How about that Gilles Simon, taking out Mario Ancic in straights? It's funny, but near the end of last year Simon entered that weird zone where he had pretty much demonstrated that his success has been anything but a fluke, or the result of a torrid streak. As often happens, the next step after that is for erstwhile pundits to have a field day, waiting for a glitch, or outright collapse: Yeah, the guy's good, but not that good. . .He came on so strong last year, he's bound to have a let down. . . This year, the pressure is going to be on him, not the guy he's playing. . . He's got to be tired and the off-season is so short. . . It's a tempting call - knock a guy's feet out from under him before they're firmly set. The only trouble with the scenario, in the case of Simon, is that he's demonstrating that his feet appear to be well-planted. Here he is, very much in the hunt at the first major of the year, burning everyone who thinks they're going to get a cheap Fanboy W out of his hide. Gotta love that.
Along similar lines, whither the Murray skeptics? He's played persuasive tennis so far - whatever happens from here on in, it's going to be pretty hard to argue that he wasn't ready to go deep, or that he's shown signs of feeling the pressure that comes with being The One Who Shall Not be Named as a contender, according to at least one of his peers. There are lots of reasons I can think of for Murray not winning the Australian Open, but they're all names, not stats, or theories.
And I have to confess, I never thought I'd ever feel much sympathy for Richard Gasquet, because of the degree to which I've always felt that he was overrated, especially by the crowd that thinks a "beautiful" one-handed backhand is the end-all and be-all in tennis. To make matters worse, I never even thought his one-hander was that fetching, but we've been through the whole (Rosemary's) Baby Federer thing, and more than once. Still, I find myself feeling for the poor goober. More and more, he seems snakebit - in addition to being perplexingly weak. But you know the old saying: the wind is always at the back of the good sailor (the less esoteric version is something like: winners make their own luck).I don't think Gasquet needs to work on his quads or aerobic capacity, or even his down-the-line forehand. He needs a deep change of attitude - something that's very hard to pull off at his level.
Well, I'm here at the farm, where the thermometer is rapidly plunging toward the negative numbers. I'm totally enjoying my Christmas present, a subscription to Sirius satellite radio. Anybody in New York who likes country music - especially stuff that's a little out of the Nashville mainstream - will know why. But an added bonus for me has been learning that my cheap subscription entitles me to listen to satellite radio for free, over the Internet. So instead of having to buy an additional radio and antenna into which can plug the portable tuner I use in the car, all I needed to do is buy a pair of stereo speakers ($50 bucks), and I now have streaming music on demand, static-free (our apartment house in NY is a nightmare for radio reception). The speakers are terrific, and they connect with one plug to the USB port. I feel like a genius.
I've been listening mostly to the Outlaw Country station; on the way up I heard, among other gems, He'sthe King of Bulls Mountain (but he's an alright guy)* [It's the subtitle that makes the song great], some Eddy Arnold and Buck Owens, Elvis's absolutely superb, In the Ghetto, and a killer version of Ring of Fire by, of all people, Social Distortion (punk meets Cash does not necessary add up to sell-out; link, Violetta?).
The afternoon broadcast on Saturday is The Cowboy Jack Clements Show, beamed from some place in Nashville called the Cowboy Arms Hotel and Recording Spa. The hosts are a pair of old gravely-voiced salts, Alamo Jones and Nashville icon Cowboy Jack Clements. Jack is given to long pauses after Alamo makes an observation, and then saying, Well, that's one way of looking at it. . . One of them introduced what turned out to be an unknown song by Johnny Cash - turned out that Jack Clements wrote, or produced it.
Anyway, it's great to go off the grid and escape the bombardment inflicted on us every day by what might be called the mainstream media. It make me feel a little. . . subversive. Besides, country music is America's authentic folk music. This is your CC for today - have a ball!
