Pete Best was there.
Harley-Davidson was there.

The crowd was mixed in age, gender, and socio-economic appearance, but not terribly diverse in terms of race. In terms of audience, it reminded me a bit of when I saw the Grateful Dead in the late ’80s; older people recapturing their youth and perhaps feeling more relevant as a result, younger people romanticizing a time in the past they never experienced (one could say this is similar to Civil War re-enactments and Renaissance festivals, since it is).

The bands themselves were actually quite enjoyable. Some dressed as specific-era Beatles, some were from foreign countries, and most all of them used ‘authentic’ instruments. At first I thought it was kind of odd imagining having a career that revolved around performing the music of a singular (defunct) band, but upon reflection, how is it really any different than performing the works of, say, Beethoven or Mozart or even Shakespeare? I actually imagine that variants of this event could be intriguing and successful–a Woodstock re-enactment, or maybe a Jacksons-inspired festival. I know a few people who’d pay good money for an all-day Madonnafest.

Music festivals are always in themselves slight curiosities (and therefore delicious for someone who loves to observe things); with a few notable exceptions, the crowds exist within the spirit of the music. Events like Lollapalooza and Ozzfest tend to bring out the ugly side of this; aggressive music seems to give some participants a sense of entitlement to act without regard for others. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been bumped into at an event like that where the person that hit me gave me a look that said ‘I dare you to escalate; I want drama and confrontation in my life and need a target to take my frustrations out on.’ But a Beatles festival? There might as well have been rainbows and unicorns prancing about for all of the happy-fun-time atmosphere there–and not even in a druggie kind of way. The minor incident that I saw (where someone tried to slip past security into the Reserved area) was even surreal, comedic gold. An attendant approached the offender, smiled; the offender smiled back but refused to leave. The attendant nodded and politely went back to his post, then took the two police officers that showed up over to the offender. He didn’t put up a fight or cop (heh) an attitude, he just politely walked out with the LEOs; no issues, no confrontation. It was a most ‘civil disobedience.’

I suppose if you really try hard, you could be miserable at an event like this, but why force curmudgeonry? You’re surrounded by beautiful scenery; lush gardens, the waterfront, and dragonflies galore on a perfect late summer’s day. The people are pleasant and respectful, the beer is good and not horrifically overpriced, the bathrooms are of the indoor-flushing variety… and, fan or not, the music is downright fun. Plus, if you head over to the other side of the National Harbor, there’s a Peeps store! And how can you not smile and appreciate the meta-ness when there are guys onstage dressed in ‘Sgt. Pepper’ finery promoting their facebook and Twitter accounts, the ‘Norwegian Beatles’ flailing about with botched English, and a Sullivan-era crew of faux-mop tops from Puerto Rico hawking their CDs and Web site? The evening capped off with a fireworks display over the water, which didn’t quite sync up with the rendition of ‘Live and Let Die’ that was playing (not that it was supposed to), but it certainly was a fitting and perfect ending to a fab(four)ulous day.

10. Daft Punk – While their music isn’t all specifically sci-fi, their electronic sound certainly gets lumped into the ‘futuristic’ category. They’re well known for their high-tech visuals and costumes as well as for having interesting videos. They co-produced the animated film The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, and (building on their machines-to-men theme) released a film called Electroma, the story of two robots trying to discover their humanity.

9. Devo – While perhaps best known for their geometric hats, sci-fi imagery, and the song Whip It, they were quite successful in the alternative/underground scene in the 80s, and Jocko Homo, Freedom of Choice, Girl U Want, as well as their covers (Satisfaction, Working in the Coalmine), were the musical soundscape to many sci-fi movies and shows. Nowadays, their music appears in several TV commercials.

8. Orbital While their music has been used in several sci-fi movies (The Saint, Event Horizon, Hackers, Mortal Combat, Johnny Mnemonic), they had to make the list via their Doctor Who theme song. In a way, it’d be pretty easy to make the entire list electronica bands, so I limited how many would be in the top.

7. Voivod – while there could be a strictly metal version of this list, this is the band that takes the top of the metal category. They’re based on the concept of the Voivod, a futuristic warrior/overlord.

6. Styx – While heavily parodied, the theatrics of their Kilroy was Here concept album (which told the story of a future where rock & roll was outlawed), featuring Mr. Roboto, were considered a musical sci-fi staple at one point. I have a backup NAS unit called a Drobo, which I named ‘DroboArigato’ after the line in Mr. Roboto.

5. Queen – Queen’s main sci-fi musical work was the Flash Gordon soundtrack, and to a lesser extent the Highlander soundtrack (which is more fantasy). But the band themselves had a very sci-fi presence to them – theatrical, otherwordly, and somewhat dystopian. [Of course, who could omit the memorable scene in the horror/zombie/comedy movie Shaun of the Dead featuring Don't Stop Me Now, albeit a stretch to include zombies as sci-fi...] To this day I can’t hear the world ‘Flash’ without adding ‘aah-aah’ to it.

4. Pink Floyd – While it’s fair to consider Pink Floyd a psychedelic band, Dark Side of the Moon is also a great sci-fi musical journey, and The Wall could certainly be considered an excellent example of a dystopian future, with its exaggerated themes of fear, insecurity, and loss (and how we end up trying to hide and protect ourselves from our fears). Pink Floyd also transcended their musical expression to their visual presentations, and were well known for their elaborate stages and lighting. [When I saw them live, a giant object was emerging from the center of the stadium; a friend next to me leaned over and asked me what it was, like somehow I'd know. I sarcastically blurted out, 'a giant disco ball.' It was a giant disco ball.]

3. Tubeway Army/Gary Numan – I’m cheating a little to include Gary Numan in here, but Tubeway Army’s sci-fi elements would be mostly his brainchild. They made one of the best sci-fi songs ever (Down in the Park), as well as songs like Are ‘Friends’ Electric?, and their song Listen to the Sirens quoted from Philip K. Dick.

2. Muse – these days it seems you can’t have a sci-fi show without it featuring some sort of Muse song in the ads. Unfortunately, this also has put their music onto a certain popular teen vampire franchise as well. Their Black Holes and Revelations album covered the sci-fi gamut from NWO to alien invasions. And let’s face it, not that many people can get away with making Supermassive Black Holes sexy (the actual ones, not just something that could be used as a porn name).

1. ELO – It’s kind of easy to forget how huge ELO was at one point. Another theatrical/big production style band, ELO had a spacey sound and used UFO-looking space stations on their album covers. Their music was featured in the sci-fi (yeah, it counts) movie Xanadu, and did some sci-fi concept albums as well. Recently, their song Mr. Blue Sky was featured on an episode of Doctor Who.

Honorable mentions: Hawkwind, Front 242, Kraftwerk, TRex, New Order, Manufacture, NiN, Skinny Puppy, Orb, Nitzer Ebb, PWEI, Iron Maiden, Ultravox, UFO, Judas Priest, KLF, Psykosonik, Sepultura, King Crimson, Talking Heads, Radiohead, Duran Duran, Fear Factory, MC Frontalot, MBM, Shamen, Art of Noise, B-52s, Earth Wind & Fire, Big Country, KMFDM, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Clash, Sisters of Mercy, Underworld, FSOL, Flock of Seagulls, Shriekback, Utopia, Rush, Police, Savatage, Who, Moody Blues, SSS, Rammstein, and a whole bunch of others. I have a ton more written down from when I was making this, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and additions too.

Wait? No David Bowie? No Kate Bush? Thomas Dolby? Bjork? Since this was bands, individual artists weren’t included, nor individual songs (Mars Needs Women, Planet Rock, Spice, Intergalactic, We Are Made of Stars, Rocket Man, More Human Than Human, etc.) – a top list of these may be coming soon, though…

The movie has some great visual moments; as far as pretty splosions go, there are some great scenes and moments of very cool action sequences (which I always enjoy). And Simon Pegg is brilliant as always. But other than that, the movie is really nothing but pretty. The plot is simplistic and contrived (forgivable; do we really need to ponder everything?), the women all wear miniskirts (which seven – seven! – men I’ve talked to about the film have noted immediately, with either annoyance or glee), and there aren’t many of those darn funny-looking aliens, just young, reasonably attractive human types. But the mantra of Star Trek – to ‘boldly go where no (man/one) has gone before’ – was completely lacking; this film did nothing but meekly go where dozens of movies have gone before. Shallow enemy (who looked about as alien as a singer from a emo metal band)? Check. Planets blowing up/in? Check. Amazing series of coincidences that you’re supposed to roll with because they hurry the plot along? Check. There’s no actual suspense with ANYTHING in this movie; hell, all of the crew members except for Kirk start out fresh from academy in what will become their lifelong careers (no pesky senior officers to mentor them or ranks to climb, phew!). And don’t worry about not being able to follow the plot; every character, every plot device, every action, is dumbed down and described in detail as if it were a training exercise (tell them what you’re going to do, explain it while doing it, then tell them what you just did). The film has the subtlety of a shotgun blasting up your nasal cavity. It also made sure it pandered to the people who weren’t really fans of the franchise but who’d know all of the character’s ‘punchlines’ – I guess it was supposed to be clever or an homage to put in every single clichéd quote imaginable. And while some made it feel more like a Trek movie, most seemed forced; like the only humor the film could have had to be derived from injecting it with some camp from the ‘old’ Trek – there was no original humor, but there was one character bordering very dangerously on the lines of a Jar Jar Ewok. If he’d started to talk like Short Round, I’d be convinced this movie was a plot against humanity.

Star Trek has always had a bit of social commentary within in (many times to the point of preachiness), but this film has nothing of the sort. If anything, it regresses to being a pure-dude action movie; there are very few women in the movie; most are background decoration, and even Uhura has been demoted to being nothing more than a doting Spock fangirl who lets Kirk take credit for her research. There are barely any aliens in the movie, and no moral lessons or value judgments need to be made. In that sense, it is all supposed to be about the relationships forming between the crew, but the movie doesn’t even allow that to happen with any nuance or cleverness; every interaction is so forced and everyone is immediately best buds or adversaries. And while the basic premise (time has changed so everything is different) would have allowed them to do pretty much anything they wanted, they didn’t take any real chances or risks (Sulu could have been a chick. There could have been more aliens. They had free reign and did nothing with it other than using it as a crutch for when they slightly altered the canon!). It starts to feel a bit like Fast and Furious in Space (which, incidentally, would ROCK! – patent pending ), but with some Star Trek stuff thrown in so it could be called Star Trek. So if they’d called it what it was – ‘fun, mindless fluff’ – I would have loved it at that level, but trying to make it fun, mindless fluff AND Star Trek was too much for one movie (or, really, simply not enough).

If you’re not familiar with the story, you probably don’t want to see this film. It’s not a ‘sex/drugs/rock-n-roll’ story, although certain characters (most notably Rorschach) are similar to the vigilante anti-hero that style of story glorifies. The concept that we should not expect anyone, no matter how much spandex and gadgetry they may have, to determine our fate is a compelling one. We have always been conditioned to entrust ourselves to these types of characters because they are not human or are in some way supposed to be ‘better’ than us; why do we not trust human nature enough to create our own destinies, to have more faith in ourselves? Would we sit around and let the world die if a hero wasn’t around to save us from ourselves? After all: who watches the Watchmen?

If you are familiar with the story, then you will probably be amazed at how true to the original it is, but some of the changes left me a bit baffled. For instance, why did they change the watch that sets into motion the accident that transforms Dr. Manhattan? But overall the changes are few and slight, and it seems that they even made an accompanying Tales of the Black Freighter to be released on DVD (that story is not at all in the movie). The visual elements were well done overall; Rorschach looked amazingly true to the novel (even without the mask), and many of the small details will make it worth watching this film again (hint: look for all of the 80s ‘celebrities’ you can find!).

Overall, your enjoyment of the film will mostly hinge on your enjoyment of the graphic novel. If you haven’t read it, you probably will want to prior to seeing the film – not because you won’t be able to follow it otherwise, but because your expectations of a standard-fare superhero movie need to be altered beforehand. If you know what’s in store for you, this movie will pleasantly surprise you. If you just want to see boobs and explosions (and a glowing blue digital penis), it does have those elements, but the premise of the film and the lofty, existential concepts behind it will disappoint you.