network programming

Dear Programming honchos.....

what in the hell are you doing?

You want to know why so many of you suck so badly and wonder why you can't keep your viewers?  It's diversity or in this case the realization that damn near every network is just like every other network...Can you tell the difference between USA and FX?  Maybe MTV and Cartoon Network?

It's called niche programming for a reason.... there is still such a thing as brand loyalty y'know?   If what I want is to lose myself in some escapist fare, I'd like to be able to dive into an episode of Star Trek, Babylon 5 or Quantum Leap.  I can't do that with Scare Tactics....or Ghost Hunters.... cripes open up a network for the thrillseekers if there's demand for dumb ass shit that goes bump in the night and monster movie of the week.  If I want to catch some anime or share the latest animated idiocy with my teenager I can't because Cartoon Network is full of dreck.

Can someone out there please stop making every  network indistinguishable from any other one?

Wingnut dictionary

Just have to keep a running tally of what concepts and interpretations that separate my conservative brethren from my own dirty filthy hippidom self......

What we say>  What they mean aka Wingnutese
_________________________________________________________________________

Foreign Policy >  Kill brown people.
Domestic policy >  Deport brown people.
Freedom  >  means they have it, you don’t
Free speech  >  listen to what they say and anyone who disagrees should STFU or gets shouted down
Pro Life  >  for fetuses, ovulation til birth, everyone else, you're on your own
Freedom of Religion >  Free to tell you why your religion makes you a heathen who will burn in hell.
GOMLAYMI  >  get off my lawn, after you mow it

top 10 anime openings

Every Otaku has theirs and I'm no different and after watching about two decades worth of anime, I'm just as qualified (which is to say everyone is who can be bothered to have an opinion) as anyone else to have a list of favorites.

I'll try and do my best at embedding some links to the music but sometimes, me and embedding don't get along so much.....Artists given credit when I have the information to share.....

from the bottom up:

#10) Inuyasha - Season 1 - It has that uplifting feel to it that makes you feel as if you're about to embark on a grand adventure and as such, gets you in the mood for what is to follow.

Change The World/V6
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzsPUtioKsM

#9) Azumanga Daioh - Let's face it, this theme music is an ear worm that can stay with you for days and give you problems pronouncing the word Cake for weeks at a time.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huWKSYUX5Fs

#8) FLCL - Perhaps this is too low, I dunno, I just know that I have to have this on the list somewhere and here's as good a placeholder as any at the moment.

Ride on Shooting Star/ The Pillows
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ3_oKFfZek&feature=fvwrel

#7) Love Hina - My first and still favorite Harem comedy and this manic opening just continues to make me smile and never gets old as far as I'm concerned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oeot1dDqms&feature=related

#6) His and Her Circumstances/Kare Kano

Much like the entry at #1, it's not just the opening sone, but all of the other incidentals and closing music that forced me to go out and buy a series soundtrack... that doesn't happen with every series.  The voice is so painfully beautiful that I tear up every time I hear it and I guess that just makes me waaaay too sentimental.  Definately a ymmv selection I suppose.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfdLH9cQmZM

#5) Sakamichi no Apollon - more incredible music from Ms. Kanno

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HloKLU1SRJQ

#4) Mysterious Girlfriend X - Again, this one is more for the entire show rather than simply the opening itself, because the music is incredible throughout with setting mood and conveying unspoken emotion.  The Dream sequence segments themselves are inspiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCFuyfKmr4A

#3) Beck aka Mongolian Chop Squad - dunno how this is left off of so many folks lists, but considering this anime is just as much about music as it is about self discovery, I have a hard time wondering how this isn't on EVERY list.

Hit in America/Beat Crusaders
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ot0IpmdOMI

#2) Bleach - Season 10 - Dig the song, stay for the anime

Scandal/ Shoujo S
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkstqVWTUf4

#1) Cowboy BeBop -  - C'Mon, you knew it was coming... the cultural rarity to include multiple genre's and still allow the music to aid in the story telling effortlessly, seamlessly.  Scary when you dare to try and separate the work from the music and you realize that to do so would be a disservice to both.

Tank/The Seat Belts
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rVnRwW0h8







Honorable mention:

Kimi No Todoke - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AzEFia1UEY&feature=related
Lovely Complex - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXeHfjpt7WE
Ghost in the Shell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiiFtS22yyM
Gunslinger Girl - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NSvaT6h52s
Higurashi No naku Koro Ni - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKV195eXg7I&feature=related
Durarara - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9hRcIAza0&feature=related

As you can tell, I'm kind of all over the map here, but hell, I just go with what I like and what has made an impression with me, as always, your mileage may vary.....

Guns

I have always had a healthy respect for guns.  Coupled with a healthy fear of bullets.  Amplified by the fact that there appear to be a whole bunch of folks that are more attached to their guns than they are to their families or even to their right to vote.  I don't have a problem if you like to hunt, if you like to challenge your skills with hitting targets with a pistol.  Heck, I don't care if you carry one on your person, as long as you register the weapon appropriately (your local laws may differ) and you learn how to use it and store it appropriately. 

Damn, I'm a real killjoy aren't I?

What I do have a problem with is that the firepower available is way in excess of the threats that they are supposed to counter.  Really... you need that 30 shot clip? Is that elk going to return fire? Perhaps if you have the need to be that destructive you need to find a new career in demolition. Think about this... that rush you feel firing off a full clip or dropping 30 or forty dollars on ammunition that you fired off on the range or in the wilderness is on the backs of people dying at movie theaters, meeting their Congresswoman, going to class or just doing their jobs.  I hope that thrill you feel is worth those lives traded to ensure that you can have it.

Let me repeat... I don't have a problem if you own a gun, I don't have a problem with folks that hunt and enjoy shooting for recreation

Not sure why you need to have a clip that holds 30 rounds, not sure anyone does and as long as you folks continue to think your rights are threatened unless you have access to them, then maybe next time it'll finally be someone you do care about that may be the focus of the next news cycle of the mass shooting du juor.

Things that I like

This is a small compendium of things that trip my trigger.  I am ambivalent about posting them because I don't want to jinx anything.  Believe me that I am not laboring under any illusion that what I post here may ever be read by anyone else, but if nothing else, the exercise allows me to give flower to my thoughts (I hope my old English teacher Mr Booker would be happy with that line).

Courtesy - I know that perhaps its outdated and can also be used as a facade for real feelings, even as a cruel stiletto wielded in hands more deft than my own.  Still, genuine courtesy doesn't cost us much and can give you a sudden smile and completely change your outlook during a day where the grind has left you with an emotional fine gunpowdery substance waiting for spark and tinder.

Old Cartoons - I'm a sucker for the old animation and the classic sense of humor that allows Wile E. Coyote to suddenly open a small umbrella while awaiting the imminent arrival of a crushing boulder.  I also have to give special props to the old Jay ward studios for efforts like Rocky and Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle for allowing us to enjoy those shows with our parents, sure we all didn't laugh at the same time, but those times spent together in laughter are memories that I will always cherish.

Romance anime/manga - If there is one aspect about me that I'm loathe to truly talk about its that I am a sucker for romance.  Yes, I have a secret stash of anime shows that I adore (and yes, I have a couple of harem anime floating around just to ensure to my friends that I am still a manly man) So cheers to the authors, artists and producers of such fine stories as Kare Kano, Gosick, AnoHana and Toradora. 

RomComs - see the entry above, and yes, Notting Hill is in heavy rotation.

Tom Hanks - Thank you for loving the sixties and the values I had as a child and honoring them and treasuring them as I do.  His passion for Music, Space and treating people as people pretty much dictate that I drag my fat patootie to the movies whenever he does something new.

Melted Cheese - granted, it can't improve every food (and I have tried) but god bless the soul that found out that this was the perfect complement to the tortilla chip.

The fresh scent of a newly mowed lawn

The laugh of a sexually satisfied woman

The initial touch of a kitten's paw on your face (sans claws, tyvm)

The sense of accomplishment in my son's eyes when he achieves a goal

The Dave Clark Five and The Lovin Spoonful

learning something new

Music that changed my life

Music that changed my life

I think this is something that quite a few of us share, where simply listening to something completely altered your mood or outlook on life.  It allowed you to smile through the pain, to be consoled and find comfort or matched the mood on that nearly perfect day.  Music has had a tremendous impact in my life and sometimes guided me down and back out again of certain rabbit holes in life.  In a way, this is my way of thanking the artists and this involved in crafting the words and sounds that helped me make it here today.

A caveat, music was always playing in the house, Dad was a big Faron Young and Charlie Pride guy.  he was into country, but not too much of a traditionalist, sure Haggard, Jones and Cash  were played, but not as much as Marty Robbins and Hank Snow or Buck Owens.  So it was conventional, but not exactly traditional.  Naturally as a literal child of the sixties, it was in my nature to rebel against what my parents listened to, so I kept my eyes and ears open and rebellion found me soon enough.

Last Train to Clarksville - The Monkees
Go All The Way - The Raspberries
Sister Goldenhair  - America
Do Ya - Electric Light Orchestra
More Than a Feeling - Boston
Just Remember I Love You - Firefall
My Best Friends Girl - The Cars
My Sharona - The Knack
It's All Over Now/The Last Time/The Night Before - The Rolling Stones and The Beatles
What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding? - Elvis Costello
Angel Wanna Wear My Red Shoes - Elvis Costello
Who Do You Love? - George Thoroughgood and The Delaware Destroyers
Another Nail In My Heart - Squeeze
Your Sister Told Me - Don Dixon
Theme From The Vindicators - The Fleshtones
Lips Like Sugar - Echo and the Bunnymen
Inside Out - The Mighty Lemon Drops
Something About You  - Level 42
Turn To The Sky - The March Violets
Be Still - Los Lobos

Baseball anime

Somehow, posting about this topic seems rather well.... topical.

This sub genre of the whole sports pantheon is actually one of my favorites, because it covers a well varied change of POV for each of the four series I want to discuss.  The four series all approach the game and those who play it in quite a different fashion, some may appeal to you than others and so depending upon what you're looking for, maybe I can find a match for you amongst these four favorites of mine.

Major
Moshidora
Ookiku Furikabutte – Big Windup!
Cross Game

They vary in style and in drawing quality and for some its all about the individual and others its all about the team.  That's what makes them somewhat unique.  Do they have flaws, yes they do, but are they compelling, yes... yes they are.  Now none of them quite match the moments like the end of Shane (for you youngsters out there, go see if its on Netflix, it'll help explain why your parents and grandparents are closet sentimentalists), well okay, maybe Cross Game does, but they all honor and adore the game and its players and all of the things that make baseball great and people fans of the game.

So lets start with the series that is perhaps truest to the spirit of the game, at least the Japanese spirit of the game.

Ookiku Furikabutte

While its characters maybe the least attractive and the stretch in the actual circumstances to allow the conflict to take place is forced, its not any worse than the usual sitcom lineup on Thursday nights.  The pitcher is a neurotic wreck, the catcher is a control freak,  there's one blissfully talented player who walks through life without any emotional baggage of any kind and the rest of the team is doing their very best to not fail.  The vast majority of them are students of the game.  Well schooled in small ball strategies and know what the pitcher is trying to do and where the play is likely to go if and when the ball is put in play.  It's actually refreshing to see young baseball players who supposedly know what to do if the ball is hit to them.  It sure feels right because it is so close to what I went through as a kid, taking ground balls and fly balls and replaying each baserunning scenario until throwing to the proper base, to the proper cutoff man was second nature.  You watch pro baseball these days, its scary how many guys can't do what I used to do out of routine.  There interaction here is rebuilding of a pitchers psyche by his catcher and his manager and teammates.  While the internal dialogue can be excessive, at least you have an understanding on what everyone is thinking.  Very few straw men characters here, even the opponents are given their turn to explain what they are looking for and why.  For a person who enjoys that kind of character developmnt and internal insight into a character, this is a huge change of pace, with baseball strategies laid out for everyone to see.  Doesn't even mean you have to agree, but you know what the characters know, as such, it feels real.  Granted, most japanese High school teams don't have busty single female managers, but this is geared to guys, so I think you have to expect a little fan service and they play our stalwart coach against type, so she's not used as a sexual conquest goal or the like.  The sub is fine and now they even have this dubbed as well, with the bonus being that the catcher's voice is done by the same person who had the lead in Beck.

Moshidora

Is a double threaded anime, by that I mean that there are two stories in play, one is the POV of the young lady who helps as a team manager for the baseball team for a struggling group at n inauspicious school.  What happens is that she takes this up because of a promise to a sick friend without having any idea on how to actually help a team or understanding enough about baseball to feel like she can make a difference. The second story is how she applies business principals to that of helping to organize the use of practice time and manage the personal relationships that keep a team working as a team and handling the individual problems that arise on the way.  It doesn't all work perfectly and there are various missteps and personal conflicts along the way, but we do get to see an analytical approach to baseball, innovation and ideas on how to get the most of individuals while still promoting team effort.  The sick friend thread allows for the personal development of our heroine in a cathartic manner that I felt was overplayed a bit, but that didn't take away from the fresh approach the series took to the subject matter and how it blended business with people and understanding that there are choices to be made and not all of them are easy ones.


Major

This is the longest running baseball anime that I know of.  It's very Japanese in its approach to character motivations and ideals.  It centers around a young boy (Goro Shigeno), who's father is a baseball player who is recently widowed.  He finds a caregiver for his son and starts to fall for her but before they can realize their relationship, he's tragically killed by a beanball from an American phenom.  She adopts the child as her own and begins to raise him.  She falls in love with the best friend of the father and the story follows the boy as he tries to follow in his father's footsteps.  We get to see his competitive spirit, his talent for the game and the amount of  growing up he has to perform while his natural acerbic tendencies push people away at the same time as his love of playing the game draws people to him.  Since this is an older series, some of the voices are extreme,y rough to handle when they start to cross over to english names and concepts, but hell, I can only imagine how badly I would sound attempting to handle the appropriate tonal inflections attempting to speak japanese, so I think I'll do the proper thing and encourage you to not let it bothr you.  It's told from the POV of the pitcher's position and goes into great detail about the training and sacrifice that  person must endure in order to become a professional athlete and the real obstacles that can be in your way, being outclassed by your competition, culture shock and injury all play a part in the story.  Plus there are the interactions with rivals, a childhood sweetheart and the growth and development of his new family.  If you dig stories about athletes and the bonds they make with fellow players, trainers, docs and management, then this series could be for you.

Cross Game

Is actually a love story using a baseball setting.  Two kids that appear to be meant for each other have a Disney moment and the young girl dies.  The boy is despondent, but the young lady serves as inspiration for her younger sister, who eventually pulls the young man into her orbit through the means of baseball.  Did I mention that there were four girls and their father owns a sporting goods store and batting cages?  The story grows as the two develop their own baseball skills and you have the unspoken relationship building between the two which is rarely spoken of but is like the elephant in the room that no one mentions.  There's a boatload of understatement here in regards to relationships and we're treated to multiple stories of love and people expressing their affection for each other in traditional and non-traditional fashion, all the while the team trans for Koshien.  It's very high school, but also baseball savvy in an understated way, but less focus on the game other than as a means to an end for the hopes and dreams of our two protagonists.

Thanks to any and all that stumble upon this and your own opinions are welcome.