i could but i won’t

Go over the whole Shirley Sherrod fiasco. It was probably the most ridiculous and shameful political display this year. I was hoping that the media would find some more foolishness to latch onto, but nooooo. They have to wring out the last bit of crap like water from a dirty ass rag. Just stop already.

1. We know racism still exists. (Duh!)
2. We know that both The Right and The Left like to stir up the deepest fears of the masses in order to get votes.     The Right : Black People; The Left: Black people who don’t do what they want.
3. Fox News is a propaganda channel. They wouldn’t know real journalism if it came up and kicked them in the  crack of their ass.
4. Somebody’s going to get paid some big bucks from all of this. My guess is Sherrod. “Next on Lifetime, The Shirley Sherrod Story: Slander and Guilt and How I Made it Over!”
5. We’ve got other things to worry about.

So don’t fear. I will not be pontificating about Andrew Breitbart’s assholery. I don’t want to dirty up my blog with that. I’m so over it. I prefer some real outrage over some that’s manufactured.

*drops mic and walks away*

not real time Olympics

It’s Winter Olympics time. All the thrills, spills, and chills. A chance to cheer on the winners and make fun of the losers. So far we’ve seen history made, expectations met, and hope fulfilled.

Too bad it’s not live in most places. If you live on the West Coast like me, you are treated to the utter professionalism of NBC Sports by seeing everything up to three hours later. Thank goodness for Twitter, otherwise it would be damn near midnight PST before you saw Evan Lysecek spin his way to a gold medal. Try to complain to the brass, and all you get is, “You can’t please everybody.” The thing is, nobody’s pleased. Even the people who get to see stuff live have to suffer through commentator prattle, seemingly endless human interest montages, and a billion commercials. Let’s no forget webcast blackouts, and a homepage that leaves much to be desired. All in all, NBC and Dick Ebersol get a big thumbs down.

We now know why the network projected a 400 million dollar loss by broadcasting the games. They’re salty and they are making the viewers pay for it. I say that NBC sports deserve a big “FU” back from us. It’s bad enough they screw up their tennis coverage every year, but now to turn the Winter Olympics into one giant clusterfuck is ridiculous.

Alert to CBS and ABC, if you get a chance to cover the Olympics in the future, look to NBC as a guide for what NOT to do. Now I’m off to twitter to catch the latest Olympic news..LIVE.

Bastids.

hopey mcchange >>>dopey mcsame

If you haven’t heard, the ex-governor of Alaska spoke to Tea Party masses at their 1st ever convention. For $100,000 they were given standard GOP talking points with a lil’ dash of Libertarianism on the side. I guess the pressure was a bit too much for her because she was caught cribbing notes during the Q&A session after the speech.

Huh, making fun of the President for using a teleprompter while putting a black Sharpie to good use on your hand is pretty stupid. But then again, this is Palin we’re talking about here. A politician who will never be in life associated with intellect. But who am I to quibble? If the  Right Wing of the GOP  Tea Party folks like it, I love it.

Give me more of that Hopey McChange. They can keep Dopey McSame and her crib notes.

picture via HuffingtonPost

cooning guido style

The Italian Community in New Jersey is up in arms because MTV has a brand new show called, “Jersey Shore” which showcases a cultural subset who call themselves ”Guidos”. Guidos are dark-skinned (due to excessive tanning),  have wild hair, have their own vernacular, and spend their time partying, drinking, gelling their hair, and wasting time. Something about this sounds familiar but I can’t put my finger on it just yet… But Italians from the Eastern seaboard and beyond are decrying the show for exploiting ethnic Italian stereotypes. They call the show racist. Again, this sounds so friggin’ familiar. Hmmmm. Due to pressure, two advertisers have pulled out. Undaunted MTV decided to run the show anyway.

That isn’t surprising in the least. Who cares about stereotypes when you’re making tons of money? You know that familiar feeling I kept mentioning? It’s the sense of deja vu. MTV and its demonic sister, Vh-1 have been a showcase for black folks to make fools out of themselves. Now I guess it’s time for them to dig up some more old stereotypes in order to offend a whole new audience. It’s not like I’m placing the blame entirely on the networks, they wouldn’t be able to have these shows if there weren’t idiots out there willing to sell themselves out for a little bit of fame and a $5,000.00 honoriarium.

The Guidos in question say that they are just expressing family and ethnic pride. I could go with that to a certain extent. Say like, if there were was some redeeming knowledge in learning how to gel your hair perfectly and say, “Yo”! Let’s just call all this for what it is: Cooning. Cooning always pays. It’s that simple. Even if there was enough outrage to get “Jersey Shore” taken off, what’s to say that the very next week  MTV wouldn’t come up with, “Chinatown Nights” or some other bullshit?

It’s so easy to sell out now it’s not even funny, nor is it entertaining. Flip any channel and you’ll be confronted with the very worst parts of our individual cultures. As long as there are people willing to buck and shine (in Jersey Shore’s case: Oil and Gel), there’s always going to be someone who’s willing to film it. Of course there’s always those willing to watch.

news around the court

• American standout Sam Querry is out for the season after a freak accident in Bangkok, Thailand. Querry was sitting on a glass table and suddenly fell through it, severely cutting his arm.
• Roger Federer is out of the Tokyo Open and the Shanghai Masters. Speculation is that he is having issues with his back, but Federer did not confirm anything in his official withdrawal statement. It’s not known at this time whether or not he will play in the season end championships in London.
• Rafael Nadal after pulling out of the Thailand Open, resumed training this week and hopes to compete in Shanghai. He’s stated that his stomach injury is almost completely healed but he has had to change his service motion in order not to re-aggravate the injury.
• Richard Gasquet received the best news possible. The defamation suit filed against him by “Pamela” has been dismissed and she has been ordered into rehab. Well, well, well.
• Seems like the controversy surrounding Serena Williams’ loss at the U.S. Open hasn’t hurt her as much as the chattering masses thought it would (ha!). She just signed a huge deal with Tampax and will be featured in a new campaign. Can’t say much about the source of the money, but I’m not mad at Miss Serena for getting that cheddar.
• Meanwhile, her sister Venus was one of many seeds to fall in Tokyo this week. A whole bunch of top players bowing out in a meaningless but mandatory tournament is no longer headline news. Really, it’s not.
• Some other Belgium player has announced her comeback . Yawn.
• Kimiko Date-Krumm, aged 38 just won a tournament last Sunday. Hooray for the 30 something chicks!

tears and tears

*Sigh*

Being a Rafa Nadal fan I should be used to this by now. Some big tall power hitter has the best two weeks of his life and decides to blow Rafa off the court. The victor this time was Juan Martin Del Potro and he demolished Rafa 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. Nothing was working: The serve, the backhand, the forehand. Nothing. He was pushed back to nosebleed seats and failed to convert all 5 of his break point opportunities. But with usual good cheer, he smiled, waved to the crowd, and signed autographs for the kiddies. Not before being ambushed by Pam Shriver to give a post ass whupping interview on court. Really? Who’s bright idea was that? Yep. That’s the first thing a player wants to do after they lose, talk about the loss in front a full stadium!

But anyway, Rafa explained later that he had been playing with a muscle tear in his abdomen which restricted his movement. Amazing when you think about it. Getting to the semi finals of the U.S Open playing with that kind of pain. Rafa is a warrior, no doubt. The loss was painful for his fans, but I think I can speak for many: He made us proud. Plus, he’s back to #2. Yaaaasss!

The ladies final was pretty much a foregone conclusion. Nothing was stopping the Clijsters train, especially a novice finalist. To make a short story short. Kimmie won in straight sets and the tears flowed as Jada joined her Mommy on the court. More tears flowed as the hubby joined in the on victory celebration. Don’t get me wrong, Kim’s run was spectacular and made a wild women’s event even wilder, but I’m still stung by the events of the semi final. It’s not her fault, she just went out and played the best tennis of her life in a tournament wrought with ridiculous officiating and rotten decision making. No, the fault lies with the USTA. Their handling of everything was a complete disgrace.

don’t stop believing

The amazing run has ended. Stopped by a 19 year old Danish player who is enjoying her best showing at a Grand Slam Championship. Melanie Oudin’s time at the U.S Open was a real breath of fresh air. Even though she singlehandedly destroyed the top half of the ladies draw (thus ruining my chance of winning a Tennis Channel Racket Bracket T-shirt), it was great to see someone so young completely seize the moment. Her incredible match play gave the WTA a much needed spark. Without her we would have been subjected to mopey slamless #1′s, struggling gazillionaireses, and all around inconsistency.

But now it’s over. Much of it had to be blamed on the solid play of Caroline Wozniacki. Some of it had to do with the heavy burden of expectation, some of it can be attributed by the tasteless reporting of her parent’s ugly divorce proceedings. She lost in straight sets 2-6, 2-6. Let’s hope she doesn’t lose the belief that she can get back to that stage of competition again. Let us hope that belief doesn’t get muddled with celebrity or complacency. Let us believe that there are more Melanie Oudins out there in America waiting for their chance to their hearts out on Ashe Stadium.

Now with that, I gotta call out the pundits and the more irresponsible reporters. They know who they are. All of this excitement over Oudin wasn’t completely rooted in the love for American tennis. No, some of it was bred from a desire to see the next blonde, all American, tennis star: Chrisse/Tracey redux if you will. So caught up were some that they almost forgot that another American player has been ripping up the bottom half of the draw. This player along with her sister have carried the mantle of American Tennis on their shoulders for nearly 15 years. However, Serena and Venus will never get that kind of love and adoration. Their faces will never be the ones highlighted as the future and the promise of Women’s tennis. Good thing is, they realize that and they just go about the business of winning. If these lint lickers ever tried to pay attention to history, then they would realize that hype is the number one killer of promising tennis careers. If I could make an appeal, I would ask them to just leave Melanie alone and let her develop into the great player she can be.

What else?

Ah yes, Novak Djokovic defeated Fernando Verdasco to reach the semi finals for the 3rd straight year. I gotta hand it to Novak, he seems to thrive in New York. It must be something about the noise, or wind,  or rowdy fans, that stirs up his best. Verdasco has obviously hampered by a slight injury but credit Novak for keeping his head and doing the damn thing. His opponent is the wearer of multiple Monograms. He survived a late night match against the Swede Who Shall Not Be Named. What can I say about the match other than I think I detected some drops of sweat from Sir Jacket. Can’t be sure though, I’ll have to check the replay.

here and now

I know I’ve skipped a day of U. S. Open Coverage but WordPress was on some bullshit so I couldn’t update. Plus, I has a funeral to go to. I haven’t been to one since 1992 when the center of my life, my grandmother passed away. It was sad, sometimes painful, often times inspiring. I’m glad I went to say goodbye to Marjorie. She was a special lady. She wasn’t famous ( I noticed that some readers tried to Google her). She’s was just a regular person who loved her Alma Mater, loved teaching children, loved music and singing, but most importantly-loved her family. The lives she touched were no doubt made better in some way. I just wish there were more like her.

I’m still a little sad so I’ll make this brief.

Serena won a tough match against Panetta. As always, her serve got her out of trouble and when it mattered she hunkered down and got to business. I watched the replay on ESPN 360 and it was a thoroughly enjoyable match.

Rafa Nadal brushed aside Galloping Gael in 4 sets. I’ll admit, I was very nervous before the match. When he’s not in La La Land, Monfils can really bring the rain. Up until last night’s match, Monfils was literally cruising and if I’m not mistaken, he hadn’t even dropped a set. I felt my nervousness was justified considering the last time we all saw Rafa, he was laid out on the court getting his tummy taped. The thing is if everyone was nervous, Rafa was oblivious to it. True to form, Gael started the match on fire. He was serving well and scurrying to and fro and was generally make life very uncomfortable for Rafa. However, like a boxer Rafa absorbed those first set body blows and started to wear Gael down with his consistency. By set three, Gael was huffing and puffing and only won 1 game. By the time the 4th set came to a close, he was shanking and spraying. Rafa seized the win and for all of his trouble he gets a kiss on the cheek by a loony fan who snuck by security.

Can enough be said regarding the utter fuckery of that situation? USTA security gots some ‘spalining to do.

There could be a very good reason as to why Rafa got himself together and took out Monfils is such splendid fashion. According to the rankings, if Rafa managed to go one round better than Andy Murray he would once again be ranked number 2. That’s exactly what happened. Murray was booted out of the tournament earlier that day by Marin Cillic of Croatia. BIG HUGE UPSET. Not only had Cillic never beaten Murray in the four previous times they played but Murray was the pick of a lot of tennis insiders to win the tournament. But now, he leaves New York with no trophy and no number 2 ranking. He just wasn’t ready ya’ll. Deal with it.

red, white, and shoes

The Americans keep doing their thing on the 4th Day of the U.S. Open. Melanie Oudin and her customized shoes majorly upset 4th seeded Elena Dementieva, a player many tennis know-it-alls thought would go all the way. Well, now she going all the way back to Russia. Other  American victors were Andy Roddick, James Blake (yeah him!), Sam Querry, John Isner, and Jesse Whitten.

The second big seeded player to fall was Jelena Jankovic. How it must burn to lose to a player no one has ever heard of when you’re wearing such a snazzy dress. I’m not gonna rag on the Glitter Serb to much, word from the grapevine is that she suffered a death in the family. No matter how good a player you are, that kind of news has a way of affecting your play. What can I say about the match? Jankovic had her chances. She even had a match point in the final set tie-breaker, but Yaroslava Shvedova (that’s a mouthful) wanted it just a little bit more. Alona Bondarenko went down meekly to Gisela Dulko. Sabine Lisicki went lame and lost too.

Novak Djokovic whinged and flung his racket but still managed to win in straight sets. Tommy Hass stood up to the challenge provided by Robert Kendrick and made it through, Fernando Verdasco looked solid in victory and the Swede who shall not be named lucked out when his opponent retired. Boo Chicken! Boo!

Miss Sharapova got a prime spot in Ashe Stadium this evening and won in straight sets. You could say it was a convincing win except if you did a little research you would find out that her opponent was 17 years old and sported a big bandage on her leg. That’s looking to be the hot accessory during the Open- leg bandages. Where was I? Oh yes, Sharapova the winner with  her 7 double faults and 50 % first serve percentage. I can tell you this, no one is going to win the U.S Open with those kind of serving stats. No way, no how.

Should I even mention the other winner on the ladies side? I’ll let you guess on this one. She’s highly ranked, she struggled through another three set match, and her sibling spent a lot of time during his farewell press conference defending her. That’s all I’m giving you because that’s about all the effort she’s worth about now. I don’t want to hear how sympathetic a character she is. She’s the number 1 player in the world. She needs to play like it or go home.  Before you ask  isn’t sweating out two tough early round matches the stuff of champions let me break down to you like this: What she’s doing ain’t new. It’s just the excuses that are novel.

The best way to shut people up in the world of sports is to win. Wing big. Win convincingly. Win like your life depended on it. Win like all the hard work and sweat and tears were worth it. If she does manage to get herself together and win her first major, she’ll get her kudos from me. Until then, I’m not trying to hear it.

upsets and ugly shoes

Yep. Someone actually stepped on the court with these joints. Hey, if I was getting a hefty endorsement fee from Adidas then I might consider it. Then again, my pride might get in the way. Luckily American teenager Melanie Oudin has no such constraints. She rocked the shoes and managed to win her first round match.

Day 2 of the U.S Open provided some real excitement. Regarding the ladies: Ivanovic-OUT. Sazay-OUT. Razzano-OUT. Safina-Almost out. The number 1 player barely scraped a victory in her first round match against an Australian qualifier. Between the two there were 80 plus errors. Folks, that’s some seriously ugly tennis. It was almost as bad looking as Oudin’s shoes. It’s not enough to say that Dinara Safina needs to play better if she wants a chance to win this thing. No Safina has to improve her play exponentially if she wants to win. It’s that simple. Winners today included Maria Sharapova, Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva, Shenay Perry, and Christine McHale.

On the men’s side Stanislaw “Stan the Man” Warwrinka’s scalp was the highest ranked one to be taken today. He lost to veteran and former boyfriend of Anna Kournikova, Nicolas Lapentti.  Dr. Ivo Karlovic and Igor Andreev were also shown the door today. Igor lost to young American Jesse Witten. Actually, American players had a pretty good day.  U.S Open Series champ Sam Querry looked dominant in his 1st round match and Jesse Levine took care of business as well.

But naturally most of the attention was focused on the big dawgs Number 4 ranked Novak Djokovic and Number 2 ranked Andy Murray. Both won their matches in straight sets-although Murray had a tougher time against Ernests Gulbis. It’s too early to say how well prepared they are to go all the way but from what I saw there’s nothing to worry about either.

Back to fashion for a minute. The fugg was not limited to a pair of shoes.  Peep this:

I wish I had a better picture of the back of this shirt. The horror of it needs to be viewed in it’s entirety.

Caroline Wozniacki won her match today but she loses cool points with the Stella McCartney designed disaster.

And after her match, Jelena Jankovic and her nightie took a nap.

So good of Maria Sharapova to take time out from guard duty at District 9 to play her match.

This isn’t making me feel good people, there are more first round matches tomorrow.

Again I will be catching live streams during the day. I did catch Murray’s match on ESPN commentated by the Brothers McEnroe. That was quite a coup. Pat and JMac work well together. That’s about it. I am looking forward to seeing the Nadal vs. Gasquet match. To me, that’s going to be the one to watch.