Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Mourning the Blue Dragon
A great athlete retired last week.
Not because he was too old or because he wanted to pursue other interests, but because he made one too many mistakes outside of the ring. His biggest mistake of all might have been dominating a sport that is too short-sighted to recognize that a great champion is a great champion, period. No amount of "controversy" can justify the Sumo Association pressuring Asashoryu into retirement. Not at the age of 29 and not on the heels of his twenty-fifth tournament championship (in Japanese, yusho).
For those unaware of Asashoryu's accomplishments, I can offer some perspective. His twenty-five yusho qualifies him for third place on the all time list, with first place being a mere seven yusho away. Given the rate at which he won and his relative youth, it was a question of "when" rather than "if" he would find himself on top of that list.
More significant is what his victories represent: his stature as the undisputed best wrestler in sumo of the decade. For three straight years he was the sole yokozuna, the top rank in the sport. This is the longest such period in sumo history.
The title of yokozuna is only bestowed upon wrestlers after winning two consecutive tournaments. During his 2004-2007 solo reign Asashoryu won an incredible sixteen of twenty-one tournaments, including an unprecedented seven straight from November 2004 to November 2005. No one had ever won six yusho in a single calendar year before, let alone seven in a row. He single-handedly ensured that no one else could reach his level because there was no chance for other wrestlers to string two yusho together.
As it turns out, all that winning wasn't good enough. Sumo is unique among professional sports in many areas, but perhaps the most unusual aspect is how strictly a wrestler's lifestyle and public persona is controlled. They never appear outside wearing any modern clothing. They are not supposed to drive themselves. They live, eat, sleep and train together in so-called "stables."
Asashoryu had a "controversial" reputation as a "bad boy" but I don't think there are quotation marks big enough to qualify those terms when one of those "controversies" was Asashoryu celebrating a yusho by raising his arms in the ring. The NFL may have some absurd ideas about what qualifies a celebration excessive but in sumo, it seems any celebration is too much.
Perhaps his sole legitimate transgression was skipping out on a exhibition tournament in 2007 by claiming injury and then competing in a charity soccer match in Mongolia. For his crime he was suspended for two full tournaments and subjected to relentless media attention. I'm guessing the latter hurt more than the former, because during that time he reportedly sought treatment for depression and his wife left him.
What was the incident that pushed him over the edge? Asashoryu got drunk during the January 2010 tournament and allegedly got into a brawl. The more salacious details (death threats?) are the stuff of tabloid rumors and completely unconfirmed. The matter was settled without any lawsuits or criminal charges, though it's generally assumed that the other party received financial compensation for getting beaten up.
I know all of these issues snowball over time and these high-profile screw-ups are Asashoryu's own damn fault, but is this seriously enough motivation to throw someone out of a sport? Especially when said sport is teetering on the brink of irrelevance?
Sumo wrestling may be right up there with ninja and samurai as foreign images of Japan go, but these days there's not much popular interest in the sport. Baseball is far and away the national pastime, with soccer closing in fast. When I talk to my students about their dreams of the future, no one ever says "I want to be a sumo wrestler." Not even the ones who look like sumo wrestlers.
Asashoryu was the face of sumo. When I conducted a (non-scientific) survey about sumo in 2006, asking college students and older adults alike to name their favorite wrestler, he was the practically the only active wrestler anyone could name. Most people thought of champions from the past like Takanohana or Wakanohana. When I watch sumo with my in-laws, they look to me to identify who's who in the ring because they can barely read the elaborate ring names the wrestlers use.
Is sumo dead? Hardly. Is it in danger? Big time. Besides Asashoryu's non-controversies, the Sumo Association has seen some serious scandals in recent years. A number of wrestlers were fired after they tested positive for marijuana use (no laughing matter in Japan). A trainee was beaten to death by his stable master who then tried to cover it up, claiming he died of exhaustion. Combine that incident with the general strictness of the sumo lifestyle and it’s no wonder recruitment is at an all-time low.
Sumo as a sport (and a business) is not in a position to turn away fans or potential athletes right now, and in shoving Asashoryu out the door the Association is are doing both. Nobody cared when Chiyotaikai, a veteran wrestler with a longer tenure than Asashoryu, retired last month. There were no news stories outside of sports coverage and no chatter on the afternoon talk shows.
Meanwhile, Asashoryu was the talk of the television for weeks, starting when the alleged brawl took place and running straight through the end of the tournament and into last week’s Sumo Association election. No, it wasn't all positive news but it was news, something that no struggling sport can refuse.
The fictional Bela Lugosi once said "There is no such thing as bad publicity." I’m not positive that's true, but forcing your star performer and current champion to retire because he was too "ontroversial" is insane. How often do those two qualities overlap? What sport would willing drop both at the same time?
Would Major League Baseball suspend Derek Jeter if he was photographed jogging in a Fun Run while on the disabled list? Would the NFL ever ditch Peyton Manning or Tom Brady for getting drunk after a game? Hell, Michael Vick was convicted of multiple felonies, went to prison and was still welcomed back into the league upon his release (if not by the same team).
Asashoryu broke no law, committed no crime and violated no sacred trust of sumo. He is not Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson or even Dennis Rodman. Yet the Sumo Association treated him as if he was all three and tossed him to the curb. They should have protected and celebrated his achievements as if he were Michael Jordan.
MJ had a gambling problem, by the way. There's a reason no one cared.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Not because he was too old or because he wanted to pursue other interests, but because he made one too many mistakes outside of the ring. His biggest mistake of all might have been dominating a sport that is too short-sighted to recognize that a great champion is a great champion, period. No amount of "controversy" can justify the Sumo Association pressuring Asashoryu into retirement. Not at the age of 29 and not on the heels of his twenty-fifth tournament championship (in Japanese, yusho).
For those unaware of Asashoryu's accomplishments, I can offer some perspective. His twenty-five yusho qualifies him for third place on the all time list, with first place being a mere seven yusho away. Given the rate at which he won and his relative youth, it was a question of "when" rather than "if" he would find himself on top of that list.
More significant is what his victories represent: his stature as the undisputed best wrestler in sumo of the decade. For three straight years he was the sole yokozuna, the top rank in the sport. This is the longest such period in sumo history.
The title of yokozuna is only bestowed upon wrestlers after winning two consecutive tournaments. During his 2004-2007 solo reign Asashoryu won an incredible sixteen of twenty-one tournaments, including an unprecedented seven straight from November 2004 to November 2005. No one had ever won six yusho in a single calendar year before, let alone seven in a row. He single-handedly ensured that no one else could reach his level because there was no chance for other wrestlers to string two yusho together.
As it turns out, all that winning wasn't good enough. Sumo is unique among professional sports in many areas, but perhaps the most unusual aspect is how strictly a wrestler's lifestyle and public persona is controlled. They never appear outside wearing any modern clothing. They are not supposed to drive themselves. They live, eat, sleep and train together in so-called "stables."
Asashoryu had a "controversial" reputation as a "bad boy" but I don't think there are quotation marks big enough to qualify those terms when one of those "controversies" was Asashoryu celebrating a yusho by raising his arms in the ring. The NFL may have some absurd ideas about what qualifies a celebration excessive but in sumo, it seems any celebration is too much.
Perhaps his sole legitimate transgression was skipping out on a exhibition tournament in 2007 by claiming injury and then competing in a charity soccer match in Mongolia. For his crime he was suspended for two full tournaments and subjected to relentless media attention. I'm guessing the latter hurt more than the former, because during that time he reportedly sought treatment for depression and his wife left him.
What was the incident that pushed him over the edge? Asashoryu got drunk during the January 2010 tournament and allegedly got into a brawl. The more salacious details (death threats?) are the stuff of tabloid rumors and completely unconfirmed. The matter was settled without any lawsuits or criminal charges, though it's generally assumed that the other party received financial compensation for getting beaten up.
I know all of these issues snowball over time and these high-profile screw-ups are Asashoryu's own damn fault, but is this seriously enough motivation to throw someone out of a sport? Especially when said sport is teetering on the brink of irrelevance?
Sumo wrestling may be right up there with ninja and samurai as foreign images of Japan go, but these days there's not much popular interest in the sport. Baseball is far and away the national pastime, with soccer closing in fast. When I talk to my students about their dreams of the future, no one ever says "I want to be a sumo wrestler." Not even the ones who look like sumo wrestlers.
Asashoryu was the face of sumo. When I conducted a (non-scientific) survey about sumo in 2006, asking college students and older adults alike to name their favorite wrestler, he was the practically the only active wrestler anyone could name. Most people thought of champions from the past like Takanohana or Wakanohana. When I watch sumo with my in-laws, they look to me to identify who's who in the ring because they can barely read the elaborate ring names the wrestlers use.
Is sumo dead? Hardly. Is it in danger? Big time. Besides Asashoryu's non-controversies, the Sumo Association has seen some serious scandals in recent years. A number of wrestlers were fired after they tested positive for marijuana use (no laughing matter in Japan). A trainee was beaten to death by his stable master who then tried to cover it up, claiming he died of exhaustion. Combine that incident with the general strictness of the sumo lifestyle and it’s no wonder recruitment is at an all-time low.
Sumo as a sport (and a business) is not in a position to turn away fans or potential athletes right now, and in shoving Asashoryu out the door the Association is are doing both. Nobody cared when Chiyotaikai, a veteran wrestler with a longer tenure than Asashoryu, retired last month. There were no news stories outside of sports coverage and no chatter on the afternoon talk shows.
Meanwhile, Asashoryu was the talk of the television for weeks, starting when the alleged brawl took place and running straight through the end of the tournament and into last week’s Sumo Association election. No, it wasn't all positive news but it was news, something that no struggling sport can refuse.
The fictional Bela Lugosi once said "There is no such thing as bad publicity." I’m not positive that's true, but forcing your star performer and current champion to retire because he was too "ontroversial" is insane. How often do those two qualities overlap? What sport would willing drop both at the same time?
Would Major League Baseball suspend Derek Jeter if he was photographed jogging in a Fun Run while on the disabled list? Would the NFL ever ditch Peyton Manning or Tom Brady for getting drunk after a game? Hell, Michael Vick was convicted of multiple felonies, went to prison and was still welcomed back into the league upon his release (if not by the same team).
Asashoryu broke no law, committed no crime and violated no sacred trust of sumo. He is not Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe Jackson or even Dennis Rodman. Yet the Sumo Association treated him as if he was all three and tossed him to the curb. They should have protected and celebrated his achievements as if he were Michael Jordan.
MJ had a gambling problem, by the way. There's a reason no one cared.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Daddy's Home
Today turned out to be a very nice day. I went to work and was sent straight home because there's nothing for me to do over the summer. While I admit it was a bit of a nuisance commuting all the way there and back, I'll take the early release over an awkward day of waiting every time.
Mako was delighted to have me around all day. She says Go was also happy to see me, though at this point it's still impossible to tell whether he's happy or just making faces. Either way it was lovely to just be here and help out. Go doesn't sleep much when we put him down but he can fall asleep in our arms, so I served as a valuable distraction throughout the afternoon. Of course, when the two of them took a nap I got in some time on BioShock. This just in: that game is still awesome.
In sports news, I got to watch the Yankees win their way into first place. The team's problems are evident: their starting pitching continues to underperform and several of their stars seem to need a lot of rest these days because of their age, but this team is good. Good enough to get to the World Series? Probably not, but at this point they look like a solid Wild Card contender. Sometimes that's all it takes.
In national (as in this particular nation where I live) sports news, this year's Nagoya sumo tournament isn't going so well. Everyone I like lost today, which left me feeling sad. However, the day ended well when Hakuho, the boring Yokozuna who just beats everybody, lost as well. This means that the tournament is still wide open as we approach the final weekend. Go for it...um...anyone but Hakuho!
There was also the matter of a total eclipse this morning that was visible in Japan. Unfortunately, we weren't really in the target area and it was horribly overcast all morning, so we saw nothing in our skies. NHK did manage to give us a nice HD closeup of the phenomenon, at least once they were done having two dudes stand in a forest where it's always dark. Hey assholes, the point of an eclipse is that the sun disappears, so try hanging out someplace bright next time. I hear "next time" is twenty-six years away by the way, so there's time to find a cave or crevasse.
OK, we all know the big news today is my son. It's been a month since he was born. We didn't do anything special to commemorate the occasion, although I did snap the following picture. Enjoy!
Excuse me for not getting up. I've had a busy life.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Mako was delighted to have me around all day. She says Go was also happy to see me, though at this point it's still impossible to tell whether he's happy or just making faces. Either way it was lovely to just be here and help out. Go doesn't sleep much when we put him down but he can fall asleep in our arms, so I served as a valuable distraction throughout the afternoon. Of course, when the two of them took a nap I got in some time on BioShock. This just in: that game is still awesome.
In sports news, I got to watch the Yankees win their way into first place. The team's problems are evident: their starting pitching continues to underperform and several of their stars seem to need a lot of rest these days because of their age, but this team is good. Good enough to get to the World Series? Probably not, but at this point they look like a solid Wild Card contender. Sometimes that's all it takes.
In national (as in this particular nation where I live) sports news, this year's Nagoya sumo tournament isn't going so well. Everyone I like lost today, which left me feeling sad. However, the day ended well when Hakuho, the boring Yokozuna who just beats everybody, lost as well. This means that the tournament is still wide open as we approach the final weekend. Go for it...um...anyone but Hakuho!
There was also the matter of a total eclipse this morning that was visible in Japan. Unfortunately, we weren't really in the target area and it was horribly overcast all morning, so we saw nothing in our skies. NHK did manage to give us a nice HD closeup of the phenomenon, at least once they were done having two dudes stand in a forest where it's always dark. Hey assholes, the point of an eclipse is that the sun disappears, so try hanging out someplace bright next time. I hear "next time" is twenty-six years away by the way, so there's time to find a cave or crevasse.
OK, we all know the big news today is my son. It's been a month since he was born. We didn't do anything special to commemorate the occasion, although I did snap the following picture. Enjoy!
Excuse me for not getting up. I've had a busy life.
Labels: baseball, family, Japan, number one son, sports, sumo, teaching, Yankees
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, March 30, 2009
More Entertainment Than I Require
I'm sitting at work right now in a nearly empty staff room, wearing my coat and waiting for Spring. Looking out the window, I can see the pink and white flowers just beginning to poke their way into the world. I welcome their arrival.
I had a very pleasant weekend and I feel good about nearly everything that happened. If anything, there were times where I could have had less fun and I would have had just as good a time in hindsight. So you could say that my only regrets are enjoying myself too much, as if there is some finite supply of happiness in my life and I squandered it.
Saturday was my day to go out and spend time with friends while Mako relaxed at home. It was also, not coincidentally, the opening day of Watchmen here in Japan. I mentioned just last week my enthusiasm for this film and of Mako's evident indifference to it. Picking up on her coolness and anticipating another drawn out experience where she doesn't just tell me she's uninterested in seeing it in theaters, I made it simple for her. I told her I wanted to see the movie on opening day and asked if she wanted to go. She didn't, and I did.
But not alone! I met up with Alex to eat lunch and then watch the film. Over some spicy Thai-style pizza in Namba, we talked about games, his upcoming podcast, and the new T-shirt line at Uniqlo. He also revealed that he has not yet read the original Watchmen story but is, in fact, in the midst of reading it now. I don't think I've ever seen a movie based on a book I was actively reading at the time, but I suppose it can't be much different than going into the movie blind.
The movie was preceded by two trailers for American films which I am still thinking about two days later. The first was the new Terminator movie which I cannot begin to understand. The original film and its stunning sequel were fantastic and continue to linger in my mind as two of my favorite science-fiction stories. The third, for all its flaws, was an enjoyable romp that ended very well. Considering its very existence nullified the solid ending of T2, T3 spun a remarkably appropriate conclusion for itself that improved my view of the entire film.
While I am a sucker for good time travel stories, the real appeal of the first three Terminator films was rooted in a gritty contemporary setting. All three showed visions of humanity's nightmarish future and the war with the machines, but the story was firmly modern-day and a good deal of the tension revolved around that restriction. The heroes often lament that the technology available to them in the 80s and 90s is insufficient to take down a superior foe. Likewise, the Terminator itself experiences routine setbacks when forced to constrain itself to the society it seeks to destroy. The Terminator films have always been fish out of water stories where the two fish are trying to kill each other.
So what does the T4 trailer offer viewers? Explosions and giant robots with Christian Bale shouting at people. This is (apparently) an entire movie dedicated to those short segments in the earlier films where everyone has laser blasters and is covered in grime. Maybe someone out there saw those scenes and said "Man, when are they gonna tell me the rest of that story?" Whoever that guy might be, he's not me or any of my immediate friends. Hell, most of them thought T3 went off the rails into Silly Town. While I managed to enjoy it, I can't say the new movie appeals to me at all. I may rent it if only to bring some context to the awkward audio clip of Christian Bale chewing out a guy on the set. I just need to know what he was doing at the time.
The second trailer was also full of explosions and giant robots because it was for the new Transformers movie. This falls squarely into the category of "fool me once, shame on you/fool me twice, shame on me." I knew the first film would be awful and despite all my efforts to lower my expectations and open my mind to the possibility of it being dumb fun ("my efforts" largely consisting of drinking heavily before going to the theater that day), it was even worse than I could have imagined. The new film seems to have learned nothing from the first, as everything I saw was nigh-incomprehensible. Even by movie trailer standards the action was splintered and disjointed, which is exactly what ruined the first movie for me. Well, that and draping a dull-as-fuck high school romance over the entire story. But what do I know? The movie was a huge hit and plenty of people I know and respect managed to enjoy it. Go on without me fellas.
After all that noise and dubiousness, the movie I actually paid to see began. Watchmen surprised me right away with two curious choices. The murder of The Comedian became a spirited fight scene and there was actually an opening credits sequence (a rare sight in action movies). The fight scene represents my biggest problem with the adaptation while the credits got me excited to see the rest of the story unfold. Those initial few minutes turned out to be a microcosm of everything I liked and didn't like about the movie.
As the fight scene demonstrated, everyone's a bad-ass in the Watchmen movie. The Comedian is supposed to be a tough guy who's way past his prime, yet he's punching through walls and getting up after having his head smashed into tables. His mystery assailant is likewise incredibly strong and fast and the two of them duel with rapid-fire punches and kicks rather than brawling. Later in the film, all of the heroes demonstrate that they are incredibly gifted martial artists and gymnasts rather than just being motivated to fight crime while wearing costumes. This transformation of the "costumed vigilantes" to legitimate superheroes is Watchmen's greatest translation error. The original story was dedicated to deflating the comic book hero by showing his (and her) flaws. These characters still have their problems but completely devastating regular people isn't one of them.
On the other hand, the opening credits demonstrated a real affection for the original comic by delivering a slick, streamlined history lesson of the major events that precede the "present day," which in Watchmen is 1985. This is what the movie unquestionably gets right; it preserves the overall story of the original and presents it in a modern comic book movie aesthetic. Even if the action seems out of place from a logical perspective, I could not deny that I still got caught up in the excitement. Director Zach Snyder has given us hyper-real action setpieces before, but only in Watchmen is there a story worth telling alongside all the slow-motion combat. And while his bright ideas for "improving" 300 were laughably bad, Watchmen survives the inevitable hurdles of adaptation and actually thrives.
Rather than detail things I noticed about the movie being different than the original, I will simply point you to this article in The A.V. Club that goes through both works in their entirety. It's been a few years since I read the comic and I hadn't recalled exactly who did what to whom. Watching Watchmen has reminded me of why I was excited about the movie at all and I feel compelled to revisit the comic to make my own comparisons now. That may be the best thing anyone can say about an adaptation: it doesn't require you to know the entire backstory and watching the movie should encourage you to read the original afterward.
After the movie Alex and I swung by Uniqlo to check out some of the new video game themed T-shirts they're offering now. All of the shirts are cool but the only one I wanted (among those that are on sale now) is their Resident Evil T-shirt that is nothing but a list of enemy names. Unfortunately, they had no XL-size shirts and only one L-size which Alex claimed. I am torn between going to their website to buy one or just waiting for more shirts to come out so I can buy all of them at once, which will likely lower the per-shirt price. My only worry is that hesitation will result in the shirts disappearing, as Japan has a tendency to offer new and incredibly cool things for a limited time. I'm still waiting for the White Chocolate Maple Kit-Kats I ate in 2005 to make a return to the shelves.
With our (ok, HIS) shopping done, Alex ran off to handle his own affairs while I wondered what to do next. I sat down for some dinner and called Kazu out of the blue. I had debated for a while whether or not it would be "right" to just call him and see what he was doing. I don't know why I treated the whole situation like some kind of first date. Kazu is someone I've known for years; there's no reason to be anxious about calling him on the phone. As it turned out he was shopping in Umeda and he was eager to meet. We had a few drinks at the same bar we hit last week before parting ways around 10.
(This post has turned out longer than I expected but I'm just going to continue rather than cut the story in half)
Spending all day (and night) out on Saturday made me more eager to spend Sunday relaxing at home with Mako. We had lunch at a little place called "Kitchen Pot" that we had been meaning to try for a long time and it turned out to be really good. The portions were large and the prices were more than reasonable. There was a friendly vibe to the place that I dare say had something to do with their choice of oldies music. I got burned out on those tunes due to continuous over-exposure during my time in the post office, but something about hearing Elvis' "Return to Sender" again made me smile.
After our meal and some shopping, we settled in for the last day of the sumo tournament. It didn't end so well as many of the wrestlers I like ended up losing or just finishing with poor records. I was especially down about the final yokozuna match. Even though Hakuho had already secured the championship, I still wanted to see Asashoryu beat him to spoil his unblemished record and save some face. It didn't happen. Drat.
For dinner we tried making nachos again. We are slowly but surely getting the hang of the taste but we need to work on our form. As seen here last week, our nachos take the shape of a burial mound with the chips smothered in a heap of toppings. Last night's version turned out the same way, except we added guacamole and sour cream to the mix. The results were delicious but we still needed to dig our way through to the chips beneath. Mako said she was full halfway through and I pretended to be disappointed in her. Meanwhile, I could barely fit another bite into my mouth but I soldiered on to avoid the nasty leftovers we would end up with. I think "burial mound nachos" is a good name for our dish because if we keep eating like this we'll both be dead in six months.
With both of us beyond satiated we collapsed onto the couch with nothing to do. I received the green light to play video games and decided to finally try the last level of Resistance 2. While playing too much of the enormously entertaining co-op mode got me into trouble in January, I have been quietly making my way through the single player mode over the past few months. I can't say I was into the story or the characters, but I did find the game provided me with enough thrills and big "moments" to keep me coming back for more.
The basic premise (bald space marine fights aliens) is beyond cliche at this point, but Resistance 2 has its share of action setpieces that made the experience worth it. I remember coming out of an underground bunker and seeing San Francisco burn while a massive enemy fleet hung in the sky above. I remember going through abandoned homes and dark warehouses that were full of nasty zombie-like creatures gestating in pods. I remember fighting a skyscraper-sized foe in Chicago who found my rocket launcher more of an annoyance than anything else, but shooting him in the face with it was enough to convince him to throw me through an glass-enclosed catwalk and onto another building five blocks away.
Unfortunately, the ending of the game didn't offer much in the way of memories. In fact, my memory was a hindrance because playing the final level made me think back to earlier stages and older, better games I had once played. Sure, it was really cool to look out the window of that Louisiana estate and see what looked like a fire-breathing dinosaur stalking me. I also got a kick out of fighting my way onto a large steamboat and going cabin to cabin looking for monsters. But the entire finale of storming the mothership with a nuclear bomb in tow felt exactly the same as the mission where I flew an enemy craft into another vessel and set off charges on the bridge. Both had me explore metallic alien corridors and then make a "daring" escape while a clock ticked down in the corner of my screen before flying away with just seconds to spare.
The final showdown with a flying psychic cephalopod was uninteresting at best and lacked all the polish of previous boss fights, even the really hard ones. Fighting a giant alien swarm halfway through the game had been so frustrating I actually got angry, but at least it was something new. The last boss encounter didn't offer a challenge so much as it did closure. You see him escape capture in the first level and then you get to put him down in the last one. Justice/vengeance is served, ho-hum.
The actual ending cinema of the game was abrupt, extremely anti-climactic and could have been handled much better. I thought I had reached the "bad ending" because I played the game too slowly. The main character is trying to finish his mission before the alien virus in his body destroys his humanity, so I thought I missed the deadline. According to the Internet, that's the only ending there is.
Having said all that, I will not dismiss Resistance 2 for its lackluster conclusion. The single player game was more than adequate and the co-op mode was genuinely exciting in ways I would never have expected. Hell, it still is genuinely exciting, I just don't have much time to play online anymore. I feel like taking a break from shooting aliens for a while...right after I finish Half-Life.
To get back to my point (huh? oh, right..."too much fun"), this weekend I ate more food than I needed to, stayed out drinking when I could have gone home, and kept plugging away at a video game to reach the end rather than put down the controller and finish it the next day. I say this not because I think I made the wrong choices, but rather to remind myself of how fortunate I am. There's nothing wrong with a little excess after a long week of not working.
Hey, speaking of work, it's almost time to get going. I wouldn't want to miss that one o'clock bus home.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I had a very pleasant weekend and I feel good about nearly everything that happened. If anything, there were times where I could have had less fun and I would have had just as good a time in hindsight. So you could say that my only regrets are enjoying myself too much, as if there is some finite supply of happiness in my life and I squandered it.
Saturday was my day to go out and spend time with friends while Mako relaxed at home. It was also, not coincidentally, the opening day of Watchmen here in Japan. I mentioned just last week my enthusiasm for this film and of Mako's evident indifference to it. Picking up on her coolness and anticipating another drawn out experience where she doesn't just tell me she's uninterested in seeing it in theaters, I made it simple for her. I told her I wanted to see the movie on opening day and asked if she wanted to go. She didn't, and I did.
But not alone! I met up with Alex to eat lunch and then watch the film. Over some spicy Thai-style pizza in Namba, we talked about games, his upcoming podcast, and the new T-shirt line at Uniqlo. He also revealed that he has not yet read the original Watchmen story but is, in fact, in the midst of reading it now. I don't think I've ever seen a movie based on a book I was actively reading at the time, but I suppose it can't be much different than going into the movie blind.
The movie was preceded by two trailers for American films which I am still thinking about two days later. The first was the new Terminator movie which I cannot begin to understand. The original film and its stunning sequel were fantastic and continue to linger in my mind as two of my favorite science-fiction stories. The third, for all its flaws, was an enjoyable romp that ended very well. Considering its very existence nullified the solid ending of T2, T3 spun a remarkably appropriate conclusion for itself that improved my view of the entire film.
While I am a sucker for good time travel stories, the real appeal of the first three Terminator films was rooted in a gritty contemporary setting. All three showed visions of humanity's nightmarish future and the war with the machines, but the story was firmly modern-day and a good deal of the tension revolved around that restriction. The heroes often lament that the technology available to them in the 80s and 90s is insufficient to take down a superior foe. Likewise, the Terminator itself experiences routine setbacks when forced to constrain itself to the society it seeks to destroy. The Terminator films have always been fish out of water stories where the two fish are trying to kill each other.
So what does the T4 trailer offer viewers? Explosions and giant robots with Christian Bale shouting at people. This is (apparently) an entire movie dedicated to those short segments in the earlier films where everyone has laser blasters and is covered in grime. Maybe someone out there saw those scenes and said "Man, when are they gonna tell me the rest of that story?" Whoever that guy might be, he's not me or any of my immediate friends. Hell, most of them thought T3 went off the rails into Silly Town. While I managed to enjoy it, I can't say the new movie appeals to me at all. I may rent it if only to bring some context to the awkward audio clip of Christian Bale chewing out a guy on the set. I just need to know what he was doing at the time.
The second trailer was also full of explosions and giant robots because it was for the new Transformers movie. This falls squarely into the category of "fool me once, shame on you/fool me twice, shame on me." I knew the first film would be awful and despite all my efforts to lower my expectations and open my mind to the possibility of it being dumb fun ("my efforts" largely consisting of drinking heavily before going to the theater that day), it was even worse than I could have imagined. The new film seems to have learned nothing from the first, as everything I saw was nigh-incomprehensible. Even by movie trailer standards the action was splintered and disjointed, which is exactly what ruined the first movie for me. Well, that and draping a dull-as-fuck high school romance over the entire story. But what do I know? The movie was a huge hit and plenty of people I know and respect managed to enjoy it. Go on without me fellas.
After all that noise and dubiousness, the movie I actually paid to see began. Watchmen surprised me right away with two curious choices. The murder of The Comedian became a spirited fight scene and there was actually an opening credits sequence (a rare sight in action movies). The fight scene represents my biggest problem with the adaptation while the credits got me excited to see the rest of the story unfold. Those initial few minutes turned out to be a microcosm of everything I liked and didn't like about the movie.
As the fight scene demonstrated, everyone's a bad-ass in the Watchmen movie. The Comedian is supposed to be a tough guy who's way past his prime, yet he's punching through walls and getting up after having his head smashed into tables. His mystery assailant is likewise incredibly strong and fast and the two of them duel with rapid-fire punches and kicks rather than brawling. Later in the film, all of the heroes demonstrate that they are incredibly gifted martial artists and gymnasts rather than just being motivated to fight crime while wearing costumes. This transformation of the "costumed vigilantes" to legitimate superheroes is Watchmen's greatest translation error. The original story was dedicated to deflating the comic book hero by showing his (and her) flaws. These characters still have their problems but completely devastating regular people isn't one of them.
On the other hand, the opening credits demonstrated a real affection for the original comic by delivering a slick, streamlined history lesson of the major events that precede the "present day," which in Watchmen is 1985. This is what the movie unquestionably gets right; it preserves the overall story of the original and presents it in a modern comic book movie aesthetic. Even if the action seems out of place from a logical perspective, I could not deny that I still got caught up in the excitement. Director Zach Snyder has given us hyper-real action setpieces before, but only in Watchmen is there a story worth telling alongside all the slow-motion combat. And while his bright ideas for "improving" 300 were laughably bad, Watchmen survives the inevitable hurdles of adaptation and actually thrives.
Rather than detail things I noticed about the movie being different than the original, I will simply point you to this article in The A.V. Club that goes through both works in their entirety. It's been a few years since I read the comic and I hadn't recalled exactly who did what to whom. Watching Watchmen has reminded me of why I was excited about the movie at all and I feel compelled to revisit the comic to make my own comparisons now. That may be the best thing anyone can say about an adaptation: it doesn't require you to know the entire backstory and watching the movie should encourage you to read the original afterward.
After the movie Alex and I swung by Uniqlo to check out some of the new video game themed T-shirts they're offering now. All of the shirts are cool but the only one I wanted (among those that are on sale now) is their Resident Evil T-shirt that is nothing but a list of enemy names. Unfortunately, they had no XL-size shirts and only one L-size which Alex claimed. I am torn between going to their website to buy one or just waiting for more shirts to come out so I can buy all of them at once, which will likely lower the per-shirt price. My only worry is that hesitation will result in the shirts disappearing, as Japan has a tendency to offer new and incredibly cool things for a limited time. I'm still waiting for the White Chocolate Maple Kit-Kats I ate in 2005 to make a return to the shelves.
With our (ok, HIS) shopping done, Alex ran off to handle his own affairs while I wondered what to do next. I sat down for some dinner and called Kazu out of the blue. I had debated for a while whether or not it would be "right" to just call him and see what he was doing. I don't know why I treated the whole situation like some kind of first date. Kazu is someone I've known for years; there's no reason to be anxious about calling him on the phone. As it turned out he was shopping in Umeda and he was eager to meet. We had a few drinks at the same bar we hit last week before parting ways around 10.
(This post has turned out longer than I expected but I'm just going to continue rather than cut the story in half)
Spending all day (and night) out on Saturday made me more eager to spend Sunday relaxing at home with Mako. We had lunch at a little place called "Kitchen Pot" that we had been meaning to try for a long time and it turned out to be really good. The portions were large and the prices were more than reasonable. There was a friendly vibe to the place that I dare say had something to do with their choice of oldies music. I got burned out on those tunes due to continuous over-exposure during my time in the post office, but something about hearing Elvis' "Return to Sender" again made me smile.
After our meal and some shopping, we settled in for the last day of the sumo tournament. It didn't end so well as many of the wrestlers I like ended up losing or just finishing with poor records. I was especially down about the final yokozuna match. Even though Hakuho had already secured the championship, I still wanted to see Asashoryu beat him to spoil his unblemished record and save some face. It didn't happen. Drat.
For dinner we tried making nachos again. We are slowly but surely getting the hang of the taste but we need to work on our form. As seen here last week, our nachos take the shape of a burial mound with the chips smothered in a heap of toppings. Last night's version turned out the same way, except we added guacamole and sour cream to the mix. The results were delicious but we still needed to dig our way through to the chips beneath. Mako said she was full halfway through and I pretended to be disappointed in her. Meanwhile, I could barely fit another bite into my mouth but I soldiered on to avoid the nasty leftovers we would end up with. I think "burial mound nachos" is a good name for our dish because if we keep eating like this we'll both be dead in six months.
With both of us beyond satiated we collapsed onto the couch with nothing to do. I received the green light to play video games and decided to finally try the last level of Resistance 2. While playing too much of the enormously entertaining co-op mode got me into trouble in January, I have been quietly making my way through the single player mode over the past few months. I can't say I was into the story or the characters, but I did find the game provided me with enough thrills and big "moments" to keep me coming back for more.
The basic premise (bald space marine fights aliens) is beyond cliche at this point, but Resistance 2 has its share of action setpieces that made the experience worth it. I remember coming out of an underground bunker and seeing San Francisco burn while a massive enemy fleet hung in the sky above. I remember going through abandoned homes and dark warehouses that were full of nasty zombie-like creatures gestating in pods. I remember fighting a skyscraper-sized foe in Chicago who found my rocket launcher more of an annoyance than anything else, but shooting him in the face with it was enough to convince him to throw me through an glass-enclosed catwalk and onto another building five blocks away.
Unfortunately, the ending of the game didn't offer much in the way of memories. In fact, my memory was a hindrance because playing the final level made me think back to earlier stages and older, better games I had once played. Sure, it was really cool to look out the window of that Louisiana estate and see what looked like a fire-breathing dinosaur stalking me. I also got a kick out of fighting my way onto a large steamboat and going cabin to cabin looking for monsters. But the entire finale of storming the mothership with a nuclear bomb in tow felt exactly the same as the mission where I flew an enemy craft into another vessel and set off charges on the bridge. Both had me explore metallic alien corridors and then make a "daring" escape while a clock ticked down in the corner of my screen before flying away with just seconds to spare.
The final showdown with a flying psychic cephalopod was uninteresting at best and lacked all the polish of previous boss fights, even the really hard ones. Fighting a giant alien swarm halfway through the game had been so frustrating I actually got angry, but at least it was something new. The last boss encounter didn't offer a challenge so much as it did closure. You see him escape capture in the first level and then you get to put him down in the last one. Justice/vengeance is served, ho-hum.
The actual ending cinema of the game was abrupt, extremely anti-climactic and could have been handled much better. I thought I had reached the "bad ending" because I played the game too slowly. The main character is trying to finish his mission before the alien virus in his body destroys his humanity, so I thought I missed the deadline. According to the Internet, that's the only ending there is.
Having said all that, I will not dismiss Resistance 2 for its lackluster conclusion. The single player game was more than adequate and the co-op mode was genuinely exciting in ways I would never have expected. Hell, it still is genuinely exciting, I just don't have much time to play online anymore. I feel like taking a break from shooting aliens for a while...right after I finish Half-Life.
To get back to my point (huh? oh, right..."too much fun"), this weekend I ate more food than I needed to, stayed out drinking when I could have gone home, and kept plugging away at a video game to reach the end rather than put down the controller and finish it the next day. I say this not because I think I made the wrong choices, but rather to remind myself of how fortunate I am. There's nothing wrong with a little excess after a long week of not working.
Hey, speaking of work, it's almost time to get going. I wouldn't want to miss that one o'clock bus home.
Labels: Alex, comic books, food, friends, Kazu, movies, Osaka, PS3, Resistance 2, sports, sumo, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The Equinoxer
For a nation with such a distorted work-first culture, Japan certainly loves its holidays. Friday was the Vernal Equinox so nobody had to go to work. A perfect time to head to Osaka for a day of sumo, right?
Almost perfect! It turns out that there was also a festival in Den Den Town on Friday full of street performers and cosplayers which would have been great fun to go and see. Alas, I was holed up in the nearby Prefectural Gymnasium all day watching sumo wrestling. And by all day, I mean all day. I arrived at nine AM and stayed until the last match at six PM. There were more than a few stretches of time when I was alone which wasn't the most fun, but for the most part I had a wonderful time.
Sitting down and watching a sport for nine hours is quite different than going to a ballgame or checking out the Olympics on TV. The early matches are extremely short; there's much less posing and staring as the competitors are encouraged to begin as quickly as possible. There's no scoreboard and no replay screens. If you miss something, you missed it. There are no regular pauses such as pitching changes or halftime, only a few breaks where the judges rotate and the staff sweep the ring. If you go to the bathroom or to the souvenir stand, you're going to miss out on a few bouts. I do my best to focus on the action when possible without trying too hard to analyze what's happening. And with over a hundred men competing, each match is a quick judgment call as far as support is concerned. Maybe I root for the local wrestler, maybe I root for the foreigner. Maybe I just like a guy's ring name or the apparent mismatch between him and his oversized/undersized opponent.
When I wasn't alone there were two other JETs (Ahmed and Emma) who live and work near me to talk to. Emma also brought a friend who works in Shizuoka whom I had never met. None of them had been to a sumo tournament before so I was occasionally required to explain the goings-on as best I could. In fact, we were surrounded by other English speaking persons and I often had to help them understand the proceedings as well. It was my pleasure to introduce as much of the sport as I could to newbies because I feel genuinely happy to increase the number of sumo fans in the world.
The big news of the day was, after a year and a half, I finally met up with Kazu again. He was finishing up grad school when I arrived in 2007, so aside from a brief afternoon together that August, we haven't seen each other or even spoken much since. I guess I was busy and then he was busy, but somehow it just never happened. I contacted him last week on a whim, hoping he would both remember me and be interested in seeing sumo. The answer was affirmative on both counts, although he was obviously more interested in seeing me than the wrestlers. Kazu didn't drop by until four so he only caught the very upper level of competition. He said it was his first time at the arena in twenty years.
Once the final men fought and the crowds poured onto the streets, we met up with a few other JETs and miscellaneous friends for some yakitori. Even though our group doubled in size I knew enough people to avoid get left behind by the conversation. If all else failed, I could simply catch up with Kazu, but it never really came to that. Kazu was nervous because he didn't know anybody at all but he's a genuinely pleasant guy so he got along with everyone in a hurry. Hell, all he had to do was tell a story about me and it got everyone's attention.
Our bellies full and our throats dry (alcohol dehydrates!) we moved on to a farewell party for Chika, a young lady I met last year at one of the various JET-togethers. She's moving to Singapore for a new job so she had invited a bunch of people out for drinks at a bar. I don't really "know" Chika that well but the few times we spoke she was super friendly and I really appreciated being invited to her party. Kazu was again concerned that he wouldn't know anyone but we were all stunned to learn that he knew Chika from college! I started to introduce them and they immediate went into the Japanese version of "don't I know you from somewhere?"
The only downside to the evening was that after so many hours of being out and drinking from mid-afternoon through dinner, I was pretty tired and definitely out of it. Not drunk, just seriously drowsy and feeling less than sociable. That factor, combined with the hour or so it takes for me to get home, forced me to leave the party pretty early to go home. Kazu actually stayed because he had made so many friends so quickly. Funny how that goes - he initially came out just to see me, then got dragged along to two straight functions and he ended up having a longer night than I did.
Anyway, that proved to be the main activity of this three-day weekend. Yesterday was a beautiful day but I was spent after Friday and Mako was spent from being six-months pregnant (yeah, she's getting pretty big now) so we didn't go anywhere. We just watched sumo on TV and I played some more games. I'm trying to get the hang of the level editor in LittleBigPlanet but I'm having trouble getting it to do what I want. In the meantime I finished Garden 6 in PixelJunk Eden, drawing a few steps closer towards the mysterious final level, and I managed to unlock Gen in Street Fighter IV with a minimum of anger towards the game's cunning tactics. Today looks to be more of the same, only with rain instead of sunshine.
Ugh, I'm so not looking forward to this week of complete non-teaching. I ordered a bunch of books from Amazon (including the baby book you suggested, Professor!) but they are days away from arriving. Guess I'll have no choice but to nap...er, WRITE. Yeah, write.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Almost perfect! It turns out that there was also a festival in Den Den Town on Friday full of street performers and cosplayers which would have been great fun to go and see. Alas, I was holed up in the nearby Prefectural Gymnasium all day watching sumo wrestling. And by all day, I mean all day. I arrived at nine AM and stayed until the last match at six PM. There were more than a few stretches of time when I was alone which wasn't the most fun, but for the most part I had a wonderful time.
Sitting down and watching a sport for nine hours is quite different than going to a ballgame or checking out the Olympics on TV. The early matches are extremely short; there's much less posing and staring as the competitors are encouraged to begin as quickly as possible. There's no scoreboard and no replay screens. If you miss something, you missed it. There are no regular pauses such as pitching changes or halftime, only a few breaks where the judges rotate and the staff sweep the ring. If you go to the bathroom or to the souvenir stand, you're going to miss out on a few bouts. I do my best to focus on the action when possible without trying too hard to analyze what's happening. And with over a hundred men competing, each match is a quick judgment call as far as support is concerned. Maybe I root for the local wrestler, maybe I root for the foreigner. Maybe I just like a guy's ring name or the apparent mismatch between him and his oversized/undersized opponent.
When I wasn't alone there were two other JETs (Ahmed and Emma) who live and work near me to talk to. Emma also brought a friend who works in Shizuoka whom I had never met. None of them had been to a sumo tournament before so I was occasionally required to explain the goings-on as best I could. In fact, we were surrounded by other English speaking persons and I often had to help them understand the proceedings as well. It was my pleasure to introduce as much of the sport as I could to newbies because I feel genuinely happy to increase the number of sumo fans in the world.
The big news of the day was, after a year and a half, I finally met up with Kazu again. He was finishing up grad school when I arrived in 2007, so aside from a brief afternoon together that August, we haven't seen each other or even spoken much since. I guess I was busy and then he was busy, but somehow it just never happened. I contacted him last week on a whim, hoping he would both remember me and be interested in seeing sumo. The answer was affirmative on both counts, although he was obviously more interested in seeing me than the wrestlers. Kazu didn't drop by until four so he only caught the very upper level of competition. He said it was his first time at the arena in twenty years.
Once the final men fought and the crowds poured onto the streets, we met up with a few other JETs and miscellaneous friends for some yakitori. Even though our group doubled in size I knew enough people to avoid get left behind by the conversation. If all else failed, I could simply catch up with Kazu, but it never really came to that. Kazu was nervous because he didn't know anybody at all but he's a genuinely pleasant guy so he got along with everyone in a hurry. Hell, all he had to do was tell a story about me and it got everyone's attention.
Our bellies full and our throats dry (alcohol dehydrates!) we moved on to a farewell party for Chika, a young lady I met last year at one of the various JET-togethers. She's moving to Singapore for a new job so she had invited a bunch of people out for drinks at a bar. I don't really "know" Chika that well but the few times we spoke she was super friendly and I really appreciated being invited to her party. Kazu was again concerned that he wouldn't know anyone but we were all stunned to learn that he knew Chika from college! I started to introduce them and they immediate went into the Japanese version of "don't I know you from somewhere?"
The only downside to the evening was that after so many hours of being out and drinking from mid-afternoon through dinner, I was pretty tired and definitely out of it. Not drunk, just seriously drowsy and feeling less than sociable. That factor, combined with the hour or so it takes for me to get home, forced me to leave the party pretty early to go home. Kazu actually stayed because he had made so many friends so quickly. Funny how that goes - he initially came out just to see me, then got dragged along to two straight functions and he ended up having a longer night than I did.
Anyway, that proved to be the main activity of this three-day weekend. Yesterday was a beautiful day but I was spent after Friday and Mako was spent from being six-months pregnant (yeah, she's getting pretty big now) so we didn't go anywhere. We just watched sumo on TV and I played some more games. I'm trying to get the hang of the level editor in LittleBigPlanet but I'm having trouble getting it to do what I want. In the meantime I finished Garden 6 in PixelJunk Eden, drawing a few steps closer towards the mysterious final level, and I managed to unlock Gen in Street Fighter IV with a minimum of anger towards the game's cunning tactics. Today looks to be more of the same, only with rain instead of sunshine.
Ugh, I'm so not looking forward to this week of complete non-teaching. I ordered a bunch of books from Amazon (including the baby book you suggested, Professor!) but they are days away from arriving. Guess I'll have no choice but to nap...er, WRITE. Yeah, write.
Labels: friends, JET, Kazu, sports, sumo, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
(That's Entertainment!) x 3
Found myself with some unexpected free time at work today and all I could think about was how much fun I had over the past three days, with each day featuring a completely different form of audio/visual amusement.
On Saturday, Mako and I watched a few more episodes of Prison Break. Two things continue to impress me about this show. First, each new episode fits tightly with earlier ones, and no matter how many new developments unfold the writers keep acknowledging earlier unsolved problems. It's like the exact opposite of Heroes, where characters seem to appear and disappear at the writers' convenience and past episodes are similarly ignored whenever it suits the latest crisis. Prison Break also manages to keep ratcheting up the tension and the already-high stakes with each new twist, even though (as I remarked yesterday) I know that the two main characters are going to escape...eventually. Again, contrast that with Heroes which has enough magical healers and time-traveling characters to undo anything and everything, leaving me to wonder why I even bother to watch.
Saturday night I went out and had a blast hanging out with Alex. I should explain who that is, shouldn't I? Alex is a fellow foreigner in the area, an English teacher (as in "from England")/video game enthusiast/blogger who I managed to "run into" on the 1UP forums. We had a couple of drinks last month at my favorite bar, Captain Kangaroo, where we got along quite well. Meeting people (male or female) after an online encounter is always a shaky prospect. You never know if the humor or mood of your e-mails will carry over into the real world. Alex and I, as it turns out, have a great deal to talk about and we both appreciate the occasional alcoholic beverage.
This time, we started our evening at Captain Kangaroo but then went to his apartment for a few hours of (drunken) gaming on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Ever since Mako flatly insisted that I never buy one, I have been tormented by my interest in the Xbox and a few of the exclusive games that it offers. Thanks to Alex, I finally got my hands on three of those games: Braid, Castle Crashers, and Left4Dead. Castle Crashers was not as much fun as I had hoped, but Braid and Left4Dead were even better than I had anticipated. Fortunately, L4D is also available on PC (if I ever upgrade) and Braid might very well turn up there by the end of the year. They both felt good with a controller in my hands though...Mako, won't you reconsider?
Sunday was the first of the month which in Japan means cheap movie tickets for all. At last, Mako and I went out and saw the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Odd title aside, I loved everything about this movie, mainly thanks to the risky decision to make a direct sequel to Casino Royale. I say "risky" because Bond doesn't normally roll that way. He and his supporting characters may have existed for 40+ years and 20+ films, but rarely does any film have any significant connection to any of the others. Sure, he got married and his new bride died in one film, but other than the occasional acknowledgment of her death, he didn't change. This time out the entire film is a continuation of Casino Royale, picking up where that film so dramatically ended and featuring nearly every character in a return engagement. This sudden embrace of continuity added a lot of weight to the film: the customary opening action sequence actually means something for a change. I'm willing to admit that Casino Royale was a better film but that's honestly the strongest criticism I can muster for Quantum of Solace. Mako loved it as well, but she says that she still prefers Sean Connery. No argument here!
Yesterday was Monday and a work day but it also managed to be Super Sunday thanks to a Super Bowl rebroadcast after dinner. I was tired as hell and a little frustrated by my internet withdrawal but it all paid off beautifully. The game was terrific, packed with much more drama than I could have imagined from two teams I don't care a lick about. If anything, that neutrality helped me enjoy the see-saw of the final few minutes, though any game with more scoring in the 4th quarter than the previous 3 quarters combined should win over even the most disinterested fan. Or a non-fan, as Mako doesn't know a thing about the game but she got completely caught up in the intensity, especially that endzone-to-endzone interception return and the fast-paced touchdown passes of the last few drives.
So to wrap it up, I am feelin' fine. Great even, despite the long week of work that still lies ahead. TV, video games, James Bond and football are just as thrilling as ever. What did you people get up to this weekend?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
On Saturday, Mako and I watched a few more episodes of Prison Break. Two things continue to impress me about this show. First, each new episode fits tightly with earlier ones, and no matter how many new developments unfold the writers keep acknowledging earlier unsolved problems. It's like the exact opposite of Heroes, where characters seem to appear and disappear at the writers' convenience and past episodes are similarly ignored whenever it suits the latest crisis. Prison Break also manages to keep ratcheting up the tension and the already-high stakes with each new twist, even though (as I remarked yesterday) I know that the two main characters are going to escape...eventually. Again, contrast that with Heroes which has enough magical healers and time-traveling characters to undo anything and everything, leaving me to wonder why I even bother to watch.
Saturday night I went out and had a blast hanging out with Alex. I should explain who that is, shouldn't I? Alex is a fellow foreigner in the area, an English teacher (as in "from England")/video game enthusiast/blogger who I managed to "run into" on the 1UP forums. We had a couple of drinks last month at my favorite bar, Captain Kangaroo, where we got along quite well. Meeting people (male or female) after an online encounter is always a shaky prospect. You never know if the humor or mood of your e-mails will carry over into the real world. Alex and I, as it turns out, have a great deal to talk about and we both appreciate the occasional alcoholic beverage.
This time, we started our evening at Captain Kangaroo but then went to his apartment for a few hours of (drunken) gaming on both the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Ever since Mako flatly insisted that I never buy one, I have been tormented by my interest in the Xbox and a few of the exclusive games that it offers. Thanks to Alex, I finally got my hands on three of those games: Braid, Castle Crashers, and Left4Dead. Castle Crashers was not as much fun as I had hoped, but Braid and Left4Dead were even better than I had anticipated. Fortunately, L4D is also available on PC (if I ever upgrade) and Braid might very well turn up there by the end of the year. They both felt good with a controller in my hands though...Mako, won't you reconsider?
Sunday was the first of the month which in Japan means cheap movie tickets for all. At last, Mako and I went out and saw the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Odd title aside, I loved everything about this movie, mainly thanks to the risky decision to make a direct sequel to Casino Royale. I say "risky" because Bond doesn't normally roll that way. He and his supporting characters may have existed for 40+ years and 20+ films, but rarely does any film have any significant connection to any of the others. Sure, he got married and his new bride died in one film, but other than the occasional acknowledgment of her death, he didn't change. This time out the entire film is a continuation of Casino Royale, picking up where that film so dramatically ended and featuring nearly every character in a return engagement. This sudden embrace of continuity added a lot of weight to the film: the customary opening action sequence actually means something for a change. I'm willing to admit that Casino Royale was a better film but that's honestly the strongest criticism I can muster for Quantum of Solace. Mako loved it as well, but she says that she still prefers Sean Connery. No argument here!
Yesterday was Monday and a work day but it also managed to be Super Sunday thanks to a Super Bowl rebroadcast after dinner. I was tired as hell and a little frustrated by my internet withdrawal but it all paid off beautifully. The game was terrific, packed with much more drama than I could have imagined from two teams I don't care a lick about. If anything, that neutrality helped me enjoy the see-saw of the final few minutes, though any game with more scoring in the 4th quarter than the previous 3 quarters combined should win over even the most disinterested fan. Or a non-fan, as Mako doesn't know a thing about the game but she got completely caught up in the intensity, especially that endzone-to-endzone interception return and the fast-paced touchdown passes of the last few drives.
So to wrap it up, I am feelin' fine. Great even, despite the long week of work that still lies ahead. TV, video games, James Bond and football are just as thrilling as ever. What did you people get up to this weekend?
Labels: Alex, football, friends, Heroes, James Bond, movies, Prison Break, sports, television, video games, Xbox
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, February 02, 2009
Spoiler Alert (I Must Be)
Due to the peculiarities of our little planet, Sunday night in New York equals Monday morning in Japan. As millions of Americans sat down with their delicious drinks and their salty snacks to watch the Super Bowl, I was riding a bus to Hana Town so I could get to work. Once I arrived I was forced to restrain myself from using any kind of Internet application, else I learn the results of the game before I could get home and see the rebroadcast myself. While I sat in the office, purposely isolating myself from information I wanted to know, I thought about the nature of "spoilers."
Mako and I have just recently gotten into two American serial dramas on DVD, Prison Break and Battlestar Galactica. Admittedly, I'm more into the latter than the former (with Mako feeling the exact opposite) but we are actively renting both shows right now. While the subject matter couldn't be more dissimilar, both programs focus on a long-term story over individual, self-contained episodes and both shows are coming to an end this year. In the case of Prison Break, I know for a fact that they spend every season after the first on the run so they must manage to get out of prison sooner or later, yet I am on board for every sudden twist and failed maneuver along the way. It doesn't matter that they're going to escape, I still don't know how, when or who makes it at this point and I am really enjoying the ride.
I am one of those people who takes spoilers pretty seriously. Whether it's the end of a book, a major story arc on TV or even an impressive stunt in a film, I don't want to hear about it second-hand. I want to experience that moment, whatever it may be, on my own terms when I watch/read/play it myself. My outlook is this: people make these stories with an audience in mind. Every surprise, every joke, every tragic death has meaning only because of the narrative that surrounds it. Every element of the story is tied to some other element. The whole is more than the sum of its parts: take one part out of context and feature it in commercials or plaster it across the internet, and the whole is diminished.
Using this admittedly broad definition, it would seem that almost every detail about a book, TV show, movie or video game qualifies as a spoiler. Does this mean that every story I encounter is "spoiled" because I know what actors appear in it or how many seasons the show runs for? Not necessarily. A spoiler is not a black and white concept to me; there are many subtle levels. Given that there is so much media out there vying for my attention, I must take in a certain amount of sensitive information in order to develop an interest in any given piece of entertainment. Something must be "spoiled" in order to establish a story as one I care about.
Take Cloverfield as an example. Would I have rented that film based on nothing but the title? Not a chance, it sounds like a Jane Austin novel. It was only after I found out it was a monster movie (with a gimmick) that I decided I wanted to see it. At the same time, I can only imagine the incredible evening I would have had watching it without knowing a giant creature was going to attack Manhattan by the end of the film. There was also a substantial amount of buzz surrounding one shocking moment, leaving me to sit and wait for it to happen rather than actually be shocked when...no, I won't say it.
So where do I draw the line? What's the difference between a "enjoy the ride" spoiler versus a "sit and wait" spoiler? I wish I could tell you but there simply isn't a way to tell ahead of time what is or is not a cataclysmic bombshell. That's why I'm so cautious about investigating any story and why, once I know I'm interested, I actively avoid learning anything more. When I go to the movies, I close my eyes during nearly every trailer. When I watch Battlestar Galactica, I turn away from the opening credits because they are, bizarrely enough, packed with dramatic moments from the episode I am about to watch. And when a video game podcast starts discussing the highlights of any narrative-driven game I'm hoping to play, I fast-forward until I'm convinced they've moved onto another topic.
Video games are a curious case because they should, in theory, be spoiler-proof by virtue of their interactivity. Enjoying a video game requires you to pick up the controller and actually play through it, so no amount of plot points revealed in advance should rob you of that entertainment. I certainly can't think of any sensitive information I could have heard about Portal, a phenomenal game that I first played months after it became a "huge success," which would have detracted from the experience in any way. There are also scores of video games that have no narrative to speak of, making the only potential "spoilers" being the solutions to the levels. Yet entire websites devoted to video game strategies and solutions exist to answer players' questions. I know I wouldn't have gotten all those PixelJunk Monsters trophies without the occasional tip from GameFAQs.
Contrary to all these points, I am perhaps more paranoid about video game spoilers than of any other media. Much of this revolves around the issue of time. It takes a lot longer to finish a video game than it does a book or a movie, so it's harder to think of myself as "caught up" with what's popular. I may have a chance to see all of the Best Picture nominees by the time the Oscars are handed out, but it's unlikely I will ever finish more than one (if that) of the Game of the Year candidates for 2008. Serial television dramas are similarly hard to catch up with and can run for years, but they also unfold at a uniform pace for everyone. Nobody knows how Lost or Heroes will end yet because the public knowledge of the story is limited to those episodes that have already aired. Once a game like Resident Evil 5 hits the shelves, I expect people to be chattering about major plot points within days, if not hours.
That "chatter" is the other major issue with video games compared to other media: the integral role that the internet plays in gaming culture. The only way to be informed on what new releases look promising or potential additions/updates are available for the games you own is to be online. I don't need to visit any message boards or read any blogs to know when House airs, so the odds that I may come across spoilers is pretty slim. With games, I exist in a constant flinching state when I read through sites like Kotaku, hoping that the page I'm reading does not casually reveal why that plane crashes at the start of BioShock. Yes, it did and no, there was no warning. It wasn't even an article about the game!
Of course, when it comes to sports, the line is pretty easy to draw: knowing the final score before watching the game robs me of all interest. If I had read last year about the Giants' incredible upset of the Patriots while I was at work, I would have been very happy as a Giants fan but I doubt I would have actually turned on the game when I got home. So in the interest of enjoying this year's Super Bowl, I'm just going to shut out the world for a few more hours. I hope it's worth it.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Mako and I have just recently gotten into two American serial dramas on DVD, Prison Break and Battlestar Galactica. Admittedly, I'm more into the latter than the former (with Mako feeling the exact opposite) but we are actively renting both shows right now. While the subject matter couldn't be more dissimilar, both programs focus on a long-term story over individual, self-contained episodes and both shows are coming to an end this year. In the case of Prison Break, I know for a fact that they spend every season after the first on the run so they must manage to get out of prison sooner or later, yet I am on board for every sudden twist and failed maneuver along the way. It doesn't matter that they're going to escape, I still don't know how, when or who makes it at this point and I am really enjoying the ride.
I am one of those people who takes spoilers pretty seriously. Whether it's the end of a book, a major story arc on TV or even an impressive stunt in a film, I don't want to hear about it second-hand. I want to experience that moment, whatever it may be, on my own terms when I watch/read/play it myself. My outlook is this: people make these stories with an audience in mind. Every surprise, every joke, every tragic death has meaning only because of the narrative that surrounds it. Every element of the story is tied to some other element. The whole is more than the sum of its parts: take one part out of context and feature it in commercials or plaster it across the internet, and the whole is diminished.
Using this admittedly broad definition, it would seem that almost every detail about a book, TV show, movie or video game qualifies as a spoiler. Does this mean that every story I encounter is "spoiled" because I know what actors appear in it or how many seasons the show runs for? Not necessarily. A spoiler is not a black and white concept to me; there are many subtle levels. Given that there is so much media out there vying for my attention, I must take in a certain amount of sensitive information in order to develop an interest in any given piece of entertainment. Something must be "spoiled" in order to establish a story as one I care about.
Take Cloverfield as an example. Would I have rented that film based on nothing but the title? Not a chance, it sounds like a Jane Austin novel. It was only after I found out it was a monster movie (with a gimmick) that I decided I wanted to see it. At the same time, I can only imagine the incredible evening I would have had watching it without knowing a giant creature was going to attack Manhattan by the end of the film. There was also a substantial amount of buzz surrounding one shocking moment, leaving me to sit and wait for it to happen rather than actually be shocked when...no, I won't say it.
So where do I draw the line? What's the difference between a "enjoy the ride" spoiler versus a "sit and wait" spoiler? I wish I could tell you but there simply isn't a way to tell ahead of time what is or is not a cataclysmic bombshell. That's why I'm so cautious about investigating any story and why, once I know I'm interested, I actively avoid learning anything more. When I go to the movies, I close my eyes during nearly every trailer. When I watch Battlestar Galactica, I turn away from the opening credits because they are, bizarrely enough, packed with dramatic moments from the episode I am about to watch. And when a video game podcast starts discussing the highlights of any narrative-driven game I'm hoping to play, I fast-forward until I'm convinced they've moved onto another topic.
Video games are a curious case because they should, in theory, be spoiler-proof by virtue of their interactivity. Enjoying a video game requires you to pick up the controller and actually play through it, so no amount of plot points revealed in advance should rob you of that entertainment. I certainly can't think of any sensitive information I could have heard about Portal, a phenomenal game that I first played months after it became a "huge success," which would have detracted from the experience in any way. There are also scores of video games that have no narrative to speak of, making the only potential "spoilers" being the solutions to the levels. Yet entire websites devoted to video game strategies and solutions exist to answer players' questions. I know I wouldn't have gotten all those PixelJunk Monsters trophies without the occasional tip from GameFAQs.
Contrary to all these points, I am perhaps more paranoid about video game spoilers than of any other media. Much of this revolves around the issue of time. It takes a lot longer to finish a video game than it does a book or a movie, so it's harder to think of myself as "caught up" with what's popular. I may have a chance to see all of the Best Picture nominees by the time the Oscars are handed out, but it's unlikely I will ever finish more than one (if that) of the Game of the Year candidates for 2008. Serial television dramas are similarly hard to catch up with and can run for years, but they also unfold at a uniform pace for everyone. Nobody knows how Lost or Heroes will end yet because the public knowledge of the story is limited to those episodes that have already aired. Once a game like Resident Evil 5 hits the shelves, I expect people to be chattering about major plot points within days, if not hours.
That "chatter" is the other major issue with video games compared to other media: the integral role that the internet plays in gaming culture. The only way to be informed on what new releases look promising or potential additions/updates are available for the games you own is to be online. I don't need to visit any message boards or read any blogs to know when House airs, so the odds that I may come across spoilers is pretty slim. With games, I exist in a constant flinching state when I read through sites like Kotaku, hoping that the page I'm reading does not casually reveal why that plane crashes at the start of BioShock. Yes, it did and no, there was no warning. It wasn't even an article about the game!
Of course, when it comes to sports, the line is pretty easy to draw: knowing the final score before watching the game robs me of all interest. If I had read last year about the Giants' incredible upset of the Patriots while I was at work, I would have been very happy as a Giants fan but I doubt I would have actually turned on the game when I got home. So in the interest of enjoying this year's Super Bowl, I'm just going to shut out the world for a few more hours. I hope it's worth it.
Labels: BioShock, BSG, Cloverfield, football, movies, Portal, Prison Break, sports, television, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, June 28, 2004
Pride
Whoa, I made a banner! Photoshop rules!
I'm sure you're wondering why I've been updating so often. Is it my new commitment to put aside real-world tasks to maintain my blog? No, I've just had a lot more free time. One of the advantages (?) of having a shitty job where you don't feel like you're needed is, well, often you're not needed. So I had the luxury of watching an old baseball game on TV today, a game I actually attended and remember quite well.
Sunday, September 4th, 1993. Labor Day weekend. My life was in shambles. I had just flipped out and nearly flunked out of high school and I had been relegated to a "gifted handicapped" (my favorite oxymoron) program in another school district. To make matters that much more complicated, this was the start of my senior year, and that meant picking a college to go to. So I was leaving everyone I knew behind and I had no idea what was going to happen and I was about to make some huge decisions which I wasn't ready to make.
We (my mother, sister, and I) had purchased tickets for the game earlier that summer, but the weather that day was pretty ugly. Gray skies and drizzle made my mother question whether or not we should bother going. For those uninformed, the New York Yankees don't always win. In fact, at that time they were struggling just to keep pace with the defending World Champion Toronto Blue Jays. So Yankees' tickets were fairly inexpensive and easy to get, the complete opposite of what they are today. Thankfully, I insisted, as our seats were under the Loge level (third-base side, for those who care) and therefore we would not get wet. But there was a more important reason I wanted to go to the game: Jim Abbott was pitching that day.
To most of you the name Jim Abbott doesn't mean a thing. To me, he was a very big deal. I had become fascinated by Jim's story when he won 18 games with the Angels in 1991. I was thrilled when he came to Yankees in a trade and I remember clipping out a story on him from the New York Times on December 25, 1992. What was the big deal? Jim Abbott was born without a right hand yet he was a successful pitcher in the Major Leagues. How did he do it? He rested his glove on his stump, threw with his left hand and, continuing that motion, put his glove on his hand. I can't say exactly why I liked him so much. It's not like I'm missing a hand or anything. I guess I was just amazed that someone could overcome an obstacle like that.
The game ended up being a momentous one. The visiting Indians were a young team full of future All-Stars like Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, and current Yankee Kenny Lofton. They made 2 errors on one play in the third that allowed the Yankees to score three runs, a score that ended up being more than enough. Aside from an occasional walk, Abbott shut the Indians down. None of them made it to second base, thanks to two double plays and some really exciting catches, especially one play Wade Boggs in the seventh. By then the whole crowd realized that a no-hitter was in the works so the response was huge. Mom wanted to leave late in the game but I convinced her we should stay. I was only 12 but I knew how rare a no-hitter is. We compromised by heading to the other side of the stadium where we parked without leaving the seating area so we could still see all the action. I remember after the final out everyone cheered and I don't know why but I got really excited and I hugged my mom right away. The final score was 4-0.
I think the whole day made me feel a little bit better about myself. Both teams would improve in the following years and the Yankees would end up kicking some serious ass in the World Series. I would not fare as well, nearly failing out of school again and laying an egg at college, but things are starting to look up now.
Whew...quite a lot to write. Aren't you glad I don't do this everyday?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I'm sure you're wondering why I've been updating so often. Is it my new commitment to put aside real-world tasks to maintain my blog? No, I've just had a lot more free time. One of the advantages (?) of having a shitty job where you don't feel like you're needed is, well, often you're not needed. So I had the luxury of watching an old baseball game on TV today, a game I actually attended and remember quite well.
Sunday, September 4th, 1993. Labor Day weekend. My life was in shambles. I had just flipped out and nearly flunked out of high school and I had been relegated to a "gifted handicapped" (my favorite oxymoron) program in another school district. To make matters that much more complicated, this was the start of my senior year, and that meant picking a college to go to. So I was leaving everyone I knew behind and I had no idea what was going to happen and I was about to make some huge decisions which I wasn't ready to make.
We (my mother, sister, and I) had purchased tickets for the game earlier that summer, but the weather that day was pretty ugly. Gray skies and drizzle made my mother question whether or not we should bother going. For those uninformed, the New York Yankees don't always win. In fact, at that time they were struggling just to keep pace with the defending World Champion Toronto Blue Jays. So Yankees' tickets were fairly inexpensive and easy to get, the complete opposite of what they are today. Thankfully, I insisted, as our seats were under the Loge level (third-base side, for those who care) and therefore we would not get wet. But there was a more important reason I wanted to go to the game: Jim Abbott was pitching that day.
To most of you the name Jim Abbott doesn't mean a thing. To me, he was a very big deal. I had become fascinated by Jim's story when he won 18 games with the Angels in 1991. I was thrilled when he came to Yankees in a trade and I remember clipping out a story on him from the New York Times on December 25, 1992. What was the big deal? Jim Abbott was born without a right hand yet he was a successful pitcher in the Major Leagues. How did he do it? He rested his glove on his stump, threw with his left hand and, continuing that motion, put his glove on his hand. I can't say exactly why I liked him so much. It's not like I'm missing a hand or anything. I guess I was just amazed that someone could overcome an obstacle like that.
The game ended up being a momentous one. The visiting Indians were a young team full of future All-Stars like Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, and current Yankee Kenny Lofton. They made 2 errors on one play in the third that allowed the Yankees to score three runs, a score that ended up being more than enough. Aside from an occasional walk, Abbott shut the Indians down. None of them made it to second base, thanks to two double plays and some really exciting catches, especially one play Wade Boggs in the seventh. By then the whole crowd realized that a no-hitter was in the works so the response was huge. Mom wanted to leave late in the game but I convinced her we should stay. I was only 12 but I knew how rare a no-hitter is. We compromised by heading to the other side of the stadium where we parked without leaving the seating area so we could still see all the action. I remember after the final out everyone cheered and I don't know why but I got really excited and I hugged my mom right away. The final score was 4-0.
I think the whole day made me feel a little bit better about myself. Both teams would improve in the following years and the Yankees would end up kicking some serious ass in the World Series. I would not fare as well, nearly failing out of school again and laying an egg at college, but things are starting to look up now.
Whew...quite a lot to write. Aren't you glad I don't do this everyday?
Labels: baseball, fuzzy memories, site news, sports, Yankees
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Nostra-dummy
A few days ago, drunk on the Yankees' success, I opened my trap and predicted they'd win 60 games by the All-Star break. They promptly lost four of the next six games, including two of three at Dodger Stadium. Shit! This is why I never bet on sports.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Labels: baseball, sports, Yankees
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Mr. Big Mouth
...that's me! I declared last Friday that I would update the site daily, like a diary. Sure enough, I posted two odd bits and then nothing for three days straight. Of course, I do have an excuse; my computer hasn't exactly been my own lately. There's been a lot of third-party usage that has left my blog stranded. But with no work today I've got all the time in the world to spout off about anything and everything:
Last night I saw Control Room, a documentary about the sometimes controversial Al-Jazeera news channel and their coverage of the war in Iraq. I thought it was quite interesting, although I must wonder if anyone at the channel produced or otherwise funded the film.
Anyway, the Yankees got off to a slow start this year. The lowest point was losing three at home to the fucking Boston Red Sox. At that point, they were a dismal 8-11. Forecasters of doom were everywhere, and anyone with a forum to do so proclaimed the Yankees were through. "End of an Era," they said. Well I thought that was ridiculous. It was only April for Christ's sake, and my Dad always taught me that the standings are meaningless before Memorial Day. So I (quietly) predicted that the Yankees would rebound and improve to 41-21, a mark they reached this Monday in Arizona. Now that I have a forum, I'm prepared to face public humiliation as I predict the Yankees will be 60-26 at the All-Star break.
Well I'm exhausted. Later!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Movies
I've seen a lot lately. After months of accolades and a billion dollars, I finally sat down and watched The Return of the King. Frankly, it wasn't that hot. Certainly no surprises whatsoever, except for the ludicrous "ghost army" that shows up. What the hell was that about?Last night I saw Control Room, a documentary about the sometimes controversial Al-Jazeera news channel and their coverage of the war in Iraq. I thought it was quite interesting, although I must wonder if anyone at the channel produced or otherwise funded the film.
Baseball
Insult me if you want, but I am a New York Yankees fan. Sometimes I feel like writing an explanation as to why, since magazines and TV programs openly mock Yankee fans as bandwagon jumpers or arrogant jerks or sometimes just morons. However, since I know I am none of those I don't have to apologize. But I may someday, just for the hell of it.Anyway, the Yankees got off to a slow start this year. The lowest point was losing three at home to the fucking Boston Red Sox. At that point, they were a dismal 8-11. Forecasters of doom were everywhere, and anyone with a forum to do so proclaimed the Yankees were through. "End of an Era," they said. Well I thought that was ridiculous. It was only April for Christ's sake, and my Dad always taught me that the standings are meaningless before Memorial Day. So I (quietly) predicted that the Yankees would rebound and improve to 41-21, a mark they reached this Monday in Arizona. Now that I have a forum, I'm prepared to face public humiliation as I predict the Yankees will be 60-26 at the All-Star break.
Well I'm exhausted. Later!
Labels: baseball, movies, predicting the future, sports, writing, Yankees
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Outrage Works!
You probably heard this week about the cheesy advertising gimmick that Major League Baseball and Sony Pictures cooked up. They thought it would a good idea to put Spider-Man logos on all the bases for one whole weekend in June to promote the upcoming Spider-Man 2 movie (link NOT provided, damn their over-saturated hides)! Well, everyone thought it was a horrible idea, as evidenced here and here. Apparently the suits got the message and actually changed the promotion. While there's no guarantee they won't try this again next year, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that public opinion actually counted for something.
Now if we could only get them to start World Series games before 8 PM...
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Now if we could only get them to start World Series games before 8 PM...
Labels: baseball, movies, sports
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Saturday, May 01, 2004
Sucker Bet
I just watched 18 horses run in a circle, supposedly "the most exciting two minutes in sport." I admit, I got a bit of a thrill when one horse overtook another horse at the last minute. But am I the only person here wondering where the "sport" is? I know the definition is pretty vague: "An active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition." But doesn't that mean professional wrestling is also a sport? Hell, couldn't sex qualify as sport under that definition?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Labels: sports
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