September 24, 2007 by wilmington.

ITEM #1
———

If you have not been part of the phenomenon that is “The Wonder Pets” on Nick, Jr. and/or
Noggin, you are unbelievably uncool (perhaps terminally so).

It’s a simple premise, one that has been around since the time of Shakespeare: the class pets of a kindergarten class - a guinea pig, a turtle, and a baby duck - are really a crack squad of animal rescue experts. As soon as the kids and teacher leave for the day, an international hotline phone (cleverly disguised as a tin can with a string attached) rings to alert the team that “an animal’s in trouble somewhere.”

The show is almost through-composed like an opera - complete with alternating sections of recitative and arias. “Linny” the guinea pig is the leader and most experienced, “Tuck” the turtle is the quietly inscrutable moderating force, while “Ming-Ming” the duckling is the boldly emotional comic relief who speaks her mind despite a pronounced speech impediment (”This is seewious!”).

The show sets up repeated patterns and formulas (and cleverly varies them, which 3+ year-olds love) and varies musical styles for each animal rescue: a baby cow stuck in a tree AND threatened by a twister in Oklahoma, a baby hedgehog trapped in a hedge in London, a baby mouse trapped in a saxophone (I’m not making this up), and even a baby swan who doesn’t know how to dance.

Like all great shows for kids, “Wonder Pets” has stuff to crack up parents. The rhymes, half-puns, and musical allusions are very clever. Plus, there’s always the absurd moment when you realize that you are entranced while watching a singing guinea pig, turtle, and duckling rescue a baby chimp who got lost in space (in a Gemini-era space capsule!). That same episode has one of the greatest moments (alongside the time Ming-Ming is the animal they have to rescue):

Linny (singing after answering the phone): It’s a bay-bee chi-imp, / lost out in spa-ace

Ming-Ming (singing): This is seewious!

-pause - music stops -
Tuck: Wait a minute, Linny. I thought chimps lived in forests or jungles!

Linny (singing ): Use - ually, they do!…but some-times theygetsentuptospace!

And that’s it. No other explanation. Yes, chimps do live in forests or jungles (educational point) but, you know, sometimes they get sent up to space. True. And they’re off!

The message of these caped and capped wonderheroes: “What’s gonna work? TEAM-WORK!” [up a minor 3rd] “What’s gonna work?! TEAM-WORK!”

Imagine when Barney was the only thing going…we’ve got it good, fellow parents.

ITEM #2
———

Ok. Umm…yeah. I guess I did say that the Germany v. N.Korea game could be one of the great women’s soccer games of all time. And though I DID say “if both teams are on form” I should also have added “as long as N.Korea doesn’t suddenly decide to play nothing like the way they played the U.S.”

Germany won 3-0 because N.Korea played tentatively, slowly, and only showed flashes of aggression. At about 20 minutes into the 1st half, N.Korea seemes to remember who they were and put some real pressure together - fast 1 and 2-touch passing, great movement off the ball, purposeful runs, and highly aggressive pressure every time a German touched the ball.
In short, they played for a few minutes as they played the U.S. for 93 minutes.

They looked afraid of the Germans and therefore made the Germans look better than they were actually playing. Then the Germans realized how much time they had on the ball…and they stepped up to be as good as they can be. Scary. Maybe the N.Koreans were fired up vs. the Americans by some extra motivation? Maybe their style of play wore them out too soon? Who knows.

IF IF IF Germany plays the U.S. in the Final, Germany will have gotten there by playing weak or off-form teams the whole way. The U.S. had to play the good and fresh N.Koreans, traditional power Sweden, much-improved bruisers Nigeria, the best team England have ever fielded, and Brazil - the most on-form, most-improved, most-skilled, star-powered team in the world. Strangely, the same thing happened when the brackets were assigned LAST World Cup: Germany has a cakewalk until they play the U.S.

Not saying there’s a conspiracy, but I believe Oliver Stone is in talks with Michael Moore and Algore (who wore his special tin-foil hat to the meeting) about a movie treatment. At the end of the day, as Julie Foudy said, you have to beat everybody anyway. As this World Cup has shown - to the 3 or 4 other people watching along with me - gone are the days when you should be shocked to find that the US lost.

Final thought - Australia was robbed in their loss to Brazil. The PK given to Brazil was based on a foul outside the box. An Australian player suffered an obvious foul - pushed from behind in an open box, for God’s sake! - just before time ran out…no PK….and Algore just reminded me that the replay people refused to show that foul despite the fact that any, I mean ANY, apparent contact in the box is always shown on replay 5 or 6 times within seconds of the play.
I’m just sayin…

THURSDAY Morning: ESPN2 - U.S.A. vs. Brazil
(OK, this one really COULD be the greatest women’s soccer game ever played. Really.)

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

September 20, 2007 by wilmington.

The quarterfinals are set for the Women’s World Cup 2007:

> Germany v. N.Korea (4:55am (EST) Saturday ESPN2): This game should be unbelievable. The Germans will be very well-rested - the N. Koreans are machines who never stop running. See previous post re: the skills of the N.Koreans. In terms of total soccer quality and for a stylistic match-up, this could be (if both teams play on form) one of the best women’s soccer games ever played.

> U.S.A. v. England (7:55am (EST) Saturday ESPN2): A real challenge for the U.S. England has one of the best goal-scorers playing right now in Kelly Smith, and the U.S. has not played their game (possess in mid-field, pull outside backs up to serve, and vary long balls and through balls on the flanks and in the center) other than in spurts. Lily is off form due to constant man-marking, and players are getting frustrated without feeling the usual rhythm. See previous post for comments about England and then add the fact that they are definitely playing at peak performance and confidence after a great game against Germany. We will have really earned a semi-final place if we make it.

The other quarterfinals are on Sunday, same times on ESPN2 with Norway playing China first and then Brazil playing Australia second.

Official Ambassador predictions:
N.Korea will upset Germany and U.S.A. will defeat England for a semi-final re-match.
Brazil will beat Australia and Norway(?) will either score first and hold on to win 1-0 or win in P.K.’s.
Teams who could win the whole thing (depending on team chemistry/confidence - enormously important in women’s soccer): Germany, U.S.A., Brazil.

If you miss any of the live games, check www.soccertv.com for re-plays on Galavision and/or Univision/Telemundo etc.

> A movie to watch and listen to carefully without interruptions:
“Blue” (and the other two parts of the “Three Colors” trilogy - “White” and “Red” as well) is beautiful, sad, hopeful, angry, and almost transcendent. A film in which the music is intricately tied to plot as well as tone. Juliette Binoche is perfect. The music in question throughout the film, sung in the original Greek, is from 1 Corinthians 13 - the passage that ends “but the greatest of these is love.”
This is a small film in that it just follows one woman through a few urban and small town settings. It ends up feeling and sounding enormous, though, even before you factor in all of the overlaps (characters or places or even colors) that just pop in from time to time…and then end up being key moments in the other two films!

Posted in 2007 Archive | No Comments »

September 18, 2007 by wilmington.

> I mentioned the magazine (and its online site) “First Things” last time. In the October issue, the theologian (some say “ethicist”) Stanley Hauerwas writes about the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. I guess all involved knew I was taking a seminar on MacIntyre. Nice of them.

> N.T. Wright will be at Baylor in October. His massive study (the 3rd in his series on Christian origins) “The Resurrection of the Son of God” makes the historical case - using just about every tool available - for the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. I’ve been looking forward to meeting Wright for over 9 years…have read at least 10 of his books, scholarly and “pop,” and I still have no idea what I will say to him.

> Random recommendations from the music archives at the home embassy (now that I’ve recovered from a strange 2 year hiatus in my otherwise uninterrupted 18 years of intense jazz listening): Miles Davis “Nefertiti”; Wynton Marsalis “Live at Blues Alley”; Duke Ellington -anything from the late 1930’s; John Coltrane “Crescent”; Michel Camilo “Live at the Blue Note.”

> Remember that you can leave comments here (a quick registration is necessary) and, hopefully, start a conversation with others.

Soccer
> The Women’s World Cup 2007 is proving more dramatic than most people expected (those few, sadly, who are payng attention). The U.S. will play its final game of the group stage - against Nigeria - in about 8 hours (Tuesday, 9/18, ESPN 7:55am Eastern). If the U.S. wins, we won’t have to play Germany in the first knock-out stage.
Teams to watch (set VCR’s/DVR’s):
> North Korea is a huge surprise. Against the U.S. they were machines - velcro touch, constant movement, inch-perfect passing, tight marking. They are a threat.
> Germany is Germany, dammit, but there are chinks in the armor - possibly internal tension - and not as much swagger.
> England looked better than ever. Like the N. Koreans and many of the European teams, they’ve obviously been training with excellent men’s and boy’s teams (an observation Julie Foudy made, so don’t get P.C. on me). The dark horse.
> The U.S. is not firing on all cylinders. But…we have Lily, Wambach, Pearce, and Boxx. If you are a student of athletics or an observant fan, you cannot look at Wambach and Lily without recognizing that look that tells you: no matter what, her team has a chance to win while she’s in the game.
Positives: unlike the painful and dreadful approach that April Heinrichs used in the semifinal loss to Germany in the last World Cup (”drive up the flank, cross the ballinto the box, no matter how many times Germany just clears it away” and then I’ll wait to put Tiffeny Millbrett in until it’s too late), Greg Ryan has the team prepared to vary it’s attack! It’s beautiful!
Negatives: the technicality of the U.S. players - see above for “velcro touch, constant movement, inch-perfect passing, tight marking” - has not progressed as it obviously has for N.Korea and England. This is distressing, because if we had recruited for this and trained for this, nobody could touch us.

The single thing that will win this World Cup: confidence expressed as bold, almost arrogant swagger. It wins championships.

Next time…Flannery O’Connor.

Posted in 2007 Archive | No Comments »