Since we’re now into the year 2012, I’ve decided to upgrade the site to 3.3.1 and make a slight change to the layout and the header graphic. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Jan 17 2012
Everything Old is New Again
The current cap logo of the San Francisco Giants, since 1994, courtesy of SportsLogos.net.
[dropcap style=”font-size: 55px; color: cyan;”]E[/dropcap]ver since I was a little boy, I’ve followed the (mis)adventures of the San Francisco Giants. My father took me to my first baseball game when I was in the first grade, about six months or so after my first San Francisco 49ers game. When I was that young, I think being able to take off from school to go do something with your dad that didn’t involve a doctor or dentist appointment was pretty special. I remember the atmosphere was different from a football game, but being able to ride up what was the longest escalator I’d ever been on in my life up until that point to the upper deck behind home plate thrilled me all the same. My dad taught me what he knew about the game, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what he was saying because it was really loud and I was in over my head with the action on the field and the reaction of the crowd.
- Giants’ lettering from 1983-1993, courtesy of SportsLogos.net
- Giants lettering from 1994-1999, from SportsLogos.net
Over time, the more time he and I spent watching the Giants (of both San Francisco and San Jose), he taught me about the game that I would eventually follow closely. I was taken with all aspects of Giants baseball, from Candlestick Park and the way the wind seem to swirl around the bowl, right down to the uniforms. For some reason, I was fascinated by uniform design and as I got older, when the uniforms changed, I always thought it was really cool to kind of see the directions in which the teams would go. In 1982-1983, the Giants had introduced a new uniform that switched from the familiar script to a block/small caps logo, and their road uniforms were a simple copy of the cap logo, the intertwined SF they’d been wearing since their move from New York in 1958. In these uniforms, they would win the NL West division twice (1987, 1989), and the NL pennant once (1989), and they were the first uniforms I’d ever see the Giants wear in the acolyte phase of my baseball fandom.
In 1994, the Giants returned to the classic old-style lettering that they used from 1947 in their move west. It was awesome, and conveyed the maturity of the franchise. The cap logo also received a classical treatment, as they added serifs to the SF. I loved it. The feeling of watching the team in the older-type uniforms was that of watching a team back in the Golden Age or something, even though it was the mid-1990s. They got a bit of an adjustment in 2000 when the team departed the Stick for Pacific Bell Park, but ever since they’ve been the same uniforms. We’ve seen some pretty cool alternate and special event uniforms arise since then as well; my favorite is the Hispanic Heritage uniforms with the block “Gigantes” on the front. The team has a .950 win percentage in those uniforms. I’m not fond of the Orange Friday alternate home uniforms, which sometimes reminds me of a CalTrans crew working those late nights on I-5, and the stadium turns into a giant construction zone with the heavy orange-colored attire everywhere. I do own an orange Giants tee for games that land on Orange Friday, but I tend wear it under my black dugout jacket and my cream-colored home jersey from their 50th anniversary in San Francisco.
- 1986 SF Road Uniforms, from SportsLogos.net
- 2012 Proposed SF Road Uniforms from SportsLogos.net
Anyway, last night, I was looking through SportsLogos.net for Giants logos I could transfer to my iPhone. Spring Training begins in less than a month and I’m already kind of hurting for some baseball. While I was there looking through the logo gallery, I happened to notice that there was a new entry to the list with specific notation of a new alternate road uniform. When I looked at it closely, I was instantly brought back to my childhood. I talked with Julia about it and she said these aren’t officially announced, but SportsLogos.net is pretty good about maintaining their site integrity, so I don’t know if this is a rumored/proposed uniform design or if SportsLogos has some inside information (that site is nothing except logo/graphic design and design news for all sports teams on the planet). Regardless, if the Giants are intended to wear these, I’m looking forward to seeing them in action, again. Take a look (click on the images to see them in their full view) and compare the two uniforms, because I think this is an awesome move by the Giants.
I don’t think I would be equally thrilled to see the old 80s block Giants uniforms, and given that these are going to be alternate road uniforms, that means they will be in occasional use outside of the current road uniform with the block “San Francisco” on the front.
I’m sure it seems like I’ve gone on enough about my fascination with baseball uniforms. Maybe, one of these days, I’ll share some of my designs for some of the fictional baseball teams that I’ve written about in the past.
May 05 2011
Boku no anime no omoide: Toppu wo Nerae! Gunbuster!
I didn't know it then, but this was going to be burned into my memory forever...
To start in on Gunbuster, I’d need to talk about Ken Lau, first. Ken was someone I’d met while working at Acer America back in 1995; we both worked the grave shift in the technical support department, though he was in a smaller group that handled online requests, while I was in a larger group that handled phone calls. Anyway, we met, we hit it off, and thus began a friendship that I still tell stories about to this day. Ken introduced me to a wide range of anime, and I recall that he had a love for one particular anime: Mamono Hunter Yohko. But I’ll talk about Yohko some other time.
I didn't know it then, but this was going to be burned into my memory forever...
Toppu wo Nerae was one of those series that I had little to no information about beforehand. This had a lot to do with the fact that I trusted Ken’s tastes in anime. Nearly everything he put before me to watch, I ended up liking. Gunbuster was no exception to this, in fact, it might be the defining moment. And before I continue on, as I dive back into my memory, I remember how close he and I were before I got married to my first wife, and I regret that we drifted apart. I was in a horrible place then, and I thoughtlessly pushed him away and never heard from him again. It’s one of those times I wish I could go back and change, but I’m sure he’s doing well for himself. But, if he ever happens upon this site and reads this, I want to make sure he knows that I miss him.
Anyway, if you’re completely unaware of Gunbuster, and it seems the Naruto Generation generally is, then let me begin by saying that this is, for all intents and purposes… a parody. A parody of what? Pretty much every giant robot/space pilot story I’d seen to that point. This includes Gundam, Macross, a handful of others. This is a story about a duo of space pilot girls (right away I hooked) of differing ages. The youngest is the lead, Takuya Noriko, the daughter of a famous spaceship admiral who died in combat against a ferocious enemy named only as “Uchuu Kaijuu,” (Space Monsters) when she was eight years old. This story gets going as she’s attending the Okinawa Space Pilot Girls’ High School in order to train and follow her late father into space.
So far, the plot sounds pretty pedestrian, right? Nothing to write home about, and with the additional information of it being a parody (ie: it probably won’t take itself seriously), you’d probably pass on watching it. Well, not so fast. In six episodes, Gunbuster manages to tell a compelling story with surprisingly dynamic characters without resorting to a breakneck pace. If you’ve never seen it, I wholeheartedly recommend that you do. And to prove that it can speak to younger anime viewers, I showed it to my young nephew (20 years old), and he loved it. Head to Bandai’s site and find it, buy it, and enjoy. Tell them I sent you.
Of course, back then, the version I saw was the one released by U.S. Renditions, which was translated by Trish Ledoux & Toshifumi Yoshida. The reason I mention those names is because I had actually met Trish then Toshi on separate years of the same convention (Anime Expo). Crazy as it may seem, I was astonished that both of them remembered me years later (especially Toshi when we ran into each other at Kumoricon in Portland a couple of years ago). I had kept up a lengthy email dialogue with Trish while she was working on Ranma at VIZ. Thinking back on that, I don’t know from where she must have summoned the patience to put up with my incessant questions about anime production and translation work, but she did… and even now, I shake my head and chuckle to myself as I remember months of talking about Ranma and Gunbuster. I honestly don’t know if she remembers those emails or not, but I do. It was amazing to get that perspective on how anime is produced and really opened my eyes. So, a special thanks to them for being so kind to me when I was 18 and learning about anime. It heightened my appreciation for the work done on both sides of the Pacific.
When Noriko (left) met Kazumi (right)...
Back to the story of the anime itself… Noriko’s sempai is Amano Kazumi, whom everyone refers to as “Onee-sama.” They meet, and Onee-sama gives some very encouraging words to Noriko, after she’s been mistreated by some of the closed-minded students who think less of her because of her father. Kazumi is considered a shoe-in for one of the two slots for a special space program (The Machine Weapon Advance Assault Squadron, aka the “Top”). And to choose those two lucky students, is Coach Ota. He appears on the scene in dramatic fashion, with his sharp, no-nonsense tone and his strict regimen of exercising the students. When Noriko fails to execute his command, he shuts off her RX-7 machine and makes her run laps on her own two feet to the amusement of the rest of her class.
The conflict for the first episode comes when Noriko is selected along with Kazumi for that special program. The entire school is turned on its ear as no one can figure out why Noriko was selected. Then, the accusations fly: Obviously, because she is the daughter of Admiral Takuya, she got special treatment from the Coach. Even Kazumi’s surprised that Noriko was chosen. Kazumi wanted Kashihara to go with her. But Coach is adamant that Noriko was the right choice, and tells Kazumi to shove it. After all, he decides who goes and who stays, not her. But it’s clear from the scene, their discussion alludes to a deeper relationship than instructor and student. More on that later…
Noriko (with her friend, Kimiko) is now training harder, but simply being there is difficult enough. The other students have marked up the announcement with libelous remarks about her, they covered her RX-7 machine in graffiti with unkind things, and to put the cherry on the sundae, a sharp thumbtack was waiting for her scantily-clad rear end when she sat down to pilot said machine. This drives her tears and she approaches Coach to reconsider his selection. It’s one of those pivotal character moments, when Coach convinces Noriko to stay the course. He uses Kazumi as an example of how hard work and disciplined training could turn her from an inept pilot to a skilled one. He even shows her how Kazumi trains, and then Noriko gets the determined shine in her eyes.
This is all set to a thinly-veiled homage to the music from the movie Chariots of Fire.
Coach helps her train and soon she becomes skilled enough in her RX-7 to do pretty anything she could do with her own body. She does push-ups, lifts things, and runs along Coach on his little scooter against a scenic sunset on the beach. She has grown into that selection of being sent into space ahead of her peers, and Coach is proud of her accomplishment. But, Kashihara isn’t too happy and she tells Coach that she feels she’s superior to Noriko. Coach tells her he doesn’t answer to her, and even Kazumi says that Kashihara is acting unseemly. Well, Kashihara with the crazy eyes and unseemly behavior decides to take matters into her own hands and challenges Noriko to a straight-up fight between their RX-7 machines.
In the beginning, Kashihara is wiping the floor with Noriko using some strange tactics. At one point, she even slaps the head of Noriko’s RX-7 machine as though it were a bare-fisted match. Anyway, Noriko’s machine is now down in a supine position, and Kashihara is just stomping the shit out of the chest of Noriko’s robot. There’s a kind of a “Use the Force, Luke” moment with Noriko whiles she’s being rattled inside like a pea in a tin can and she decides to turn off all of her monitors so she can’t see what’s going on. This impresses Kazumi, Coach is dispassionate, and for some reason this totally enrages Kashihara. In a dick move, she decides that now is the time for the Mortal Kombat “Finish Her” move and whips out a long blade with the intent of totalling Noriko’s ride. Noriko, on the other hand, somehow senses this and when Kashihara’s blade comes down, she jumps up with her machine out of harm’s way and does an acrobatic maneuver. Noriko rights herself and brings the leg of her machine down while screaming, “Inazuma Kick!” The kick is the deciding blow, as Kashihara is now sitting in the remains of her machine with the realization that Coach was right. Noriko’s selection is now no longer in question and she and Kazumi board a shuttle to take them to the orbiting space station where they will be working from now on.
I don’t do the actual story justice, and if I seem like I’m belittling the anime it’s not because I hate it. I guess, while rewatching the first episode I forgave a lot of the absurdities of the parody part of the show. I feel that you have to in order to let the story take you where it wants to go, but trust me when I say that the show will not disappoint you. By the time I got tot he end of the sixth episode, I was a mess. I was crying openly, and just left there to try and compose myself. Any story, written or acted, if it invokes an emotional response then the production has reached me.
I want to take a moment to acknowledge the seiyuu. Noriko and Kazumi were played by seiyuu from Ranma Nibunnoichi, Hidaka Noriko (Tendou Akane) and Sakuma Rei (Shampoo), respectively. Coach Ota’s voice came from Wakamoto Norio (Oskar von Reuenthal from Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, among many many others). If I were to use any anime to state my preference of why I love the Japanese seiyuu over North American voice acting, Gunbuster could quite possibly be my Exhibit A. I cannot imagine any English-speaking actor to pull off the passion and emotion equal to the Japanese voice track. There are rare occasions where I might prefer English over Japanese (Ranma, Taihou Shichau zo!), but that’s about it.
Gunbuster was directed by Anno Hideaki, who needs no introduction. But, just in case he does, he was the creative force behind several Gainax projects, including Fushigi no Umi no Nadia and Kareshi Kanokyou no Jijyou, but most notably, Evangelion. I should also point out that he worked as an animator for the original Macross series, and was the animation director for Oritsu Uchuugun: Honneamise no Tsubasa (The Wings of Honneamise).
Kouhei Tanaka composed a brilliant score for Gunbuster. In my opinion, I think he’s as good a composer as Kanno Yoko (Escaflowne, Macross Plus/Frontier) or Shiro Sagisu (Kare Kano, Evangelion). Maybe not quite as spectacular as Hisaishi Joe (of Studio Ghibli fame), but nonetheless, his score for Gunbuster lives in my memory as helping to make the whole show as powerful as it is. If, by chance, you get a chance to watch Gunbuster, I invite you to pay special attention to how stirring the music is as the scenes play out. There is no question in my mind that the ending would be as impacting without that gorgeous track, “Toki no Kawa wo Koete…” (“The End of the Endless River”) playing underneath it all. Like so many other anime, the music is essential and necessary to everything the story is trying to do here, and I can point to that last episode and present it as an essential example of why I love the music of anime as much as the anime itself. Of course, personally being a musician helps my appreciation of that aspect of any visual media, not just anime.
Sailor Noriko shows off her fandom! (click on the image for the animation)
In addition to being a great story, Gunbuster also had a series of shorts to explain the science behind the technology and the history of the war between the humans and the Uchuu Kaijuu. It was hosted by super-deformed versions of Noriko, Kazumi, and Coach and managed to make me laugh as Noriko played the dunce and Kazumi the straight man of the duo. I especially loved the part where Noriko’s going through the planets of the solar system and changing costumes to the various senshi of Sailor Moon as she does so. Obviously, Sailor Stars hadn’t come out, yet, because she only does the inner senshi. When she moves to naming the planets of the outer solar system, thee’s no Sailor Jupiter, Saturn, etc.
The point of the shorts is to flesh out some of the reasoning behind why Noriko and Kazumi would never grow as old as their peers that remained on Earth, thanks in part to Einstein’s theory of Relativity. During our email chats, I recall Trish telling how difficult it was to translate those shorts because of all the heavy technical talk (I think). Even now, after my brief Japanese courses at Foothill, I could hear some of the language used and try to sound it out, but it was way way way above my level of understanding. So, thanks Trish and Toshi, for all that hard work!
In summary, Gunbuster remains one on a list of anime that will be with me until I die. I just wish that I held onto my original U.S. Renditions version… but along with several other tapes I had in storage, it was damaged beyond repair when a storm of mice ate several boxes. Apparently, our next door neighbor in the storage place was keeping food and it attracted vermin for miles until he got evicted. I lost a box of old anime tapes when they chewed through them and actually managed to chew the cases up pretty bad, rendering them unable to play. I nearly cried when I was informed.
Anyway, this ends yet another post about anime from me. If I have time, I’ll try to work on another one. I would love to hear from you all on your thoughts on Gunbuster, in the comments here or on Facebook, where this will get cross-posted. Thanks!
Feb 15 2011
Baseball on Film
In honor of pitchers and catchers reporting yesterday, I feel like putting on a baseball film festival in my home this weekend. I’m trying to figure out which films to screen on Saturday and Sunday, and I’ve come up with a partial list: Continue reading
Feb 10 2011
Game One Recap
We played our first game last night, and even though we didn’t win, I thought it went pretty well. For a team that hadn’t practiced together ever, this was quite the learning experience for my teammates and I. Continue reading
Feb 09 2011
Back to the Field
This is me, with my old corporate team at Twin Creeks.
After a few months off from playing, I’m happy to report that I’m finally going to return to Twin Creeks as part of a new corporate team! Continue reading
Feb 08 2011
Pulling the Plug
I’m still pulling from the older topics for Post a Day 2011. The one I’m choosing for today is: Could you live without the internet for a week? For a month?
Feb 07 2011
Sorkie? Sorkinite? Sorkinista? Doesn’t matter, I’m a total Sorkin fanboy…
Arguably the best television writing credit of my generation.
Aaron Sorkin is writing a new show, for HBO. Read all about right here (from TV Guide’s Scott Huver). This has me excited in a way that I haven’t felt about an upcoming TV show, since the production of Studio 60 was announced in early 2006. Not to mention that I think Sorkin could really shine on HBO, where language and subject matter won’t necessarily be hindered by the sanitized restrictions of “safe harbor” programming. No date or even a rumor of an ETA has been announced for the premiere, but rest assured I’ll be among the many who tune it to see the next chapter of Sorkin’s career unfold. Continue reading
Feb 06 2011
Remember Me
Wouldn't it be awesome for it to read, "Birthplace of Badassery?"
Happy Super Bowl Sunday, everyone.
I’m still pulling from the old topics so I can pick the ones that jump out at me. Today’s is all about: What do you want to be remembered for?
I’ve been told that I leave quite an impression on people. Although I’m familiar with the metaphor, I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean it literally.
Wouldn't it be awesome for it to read, "Birthplace of Badassery?"
There are a lot of things I think I’d want to be remembered for. I’d want to be remembered for my sense of humor and my love of making others laugh. I’d want to be remembered for some of the things I’ve written in the past for public consumption (this blog notwithstanding). I’d want to be remembered as a halfway decent hitting first baseman during softball games. These are pretty much firing from the hip as I drift into a stream-of-consciousness type writing style during my blog posts.
I think that everyone wants to leave something of themselves behind; something that makes a mark on the world and gives everyone pause in thinking about why it’s there and who left it. Whenever I stumble across a bit of history in my limited travels, I’m almost always curious about it and where it came from. I guess in my attempt to learn about it, somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder if I’ll ever do anything of substance to give someone in the future a similar desire to want to learn about who I was.
I’m guessing that’s why most people have children. Kids are supposed to be a bit of ourselves that we leave behind, and I never felt the need to do that. Plus, to me, I think children have enough going on without also having the shoulder the burden of carrying any kind of legacy thrust upon them. An extension of my ego that I don’t necessarily need to put forth into the world. And I’m not saying that I necessarily felt any such burden in my life; I was very lucky to have two parents to recognized that I was going to strike out on my own and do things the way that I want to do them.
I’m not looking to have kids, but if I did, I hope I would follow their example. I turned out all right.
Kind of went off topic, there. Anyway, were I to narrow down my list to a singular thing to be remembered for, it would have to be that no matter what happened and no matter the result, that I tried my best to live my life without regret and that everything that I did, I did it my way.
Sing it, Frank!
Go Packers!
Feb 05 2011
Immortality
I’m sort of playing catch up on some of the post topics for the Post a Day 2011, so I get to pick and choose from some of the topics from before. I’ve decided to go with the one about immortality, and whether I would want it and why.
"Nah. Sometimes I kinda wanna die."
Immortality is one of those things that sound good on paper, but I’m guessing that like every other “awesome” concept, it sucks out loud.
Beyond the obvious bummer of outliving all my friends, and having to make new ones every lifetime that I live through… not that I couldn’t. I like to think of myself as a person that meets people pretty easily and is outgoing enough to make transition between relationships. I think the problem for me would be having to suffer the mourning of those that I grew closest to all the time. Eventually, I think you’d lock yourself into a cycle of a friend dying, meeting someone new, spending a lot of time and getting to know them and then just waiting around until their funeral. Though, I’m sure in between you’d have a lot of fun times together.
I think a person would eventually callous over and start greeting friendly people with a cold “Fuck you” and a backhand, rather than a warm “Hello” and a handshake. Get away from me, you’ll eventually become someone I care for and then have to lose forever. Of course, that sounds an awful lot like the end of any relationship. It doesn’t have to be death. It could be a break-up or a divorce, right?
I lived through a divorce and while I remember the pain of it, I learned a lot about myself during that time. But having to endure that level of pain on a regular basis would be too much for anyone to bear.
So, I’m going to choose to be happy with what I have and play out the hand I’m dealt. After all, if the great Carl Brutananadilewski wouldn’t want it, then why would I?
