It's D-Day, Not "Devil's Day!"

Two things happened in the past ten minutes. First, a friend I game with every now and then reminded me that today was our annual D-Day deathmatch. Second, I read The Shelf, one of our community members and J.C. was lamenting the lack of discussion regarding D-Day on the news today. Add to that the discussion about this obscure invasion of Normandy in 1944 that was mentioned on NPR this morning and I realized that today is D-Day.

That's right today is the day we began taking it to those Jerrys seriously. Today is a day when we should all be watching The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan. Though Turner Movie Classics seems to think that was Memorial Day, but we all know Memorial Day is all about the Civil War and not WWII. You know the whole "sacrifices that were made to keep our nation united" thing that cost untold lives. That's Memorial Day, D-Day is when we landed on a beach and got torn to shreds by Kraut machine guns.

For those worried about my strongly anti-German language, remember that my Oma came over from Deutschland after the war and that Germany is my #2 team at the World Cup. America is #1.

Annual Deathmatch? However is it resolved? Knives? Guns? Wet noodle slapping?

No, no, no. We usually work out our Deathmatch using one of many games devoted to the topic to simulate the invasion of Normandy (as opposed to the Norman Invasion which we use different games to simulate). It depends on how much time we have to devote to the occasion. This evening we will be using Memoir '44 in our annual tradition. It's a fun game that can be played in a reasonable amount of time. If we had played this weekend we might have written up some scenarios for Pinnacle Games Fields of Honor which we have both been looking to play, a great system for our Axis and Allies collectible minis. At least Wizards of the Coast remembered D-Day. I only wish that Chris Pramas were there to pwn me.

Manga and Anime Transitioning to Live Action

In upcoming months many Anime and Manga titles will see production as live action movies and television shows according to ICV2. Most interesting is that those first down the pipeline will likely be some of the smaller names, at least to non-otaku. Everyone knows that a Transformers movie is on the way, and that Vince Vaughn is working on a Speed Racer movie, but Min-Woo Hyung's Priest will likely be released before any of these bigger budget films. Priest is a narrative that should appeal to those who like demon killers in the Old West. All you Deadlands fans should already be buying the manhwa.


Roy Lee (whose name is attached to almost every import from the East since The Ring is developing one of my favorite moody anime series as a live action television show. Lee hopes to turn Witch Hunter Robin (click here for official site) into a successful live action series and more power to him. While it is difficult for me to imagine most anime series being adapted successfully to live action on a budget, Witch Hunter Robin is one of the rare exceptions. The anime version combined religious symbolism, Supernatural style stories, and hidden government agendas (very X-Files) into a moody and interesting combination. I look forward to seeing an attempt to bring this to the silver screen.



If you want to get an idea of what I am referring to, add it to your Netflix queue or ask to borrow my DVDs. I thought the animation in Robin was fluid and remarkable, but be warned the stories are directed at a slow pace. On a side note, I would love to see a Samurai Champloo live action film.

Civic Duty and Bureaucracy

Since I work at a non-profit devoted to youth civic engagement, I always find narratives about voting experiences interesting. Sometimes they are even entertaining. Such is the case with Professor Nokes' account of his first voting experience.

His narrative masterfully displays both what is right and what is wrong with modern electoral practices. What is right is that precincts are local and run by volunteers. You will often find that the old women (it is usually old women) who work at the polling centers are people you know, especially if you grew up in the neighborhood. If you are 18, and thus it is your first time voting, they are usually thrilled to see you and smile as you sign into the register. In fact, when I was a volunteer at a precinct (the one male and only person under 30) the only time the women I was working with didn't kibitz about what party the person was registered in was when the voter was a young whipper-snapper. The Republican woman who scowled at all the Yuppie Democrats who came in beamed when the pierced and tatooed gothic teen Democrat signed in, and the Democrat woman who murmered curses at all the suit wearing "Banker" Republicans was downright giddy when the chino wearing College Republican signed in. It was endearing to see that the health of our republic was more important to my co-volunteers than partisan politics. Partisan politics were important, but the regime moreso. The local volunteer aspect of voting is a joy to watch.

The Bureaucratic process, on the other hand, can be a nightmare. There are so many genuine concerns Clerks and Registrars need to address that the regulations often become cumbersome, or even an obstacle. In fact, since the New Millenium Young Voters Project found that potential young voters found the process of voting itself to be intimidating, I would posit that a good reason for this intimidation is the bureaucratic, solemn, and sterile feeling that has come into being. Sometimes our voting process is too much about the rules and not enough about the joy of both "ruling and being ruled in turn." Professor Nokes account of the County Clerk who states boldly that it is possible that the precinct line bisected the young Professor's house horizontally is a perfect example of the overly bureaucratic mindset.

We need rules to ensure fair elections, but we also need to remember that when we are voting we are "ruling" by selecting those who will make the rules, or in California by sometimes actually voting laws into existance.

I Must Be In The Front Row...Too

It appears that Bob Uecker has a stalker. Studies have yet to determine if his stalker selected him because he tastes great or if it is because he is less filling.

Baseball Musings, June 5th

Although it is still early by baseball standards some interesting things happened this weekend on the diamonds.

Albert Pujols - As I previously mentioned, Albert was on his way to the best baseball season of all time for a hitter, a projected 79 homeruns and 202 rbi's, this would have broken both single season records. However, today Albert is undergoing an MRI on his right oblique for an injury sustained this weekend. It seems that Albert will miss 6 weeks or more with the injury based on the talking heads of ESPN. As a baseball fan I was looking forward to Albert chasing down both the RBI and Homerun records. It is a bit of let down, injuries happen but it is a shame.

Detroit Tigers - A comment to my post last week indicated that the Tigers hadn't played anyone and I should hold up a bit. They were a good story with the best record in baseball but I was premature in my elation for their play. They were knocked around in their own house by the Yankees and Redsox over their last two series. The Beast in the East still lives in the American League East. As a Red Sox fan I like to see them do well but I did want the Tigers to be legitimate just to mix things up a bit. I remember when the Angels won the World Series, they were a great team, lots of energy and just the feeling that they were never out of it even though they did not have the murderer's row of the Yankees. Just an all around great team. I though the Tigers could be a similar team - they have some good energy guys like Pudge Rodriguez. However, like origami they folded under pressure. Sad really.

Arizona Diamondbacks - The number one team in the National League West, currently the best division in baseball based on combined records of the teams, was remarkable this weekend. The D' backs went into Atlanta and swept the Braves in their own building. Atlanta is a good team, a top 10 team according to ESPN, and I respect them, pulling of division wins for the past 14 years running is good evidence of their quality. However, the Diamondbacks beat them every way possible this weekend. They won a 2-1 pitchers duel on Thursday, won a doubleheader on a 4-2 early game and a ball smashing 13-9 affair in game 2. Finally on Sunday, the Braves were embarrassed with a 9-3 loss. Besides having the best pitcher in the National League in Brandon Webb, it is hard a first glance to tell why they win. But they score runs and lots of them, they are the second highest scoring team in the National League and are third in runs allowed. I suppose this is simple, they score and they don't allow others to score. In the National League the D'backs are in the top 4 in batting average, runs scored, slugging, ERA, K's per 9 innings, and walks to strikeout ratio all in a tough division. All in all a pretty tough team, the only question being is if they are peaking or performing. The Rockies supersonic plummet gives pause for caution, but right now they are are fun team to watch play. Go, D'backs.

Top Performers over the Last Week
Jose Castillo (Pittsburgh, 2B) 8 runs, 4 homeruns, 15 rbis and a .478 batting average

Corey Patterson (Baltimore, OF) 7 runs, 2 home runs and 8 stolen bases

Jacque Jones (Chicago Cubs, OF) 6 runs, 3 homeruns, 8 rbis and a .458 batting average

Damion Easley (D'Backs, INF) 4 runs, 4 homeruns, 10 rbis and a .538 batting average

Chris Young (San Diego, SP) 2 wins, 12 k's, no earned runs and 3 hits and 3 walks over two games

Trevor Hoffman (San Diego, RP) 3 innings pitched, 3 saves, no runs, a 0.33 whip and 2 k's

John Rheinecker (Texas, SP) 2 wins, 1.10 era over two games, 1 walk and 10 strikeouts

Those are my baseball thoughts for the week ending June 4, 2006.

Marvel Loses Avi Arad and Media Obsess About Superman's Sexuality

Avi Arad has left Marvel Comics to start up his own film production company. Arad was one of the key figures in Marvels recovery from bankruptcy and helped move the company away from comic books as a primary product and into a multimedia conglomerate. Arad's vision seemed finalized when Marvel opened their own production studios for films, an act Arad deemed necessary after conflict with Sony over Spider-man revenues.

The split, and subsequent creation of a company that will make Marvel licensed films, seems odd. Especially when you take into account that Arad has recently sold off $60 million in Marvel shares, 2/3 of his holdings in Marvel. The combination of Arad's apparent ability to convince Marvel to once again license their films out, in this case to him, with his own huge divestiture in Marvel interest leave the future of Marvel open in my mind.

In other news, it seems that the Los Angeles Times and everyone else can't stop talking about how "gay" Superman is going to be as a film. Personally, Superman is one of my favorite characters, Singer is one of my favorite directors, and I think the film will be great. Besides, I saw Christopher Reeve kiss Michael Caine in Deathtrap and you don't get any more homoerotic than that. Oh wait, sure you do, "Kneel before Bernadette." I mean Zod. Look at how fetish-wear the Zod getup looks? It looks like Zod is getting ready to molest Kal-El.



I don't know what the big deal is. I don't know why everyone is trying to politicize/tank what looks to be a fun movie.

I will be waiting in line to see Superman Returns and if I hear too much snickering in the line, I just may go Doomsday on their asses.

Food For Thought

So, I was watching Heavy: The History of Metal and The VH1 Rock Honors the other day. Yeah, I know...metal bah.

Heavy was a pretty good set of documentarys if you like the subject matter. But don't even get me going on the use of the term Glam to describe 80's "hair metal." Everybody, okay well at least Nick Hornby, knows that Glam is T-Rex, David Bowie, and the New York Dolls (Robert Palmer and Roxy Music too) and not Poison, but that is another story (you can always watch Velvet Goldmine for a fictional version). To make a long story short, I enjoyed the show, but what really capped it off for me was last night's Rock Honors. The highlight for me was Godsmack doing a Judas Priest medley. I normally hate medley's but Godsmack really adapted the music of Priest well. Their medley made a great opener for the Priest themselves.

On the weak side was the All American Rejects version of Def Leppard's "Photograph." To be honest the whole Leppard segment was pretty weak.

The irony of watching bands like Priest (Breakin' the Law and Hell Bent for Leather) hobble around on stage like geezers isn't lost on me, but Priest let the music do the talking and focused their performance on the music and it worked. The band's proficiency carried them through, they seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves, and they rocked. Leppard on the other hand seemed lathargic and lazy when performing their own music. Their notes were flat and the guitar work harried. When Brian May, of Queen, came out with Leppard for their cover of T-Rex's "Twentieth Century Boy" they did liven up and appear to enjoy themselves. Kinda sad that they are more excited about other people's music than their own, though they were still overselling it. I don't know how you oversell a Glam tune, but they managed.

Back to Priest/Godsmack. A part of the Godsmack medley was the classic Electric Eye, which regardless of where you stand in today's political climate provides food for thought.

Up here in space
Im looking down on you
My lasers trace
Everything you do

You think youve private lives
Think nothing of the kind
There is no true escape
Im watching all the time

Im made of metal
My circuits gleam
I am perpetual
I keep the country clean

Im elected electric spy
Im protected electric eye

Always in focus
You cant feel my stare
I zoom into you
You dont know Im there

I take a pride in probing all your secret moves
My tearless retina takes pictures that can prove

Im made of metal
My circuits gleam
I am perpetual
I keep the country clean

Im elected electric spy
Im protected electric eye

Electric eye, in the sky
Feel my stare, always there
Theres nothing you can do about it
Develop and expose
I feed upon your every thought
And so my power grows

Im made of metal
My circuits gleam
I am perpetual
I keep the country clean

Im elected electric spy
Im protected electric eye

Protected. detective. electric eye