Sept. 9, 2009

Beatlemania:

The Beatles invade another generation four decades after the band broke up.

The release Wednesday of The Beatles: Rock Band video game and of sets of remastered albums promises to return the Beatles, arguably the most influential musical act of the Rock Era, to a new place in a new audience.

The New York Times Sunday ran a pair of enthusiastic reviews of both products, with Rock Band predicted to bring together two generations linked by video game console and attempts to play the 45 songs included with the game. Web sites that specialize in covering video gaming have given the game high marks.

The release of the Beatles library has also grabbed attention. The albums were released in the 1980s in the compact disc format but the versions out Wednesday are said to be cleaner digitally, giving older and younger fans a better listen to the nuances of the Beatles' -- and producer George Martin's -- musical abilities.

Rock Band lists for about $60 (for the base software; peripherals will add to the cost) and the Beatles' remastered boxed sets go for about $260 for the stereo version and nearly $300 for the Beatles in Mono limited release, so the Fab Four may prove to be an economic stimulus package unto itself.

Obama goes to Congress:

U.S. President Barack Obama accepted an invitation from the leaders of both houses of Congress to address them and the nation on healthcare reform.

Obama, in a prime-time appearance Wednesday evening, is expected to offer details on what he'd like to see in a reform package but the amount of specificity and whether he'll set a deadline for passage is unknown.

What can be predicted is the evoking of U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died last month and who had made healthcare reform his personal cause. The key words will be "public option" and who is able to define that term in the minds of the populace.

Obama will need to thread the performance needle ending up between his more provocative speech Monday to a supportive group in which he decried the "lies" those opposed to some aspects of reform have used in arguments and the apolitical pep talk he gave to students Tuesday.

He'll need to keep his base happy -- members of that group will grouse but follow whatever he says anyway -- while trying to win over a skeptical U.S. public and Republicans.

Members of that last group will be the toughest sell and it is questionable, given Democratic majorities in Congress, just how much he'll need them. He doesn't need their votes to pass reform but he'll need them to not completely derail reform when speaking to the general population.

Afghan vote:

Afghan President Hamid Karzai may have avoided a runoff in his election to a second term but whether the vote was completely legitimate is still in question.

Election officials said Karzai has about 54 percent of the vote, nearly double the 28 percent of former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. A candidate needed more than 50 percent of the vote or an automatic runoff scenario would have been triggered. Officials said the vote of about 92 percent of voting locations has been completed.

However, because there are about 600 complaints of vote fraud that are considered serious -- and thousands of others -- it may be the end of the month before final results of the Aug. 20 vote are announced.

At issue are precincts where votes in the ballot boxes represented a 95 percent turnout. In some cases the number of ballots exceeded 100 percent participation. While figures are, obviously, unreliable, it is thought that voting participation across Afghanistan was about 40 percent.

Reporter rescued:

A New York Times reporter captured by the Taliban Saturday was rescued in a predawn raid by U.K. commandos. Four people died in the operation.

Stephen Farrell and interpreter Sultan Munadi were grabbed by Taliban members in northern Afghanistan where the journalists were reporting on the NATO airstrike on commandeered fuel tankers. Nearly 100 people were killed when the tankers were attacked.

Farrell called his editors in New York and said: "I'm out! I'm free!" the Times reported. Farrell said "lots" of soldiers were involved in his release.

Munadi, two civilians and a commando were reported killed in the operation.

9-9-09:

Wednesday marks the ninth day of the ninth month of 2009 -- 9-9-09.

While not as auspicious as Aug. 8, 2008 -- 8-8-08 -- the day is seen to have special significance. The Chinese, for example, see nine as the second-best number luck-wise (to eight) and claim nine means long life. In Japan, however, nine is seen as a bad omen with the Japanese language "nine" sounding like the word for "suffering."

In the United States, 9-9-09 has turned out to be a marketing milestone. In addition to the Beatles' reemergence (see above), there is a film "9," an animated post-apocalyptic tale, being released Wednesday; and Apple has one of its dramatic product rollouts scheduled.

And, of course, 999 is the upside down version of 666. The day has to be good just for that. But others say it could mark the end.

Numerologist Pauline Rose told The Daily Mail, "Nine is the number of completion so hopefully more positive things will start to happen."

As with all such oracle pronouncements that could be read more than one way. Please note that Earth survived June 6, 2006 -- 6-6-06.