew Goode as Ozymandias was too young looking, and wore too awful a wig, to be taken seriously.

Effects-wise, the film mostly had some nice fight shots stealing the stop-and-spin camera approach straight from Snyder’s 300, but the CG of Dr. Manhattan was pretty terrible. His hands were consistently misshapen, his mouth moved strangely and something about his much-talked-about glowing blue penis just looked off. Not that I was inspecting it all that closely.

I’m still struggling with what exactly I thought of this film, but the summation of all of this seems to lead towards, “Didn’t really like it.”

Going into it, I was thinking I would rush right out and buy the graphic novel to compare Alan Moore’s vision with Snyder’s end product, but now that’s feeling like a less exciting prospect. A film that could have lead the masses to the comic stores to devour The Greatest Comic of All Time, I’m afraid, will instead convince them that it’s something they still don’t really need to read.

Which, I fear, is what the film did to me.

]]> http://bravetiger.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/sorting-out-my-thoughts-on-watchmen/feed/ 0 BraveTiger Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian in Zack Snyders film of the Alan Moore graphic novel Watchmen http://bravetiger.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/coverage-of-u2-in-somerville/ http://bravetiger.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/coverage-of-u2-in-somerville/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 03:01:24 +0000 joshuat1974 http://bravetiger.wordpress.com/?p=294 ]]>

Like most folks in Boston who listen to music at all, or watch the news at all, or breathe the air at all, all I could think about yesterday was U2 and the fact that they were playing the humble Somerville Theather for a special “secret show” to celebrate the release of their new record.

Apparently they played 5 songs, and held a brief Q & A.

Coverage can be found in a multitude of locations:

• A great set of photos on flickr

• A preview from Wicked Local with some great photos of the band’s arrival

• A recap from Reuters

• There are some other video clips here, though most of the audio is lousy.

I’m sure there will be much more coverage in the coming days.

Thinking about the films slated for 2010 in my last post, I sort of forgot that we still have plenty of interesting comic and genre pieces scheduled for release in 2009. The first in the list, obviously, is the biggest. Watchmen was deemed unfilmable by it’s creator, writer Alan Moore.

They filmed it anyway, although it took 25 years. If you haven’t heard about this film, or been positively assaulted by the promo machine that’s in place, please come up from under that rock. Personally, I’ve never read the graphic novel it’s based on. In some ways that’s kind of shocking considering the sheer volume of comics I was consuming at the time it was released. I thought about picking up a copy (which is in it’s own special display rack at the local Barnes & Noble — wow!), but I’ve decided to wait until after I see the film.

I’ve also sworn off reading any reviews. Although I did catch an article about how the reviews have been positive.

At any rate, here’s a brief rundown  of Watchmen and a couple others that have gotten me excited.

March 6 – Watchmen
Rorshach: “The world will look up and shout, ‘Save us.’ And I’ll whisper, ‘No.’”
Watch the Watchmen Trailer

May 1 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Sabertooth: “Do you even know how to kill me?”
Wolverine: “I’m gonna cut your head off, see if that works.”
Watch the X-Men Origins: Wolverine Trailer

May 8 – Star Trek
“Space is disease and danger, wrapped in darkness and silence.”
Watch the Star Trek Trailer

May 21 – Terminator: Salvation
John Conner: “I knew it was coming. I thought I knew our enemy, but I don’t know if we can win this war.”
Watch the Terminator Salvation Trailer

Newsarama has a rundown of films that Warner Brothers just announced are slated for release in 2010 and 2011, and there look to be a few at least semi-interesting comic book and genre based picks in there.

Here’s the list, from Newsarama (with their commentary):

Sherlock Holmes – Directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey Jr. is now due in theaters on Christmas Day, 2009, bumped from November 13th.

Clash of the Titans – a remake by Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier is due in theaters on March 26th, 2010.

Green Lantern – directed by Martin Campbell, is due in theaters on December 17th, 2010.

Inception – Christopher Nolan’s next film after The Dark Knight due in theaters on July 16th 2010

Jonah Hex – Josh Brolin and John Malkovich get it on, Western style on August 6th, 2010.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part One on November 19th, 2010, and Part Two now slated for a July 15th, 2011 release.

Green Lantern is a character that I’ve always had a fondness for and have tried to follow  more than a few times over the years. For some reason, though, I just never quite manage to latch onto him. I don’t know if it’s the cosmic angle, or what, but I have heard and read that Goeff Johns has done a terrific job revamping the character in recent years and bringing a whole new mythology to the book.

For that reason alone (and hoping that the producers of the film pay attention to the books) the idea of a film definitely piques my interest. I mean, it’s at least gotta end up being better than that  Spawn movie.

Right?

There’s a great interview with Joss Whedon about his new show Dollhouse, which debuts next Friday the 13th on Fox and stars Eliza Dushku.

http://scifiwire.com/2009/02/joss-whedon-reveals-more-dollhouse-secrets-and-he-wants-you-squirming.php

As a big, big fan of Firefly (though not so much of either Buffy or Angel), I’m hoping for some seriously quality writing and character here. Firefly, which was completely screwed up by Fox’s marketing and timeslot decisions and died an early death, is the type of show we rarely get to see these days: solid characterizations, an original premise and compelling stories all seamlessly interwoven.

I’m hoping for more of the same from Dollhouse, but like the old saying goes, “Wish in one hand …” etc etc

More images from Aimee Mann‘s 3rd Annual Christmas Show, which took place last night at The Somerville Theater in Somerville, MA, after the jump.

Left to right: Juliana Hatfield, Aimee Mann, Nellie McKay.

Juliana Hatfield tries on her antlers.

Back home in Hadley this past weekend, this was the view from the front lawn at my folks’ place, getting near sunset.

The song’s available for download on the wonderful Songs: Illinois blog, and you can find the post at this link right here. Also, you can listen to some other tracks on their website or on their myspace page.

I don’t know much about this band, but I discovered them last week thanks to that Songs:Illinois blog (along with a bunch of other great bands that I’ll mention at a later date), and I’ve been listening to the song every day. Sometimes more than once.

A quick look at their reveals that they’re from Halifax, Nova Scotia, that this is their third album, and that they’re about to tour Europe.

Here’s the video for “Weighty Ghost,” via YouTube:

A couple weeks back, I wrote about the possible resurgence of Mickey Rourke’s acting career in Darren Aronofky’s upcoming film, The Wrestler. At the time, a trailer hadn’t been released. Well, now the trailer is available on Apple’s movie trailer page and on YouTube.

And it looks amazing.

I love the line towards the end, when Rourke’s character Randy “The Ram” Robinson is addressing the crowd and says, “The only people who can tell me when I’m done doing my thing is you people right here.” It feels like Rourke is talking directly to the movie viewing public. Here’s one fan that hopes he keeps doing his thing for a long time to come. If this trailer is any indication, he’s still got a lot left in him.

Here’s it is, embedded for your pleasure.