Our Star Blazers!

One of the perks of my early morning workouts is I get to watch programs in which Lisa would have zero interest. Tomorrow I'll receive the first disc of Star Blazers. I fondly remember Star Blazers from my childhood, when I was steeped in fanaticism for Star Wars and the original Battlestar Galactica. Star Blazers was another early Japanese anime import like Speed Racer and Marine Boy, the latter of which was one of my favorite cartoons. But unlike those shows, Star Blazers was much less of a kid's program.

Star Blazers, aka Space Battleship Yamato, was a serialized show about the crew of the Argo (renamed by the American translators who decided to gloss over the Yamato's WWII Japanese Navy history) who were off to save the Earth from destruction. The first two seasons only aired where I lived, but there was a third with a cast of different voice actors that is available on DVD. There were also movie versions that offered slightly different variations on the TV series. I've seen Arrivederci Yamato, which was The Empire Strikes Back of the series - darker, moodier, and almost everyone dies. After its success it was converted into the show's second season, The Comet Empire, (good, but the movie's superior) where the characters lived and the franchise continued.


Of course, the draw for me was the villain. Like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, the protagonist of Star Blazers, Derek Wildstar, was sort of a twerp. But the villain was evil, icy, cool. Desslok, the Gamilon leader bent on the destruction of Earth in Season 1 and the returning anti-hero in Season 2, was a regal, blue-skinned, blonde military genius clad in a an over-the-shoulder cape. In an inexplicable move by American translators, he was voiced with a fey, lilting falsetto. The effeminate, bored voicing of this ruthless general made him all that more chilling and mysterious. I think you'd truly have to see it to appreciate it, but Desslok by far is my favorite sci-fi bad guy.

I initially was going to skip right to Season 3, but decided to start at the beginning. That means I've got 12 discs to view before I get to the all-new-to-me third season chronicling The Bolar Wars, but as long as my memory of the series hasn't betrayed me like it did with Speed Racer's campy goofiness, I think I'll relish every episode.

Go to StarBlazers.com for a lot more info on the show, and check out their all-new online comic book serial, Star Blazers Rebirth. It's kind of a Star Blazers: The Next Generation play on the series, and so far it's been pretty darn cool.

Bond, James Bond

My folks babysat Cooper Saturday night so Lisa and I could take in a movie and go out to dinner. We saw Casino Royale, which in my humble opinion, is the best Bond film since On Her Majesty's Secret Service (which, despite Telly Savalas' Blofeld, was a really good Bond film). Sean Connery will never be replaced, but this movie's handling of the Bond genre was very authentic. It was far from the cartoonish blockbusters of the last, well, thirty years. There's an extensive gymnastic chase scene involving people leaping from very, very tall cranes that had my palms sweating.

On the flipside, we saw RV on DVD with my parents, which definitely trumped Wedding Crashers as biggest pile of crap I've seen lately.

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with my family in Walla Walla. It was Cooper's first flight outside of his mom (we went to Hawaii last Christmas while she was pregnant). Naturally, since he's some sort of angel-baby, he was a peach the whole way. Even checking in turned out to be a breeze. With one exception.

Fun fact: baby formula is apparently less explosive than water. Our friends from the TSA will allow you to bring baby bottles filled with formula through security, but if those bottles are filled with water to make the formula, well, that poses too great a threat. Fortunately for us I was able to dump the water we packed in the trash. Unfortunately for the travellers behind us, they had to wait for me to dump the water into the trash.

I can't adequately express my anger at the over-hyped airport security in response to our so-called War on Terror. Finding a note in my luggage telling me that it's been rummaged through by security does not make me feel safer. It's just reminds me of yet another civil liberty we gave up to combat an imaginary threat. Really, we all stand a better chance of being poisoned by a blowfish than we do of being blown up in the air. Unfortunately, there's a historical precedent for giving up your rights in the name of defense, and it never ends well.

On a lighter note, we have a slew of Thanksgiving photos posted on our Flickr account, mainly of Cooper, that will make you pop with all its images of super baby-cuteness.

DST and DVDs

With winter in full Seattle-style swing (cold and rainy) we're finding time to catch up on movies.

There's been some ringers. I highly recommend Thank You For Smoking, Lucky Number Slevin, and Art School Confidential. I was pleasantly surprised with Ju-on, the original Japanese movie that was made into The Grudge stateside. This and Ringu have convinced me that the Japanese are far better at making creepy psychological thrillers than their American re-maker counterparts. I don't even like horror films much, but if these two movies are representative of the Japanese take on the genre, I could see getting in to them.

There's also been some stinkers. As if we needed more reasons to think little of the American movie industry, we had the displeasure of watching Wedding Crashers yesterday. Holy cow. That was truly sucktastic. And I really enjoy Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson and Will Farrell, but good lord! What were they thinking? Man!

Speaking of the Japanese, I've been taking advantage of reliving my childhood memories of some Americanized anime, starting with my old favorite, Speed Racer. Funny thing about not being 10 years old: that show is awful! I mean, it's still good campy fun, but sweet lord it is dumb! So I've decided to move on to Star Blazers. I just hope that turns out to be as good as I remembered it.

Q-SPAM

Periodically I get random text messages from some guy called "Q" with little nuggets like this:

Yep its goin down. Wrappin up the video shoot tomorrow:noon:chocolate city on madison n seattle. Holla at cha guy

I'm unsure if this guy is under the impression that my cell phone number is that of one of his buddies, or if this is some form of really ineffective spam. Should I care that the video shoot's wrappin (sic) up tomorrow at noon? Video shoot for whom? Are those directions to Chocolate City?Do you need me there, Q, or is this just FYI?

Prior to the show there's a industry netwoking event @ 9. you'll wannabe there 4 it. if ur down let me know by thurs. Night.

I was half tempted (read as: not remotely interested) to go check it out. I've never been to a "netwoking" event before. Sounds tasty. Nah, thanks Q, I've got stuff to do at home.

Later messages became more specific, with addresses and lots of "holla"s and "u"s and "b"s used in place of the more complex "you" and "be." I also got two "Happy New Years" greetings, which made my heart warm with the kind thoughts.

The guy's number comes along with the messages, so I could just text him back and let him know he's got the wrong guy. But I sorta like the messages. It's like a watching a little soap opera. A little, very uninteresting but somehow entertaining soap opera. What will happen next?

Insult and Injury

Lisa, my wife, has had a rough month. She returned Sunday from several days of hospitalization, and while improved, she's still not 100% better. Yesterday she fell rushing to answer the phone and broke her nose.

OK, she didn't break it, but she thought she did. It bled, though, but it's just a little sore today. She was running to the phone because earlier she had called her doctor to set up the next step in treating her ailment, and she thought it was the clinic calling her back. It was, in fact, me calling to see if the clinic had called yet.

One day we'll look back at this and laugh.

Soggy Monday

Lisa came back from the hospital yesterday. The therapy there helped, but didn't put the problem into complete remission, so it's on to the next treatment. She won't have to go into the hospital for it, so we're happy for that. Her parents went home yesterday too, so she's keeping warm and dry at home with Cooper, while outside the rain continues to pour. It's unusually wet here in Seattle, so much so that many areas are flooding and car accidents have abounded. For a town so soggy, you'd think people would be able to handle the rain, but they can't. Truth told, the drivers in this town are so bad it should come as no surprise that they are flabbergasted by rainfall.

Finally posted pictures of Cooper's first Halloween. He wore his too-big-for-him bat costume. I also put together a big fence that goes around his play area so he can't start pulling himself across the room into danger. He can't crawl yet, but that doesn't seem to stop his curious nature.

Loves Me Them Hospitals

Outpatient treatment for Lisa's ailment wasn't going as well as her doc would have liked, so she was admitted to the hospital Tuesday. Fortunately, it looks like the treatment there is doing the trick and she's turned the corner. Playing with Cooper on her bed the other day, I realized it was the first time in a month I heard her really laugh. It was good. She may have to stay in there until Monday, which isn't any fun, but my Dad and her folks have come up to help us out.

We asked for a bassinet or something to put Cooper in while we were visiting, and the nurse ended up wheeling in this gigantic baby cage. It's about the size of small bed with a frame reaches up to the ceiling. You can slide the crib's locking barred walls up and down, and the mattress is at mid-riff level, so it's easy to take him in and out. He loves it, and it's good for us considering how squirmy he's been lately. The day he figures out how to crawl we are doomed.

So it struck me that I've spent more time in hospitals with this woman than anyone else (except my folks), and I've seen a lot of hospital time. Even though I have dangerously high cholesterol that has landed me in a heart attack and stoke prevention clinic, I consider myself to be relatively healthy. Until you see my track record:

• Jan. 1995- Dec. 1996: Hospitalized for ventricular tachycardia (v-tach). Had heart ablated to correct problem. That didn't work, so I'm on a med to take care of that.
• July 2002: Hospitalized after a car turned in front of Lisa and me on my scooter. Majorly messed up and in for a long time. Lisa was fine but got to watch me heal, which I think was worse. Compound knee fracture, reconstructive facial work, lost my sight in one eye and messed up my sight in the other. And the scooter was totaled ("sniff").
• A few months later, 2002: Went back in for a second knee surgery to remove all the extra bone that grew in around it (?). Had extremely annoying biker roommate. Good times.
• Sometime in 2003: Went to the emergency room with another v-tach. I was doing one of those herbal cleansing things and apparently messed my electrolytes up or something. Damn hippies.
  
• April, 2006: Cooper.

So, except for this April, none of it has been all that pleasant. But, I suppose folks don't think of hospitals as a party destination. Which is surprising, what with all those pills.