A few anime recommendations

I have been watching a little bit more anime recently, because a friend of mine recommended a few series. So this is what I was watching.

Over Drive
I've always liked sports series so I was happy to find this one. This time it's all about cycling. A young student joins a bicycle club at school and turns out to be a very talented rider although he says that he never rode a bike before. The club joins a race in Japan which drags on for almost 10 episodes. That's basically it. It's all about enthusiasm for something and following a dream. The usual anime story line. Because this series is about cycling I thought there might be some hints for performance enhancing drugs but that has been left out completly. Instead the Tour de France is the hot topic here and it's still the pure and marvellous event it used to be.
The character development is hindered by the very short time the series has (it's only 26 episodes) so I have the feeling that there's something missing somewhere. But it's fun to watch when you have nothing else to do. (5/10)

Dennou Coil
This is a strange one. It's about kids in a city where pets go missing. And it's not usual pets, it's cyber pets you can only seee when you wear special glasses. They seem to be hunted by a lifeform called "illegals" who come as some form of computer virus. There's lots of technical things all around and everything's "meta"-this and "meta"-that.
I've only seen two episodes so far but this seems to have the right mixture between funny parts, exciting story lines and mysterious cyberspace stuff. It's no Meccha series, it's more like private eye kids looking into a case which is of no interest to adults. But I might be wrong and the story will take a u-turn in the next episodes. You'll never know. Still I like this very much. The animation is great and the character design is a little different from what you normally get to see. (6/10)

Bamboo Blade
I was always interested in the sport of kendo so when this series came out I gladly took the opportunity to watch it. The main character is a broke teacher who runs the kendo club at his school and who has a bet with his senpai that his girls team will beat his senpai's girls team. At first there are only two girls in the team, one of those is absent all the time. But with time they are able to gather all the members they need.
This is nothing special either but it also has these nice funny moments and super deformed character design at times which I really like. The kendo scenes are not the centre of attention in most of the episodes so the anme takes a little bit more time for character development which I like as well. The previews at the end of each episode are hilarious. This is a series I like. (6,5/10)

Touch
This seems to be a classic and I only started to watch it because I really like the drama version of "H2". I don't know if "Touch" was done before "H2" or if it was the other way around. Anyway, the story seems to be very similar. When in "H2" there were three childhood friends from different families here we have two families and their kids are friends since they were born. There's is one girl and two twin boys, one of them is a slacker, the other one an outstanding athlete and student. Sounds familiar? Well, it does to me. So the talented guy plays on the baseball team at high school and that's what caught my attention. I've only seen the first two episodes here as well, but because it looks rather oldfashioned (the anime is from 1985) it has this nostalgic feeling to it. All in all it's over 100 episodes so there should be a lot of time for character development. I'm looking forward to watch this. (7/10)

Shigurui
A samurai anime which looks very mature and suited for older people rather than children or kids. It starts out with a duel between to crippled fighters, one being blind and the other one having lost an arm or a leg. From there on the story goes back a few years and tells what happened between those two men.
The whole set up is very dark, there aren't really any bright colours in this series. The violence is very explicit and very well drawn. Now, I always like to watch historic anime or drama series because I take an interest in how historic events or eras are portrayed in popular culture. This seems to be very accurate from what I can see but my knowledge of Japanese history is limited as well, so I might be wrong. This is definetely not like "Rurouni Kenshin" or "Samurai Champloo", it's way darker and gloomier. And much more gory, that's true. (6/10)

Byousoku 5 Centimeter
Another great movie by Shinkai Mikoto who also made stuff like "Hoshi no Koe" or "Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho". this time the story is about two kids who were friends in scholl but who were seperated when they had to go to high school. One day the boy travels to the countryside to meet the girl. When they meet he tells her he has to move further away from her. The next episode deals with what the boy is doing in his new home and the last episode shows what happened to both of them after they finished school.
What Shinkai always manages to do is to create a wonderful atmosphere with the pictures we draws. Although there might be a landscape covered in snow or just a scenery of a village at night it's always very colourful and because of that powerful. His stories are also very wonderful. Although they are everyday stories and nothing really happens (you are always waiting for a climax to appear) they leave you with a very calm and satisfied feeling. This one really is a must see. (8,5/10)

I will look into Blue Drop, Ghost Hound, Sketchbook - full color's, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Genshiken 2 when I find the time time to do so.

JDrama: The season wrap up (fall)

Is it just me or was this season just a little boring. There weren't those blockbuster star-packed series' which usually are shown. Although one or two good ones emerged the overall impression is that this one was a let down.

Galileo
A detective/mystery series about a young detective (Shibasaki Kou) who has been assigned to solve very difficult cases which go beyond the normal imagination. She teams up with a weird scientist who helped her predescessor in his work. The setup usually is the same in each episode: there's a mysterous killing which cannot be explained reasonably. The detective will meet with the scientist and he will come up with a rational explanation of the case. This may sound boring but because of the great acting actually it's very funny. I always like to watch Shibasaki Kou act in dramas and this one is no exception. She really fills the screen with her presence. her counterpart is brilliantly cast with Fukuyama Masaharu who wonderfully displays the weird and rational scientist who only believes in what he sees and what he can explain reasonably. A must see! (8/10)

Abarenbo Mama
Yet another drama starring Ueto Aya and this time she plays a mother who has to come to terms with the kid her husband brings into the new family. Personally I think that her acting is way too childish for her to portray a responsible mother, but since this is a comedy it might work out. The series follows her problems with all the other mothers from the kindergarten and stuff like that. it feels a little bit like "At Home Dad". Her husband is played by Oizumi Yo who was very funny in "Haken no Hinkaku". This is lighthearted and funny, but it's not brilliant. (5/10)

Yukan Club
Take six goodlooking young and promising stars (like Akanashi Jin, Kashii Yu or Suzuki Emi), some of whom might even be singers, put them alltogether in a series with a lousy script and this is what you get. Although there are dramas with every singkle one of the main cast actors this is just disappointing. The story is a bout six filthily rich students who in their free time solve criminal cases. It has its moments but overall this is aimed at a far too young audience. Maybe that's why I just didn't get into it. (2/10)

Iryu Team Medical Dragon (2nd Season)
I really liked the first season and this one follows the original series where it left off. Asada-sensei is back to save a lot of patients with the most frightening heart diseases. Honestly I would consider this to be "Schwarzwaldklinik" ("Black Forest Clinic") on speed with those fast cut and highly dramatic operation room scenes. The episodes are mostly the same, there is always a hopeless case which by the hand of Team Dragon is helped to survive and to live on. But there is also the overriding theme, this time it's the conversion of a hospital into a high tech medical centre for rich people. This keeps the pace high and this has kept me watching it. A good manga adaption with a great cast which has too many good actors to single out a few. (6/10)

Joshi Deka!
Another detective drama this one tells the story of a veteran offiver and her new apprentice who came straight out of the police school. I've only watched to episodes but this looks interesting. true, sometimes it's a little bit too silly, but the main Story about a serial murder case is very interesting and serious and it seems that there is something happening in future episodes since the first episode started with a flashback. Nakama Yukie starrs as the apprentice and Izumi Pinko as the veteran. They make a great team and it's fun to watch them when they interact. Nice one (7/10)

Utahime
This is this season's winner to me. Another great show starring Nagase Tomoya who despite being a rockstar with his band "Tokio" delivers another wonderful performance. This time he plays a war veteran who was washed ashore a small village on the southern coast of Japan. When he strands there his memory is erased and he becomes a helper to the local cinema owner. Things evolve from there. What makes this very good is first and foremost that all actors speak some kind of dialect. This is a nice expection and really sounds interesting. Then I think that either the scriptwriters, the producers or the directors had something to do with classic series' like "Ikebukoro West Gate Park", "Kisarazu Cat's Eye" or "Tiger & Dragon". They way the dialogue flows and the way some jokes are introduced is very similar. And some of the actors are featured in the aforementioned dramas as well. I really liked this one (8/10)

Mop Girl
Another winner. This is about a girl who is demoted from her job as a wedding planer to a company which cleans up crime scenes and prepares for funerals. The lead character, played by former "Sailor Moon" Kitagawa Keiko, has the strange ability to travel back in time when she touches the belongings of recently deceased people. So you get the picture of what happens in every episode. What I really liked was the very comicbook-ish facial expressions of Kitagawa and the supporting cast. Above average. (6/10)

Dream Again
I originally started watching this because it was about baseball, but then again baseball is just a side story here. Sorimachi Takashi plays a professional baseball player who loses his place in the first string team of the Yomiuri Giants and tries to get back to the big leagues. Just when he makes his decision to work harder he gets struck by a lightning and dies. But this was a mistake and so he is given a second chance. He enters the body of a business man and has to cope with all the faults of a ruthless broker. Adding up to his problems is a daughter who he never heard of and trouble with a law firm who is represented by his former girlfriend. This is a little bit over the top and we all know those "dead people return in another body" stories. It's fun to watch, but it's nothing special. (5/10)

SP (Special Police)
A drama about a special squad which is assigned to protect important people. You might say it's a bodyguard unit in the metropolitan police. I've only seen one episode, but it looks interesting, because it has Okada Junichi and Tsutsumi Shinichi in it, two actors I really like. The first episode looked very promising and this didn't seem to be a case-by-case approach but there seems to be an overlaying storyline as well, something I always like because there is an end you can look forward to. From what I've seen one of the better dramas in this season. (6/10)

* Summer 2007 Wrap Up
* Spring 2007 Wrap Up

Bundesliga: Day 18 - The winter break is here, but who cares anyway...

....FORTUNA IS ON TOP OF THE TABLE!!! That's all that counts to me. Here are the results of the Bundesliga:

Energie Cottbus - Hannover 96 5:1
FC Schalke 04 - 1. FC Nürnberg 2:1
Werder Bremen - Bayer Leverkusen 5:2
Hertha BSC - Bayern München 0:0
Arminia Bielefeld - VfB Stuttgart 2:0
VfL Wolfsburg - Borussia Dortmund 4:0
Karlsruher SC - Hamburger SV 1:1
Hansa Rostock - VfL Bochum 2:0
MSV Duisburg - Eintracht Frankfurt 0:1

Bayern again only drew, Dortmund lost horribly, Schalke won again, Bremen thrashed Leverkusen and Cottbus shocked Hannover. But that's all bullshit. What really counts to me is that Fortuna Cologne tops the table of Verbandsliga Mittelrhein, the fifth division. They won against VfL Rheinbach away 3:2 and passed local rivals Viktoria Cologne who were beaten 1:4 by FC Junkersdorf, another club from Cologne. This is the first time Fortuna have been sitting on top of the table in a long time, in fact this is the first season in a long time when they really have a chance of getting promoted to a higher league. I have been going to games at the Südstadion for almost 20 years now and in all that time the only way has been down. Sure, there were a few highs, but all in all the spiral went downwards. The last success of the club was when they were promoted to the first division in 1973 and they are still the relegation team with the best record in one season. You can't buy anything off that nowadays so seeing them in first place is something very special to me. They are now in their winter break and play will resume in February. I'm looking forward to spring time...

MLB: The Mitchell Report

I took a little time to read a few pages of the report about drug abuse in baseball which was conducted by Senator Mitchell and which was released last week. It is very pleasant to have the opportunity to actually read the stuff everybody is talking about in the media, something that rarely happens over here in Germany. When there is a report, it is handed out to the journalists and they interpret it for the readers and viewers in their respective magazines and shows.
So, getting back to the topic I found it very interesting that none of the players cooperated with Senator Mitchell. This very much reminds me of what is happening in cycling over the past few years. There is a wall of silence and the guys who actually speak about what they did are sports counterparts to mafia traitors who broke the rule of the "omertá". So, well, yeah, no one said anything, everything is based on federal investigations and two or three whistleblowers.
Speaking of whistleblowers, it seems that the biggest surprise was the inclusion of Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens in the report. Now I believe I don't have the slightest clue about how big a star he is in the USA, but again comparing it to cycling noone is safe from being accused of abusing drugs. In cycling a lot of the big stars of the past admitted that they used performance enhancing drungs like EPO and I think that those guys who strongly deny that they ever had anything to do with that stuff will at some point have to admit that they did it as well (think Lance Armstrong here).

The interesting thing is how the public will react to this and all the commentators I've heard said that nothing will come out of this. There will be no spectacular consequences. And this, I believe, will affect how baseball is seen abroad in countries that don't have a huge baseball following. People there will say that that's the sport with those big guys completely blown out of proportion because they all use drugs to enhance their play. I won't go so far to point the finger only at baseball (Rugby might have a huge problem as well, considering what players looked like a few years ago and what they look today), but I think it's sad that MLB won't use this report to clean up the sport. Cycluing has shown that you need drastic actions to start things.

Jonah Matranga + Ian Love @ Blue Shell, Cologne

Originally I was tagging along for this one since I am not the biggest fan of Mr Matranga. I saw him once or twice with one of his bands called New End Original at some Popkomm event in the "Büze Ehrenfeld" back in the days. Their record is wonderful but the live set was a little bit too hippie-ish. They broke down the atmosphere with too many slow songs and when Jonah started to blabber about love and "Liebe über alles" and so on that was really getting on my nerves. This must have been in 2001 or 2002 and all I can remember is that by the end of the evening I was pretty drunk. I then saw him play a solo set under the name of Onelinedrawing at the "Underground" in Cologne and that show didn't move me either.
So I wasn't expecting much when I arrived at the "Blue Shell" and frankly I was shocked when I heard that the price was at 15 Euros. I mean, 15 Euros for two singer/songwriter sets is one hell of a lot of money. Oh well, nevermind, there's a free drink included so there we go. I never heard of Ian Love before and I don't think I want to hear anything again in the near future. Yes, it's nice and quiet music at times and then there's songs that rock out a little bit. Yes, he communicates with the audience and has some nice stories and jokes to tell, but that's it. There's nothing special there. Maybe there are too many of those acoustic acts strolling around the stages of Cologne at the moment. Jonah Matranga joined him on stage for a few songs and then I'm off out into the cold to have a cigarette since the artists asked the audience to smoke outside. Well, it's a good practice for times to come when smoking is banned in clubs and bars anyway.
After a short time it's Jonah time and I didn't have a good feeling about this. In the end it turned out that it was a really nice show and it wasn't as hippie-ish as I expected it to be. I recognized a few songs, especially some New End Original stuff. Sure, there were those long and tiring speeches he gave on stage and sometimes the enthusiasm was a little bit too much over the top. But I have to give credit to him that everything he said was something I was able to identify with. Of course that's stuff you hear at every hardcore show and there have been lots of people who say stuff like that a lot better - and a lot shorter. But this was nice for a change. I didn't expected that so I was contend with what I was hearing that evening. Mr Matranga went on to play quite a few songs, I believe he finished the set after some 85 minutes and came back for one encore after the audience refused to stop applauding. Something that rarely happends at shows in Cologne where the auduience usually listens to the musician(s) and then leaves after the last song.
So I expected tthe worst and instead I left with a slight smile on my face.

How crazy can you get - Bayern suspends Oliver Kahn for one match

Just as the Champions League matches get into the final minutes - and it looks as if Schalke will advance and Bremen will end up in the UEFA Cup - there is a special program on the German Sports Station DSF (German Sports Television) about the suspension of Oliver Kahn. These are the facts: the clubs suspended the player because of displinary reasons for one game and he will have to pay another 25.000 Euros. That's it. Of course it's a journalists duty to dig for further reasons which might have had an influence on the decision of the club. But the way those blokes of DSF do it it just gets way too hilarious. First up they show a report about the morining practice session of Bayern Munich in which goalkeeping coach Sepp Maier gives a rather enigmatic interview in which he tries to indicate that there was something going on which he knows what it is but he won't tell the media. You get the picture. He's saying no comment in a rather polite way.. Then there's pictures of Kahn running around the pitch, all alone, the team running around elsewhere. The whole report ends with a shot of Oliver Kahn entering his car and driving away.

Think that's it? Think again.

Another report follows which covers the afternoon session and here we get an intrerview with Kahn (nickname "The Titan") himself. The interviewer is humbled and very very poltie towards the man and by the time the questions are done we know ... nothing new. Just some bunch of phrases and excuses and that's it.

So this is what the media is trying to squeeze out of this whole story. First up Kahn gave an interview to German football magazine "kicker" in which he accused the new signings Ribery and Toni to slack off during the past few weeks. He is reported to have said that Bayern is not like "Marseille or Fiorentina", it's more like "Real, Barca or Milan". This is thought to hjave provoked the supension. What the media are after though is that he left the christmas party too early to have dinner with his girlfriend. And this is when we enter the dirty hell of tabloid journalism. I mean, honestly, how stupid can you get thinking that this is a reason to suspend a player who has played for the club for more than 10 years and is still one of the top goalkeepers in Germany (which automatically makes him one of the best in the world, if you might excuse my arrogance there, my dear British readers). There must have been something else, not just some damn christmas party. This is ridiculous. But the DSF jerks still try to go on with that tabloid bullshit and they will drag this through the whole, you bet! Another masterpice of German sports journalism. Just when you thought it can't get any lower...

(Alright, it's Schalke to the next round and Bremen to the Uefa Cup now definetely, closing minutes)

Bundesliga: Day 16 - Struggles at the top ... and FORTUNA WINS AGAIN!

1.FC Nürnberg - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:1
Bayer 04 Leverkusen - FC Hansa Rostock 3:0
VfB Stuttgart - VfL Wolfsburg 3:1
Hamburger SV - FC Energie Cottbus 0:0
FC Bayern München - MSV Duisburg 0:0
Eintracht Frankfurt - Schalke 04 2:2
Hannover 96- SV Werder Bremen 4:3
VfL Bochum - Karlsruher SC 2:2
Borussia Dortmund - DSC Arminia Bielefeld 6:1

The teams on top had some difficulties to get it going this weekend, all top three clubs were struggling in their matches. Meanwhile an average team like Hannover gets rolling and plays very nice football. Their president is calling for a change in German ownership rules for football clubs. Apparently he wants an English system where millionaires can blow money into a club so they can spend big cash on players. This is forbidden by a 50.1% rule in German football which says that at least 50.1% of the club must be in the hands of the club members. Just imagine what Hannover 96 will do when they get big money for their team. With all the resources and players they have right now they are playing a very good season. Beating Bremen 4-3 at home is something special. With this Bremen lost the chance to jump on top because Bayern wasn't able to score against a horrible Duisburg side which everyone thought to be going down against Munich. Instead there was a goalless draw. At the bottom of the table things are getting tense again with Nuremburg starting to win and Bielefeld getting another beating on the road, this time with a 1-6 loss against Dortmund. Although Bielefeld had a good start into the season they look like they will get relegated by the end of this season. Their coach seems to be on his way out of the club.

Going further down through the leagues SC Fortuna Cologne won again, this time against Kaller SC, a team from the infamous German region of the "Eifel". They went up 2-0 quickly but then lost their concentration and the visiting side was able to equalize in just 2 minutes. But just a few minutes later it was 3-2 and Fortuna secured the win in the 2nd half. The mood and the atmosphere were great and the fans were singing all the way. On the clubs internet site they even posted the links to videos showing the goals. Here's the 5-2 goal by Marco "Stasi" Stasiulewski who has now scored 16 in just as many games.

Bundesliga: Day 15 - ...but more importantly FORTUNA won!!!

Arminia Bielefeld - FC Bayern München 0:1
MSV Duisburg - 1.FC Nürnberg 1:0
VfB Stuttgart - Borussia Dortmund 1:2
VfL Wolfsburg - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:2
FC Energie Cottbus - Karlsruher SC 2:0
FC Schalke 04 - VfL Bochum 1:0
Hertha BSC Berlin - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 0:3
SV Werder Bremen - Hamburger SV 2:1
FC Hansa Rostock - Hannover 96 0:3

Nothing special this weekend. Bremen won the top match against Hamburg, in which the two goalkeepers made hilarious mistakes as if they wanted to apply for the post as the England goalkeeper. Bayern won against Bielefeld and keeps the first place. Dortmund regrouped and defeated Stuttgart with a2-1 away win. Leverkusen crushed Berlin and Nürnberg lost once more.

The highlight of this weekend in football came today when Fortuna Köln defated VfL Leverkusen 4:2 in the top match in the 5th division. 3rd place Fortuna started well and scored two brilliant goals against 4th place Leverkusen who didn't seem to keep up with the speed of Cologne. But then came the intervall and the game looked completely different after the break. After the consolation goal it was a ridiculous mistake by Fortuna keeper Blech which levelled the score. But then Fortuna got back into geasr and scored twice. The atmosphere was brilliant, lots of chants and screaming and the supporters cheered the team when the came to them after the final whistle. This is what I really like about football. It doesn't need to be a multi million team with some damn arena type of stadium. This is what football is all about. A pitch, lousy weather and people who appreciate the spirit the players show on the field. Fortuna is now still in 3rd place, 3 points behind leaers Viktoria who still have a game in hand.

Minus The Bear @ Neue Werkstatt, Cologne

Visions Magazine is doing shows for quite some time now, but all of those took place in Dortmund, if I'm corrctly informed. Now they expanded their grasp on Cologne and so I went to see their 2nd so called "Visions Party" at a new club in Ehrenfeld, a hip part of Cologne. The club is your usual old and rundown small factory building which is turned into some disco thing. Nothing special, way too clean and boring and the beer is much too expensive. I saw Minus The Bear some time ago when they played at the "Blue Shell" and I remember I really liked the music back then. First I had to endure Escapado, a German band who put out their new record on Grand Hotel Van Cleef, a labvel from Hamburg which is run by lots of guys who come from the punk scene. Bands like Kettcar and Tomte are on their roster and Escapado fall out of line a little bit. It's not that their music is crap, but somehow I'm just not interested in that stuff anymore. You can hear that they are influenced by bands like Yage or Loxiran, but they neer reach the level that those to bands had. Still they draw pretty big crowds and yesterday was no exception. The people were having fun and I had a pleasant coversation.
Minus The Bear were a letdown afterwards. Somehow my memory must have played a trick on me since that was something completely different from what I remembered them to sound like. Rather indie-ish and not so much into atmospheric and long songs. Disappointing in a way. What kept me in the room was the way their guitarist was handling his instrument. That was fun to watch.
After the show we hung out at the party for some time, but that was just your normal big sico kind of crap with bad music and strange people. I was wasted when I got home, so I guess I had a nice evening in the company of nice people but with a rather disappointing show. Next.

The Weakerthans @ Stollwerck, Cologne

It never was a secret that The Weakerthans from Winnipeg, Mb. are one of my favourite bands of all time. Ever since I first met Stephen, their guitarist, while he was on tour with his first band Painted Thin, and then ever since he joined The Weakerthans and I got to see them play live on their first tour in 1998 I always tried to keep track on what they are doing. I still admire the records, I simply love "Fallow" and I adore "Left & Leaving", although I have to admit, that "Reconstruction Site" and "Reunion Tour" weren't able to keep up with the first two. Still, those are great records on their own with wonderful songs.
I must have seen the band numerous times. From their aforementioned first tour in 1998 when I had the pleasure of joining them for two days in Herten and Cologne (where they played a fantastic show in front of only 50 people at the "Between") to a show in 2001 when A Modest Proposal were opening up for them, to a sold out show in 2003 and a festival show in 2006 - they never disappointed me. So when word spread that they were coming to Cologne again I was sure to get a ticket for the show.
I always liked bands from Winnipeg, why I can't really tell. Maybe it was because I instantly fell in love with the guys of Painted Thin in 1997 when they were on a two month tour of Germany. Bands like them, the follow up Sixty Stories, who are now called Anthem Red, The Bonaduces, The Paperbacks, A singer/songwriter like Mike McKenzie. They were writing the songs I really liked and which I still like. Their music is very relaxing to me and their lyrics somehow seem to realy strike a chord with me. I can't really say why since it is very strange that someone from a city like Cologne could relate to what people write in the middle of nowhere. Which is what Winnipeg was described to me by those bands. Maybe it's just that the people there have a talent to write wonderful lyrics which everyone can relate to.

So yeah, The Weakerthans live on stage in Cologne. A friend of mine told me she was doing an interview at the venue and I gladly dropped by to hang out and say hi to Stephen and John K. It's really nice to meet people after two or three years and then you find out that nothing really changed. Although the contact is rather fragile there still is this warm feeling of meeting a good friend again. And although I didn't have the chance to talk to Stephen a lot (we promised to meet up for a drink next time) buying socks wth Mr Samson at a huge department store in Cologne sure was fun. By the time we got back to the "Stollwerck" the place was packed with people. A lot of friends were there as well and everything was set up for a great night. First up were Jonas Goldbaum from Austria and that's where I'll leave it since the music wasn't tempting enough to lure me into the room. Pretty average Indie stuff. I took the time to have some chats with friends I hadn't seen in a long time. That's what makes such shows special. People popping up out of nowhere. Great.
Next up were House & Parish, an all-star band from Brooklyn made up of ex-mebers of The Promise Ring, Texas Is The Reason and The Gloria Record. I saw them play live at the "Blue Shell" a few months ago and when you keep in mind what ex-bands are in that band it's a little bit disappointing to a certain extent. Don't get me wrong, they know their trade and the music is good, but the little extra is missing. It just won't stick in my ear. Maybe this night it was all because of the Canadian band that was playing next.
Those goys really know how to create a warm and pleasant atmosphere. Although they are not an all out rock band playing faster, harder, louder, they manage to draw people into their set and make them feel comfortable. And although there were some songs missing which some people certainly would have liked to listen to this show was nearly perfect. John K. is one hell of a frontman. When some Propaghandi die-hard demanded they play "Stick that motherfucking flag up your goddamn ass, you sonofabitch" he simply replied that they don't play this song and why should they play it when they have so much better songs themselves. Brilliant. That's how you bring people to listen. And he said it all with his big smile. They really got me again and I will definetely return when they come over here again next year. Because it's always great to meet old friends.

Envy @ Gebäude 9, Cologne

I have been waiting for this one for a long time. The first time I was able to experience the whole intensity of an Envy live set was over eight years ago when they played the "Sojus 7" in Monheim. guess what, they were the supporting act for Jimmy Eat World on that day. Several other bands played, but I can't remember the names, I'm sorry. Anyway, those were the days. You can't imagine a billing like that today, can you? I was completely blown away by the energy the band was creating on stage. They were moving all the time and their brutal and chaotic hardcore sound was turning the whole room into a warzone. Great stuff.
They never returned for another show so I had to rely on their records which were always keeping the same level, very exciting and intense, pure despair and melancholy, anger and frustration. But also with a great sense for melodies. So when their "Insomniac Daze" LP came out in 2006 I was quite surprised how this monster changed into something even more interesting. Wonderful melodies and epic 10 minute songs with vocals screaming, talking, sometimes even whispering. This was even better than everything the band had done before. So I was really looking forward to their show in Cologne. Would they be playing the old stuff as well? No disappointment there, they actually delivered stuff from all of their LPs, I think. But the intensity was there again. Although there wasn't as much movement as there was eight years ago, but on another level it was the same. The audience stood and watched with their mouths wide open. At the end of the songs when they were fading out the music you couldn't hear anyone talk. This was awesome. I really loved that show and I sincerely hope I won't have to wait another eight years...

Euro 2008 Qualifiers: Better luck next time, England

So we are all set and ready for next year's Euro championship in Switzerland and Austria and England won't be there to play in the finals. They had their chance to make it, a chance they actually didn't deserve after they blew the whole thing against Russia. They had to thank Israel to get them back into the race and all England had to do was to get a draw against Croatia. And what did they do? They lost. They were trailing 0-2 after only 14 minutes, they got back into the game after a strange penalty call and a goal by Crouch and then there was Mladen Petric who delivered the final blow 13 minutes from time.
Frankly I don't see this as a surprise. England have been playing horrible over the past few years, their World Cup campaign was doomed from their first match and although they have such an amount of talented players (no goalkeepers though) they never lookede like a team with potential. It's a pity that there won't be any English supporters cheering for their team at the Euro 2008. When I was watching the England vs Sweden match with 30.000 fanatics at a site in Cologne last summer I was glad those crazy people came over and created such a great atmosphere. But, to be honest, if the team plays so bad it can't be helped. It's a pity that Scotland didn't make it. That would have been a pleasant surprise.

So here we are and those are the teams that will face each other next year

Poland
Portugal
Italy
France
Greece
Turkey
Czech Republic
Germany
Croatia
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Romania
The Netherlands
Austria
Switzerland

No real surprises and upsets there. Poland are a fresh face, but they played really well. It's also good to see Greece trying to defend their title. Russia seem to have gotten over their recent drought and only Austria look like they will be the first to go home. Luckily for them they won't have to make a long trip, hehe.

Three examples of sports gone wrong

I stumbled across some thing over the past few days and I though I should share those with whoever wants to read this. There was this article in the New York Times for example, which deals with the strange halftime rituals during Jets games. Apparently hordes of men assemble at a certain gate during halftime and yell at women to expose their breasts. What the fuck?! Now I have always been interested in fan-dom and whatever surrounds the people who worship a team to the extent that they go competely crazy and have no other thing in their life besides their love for a club. But this is something way too strange and it sounds rather astonishing that noone is taking any action against what is happening there at this infamous Gate D. It's always disghusting to see those so called documentaries about spring break idiots on German television where they praise and hail those drunkards who only have alcohol and bare breasts on their mind. So this article - at least to me - sounds like there are some college jocks gone berzerk during halftime in New York. If this was to happen at a football match in Germany I don't think there would be any difference. But there would at least ONE person who would go against this. Especially with a lot more women attending the games nowadays. Some people over might just turn around and say that that's just those crazy uncivilzed American blokes, but I don't think that something like that should be a ritual anywhere. It's playinly disgusting.

Other news came from England, or should I say Thailand (courtesy of the Guardian Blog? Manchester City coach Sven-Göran Eriksson went to Bangkok to pay a visit to City owner Thaksin Shinawatra, former prime minister of Thailand. And when he went back to Britain he brought with him three players, Thai internationals, to have them sign to Man City. One of them seems to be good enough to make it to the first team, but the other two will be sent to farm teams somewhere else in Europe.
Now completely agree that is not the game it was some 20 years ago. It isn't even the same game it was 10 years ago. At least not from an economical point of view.The money clubs pay for players to sign them has risen constantly and so has the money the clubs pay their players as a monthly salary. There weren't any players making over ₤ 100.000 a week some ten years ago! But you can't help it. Where'S success there's big money and that's it. No need to whine about that. We as fans want to see great football, we have to acceppt that there is a certain price to pay. And I don't mean the constantly rising ticket prices. But there is a limit to what a fan should take from his club. And when they introduce players to your team who will never (no offense to the Thai football, but I just don't see it happen...) make it in a professional league it just sounds too much like there is one more loony owner who excersises his rights to play with his new tool. This is simply ridiculous. There's a difference in playing friendly matches in Asia and buying players.

Last but not least the story in Germany at the moment. The conflict between the top managers of Bayern Munich and their fan base (courtesy of allesaussersport.de, a German blog - all German). This all started a few days ago when Bayern manager Uli Hoeness, the most hated figure in German football, attacked a club member at the yearly members gathering for Bayern Munich. The fellow was complaining about the atmosphere and that was when Uli Hoeness snapped. Just to get an impression, this is a video of the speech he gave as a reply.



He's furious about the attitude the fans show. They, in his opinion, should be grateful that they have such a wonderful stadium, they are responsible for the atmosphere at the ground and that they only pay € 7,- for a terrace ticket. He's right with all of them, but does that mean a fan has to stay silent when there are certain things that are bugging him? There has always been some incidents between to bosses of Bayern and some of the groups who do a lot for the chanting and choreography in the "Kurve", where the terraces are located. The mood is getting more and more unfriendly since Mr Hoeness went on local television to accuse two groups that they where trying to achieve "Italian surroundings" in Munich. Now remember that in Italy's Serie A there are certain fan groups who call themselves "Ultras" and who effectively control large areas of the stadium. They control who enters the blocks where they stand, they control the singing, sometimes they even control what players is signed. There was this famous incident when a black player was about to sign a contract with Hellas Verona when the racist part of the fan base went on a rampage and the president pulled way from signing the player. The power of the "Ultras" could be seen a fortnight ago when they laid their grip on Italy again after a fan of Lazio Rome was shot by a police officer at a motorway parking space before a game.
The word "Ultra" has a totally different meaning in Germany and maybe that's why Mr Hoeness is a little bit confused. Ultras in Germany are something different than hooligans. Although there might be certain areas where those two groups overlap there is a difference.

I won't go into the details, if you are a German native speaker allesaussersport.de has it all wrapped up brilliantly, but this episode has all what it takes to refuel my disgust for someone like Herr Hoeness. At one time he's all about helping the fans with everything. But on the other hand he just doesn't seem to understand at what lengths some people go for their club. And right now he's on the verge of smashing everything he built up over the past 30 years. We'll see how they get out of this...

In The Backyard Of The Record Collection (7): Entombed - Clandestine

I encountered this record when I was in ... what was that? 8th grade? Or was it 10th grade? Must have been 10th grade, I think I got this one in 1992 through a friend who was introducing me to all kinds of hard music. He started out with stuff like Gang Green or Sodom, but this little gem stuck with me through all the years. At first I only had a cassette with the record and I only found out about the great cover later.
Back then when I was thinking of Death Metal I always thought of pure noise with growling vocals noone could understand. The kind of "music" my parents warned me about. I think I once got a copy of Morbid Angel's "Blessed Are The Sick", a record I today consider to be a great piece and a Death Metal classic, but back then I wasn't able to listen to this at all. So when I was given "Clandestine" I wasn't expecting much although the classmate was praising this thing all the way.
The voice on the record was what got me hooked instantly. This wasn't anything like what I've heard before. Hard, yet you were able to undertand what the fellow was "singing". He was growling, true, but this was different. And the the guitar sounds. This crunching tune was and still is brilliant. To me this had a lot more of a punk feeling than all the other metal records I was listening to at that time. I was always annyed by long and boring guitar solos noone really wanted to listen to. But here there was just plain and brutal music without too many extravaganza. The only thing I found a little disappointing was that "Clandestine" only had 9 songs. I would have liked to have more.
I somehow got my hands on some merchandise later and I was happy that I had a sweat shirt and a T-shirt with the picture of the LP. The sweat shirt disappeared somehwre along the way, but the T-shirt is still in my possession. It's a bit small and worn out, but I still cherish it, haha.
I didn't really get into what Entombed were doing after that great record. The "Hollow Man" EP and the "Wolverine Blues" LP weren't my stuff anymore and by today I have completely lost track of what they are doing now. I just lost interest. Still "Clandestine" and - although I don't like that one as much - "Left Hand Path", their debut are two of my all time favourite records. I own some other Swedish Death Metal records like Dismember "Like An Everflowing Stream" or Unleashed "Where No Life Dwells", but nothing ever topped Entombed at that time.

Smalltown Canada with a little muslim twist

This .... is brilliant. Wonderful. Great. I was introduced to this series at a wedding of a friend of mine. Her husband is from Canada and so was half of the crowd there and one of those guys talked to me about this series. It's set in the small (fictous) Canadian town of Mercy, Saskatchewan and the viewer is introduced to the problems and struggles a small muslim community is facing when it is trying to establish a mosque - in the parish hall of a church.
"Little Mosque On The Prairie" is a very funny program that I found very entertaining. Of course what we get to see is all cliché all the way. There's Baber, the fundamentalist ecomonics professor who wished that his daughter wears a head scarf. There's the convert muslim wife Sarah, who just can't seem to fit in with the crowd at the mosque. There's her husband Yassir, the contractor who only set up the mosque so that he can have a bureau for his business for free. There's his daughter Rayyan, a doctor who although she is wearing a head scarf is calling herself a muslim feminist. And it doesn't end there. There's the smalltown idiot who just pokes his nose into everything he can find. There's the bigot radio chat show host who senses danger in everything which he can't understand. And there's the understanding priest who gets along pretty well with the liberal iman of the muslim community.
This series has all what it takes for a classic. There is something similar on German television, a series called "Türkisch für Anfänger" (Turkish for beginners). The setting here is a multicultural couple and their four children, who have to cope with each other while living in one house. The Turkish children and the German children stumble into hilarious situations all the time and there's trouble in every episode. I still found "Little Mosque..." a little bit more sarcastic, something that I really like when it comes to topics like this. The way the characters are portrayed really gets you into the story. There is no overlaying storyline, instead each episode is one closed story in itself. But there's always some very dark and hard punchline that just leaves you laughing out loud. I recommend this to everyone who is fed up with all the "terrorist" or "war on terror" headlines. It's some nice 20 minutes of relief.

This AIn't Vegas + Patterns @ Gebäude 9 Café, Cologne

There used to be a lot of shows in the small café of the Gebäude 9 club back in the days. Compared to the huge hall in the back of the building which fits an audience of around 500 the frontroom with the bar (called "the café") is a way more nice and cozy room. As I said, back in the days there used to be a lot more shows there, bands like Braid, The Get Up Kids, Ensign or Hot Water Music played there and it was always a very good time.
So I was extremely pleaed when I found out that a friend of mine was setting up a show for the British band This Ain't Vegas, who I had seen some time ago, but I can't quite remember what they sounded like. I thought I remembered them as rather hectic and lively. Anyways, I arrived at the club at around 8.30 pm and there was almost nobody there. So I hung back, drank a few drinks and had a little chat with some of the people I knew who were already there. Patterns climbed on stage at around 9.30 pm and those guys sounded like they really like Fugazi. Very tricky yet very pounding progressive stuff with lots of breaks and weird guitar and bass ... well, yes, patterns. By the time they had finished the room was decently filled and the audience was warmed up for This Ain't Vegas. Now they didn't sound like anything I rememered. Or at least like what I thought they would sound like. This wasn't as complex and strange as I had it in mind. Quite the opposite, they were rather straight forward and rockin' out very well. This wasn't stuff that had you screaming at the top of your lungs or yelling out for more, but it was just the right music for a Wednesday night when you knew you had to go to work the next day. Nice one. Apparently the guy who set up the show advertised the whole thing as the last show before the great breakthrough for the band (it seems like they are entering the UK charts). Well, then it was nice to be a part of this...

Bundesliga: Day Thirteen - At last, the crisis!

MSV Duisburg - VfL Bochum 0:2
FC Schalke 04 - Hamburger SV 1:1
FC Hansa Rostock - FC Energie Cottbus 3:2
SV Werder Bremen - Karlsruher SC 4:0
VfB Stuttgart - Bayern München 3:1
Borussia Dortmund - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:1
Hertha BSC Berlin - Hannover 96 1:0
VfL Wolfsburg - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1:2
DSC Arminia Bielefeld - 1.FC Nürnberg 3:1

Here we go again, the Invincibles, the untouchable Bayern team who everybody thought to easily walk through the season without conceding a loss in all 34 championship matches, that Bayern team lost this weekend to defending champions Stuttgart. And it wasn't as if BAyern was unlucky, no, Stuttgart deserved to win. Bayern was completely helpless. And now, as always, the whole country is talking about Bayern's crisis. That a common thing the media does when Bayern loses a match. And now that they haven't won in four matches (draws against Dortmund 0-0, Frankfurt 0-0 and Bolton Wanderers 2-2) they are looking for reasons. Now as much as I love to see Bayern lose it's just pathetic how people change their opinions so suddenly. A few weeks ago this team was the biggest show in German football and now they are just a bunch of helpless idiots? Come on, you gotta be kidding me. This just shows that certain people consider Bayern to be German football and those people sit in offices at e.g. the biggest tabliod, the only free TV sports station or at Germany's biggest football magazine. It's a complete joke.Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld gave life to a team who were lying on the floor in the past season. He now has the best line up in the German Bundesliga and he now has lost one match. That's right, we are talking about one match. And the big bosses in Munich start to get nervous. Hilarious. There's this TV program called "Doppelpass" some sort of chat show with football topics and this represents at best what the German media is like. They always have one writer from Germany's largest tabloid "Bild" sitting there. Then they have Germany's most senile and retarded "expert" Udo Lattek, a guy who had success in the 70s and 80s but since didn't seem to have moved one inch. He always talking about his players having to "eat grass" in order to win. A relict from a time long forgotten. And then the program has a call in section where the viewers can voice their opinion on the current state of German football. And this is where it really gets funny, 'cause I think that some of the calls definetely have to be fake. Those callers most of the times side with what the panel has to say and they usually sound like they've written down what they wanted to express before they reached for their phone.
Anyway, I still believe that there is no way that another team will win this year's championship since the rest of the pack is playing way too unsteady. Schalke and Hamburg drew on Saturday (1-1), Bremen beat Karlsruhe (4-0) and by doing so sent the promoted side back to where it belongs. Down the table Rostock beat Cottbus (3-2) in an all east German derby, Bochum won against Duisburg (2-0) and Dortmund drew with Frankfurt (1-1).

And way down the leagues Fortuna Cologne got back on track for their campaign towards promotion. They won 2-0 against Troisdorf on Friday!

A day at the record store (III)

I had a little time on Thursday so I decided to stop by at the record store to grab a copy of the new album by German punk rock superstars Die Ärzte. And this is what I got.

Die Ärzte Jazz ist anders LP
This band is by far the best when it comes to putting out unique records. You can imagine the fun they must have when they think of the things they want to have for a vinyl release. They had double 10" records in gatefold sleeves, they had wonderful "normal" double LP releases with heavy vinyl, they had one record the put into a blue flokati rug thing (unfortunately that one is missing in my collection). And now they came up with a pizza box. Yup, that's right, a pizza box. The thing looks like what you get when you order a pizza to your home. But inside is not something to eat, although it looks like it. The picture LP inside has a normal pizza on the front (A) side and the bottom of a pizza on the B-side. A bonus 7" looks like a tomato slice and the lyrics sheet is just covering the floor of the box. This looks brilliant. A hilarious idea. And to round it off it comes with a coupon for the free download of the LP and 7" songs from their website. This is fan service at its best.


The music is just your usual Ärzte kind of silliness. Wonderful pop songs with lyrics in between the range of hilarious nonsense to wonderful love songs. The single "Junge" describes what most of us had to listen to when we were 16 years old and when you take into account that the members of Die Ärzte are now in their mid 40s it's rather funny to listen to such lyrics. This is a must have.

Pelican Pink Mammoth 10"
I just happened to come across this record while flipping through the stands. And since I'm a sucker for 10"s I just had to take this along. Although I just can't get into the mood to listen to their latest release this one is slightly better. Their new record "City Of Echoes" is a bit too widespread when it comes to trying out new things like changing the tempo in a song and so on. So what you get here is one song of pure and classic Pelican heavyness and the flipside will give you a nice remix of two of their songs. All this in a nice cover sleeve with a nice inlet. Not something one has to have but it sure is a nice record.

NPB: Chunichi Dragons are Nippon Series Champions

Chunichi Dragons of Nagoya won the Nippon Series against Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters with a 1-0 perfect game in Game 5. Starter Daisuke Yamai and closer Hitoki Iwase retired all 27 Fighters Batters and won the match against the Fighter's ace Yu Darvish who delivered a strong performance once again and proved that he was a worthy winner of the Japanese equivalent to the Cy Young award, the Sawamura award. So this gives the Dragons their first title since 1954 and with this at least one drought ended this year, when the Cubs and the Indians saw their hopes buried in the MLB across the Pacific.

The usual debate: British secretary complains about footballers wages

There is an article on Guardian Unlimited which deals with the British sports minister complaing about the wages of professional football players. Now we all know that those guys who play in the big leagues earn a lot of money and, well, yes, I have to admit that sometimes I have to shake my head as well when I hear about the sums which are payed for certain players. But then again, isn't this obvious? With all the media attention and the sponsoring of sports during the past years there wasn't really any doubt that with the money that is payed for the broadcasting rights on the rise there will also be a huge rise in salaries for players in professional leagues. And as long as there are clubs who are willing to pay that much for certain players those sums will get payed. Period.
What might be true though is that "people in the street" will find it harder to afford tickets for 1st division games in Europe. Although this might not be true for Germany yet the tendency is going towards that direction. At the moment prices for football matches are very low in Germany compared to other sporting tickets or leagues elsewhere. But with clubs turning into huge companies which are trying to get profit first it will only be a matter of time until prices will rise. I for myself don't see any reason why I should pay high prices if I don't want to. In the end what it comes down to is that it's the individual decision of every fan. If you don't like it, don't pay it. I've been going to my 5th division crap team, I pay my money there, yes, I think it's expensive, but still I go there because I want to, so why should I complain?

Update: As one would have expected it didn't take long for the clubs to reply.

German Football: A round-up

Just in case someone's wondering why there weren't any comments on the past few roundfs of the German Bundesliga, well, it's because I just don't think there's anything worth to write about. Quite frankly, the German league is becoming more and more boring as it progresses. Bayern in cruising at the top and the rest of the pack are stumbling right behind them in respectful distance. Last weekend Dortmund came close to giving them their first defeat this season but all that came out was a 0-0 draw. Add this with a draw in the big match last weekend (Schalke vs Bremen), some mediocre teams fighting for the international places and a defending champion who is struggling to keep touch with the top places and there you have it. Looks like this will be a season everyone will forget as soon as it is over.
The case is different for the 2nd division in Germany which hosts a lot of big names this year. Front runners are Borussia Mönchengladbach, one of the top teams in the 1970s when they were well known for their style of attacking the opponents and playing wonderful high speed football. A lot has changed since they won five championships and they were relegated last season after playing horrible most of the time. But it seems they are back on track and now they are leading the table and their way of playing football looks very good to me. Different from what their rivals 1.FC Cologne are doing. They have the highest payed coach with the biggest name in the business (Christoph Daum), they have a huge following who even come to the stadium when the teams is playing horrible (well, that's most of the time) and they have the biggest budget in the league. Still there is no sign of the club and the team going anywhere. They lose games they are not supposed to lose, the play like they just learned the game yesterday and the president is just talk all the way. From what it looks like right now 1.FC Cologne will be stuck in the 2nd division for quite some time.
This week also saw the German Cup competition (DFB-Pokal) take action again with 16 matches being played on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some huge upsets there (Berlin losing to 3rd division Wuppertal, defending champions 1.FC Nürnberg losing to 2nd division Jena on penalties, Bochum losing to 2nd division Aachen, etc.), but all in all nothing special. What frustrates German fans mostly is that the public television always picks the Bayern Munich games for their live coverage. Usually there's one match that's shown during each round of play. in the first round it was Bayern against 3rd division Wacker Burghausen and now in the 2nd round it was Bayern against M'gladbach. Sure, that's big names, but Schalke vs Hannover (2-0 a.e.t.) or Dortmund vs Frankfurt (2-1) were big names as well. We'll find out what game will be broadcasted in the next round. These are the ties which will be played on January 30th:

VfL Wolfsburg - FC Schalke 04
1899 Hoffenheim - Hansa Rostock
FC Carl Zeiss Jena - Arminia Bielefeld
Borussia Dortmund - Werder Bremen
Rot-Weiss Essen - Hamburger SV
Alemannia Aachen - 1860 München
Wuppertaler SV Borussia - Bayern München
Werder Bremen II - VfB Stuttgart

MLB: Boston wins it - NPB: Series tied

Congratulations to the city of Boston. The Red Sox swept the Rockies and won the World Series 2007. Jon Lester was the winning pitcher in Game 4 and because the Americans love those heartfelt stories about people who have to suffer some sickness or injury and then come back to win it all, Mr. Lester was at the center of attention. To me it's something I never really had in my fan life with football teams over here. The teams I root for are usually losers who don't win anything at all. Which is why I really like the red Sox. Their history, with all the failures, mistakes and terrible things that happend on their quest to end the 86 year old drought, is something I instantly fell in love with. And now that team wins their 2nd World Series title in 3 years. Amazing.
Although one has to admit that the Rockies were hard to beat in the playoffs one also had to say that they never really stood a chance against the Red Sox. Whatever the Rox were doing, the Sox immediatly found an answer. Yesterday Boston was cruising on a 4-1 lead in the 8th inning when Colorado finally made a comeback. Or did they? The only caught up to 4-3 and then Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon closed the door for them.
Well, it has been an interesting first full season of baseball for me and I think I'm hooked now. Hopefully some time in the future I might get to visit some friends in the States or Canada and then go to a game. I'm really looking forward to that.

Or I might go to Japan to watch a game there. The Nippon Series is tied now at 1-1 after the Dragons won the second game against the Fighters on Sunday. It seems there is a little more suspense in Japan. the Fighters won the first one after a tough battle 3-1 and now Chunichi thrashed them 8-1. Hopefully this series will go over the whole distance. Cause then there will be a rematch between Darvish and Kawakami from Game 1.
If I ever make it to Japan to watch a game I think I might try to get into Koushien to watch a Tigers game. It's funny cause I always thought of baseball supporters to be rather quiet and calm when their team plays. But after seeing pictures from the Boston fans celebrating in the streets and videos of Tigers fans making a huge noise at the stadium, I'd really like to check that out myself.

MLB & NPB: One more for Boston, Darvish with a complete game

Boston's Matsuzaka Daisuke was the main main in yesterday's Game 3 at Coors Field in Denver when the Red Sox took another win against the Rockies. He pitched really well and he even got 2 RBI in a 6-run third inning for Boston. The other shining players for the Red Sox were Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. The media is going crazy about so much rookie power. Colorado tried to get back into the game and did so with a 3-run homerun by Matt Holliday in the 7th, but that wasn't enough. Boston is now one game away from winning their second World Series in just three years. While this is happening one could really see how the media are clinging to at least some stories that might add to some suspense while there really is nothing special to report about. It just seems that Boston is way too good for a young Rockies team. Because Games 3-5 are played in a National League city Boston manager Terry Francona has to sit one of his key players because he is not allowed to nominated a designated hitter. So before Game 3 there was a huge fuss about whether he will sit DH David Ortiz, 1B Kevin Youkilis or 3B Mike Lowell. I just don't see the point. They are all great offensive players, one of them (Ortiz) doesn't field that much, but hey, he did it last night. That's the game.
Tonight the Red Sox will try to complete the sweep with Jon Lester on the mound.

On the other side of the ocean the Nippon Series kicked off with Game 1 in Sapporo. Fighters starter Yu Darvish pitched a complete game with 13 strikouts, which ties the record for a Nippon Series game. The losing pitcher was Chunichi ace Kawakami Kenshin who also threw a great game with only two hits over 8 innings, but he gave up two walks in the first and then came Fighters clean up hitter Fernando Seguignol and that was it. Kawakami retired the next 21 batters, but his offense wasn't able to come back, scoring just one run in the 6th.
Game 2 will take place tonight at Sapporo again, but there is no chance for people outside of Japan to follow the match. I think I read somewhere that there used to be a stream on the internet that accessable for fans living outside of Japan but that one was closed down at the start of this year's season. Which is a pity, I think. It's very interesting to watch a Japanese yakyu game and compare it to what is played in the USA.

AFC Champions League: German qualities bring the Reds to the final

The name Urawa Red Diamonds was introduced to the German public first when some German players transferred there in the early 1990s. The first German player to fly over to the J-League was Pierre Littbarski, a hero for his long time team 1.FC Cologne. When he announced that he will be playing for Japanese side JEF United Chiba before retiring this sparked a huge interest in Japanese football in Germany. Before the introduction of the J-League only one Japanese player was known in Germany: Okudera Yasuhiko. He also played for 1.FC Cologne in the 1970s helping them to win the championship and the cup in 1978.
So players like Uwe Rahn, Uwe Bein and Guido Buchwald made a move to Japan during the closing stages of their career and it was Buchwald who came back as a coach after he retired in Germany. He was hired by his former team Urawa and in 2006 he guided them to the chmapionship and the cup final. So Buchwald recieved a hero's goodbye when he decided to go back to Germany to coach relegated Alemannia Aachen in their quest to get back into the spotlight of the German Bundesliga. He's doing fine there at the moment, by the way (Aachen are currently in 7th place, only 4 points behind a promotion spot). The new coach at Urawa was Holger Osieck, who was the assistant to Franz Beckenbauer when Germany won the World Cup in 1990. So it was no surprise that the Reds made it to the final of the AFC Champions League through a penalty shoot out, something which has always been looked at as a German speciality (at least when you speak to Britains). The first match against the South Korean side of Seongnam Ilhwa ended in a draw and the second leg was also tied after 120 minutes. So they had to move to penalties which brought the win to Urawa 5:3. The Reds will now face Iran's Sepahan in two matches on November 7th and 14th.

MLB World Series: Tough luck for working Europeans

So the series is going to Denver this weekend where the Rockies will try to get back on track after losing the first two games at Fenway. I guess the first two really show what Boston is about this season. They completely crushed the Rockies in Game 1, when Josh Beckett held them to just one run while the offense exploded for 13 runs, three of those coming in the first inning and another 7 in the 5th. Game 2 was the complete opposite. This time it was the Boston pitching staff winning the match with reliever Okajima Hideki getting most of the attention as the first pitcher to come onto the field in an American World Series Game. In this game Curt Shilling held Colorado to just one run and Okajima and Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon finished things off for a 2-0 lead for Boston.
Now the most frustrating for someone living in Europe is that all games of the World Series start in the middle of the night. First pitch times are always 8 pm Eastern which translates into 2 am CET. But the first actual pitch isn't thrown until 2.40 am which is kind of annoying. There's loads of advertisment and commercials all the time, but the game starts almost 40 minutes later than expected. This makes it hard to stay awake. I was able to at least catch the first inning of Game 1 and I hope to be able to watch a little more of tonights Game 3. Maybe it's adifferent story for next week since the Americans are trailing Europe when it cames to setting back the clock for winter time. Which gives Europeans one more hour back and games will start at 1 am next week.

MLB: A win, that might raise questions for the future?

So the Red Sox have beaten the Indians last night 11-2 and will now play against the Colorado Rockies in the World Series starting on Wednesday. Boston won the remaining games in their series against Cleveland outscoring them 30-5. And in Game 7 even shaky Japanese starting pitcher Matsuzaka Daisuke was throwing his stuff well. So everything fell into place and the Sox have their chance for a shot at the World Championship again after winning in 2004.

Which brings up an interesting argument raised by a writer of the New York Times who asks if the Red Sox are becoming the New York Yankees of the new millenium. It's always strange to see what happens to teams in sports when they win a championship after a long time. Or, let's pit it this way, when a team has a very long championship drought it will do almost anything to get another chance. And almost every time the people in charge lose sight of what is most important to them and the club: the fans. This happened at Borussia Dortmund in the late 1990s after they won back to back championships in Germany (1995, 1996), the Champions League (1997) and the World Cup for club teams (1997). After that success they spent an enormous amount of money on new players, but they only managed to grab one more title (German championship 2002). After that the club was on the edge of bancruptcy.
So are Red Sox fans prepared to watch their beloved club transform into something which is more similar to what the Yankees used to represent? This is my first season of baseball which I was able to follow completely and I have to admit that the Boston team is interesting to me because of its history of failures. It has always been easier for me to cheer for a team that was not perfect and was not winning a lot of championships. It'll be interesting to see what will happen with the Red Sox and their fanbase.

A day at the record store (II)

I finally made it to my local record dealer again last week and this is what found there:

MONO Gone (A Collection Of EPs 2000-2007) 3xLP
This was the record I want to buy at my visit to the store and, boy oh boy, this is a gem. A triple LP set in a wonderful gatefold cover, really thick vinyl, brilliant artwork, this is just great. I know I won't put this one on my turntable that often, but I really love the music. It's a collection of some of their EP and compilation tracks, just pure MONO music. Loud, quiet, very dynamic, a great variety. I just love the way they create an atmosphere in which you can endulge and by the time ou are sucked into it it suddenly changes and they do something new and unexpected. This band really is great. On record as well as on stage.

PELICAN City Of Echoes LP
I just didn't know that there is a new record by PELICAN so I was kind of surprised to find this. I saw the band play live some time ago and although I really like their records it was rather hard to listen to them play their songs because their drummer had huge timing problems. At least it sounded like he did. So this record is great once again, although it seems to be a bit more straight to the point at one time, but also a bit more complicated on the other hand. Sounds strange? Might be, but that's what I think. There are some parts which have a rather up beat tempo and not this slow stuff. and then they change back to their epic and broad parts. Anyway, this is PELICAN as you know them and the way their guitars sound is just wonderful.

SUNNO))) - Oracle LP
This is the kind of record which makes my parents shake their heads and make them say that this ain't no music, it's just pure noise. And it's true, I mean, SUNNO))) take sound to a whole new level. When I saw them live last year that was one hell of an experience. The audience was feeling the room, trying to cover their ears, but I was standing there with some of my friends, transfixed and completely focused on the band and their one hour performance which was just stunning. And it was so liud that you could actually feel the music in your stomach. Brilliant.
Now this is a contribution by SUNNO))) to an art performance in which they played the music in connection with a sculpture of their backline made out of cast resin and salt in New York. It's that stuff which makes them interesting to me as well. Their just not your average black metal idiots.

ANTITAINMENT Nach der Kippe Pogo?! LP
I picked up this record only because someone suggested I should go to their concert but I wasn't able to make it there. The name sounded like some cliché punkrock band, but there is more to it. ANTITAINMENT play rather hectic crustcore with a very annoying organ/synthi added to it. It is rather hard to describe so I'd suggest you take a listen. Their lyrics sound a lot like the mid 90s Ebullition style emo bands which popped up all over Germany, albeit with a little more humour. Think AMEN81. I don't think that this record will land on my turntable too often, but every now and then I will listen to it. It nice to have something like taht once in a while. Vinyl version comes in a limited gatefold sleeve cover. Looking good.

THE WEAKERTHANS - Reunion Tour LP
Winnipeg's finest are back on the map with their fourth album, a piece which took them three years to record. Well, I don't know if it took them that long, but it's been that time since the last record came out. This is just your wonderful WEAKERTHANS stuff. No changes made, just pure prairie poetry punkrock with a little country flavour to it. I'm really looking forward to see the guys play again in Germany this November, but I have to admit that this record just can't keep up with the previous three. It's great, no doubt, but it's not as great as the ones they put out before. This is what the WEAKERTHANS are, they make greatr music, they are wonderful people and I will listen to this record anyway. But I just don't think that I will listen to it as extensively as I did to the other records. Still, a must have, not only because the vinyl comes in a wonderful gatefold sleeve.

ILIKETRAINS - Elegies To Lessons Learnt LP
I first heard about this British band when a former colleague of mine told me about a show he attended in Cologne where this band played. He was so fascinated and wouldn't talk about anything else because he was so thrilled with their persomance. So I gave them a chance and searched for some of their songs. And, to be honest, he was right. Although their live show must be a once in a lifetime experience the recorded songs sinmply blew me away. The music is very hypnotic and the interaction between the vocals and the instruments is brilliant. The deep voice of the singer interacts wonderfully with how the songs evolve, starting out rather slow and mellow and then ending up in a hgue crescendo which after some time fades out to become the same mellow and quiet part again that started the song. Wonderful stuff. The really captures the attention of the listener.