I'm a writer, publishing both as SJ Rozan and, with Carlos Dews, as Sam Cabot. (I'm Sam, he's Cabot.) Here you can find links to my almost-daily blog posts, including the Saturday haiku I've been doing for years. BUT the blog itself has moved to my website. If you go on over there you can subscribe and you'll never miss a post. (Miss a post! A scary thought!) Also, I'll be teaching a writing workshop in Italy this summer -- come join us!
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I can't believe I'm addicted to this
For the third night in a row I'm sitting in front of the TV watching Ninja Warrior. You know this thing? I didn't either, but I was channel surfing the other night -- a rare occurrence in itself, but sheesh, they took off 77 Sunset Strip and didn't tell me -- and came upon what I thought was going to be anime. But no.
Ninja Warrior is a four-stage competition that pits challengers against obstacles at "Mt. Midoriyama," which I presume is like saying "Coors Field." At each running of the event -- twice a year, I think -- a hundred competitors attack the course. The Japanese announcer is hilarious; I don't speak Japanese, but there are subtitles that have him saying things like, "He's lost his hat! His hat took a fall for him!" and "He clambers down the ropes hand over hand! Just like our ancestors must have climbed out of the trees!" The English-speaking commentator is pretty funny, too. And the the competitors are pretty good-natured as the fail on the Quintuple Step, the Rolling Log, the Big Boulder, the Jump Hang, or the Warped Wall and fall in the muddy water.
And that's just the first stage. Very rarely do more than ten competitors make it to the second stage, and only one man in what I think is ten years has ever finished the fourth stage to complete the course and become NINJA WARRIOR. (You have to say that with the echo-chamber effect.) Which doesn't stop Japan's best amateur athletes of both sexes -- including "Japan's Toughest Transsexual," who's competed a couple of times -- from trying.
But in the end, all the funny stuff is just the trimmings. The real thrill is the same as watching the Olympics. You know the course, and your heart's in your throat as you watch each competitor make it or miss it by thiiiiiiiis much. The obstacles are a little over the top but it takes genuine strength and athleticism to conquer them. And the best part is, the athletes are competing against the course, not against each other. They can root for each other because if more than one were to make it in any given cycle, there'd be two, or three, or however many, NINJA WARRIORS, and that would be great.
This addictive show is on channel 105 at 10pm weeknights on Manhattan Time-Warner Cable. Other places, I don't know, but it's G4TV, which is largely a geek-and-gamer channel. You might, if you were interested, be able to find out how to watch it at G4TV.com.
But you've been warned.
Ninja Warrior is a four-stage competition that pits challengers against obstacles at "Mt. Midoriyama," which I presume is like saying "Coors Field." At each running of the event -- twice a year, I think -- a hundred competitors attack the course. The Japanese announcer is hilarious; I don't speak Japanese, but there are subtitles that have him saying things like, "He's lost his hat! His hat took a fall for him!" and "He clambers down the ropes hand over hand! Just like our ancestors must have climbed out of the trees!" The English-speaking commentator is pretty funny, too. And the the competitors are pretty good-natured as the fail on the Quintuple Step, the Rolling Log, the Big Boulder, the Jump Hang, or the Warped Wall and fall in the muddy water.
And that's just the first stage. Very rarely do more than ten competitors make it to the second stage, and only one man in what I think is ten years has ever finished the fourth stage to complete the course and become NINJA WARRIOR. (You have to say that with the echo-chamber effect.) Which doesn't stop Japan's best amateur athletes of both sexes -- including "Japan's Toughest Transsexual," who's competed a couple of times -- from trying.
But in the end, all the funny stuff is just the trimmings. The real thrill is the same as watching the Olympics. You know the course, and your heart's in your throat as you watch each competitor make it or miss it by thiiiiiiiis much. The obstacles are a little over the top but it takes genuine strength and athleticism to conquer them. And the best part is, the athletes are competing against the course, not against each other. They can root for each other because if more than one were to make it in any given cycle, there'd be two, or three, or however many, NINJA WARRIORS, and that would be great.
This addictive show is on channel 105 at 10pm weeknights on Manhattan Time-Warner Cable. Other places, I don't know, but it's G4TV, which is largely a geek-and-gamer channel. You might, if you were interested, be able to find out how to watch it at G4TV.com.
But you've been warned.
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