5. Rafael Nadal withdrew on Friday, May 27th, with a wrist injury. This fell his quest for his tenth French Open. On the heels of Federer’s absence from this tournament, fans are reeling from the rapidly changing face of the ATP. These departures have buoyed Richard Gasquet. He demolished Kyrigios … Continue reading French Open Week 1: Top 5 Tennis Moments
During this age of prestige television there are a lot of great shows available. FoMO, fear of missing out, leads to Series Fatigue. This ailment is seen globally but cases are at epidemic rates in Europe and North America. Its symptoms include vitamin D deficiency from marathon viewing, sleep deprivation/insomnia, weight gain, poor job performance and neglected family and friends. In severe cases, job and home loss has been noted… Is this disease real yet? LOL! (more…)
When I was twelve I hated going to school. The only day I found tolerable was Wednesday. On this glorious day I got to leave school to alternatively, volunteer at the nursing home or attend religious classes. Unsurprisingly, the church’s school was not a place … Continue reading Music Blessings?
I only remember being on a tennis court once as a child. Spending the summer in California, my God-sister and her friends took me to the tennis courts. After watching for some time I took the racket attempting to serve for the first time. I … Continue reading Why I Love Tennis
Many of our tennis favorites are nearing the end of their careers, voluntarily or not. When they leave the court, they may totally disappear from public life. However, they will likely launch into a second career at the tender age of somewhere near forty if the tennis gods were good to them.
So what do you see these tennis players doing after they retire. (more…)
Unmuting tennis commentators can be as dangerous as reading trite tennis writers. Their goal is completion, match and deadline, not the museum of thought. Their prose can’t be mistaken for poetry. They traffic in dreaded clichés, tropes and narratives, delivering formaldehyde to our collective sport brain. We have … Continue reading Clichés, Tropes and Narratives Oh My!
The TV mothers of my childhood are ever-present. They too are part of the language I speak. Their stories are part of my memory: Lucy Ricardo (I Love Lucy, 1951), Carol Brady (The Brady Bunch, 1969), Olivia Walton (The Waltons, 1971), Edith Bunker (All in the Family, 1971), Florida Evans (Good Times, 1974), Louise Jefferson (The Jeffersons, 1975), and Clair Huxtable (The Cosby Show, 1984). I liked these mothers, but I was critical of them. They were not real. Their perfectly imagined lives were fun escapism. They were an extension of my schooling, my American indoctrination. The mothers in children’s stories and by extension TV, film, music and literature are idealized. They are nurtures, teachers, protectors. These TV mothers showed me what Wendy Darling told the Lost Boys in Peter Pan. (more…)
The Gregorian Calendar or rather the commercialization of it, reminds some and forces others, to offer gratitude, confront difficult truths or mourn mothers on the second Sunday of May.
Bud Collins is the father of tennis journalism; Sports Illustrated described him as the tennis historian and the American voice of the sport in print and on TV for decades. With his passing on March 4, 2016, it is unlikely that we will ever have a … Continue reading Unmuting Tennis Commentators
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