Bang Bang 2

There is, once again, a lot of banging in the audience tonight. Funny how that comes around, time after time.

Ian is playing some Bach, just now, from the soundtrack of James Thiérrée's La Veillée des Abysses -- performed beautifully in the show by a pianist who was also an acrobat -- lending a melancholic air to what is not, otherwise, a melancholy evening. The annual national celebration of terrorism's failure explodes around us with pyrotechnic efficiency, and what a show it makes.

Meanwhile...

20 years ago, in an alternative timeline, we were all in a state of shock, transformed by evidence that we are not alone. That Earth's November 1985 was pretty seriously fucked up -- but really, weren't they all?

Sooner or later the ever-present rumours of a Watchmen movie adaptation will bear fruit, and the world will almost certainly be the poorer for it. Hollywood cannot contain Watchmen; the best we can expect is The Incredibles -- which was pretty damn good, but ever so much lighter than Alan Moore's alchemical superhero apocalypse. It would be nice to pretend that the pen is mightier than the camera, but that would be folly. Movies have a reach and power far beyond scrappy comics, and when the film is made the graphic novel will disappear in the melée.

All we can do is cling to a few fluttering fragments not yet blown away.

Posted by matt at November 5, 2005 09:36 PM