Reflection Pond #26

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions - Through the Devil Softly (2009)

There are those days that require this type of music. You know the days...they seem to last forever and everything you do is like taking one step forward and two steps back and when you get home it takes all of your effort just to take your shoes off next to the couch and make your way to the fridge to find a beer or a shot of whiskey or a tall glass of wine. These days are the worms wriggling under your protective membrane to startle you into the harsh reality of life and allow in the burning desperate thought that maybe you aren't good enough to conquer, to make demands or to have ideas of confidence burden your brain. These days happen, all of us have been there. They may be rare but they do happen. If they don't then you probably aren't human and a man named Deckard is looking for you. The crazy part about it is that just as I was getting ready to write about this band, I had one of those days. Hope Sandoval is the voice that you want to hear when you finally plop yourself down on the sofa and drown in the heaviness of the day. It is beautiful and there is no escaping that, and when something so beautiful comes into you, burrows its way into you, then your life becomes infused with that beauty. To understand this one thing, that life is beauty, then it doesn't take long for beauty to become you. And in the end beauty is always stronger than anything that might try to tear you down. Always. Listen quietly and you will see. It's the most powerful voice alive and we all have it within us. Do you hear it? Down there inside you, soft and enormous. Do you hear it?


The Watchmen - Zack Snyder (2009)

I really wanted to see this movie when I saw it was coming out. Even though it has all the elements of a blockbuster megaloshitathon, I was personally invested. You see, I read the comic when I was a young adult and as a male in this society who needs to identify with the notion of cool, The Watchmen wasn't far from the top. It has a creative and complex tale of an alternate universe where, in 1985, Tricky Dick is still President and armed vigilante super-heroes roam the streets trying to impart justice the old fashioned way. It was always a story that wasn't so easy to figure out. Is the fanatical rightwing psychopath narrator as crazy as he sounds or is he a prophet? Could an uber liberal with such high-minded ideals as world peace be a true villian? If you possessed the perfect weapon, does it really make you safe? How fine is the line between protection and control? Questions that have plagued civilizition for eons and here it's addressed thoughtfully and gruesomely. It was cool to indulge in it when I was younger but now that I've matured a bit over the years, I wasn't so sure that it was still the right story for me. So I reread the comic before I watched the movie and here's why I liked it. The movie was absolutely picture-perfect in the sense that it was true to the comic. The framing of the shots were taken right out of the panels on the page, as if the comic was the storyboard. Sure, there were a couple of changes here and there but even the alternate ending actually still fit with the spirit of the story (may have even been better). It was awesome to watch and though it was a bit gory at times, I was completely engaged throughout. Sometimes you go to the movies expecting a certain fair or hoping that it'll remain true to the ideal that you have in your head. At other times you just hope and pray that the studio system doesn't fuck it up. I must admit that The Watchmen delivered on all accounts.