and Federers, and feel the opposite with the Andy Roddicks. Eyal
Press has it down! As does Danny Schechter My kind of writers.
ed
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/441966/saluting_roger_federer?rel=emailNation
Saluting Roger Federer
By Eyal Press
The Nation, Com: June 8, 2009
In case you were too busy watching the Sunday morning news shows, Roger
Federer won the French Open yesterday, tying Pete Sampras' record of
fourteen career grand slams and solidifying his claim to being the greatest
tennis player of all time. Federer's victory over Sweden's Robin Soderling
was not an exciting affair - he won in straight sets, in a match that seemed
decided from the opening game, when Federer broke Soderling's serve and
marched out to a 4-0 lead. But it was a sublime display of his artistry.
Playing against a fierce hitter who had defeated his previous opponents
(including perhaps the greatest clay-court player ever, Rafael Nadal) by
bludgeoning the ball, Federer countered with a game of spin and
misdirection. He sliced sharp-angled backhands crosscourt to draw Soderling
forward. He floated devilishly disguised drop shots just over the net in the
middle of rallies. He kicked his serves into seemingly every corner of the
service box, including four consecutive aces in a masterful second-straight
tiebreaker that effectively ended the contest.
Federer is too poster-boy perfect for some sports fans: too nice, too
gracious, too Swiss. But in an age of Olympic doping scandals and A-Rod, his
career stands as a beautiful illustration of the limits of brute force.
Federer's greatest legacy will not be the number of grand slams he ends up
winning (though his astounding appearance in 20 straight slam semifinals
will likely last for decades, a feat whose greatness was underscored by
Nadal's early-round loss on the surface where he was supposedly unbeatable).
It will be his role in rescuing men's tennis from the Nuclear Age it entered
fifteen years ago, when the combination of improved training and advanced
racket technology seemed to strip the game of all subtlety; when big serves
and short rallies seemed to decide everything and fans who longed to see
world-class players display touch and accuracy were left to watch ESPN
classics of Borg vs. McEnroe.
Now more than ever, as he creeps toward 30 in a sport dominated by men in
their young 20's, Federer must rely on misdirection and guile to defeat
players who can overpower him. This is how he won the one grand slam that
had eluded him until Sunday. David Foster Wallace evoked this aspect of his
game in his brilliant homage to the Swiss star, "Federer As Religious
Experience," which ended with a glance at the generation of Federer-inspired
kids we'll be watching a few years from now, after he's retired:
You should have seen, on the grounds' outside courts, the variegated
ballet that was this year's Junior Wimbledon. Drop volleys and mixed spins,
off-speed serves, gambits planned three shots ahead -- all as well as the
standard-issue grunts and booming balls. Whether anything like a nascent
Federer was here among these juniors can't be known, of course. Genius is
not replicable. Inspiration, though, is contagious, and multiform -- and
even just to see, close up, power and aggression made vulnerable to beauty
is to feel inspired and (in a fleeting, mortal way) reconciled.
***
From: zhelp@zcommunications.org
Obama Electrifies The World: Can We Believe The Hype?
By Danny Schechter
Schechter's ZSpace Page: June 7, 2009
The President As Celebrity Conquers Europe Even Europe Moves Right
You still want to like him, even if it has now been confirmed that the
President of the United States travels with an official food taster or so
the French news agency reported.
"They have someone who tastes the dishes," said waiter Gabriel de Carvalho
from the "La Fontaine de Mars" restaurant where Obama and his family turned
up for dinner on Saturday night. It wasn't very pleasant for the cooks at
first, but the person was very nice and was relaxed, so it all went well,"
he said on the Itele news channel."
Perhaps more brain shattering was the quote attributed to the owner of the
Restaurant, who said with all sincerity that he had seen God.
"We all think of him that way," he added.
Ironically, as the elevated ONE was sightseeing in Paris, Republicans of the
Freedom Fries inclination were blasting him for even being there at all,
perhaps just jealous because he seemed like he was having fun. More
ominously, European voters were moving right in the EU elections. (Turnout
was low!)
Reports the New York Times: "Heather Grabbe, director of the Open Society
Institute in Brussels, said that two striking features of the elections were
the failure of the left to make a breakthrough and the advances threatened
by the far-right and other fringe parties.
"At a time of crisis," she said, "people often lose faith in the established
political parties but they will typically move to the left when there is the
prospect of higher unemployment, in the hope that the state will look after
them.
"The left needs a new narrative," Ms Grabbe added, "the narrative of the
state looking after people has failed to hold even at a time of deep
unemployment."
These paradoxes also speak to the way politics has merged with celebrity
reinforced by 24/7 TV news cycles. Some like the President of France marry
celebrities. Others like Barack and Michelle become celebrified, sparking
adulation and fostering unrealistic expectations. This tendency is fueled by
disgust with politicians as usual on the one hand, and the desire to have
someone who you can believe will be different on the other. We all want
someone to make a difference as the economy and the public's sense of
another possibility crash like that Air France plane.
Obama has that special charisma, and builds a mystique that resonates in a
period when so little else does. "It's the smile" one TV producer told me
the other day. Another put it down to his youth. No, said a third, it's his
skill as an orator especially because his predecessor couldn't put two words
together.
Lets not forget, it was like that with JFK and Jackie too. In their time,
they represented a new generation, exuded style and the aphrodisiac of
power. For some, they walked on water.
And like Obama, JFK was treated more as a personality more than a leader of
a party.
You can view Obama as a devious calculating cynic, saying one thing and then
doing another. You can see him as a prisoner of larger forces that push all
politicians into the embrace of special interests serving the status quo
masked as "the politics of the possible."
Or you can still be bullish because he is going over the heads of the dead
weights in office worldwide.
"Obama is going over the heads of elites, attempting to establish moral
legitimacy as a leader, turning popularity into policy, " writes Robert
Marquand in the Christian Science Monitor. "What we are seeing is not spin,
but a sincere effort to reach out to hearts and minds, appealing to better
instincts, to the reasonable nature of others. It is a revolutionary
approach."
Revolution, smevolution. Populism can be progressive or reactionary as it
has been throughout our history. The Tea Baggers see themselves as
"populists" fighting the supposed "tyranny" of the government. " So did the
"Yes We Can" crowd who put Mr. O in office and are now mostly cheering or
half-cheering from the sidelines.
Words are necessary even if they are not sufficient. AP reports, "There
are already some indications [Barack's] words are having the desired
effect of undercutting extremists. A militant leader in Egypt called on
the Taliban to respond positively to Obama's gestures, and Hamas militants
in Gaza say they are ready 'to build on this speech'
"Obama may have managed to 'plant the seed of doubt in some minds' of
extremists, said Robert Malley, senior analyst at the International Crisis
Group think tank. 'There was enough ... that represented openings for those
who wanted openings.'"
Revolutionaries know how to appropriate rhetoric to advance their agendas
and audiences. Before Obama conquered Cairo, Napoleon did the same. Writes
Hizb ut-Tahrir, "he told the people, 'You will be told that I came to
destroy your religion; do not believe it ... I have more respect than the
Mamelukes for your God, His Prophet, and the Koran' and many more sweet
words besides."
Adds Ahdaf Soueif "This is hard. It's hard because we so need to believe
that Obama is about change, that he's wise, that he's good, that he has the
interests of the world - rather than just the interests of the United
States - at heart."
That's the key, the words, "We so need to believe." Even as unemployment
reaches near depression levels, the Unions and many progressives want to
believe. The alternative: realizing that we live in a system, that Obama can
say and do good and will also say and do evil. That's his function.
Unfortunately, our media doesn't really explain this but treats politics
like sports, generating heat, not light. It is more interested in what he is
eating --did you see that NBC White House special featuring his lunch-time
hamburger run-- than doing.
What is our function as citizens? If you are reading this, presumably, it is
to be more critical, more analytical, able to make distinctions, willing to
live with and challenge the contradictions, aware that institutions have
more impact than individuals.
Love Obama or hate him, he's here, barring the unthinkable, for the next few
years. He's not God. He is or should be a public servant and the job of the
public is not to serve him but to challenge him and hold him accountable
too.
You can't allow your "analysis" to lead to paralysis.
These are dangerous times, when the people who want to wreck the prospects
for change are more mobilized than the people who want to secure that
change. We live in a noise machine with few mass movements and lots of mass
confusion. Instead of telling Twitter what you are doing, tell us all what
you are ready to do.
News Dissector Danny Schechter edits Mediachannel.org. He directed the DVD
"Barack Obama: People's President" (ChoicesVideo.Net) about his campaign and
insists he is not a cheerleader. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
URL: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/3888
Commentaries: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/commentaries/
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