Okay, I Admit It

I tried my hardest and couldn't finish Nick Hornby's ode to footie, Fever Pitch. With my daughter being a developing soccer star, I thought I'd give it a go.

It's just so hard getting dropped in from another planet and trying to sort it all out. I couldn't always work out who Hornby was talking about as he interchanged official names, nicknames, the pitch they play on ... and, of course, all those 1970s players.

Then again, I'd like to see my counterpart make head or tails out of a sentence that no one would bat an eyelash at here, for instance:

Yaz hammered the Amazin's at Fenway.

But this season, I'm really going to try to work out who's who. I might actually stay awake during the sport section of the BBC News Worldservice report. The Premier League started their season on Saturday, so this is as good a time as any to start paying attention.

I'm feeling a little techy from a weekend in (New) England and driving for ages, so here's some highlights. I'm going back to bed:

Chelsea beat Portsmouth and is now in the number one position
Arsenal won -- West Brom went home disappointed
Man U (champs for the last two years) tied with Newcastle
Everton lost to Blackburn
Liverpool over Sunderland
Tottenham lost to Middlesborough
West Ham beat Wigan at WH's home, Boleyn Ground

Captain Scarlet is Back (for Me)

Cablevision is rubbish, unless you count those weird high-definition channels they stick on in the 700 range.

To fill all that programming, they turn to England much of the time. One of my favorite of those channel is called Animania HD. Among the imports there is something you should see.

If you've heard of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (I had heard about it from my friend Edward, but had never seen it), you think of it as England's version of the great 1960s marionette show, The Thunderbirds. In fact, Captain Scarlet and the T-birds had virtually the same creative team and borrowed liberally from each other ... or more accurately, the American version borrowed from the British one, if I have my facts straight.

If you've never heard of the Thunderbirds, that was the show that Trey Parker and Matt Stone were having a go at with their Team America: World Police. If you've never heard of any of the above, I just don't know what to say.

Very briefly, the plot has to do with an international security force of the future. They are battling a force called the Mysterons, who have the ability to inhabit human bodies just after killing them, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The Mysterons tried the same thing on Captain Scarlet, but were interrupted. Now he's some kind of hybrid: human ethics, but he can't die.

Here comes the cool part. In 2005 Gerry Anderson, the creator of both marionette shows (billed as "Supermarionation") launched a computer-graphics-driven show in "Hypermarionation." The technique combines CGI and motion capture -- and it's brilliant! Very good plots and very beautiful to look at in HD.

For some reason, we weren't getting Animania for a short time in the Phonybrit household. Now it seems to be back. Can't wait to set the DVR.

Oh! And football starts tomorrow in the UK. Arsenal will battle West Brom. Man U, last year's champs, start their season on Sunday.