wimbledon specials

it is monster/magic/mad monday at wimbledon, probably the most intense day of the fortnight. we'll have the highest potential for greatness and upsets: both williams sisters in action, and the blonde bombshells (azarenka, sharapova, wozniacki, lisicki, kvitova), plus the wild ms marion, the top 4 men, and a "deliciano"...

i want to watch them all of course--it's a good day for playing hooky.

but the only match i really care about is nadal/del potro--i'll have to set the dvr and listen live to radio wimbledon while i'm at the office. i'd like to think i'll watch the recording of all the day's matches later tonight, but then there will be more tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. there will not be enough evening hours to catch up.

but i don't mind relying on the radio commentary (alternately serious and clever, but always smart and fun. gigi salmon is my girl crush!) and of course, on steve. he's running a new feature called "keeping tabs"--a daily look at all the crazy, cheeky headlines (and some interesting tennis news bytes) from the UK. i love to make that my first read of the day with the first coffee of the day, though it's just as fun in the afternoon and evening...

oh, and then he writes more and more...even on his day off.

here at home, i have been trying to celebrate the slam by taking advantage of some of the restaurant partnerships, sponsored by HSBC, at places like tea and sympathy.

when i dined there last week, the "andy murray chicken curry" was sold out. everyone on the bandwagon even here, i guess.

our waitress tried to hard sell the "sampras sussex chicken," but it sounded like a feast that could put me to sleep sitting upright (not unlike sampras' game). i opted for the traditional (that's the wimby spirit, isn't it?) : stilton/apple/walnut salad, bangers and mash, and the celebrated eaton mess: meringue, cream and mixed berries.

the eton mess is not on the regular menu as the meringue is a little challenging to make, especially in the humidity of the ny summer. indeed they didn't quite make or store this dish properly--parts of the meringue were chewy (one could mistake it for stale, even).

but i was in too good a mood to quibble about that. it was the thought--wimbledon specials--that counted.

***

tea and sympathy is at 108-110 greenwich avenue (intersected by jane street! in ny's west village)

***

all photos © anita aguilar

paris postcard: roland garros, the king on clay

nadal played his third round match against antonio veic on the day i was there. the seats i had brought me closer to the court than i'd ever been for a "real" nadal match. but after the first handful of games i realized that even from my very nice seats, my zoom and i were not going to get better photos than i could find online the next day, shots from the "pros." with their credentials they have a bit more freedom to roam--i was fighting gals with frizzy hair, guys with caps, taller people, who were all sneaking into the corners of the frame. i was missing shots--and the tennis.

still, i made some photos with intent--to try to catch nadal acknowledging the crowd, cleaning the baselines with his nikes, sliding, kicking up clay. but for most of the match, the camera was in my lap. i just watched the action, the playing out of every point.

i could appreciate his speed, his powerful and agile directional shifts. nadal's compact frame and his low-to-the-ground movement must give him the confidence to maintain balance on a surface that constantly pushes one off. tennis is a much more quiet, meditative game at roland garros (grunting aside)--no squeaky sneaks on the clay, just occasional long raspy slides. it was practically soothing. but the relative silence also has the effect of intensifying the tense moments, if you will. i liked the long points that showed both loft and the zip of his groundstrokes. it never seems effortless--how could it be? but it certainly is awesome.

it looks like it would be fun, too.

i like the ball boys in the photographer's pit

this one's my favorite, for the movement, the wrinkles in his shirt, and the clay kicking up.

***

steve wrote a really nice feature for his blog about manuela davies, a professional sports photographer, during week 2 of the open. if you're interested in tennis or sports photography, you'll appreciate the "day in the life" peek, but you might also be interested to know more about the challenges the pros have to navigate. it's a dreamy piece, but with a dose of reality.

paris postcard: roland garros, a favorite shot (day 1)

the most absolutely adorable usher and usherette at the french open...

i love everything about these two, especially her uniform dress...and their smiling faces.

may 25, 2011 outside philippe chatrier stadium © anita aguilar

and for more local color, read monsieur tignor's wonderful paris post: the grandest dirt.

inspiration: mfw at the IW/todd hido

2027b

i've recently converted another smart cookie to maximum favorite writer's camp. my cousin, jenny, declared herself officially to me, to my deep delight. she likes tennis, but obviously she already understands you don't need to be tennis-obsessed to appreciate his work. she just likes his writing. she called it relatable.

for me there is always something (a few somethings) in his posts, a phrase or image that will linger. there is one in particular that i relate to (and love) from the notebook post this week, on the view from the skies:

I’ve always liked looking out the windows of a plane; somehow the long view relaxes me, and this trip offered mostly cloudless, unimpeded views of the United States. I’ll never get enough of the sight of the lights of small cities dotting the countryside at night. There’s something warming about them, about the way they stick outside in the darkness, against the darkness. Like snowflakes and Grateful Dead shows, no two are exactly the same. Looking at them pass by slowly, I think, What can possibly be going wrong there, in that safe spot where people have decided to gather?

i am afraid of heights and flying--i actually cried the first time i got on a plane by myself, and believe me i was "old enough--but while actually aloft, i do love the marks of the land by day and the twinkling at night. it can be hard to explain to those who are unafraid, and to those who are upended by flying. he describes it simply, clearly and beautifully.

***

his line: what can possibly be going wrong there, in that safe spot where people have decided to gather? reminded me of some of the work of a favorite photographer of mine, todd hido.

he explores that idea-- from street level and from an outsider's point of view--with a series called "homes at night." unlike the dreamy, warm view from the plane, his series can suggest something disquieting, or at least not entirely....easy.

i've only selected a few here.

the night glow here is lonely and haunting. i think they are stunning.

he uses film, which allows for long exposures...you cannot capture this light with digital (except in photoshop).

2690

1862

2523

all images by todd hido, which you can find at toddhido.com

check out the landscapes, please.

AO 2011: fantasty tennis

i'm leaving my original typo in the title, because somehow it fits.

i just signed up for tennis.com's grand slam fantasy tennis event. i believe this makes me a superfan of tennis and tennis.com.

i've only enlisted in 2 fantasy sports enterprises before today--and both were related to football (soccer), a sport i know next to nothing about. i joined out of "fantasy sports curiosity" but mostly because one of my best friends and her husband were starting a league and the promise of weekly updates -- brit trash talk!--by rich was too fun to pass up. (he's so good, he was able to parlay it into a paying gig, blogging the world cup for men's health magazine.) i hovered around the basement of the our league's standings, though i eventually pushed myself to a more respectable 3rd or 4th from the bottom. but to be truthful, all the things that real football fans probably geek out about--assembling a "dream team," mulling over "contracts" and managing the injuries and substitutions, week to week--turned out to be way beyond my level of interest.

but this tennis game seems to require just the amount of attention i can commit to.

will my fandom translate into points? meh. i just want to see if they could make a fun fantasy version of a sport i already love. and i need one more tennis distraction during my work day.

here's part of my team:

nadal. jan 15, 2011. photo © mark baker/ap via tennis.com

djokovic on jan 12. photo © ben solomon via australianopen.org

verdasco, with his cool hair. on jan 13. photo © getty images via australian open.org

and don't think i picked them for anything but their potential winning ways.

otherwise i might have picked...

tommy

marcel granollers (l), tommy robredo (r) after winning the heineken open doubles tourney.

in nz. jan 15, 2011. photo © wayne drough (ap/nzpa)

i round out my team with:
murray, because he'll go just far enough (and i won't ever pick federer or soderling. for anything);
almagro and isner, not because i actually like them or their games, but because nadal seems to have trouble against them (like my barometer?)...
i wanted to pick baghdatis, but a groin injury heading into the fortnight is not promising.

so: troicki, who (despite a loss yesterday) has been riding a good, strong wave. also, he makes the most desperate faces:

jan 15 © ap photo/rob griffith

photo © ap/rob griffith

photo © ap photo/rick rycroft

and my wild wild card? nishikori. 'cause he's with BG now, and i just like that pairing.

***

so that is fantasy.

this is compulsory (real tennis world insight from señor tignor):

men's preview: "can anyone kill off that ambidextrous euro-beast called fedal?"

the women's draw: "this whole women’s draw prediction is one massive caveat"

and

the "rivalry"(rafa/fed presser): guess who said, “i for sure am feeling less favorite than him,” he said, “and not more favorite than djokovic, murray, soderling, these kind of players, no?”

read up. it's "game on" soon...

MFW at the AO: " with just the stars for company"

aussie open photo via tennis.com

i have a pretty good heart for winter--a snowfall can still feel and look like magic to me--but the cold here in nyc these last two days has been nothing short of stunning.

and so i dream of sunshine (it's summertime in australia)...

and now i dream of stars: read the career (watching) slam (maximum favorite writer is posting--thrice daily-- and podcasting from the open). i caution that he might inspire a little envy. who wouldn't want to be down there now? and: who wouldn't want to be able to turn phrases like:

"Outside was a Milky Way like I’ve never seen it. It looked like a thin cloud of stars stretching from one end of the universe to the other. How can it be that for all of human history we couldn’t fly, didn’t believe we were even meant to fly (see Icarus) until the Wright Brothers did it at the start of the 1900s? Now, a little more than one century later, we fly at 40,000 feet over the equator with just the stars for company, and no one gives it a second thought..."

and

"It’s always the same, but it never gets old. You fly in total black-hole darkness for hours, and then you come down in blinding brightness. The windows are all open now; you get the green countryside below you, and then you hit the clouds. They make the whole cabin flicker with light, while they rock the plane up and bring it down with that slightly sickening but fun unpredictability—you’re on an amusement-park ride now. Seeing New Zealand for the first time, I remembered again how flying makes the world seem so much less separated..."

and

"If I ever get my dream job as a cloud-watcher, I’ll move to New Zealand. I wish I could have stayed for a while."

***

ps. he will write just as brightly about the tennis too.

stay tuned...

it's practice, man...

nadal/djokovic, jan 15, 2011. photo @ ben solomon via australianopen.org

tennis' year end issue: the pin up edition

it would be nice to work at an office where this cover would spark a lively little conversation about why it's a perfect shot (and it's not because nadal is sin camisa). i guarantee if i hang this up in my cube, no one will want to talk about his humble qualities. probably not even his second wimbledon, his first us open, or his new serve.

maybe, because i work with a lot of artistic folks, we could have a chat about clive brunskill's photography and the editors'/art director's wisdom in selecting that shot?

but more likely they will taunt me for his hotness and project all sorts of raunchy inclinations. and i can protest that i prefer his smile to all his other physical attributes, no one will believe it. that conversation can be amusing sometimes, but more often, it ends with me feeling weird about the whole thing.

i might still put it up. perhaps there are tennis fans lurking on my floor. or maybe i can convert a few....

***

the print issue arrived last week--i always let out an audible cheer as i pull it out from under the pile of "other" mail. i scanned the TOC and saw that maximum favorite writer had a couple of articles in the issue. (more cheering.) i waited until the weekend for the actual reading--last week was one of juggling (and sometimes struggling through) new projects. my head was just too full of other stuff for me to really savor the writing and the reading. it would have been like going to le bernandin with a head cold. a nice experience, but you'd miss the fullness of it.

the piece that i really, really love, "the old heave ho" was originally a blog post from this summer. i have never thrown my racquet (chris evert was my idol, so the most i ever did was slap my thigh a few times, purse my lips, and give a purposeful blink, followed by the far-off squint) and i wasn't a fan of pros (or "regulars") who had tantrums, but i've had a few off-court, off-the-handle moments. i think even non-tennis players could relate to this one.

and what would i think about a guy at local court or at a club (if i belonged to one) throwing his racquet? after reading this, i just might give him my best, most empathetic smile.

anyway..while "the old heave ho" reappears in the nov/dec, he's given it a fall/winter makeover.

which one is better? i won't tell.

read the original post here, and buy the mag (with the bonus cover-age).

then we can talk.

squirrel crazy/crazy squirrel

yesterday at work, in the midst of the afternoon lull, i started giggling. i couldn't help it.

my co-workers didn't say anything (this time).

i sort of wish they had because i would have explained that my maximum favorite writer (and i'd probably have to also explain the "maximum" bit) just wrote this really funny story about a squirrel. and i would have let them read it over my shoulder, or i'd have sent it to them.

it's actually not a squirrel "story," it's a lead-in to something about robby ginepri. but i love that he shared the news this way.

and then i thought of all the squirrels that have besieged, annoyed and impressed my friends, like "the scraper" at 147 bleecker. and the squirrel that frequents teresa's neighbor's roof (she flings slices of toast at him. he's clearly never going to leave).

by coincidence, today, at the union square market, the samascott orchards folks were all in a dither about some crazy squirrel that kept stealing their $7/pound italian-american chestnuts.

and then he popped up!


and he zipped and hopped boldly around, probably for the rest of the afternoon. sort of crazy and cute. but not sure how i feel about that garlic after his city squirrel nose and paws got all into it...

transition game

the wimbledon preview issue of tennis magazine was a nice surprise in my mailbox (along with a very awesome double elvis postcard from cousin jenny, making her grand tour of the PCW, and a birthday card with a george burns quote from my aunt and uncle. cute card, but sort of alarming that i've reached the age where a george burns quote is considered relevant?).

the magazine's arrival is perfectly timed, not just because the slam starts on monday, but because last night i decided i'm taking a furlough from team sports (to recover from whatever nameless thing just happened in los angeles). it's going to be tennis. only tennis for the next two weeks.

i have to confess that while i've been a fan for, you know, decades, my grasp of tennis history pre-1974 is pretty weak. i know a lot of names and have a general sense for who the dominant players were during the various eras, but the historical underpinnings, the larger dynamics surrounding the sport are pretty much unknown to me. but i got a good lesson last night from mfw, about the how the ground started to shift in the 1940s-- to paint it broadly, the game began its transition, from east to left coast, private to public, artistic to tactical, amateur to professional.

the article will help round out some of the names that might ring familiar--at least it did forme. for all i knew, jack kramer was a great enough player to have the racket; bobby riggs was the guy with the black spectacles who lost the battle of the sexes spectacle against billie jean king; pancho gonzales had the cool nickname--"lefty." i'd never heard of ellsworth vines. and i never knew that there was a tennis executive named "mr. jones" -- who sounds not unlike a certain mr. steinbrenner, at least in how how expects players to look.

it's a lot to try to wrap your head around, but really interesting (and worth picking up the july/august at the newsstand, since i don't know that that content will be shared online).

***

pancho gonzalez, who dominated the men's game for about a decade, is an intriguing character. i think it's easy for a lot of people to look these pictures and consider his success, and make assumptions...perhaps that being a champion also equated with being happy, that being a tennis champion in particular conferred a gentlemanly dignity...

photo by allan grant, may 1949. via life magazine

photo by allan grant for life magazine. may 1949.

but of course, his life and experiences are more complex. there are less than rosy stories about him--as he became more dominant, be came more surly, a loner. i wonder--and would have to read his memoir to see if its possible to discern-- how much of that was part of his natural personality, how much of it was formed by the experience of being a mexican-american player--and champion-- in a then-predominantly white sport? i'd honestly never thought about it before...

***

i was looking for a "tennis" poem, less heady than a tennis court oath. i found this poem for pancho gonzales.

there will be more tennis poetry on the way, as wimbledon has an official poet, matt harvey. i have no idea what that will be like, but i'm definitely going to read them...

***

i will be spending the next two weeks, fully immersed in wimbledon: watching the matches, listening as much as i can to radio wimbledon, and reading a lot. though i'll personally be trying to take photos and post more about non-tennis things, expect links to all that really good stuff...

and: CHEERS.

courtside perspective...

i cannot stop dreaming about what it would be like, to be at the stadium, to shoot these fantastic moments:

rainy roland garros. may 27, 2010. christophe ena/associated press. via ny times photo replay, may 27, 2010

a triumphant francesca schiavone, after her convincing qf victory over caroline wozniacki, 6-3, 6-2.

june 2, 2010. bertrand guay/afp/getty images via yahoo!sports.

now that's a look. jurgen melzer. after 4 hours and 17 minutes. (defeating djokovic 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4)

june 2, 2010. patrick kovarik/afp/getty images, via yahoo!sports.

at the change. almagro v. nadal. june 2, 2010. photo: boris horvat/afp/getty images.

nadal...through the lens of one of my favorite photographers, julien finney/getty images. june 2, 2010.

via yahoo!sports

love...in the afternoon...that beautiful terre battue. photo by the estimable clive brunskill/getty images.

june 2, 2010. via yahoo!sports.

***
i've enjoyed the luxury of watching a lot of this year's french open "live" (moving from the bed to the couch to my portable desk at 6 or 7 or 8 am) and tape delayed and rebroadcast in the evening. i can't remember being so electrified by so many matches that didn't involve rafael nadal. during one match last week (you remember this one, the fognini/monfils thriller played to its unconclusion under the brlght light of the...jumbotron?)

photo by clive brunskill/getty. may 26, 2010 via yahoo!sports

i was so fascinated, i could barely move--and then i was so disgusted and mystified by the officials, i couldn't sit still. i've played tennis in this kind of darkness as a kid--the darker it got the more energy i had. so fun! you're begging, desperate for just enough light for just one more rally...and then another. but this match seemed excruciating, with officials saddling the players with the unnecessary and unfair burden of having to decide whether to play on or go. that there seemed to be so many bad feelings broke my heart a little. (more here.)

the matches this week have been just as intense--from my end, there's been a lot more jumping and clapping and full-hearted, full-throated cheering. thankfully it's had more to do with honoring the quality of the tennis and the gutsiness of the players than any frustration over lack of leadership by tournament officials and other ancillary drama. (ok, maybe some ancillary drama. it's hard to ignore.)

but even when i've seen something with my own eyes, i value the perspective of others. like the other day, i went into the federer/soderling match trying to decide who i liked less. it was tough. i was rooting basically, from point to point, for whoever might eventually be more vulnerable to nadal. but the shot-making was so scary good--for me, it eventually transcended any rooting (for or) against one or the other player.

i don't think i missed a single point of that match--but i still wanted to read something thoughtful about it, not merely a re-cap. it wasn't easy to find...

here it is, from, who else? steve tignor: streak players.

i'm starting to feel sad that tournament is winding down--i hope that the quality of the matches will be as riveting?

but i'm heartened, knowing that the courtside perspective will be good and vital, as ever.