Pictures of the New Place

Since our arrival, I've been busily working towards making our new place as home-like as possible. The massive task was finally completed as of Saturday, which was a result of my discovering that hosting is a massive incentive towards getting everything done by a fixed date. ;-) (I'll have to make note of that!)

Anyhow, here are some pictures of the new place. It's a Heritage building, built in 1916, and has been refinished in a way that enhances its utility but fully retains its charm. :-)

This is the dining room,

And the living room,
Best spot EVER for reading:

The master bedroom...

...and the bathroom, complete with CAST-IRON, CLAWFOOT TUB!
This is the office / second bedroom,
And the GORGEOUS kitchen, featuring more cupboard space than we know what to do with! Wanda fits in nicely here...

The kitchen then leads out onto a sunny deck, ensconced in trees...
Not pictured is the beautiful garden, whose technical gardening needs exceed my expertise by a large measure. Wish me luck in figuring that one out! :-P

And then, for any more room we need, there's another bedroom / entertainment area in the basement, as well as a massive storage room.

Yes, we did quite well in finding this place... we love it! Not as much room as our house in Ottawa, and since we're only renting, we live in constant terror of damaging the house, but it serves our needs for now. :-)

So what's next for me? Now that the house is set up, it's time to turn my eye to the finer details -- in particular, paperwork. Filing for damages incurred through the move, officially changing our address, figuring out the finances, applying for BC identification, etc. While it's not nearly as exciting a task as unpacking mystery boxes and revealing all the neat stuff one owns, it's about as necessary. :-P

Mingled in there is also a search for work, but given the dire economic forecast for BC's near future, we'll see how that goes. (In the meantime, I get to pretend I'm Donna Reed.) LOL

Until next time! ;-)

Arrival

We've arrived safely in Victoria, BC, which has greeted me with two things.

The first was Victoria Fringe Festival fanfare, plastered all about the city in efforts to notify the public of impending Fringe awesomeness. (Indeed, the lineup I've spotted, including a repeat performance of the legendary "Power of
Ignorance" seminar, has gotten me excited to check it out!)

The second greeting was a THREE INCH WOLF SPIDER lurking a foot away from the airmattress I was supposed to sleep in. Gyaaaaaaaaahhh! Luckily, he has since been dispatched, and our real furniture has arrived, so the danger seems over... for now. Still, in what way is it beneficial for house-dwelling spiders to grow so big?? It just seems so unnecessary, UNLIKE those efficiently-sized (but still adequately creepy) 1.5" mainland wolf spiders.

Tropical climes seem to be all fun and games, until the giant mutant arachnids start arriving...! ;-)

Mixed greeting circumstances aside, Dave and I are doing very well with settling in to our lovely little place in Victoria. Will post pictures, once it no longer resembles boxworld. ;-)

Fantastic Time-Wasters

Since Dave and I have been occupied with the move, there has not been much time to blog. That being said, allow me to leave you with an amusing placeholder consisting of my YouTube favourites. Enjoy!














...and an oldie but a goodie, Charlie the Unicorn!

Final Wine Tasting Party Chez Helgahume

Phew! After a month of total craziness (househunting, out-of-province wedding, and a family health emergency), I finally have enough time to update the blog.

The final HelgaHume wine tasting party took place earlier this month, with the theme of EL CHEAPO. Specifically, all bottles (regular-sized) had to be under $15. I took many recommendations, and broke out a few of Dave and my favourites as well.

The results broke all previous records -- the winner was a few percent points higher than previous winners, and the loser saw a massive 20% chasm between it and previous losers. Either the wines really are that different, or my wine gang is getting opinionated! ;-)

Congratulations goes to Australia's Jacob's Creek, who won the title of Tastiest El Cheapo of the evening. Chateau des Charmes is, meanwhile, sporting the badge of shame.

Well, that is it (for now) for our Ottawa wine-tasting events... Hopefully Dave and I can do the same thing when we move to Victoria. Luckily, the (gorgeous!) house we found is quite amenable to hosting, and so we look forward to doing a lot of it. :-)

In the meantime, stay tuned for more news on the move!

Wine Tasting Party Chez Helgahume, Part 2

On June 6, we hosted another wine-tasting party Chez Helgahume.

This time, some white wines were incorporated -- partly due to demand, partly due to the heat. We compared three different Sauvignon Blancs, and four Cabernet Sauvignons, all coming from different countries. As before, the cheeses were selected by experts at the House of Cheese, whose great customer service (and products!) I cannot recommend enough.

While Chilean wine is usually very nice, these two finished on the bottom. The CabSav had some suspected corkage, which is an unfortunate risk in buying so many bottles. My favourite SauvBlanc, Oyster Bay, surprisingly finished with a lower score than the half-priced (but also tasty) Two Oceans. Then again, Two Oceans beat out all the competition despite being the only cheap wine on the table. Good job! :-)

So, in honour of the cheapo wine winning the competition, the final HelgaHume wine-tasting party shall feature ONLY cheapo wines! Nothing on the table will be over $15. Well, except the cheeses.

Got any recommendations? I'd love to hear them!

We have a cat.

So Dave and I were walking home from having midweek beers on a patio, and came across a sweet little cat wandering around Holland ave. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Ottawa, Holland avenue is a very busy road, with buses and SUV's cruising by at top speed. Not a good place for a cat to be meandering.

Seeing she had a collar and tag, we took her home to call her owner. (No worries, we locked the basement door to avoid cat/bunny "acquaintance" from occurring.) BUT, when we tried to call the number, it was unassigned!!! Uh oh!

It's late, it's a weeknight, the Humane Society is not open, we can't go knocking on doors, and we have a little cat mewing expectantly at us. We can't just set her outside again to let her get hit by a car... so we put her in the kitchen for the night, with a dish of water and a bit of canned salmon. However, our house being old means that no doors in it really, actually close properly (besides the basement door), so it took no time at all for her to find her way into our bedroom. She snuzzled up to Dave, who by this time had become her buddy.

Anyhow, this morning we put a call in to the Humane Society, who matched us up with Gracie's owner (who had reported having lost her). The owner is due to arrive today to pick the cat up.

So the lesson? Please ensure your pets are tagged with current contact information! It would have saved Dave and I fretting about what to do last night. Though that being said, our 12 hours of being cat owners was kind of fun. And it was a pleasure to meet Gracie; in my experience, cats don't get much cuter or sweet-tempered than her.

I guess all of this just goes to show that we're in serious pet withdrawal. ;-)

It's official.

This blog began in order to chronicle our adventure in New Zealand.

It continued on by chronicling the move back to Canada, and our re-integration into Ottawa life.

And now, Dave and I are officially announcing our third phase of adventuring, soon to be underway... in August, we are moving to Victoria, British Columbia.

Why the move? Well, Dave got offered an excellent job with the BC public service, doing important and cutting-edge work with citizen engagement. As for me, I'm not sure what I will do when I get there... but there seems to be a load of promising options, so I'm not at all worried. :-)

The plan is to stay for 2-3 years, then return to Ottawa.

There are most certainly some aspects of this opportunity that make me sad... we have so many wonderful friends here, and a fantastic house in an exciting part of town, and I simply love my job. I will miss them all terribly.

On the other hand, what an amazing adventure to be embarking on! Dave and I are very blessed to have this opportunity, and fully intend to make the most of it. Dave's job is very cool, and I now have a chance to step back from my day-to-day work and evaluate what direction I want for my career. I get to choose my path based on the knowledge gaps I want to fill in the next few years. Exciting!!

(Or maybe I can just spend my days ogling the cute bunnies on the UVic campus.)

Plus, Dave has a fantastic friend-base in Victoria who I am eager to get to know better. From what I've seen, they are lovely people.

More details will come as the date nears. But in the meantime, rest assured that Ottawa most certainly hasn't seen the last of us. We'll be back like a bad smell. ;-)

An interesting aside...

So I have promised to reread The Omnivore's Dilemma and share some of its highlights.

This plan, however, has suffered from a highly unexpected crimp -- all of a sudden, this book has gone from NO demand to HIGH demand! When I first checked the book out from the Ottawa library, many of the copies were checked in, and there was no waiting list. I was able to renew my checkout for weeks upon weeks due to no one wanting the book afterwards.

Now it is the opposite. I now have to queue for even receiving the book at all, and then once I have it, I cannot even renew it due to the waiting list after me.

So what's going on? How did this dramatic change of demand happen? Has the zeitgeist taken a sudden and collective interest in this years-old book? Has there been a renewed publicity for the author, Pollan?

...or, is it possible that this blog has something to do with it...?!? That's a scary thought! Hmm...

Wine Tasting Party Chez Helgahume

Last Saturday, I hosted a mystery wine-tasting party, where twenty friends and I tasted seven different types of wine. Each label of wine was totally hidden, so that we needed to determine our preferences based on taste alone.

The evening was a ton of fun, and had some surprising results. So, for your amusement (and reference), here is what everyone said!

The big surprise of the evening was how well the Ontario Pinot Noir did... but hey, you can't argue with tasty! ;-)

So these are the results for the wine tasting party. The next such party is scheduled for June 6, so if you want in, email me!

Just Finished

This morning, while avoiding cleaning up after last nights' wine-tasting party, I finished "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

For me, it is a very good sign when I am compelled to restart something immediately after having finished it. The last time that happened was while watching Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises", a film so indescribably brave, visceral, and cunning, it demanded an immediate rewatching, lest my feeble human mind had missed, or failed to fully appreciate, something meaningful.

(Who am I to argue with living, breathing art?)

Nonetheless, a similar occurrence has happened with "The Omnivore's Dilemma" -- the book is so dense with information and insights, I hope a second reading will help me digest it (oh no! return of the puns!!! I'll stop now.)

So here, I will leave you with an example of a story in the book, one that made me laugh aloud this morning. Pollan describes his abalone hunting adventure, which sounds both dangerous and comical. For those of you unfamiliar with the absurd activity of abalone hunting (as I was), it involves wading deep into freezing water, upturning submerged boulders and quickly jamming one's hand into the crevice to catch the abalone shell... but often ending up instead with a mittfull of slimy anemone, or sea urchin spines. Sea lions will watch, mockingly, but are better company than the alternative -- man-eating sharks.

Is it just me, or does this sound like a Bugs Bunny cartoon waiting to happen?

Anyhow, there will be more posts about the cool tidbits I find. Also, count on a report on the wine party... results are being compiled now! :-)

Things I Miss about New Zealand, part 14

I miss how totally blasé New Zealanders are about the fact that they've had two elected female Prime Ministers.

Not only were they, as a nation, sufficiently progressive to elect a capable and qualified female Prime Minister (twice!)... they've even gotten over thinking there's anything unusual about it. Moreover, Kiwi news reports would focus on what Helen Clark would SAY, not what she was WEARING. Imagine!

Aside from the political sphere, New Zealand has a culture that rewards assertive women. This is likely a functional byproduct of many different aspects of NZ culture, including population, isolation, founding cultures (Maori, Pacific Islanders, British, Dutch), and interestingly, the relative lack of men.

For instance, if a (hetero) Kiwi gal is at a bar, and thinks that guy over there is cute, she can't just play with her hair and hope he comes by to say hi. Since women outnumber men, chances are other girls have spotted him too -- so if she's hoping to talk to him, she'd better hop to it before someone else beats her to the punch.

Also, I suspect the lack of men also compromised the (old/white) boys-on-top corporate model that we Canadians know so well, creating a vacuum for a few assertive, qualified women. Once those pioneers are settled, a few more women join in. Soon, a woman in charge is no more surprising than a man in charge, with *merit* being the overwhelmingly dominant evaluating factor in either case.

The equality then begins to perpetuate itself; when you're running an OECD-class country with only 4 million people, there's simply too much work needing to be done to play favourites about who does it. Man? Woman? Gay? Straight? Maori? Pakeha? Ach, who cares, just get the job done. Or, as the Kiwis say, "Give it a go!"

(Note, I am NOT perscribing having fewer men around -- I happen to be a very big fan of men. Do consider, though, that in a world with fewer princes, Rapunzel might well have figured out have save her damn self!) ;-)

In my experience, I found Kiwi culture to be, on the whole, much further along in the path to equality between the sexes. Not to say that New Zealand has everything figured out -- there are other social issues, such as racism, that Dave and I encountered much more acutely there than here -- but seeing a society in which women were that much more respected and active, I was inspired.

Men and women are different, but equal, and both have valuable contributions to any aspect of life. A profession dominated by one sex, either one, is poorer for its monoculture.

Compare that to Canada, who is comparatively backwards. Our national stance on women's rights has been crumbling in an alarming silence. I'm not sure which sickens me more -- that Bill C-10 got passed, or that I didn't hear about the (farcical) "Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act" portion until now, completely by accident. For those of you unfamiliar with this act, it revokes federal public service employees' rights to complain to the Canadian Human Rights Commission when pay equity is not honoured, and FINES unions that assist the employee. Let's think -- who is at risk for pay inequity? Working women. This is clearly a blow to closing the pay gap between men and women. Moreover, the fact that Ignatieff helped C-10 along deeply sours my hopes for him as a prospective leader.

(And furthermore, why wasn't this all front page news? Where is the outrage?)

Yep, sexual equality in Canada is a ways away yet. But I'm grateful for New Zealand, who shows us that not only can men and women work together as partners, but perhaps eventually we may not see anything unusual about it.

Food Fascination

Lately, I have been getting increasingly interested in the origins of our food. I'm not overly sure why this fascination has taken hold now.

Maybe it's all these years of glossy city-living finally coming into collision with my country bumpkin roots, where eggs come from pet chickens and kids bring pig hearts to school for show-and-tell.

Maybe it's the recent listeria and mad cow scares, those visible, festering sores brewing on the skin of our diseased meat industries.

Maybe it's that now, in the twilight of my twenties, I'm old enough to really vote with my dollars, but still young enough to have the fire and vitriol about right and wrong.

Or maybe all of this is a bizarre form of nostalgia for New Zealand, where the following conversation actually happened:

Karla: "Hi there, is this beef organic?"
Supermarket butcher: "What? What do you mean?"
Karla: "Oh, uhm..." (realizing she didn't know what organic beef is, exactly) "...is it grass-fed?"
Butcher, with look of perplexed disdain: "Of course -- what ELSE do cows eat?"

Good question. I didn't know what normal Canadian cows ate, but given the rarity of grass-fed beef, it certainly wasn't grass. Which seems weird since, of course, cows eat grass. So what are they eating? I realized I needed to find out.

Navigating the food information is tricky, since much of this information is "hogged" by animal rights propagandists. According to the multi-billion-dollar studies of the US Department of Homeland Security, the most active and dangerous terrorist organization on this continent's soil are animal rights activists... so naturally, I would prefer to "steer" clear of their input.

(I know, these puns aren't all that cow-mical... ok, I'll stop.) ;-)

Nonetheless, I needed to find an even-handed, non-shockumentary look at the sources of our food. And I found it, via an excellent book called "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

This interesting, balanced, non-judgemental narrative follows four meals, from seed to birth to plate. The first meal described is the fast food meal made by industrial agriculture, the second by industrial organic agriculture, the third by holistic organic, and the last as wholly hunted, gathered, and grown by the author himself. He reflects on and compares everything, from philosophy to final taste, weighing the pros and cons of each.

This book is full of deliciously interesting tidbits and food for thought... and since I'm thinking about it as much as I am, you will certainly be hearing more at a later date.

But don't worry, I'm not at all interested in becoming a nutso hippie living off grubs and poison ivy, either. So, my future posts will not be intended to disgust or veganize you, but to share what I've learned. Maybe we can even discuss it sometime, over a delicious, grass-fed steak.

Until then, bon appetit! :-)

Fringe Prep

While the Ottawa Fringe Festival does not start until June, I'm already getting my preparations underway. My plans are thus:

1. Do research, pinpoint interesting shows given the companies behind them (as in, be on the lookout for shows by Winnipeg Fringe faves like Randy Rutherford, TJ Dawe, and Keir Cutler).
2. Amass an army, with the aim of sending out cells to investigate different shows (naturally, with myself among them). Doing this would accomplish two goals: Maximize the number of shows to see and recommend (or warn against), and dramatically increase Fringe awareness and participation in Ottawa.
3. Uncover the Ottawa Fringe culture, which is a sadly inconspicuous and unsupported group of people (compared to Winnipeg), and expand my network of co-conspirators.

So, in honour of these plans coming to fruition, allow me to share a clip from one of my favourite shows from last year.

This is a music video from Die Roten Punkte, a show about a (fictional) German brother and sister rock band who play a faux-rock-concert (but with real music!). There is a plot about their childhood, etc, that is revealed during their interactions onstage and with the audience. It was hysterically funny, especially when Dave got drawn into the show.

Astrid: "Hey you! You with the stubble! Ya, you're pretty cute! Let me sing you a song..."

...which basically was a rock version of a drum solo to an orgasm, while the brother glares daggers at my husband. I laughed so much, I hurt afterwards.

Anyhow, enjoy their biggest single, "Ich bin nicht die roboten (I am not a robot), I am a lion!"

Easter Special: Bunny Tales!

As mentioned in a previous post, I've been fostering bunnies for the New Moon Rabbit Rescue.

In short, the organization rescues abandoned (pet) bunnies, then fosters them out to homes that will train and resocialize the bunny. Once the bunny is ready, it is then put up for adoption... and then adopted.

The first foster was a bun named Nala, a 7 lb. lionhead with a sweet personality and a mischievous love of people-food. Like a dog, she would get an immediate interest in anything she saw you eating, and would not rest until she got to try some. One time she even upturned a plate on my lap when I "cruelly" refused to share some cake.

Because of a previous illness, her head was permanently tilted to one side, thus giving her the look of an attentive listener. We got to know each other for a few months, and then a lovely young lady adopted her.

Immediately after Nala, I fostered a very young dwarf rabbit named Sinatra -- so named for his blue eyes. His personality is totally different than Nala's; he's a cute little bundle of nervous energy, always darting around and adventuring into places he shouldn't be.

Partly due to his brief stay chez Helgahume, and partly to his general lack of interest in affection or food, we haven't bonded quite as much... but he's an adorable little feller all the same.

Anyhow, last weekend a very nice young man came to meet Sinatra, and has decided to adopt. This will be our last week with Sinatra, and I'm both happy that he's found a good home, and sad to see him go.

What will foster bunny #3 be like...? Stay tuned to find out! But in the meantime, always remember this: Bunnies should never be gifts for Easter... unless they're delicious, delicious chocolate! :-)

Forwarded Joke

This is a forwarded joke email that gave me a chuckle... it was too good not to share. :-) Enjoy!

Why parents should always check their children's homework before they hand it in

A first grade girl handed in the drawing below for a homework assingment.

After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:


Dear Ms. Davis,

I want to be very clear on my child's illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This photo is of me selling a shovel.

Conspiracy Unveiled!

An ultra-secret conspiracy has been in the making since mid-January. The topic? The 30th birthday of my dear friend, Beatrice.

I forget exactly how the idea of a surprise birthday party came up, but the idea caught on like wildfire among our peers.

We debated various options, worked out details, and planned the event itself, all in complete secrecy. Only a handful of people knew entirely what was going on, but there were also cells of operatives sent out to accomplish small tasks... tasks which, in some cases, left the operatives no more certain of how their mission fit into the whole. (And I got to be puppet master! Mua ha!)


We even planned a red-herring birthday bash for the following Saturday (which happens to be tonight) so that a lack of plans would not make the extraordinarily clever birthday girl suspicious.


And somewhere along the line, we got the idea of having everyone at the celebration wearing matching t-shirts. I researched custom tee printing places (sidenote: Pierre at Daquin Sales is amazing!) and worked up the design myself... a logo of a fantastic statistics pun. We were the "Standard Deviants" who were "95% Confident"! How awesome was that??


All the planning came to fruition on Tuesday, Bea's actual birthday. The tees turned out marvellously, and a horde of 30+ multicoloured tee-wearers descended upon The Standard on Elgin to await the birthday girl and her husband. Brian was in cahoots with the plot, and so he ensured they arrived after giving us lot sufficient time to decorate. I had brought streamers and balloons (I love you, Dollar Store!), and we all got to work in setting up our tables.

With a successfully decorated section of the restaurant, I grabbed a much-needed champagne-mojito (mmm!) and waited. The couple was perfectly on time. We made a ruckus, all jumping up and yelling "SURPRISE!", and Bea was exactly that.

After laughs and hugs, she and Brian changed into their own custom tees (including a cool math-joke on Bea's... B=d/dx(30x)... B is 30! Aaaah, calculus...) and the party was underway. We had dinner and cocktails, punctuated by a hugely successful Bea-themed limerick competition. Mine was unspectacular, but got the ball rolling sufficiently well:

There once was a girl named Bea,
Whose cat climbed up a tree
Since she had her druthers
She bought another
And now, of cats, she has three.

Of course, the limericks needed to be read aloud to a large group, in a restaurant filled with other tables, so that (unfortuntely) prevented the naughtier ones from airing. Nonetheless, the competition was a huge success.


After dinner was drinking and talking, and then more drinking. For better or for worse, Jagerbombs were on special for $4 per, so the waitress was soon bringing tray after tray of those. Things got kind of nutty, as you will see from the Flickr photos, but incredibly fun. The restaurant brought in a DJ at 10:00, and we danced until about 1:00AM. Not bad for a Tuesday! ;-)





Wednesday was a little rough for most of us, though more for lack of sleep than drinking. However, all that planning and secrecy was more than worth it, as Bea herself told us that it was her best birthday yet.






I'm still beaming. :-)

Air Canada, I despise you.

The utter ineptitude of this airline is staggering. For those of you reading from the rest of the world, you should feel grateful that you do not have to deal with Air Canada's shabby planes, rude service and diabolically useless website.

I was minding my own business, booking a (somewhat) reasonable fare for my trip to Victoria next week. I selected the flights, went through menu after menu of mandatory Air Canada options, etc, then input my credit card info. After I'd put in all the info, including the extra-special-Visa-password, I click the "Confirm Purchase" button. As in, CONFIRM the PURCHASE I'm obviously in the process of making.

Then, instead of being brought to an Itinerary page, the page reloads with an error message: In the four minutes that have elapsed since selecting the flights, the price has jumped THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

As it happens, while I was purchasing the seat, that seat had been bought by someone else. Meaning, Air Canadas' website does not temporarily hold a seat being purchased, even for the standard 5 minutes (which are required to fill out all those damnable fields of information). Those Air Canada cretins built a website in which seats you are purchasing are not guaranteed until the precise moment the credit card is accepted.

(And even then, recalling AC's fondness for randomly cancelling flights and changing itineraries, I suppose the flights aren't all that guaranteed even after purchase.)

Even Ticketmaster holds the seats for you for 3 minutes. And when Ticketmaster is a less barbaric option, you know things are bad.

Air Canada, you have utterly screwed me over. Your useless, needlessly unfair website and unapologetic customer service agents have teamed up to thoroughly sour my mood on my one night off this week.

In sum: You suck, and everyone should be reminded of your suckage. (Not that Canadians ever forget, but we often find ourselves underestimating the sheer scale of the sucking...)

Pleasant Surprise

Despite extreme skepticism, I was very much impressed by the movie, Watchmen.

Watchmen, the original graphic novel, is one of the most influential graphic novels of all time, and began the trend of deconstructing the superhero. It is a long, meandering story of people who once were masked vigilantes, but did so for reasons having more to do with their own neuroses than actually saving people. These people are flawed, lost, and extremely human, trying to cope within a context of oppressive normalcy.

The city is, as always, New York, but the USA is not one that we would recognize... it is 1985, the Vietnam war had been won, and a very popular President Nixon is serving his fifth term after having abolished term limits. The Cold War's seething presence permeates every frame, tangibly escalating over the course of the novel.

Within this rich backdrop, the plot begins with the murder of an old man. We soon learn that this man was once a masked vigilante, and has since become an operative for government black ops. His former colleagues, fellow retired masks, work together to solve the mystery, and end up uncovering something much bigger. I will say no more, but suffice to say, the end result is simply brilliant.

Now, the main criticism of the book is that there is a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of extra, "useless" sideplots and information. While I agree that much of what transpires in the book is not totally plot-relevant, I defend the presence of extra material for many reasons. First, it fleshes out the universe in which the plot happens, which is key to understanding the plot itself. Second, many of the subplots serve as fascinating parallels to the actual events transpiring in the story. Thirdly, and most importantly, IT'S A FRIKKIN' CONSPIRACY STORY! If a plot is A to B, B to C, it's NOT a conspiracy, it's a Dan Brown novel. Conspiracies need obfuscation to breathe properly, to mature and strengthen.

Nonetheless, all of these factors combine to make a completely unfilmable movie. Taking a meandering, complex, and morally ambiguous story with utterly pathetic protagonists within a rich alternate universe, and conveying it to audiences hungering for 90-minute vinyl-clad punch-ups simply cannot be done. No way.

Or so I had thought.



The movie definitely trimmed out a lot from the novel, but instead managed to achieve much of the same effect via film-specific methods: music, montages, cameos of era-appropriate celebrities, re-enactments of crucial historic events. For three hours, 1985 was vividly alive to me.

Moreover, the news that the ending had been changed (gasp!) sent off alarm bells to fans everywhere; in fact, the change made sense, and it worked. While I personally prefer the original, the alternative presented by the movie is no less valid.

Also, the actors did an excellent job -- in some cases, they actually gave new depth to the characters. Crudup brought a fascinating melancholy and detached tenderness to the deity-like Dr. Manhattan, and super-genius Ozymandias worked well as a reinvented dandy, rather than an aryan Ken doll. Rorschach, the most cult-favoured character of all, offered the least leeway of interpretation and required the most accurate portrayal, and Haley delivered.

In sum, the movie blew me away. However, I am NOT going to recommend it. Of the 10 people I saw it with, only 3 liked it -- the rest, I'm guessing, had expected glib dialogue, relentless action, and well-defined good-vs-evil plotlines. Watchmen is absolutely not that. Instead, it asks you to involve your imagination in knowing and breathing the context alongside the characters. It shows you flawed, painfully normal humans puttering through their ambiguous, fear-drenched lives. And in the end, it requires you to consider that good and evil are unnervingly relative.