Julian's Journal, March 12 2009

Saw Watchmen last night. Hrrm.

As you might be able to tell from the previous post, I'm a bit of a Watchmen fan, so I've been waiting 20 years for the film to come out, and I think it was worth it. If you haven't seen the film then be warned - ahead be spoilers.

First off, the casting was great. Each of the main characters was pretty much spot on. Jackie Earle Haley was excellent as Rorschach, Patrick Wilson was great as Dan Dreiberg and Malin Akerman was just right as Laurie Jupiter.

While the film for the most part stuck to the story and structure of the comic, a lot had to be cut away to fit it into 150 minutes. All the sub-plots were stripped away, which pretty much meant the ending had to be changed. All of the newsstand scenes were removed, so that meant that all the stories of the newsstand customers were gone, along with the parallel story of The Black Freighter. The newsstand is there in the shots of the intersection, but we only really see the newsstand owner and the comic-reading boy right at the end.

Visually the film follows the comic pretty well. Little things like the neon sign outside Moloch's apartment stood out, and, like Snyder's previous work 300, frames from the comic continually stand out.

I understand that The Black Freighter will be included with the DVD, and a film version of Under The Hood (you know, after all these years I just got the joke that Hollis Mason is a mechanic as I typed that). I'm not sure how The Black Freighter will fit in without the newsstand scenes as context.

Overall I really enjoyed the film and I'm looking forward to seeing it again to catch more of the little details and references. I think Dr Manhattan would give it a 4 thumbs up.



I know Alan Moore is not associated with the film, but without him there would be no Watchmen.

The man who wasn't there

I noticed today that the pictures of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons on Wikipedia are missing something. Namely, me:




Fanboy that I am.

Nearly another year passes

As usual it's almost a year since I posted. I don't think I've got the hang of this blogging thing. Since I last posted I have drunk a lot more beer and gained a son (those two facts aren't necessarily related). Joe was born on 30th October 2008 and he's now 13lb. His hobbies are singing loudly at 7am, watching Diagnosis Murder, bouncing in his bouncy chair and standing up with someone holding his arms (he thinks he can stand up without anyone holding his arms but he's wrong). His legs know how to crawl but his arms don't, so he's not very mobile.



We're trying to get the flat tidied up ready to sell up and move to North East London so we'll have more than one bedroom and a garden.

Bloody typical

So, typically, just as I start blogging a bit more regularly again, I lose my internet connection at home.

I went out last Thursday evening and met up with a friend at The French House in Soho. A lovely little bar, with lots of character, but it only sells John Smith's extra smooth on tap or Theakston's Old Peculier in bottles. They also don't do pints, and they don't allow mobile phones. It was a hot day and the cold John Smith's was quite refreshing and went down surprisingly well. I used to drink proper John Smith's all the time, but I'm not a fan of pressurized bitters. I had a couple of bottles of Old Peculier, and a Duvel too. While we were there Peter O'Toole popped in and stood right next to me! Which was nice.

Friday evening I discovered our internet connection was down, and it has been down ever since. Tiscali technical support are useless, except to tell us that it is a problem at the exchange and there engineers are working on it. They appear to have no idea what the problem is or when it will be fixed.

In the meantime I've drunk a few more ales from Suffolk, but I guess I'll have to sample them all again if I'm going to review them.

Ridley's Old Bob

Ok, I know. Ridley's were an Essex brewery, but, like so many breweries, they are now owned by Greene King and Old Bob is brewed in Bury St. Edmunds, as are the other 2 beers in the picture. I hope I don't offend anyone by counting these as Suffolk beers, but I was too lazy to walk to Hammersmith to look for more beer.



I had this beer with a vegetable casserole and the two went together well. The initial aroma was quite chocolaty, followed by the scent of hops. The taste is full bodied, not as overpowering as some of the stronger ales, which this isn't at 5.1%, but it's good for sipping or gulping, which is the kind of beer I like! It's a good, proper, no-nonsense bitter. The bottle says that it is "rich and spicy", but since I've been drinking stronger beers the last couple of days I can't say I agree. At least it doesn't say it has a fruitcake aroma. It does say it is a twice gold medal winner, but it doesn't say where.

Adnams Broadside

Tonight's beer is Adnams Broadside, possibly not the best accompaniment to pasta and pesto as it is another strong dark ale. It has an earthy aroma and a treacly taste. Like many strong ales, the bottle describes it as having an aroma of fruit cake. While it is a good beer, it's a little strong tasting to drink more than a couple of bottles of, which is probably just as well as it is a strong beer at 6.3%.



As an aside, Adnams use the wonderful iconic lino engravings of Christopher Wormell on their beermats and advertising. You can't fail to recognise an Adnams beermat. He is also (I should say primarily) an illustrator and has produced some wonderful children's books like The New Alphabet of Animals and Teeth, Tails and Tentacles.



You can buy Christopher Wormell's work from The Illustration Cupboard.

Beer, beer, beer

I think I've found something to write about since I'm not moaning about London Underground so much. Beer. At the moment I'm drinking a bottle a night, for purely medicinal purposes of course. This week I'm trying out Suffolk beers, as my wife is from Suffolk, there are plenty of breweries there, it's fairly local to London, and I like Suffolk beers.

The following "reviews" have already been posted on the Beer thread at Neil Gaiman's boards.



Greene King Strong Suffolk Vintage Ale, bought by my wife as she is originally from Suffolk.
To start with, the bottle says that it is "a unique blend of two classic ales, BPA and Old 5X. Old 5X is aged in oak for 2 years". I don't think I've ever had a blended ale before, or a 2 year old one (except perhaps from one of those pubs that only sells 1 pint of bitter a month, so the beer has been sat in the cellar for 2 years in an aluminium cask).

This beer is good. Very good. It's strong at 6%, dark, and quite sweet. On first taste it reminded me of honey, but the notes on the back say it has a spicy, fruitcake aroma and flavours of oak, caramel and burnt toffee, which I can't disagree with. I probably couldn't drink more than a couple of them at a time, but it goes very well with food. Highly recommended!

Tonight I have a bottle of Adnams East Green Carbon Neutral Beer.

Immediately on popping the cap I could smell the fresh, crisp aroma. it's a fairly light beer, both in colour and strength at 4.3%, with a fresh, crisp taste to match the aroma and a light citrus hoppy flavour. (I decided to describe the flavour in my own words and found I was very close to the way they described it on the bottle, so this thread is educating my palate.)

It is made at their new brewery in East Green, Southwold, which is the UK's newest and, they believe, most energy efficient. The Adnams bottles across the range now use 33% less glass and feel quite lightweight and delicate. The ingredients for this beer were locally sourced (Maris Otter malted barley, Boadicea hops) and the with a little offsetting it makes the beer carbon neutral.

I think this will become another favourite, as it is light enough to drink at lunchtime. MrsK says she has had so many sips of real ales in the last 2 weeks that the baby will be born with a beard.