So yeah I guess we have snow0

So we have a blizzard here in Seattle

The Dream Fight

Tonight is the big fight: Pacquiao-De La Hoya in Las Vegas. I am watching it over at a friends house. I will be rooting for Pacquiao of course but I don't think he will win. Ok, ok I take that back. I don't think it is likely that he will win, but the great variable is Oscar De La Hoya.

I've watched matches of De La Hoya since the mid-90s, and he is above everything an extremely technical and accurate boxer. He seems to excel at destroying an opponents' defense and picking apart someone until they have nothing left. I have seen it time and time again that when De La Hoya is focused and determined there is nothing that can stop him. However, I have seen several fights where either he is uncomfortable or not aggressive enough. In the past few years, the invincibility of the Golden Boy has definitely faded. He reminds me of another technical fighter that was prone to lapses in ability, Lennox Lewis. Lewis, boxing fans will remember, was knocked out by a relative unknown, Hassan Rahman. He had a tendency to be either overconfident or to look past his opponent. I feel that De La Hoya has that same tendency.

Pacquiao will be who Pacquiao is: aggressive, fast, and relentless. He has certainly improved a lot over the last 10 fights, but he was extremely raw when he debuted on the worldwide stage. It almost seemed that he has no style and no strategy. His strategy was to hit the other guy a lot of times; tactics be damned. Recently though, he is starting to really become scary. His trainer, Freddie Roach, has taught him to tone down his attacks, maneuver better, throw combinations. Pacquiao's wild style, the tornado of punches is a bit more restrained. I think he still takes way too many punches, but you have to respect his bravery and relentless push. The one thing that Pacquiao knows is how to take a punch.

De La Hoya has the reach, the weight, the pedigree, and even the technical skills. The smart money is on the Golden Boy, and his experience....Ugh, forget what I am saying. I absolutely can't stand De La Hoya. His preening, his overconfidence, his Hilary Clinton-like ability to be completely disingenuous. Pacquiao is my guy. I've loved his career since the beginning. His battles with Erik Morales and Barrera were epic. Heck, I'd love this boxer even if I weren't Filipino. Pacquiao in 8 rounds.

The great thing about Pacquiao is that he has the same tenacity that the great ones like Jack Dempsey and Joe Frazier had. He really is relentless. He keeps coming and coming. I wonder sometimes how long his career will be as his ages slows down the speed and fury that he has now. As I stated before he really can take a punch. If you ever watch a highlight video on Youtube, you'll see a lot of devastating punches the he inflicts and absorbs. I think the fight tonight will be decided in the first two rounds. It won't end in two rounds but the first time Pacquiao shrugs off a lethal De La Hoya patented left hook, the Golden boy will realize that this is no ordinary fighter. One would have to drive a Kenworth truck straight through Pacquiao's defense to knock him down, and even then he will still keep coming. If the fight evolves to a street fight and De La Hoya gets away from the technical aspect, it will be Pacquiao's night to lose.

The biggest question mark will be whether or not Pacquiao's power will come with him as he moves up in weight. As demonstrated in the David Diaz fight, the power is still there at 135 lbs. Diaz's dismantling at the hands of the Mexicutioner (Pacquiao's awesome nickname) was a sight to behold. It is hard to imagine that this is the same fighter that started his career at 106 lbs. His power and speed has consistently followed him throughout his career. When Pacquiao's furious combination hits De La Hoya for the first time, take note of the Golden Boy's reaction. If he backs down and is staggered, Pacquiao will be victorious. De La Hoya doesn't like getting hurt and is not a brawler. He will back down.

I really do feel sorry for De La Hoya because he has everything to lose and nothing to gain in this fight. If he wins, the public will remark that he essentially beat a smaller fighter. If he loses, his legeacy will be tarnished and his reputation for being soft and delicate solidified. If Pacquiao wins, the sky is the limit. We will become the face of boxing and it will be momentuous night in the history of the sweet science.

Blade Runner

I finally saw my first Blu-Ray movie today, and I watched the immortal classic Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford. I know it is kind of weird to consider Blade Runner a "classic", but the movie was made in 1984 and is 26 years old.

(For the folks that don't know what a Blu-ray disc is, it is essentially a DVD in high definition.)

The Blu-Ray version is like watching a completely new movie. The high-definition makes Blade Runner look like something that was released this past summer. The special effects, which in 1982, were ahead of its time, still holds up, even in the face of the plethora of big budget CGI movies. I have only seen the movie on various VHS tapes and cable showings, so I have never experienced it so clear and crisp. I wonder if even the original showings in the theaters looked like this.

Blade Runner takes place in 2019 Los Angeles where mankind has built androids that replicate human features but are more capable in doing manual labor. They are called replicants, and are built with only a 4 year lifespan to keep their numbers smaller. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a type of detective that specializes in hunting down rogue replicants. He is a Blade Runner. On Wikipedia, part of the concept is attributed to the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick. Other adaptations of his work include Total Recall (great), Minority Report (awesome), and Next (terrible).

The replicants have developed their own emotions and are trying to extend their own life. During the movie, I actually felt sorry for the replicants as their are slowly gunned down by Deckard. Their own memories are impants and artificial so they feel that they down have their own identity. The movie calls to mind the common Sci-Fi theme of "what is real?" and "what makes us human?".

What makes this movie an absolute classic is the setting and atmosphere. It seems to be an essentially crime-noir genre film set in the future with androids. If that doesn't sound completely awesome, then I don't know what to say. Harrison Ford retains the charisma from Han Solo and makes Deckard an even more distant and cold version of himself. What you'll notice when watching this movie is that a lot of things in future Los Angeles is in Japanese. Remember that the movie was made in the early 1980s when America was fearing a global Japanese takeover, which obviously didn't pan out. I wonder if Blade Runner was made today if everyone would be speaking Chinese (ala Firefly).

My favorite special effect shot is when Deckard is waiting in his car, doing what crime-noir detectives do (evoking pathos). Suddenly, there is a police car that zooms from up above (in the future we have flying cars), and instructs him that he is in a restricted zone. Harrison Ford identifies himself as a Blade Runner and the policeman acknowledges and flies away. The car flying away let an indeliable image in my mind when I was a child. I actually believe that cars could do they, and my drawings were filled with numerous flying cars that operated in the same way.

The city of Blade Runner greatly inspired my imagination. Whenever I read a book or thought of my image of a futuristic city, I immediately thought of Blade Runner. It is weird, being the immense Star Wars geek that I am, I do not dream of Mos Eisley or Cloud City, but instead I wonder about living in the nitty gritty Los Angeles of 2019.