declusion, its a hell of a word

So, how about that summer, I cant believe there are still schmucks up north who still have snow in their yards.

That being said, I am dieing to return to the north. The siren song of lakes, trees, and other peoples couches. Oh and hills... the closest hill to this cow pasture turned campus is several kilometers away and is a sickly bump, so hopefully our triathlon is relocated the the cobalt slag flats or something. whats worse is the only source of water is a drainage creek behind the school, and for a city of 433,000 that's some filthy murk. I'm sure it was cleaner when it was just cattle run off.

So safe to say, I am completely enamored with the very thought of summer. There is much to be accomplished adventures of all sorts to be had in the days of sunshine. so my brothers let us complete our spring harvests so we can spend the summer watch our rye grow.

McK

For the Last Time its NOT an Energy Drink!

But it's by Red Bull, how can it not be? I refuse to ever believe that. Come on, why would you buy Red Bull if there is no Red Bull stuff in it?

I believe this issue has given me more flack than any of my "comment" comments. I try to explain... Sure, I can't afford to drink it on a regular basis. I would have to go across the river once every two weeks. The flavour is something different. But tasting like what I believe cola tasted like once upon a time is an experience I couldn't give up when I saw the blue and red cans winking at me last Thursday.

Its like Fiji water as opposed to Evian. A status thing I guess, if you pay double for your refreshment you are cooler. Thankfully it tastes good too. I could see a college aged me stocking a mini fridge with this and Innis and Gunn. not just because they tasted good but because my expensive outsider tastes would surely arouse the curiosity in some good taste outsider artsy chicks. at $4.99 american for a 6 pack I won't be making that transition any time soon, but the option is always there, near the back of my fridge I think I'll make sure I have a few cans on hand, if the oppertunity ever comes up where I need a cool bonus multiplier.

100% Natural, caramel coloured translucent cola. If nothing else it looks refreshing.

For the Times They are...

Almost one full year, one year of the blog's dominion. Biz is set to return to the greener half of the UK for school in the coming fall, I am set to return to school, this time at Sheridan for journalism. McK and Jimi James are still trucking in their respective programs. And as the summer begins to pulse in warmer days like the deathbeams of flying saucers, I am content. There are plenty of adventures to be had in the coming year, professions may not allow the whole of us to unite for more than mere hours at a time but it remains. Mountains must be climbed, rivers must be tamed, waves must be surfed. McK, I'm probably coming down to see you as part of my pre-summer wages vacation time. Jimi James, I don't know if I'll make it that far, but I'll see what I can do.

I keep coming back to the Watchmen as I interpret the current state of the union. The opening credits were by far the greatest part of that film, 40 years of alterna-verse super hero history played out in a couple of minutes. Photographs that the camera can move within. Beautiful film making. Nostalgia by Veidt. 10 years and change, since C nev's fateful leg breaking call to McK, nostalgia by our own supervillan.

McK and I have decided that this Blog is just about due to grow up. In the coming months the site will be removed in it's current form. It should reemerge to serve our dual professional purposes. He will use it to foster his business plans (something about the new gentleman) and I will use it to post my Journalistic exploits as school demands. These 102 posts will be archived in both print and digital copies and will live on as our own photograph we can move through, one year captured, unedited and framed by the talents of the authors, photographers, artists, our friends and our muses.

As the present now will later be past.

Andymac...

Killing the watchmen (and yourself)

Well, I unlike that unwashed mass I know and love as Andymac have to side with Alan Moore. The truth is that films kill.

There will never be another 16 year old who is woefully out of the loop when it comes to the opposite sex, parties, sports or the inner workings of the cool circle at school, who can get some modicum of pleasure from reading it. (I very uncoolly didn't read it til I was 23 and hadn't been a virgin for a while.) There will be no sense of being part of an elite group, those who are in the know about something culturally significant and more importantly subversive.

Instead, the watchmen comic book has lost all this value to him, infact I am so far from being cool in that sense I have no idea where this kid can now turn, maybe drinking Delsym cough syrup and reading faust. All I know is that now that the kids who are having all the sex and the good grades are watching it in a movie, there is no pervasive value to it, its simply a relatively alright movie (-5 from V for Vandetta, +5 from Sin City.)

The only value it has left, are to those who have some nostalgic memory of reading it on a winter saturday night while everyone you knew was out somewhere doing things you wished you desperately were too. So if you fall in that group congratulations, you are part of the greatest scams in our culture. Take something you love for being private and subversive, Co-opt it in a more palatable form and sell it off. Than you have effectively destroyed what you loved about it so that way no one after you can ever love it as you did.

You are the last consumer...

congrats, cherish it, cause now when you stop loving it for all those reasons you do, no one will...

Mc +5 from Andymac

100th Post! Lost Film Frame of Watchmen's Original Ending

Kraken wasn't attakin' in the film version of one of my favourite comic series. It was a much more subdued, and ultimately easier to swallow cataclysmic ending to the film installment. Somewhere in the film I noticed the omission of some of my favourite lines, it was then I really understood that this was not a Superhero movie like Batman or Spiderman (something I hadn't considered previously). This 12 issue graphic novel was in fact all the watchmen there was, there could never be a Dr. Manhattan or Comedian movie that takes place outside of the mythos created in 12 comics. Whereas Frank Miller understood the comic to film adaptation process leading to the amazing 300 movie, Alan Moore and his crazy hermit beard were uncompromising, nowhere have I seen his name in the credits, only co-created by Dave Gibbons, it would be like if Frank Miller had said, You can't put clothes on my spartans! I drew them naked on purpose! I quit!" Then the credits would have said Co Created by Lynn Varley.

In truth the artist does co create the story but for someone clamouring for creators rights in the comic book world Alan Moore has really walked away from a lot of creator royalties that would have gone along with those rights.

The film itself was great. I enjoyed every frame of it. The comedian was more than I could imagine for my favourite character. And the opening credits, I could watch over and over again. I question however the music selection. once or twice juxtaposition of tone in the music to the tone on screen would have been sufficient but I felt that every song was in direct contradiction to the screen and the theme of conflict beaten into my face became tiring.

My only other real detracting concern in the film was Nixon! In the comic he is only shown in a couple of frames and they are more dramatically lit. If the filmmakers had taken this approach I wouldn't have snickered every time they showed him on screen. He looked like Craig T Nelson with a penis attached to his nose. And he was alot more pale than I would have had him, alcoholics have ruptured capilaries in their faces as they get old, and Nixon's third term would certainly have seen a fair share of drinks as he won the Vietnam war.

The film was entertaining on the whole but lacked sufficient depth to keep Allen Moore(ites) happy and was apparently too deep for the reviewers at yahoo to understand.

Now here comes my strange and twisted ratings system (+ points means better than between 1&5 and - points mean worse than between 1&5)

Batman Returns (+3)
300 (0)
Iron Man (-2)
Sin City (+2)



or...
2 thumbs out of 3

It did the comic justice, was sometimes fun, but ED is never comfortable to watch on screen