So, struggled out of bed after not nearly enough sleep (screwed myself on Spring Forward Day again), dressed, and went downtown to see Watchmen at the Uptown.

Worth the $8.75 I reimbursed Mr. Dunham for the ticket, that's for sure. Zack Snyder did an excellent job of translating Alan Moore's graphic novel to the big screen, trimming some subplots that weren't really relevant to the main plotline, making some minor tweaks to various scenes, and overall cutting the thing down to a manageable 3-hour movie. It moved fast, too; there were fewer slow moments than in Apocalypse Now, my gold standard for horrible stories well told. I did not like the movie's ending any more than I did the original's, but given that the subplot behind the original ending was axed, I understand they had to do something, and stealing the plot from Joe Haldeman's "To Howard Hughes: A Modest Proposal" was apparently right out. (Though they did come close.) They did keep Rorschach, arguably the movie's hero, almost 100% true to the book, though the origin scene was tweaked -perhaps to avoid lawsuit from Saw franchise? ;)

Anyhow, I don't want to nitpick it to death, because tbqh I wasn't a big fan of Moore's graphic novel. In fact, the ending pissed me off so much I wound up selling my copy on eBay. You can take the boy out of the Cold War, but you can't take the Cold War out of the boy.

tl;dr - if you liked the book, go see the movie. If you didn't read the book, go see the movie anyway. It's very well done.

So after the move, digex, therevdrnye, Messrs. Dunham & Wright, and Mike from NPR motored on out to Germantown, where we dined at Roy's Place, which is made of strange meats, odd condiments, and awesome; I cannot recommend it enough. Conversation ranged from the movie to political corruption to Cuba to the vile & repulsive Katarina Witt by way of Trabant jokes, LARPs, The Man Who Saved Britain, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, not necessarily in that order. Good food, good company, and good conversation - about as good as it gets without sex, drugs and/or rock & roll. Afterward, the remaining five of us piled into digex's little red truck and headed back to the Rockville Metro station, where we finally broke up and went our separate ways home.

It was a long ride back to Van Dorn Street.
Bedtime will come early tonight, I think.