So I was browsing the Flickrs earlier today, looking for fodder for computer desktops, when I stumbled upon this:

"Engines of Change" indeed... or, more likely, change of engines.  Union Pacific UPY2644 is a RP20BD, which is itself a rebuild of an older General Electric B23-7.  The original unit was Southern Pacific 5111, built in 1980, one of 15 owned by Southern Pacific.  It was acquired, along with the rest of SP's fleet, when Union Pacific took control of SP's assets in 1996.

The conversion took place in early 2007 at a company called "SuperSteel" in New York.  These RP20BDs seem to make their home in Texas, based out of San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth.  As switchers, they probably don't venture too far away from those yards so you'll probably not want to hustle down to your nearest Union Pacific right of way to see them go by... Avatar, Ubu, and Ben, however, should grab their cameras.

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A beautiful sunny day greeted the assembled masses at Ile Notre-Dame, masses gathered to see the F1 Circus make their way around Circuit Gilles Villeneuve 70 times in pursuit of victory.  Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes was on pole with his teammate Nico Rosberg next to him, but a resurgent Ferrari driven by Kimi Raikkonen lurked just a spot behind.   Which of them got to spray the Molsons?  THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2015 Grand Prix of Canada!

*OH.  RIGHT.  FORGOT.:  The lights went out, the Thundering Herd made its way to the first turn, and there went the two Silver Arrows.  Hamilton and Rosberg began to run away from the rest of the field, with Hamilton staying a scant second or so ahead of his teammate.  And that's how it stayed for the entire first half of the race: Rosberg close but no cigar on Hamilton, while the rest of the field fell farther and farther behind.

*MEANWHILE...:  Due to power unit problems and penalties, Ferrari's Seb Vettel took his place on the starting grid somewhere back around the Hairpin.  Within seven laps of the start, he had worked his way up the field to 13th place, where he found his progress balked by a fight between Sony Ericsson and Felipe Not Nasr Massa.  Judging there'd be no real harm, the team brought him in for a early pit stop.  This would get him free of the fight, and off the pit rotation as well, perhaps allowing him to jump multiple places without struggle.  Unfortunately, the team had problems with his jacks and by the time he made it back onto the track, Vettel was in last place.  Again.  Even Embryo Verstappen, who had to start in Newfoundland, was ahead of him.

*BACK AT THE FRONT...:  After the first pit stops, Rosberg discovered that his car was dealing with the race a smidge better than Hamilton.  The leader was forced to save fuel, lifting and coasting into turns instead of accelerating all the way in.  For his own part, Rosberg was being warned about his brakes.  This is a common problem at Canada... the track is very fast, but with very heavy use of the clampers.  For example, you've got the full-throttle dive to the hairpin where you hit 180mph or more, but then have to slow to sixty or less, then another full-throttle run to the final chicane, where you have to slow right back down again.  That's bad enough, but what occurs is that the upper layers of the carbon brakes actually melt from the heat, then the cooling airflow solidifies it again.  This process is called "glazing," and it reduces the efficiency of the brakes... which means you have to stomp even harder on the brakes, which means they heat up even more, which causes more glazing, which means you need to stomp on the brakes even harder... and so on.  This circuit is the only place we've seen brake discs actually shatter in an explosive way.  Despite all this, Rosberg was able to close up to right around one second behind Hamilton.

*MEANWHILE PTII...:  Vettel was having none of these problems, at least not that we were being made aware of.  Instead, he was working his way back up the field, picking off drivers one after the other.  The only problem he had came from Nico Hulkenberg in seventh, who refused to go down without a fight... and going side-by-side through the final chicane put paid to that, the Force India driver losing control and spinning.  Vettel would eventually finish fifth, a remarkable drive reminiscent of Jenson Button's last-to-first (with six pit stops!) in 2011.

*NO SURPRISES:  Despite getting close, Rosberg couldn't quite bring his Mercedes into attack position on his teammate.  Suddenly there were only five or six laps left, Hamilton was told he was good on fuel, and he began to open the lead up again.  When they finally swept across the finish line, only some 95 minutes after the race started, the reigning world champion was 2.5 seconds ahead of Rosberg.  It took nearly 45 seconds for the third place car, the Williams of Valtteri Bottas, to cross the line.  He was followed a couple seconds later by Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari.

*WILDLIFE:  It isn't Canada without the threat of another Montreal Marmot Massacre.

It was a lot closer than it looks.  Felipe Not Nasr Massa almost wound up with a marmot hood ornament.

*TERROR:  Lewis Hamilton was 47 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas in third.  FORTY-SEVEN SECONDS.  It's going to take disaster upon disaster to keep him from dominating the rest of the season.

*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:

"I never felt under pressure out there." - Lewis Hamilton (note: real quote)

"I'll give you 'no pressure', you..." - Nico Rosberg

"We earned this podium.  Even if it's like we were in a different race." - Valterri Bottas

"mrmrmrbmrl rmmrrlrbrbrlr rmrmrrblrbrlllr mrmrmmrmmrmrrrmrmrbbl." - Kimi Raikkonen

"I lost time at the first pit-stop and I am not sure it was totally on me, something went wrong at the back of the car, but the guys have done a super job so far and they shouldn't be blamed if sometimes things go a bit slower." - Seb Vettel (note: real quote.  Translated: I'm throwing the pit crew under the bus.)

The next race is in two weeks at the Red Bull Ring in Austria!  See ya then.

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Having loaded myself up on buttermilk pancakes from Scandahoovia Inn (warning: swedish pancakes have been known to instantly clog arteries.  Fortunately, lingonberries have restorative properties equaled only by a high-level cleric's healing spells... and it goes with just about everything!) and conversation with the folks, I returned to Pond Central to watch myself some Qualifying for the 2015 Grand Prix of Canada.  So how'd it turn out?  Here's the provisional grid:

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Well, that was a bit of a wet noodle.  Practice 2 started out well enough.  Every team had their car out on track almost from the get-go.  That's exciting for the fans, but not so much for those "in the know", because that always means that weather is coming in, and the teams are trying to get as much data in the computers as possible.  Sure enough, the on-screen graphics quickly popped up a message: rain due at 135pm Pond Time.  Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes was tearing off laps a good .330 faster than anybody else (on top of his session-leading times in P1), but he didn't look jaw-droppingly dominant.  Indeed, he very nearly stuffed it into the Wall of Champions at one point, missing the turn-in to the final chicane and getting all four tires off the ground when he hit the backside of the curb.  For the record: your grip levels are greatly reduced when you're not physically in contact with the racing surface.  He managed to not come to grief, though.  And then, at 137pm Pond Time, the rains came to Ile Notre-Dame.  Everybody made their way into the garages and superhero Berndt Maylander began to run laps around the course, testing grip levels.

After Berndt gave the car a rest, Mercedes had a great idea.  Their thinking went something like this: "Just in case it rains on Sunday, which it isn't supposed to do but the possibility exists that it could, let's send Nico and Lewis out on Intermediate tires to try and get some data.  It'll be fun!"  Meanwhile, everybody else kept their cars under cover, snug and dry.  So how did Mercedes' fun-filled adventure go?

Ah.  Yes.  Heading into the Hairpin at less-than-racing speed, Lewis realized that he wasn't so much driving a car as riding in a boat.  The car was aquaplaning so badly that you could actually see that the front tires weren't making contact with the track surface.  Remember what I said about grip levels being reduced in that situation?  The car slid all the way into the barriers on the outside of the Hairpin, which is quite the journey.  I can't remember the last time I saw someone end up there... not even Robert Kubica made it that far.  Anyway, the good news was that the impact was at quite low speed and Lewis was unhurt.  The bad news was that the nose got stuck in the tire barrier.  The ugly news is that, when the tractor pulled the Merc free, the car swung back and smacked into the big green chunk of machinery.  Who knows what sort of damage that did to the rear of the car?  Of course, the session was red-flagged during all of this, and once it was over with, none of the other teams thought it was worth going back out.  Or they were all laughing themselves sick, one of the two.

Quals in the afternoon tomorrow; I'll be having lunch with the folks, so I won't have the post until after I get back.  See ya then!

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It seems fitting somehow that the Blue Angels have been buzzing around Pond Central all day on this, the 73rd anniversary of the US Navy's most important victory.  We all know the story by now... at least, if you've read The Pond for any length of time you do.  In fact, I've written so extensively on the topic that I can't find anything new to write about regarding Midway.  So I open it to you, my readers: do you have any questions regarding the Battle of Midway?  Let me know in comments, and I'll get you an answer.

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-Hibike! Euphonium, Ep09
Stress is neither a good nor a bad thing in life.  It is simply something that is omnipresent in our world.  Some forms of stress can be enjoyable for one person, yet a horrible experience for the next... roller coasters, for example.  Some stressors are almost uniformly negative, like the death of a loved one.  One fact of life, however, is that everybody reacts to stress differently.  Some people can't sleep, or have digestive problems, or the index finger on their right hand twitches uncontrollably in a manner guaranteed to creep people out when they see it.  And some, like Our Goofy Cute Obsession here, become short-tempered.  While she surely has nothing to worry about from this episode's auditions, Asuka clearly is feeling the stress from them. 

The way she bites off Sapphire's head and bathes in her blood might have been a little over the top, but her anger at the way the contrabass player was moping through the rehearsal was completely in  character for Asuka.  We've seen that she's devoted to her music and can be quite the hard-driving taskmaster... throw in the added stress of auditions, and you get the dead eyes of a pissed off euphonium player.

Fortunately she doesn't stay that way the entire episode, and by the end she's back to her bouncy self... and it's no surprise that she didn't have anything to worry about from the audition process.  What I've found interesting is the online reaction to her this episode.  Practically overnight she went from The Most Popular Girl In The Room to despised, just because she got short-tempered about people's attitudes.  Quite astonishing, and entirely unexpected.

I suspect she wouldn't give a tinker's damn if she knew, as long as the band played well.

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From the champagne and caviar of Monaco, the F1 Circus crosses The Pond  to the land of Labatt's and poutine, Canada.  It's quite the jump from a tiny fishing village on the coast of France to the bustling metropolis of Montreal, or quite the plunge if you're talking about gross domestic income, but that's where the cargo planes have taken us this time.  Let's take a look at the track map for the 2015 Grand Prix of Canada:

Once again we've come to the Ile Notre-Dame, a man-made island in the St Lawrence River and the location of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.  We've been here every year since 1978, save twice: 1987 and 2009, and if one has to bet on a track to give us a good race, I'd put my money on this one every time.

So what is it about this circuit that makes that happen?  Well, it's ridonkulously fast.  Oh, it's no Monza, sure, but from Turn 7 to the braking zone for the Hairpin is basically flat out, as is the run from the exit from the Hairpin to the Chicane at Turn 13/14.  It's a fairly narrow track, meaning there's not much room for error, but it's filled with passing opportunities.  I've seen passes at every single turn except the final chicane.  Then there's the ever-present threat of rain... this is the site of the longest race in F1 history, over four hours, in 2011.  Also one of the best races, also in 2011.  It's the place the first Safety Car was ever called out, and since then it's averaging more than one per race.  It's the home of the Montreal Marmot Massacre and the Wall of Champions.  It's where SuperAguri hit their highpoint (~SUPERSATO~ passing Alonso for points!).  And it's just a lovely, lovely track... even during the times the concrete was breaking up.  There's just enough challenge to the driver to make it fun, and if they're having fun, chances are we will too.

So when does all this fun take place?  I'm glad you asked!  Let's take a look at the schedule:
Friday
Practice 2: 1p - 230p live on NBCSN
Saturday
Quals: 12noon - 130p live on NBCSN
Sunday
Prerace: 1230p - 1p live on NBCSN
2015 Grand Prix of Canada: 1p - 3p live on NBC

Its the first of three races we don't have to stay up until ungodly-o'clock (or wake up at what-time-is-it? AM) to watch, hooray!  Check your local schedule for exact times and channels.  All times Pond Central.  Subtract two hours for random apartments in Oregon, add one hour for random boats just off the coast of Virginia, and sneeze if you're on Guam.  No reason, I just want you to sneeze.

What with all this competition that's been happening recently, I expect some action.  Everybody but Mercedes have used some of their allotted "tokens" to upgrade various pieces of their Power Units (remember when we used to call them "engines"?  Ah, good times, good times...), so it's even possible that someone other than Mercedes will take that final step up on the podium. 

I'm not betting on it, but it's possible.  See ya then!

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This is going to sound strange coming from a person who has a sub-optimal employment status, but I took the weekend off.

This is not as far-fetched as it seems.  Normally my days are colored by an underlying tinge of horror and a growing hint of desperation as I dig deeper and deeper for a job, watch a bank account dwindle away, AND attempt to do something... anything... to keep myself from noticing my growing feeling of failure.  It's affecting everything I do from the moment I wake up to the point I finally pack it in for the night, which is really most likely to be early enough to hear the birds chirping in the impending sunrise.  So to do myself a favor, I allowed myself a holiday from all that.

I got a haircut for the first time in six months.  It may be normal for some people to have their hair long enough to touch the underside of their nose, but not for me.  It was the longest its been since  that horrible welding accident in grad school.  I spent three hours doing about 40 pounds of laundry... it took up one triple-load and two double-load washers... and I didn't care about the time because I had a book with me.  When I finished that, I listened to a bunch of techno-swing and modern throwback music (...and thanks to my brother in feathers for the Caro Emerald!) at a volume guaranteed to annoy my upstairs neighbors had they been home as a cold rain pelted down outside.  Eventually, I went to sleep.  Today was spent watching the replay of the Blackhawks' victory over Anaheim to go back to the Stanley Cup Finals, and might I just say that whoever it was that came up with the idea of using an entire hockey rink as a projection screen, they were taking their genius pills that day.  And then I took a nap.  And here we are.

I know this would be pretty much normal, every day stuff for most people.  I count it as a triumph that I made it through the weekend without fearing what the world thinks of me... or, more correctly, not caring.  I'll be back to my abnormal norms on Monday I suspect, but for a couple of days there, I almost felt like a regular part of humanity.

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Because what's more fun on a weekend than a movie filled with angst-ridden, emotionally stunted, just flat-out damaged kids being forced to save the world while being used by an O2STK to actually bring around the end of the world, just in an approved manner?  Right, doing a writeup of that very movie!  After pt 2, how could I not want to leap right into pt 3, huh?  I mean, other than reasons of sanity, not that that's ever been a concern of mine before.  But you know, times these days are hard, and at times like this, one's sanity becomes a precious, precious commodity, one to be treasured and nurtured, not squandered like the virtue of a Lady of the Evening named Trixie in San Diego during Fleet Week.  However, I squander my sanity gladly for the entertainment of my readers, the accumulated Pond Scum, a term I use endearingly.  You'll note, of course, that it's months after I completed the previous installment... that'll show how much I love you guys.  But enough of my self-congratulating maunderings, let's get on with the Adventures of Nigel Evangelion.

The night after they've killed the most recent Angel, Asuka has another teeny-tiny lil' breakdown.  She's used to being alone, but for whatever reason she crawls into bed with Shinji... come to think of it, it's quite possible that that's about as close to being alone as you can get with another human being.  Before you start thinking that we're getting red-hot one-on-one Eva pilot action, remember that Asuka is the one person who hasn't punched Shinji in the face.  She's perpetrated other violence upon his person, so I guess the suppose their relationship is still up in the air, but without the punch in the face you can't be sure.

Time passes  in a normal, relaxed way.  People get up, go about their days, come home.  Asuka proves to be only slightly better than feral.  Shinji doesn't whine much.  Teh Rei watches it all with an air of dull surprise.  Angelic days indeed (see what I did there?).

Except for all that Eva simulation training.  Oh yeah, that.  That sort of thing isn't exactly common.  I mean, for these kids it is, but it's not like Fred and Ginger in class 2-2 spend their afternoons stuck in a Entry Plug, surrounded by something that looks a lot like amniotic fluid, controlling giant bio-robots.  Don't worry, though... if they do, I'm sure there'll be an Evangelion movie about them.

more...

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...comes "Pickled herring sliding down a cut straw attached to a half potato."

It's not as dramatic as "Waffle".  Can't fault the effort, however.

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-Hibike! Euphonium, Ep08
In contrast to last week's episode, Episode 08 was much lacking in The Goofy Cute.  She was very much a tertiary character this week, as the show focused on relationships between the mains this time around.

But that's okay, because this episode was amazing.  I mean, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed myself as much watching an episode of ANY anime as much as I did this one.  I laughed, I teared up a bit, I wished I was 30 years younger for a few minutes. 

Asuka wasn't in sight very much, but a little speech she gave after one of her friends prayed for luck at auditions was telling.  I paraphrase: "Playing music is all about your effort, hoping a god helps you just cheapens it."  Amen, and that's why I was never very good.  The thing was, I knew I wasn't very good, and that after all the effort, after all the practice... I still wouldn't be very good.  It's a humbling experience to know that.

If you're not watching Hibike! Euphonium, you're missing out on the best series this season, and probably this year.  Sure as heck it's the best series KyoAni has done since Clannad/Clannad AS.  I have high hopes for the new ARIA series coming out in a few months, but it's going to have to work really hard to surpass HibEuph.

So why aren't you watching?

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1 Amazing, absolutely amazing. If they don't bobble this, it's going to end up as one of the top couple or three shows KyoAni have ever done. Everything works, every single bit of it.

This show may also become the gold standard for yuri storylines in anime, if this episode is anything to go by. Yes, I am rooting for Oumae/Kousaka here.

Posted by: GreyDuck at May 27, 2015 10:53 AM (/zxpg)

2 Well, since you asked nicely... I'm not watching because the way it handles the story and characters is not very fun. It's basically Yowamushi Pedal with girls. I dropped Euphonium twice: after the first sub-arc finished in ep.4 and at the end of ep.7 after the excessive enthusiasm by CKS made me restart. Not fooling me twice, bloggers. I agree that's a Hyouka-level animation, possibly even better.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at May 27, 2015 02:47 PM (RqRa5)

3 Pete, I sincerely wish you could enjoy this series the way some of us are.  I haven't enjoyed a series this much in years.

Having said that, I really do not see the Yowamushi Pedal comparison; but I've only read the first few chapters of the manga.

Posted by: Ben at May 27, 2015 04:57 PM (XtR0g)

4 Save for Azumanga Daioh, Pete and I have never liked the same shows.  I expected him to pop up and state his dislike of HibEuph, and he did not disappoint.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 27, 2015 05:53 PM (jGQR+)

5 I'm saving it up to watch it straight through.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at May 27, 2015 07:24 PM (2yngH)

6

Wonderduck (And it appears the majority of Euphonium watchers here.) and I are going to have to agree to disagree about Asuka, but Sound! Euphonium is shaping up to the best KyoAni, and one of the better anime titles I have watched.  That being said, Peter's opinions about the series is not, unfortunately, rare, even if the misgivings about 'another KyoAni series' are ignored.

Posted by: cxt217 at May 27, 2015 08:36 PM (9dbN0)

7 That's a nice 4-valve euphonium. Not sure why she's clutching it like that. I miss having one around the house to doodle on.

Posted by: Will at May 28, 2015 03:09 PM (/2EVT)

8 Because it is her One True Love, Will.  Seriously.  That's what she says.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 28, 2015 03:55 PM (jGQR+)

9 Well, it can't really be a yuri show, given that we've just found out that the show is practically shouting that the main girl likes the main guy and vice versa.

They actually seem to be trying to present a more realistic view of "girlcrushes," where the girls admire each other and try to deal with suppressed parts of their own personalities through the other person. (Of course, the super-traditional girlcrush is to hero worship and admire a teacher or an older and more poised girl, which is pretty much the exact same mechanism behind giving seven year olds a Barbie doll.)

Now, whether or not they actually have the guts to continue this route and point out that "teenagers blush and get flustered every five seconds, so of course you can blush and get flustered around someone of the same sex while being heterosexual," I don't know.

It's also possible that they're going for some kind of unrequited love thing or the theory that you have to fall in love with the less perfect match first before you can get along with the husband material. Or I could be totally wrong. All I know is, shows that go full yuri cease to be about recognizably real girls, so I hope they avoid that.

I also hope they don't go with "Asuka doesn't have a boyfriend, so she must be yuri." That would be depressing, too.

But it's been a good show so far.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at May 29, 2015 02:22 AM (ZJVQ5)

10 the show is practically shouting that the main girl likes the main guy and vice versa.

We must be watching different versions of HibEuph.  Souichi IS interested in Kumiko to be sure, but when have we seen that interest returned?  Never, far as I've seen.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 29, 2015 02:55 AM (jGQR+)

11 Kumiko is completely baffled by the idea that Shuichi wants to date her.  And it's not the typical "I never *thought* of that" confusion...when she thinks about it and realizes he's trying to ask her out, Kumiko seems rather put off by the idea.

Now, how Kumiko feels about Reina may or may not be leaning more toward traditional girl crush, although I think the line "I was about to be sucked in..." is telling.

How Reina feels about Kumiko is apparently several miles past the "girl crush" border...

Posted by: Ben at May 29, 2015 09:58 AM (S4UJw)

12 Well, I don't think Kumiko thinks she likes Shuichi, but apparently everybody else in the entire universe does think so. And she certainly seems to like Shuichi at every point when she's not actually in his presence, and she hasn't been doing anything to vary her way home and not meet up with him.

Now, you could argue that she is treating him either in a tsundere way or a brother way, because she does seem to treat a lot of people she cares about with that flat affect. And it's how her sister treats her.

Reina has no friends that we've ever seen, and she's a teenager, and her only emotional and hormonal outlet up till now is cramming tons of music practice -- but at least to outside observers, she does only what she feels like doing and is free from the constraints of Japanese society.

Do I expect her to act rational or know what she wants? No. Is this exactly the kind of friend that is likely to fascinate Kumiko, who apparently never shows her true self to anyone? Sure.

But I have to say, Kumiko reads much more as wanting somebody to tell her what to do (and hence relieve her of responsibility) than actually somebody who wants to have a relationship with anyone. (Cue the Gothic romance lines about Yuki-onna.) And Reina sounds more like she wants to destroy Kumiko than get to know her.

Obviously a lot of female friendships have problems with territoriality and exercise of power and the line between sharing secrets and being nosy, but this one could get pretty creepy. If they really do intend to play yuri romance with it, it sounds like they want it to be something that ends in drug use and multiple deaths, not a nice story about kids in high school band. So my conclusion is that they aren't going yuri, because otherwise everybody dies in a haze of blood.

Finally, Reina was not shown as having giant blisters and cuts all over her feet after that walk. I've got heels in exactly that style, and it's practical, but there is still no way in heck that anybody got up that mountain (carrying a euphonium too!) without a line of bloody circles at the top of every toe as well as on the back of the ankle. And since they are white, the shoes as well as the feet should have looked pretty disgusting. That girl should be limping for the next week. So I think we've found the limits of realism for the show.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at May 29, 2015 04:20 PM (ZJVQ5)

13 Well, maybe not a haze of blood, but anytime there's just one leader and one follower, friendship between girls becomes ugly. Two equals or having three or more friends in the group is a lot less likely to encourage bad decisions.

Actually, this brings another question. Everybody is in high school, but apparently they've never before dated at all even though they are fifteen or sixteen. Similarly, the friendship patterns are now seeming much more like junior high than high school (except nobody is fighting enough for junior high). Other parts of the story seemed much more like actual high school.

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at May 29, 2015 04:36 PM (ZJVQ5)

14 ...it sounds like they want it to be something that ends in drug use and multiple deaths...

I don't much like the version of HibEuph you're watching, Banshee.  I much prefer mine.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 29, 2015 05:25 PM (jGQR+)

15 I'll blame Evangelion for everything, then. Had some gloomy memories of bad stuff that happened to people I knew.

Well, it's surprisingly hard to find stuff on the Internet about social hierarchy among women, but all my female consultants agree it's a bad sign when one girl or woman lets another girl or woman have her way in everything. And after a couple tentative attempts from Reina at getting feedback, that's exactly what Kumiko lets Reina do. Even when expressing consensus, you always have to say (or do) something to show your own status is just as high as the other woman. The only thing Kumiko does without orders is sit down.

Letting a guy tell you what to do has its reasonable side, because guys are programmed to behave nicely in such situations. Absolute submission among women puts you at rock bottom, lower than a little kid. There's literally nothing instinctual to stop the girl in charge from doing anything cruel. From the point of view of humans as a primate band, the only evolutionary advantage is that the dominant female uses the totally submissive female as a meat shield, so she gives you food and attention when not doing more important things. Being touched in that context is a declaration of property control. So whether it's a yuri relationship or not, it's an unhealthy relationship. Kumiko or Reina can change that (all Kumiko has to do is talk and not let Reina interrupt or walk off), but at the moment there are no signs of it.

I don't know why they threw this dark moment into a happy series. If it's some kind of Japanese romance convention, fine. But in the real world, it's not a good sign whether you're lesbian or not.

(And see how much I've said in response to the show and to Wonderduck, to establish my status? Unlike Kumiko, I talk back at it.)

Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at May 30, 2015 07:06 AM (ZJVQ5)

16 "If it's some kind of Japanese romance convention, fine."

Despite how realistically many story elements and details are depicted, I think Hibike! Euphonium is still fundamentally fiction and uses a lot of the standard tropes of the the genres in play.  I'm pretty sure whatever is going on between Kumiko and Reina is around 99% to 100% pure storytelling without regard to realism.  If it *is* based on something real, then I would bet the anime version is *highly* embellished.

Based on my own limited knowledge, I get what you're saying about the IRL implications of what has been depicted.  But (of course there's a "but") I think you have to consider firstly that this *is* a fantasy story about real life things, and also that Kumiko apparently has at least two ways of exercising power over Reina that have been depicted:  she takes some delight in embarrassing Reina with risque humor, and her habit of blurting out observations that, in traditional Japanese society anyway, are rude and insulting.

Would that mean anything in real life?  Probably not.  But yuri relationships, whether they're just typical girl crushes or actual long-lasting couples, are rarely treated in a negative manner in anime (anywhere, really).  I guess that provides the viewer a level of protection to get invested in the relationship (Oh, it's a yuri relationship, those are always magical and perfect.)  But, if a series uses a storytelling element that the viewer doesn't like, whatever I type here probably won't help.  Here's some of my own of heresy:  I can't stand Noir, don't like Cowboy Bebop very much, and despite being possibly the biggest Macross fanboy in the universe, never finished Macross F because I thought the first three episodes were terrible.)

Posted by: Ben at May 30, 2015 09:15 AM (S4UJw)

17 I don't know why they threw this dark moment into a happy series.

I think it's clearly a matter of interpretation.  I didn't see it as dark, or creepy, or anything like that.  I saw it as banter between two people on the verge of becoming close friends.  You're choosing to read into a show something that almost certainly isn't actually there.

Why is that?

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18 We provide Healing services <a href="https://purespiritualhealing.com/lama-fera-benefits-healing-technique">Lama Fera Healing</a>

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A glorious day broke over the Principality, greeting the twenty stars of the F1 Circus as they formed on the grid.  Would the weather stay that way, or would there be rain?  Would the Silver Arrow of polesitter Lewis Hamilton lead the way to victory?  Could his teammate Nico Rosberg earn his third win on the narrow streets?  Or would someone like Ferrari's Seb Vettel or Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo take the win on the shortest circuit on the Formula 1 calendar?  THIS is your F1 Update! for the 2015 Grand Prix of Monaco!

*PREDICTABLE:  When the lights went out and the race began, it went exactly the way everybody expected, with Lewis Hamilton handily beating the rest of the field to Turn 1 and pulling away.  Here at F1U! HQ, eyes rolled like billiard balls on a ship in the North Atlantic... we knew what was about to happen.  And we were mostly right.

*AND OFF HE GOES:  While Rosberg, Vettel and a surprising Daniil Kyvat watched in horror, Hamilton went galloping off over the horizon.  By the end of three laps, he was over two seconds ahead of his teammate.  At a circuit like Monaco, this is as close to insurmountable without technical failure or accident as its possible to get.  The race was going to be for second... and even that seemed to have been locked in place as well.  So, third then?  Nope, Vettel looked to have that nailed down, too.  So, Red Bull fighting amongst themselves for fourth, swell, that's something to look forward to.

*SURE ENOUGH:  Occasionally Monaco will cough up a dramatic race... 2014, for example, when Jules Bianchi earned the points that wound up allowing Marussia/Manor to survive to race in 2015, and hostilities between Rosberg and Hamilton became obvious for the first time.  Usually it requires rain, but that wasn't happening this year... and neither was "a dramatic race."  When the first (and only expected) pitstops cycled through, there had been no major changes: Hamilton led Rosberg by ten seconds, and there was no chance that he was going to be caught.  Vettel was about two seconds behind Rosberg, but there was another 10 second gap back to Ricciardo.  We here at F1U! could be excused for occasionally stopping the DVR and flipping over to watch the Indy 500 (and congratulations to former F1 driver Juan Pablo "The Pope" Montoya for his record-breaking win!  He became the driver with the longest gap between Indy 500 victories, 15 years).  By Lap 60, Hamilton held a 19 second lead over his teammate.

*LEARNER'S PERMIT DENIED:  Toro Rosso's Embryo Verstappen was having himself quite the day.  The 17-year-old's first appearance at the Principality was looking to be triumphant, with a great chance to earn points.  He'd worked himself into 11th place and had the Lotus of Lettuce Grosjean in his sights.  After a lap or two of fencing and dicing, he was close enough to make a move.  On Lap 64, he came down the front straight, tailing the Lotus, then as they approached Ste Devote, he slashed to the inside of the Frenchman... just a moment too late.  His front-left suspension turned itself into carbon fiber flinders on Grosjean's right-rear.  The Toro Rosso, suddenly lacking in front-end grip, speared directly into the Tecpro barriers at Turn 1 in as hard an impact as we've seen in some time.  Fortunately, the youngster was unharmed... but the race was completely changed.

*...THE HELL???:  Berndt Maylander, dozing in the front seat of the Safety Car, was woken up and sent on his way.  A number of teams took advantage of the reduced pace of the race to bring their drivers in for a last minute change to the super-soft Option tires, in preparation for a full-blown balls-to-the-wall divebomb run to improve their positions.  Jenson Button, Felipe Not Nasr Massa, Felipe not Massa Nasr, Sergio Perez all came in, as did Daniel Ricciardo in a last-gasp attempt to move onto the podium; he dropped behind his teammate Kyvat in the process.  Mind you, this is on the single track in Formula 1 where it is almost entirely impossible to pass unless you have a ridiculous speed advantage (and sometimes not even then).

*...THE DOUBLE BLOODY HELL???:  All of which made the next occurrence even more confusing.  Lewis Hamilton, who had lead the entire race handily and was able to make his car practically impassable on wide circuits let alone Monaco, brought his car into the pit lane for new tires.  The entire F1U! crew sat there, jaws on the floor, as the team slapped new boots on the Mercedes and set him back out.  He rejoined the race in third place, behind Rosberg and Vettel.  On Lap 70, the race restarted.

*W... T... F...???:  Rosberg immediately ran away from everybody else, building a two second lead in just a single lap.  Hamilton danced and darted around behind the Ferrari of Vettel, but was totally unable to mount a serious challenge.  Meanwhile, Red Bull told Kid Kyvat to let his teammate Ricciardo past; he was on fresh super-soft tires and could potentially make a move on Hamilton for the podium.  Meanwhile, every F1 announcer on the planet tried to make sense of Mercedes' strategy... and couldn't.  A radio call from Hamilton quickly told the story: "I've lost the race, haven't I?"  As it turned out, the answer was yes.  Ricciardo, unable to catch Hamilton, slowed to let his teammate past for fourth, but otherwise the podium remained the same: Hamilton in third, Vettel in second, and Nico Rosberg was the recipient of a gift victory, his third in a row at Monaco.

*AFTER:  Hamilton seemed right on the edge of doing something unseemly after the race.  He pulled his car over at Portier during the cool-down lap and just sat there for a very long time, like he was contemplating switching off and walking to the apartment he keeps that's a short distance from the track.  He then brought his car to the designated podium spot, just in front of the Prince's Box, and ran over his third-place position panel.  Then came the podium ceremony, where his handshake with his teammate was... um... perfunctory at best.  Then he decided not to show up for the post-race team photograph.  In various interviews afterwards, he seemed calm... not "I'm relaxed" calm, but "I'm about to murder you and your family" calm.  Meanwhile, the team apologized to Hamilton for the call, saying that they made a timing mistake.  They believed that they'd be able to bring him in, change the tires, and get him out before Rosberg went by; they were off by about five seconds.  Team Principal Toto Wolff said that it was done to defend against Vettel changing onto the super-softs, but that inadequate timing information made the decision for them.  See, usually timing is confirmed via GPS locating, but the buildings and tunnels of Monaco prevent GPS from being used.  Thus, the team screwed up their calculations.  Why Hamilton didn't object or ignore the instructions, or nobody pointed out that it's nigh-on impossible to pass at Monaco, will forever remain a mystery.

*SELECTED DRIVER QUOTES OF THE RACE:

"What the... really?  Really?  Hahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahaha*snerk*hahahahahaha!" - Nico Rosberg

"Remember Multi 21?  I do." - Seb Vettel

"I'm a champion.  I need to act like one.  After I butcher the pit wall in their sleep." - Lewis Hamilton

The Grand Prix of Canada is the next stop on the European leg of the calendar (wha?) in two weeks... we'll see you there and then!

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After the rain washed out the majority of Free Practice 2 on Thursday, eyes were cocked askance at the lowering skies above the Monaco harbor.  Would we get a wet Qual session at the most ridiculous circuit on the calendar?  Let's take a look at the provisional grid for the 2015 Grand Prix of Monaco:

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"In the end, Asuka always ends up on my mind."
-President of the band club

-Hibike! Euphonium, Ep07

A remarkably Asuka-centric episode.  "Remarkable" mainly because she barely says anything, and nothing at all to any of the main characters in a non-ensemble setting.  However, the truth is that she was the focal point.

The Goofy part of her was completely missing this time around, but her screen time was actually quite limited.  However, almost every conversation somehow became about her... and not always in a positive light.  There's an undercurrent amongst the first-year members of the band that she's too perfect, that it's all a put-on, and one can't tell where the REAL Asuka is as a result.

It doesn't appear that the upperclassmen feel the same way.  However, many of them feel something even more stinging about her: that she let the band down.  We finally discovered why there's such a dearth of second-year students in the band club, and it's about what you would expect: a group of them were more interested in socializing than playing.  However, there was a group that DID want to play seriously, and conflict inevitably resulted.  People looked to Asuka to solve the conundrum and... she didn't.  She played neutral to the whole thing, as well as turning down the position of  President.  According to one of the officers of the band club, Asuka thought it out and realized that she couldn't succeed as the President with the club in the condition it was in.

That puts a completely different spin on her "master facilitator" persona, one that's not so flattering when mixed with the fake/phony appellation.  And yet, we still don't really know the TRUE "cute goofball"... we just know what other members of the band think of her.  Big difference there, but it was a fascinating character study cleverly done.  I have hope that next week we'll actually find out more.

Because this one image teases so much about her.  We've seen a few bedrooms over the course of this show, and none of them have been so empty, so sparse, so... lonely.  You'd expect the room to be a riot of color and action and noise, given the "Goofy Cute" that resides in it, but... no.  I fear what this means about her backstory.

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-Shokugeki no Soma, Ep04
Click "more" for... the rest of the story!

more...

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Ahhhhh, Monaco.  The place Formula 1 likes to imagine every race is like.  The glitz, the glamor, the champagne, the megayachts in the harbor, the casino, the women, the money.  For some reason, I can't imagine Spielberg, Austria, or Mexico City, or Spa-Francopants, or even Austin, Texas being the center of glitz and glamor (though Austin's the center of Weird).  But that's fine.  The sport can have its delusions because at least once a year, they're real.  This weekend the F1 Circus makes its way to the Principality for the 2015 Grand Prix of Monaco.  Let's take a look at the track map, shall we?

Essentially unchanged since the addition of the Nouvelle Chicane (Turns 10/11) in 1986, though there was a minor reprofiling of the Swimming Pool (Turns 13-16) in 1997, Monaco is the slowest circuit on the calendar.  It's also the narrowest, has both the slowest (The Hairpin) and one of the fastest turns (Turn 9, the Tunnel) on the calendar, and is the only place on the calendar with a measurable risk of drivers ending up in the water.  There's no "straight" here, just less curvy areas, and I'm fairly sure that the stretch from the end of the Nouvelle Chicane to Turn 17 is flat... the rest is uphill, downhill or seemingly both at the same time (the exit to the tunnel loses altitude except for a car-length-sized bump uphill).  It takes about six weeks to construct the circuit by putting up the armco barriers, safety fencing, bleachers, activating the pit lane, bolting the curbs into place, welding the drain covers down, that sort of stuff.

Just as the Monaco Grand Prix is different from other races in many ways, so too is the race weekend for Monaco.  Instead of Friday-Saturday-Sunday, instead we have Thursday-Saturday-Sunday.  Such arrangement allows the billionaires to return from their jobs in Switzerland or England on Friday... or not, as the case may be.  It's also one of the few that we here in the US get to see on one of the "Big Three" networks!  Here's the broadcast schedule:
Thursday
7a - 830a: Practice 2 on NBCSN live
Saturday
7a - 830a: Quals on NBCSN live
Sunday
630a - 9a: 2015 Grand Prix of Monaco, live on NBC
As always, all times are Pond Central; check your local listings.  Post no bills.

This is also Memorial Day weekend, meaning that Sunday is the Racing Fan's National Holiday as well.  We get Monaco in the morning, the Indy 500 in the early afternoon, and the Coca-Cola 600 in the late afternoon/early evening.  That's a lot of racing, and no, I'm not gonna try it this year.  The open-wheel races, yes, but NASCAR I'll be happy if I get to catch the end.  It's a busy weekend, but a fun one!  See ya 'round, racefans!

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1

When I was a kid and thought about F1, I always thought it was about street courses. Now, of course, it ain't true; there are a few but most races are on purpose-built courses. But there are some, and the idea of doing 150 on city streets has it's attractions...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 18, 2015 06:44 PM (+rSRq)

2 Steven, your comment got me wondering... just how many street circuits were there while you were growing up?

It turns out that, using the very loosest restrictions on the term "street circuit" as a guide, there were only five, plus one special case... and in the late '50s/early '60s, it seems weird to think that people would have thought of them in any way similar to our destination this week!

There was the Ain-Diab circuit.  Looping through and outside of Casablanca, it was only used for two F1 races.  It was a non-points paying race in 1957, and was the final race of the 1958 season.

The original Circuit de Spa-Francopants in Belgium formed a rough triangle between the three villages of Malmedy, Stavelot and Francorchamps.  Nearly 15km long, it was run on public roads and indeed passed through these small towns.  It has been in use in one form or another since the 1920s.

The Pedralbes Circuit ran through a suburb of Barcalounger, Spain.  It was the site of the Spanish Grand Prix in 1951 and 1954, and was retired for safety reasons after the LeMans disaster in 1955.

In 1958 and 1960, the Circuito da Boavista in Oporto, was the site of the Portugese Grand Prix.  It ran over cobblestone streets, crossed light rail tracks, and through residential neighborhoods.

Then, the special case: the Circuit de la Sarthe in France, home of the 24 Hours of LeMans.  Like Spa-Francopants, it ran from the villages of LeMans to Mulsanne to Arnage and back, all on public roads.  While not a F1 race, it is a legendary track all its own.

None of these would have been as glamorous as Monaco, I wouldn't think, save for LeMans.  Chances are, a young SDB might not have ever heard of them.  But Monaco is the face Formula 1 presents to the world, particularly back then.  Indeed, here in the US, the only F1 race we would have seen regularly was the Grand Prix of Monaco, via ABC's Wide World of Sports program.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 18, 2015 11:30 PM (jGQR+)

3 When I was a kid, I had this beautiful Corgi black open wheel racer, the "John Player Special". I have no idea what happened to it. But for some reason the F1 posts occasionally make me think of it. I have no idea what the history of it is though, or why Corgi made one.

But it was one sweet toy car.

Posted by: Mauser at May 19, 2015 02:36 AM (TJ7ih)

4 Mauser, we BOTH had that one.  It was the Lotus 72D of Emerson Fittipaldi.  He won the WDC in 1972, y'see...

I had a few Corgi cars from around that time... that was the most memorable, though.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 19, 2015 03:26 AM (jGQR+)

5

Indeed, here in the US, the only F1 race we would have seen regularly was the Grand Prix of Monaco, via ABC's Wide World of Sports program.

That's probably why I have that impression.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 19, 2015 08:33 AM (+rSRq)

6 Also, F1 played up the glitz and glamor of Monaco as much as it could.  Not to say there weren't other places that were glamorous... I mean, Rio was on the calendar... but Monaco was the face F1 presented to the world whenever it could.

Still do, actually.  There's very little glitz to Hungary or Sochi, for example.  The idea of glamor doesn't exist when you're camping in a muddy field at Silverstone or there aren't enough portaloos at Spa.  Other than the Opera House in Sydney, one doesn't much think of glamor and Australia together (no offense, Pixy!).

But almost any TV commercial you see for F1 will have a shot or two of Monaco in it, no matter where the race is.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 19, 2015 09:06 AM (jGQR+)

7 On one hand, you would think F1 would take a lesson from their own advertising:  this is what people want to see.  On the other hand, I doubt there's anything they can actually do about it.  Street circuits are, I would bet, inherently more dangerous than more-modern purpose-built tracks...although you would think F1 would at least *try* to make the tracks a bit more interesting.

Posted by: Ben at May 19, 2015 09:23 AM (S4UJw)

8 ...you would think F1 would at least *try* to make the tracks a bit more interesting.

Alas, "interesting" and "safe" are usually diametrically opposed to each other.  If Monaco didn't have history behind it, the sport wouldn't race there.  If someone proposed a similar race in, oh, Gstaad, they'd be laughed out of the room.

Maybe Miami.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 19, 2015 01:34 PM (jGQR+)

9 Maybe Miami.

Oooooooooooooooohhhhhhh.  That would be *awesome*.

Posted by: Ben at May 19, 2015 01:47 PM (S4UJw)

10 >If someone proposed a similar race in, oh, Gstaad, they'd be laughed out of the room.

Not least because motorsport has been banned in Switzerland since 1955!  Though I understand they're making an exception specifically for Formula E.

Posted by: flatdarkmars at May 19, 2015 04:56 PM (lnEp2)

11 ...motorsport has been banned in Switzerland since 1955!

You think I'd remember that from all the times they mentioned it on Top Punch Gear.

...they're making an exception specifically for Formula E.

Have you seen a Formula E race?  They're not making any exception at all.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 19, 2015 08:29 PM (jGQR+)

12 That's the car!

Now if I knew what happened to it....

(My buddy Mitch has the Corgi Spectrum SPV. Now that's a find!)

Posted by: Mauser at May 20, 2015 02:26 AM (TJ7ih)

13 Mauser, I had like 10 Corgi cars growing up.  Half were F1 or Indy cars, the rest were unremembered... except for one.

The Aston-Martin DB5 as driven by James Bond. 

Here's the thing... I was young.  I remember playing with them before I moved to Duckford, so... six years old?  Around there, surely. 

It seems fitting, somehow, that I can remember many of the Corgi cars I owned 40 years ago, but most of childhood before high school is a sad blur.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 20, 2015 09:29 AM (jGQR+)

14 Depending on what you mean by street, surely the Nurburgring is/was a "public road" of some kind at some point? And used for F1 in the past? Though obviously lacking in urban bits.

Posted by: AlanL at May 20, 2015 04:21 PM (Ic3bA)

15 AlanL, the Nurburgring was a purpose-built race circuit, specifically to get away from racing on public roads.  It's about as non-street-circuit-y as it's possible to get.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 20, 2015 04:31 PM (jGQR+)

16 The Nurburgring certainly is a purpose-built race track, and it certainly is very unlike the typical street circuit.  However, the pedantic bastard in me cannot let this conversation pass without observing that the Nurburgring is also operated as a public toll road, open to all comers who want to turn a lap.  So AlanL is also correct that it is, indeed, a public road.

Posted by: flatdarkmars at May 20, 2015 05:33 PM (lnEp2)

17 FDM, that's not what he was saying and you know it.

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 20, 2015 10:13 PM (jGQR+)

18 Well, yes and no. I was aware of the public being allowed in, as witness many hilarious videos of people with enough money to buy M-series BMWs and GT-series 911s but not enough skill to actually drive them. 
But I also had some sort of vague notion that it was a conversion of a pre-existing country road and not a purpose build race track - which I now know is not the case. 

Posted by: AlanL at May 21, 2015 01:08 PM (XGUPV)

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Because I haven't seen very many good AMVs for Kantai Collection, here's a mostly good one.

I say mostly because it suffers from the same problem the source song does: it's about a minute too long.  Still, up to that point a fun time is had by all. 

Or by me.  One of the two.

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We lost one of the true legends of the music industry today.  BB King, best known as "The King Of The Blues", passed away at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 89.

Mentor to other guitar heroes like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Buddy Guy, he also inspired countless number of blues performers and fans worldwide.  Like many rock fans my age, I was introduced to him via the band U2, who featured him on the Rattle & Hum song "When Love Comes To Town," which they wrote specifically for him.

More recently, he hit the radio waves once again with his collaboration with Eric Clapton, "Riding With The King."

As it turned out, BB King hated to sing while playing Lucille, his guitar, so he had a unique call-and-response style to his songs.  That's clearly heard in "The Thrill Is Gone," of course, but I'm fond of the tribute song he wrote for his guitar as well.

More than that, he had a distinctive sound to his playing, in a way that almost no other guitarist did.  Silky smooth but with a hint of dirt to it.  Drop him in a group of guitarists, and you'll always be able to tell which was him.

For music fans of all genres, the loss of BB King is immense.  He will definitely be missed around The Pond, and around the world.

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That just says it all, doesn't it?

I'm sorry.  I'm trying, I really am. 

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-Hibike! Euphonium, Ep06

We saw both sides of Our Goofy Adoration this week.  The stern but fair taskmaster alternately teaching and berating the newby tuba player when she was on the verge of goofing off...

...and showing that she's got the chops to back up her assertions in addition to being cute and goofy.  She's clearly serious about this whole music thing, despite not being interested in running the band club.

When handed a new piece of music for auditions, she looks at it for a moment, then plays through it smoothly, error-free, and at tempo.  Meanwhile, the main character of the show, who has played the same instrument for seven years, is clearly uncomfortable with playing, tentative and slow.  While the rest of the series spins around her, Asuka is proving to be the person I want to know more about.  Sure, Kumiko, Hazuki, Sapphire and Reina are the main characters, and their relationships are intriguing, and the show is hitting on all cylinders, but I'll be darned if Asuka doesn't steal every scene she's in.  There's something about her, above and beyond the goofy cute, that makes her interesting.  She's not a main character, but she's making a good argument to be one.

It's clear there's more than 13 episodes in the story of Hibike! Euphonium.  I'm hoping a second season will be announced quickly, and that one of the episodes is Asuka-centric.  I want to know her backstory... for all that I've adopted her as a motif to talk about the series, we really don't know much about her.

I have a feeling there's more to it than we think.

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