Z/Web

Today is the start of Major League Soccer action and if this game is any indication of what’s in store, it’s going to be good. The level and speed of play seemed higher than ever, probably partly due to a number of internationals like Josh Wolff, who forgot that MLS is supposed to be a slower-paced game. The first half was all Chicago, with young DaMarcus Beasley just burning up the field. He not only demonstrated great speed and stamina, he show terrific ball skills, dribbling past defenders and delivering excellent passes. Wonderful, and the kid’s only 18! His feed provided the game’s first goal, by Wolyniec. After that things quieted as the Fire didn’t seem as desperate and Columbus showed virtually no offense. In the second half Columbus still wasn’t playing, which was disappointing, until suddenly, Dante Washington found himself open with the ball floating toward him, and he used his head to put it just inside the post. Suddenly the team and the fans came alive! From that moment on the game was fantastic: hard tackles, end-to-end action, shots for both sides, and great saves by both keepers. This continued right to the end of the game when Aguilera was sent off for Columbus for a bad tackle. The advantage didn’t last long, however, when Lewis was sent off for Chicago as the last man who took down Washington on a break-away. In the dying seconds of the game Columbus Crew substitute keeper Tom Presthus made two great saves to keep them alive, and with literally two seconds left on the clock, his counterpart Thorton made a great save of his own. The game went into MLS’ silly ten minutes of overtime, but since it’s Golden Goal, it was exciting. Chicago’s Guitierrez was sent off when he threw an elbow reacting to a foul, but even with nine men Chicago spent most of the time in Columbus’ penalty box. But it was all for naught: the game ended with no more goals, so each team gets one point. Columbus escaped the indignity of losing their home opener, and the Fire have a respectable road point. Final: 1-1.

Astonishing! Where did this Coventry come from? With relegation looming, wins are vital for Coventry, but the goals just haven’t been coming. Until today. Bellamy scored in the first minute, stunning everyone. But Leicester battled back and Akinbiyi managed a header eight minutes later to equalize, and it seemed like the same old Coventry situation. But it was not. Chance after chance had Coventry, who can bare score at home, putting Leicester on the defensive. Lee Carsley got a terrific header in the nineteenth minute, so Coventry went into the locker room at the half one goal ahead. It really should have been four-one, except for some terrific goal-keeping and bad luck. In the second half I expected Leicester to fight, but before they got going Hartson, who’d had several good chances in the first half, finally got his goal just a few minute in. Eventually Leicester got a little going, but it was much too late and Coventry were so full of confidence that their defense had a reasonably easy time of it. Terrific win for lowly Coventry. Final: 3-1.

This is an amazing film, unlike any animated film I’ve ever seen. For one, it’s over two hours long! For another, it violates stereotypes of characters, something that few live action films do effectively. This is an incredibly complex film: I’ll probably have to watch it several times to understand all the nuances. Unlike most movies, where there’s a clear good guy and bad guy, in this film everyone’s good and bad. For instance, the main hero’s a young man who saved his village from a monstrous demon but in the process the demon touched his arm, which becomes infected. He is told he must leave the village forever: the infection of hatred and evil will eventually kill him. The man leaves on a quest to remove the curse and on his journey learns that his arm has a will of it’s own, causing him to brutally kill two Samuri who were abusing a villager. So we’ve got a hero who must battle against himself: hatred and anger give strength to his evil arm. But that’s just part of the story. Things get really complicated as he discovers the origin of the demon that tried to destroy his village and cursed him. A tip sends him to the primordial forest where giant animals from the dawn of time still live, and he seeks out the Forest Spirit, who can perhaps remove his curse. He ends up at Irontown, a village where the major industry is the ironworks, run by a ruthless woman who, contrary to stereotype, cares for lepers and abused women. The woman is out to destroy the forest so they can mine the iron under the mountain, so the young man finds his loyalties divided: he cares for the animals of the forest and doesn’t want to see them destroyed, yet he also cares for the humans, who need to survive. He confronts Princess Mononoke, a wild girl-child who was raised by giant wolves (and thinks she’s a wolf and hates humans). As the conflict between the humans and the animals escalates, we realize this is the primary theme of the film: hatred on the part of either party, anger and senseless killing, are the real evils of the world, not individuals we blame for causing us pain. It is hatred and bitter rage that turns animals from gods into cursed demons that are neither human nor animal, and who hurt both. Fantastic movie, far too complex to analyze in a few brief paragraphs. Just go get it and watch it. Buy it: it’s a film you’ll watch over and over again. There are no easy, trivial answers in the film, only that hatred is bad and it takes willpower to defeat it.