(no subject)

[miko2]

Today's Song: The End is the Beginning is the End by the Smashing Pumpkins

When I watched the trailer for The Watchmen: the Movie a couple of weeks ago, my first thought was that the music seemed familiar. Then I realized it was a Smashing Pumpkins song, but a much slower version than I was used to. Finally I placed the song... The End is the Beginning is the End, which, I realized, had been on one of the Batman movie soundtracks from a few years ago. In fact I'd bought that soundtrack just for this song -- but I liked the slower version in the Watchman trailer much better. It has a mood that fits the dark feel of the movie trailer well, and even the title fits with one of the themes of the book, where at the end Ozymandius asks Dr. Manhattan if he'd done the right thing, if it had all worked out in the end, and Dr. Manhattan says, "Nothing ever ends."

I lent my Watchman graphic novel to my boss who is a comics fan but last read it when he was a young kid and really didn't understand it or find it that interesting. He's liking it much better now. I skimmed through parts of it before lending it to him -- it's such a well-written story, you can't help but reread parts of it when you pick it up -- and then I went back and watched the movie trailer again. This time I picked up on nearly everything that's in the trailer. Visually, at least, it looks like they got the movie down exactly right. That's about all you can say from a movie trailer I suppose, but they already have action figures and various merchandise available even though the movie isn't due out until next Spring. They're ratcheting up for this to be a big box office draw, it seems.

After watching the trailer again I thought, "I wonder if I can download that version of the song." Turns out it's one of the 114 tracks that the Smashing Pumpkins put out on iTunes as their giant collection of "rarities and b-sides". Not surprisingly, it's currently their most-downloaded track so it popped right up as soon as I typed in their name.

The Smashing Pumpkins -- The End is the Beginning is the End (slow Watchman version)

Watchman Movie trailer

The Smashing Pumpkins -- The End is the Beginning is the End (fast Batman version)