Fall TV watchlist

With baseball season over I’m not watching any network TV with the exception of Sunday football games on FOX, CBS and NBC. But I am watching TV, it’s just all anime. Here are my impressions, with ratings out of 4 stars; 4 being Excellent. (click a title for a show’s wiki page):

1. Darker than Black – Ryousei no Gemini (Bones) – Stong story with lots of mystery; intriguing new characters; some new takes on the old ones; creative action, spot-on character design/animation; bangin’ soundtrack…and a little Russo-Japanese girl with an enormous gun. Don’t Miss. 3 1/2 out of 4.

2. Spice & Wolf II (Brain’s Base) – (from Summer ‘09 season) Absorbing main characters; intricate world full of richly-detailed landscapes, towns, and cities; great sense of scale; clever banter; off-beaten-track concentration on commerce rather than combat/magic. Soothingly addictive. 3 1/2 out of 4.

3. Armed Librarians (David Production) – Imaginative setting/mythos; eclectic costumes; unpredictable plot; different character focus in each episode (so far); steadily improving animation; powerful score. Strange enough to hold my interest. 3 out of 4.

4. Kimi ni Todoke (Production I.G.)  - Vibrant animation; characters have a unique look; neurotic female lead; angsty inner dialogue; a bit of an overreliance on chibi cuts, and a will-they-won’t-they holding pattern; enjoyble. 2 1/2 out of 4.

5. Sasameki Koto (AIC) - Probably a typical Yuri series with another will-they-won’t-they holding pattern; but characters are liekable enough; enjoyable. 2 1/2 out of 4.

6. A Certain Scientific Railgun (J.C. STAFF)  – Didn’t see Index, the first season; a slight teenagers-better-than-adults complex; brief but enjoyable action scenes; watchable. So this season there’s a railgun girl and a enormous sniper gun girl. Interesting. 2 1/2 out of 4.

7.The Sacred Blacksmith (manglobe) – Fairly standard fantasy piece; better-than-decent animation and some story potential; nothing special but watchable (for now). 2 1/2 out of 4.

8. White Album (Seven Arcs) – Only watched one episode so far.

2009 Phillies Afterword

When I arrived in Philly to make the city my new home on November 5, 2007, the Red Sox were already World Champions, having swept the Rockies who swept the Phillies. The season was over, and I hadn’t given rooting for the local baseball team any thought whatsoever (though an Eagles game was on the night I moved in, I had already decided I would never be anything other than a Ravens fan, blackouts be damned.)

I had no idea that in a year, the Billy Penn curse would be but a memory, the Phillies would be World Champions of baseball, and Barack Obama would be elected president. It was a truly exhilarating time, in a good way. Better still, the Phillies followed up their championship run with a brilliant 2009 season in which they proved they were no flukes. I certainly didn’t expect Harry Kalas, the legendary voice of the Phils, to pass away so suddenly during the season. Now whenever I watch a Phillies game, I think about how much better and less bland it would be if he was the one doing the play-by-play.

Throughout the year this remained a tight-knit team of players who did a good job projecting the fun they were having playing the sport, and I had fun watching them and even going to two games at the Bank (one a loss to the Orioles, which wasn’t too bad, and one a win over the Nats, complete with a Werth Grand Slam.) They may not have repeated as we all would have liked (even expected) but they go into 2010 as defending Champions of the National league, and while the team is rather old, most of it will return intact, and hopefully with offseason transactions will return stronger than ever.

So I thank the Phils for putting up a valiant fight against the formidable opposition. The two best teams in the league played, and the most expensive one in the most expensive stadium in the most expensive city won. I can live with that. My disappointment will dissipate in time. And now I, like millions of Fightin’ Phils fans out there, look towards the future.

97 days and counting till spring training.

Of wagons and Webers

In the auto industry, sometimes focus groups, micromanaging, and blurring of classifications can result in Frankenstein-like vehicular abominations. The loathsome Pontiac Aztek is one of the more blatant examples of this. From a functional standpoint it was a terrific vehicle and a crossover far ahead of its time. The problem was, it was built on the cheap and, most importantly, looked horrendous.

Like the Aztek, Chrysler’s Pacifica started out as a dashing concept; but once it came to market, Pacifica was watered-down, ludicrously overpriced, dull, and ugly to boot. Even with big discounts, buyers stayed away for the most part. Mercedes R-Class isn’t altogether unattractive, but a huge wagon with only six seats isn’t what most people are looking for, so it sales are slow as sap on a chilly March morning in Maine.

Some, I feel, get away with it. the CLS 4-door coupe is, in photos and in person, one of if not the most beautiful non-Italian vehicles. It just won’t fit tall people in back. The BMW X6 “sport activity coupe” (or SAC) is so bizarre and cheeky, it’s actually growing on me, but it simply won’t work off-road. Oftentimes, then, trying to blend two vehicles results in a vehicle that does things two vehicles can do, but neither as well as the source material. A 4-door can never be as sexy as a 2-door; a crossover can never be as spacious as a minivan.

One of the newer cases in point is the laughably stupid-looking Honda Accord Crosstour. First of all, I consider the current Accord a mistake. It is way too huge and shiny to carry a name normally reserved for, well, reserved, compact family sedans that are fun to drive. It’s still fun, due to all the excessive power, and it’s safe and roomy, but it’s impossible to park, or to see out of. I would prefer if we had the Euro Accord instead. While still bigger than it was in the nineties, the Euro version remains pleasantly petite and is sportier and more fun to drive as a result, which is why it’s sold here as the Acura TSX, albeit with excessive bling and useless bells and whistles to justify higher price.

I would have preferred if our big-ass Accord had some other name. Toyota has their Avalon, so the Camry never has to grow too big. It’s sacrilege not just to slap the Accord name on such a whale, but on its hideous Frankenstein whale wagon version, the aforementioned Crosstour. Let’s forget that “Crosstour” is in and of itself an awful name. The car looks are far awful-er. When Honda set up a Facebook account to snag potential buyers, the vast majority of comments decried the looks so mercilessly as to force them to change replace the pictures, to no avail; it was still ugly. I will reserve final judgment until I see it in person at the auto show early next year, but it has to be one of the all-time least photogenic vehicles in history, approaching Weber levels of ghastliness.

The Crosstour is another vehicle no one asked for that was made not because anyone needs or wants it, but because the company says the consumer needs or wants it, which is a very different matter. Fortunately, Honda has apparently heard the outcry and will be selling a counterpoint to the hideous Crosstour, the Euro Honda Tourer (wagon) as the Acura TSX sport wagon sometime next year. While such a move was always in the cards, was the Crosstour outrage a catalyst? I definitely think so. The sad thing is, the average American’s taste in automobiles is so poor, the homely Crosstour will likely outsell the awesome euro-wagon. Then again, maybe not. They categorically rejected the Aztek and Pacifica, after all.

Create jobs, stamp out fraud – yes we can

As a young man who hasn’t been to the doctor in more than three years and doesn’t even remember the last prescription he was prescribed, I am in no danger of having my Medicare defrauded by a shady temporary company with my name and medicare code. Many healthy seniors, however, are falling victim to just that, and I had no idea how successful the frauds are: billing Medicare 60 billion dollars in phony charges last year, or over $1000 per Medicare member.

As membership swells with our aging population, it will probably get worse unless drastic action is taken. It’s a tremendously lucrative crime, apparently; an industry in and of itself, and one that has been fairly easy to pull off. That this kind of rampant fraud can go on does not bode well for a public insurance option. Of course, Medicare isn’t going anywhere…but up, and even with advances in technology and a crackdown by the Justice Department, the chances of a rapidly expanding bureaucracy whose job is to reimburse healthcare providers being able to keep fraud under control seems like a foregone conclusion in the negative.

If President Obama is looking for areas to create jobs, I have a suggestion: hire more people to audit providers and weed out the fraud and system-gaming. All Medicare needs is more manpower, and training can’t possibly be that hard. Tens of thousands of people if not more are involved in actively cleaning up off of Medicare fraud, and the taxpayers are paying for it. Yet the people responsible for stopping that fraud probably number in the dozens. That’s a recipe for disaster, to the tune of more than $60 billion.

The ten-year cost of healthcare reform is around $1 trillion. Medicare fraud alone over that period could exceed $600 billion, or most of the cost of that reform. That’s money out of our pockets and into the bank accounts of criminals, plain and simple. I don’t see why we can’t create hundreds if not thousands of jobs and stamp out some of this horrific fraud at the same time.

The majority must have veto power over the military

I’m glad the guy I voted for is doing what I want him to do: hold his horses. Yes, the Defense Department and General McChrystal and a lot of other voices are saying there’s no time to wait for Afghan legitimacy, but I’m not certain these people thought before they spoke. Without a legitimate government, the hearts and minds of the people are in disarray, without a strong cause to rally around.

The results of a significant increase in military presence cannot be predicted. Will things turn around because of 40,000 more troops, even if they don’t know when and if an Afghan government coalesces? I kinda doubt it. A country without a legitimate government or leader is a very delicate thing, even in America. Everyone is on edge between presidents; they want someone in charge. Well, here’s the crux of the matter: Obama is the C-in-C, and when it comes to military matters, his word is scripture, and all of those below him, regardless of experience or expertise, must defer to him. The bellyaching and mildly insubordinate chatter must cease.

If the parties who are itching to put a bigger Amerian footprint in Afghanistan can’t respect Obama’s authority, how do they expect him to respect them? There seems to be this divide between “what needs to be done” and “what is popular,” but this is just an illusion, created throughout history by those whose job it is to make war. All that matters is what the majority of Americans want. Politics exist not to undermine the military, but to keep it on a leash and protect blood and treasure the military is all too willing to squander at the drop of a hat.

This is not an autocracy; the President and everyone below him have an obligation to listen to that majority, even if they think they know better. And if that majority is sick and tired of babysitting Afghanistan and wants the army to pack up and leave, then doggone it, that’s what we should do. If they want to try a bit longer to set things right there, we should do that. One thing is for certain; if the generals had their way 100% of the time, there would never be any peace.

Étude de paella

I often try to blend disperate items of the day or week into a single visual “Paella” that attempts to find connections that weren’t immediately apparent. I started in 2007, and am trying to get back into it since we live in such a colorful interesting world full of…stuff.

Case(s) in point: What does the Heene Hoax Balloon, the Black Taco, and Carol the Wild Thing have in common? Not much, admittedly. HOWEVER, if you go a step beyond the rational, the Balloon Boy, had he in face boarded the balloon, would have embarked on a journey not unlike Max’s in Where the Wild Things Are, a film I saw last weekend (which was fantastic, by the way.)

The odd balloon itself resembles a flying saucer, but doggone it, I can’t help but see Taco Bell’s Black Jack Taco as it’s own kind of spaceship. When young Falcon vomited on live TV – twice – he was almost non-verbally voicing his disgust not only in his father’s greed and insanity, but also the 24-hour news cycle media circus that descended upon him, despite his own sizable role. All he’s missing is a wolf suit with whiskers.

From licorice Twizzlers to Silky Bantam meat and Squid Ink pasta, black food has a tawdry but fascinating history. The unusual but striking images of a fancy-boy male model with a black eye using Blue Steel, and a black sheep (with black tongue) combined with the stark, construct-like white void of the taco commercial’s setting drive one major point home: this is no ordinary taco.

I have yet to sample it, but mark my works, if a Taco Bell should cross my path during its existence, I shall. So there you have it. More paella to come.

Not being too hasty

I have to agree with Obama’s decision to postpone the decision of troop levels in Afghanistan until the election crisis there is settled, but I don’t have high hopes that that particular condition will be fully satisfied in any reasonable period of time.

It has been obvious from the start of the elections that there was fraud, and that Hamid Karzai was either complacent with and/or a party to that fraud. That said, America cannot devote further blood and treasure to an illegitimate government that cheated. The Afghans have to sort this out, even if it means another election, and then get back to us.

Meanwhile, as much as it may pain McChrystal to hear this, sitting tight is all we can do. Even if we could plop down 100,000 more troops in Afghanistan tomorrow, there is currently no legitimate, functioning government to defend.

A welcome sight…

Long time no see, 10K. Does it mean anything? Strictly speaking probably not, but it’s a nice round figure, and you can’t overstress the moral-boosting powers of those.

No tea parties in boot camp

Scrolling through news articles on the internet, with their postage-stamp photos of dusty, dreary Afghanistan, one has absolutely no concept of the sheer scale of our challenge there. But while flipping channels at the behest of my groggy roommate, we came across Frontline in HD on PBS. “Obama’s War” was the name of the story, and we got into it around the middle. The big boys; NBC, CBS and ABC, rarely have HD news footage outside the studio.

But here it was: Afghanistan like we’d never seen it, in 1080i. It is actually a gorgeous country, that much was certain. Equally smart were the uniforms of the various American, Afghan, and Pakistani interviewees, from the combat fatigues of Gen. McChrystal and the duds of JC Chief Admiral Mullen to the Pakistani brigadier general and the suit of an Afghan intelligence agent. The cameras were right there, following troops around on the ground, trying to interact with locals, and following politicians from Kabul hoping to gain some traction with the fragmented tribal lands beyond the government’s control.

It is an extremely noble effort, trying to bring stability and peace to this beautiful land; trying to convince farmers to switch from smuggling or opium to tea. But I couldn’t help but notice how odd Soldiers looked doing these things, particularly in their camo. There are no tea parties or symposia in boot camp. Soldiers are supposed to defend our country by capturing or killing the enemy and whatnot. They simply look out of their element elsewhere, despite the good intentions, the attainment of stability or peace is not, should not, and cannot be our sole responsibility. I don’t doubt that making Afghanistan stable and peaceful will make America safer, but such a thing has never been done in history, even with forces larger than our own. And more importantly, Afghanistan is only one of many outposts for terrorism. If we invest so heavily here, we must be prepared to go all out elsewhere.

We don’t have the resources to do this; we barely have the resources to accomplish our goals as it is. And no matter how many billions we pour into Pakistan, this fact remains: their government survives because of two things: our money, and going easy on extremists. If they lose our financial support, they lose the ability to defend themselves. If they get the extremists and jihadists too angry, they will be overthrown, and Pakistan will be Afghanistan times ten, with the bomb. So while these two conditions for the survival of the Pakistani government serve them well enough, it is the tolerance for extremists that directly undermines any progress we have made or will make in their neighbor to the west.

Listening to the divergent arguments of the American, Afghan, and Pakistani interviewees, it is clear that nobody is on the same page. Afghanistan is fast becoming America’s most complex, and soon to be longest war ever. Intense care must be taken with how we proceed.

The late late late show with Brad Lidge

So not only is the first round of the Phillies’ bid to repeat their World Series Championship not televised on network TV or internet radio, not only did they have to play in very un-baseballlike 27-degree weather in Denver, but the game started at 10:07 eastern time, and because of the conditions, the game was slow and long. So long, in fact, it was 2:30 A.M. in Philadelphia when Brad Lidge hurled the final pitch of the game that was popped up and dropped into the glove of Ben “San” Francisco. 2:30 in the morning…a Monday morning.

All I can say is, thank God we won, and f*** Bud Selig.