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

piym: aussie aussie aussie, oi oi OY

party in your mouth goes international this week, with the celebration of australia day.

have you ever had lamingtons? if you like cake and chocolate and coconut, come on over. you're in for a treat.



***

there's been serious tennis happening down under, and i regret waiting this long to bring it up because as of today my favorite player is out, retiring after trailing 2 sets and a few games, with a knee injury. my "maximum" favorite writer called this--not the gimpy knee part, but the murray win, coming out of that quarter.

who do i root for now?

jo-wilfried tsonga, photographed by ryan pierse/getty images via the nytimes photo replay, jan 25.

after the bad knees news, i was on the verge of tuning out the rest of the tournament but the other quarterfinal matchups are actually kind of irresistible...fed v. davydenko, djokovic v. tsonga. so i'm in for at least the next day or two.

if you need it, here's the tv schedule for the rest of the tournament.

if you've been watching from the start and are growing weary of the commentators and their talktalktalk, read stock truths. you may find yourself better engaged during the broadcast and satisfied in a different (smarter) way when it's over.

see fine pictures: playing their part

via tennis.com and the ap...

before things got hot and heavy (officially) down at the aussie open, roger federer helped to organize and host "hit for haiti," and recruited rafael nadal, novak djokovic, andy roddick, lleyton hewitt, sam stosur, kim clijsters and serena williams to participate. the ap report and the photos suggest a fun, spirited time was had by all (plenty more pics for you superfans at yahoo! sports).

the event raised more than $185,00 for the haitian relief effort, with organizers expecting that amount to increase.

cheers to everyone who helped pull it all together at the last minute.

fed, chair.
photo by paul crock/getty images via yahoo! sports

best seats in the house.
ap photo via yahoo! sports

rafa with his mj finger wraps.
photo by paul crock/getty images via yahoo! sports

rafa getting a little treatment from kim.
photo by paul crock/getty images, via yahoo! sports

djoko next?
AP photo of djokovic, nadal, clijsters via yahoo! sports

three on three.
photo by mark dadswell/getty images via yahoo! sports

rafa in the hot seat.
photo by mark dadswell/getty images via yahoo! sports

a very nice two-step.
photo of roddick and rafa by mark dadswell/getty images via yahoo! sports

the little prince

rafael nadal accepting the 2009 australian open trophy, as roger federer looks on.

photo by oliver weiken/european pressphoto agency, via nytimes.com

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." --antoine de saint exupéry

when the australian open began two weeks ago, i never dreamed that rafael nadal would win the championship. well...i did dream about it. but to consider nadal's previous performances in australia, his tendency to start the tennis season a bit slowly,and the tendinitis that sidelined him for the latter part of the 2008 season, it seemed too much to believe that he'd be able to pull it off. this was even more true after his epic win on friday over verdasco, and with federer having a full day of extra rest on his side. how much can anyone, even a super fan like me, reasonably expect of a body?

but perhaps part of nadal's success (and part of what makes him so compelling) is he doesn't seem to burden himself with expectations beyond doing his best. regardless of who he is facing, he brings the same effort and attitude. he seems not to really dwell on what has passed (point to point, match to match, tournament to tournament). he just works, competes his hardest, in the moment. simple, no? but also rare.

writers and commentators, and fans cannot speak of nadal without speaking of his heart--he’s helped create some of the most dramatic moments in tennis, the physicality of his game is beyond what most of us can comprehend, and he has vanquished arguably one of the greatest players of all time, consistently, on some of tennis’ biggest stages.

but it also seems fair to say that nadal has consistently exhibited a capacity to see beyond an on-court outcome—he is humble to the point of being deferential, with a refreshing perspective on life and tennis (“hobby work”). his game, attitude and heart are in no small part due to the guidance of his coach, and uncle, toni (see peter bodo's terrific post and feature article in the jan/feb issue of tennis magazine). credit nadal with being open enough to accept and embody that instruction.

yet i'm not sure anyone could have anticipated the profoundly magnanimous physical and spoken gestures he extended to very tearful federer, after today's match. christopher clarey, writing in the times shortly after the final, offers a terrific quote that reveals nadal's capacity to see beyond himself, and beyond any one victorious moment:

"...as Nadal began to grasp the degree of Federer’s emotional distress, he added a moment of reflection to his moment of triumph.
“Of course it can happen to all of us,” he said of Federer’s breakdown during the ceremony. “It was an emotional moment, and I think this also lifts up sport, to see a great champion like Federer expressing his emotions. It shows his human side. But in these moments, when you see a rival, who is also a comrade, feeling like this, you enjoy the victory a little bit less.”

i want to be careful not to ascribe heroic qualities to nadal, as it's been shown time and again that athletes and celebrities are utterly human.
but his performance today and his post-match remarks left me inspired.

i think we may have in this king of clay, this new wizard of oz, this number one tennis player, a little prince.

eyes wide open

rafael nadal, at 5-4, triple match point, v. fernando verdasco. 2009 australian open semi-final.

i am a morning person.

morning light.
morning coffee.
morning paper.
morning kiss...
all that, very, very good.

i love a day when i can drag my blanket from bed to couch, and watch movies from morning til night.

and i love any morning when i can drink coffee and watch some tennis on tv. throw in a bagel, and it's a party.

there have been quite a few opportunities to watch some great "morning" matches in the last couple of weeks, but work's been encroaching on my fantasy life. the other night, my favorite player started his semi-final match at 3:30am ny time. and for a moment, i considered staying up. but on a "school night," it just wouldn't have been smart. so i set the dvr.

when i got up on friday at 7am, i expected the match would be over. but as most people know by now, the match--the longest in australian open history--was only half in the bag at that point. i was thrilled that i had the opportunity to watch it LIVE, and that was before i realized how thrilling the actual tennis would be. within minutes, i was riled up: OOF! NICE! JE-SUS! DAAAAMN! I even threw in a little tagalog--"PUNETA!" i'm not even sure what that means exactly. but you get the idea.

at a certain point, i just felt bad for both of them. they'd sit at the change overs buried under ice packs, looking more and more disheveled. and yet the quality of the tennis remained stunning. who would crack first? i almost couldn't bear to watch them push themselves and each other, physically and mentally--it was a relief for me to have to get ready for work. when nadal would seem to struggle, and play defensively, or verdasco would crush a winner, i'd start poking around in my closet, distracting myself with decisions like, skirt or jeans? black tights or grey? striped sweater or solid?

but by the middle of the 5th set, i was sitting on the edge of my couch, fully dressed, with my black north face jacket on. zipped. i was already late for work. but i couldn't decide if my heart could handle staying--or if i would kick myself for leaving.

i'm glad i stayed. not just because nadal won, but at triple match point, i saw a look on nadal's face that, to me, told the whole story. exhaustion, desperation, on the verge of tears (and in about 2 seconds, that look was gone). if i were a photographer, that would be the shot i'd want, that i'd use to tell the story. if nadal had won or lost, that look said everything about that 5 hour, 14 minute match. as a photographer, i'm sure it's no easy decision what to focus on, at any one moment. so much of it is luck. and i imagine, you must always feel like you're missing something. and for an editor, the money shot usually reflects the outcome, whether it's expressed in a physical gesture, or a more emotional portrait.

but this is the kind of stuff i get to dream about from my couch. so i dreamed i took "that" shot. and i couldn't shake that image all day long.

my favorite writer offered his impressions of the semifinal match, with particular appreciation for how expressive nadal is (at 4-3 in the fifth, he observed "a trance-like bug-eyed look filled with exhaustion and maximum adrenaline at once" that he'd never seen before from nadal) and he included a fantastic, close-up shot of nadal's face (i love that his hair is all mussed under his bandana).

i don't remember seeing that expression before either, or even on that morning. what can i say, nadal makes you not want to close your eyes.
if your heart can stand it.

nice gallery of the semi-final via the la times here.