Book Review: The Watchmen

I just finished a book, a book unlike any other I had read. In remarkably brief fashion, the author(s) managed to create and bring me into a world that bears a striking similarity to our own but whose divergences are as remarkable as its parallels. It's a world that attempts at every turn to prove itself as our reality just so it can overflow its bounds and flood our fertile minds with possibilities. The possibilities extend from our own reality like surreal protuberances, tentacles reaching, groping out in the darkness of time and space looking for a light switch.

Unlike all of the other books I have read, this book was illustrated, a graphic novel. Not just any graphic novel, the Watchmen is the only of its kind to be selected by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best novels of all time. I had never read any graphic novels or the comic books from which they emerged. My knowledge was limited, but I knew that there were two types of heroes—ones who possess superhuman powers and ones who are simply mortals with fancy gadgets. Supermen and Batmen. The Watchmen, as it turns out is a little of both: most of the characters are of the Batman variety; one, a Superman. And the Superman-type character is a conundrum, being both believable and unbelievable: he origins are rooted in the particle physics of our reality, but his powers are unimaginable, unbelievable, inhuman powers. Inhuman.

To me, the novel was a gigantic puzzle. The characters were deeply intense, the plot, an international intrigue, and putting it all together is a task partially up to the reader. Starting with a simple whodunnit, a single murder, it ends by involving the many more deaths/murders and an apocalyptic fervor ushering in a new world order. Luring you in with something easily believable, almost commonplace, it builds upon this foundation a beautifully grotesque monument to human existence. Along the way, it goes through a tangled web of characters, corporations, and other supporting evidence to lead you to a conclusion that is both optimistic and pessimistic and punctuated by a question mark. Supporting the story are details and interstitial commentary that, though seeming absurdly tangential and unnecessary, ultimately ties in. At one point, a character in the book reads a comic book—a play within a play? a commentary on using comics to escape the horrors of the world?—the plot of which seems parallel, unrelated, but ends up being almost related. The lines never actually meet, nor do they maintain their perfect distance. Thus it is that every image, each plot detail is a question mark, and every question is answered save the one posed on the final page.

Ultimately, at the end, it left me with a sense that I understand the world better, understanding good and evil in a deeper way, such that they never truly exist, that what is ostensibly good is, in fact, tinged with evil, and so on and vice versa: a full-color, three-dimensional yin-yang with goods and evils intertwining and containing each other. It demonstrates this through fiercely individual characters, each with their own morality, and, operating accordingly, they unfold the whole drama as if it were already written. Everyone's a hero, everyone's a villain, and in between are the watchmen. But who watches the watchmen?

happy Frigg's day

So we get to Friday, and I assume I know where Friday comes from. In German it's Freitag, which would mean free day. But it turns out it is the day of Frigg, wife of Odin, the only one besides him permitted to sit on the high throne and look out over the universe. But Odin turns into Woden, Wednesday, which is a whole day separated from Frigg's day. It's like they are forever separated by Thor. It reminds me of the sign they have at the Red Arrow Roadhouse: Free Beer Tomorrow. So close, yet so far.

I went there last night per my weekly tradition. The bartender recognized me from last week, making me feel almost like a regular. Already. I'm looking to become the mayor of it in Foursquare. [Which is a silly, silly urban game; I only "play" because it doesn't take any time and doesn't cause me to do things I wouldn't ordinarily do.] And I read Les Jeux Sont Faits - Sartre. It was getting really good - a romance was developing, plot twists, death, insurrection, and so on. I didn't think I was getting close to the end, but it turns out the last 70 pages (!) are glossary and study questions. So, last night in bed, I finished the last 30 pages or so. And then I wondered why I couldn't sleep. [It may also have been from the coffee yesterday; like an addict, once I taste that sweet bitterness, I'm back off the wagon.] I tried but couldn't and so read some music history. Which you would think would work, but I was in the middle of the section on Shostakovich and his dealings with Stalin. Everyone around him died or went missing, but somehow he made it through. What terror to live with - and to create under! The commies were talking about him like a true genius; maybe that's what it took. I sort of wish art were more life or death here; it's become so self-congratulating and redundant. But I am fairly certain that, most days, I would be in the "disposable" camp, and the Russkys would be throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I finished two things yesterday! Granted, they were a cover and a remix, but still. I'm really excited about the Arvo Part remix and what it portends. Maybe I will write that orchestra piece after all.

So I'm in the finishing, polishing mode. I'm off to work on a song. I've been dulling the perfectionist urge - which ultimately does a disservice to creativity - by thinking of these as demos. The Nine Inch Nails cover I made in like 5 or 6 hours; if I have to remake these (once I hear how they go, their structure) then so be it.

Focus.

mash-up

I put this up a couple of days ago, but it was 20 minutes long and thus bloated. I cleaned it up, adjusted some levels, cut out the fat, and voilà. The samples come from Nine Inch Nails' Closer, Nirvana's Something in the Way, Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa, and beats provided by Galactic.
Even Closer: Tabula Rasa by evankuchar

soundcloud

A quick addendum to the last post. It's important and so deserves its own post.

I signed up for soundcloud and posted Embody the Struggle. [I think it's all time we embrace that title, for that's going to stick.] I've been hesitant to post it because I would like to have an official unveiling when it's polished up and when it's available. Right now, though, if you haven't listened, you can listen. I'm less attached to it emotionally than I once was; the listening conditions don't have to be quite so pristine. That being said, don't bother listening unless you have actual speakers or headphones - something more than computer speakers. The bass is important.

Embody the Struggle by evankuchar

dscpln

I've gotten a little lax in the last two days, yesterday waking up late and doing a fair amount of working but ultimately playing more than working. It's always a mix, but the key concept I'm concentrating on today is "discernment". Per a suggestion from my conversation with the medical intuitive the other day, I am too open to whatever possibilities come my way, whether they be styles of music to write or people to meet. Be more discerning. I then told her about my concept of "say no to say yes," which seemed exactly like what she was talking about.

So I did have coffee today, but I used it as an incentive to get out of bed before 9 (Michigan time). [This should make Laura nostalgic; I'm sure she's missed the presence of coffee in our recent conversations.]

I'm realizing that I have a decent amount of ideas, but I should spend more time organizing them. I did that a little yesterday, going through my files that I've created up here and storing the fragments of ideas in one folder, the more completed, useable ideas in another. Keeping files organized is helpful for both computers and memories.

I need more songs to cover. I've already got the usual Radiohead, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Smiths, Daft Punk. It's funny, for as much as I liked Jethro Tull when I was in high school, they really weren't saying anything with their songs. Their songs are stories about other people, and they are simply the minstrels telling the story. No, not black face; like old, old minstrels. So while Aqualung is fun to play on the guitar, it's not saying anything I need to say. To be honest, though, the songs I am covering aren't necessarily expressing things I'm feeling now now, but I at least have emotional access to those sentiments through the past.

But the past is gone; this is now now. Whatever is happening now is happening now.


I'm relistening to my remix. I still kind of like it, so I'll make a radio-friendly edit so you can all hear it more easily without sifting through the garbage.

I may give up on the orchestra piece. I can't see it getting accepted to this program taking me to where I want to go. It may be one of those things that I either do later or not at all. I'm honing in on an album - or several - but I think that's where my passions are, probably, too, my "path".

I'm still listening to the remix - it's that long - and although it is not, itself, what I want to spend all my time doing, it certainly helps me to put together the pieces of a sound that I'm looking for. Then, maybe, with the sound in mind, it will be easier to write originals. Which is also, in a way, what I'm doing with the covers. I know a lot about music, but most of it comes from classes and theory; it's nice to learn about it through performance. Especially since I always struggle with the vocal parts of songs - meaning I either omit them or write shitty ones (see "Someone Else").

So a quick teaser of what I'm thinking for the album.
* Embody the Struggle (formerly known as Hypernova Requiem)
* Bike Salute (but completely redone)
* You are part of we (song for sister's baby, Lincoln)
* The electronic thing I did with the guitar solo
* Someone Else (which I apparently took off myspace)
* Some song called now called Suddenly
* A song I started writing about some German girl last year
* A cover. Right now leaning towards Needle in the Hay
* Maybe another cover like How Soon is Now

And probably a couple others. I'm making lots of lists these days.

Oh, an Ableton Live keeps crashing but only when I'm doing certain things. Doing the remix project, it didn't crash at all, but then in some projects it crashes every 5 minutes. Hopefully they get back to me soon.

jazzy bluesy nine inch nails

There was a time in high school that a friend derided a guy for describing some band - maybe God Lives Underwater - as "jazzy bluesy nine inch nails". I kind of like the aural image that gives me.

I've kept up with the yoga all week. Yesterday I even did a free 40-minute workout from "On Demand". And, I haven't mentioned it yet, but I've been off coffee during the last two weeks. Just tea - black in the morning and green in the afternoon. Then, on the weekends, which for me I consider starting on Friday, I can have my reward. Classical music is all about delayed gratification, which is why I'm not really one of them. Stuck in the middle.

I am, somehow, developing yet another variation on my daily routine. This week, I've been blogging in the morning and going to bed way too late. Last night, I actually worked on a mash-up type thing until 1 or so (CST). This morning, I got up late and am writing words before I go make music. I'm rediscovering the image that I had of what I am trying to do: some sort of mix-up, mash-up, covers, originals, electronics, live performers. Especially if its for performance, the more covers the better. And if they're "original covers" even better.

Let me try to be more specific: electronics providing bass lines, drums, and ephemerals; acoustic instruments providing rhythms and accompaniment through repetitive melodic motives; melodies growing out of this; maybe vocals; samples and remixing done on the computer. I like the idea of starting with a cover but fusing it into an original - or vice versa. Or starting with a mash-up and then morphing it into something else. Like I did yesterday. I'm putting it up on the web presently; just finished uploading. Turns out it's 20 minutes long! Oops. The first 5 or 8 are really good; I lose focus somewhere in the middle. (I created this on the spot, triggering loops and affecting them on the fly.) See if you can pick out any of the samples. Click to listen.

I didn't leave the house yesterday, so I should probably take a walk this afternoon. It snowed a bit more, but it seems like wet snow - the kind that slides off your car before the day is done.

I got some new plug-ins for my PhotoBooth app on my laptop. I'm seeing myself in all sorts of new ways.

the new now

Strange days. I was in Chicago for Saturday night. Spent the day writing a song that I'm debating whether or not to post. It's a rough sketch but really only needs some polishing. That's how I like to do things: 1 concentrated fury of activity. Once I figure out what I'm trying to say, I just want to get it out.

I didn't have much in the way of plans for the weekend, but I really wanted to have a break from last week. But no one was using the house, so I stuck around Friday night (being alone in the woods is inherently less lonely than being alone in a city full of people) and most of the day Saturday (writing the song, which I've decided to post and is uploading), driving back Saturday night to go to a concert - that I caught wind of in an email I got that morning. Sometimes plans just materialize. It was my former cellist Michelle's boyfriend's band, which also featured a friend of my dad's family who I barely knew. Small world.

Sunday was a more action-packed day: brunch with Amos to listen to his orchestra piece, for which I had a lot of really good criticisms; then straight to lunch with the parents at a Greek place in Greek town; then to Darick's for scones. I helped him carry 8 feet of plywood for a life-size portrait he's making of a famous, nearly 8-foot, wrestler. But I'll keep it a secret. Well, here's a hint. Actually, that's a terrible hint. But in looking for a more obvious image, I reconnected a lot of what I had forgotten about Shepard Fairey. Apparently, the Giant has a posse. But now it's Obama's posse. [Darick, by the way, is friends with the guy who made the "I'm with COCO" image, which resulted in nearly a million fans on Facebook, a trip to the show, tens of thousands of dollars in t-shirt and poster sales, protests at the NBC headquarters and whatever may come in the future. Crazy how that shit happens overnight.]

So then to Trader Joe's, which was a mess of a mess of a nightmare, trapped in a cage with rats. But I was pretty chill, despite the lines of 15 to 20 people; they said it was even worse than the holidays and passed out chocolate to people in line. No one knew why it was so busy; week before the super bowl maybe? I wisely avoided the parking lot altogether, parking on the street and walking in. Afterward, I spent the same amount as I did on groceries on a bottle of Macallan's. I had had some a couple weekends ago with my friend Nicole and really liked it. I had some last night after my phone conversation with the medical intuitive who told me I need to sit up straighter - to sit on my sits bones.

Here's the song I wrote on Saturday. It's part of my own personal zeitgeist: saying goodbye to the past, killing it with my song.

I did yoga both this morning and yesterday. It's my thing this week to try to do it every day. I wanted to pick something easy that I could commit to doing, starting with small goals and working up.

It's snowing up here, not hard but enough to recover the ground - which was looking almost bare in some parts.