mb palaver

SportsPalaver: Foxy Tennis Players

I'm watching Victoria Azarenka play Kim Clijsters in the Australian Open right now.  Azarenka, like many professional women tennis players these days, is a screamer.  She's almost as bad as Maria Sharapova.  I've tried turning the volume off when these women play, but I just can't enjoy watching tennis if I can't hear the ball bounce.  As I was watching, the sound of Azarenka screaming sounded familiar.  It was a sound I heard one night last fall while staying with a friend in Ealing, a suburb just outside London.  I lay in bed wondering what that horrible sound coming from the wooded area behind the house was.  Cats fighting?  A person being murdered?  I thought, should I wake my friend?  Call 911?  What's British for 911?  The next morning my friend said it was probably a fox.  A couple of nights later we saw one skulking under a street lamp.  Tennis fans:  does this video not remind you of Sharapova and Azarenka?  Honestly, I don't know how these women can talk after a match.  (P.S. #1:  Go Kim!  P.S. #2:  Roger vs. Rafa at 3:30 am!)

 

 

 

tvPalaver: Battlestar Galactica Marathon on Portlandia

Here's a video for anyone who has ever gotten hooked on DVDs of a TV show you missed the first time around.  One line in this made me laugh so hard I woke the neighbors.  I can relate all too well.  still think back longingly to a Saturday a couple of years ago when I was stuck at home sick and discovered Mad Men.

 

 

 

SportsPalaver: Australian Open 2012

The Australian Open starts in Sydney Monday (tonight our time).  On the tournament's eve, everyone's abuzz over Rafa Nadal's complaints that Roger Federer isn't pushing to change the men's tour schedule.  I hate to even mention it because these guys are such gentlemen, but I did have to laugh at this remark (as translated from the Spanish and reported by the AP/Washington Post):  “Maybe (Federer) has got a super body and he’ll finish his career like a rose. Neither myself, nor Murray, nor Djokovic are going to finish our careers like a rose."  Roger (seeded third) and Rafa (seeded second) are both in the bottom half of the draw, meaning if they meet it will be in the semis.  Novak Djokovic, not surprisingly, has the top seed, and Andy Murray rounds out the top four.

On the women's side, Caroline Wozniacki is seeded first, Petra Kvitova second, Victoria Azarenka third, and Maria Sharapova fourth.  As usual (lately) on the women's side, it seems like anything could happen.  Li Na, the Chinese player who made it to the finals last year but lost to Kim Clijsters, comes in at the fifth seed this year (though Kim's down at 11).  Ana Ivanovic is only seeded 21st, but I couldn't resist the photo above (from the australianopen website).

You can find draws and updates on the tournament website and on TENNIS.com.  TV coverage in the US will be on ESPN2 and Tennis channel; times and channels are listed on TENNIS.com at this link, which I always use when I'm recording and avoiding spoilers.  (Speaking of which, I better go delete those 10 episodes of The Mentalist clogging up my DVR.)

The schedule is demanding for those of us half a world a way.  I wish I could do a swing shift for this fortnight.  If you need any help figuring out what time it is in Sydney, timeanddate.com is my favorite clock and calendar website.  Right now in Sydney it's Monday at 2:41 pm.  That freaks me out.

 

tvPalaver: Downton is Back

 

Downton Abbey returns to PBS tomorrow night for season two.  I saw the first two episodes in London in September, where everyone was (rightfully) atwitter over a character's use of the phrase "as if."  As if!  It was strange watching this over there, where it airs on an ad-supported channel.  I'm not used to commercials in my period dramas.  They ruin the illusion of old-timeyness.

Hank Stuever offers a tepid review of this season in The Washington Post.  (My favorite line:  "One by one, the characters return in the opening episode in a way that feels as if they’ll be greeted upon entry by Lenny-and-Squiggy-style applause."  Hello.)  But Downton was always highbrow drama crossed with lowbrow soap.  (Stuever also says:  "It’s as if the United Kingdom has finally returned a gift America gave it years ago:  "Knots Landing.")  I'll eat it up anyways.

If you didn't watch last season, you can find a synopsis and cast of characters on PBS's website.  Most importantly, don't trust those two above.  Just looking at them gives me THE SHIVERS.

MusicPalaver: Merry Christmas from The Drifters, 2011 Version

Just in time for Christmas, my annual Christmas greeting to my Dad, via The Drifters.

 

tvPalaver: State of Play on BBC America

Excuse the late notice -- it's that time of year -- but BBC America starts running the series "State of Play" at 10 tonight.  The 2009 Russell Crowe movie of the same name was based on this highly regarded British series.  It will run again tonight at 1 am, and continue for 4 weeks.  You can find the schedule here.

CommunityPalaver: Time To Clean Out the Closet

Got stuff you don't need? Holy Trinity and Annunciation churches are holding their annual clothing drive this weekend, Saturday (Nov. 5) from 9 to 5 and Sunday (Nov. 6) from 9 to noon.  Items needed include gently used clothing, coats, blankets, linens, and small, useful household items that are in working order.  Drop off is at Annunciation church, at 3810 Massachusetts Ave., NW.

Every year this event drives me to clean out my closets -- this year it also drove me to pull mbpalaver out of mothballs.

tvPalaver: L&O UK and McNulty on BBC America

In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: The police who investigate crime, and the Crown Prosecutors who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.  Donk donk.

They say that when God, or in this case, Dick Wolf, closes a door, he opens a window.  Not long after NBC cancelled regular old Law & Order last year, BBC America started showing Law & Order UK.  The second season starts tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 9:00 pm.  I love everything about this show; it's got all the things that made L&O great, plus they call the elevator the lift.  (A drinking game could revolve around the use of the term "you lot.")  The casting is terrific.  While I was spending a dreary few months with that stony-faced redhead detective in Seattle in "The Killing," all I could think was that if I'm ever the victim of or witness to a crime I want the warmly sympathetic Detective Superintendent Ronnie Brooks to take my statement.  (Matt, naturally, would be welcome as well.)   If you missed last season, and you have a DVR or time on your hands, a marathon is starting at 8 am.

As if that's not exciting enough, a new (to U.S.) show, "The Hour," starts after it at 10 pm, and it stars Dominic West as a 1950s BBC news anchor.  Talk about accent whiplash!  (I realize he's a Brit, but he'll always be McNulty to me.)  Don't know if I can take the posh hairdo.  (While we're discussing "The Wire," I should mention that BBC America's series "Luther" starts September 28; I've never seen it and can't say whether it's good or not, but it stars Idris Elba, aka Stringer Bell.  Those Baltimoreans really get around.)

 

SportsPalaver: Wimbledon 2011

 

There's a new Wimbledon champ on the ladies' side of the draw.  This morning Petra Kvitova -- a 21-year old Czech lefty -- beat Maria Sharapova in straight sets (6-3, 6-4) to take the title.  The men are up tomorrow.  Rafa Nadal will seek his third Wimbledon title, but will have to overcome Novak Djokovic, who has been nearly unbeatable in 2011 and who will be ranked world number 1 when the new ATP rankings come out Monday regardless of who wins tomorrow.

I'm still despondent over Roger's loss in the quarters to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.  On my birthday.  Harumph.  (Though I do love watching Tsonga play.)

Coverage of the men's final starts at 9:00 tomorrow morning on NBC.

Photo from wimbledon.com.

BookPalaver: Happy Bloomsday #107!

In honor of Bloomsday, here's a photo (taken in 1999) of Davy Byrnes pub, Duke Street, Dublin, where on June 16, 1904, Leopold Bloom

entered Davy Byrne's. Moral pub. He doesn't chat. Stands a drink now and then. But in leapyear once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.

(Quoted from the full text of Ulysses, at Project Gutenberg, which you can read online for free when you're, you know, bored at work.)