In Which John is Entertained

So, the other night, I saw "A Dark Day's Knight" which is a musical based on the world of Star Wars. It was produced and written by students here. The story is basically a tragic love story between a young Jedi sent to investigate the murder of a Galactic Counsel member and a worker girl at a brothel. All of the songs are actually popular songs with new lyrics based on the story. This included parodies of Bohemian Like You, Come As You Are, and Killing Me Softly With His Song. It was pretty fun.

Of course there were impressive lightsaber battles, for what Star Wars musical wouldn't have them? I really enjoyed the story because it wasn't trying to weasel it's way into the pre-existing Star Wars canon, but rather happened to be set in the Star Wars era, like a medieval play or a western. The story came first and the Star Wars came second.

The next day I went to a couple classes, then remembered that Watchmen came out that day, so I went to see it. It was the middle of a school day, so the theater was virtually empty, although there was a guy dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow (according to the woman at the concession stand, this guy comes to every "nerdy fan movie" dressed as Sparrow).

I thought the movie was an overall success. I hadn't read the story in a long time, so it was nice to be familiar with the plot and still be effected emotionally by the twists and turns. I had gone in knowing that the ending had been altered from the story, but I didn't really remember the original ending, so when I checked it later, I was surprised at how the new ending fit in a lot better to the themes and emotions of the story. There were a few hokey moments that could've been tweaked (especially at the very end) and Nixon was a bit laughable. But I was pleased with the movie, and I think it did a very good job.

Afterwards, I had dinner with a few of the guys from the DDK cast. They are cool folk. One of them let me know that I got into the upcoming short play revue, but he didn't tell me which one (although apparently the directors were fighting over who got me for their play).

That night I went to the University Bar to celebrate my roommate Matt's birthday, but it was not as fun as last week, so I left early and chose to sit in a tree and admire the stars, which was much more beautiful.