Eizouken Likes

broderic on January 28, 2021

The Eizouken anime was big last year. Funny thing about it, there was also a live action drama starring my favorites, Nogizaka46, in particular the member trio of Yamashita Mizuki, Saito Asuka, and Umezawa Minami. All through the year, because the movie was delayed, the mangaka of Eizouken was always tweeting about it which made me laugh because I thought he was becoming a big time wota. Now he’s helped with an alternate version of the 26th single, and now I know he is a big time Nogi wota. Eizouken keeps on giving!

僕は僕を好きになる

broderic on January 26, 2021

Nogizaka46’s 26th single released today. Yamashita Mizuki is the center for this one. She’s the first non-1st Generation member to center a single outside of an air drop. She’s also one of my favorites, so you know that I’m supporting her. Yes. I have the CDs already.

It’s such an important release for the group, and I hope it does well.

The title is translated as “I will come to like myself.” I should listen to them. You should, too.

Best Films of 2020

broderic on December 17, 2020

Nothing. I may have only seen a handful of films in theaters before the Rona hit. I haven’t been back. I’m too scared.

Going to movie theaters was a fun thing for me. The fact that I haven’t been back in a while, that I don’t know if I’ll ever go back, and that they may all disappear is just another of those things that 2020 has robbed us of.

The best film of 2020? I don’t think I have the heart to muster up such a sad, sad list.

In Cold Water

broderic on December 1, 2020

Hori Miona’s going to graduate from Nogizaka46. I think I cried more for her’s than for Nishino’s. It hits hard like a truck. She centered my first favorite Nogizaka song, Barette. I wish her all the best.

I also really like this song.

And It Follows You

broderic on October 31, 2020

Went for a walk this afternoon.  The usual place — the park behind my house.  It was a former road converted to a walking area which is right next to a stream.  It’s also in a valley with woods surrounding the walkway.  It was a nice afternoon for a walk.  It was a bit cool and overcast, but still beats the rain we’ve had the last few days.

Usually, I don’t wear my earbuds while walking.  Music is a distraction, but this time I wore them.  I wasn’t out for a walk for exercise. I was just trying to make my steps.  Chasing the streak!  Since the walk wasn’t for exercise, I was dressed casually in khakis and sweater.  A hat on and a neck gaiter just in case I run into a lot of people using the walkway.

I didn’t.  It was quiet for a weekend, especially on Halloween.  

As I walked, under the eaves of the trees, I kicked up the fallen leaves.  I was crunching through them just oblivious to the world listening to my music.  After a few minutes, I was alone.  

Enjoying the woods, I didn’t hear the other noises with the earbuds in.  I didn’t hear the other footsteps trudging through the fallen leaves.  When I did, I didn’t see anyone else around.  

I peered across the stream, and see no one there.  Is it just me?  Am I alone in these woods?  I didn’t want to find out.  I quickened my pace on the turnaround and practically was jogging back the way I came from.  The leaves moving was just me and my follower.  

I rounded a corner and there was a family coming my way.  My follower immediately disappeared.  I didn’t let up my pace.  I passed the people with a rigid smile.  I did not hear my follower on the way home.  Welp, that’s just how it goes on the spookiest day of the year.

Seventy-Four from Forty-Six

broderic on October 24, 2020

In the waning days of Shiraishi Mai’s membership in Nogizaka46, she has gifted us a very fun and amusing YouTube video on her channel. She’s dancing to Girls Rule and wearing as many different Nogizaka costumes as she can. The count is 74. I believe I like 73 of them.

This is the second video of hers that I’ve featured. I hope she continues to produce more that I’ll feature her after her graduation.

“Well, it looks like you’ve got a walking, talking moot point to deal with, don’t it.”

broderic on September 27, 2020

Baltimore Orioles baseball team finished 25-35 for the abbreviated, pandemic shortened 2020 season. It’s another losing year. I don’t think I really cared at all.

Surprisingly they did well. At least it was better than last year. Still with this losing season that would make 3 years in a row that the team and the organization stink. But they stunk less because they were somewhat more competitive. Yes, there were blow outs and stinkers in those 60 games, but they were in the playoff race at the beginning of September. And like many Septembers, they utterly failed to rise for the occasion and instead played poorly like the terrible team that we all thought they were.

But that doesn’t mean the future is going to be bad. It seemed like there were a few nice performances from the younger birds. Maybe, just maybe it is something to build on.

I guess I am paid for next year, too.

I was in a rotisserie league. I haven’t yet paid the dues. I was absolutely not doing my part to make it fun even though I had Mike Trout on my team. And like his real team, I stunk it up. I guess I should pay off the league manager…

“You know, you and me are a lot alike. You’re a Hollywood tough guy, and I’m a New York radio tough guy.”

broderic on September 11, 2020

No idea why I am subscribed to this Norwegian sailor, but I find his adventures out in the seas around his home compelling. He hadn’t been producing any videos for a bit. Now I know why. He spent the summer venturing out in his sailboat around the Arctic. Nuts.

It’s his first video for this trip. He’s tooling around the Norwegian coast before heading out to open ocean. Every place he weighs anchor makes me envious. I wish I could visit those far flung islands he sailed to. Just plain gorgeous. I did not think that there were places out there like that. I mean the world is big and there are places you’ll never see. Thanks to this fellow we can.

“I’m an air traffic controller. It gets very stressful, so once a year I flip out and punch my fist through a radar screen, and I get sent here.”

broderic on September 9, 2020

Bill & Ted Face the Music is the first movie that I have seen in a long while. I did not see it at the movie theater. I paid to watch it at home.

Paying for first run movies this way is going to be the wave of the future. We’ll never go back to sitting in the dark with a couple dozen strangers staring at the large silver screen. Who wants to laugh and then inhale someone else’s COVID-19? Sadly, I would as I think the experience of watching it at home on my television diminished the awe. It was literally watching television and not a film.

So the third installment finds Bill and Ted needing to write that hit song that would unite the world. They had spent 20 years not writing it. They thought they had, but it wasn’t it, so we got the sequel to the sequel. Again some time traveling hi-jinks ensue. Add in their daughters and more historical dudes and the phone booth, which is very anachronistic nowadays, and you have a righteous romp back to simpler days.

The film very much would like to make these troubling times better. It wants us to feel that we can overcome these roadblocks. It was written for us to have fun in the days of Trump, but now after it was delayed, it was written for us to smile in the Covid-19 Days. That’s what I felt. Some happiness to spend time with some characters that I sort of been attached to for most of my life. I need it. We need it. Bill and Ted make it happen.

3 of 5 stars.