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It took me until early this year to finally get around to reading “Watchmen,” the seminal graphic novel. Up until that point, I was intrigued, but couldn’t make time for it (which is funny, considering some of the other crap I made time to read). Since I read it, I know what the hype is all about, and it’s well-deserved. It’s maybe one of the most intriguing and depressing alternate-history tales ever told.

A movie is in production, which is the kind of thing that strikes dread into the heart of a true graphics novel (or comics) fan. Look what happened to “V for Vendetta!” But I have to admit, the trailer looks pretty damn awesome. I think that Zack Snyder (whose work I admire tremendously, see Dawn of the Dead [2004] and 300, for example) is the perfect person to bring this story to the screen.

I’ve heard the trailer might appear before the new Batman movie, but it’s online now anyway. Watch the trailer here, and feel the hairs stand up on your arms and the back of your neck.

Performed by Meiko Kaji:

Of course most people know this song from the Kill Bill movies, but it was actually originally recorded in the early 70s for a series of Japanese films about female convicts! Here’s the translation of the lyrics:

You’re beautiful, you’re the flower, he praises you.
But if you bloom, he will get you scattered.
Stupid. So stupid.
I go so stupid singin’ my grudge blues.

You can accept your pitiful fate.
But when you cry, he’ll make you cry more.
Women, oh women,
It’s women’s tears that makes my grudge blues.

I hate you. Full of regret, never forgiven.
Try to erase my memory, but cannot forget you.
It never ends, never,
It never ends, ’cause that’s my grudge blues.

They say it’s a dream, embers of one-sided attachment,
laughing at you.
So you decide to wake up, but fear to be fully awake.
Women, oh women,
Women’s soul beats on my grudge blues.

Crimson roses have its sharp thorns.
Don’t wanna hurt you, but have to stab you with my thorn.
Burning, it’s burning,
It keeps on burning within my grudge blues.

No flower would bloom on my dead body.
So I will live along hanging on my grudge.
Women, oh women,
My woman’s life belongs to my grudge blues.

So what are you wishing for this holiday season? I guess I already bought myself a Christmas gift, although I got it at the beginning of November - my iPhone. I love this little toy and have not regretted the purchase for a second. With the iPhone, I’m all taken care of in the Christmas present department.

(Is it sad that one of the best gifts I’ve ever gotten came from…me? I’m leaning more towards it feeling “empowered,” rather than “pathetic.”)

If I had to create a “wish list” for Christmas I’d wish for lot of abstract things - at first. Stuff like perfect health for my daughter, my husband, and me; a job for my husband (now that would be a great Xmas); and the resurgence of progressive values in American society. Unfortunately you can’t fit any of that stuff under the tree, so here are the top 10 items on my Amazon wishlist, commercial and crass as they may be:

1. Blade Runner (Five-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition)
2. Ray-Ban RB 2113 Wayfarers with Flex, tortoise frames/brown lenses
3. Amazon Gift Certificate <———– is that cheating?
4. BioShock for PC
5. Eye-Fi Wireless 2GB SD Memory Card
6. Any set of Justice League (or JL Unlimited) DVDs
7. Extra Pentax DL-I8 battery (for my camera)
8. My Boring Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus (Volumes 1 and 2)
10. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier (Alan Moore)

What’s on your wish list?

Apropos of nothing, a random list of movies that I love. Most of these are older. Some of them are beloved by many, others are (seemingly) only beloved by me. Am I crazy? Got other ideas? Leave a comment.

• Chinatown
• Young Frankenstein
• Evil Under the Sun
• Terms of Endearment*
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
• Alien
• Aliens*
• Goodfellas*
• Body Double
• North by Northwest
• The Professional (aka Leon)*
• Singin’ in the Rain*
• Blade Runner
• Bringing Up Baby

*Items with asterisks are films that my husband has found me watching for the nth time and said, in a slightly accusatory tone of voice, “You love this movie! If it’s on TV you HAVE to watch it!” Yeah…so?