More Unfortunate Ramblings

You know, when this blooging [sic — thanks, Kevin!] thing first started I thought I would never run out of random crap to spew out. Little did I know how much work it is to do so on a semi-regular basis. Readers of this web log will know that I quit trying to do that a long time ago. Welcome to Blog, you have my admiration!

Okay, to start the random ramblings, congrats to The Chuckster for her first Tier 1 tournament win since her remarkable comeback! She had a pretty easy draw and was only challenged by Venus. Safina, who she beat today, did the grunt work for her by knocking out Clijsters, Dementieva, and Kuznetsova. I don't expect her to win in France but if she doesn't meet any of the biggies, she could probably sail into the quarters or semis. None of these new kids seem to be presenting much of a challenge to her at all. Nor should they, come to think of it. They all may be major kewpies but, besides Sharapova (and you could probably make a good argument here that her one-dimensional game will never be a challenge for Clijsters or the Allez-Cat), none of them are any good. The loophole for Chucky will be the health of the biggies. Petrova and the Allez-Cat are injured, Davenport is out, Clijsters always seems to be a misstep away form injury, and Sharapova is injured (though she's not much of a threat on clay anyway).

Even if you're not into tennis, find a torrent of the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal match from last week's Rome final. Gripping, gripping stuff. Although I'm convinced that had this been on a grass or hard court Nadal wouldn't have stood a chance, I'm still impressed by the kid. Indeed, the only complaint I have against him is the fact that he tends to dress like somebody's grandmother when off the court. Let's work on that, Raphie. If — wait, none of the other players are going to give these two a challenge at all. Let me rephrase that. When these two meet in the final of Roland Garros in early June: watch. Even if you don't like tennis.

Final tennis note (promise!): Serena, where have you gone?

Writing the appendices to Whisking with Chlamydia is proving more challenging than I thought. I've even once or twice found myself needing to do research. Imagine me, a graduate student, having to do research! (Dammit Fry, I can't teach! I'm a professor!) If this thing draws out much longer, I'll just release the main chapters and the appendix later on. Besides, you guys need a few fake handshakes during the summer to keep you honest!

My mother thought that this incident was some private cover-up or something. Seems like the local news channel gave her the fake handshake. Oh, Mom!

I did a careful watching of the Sawallisch version of Die Zauberflote (now on DVD) again and have now concluded that, yes, it is better than any of the DVD Met versions. (I won't judge it against the one I saw live — the sound can't compare. However, I could have done without the cubism of the set. The Queen of the Night's outfit was awesome, though). I like the staging against the starry backdrops better than the "Egyptian" theme that seems to plague most Zauberflote productions. The singing is top notch with Araiza, Popp, and Moll at their peeks (by the way, I have confirmed that any production of Zauberflote must contain Araiza and Moll) and Gruberova is a much better Queen of the Night than I originally thought. She can't quite reach those high registers that Popp can (I wonder if Popp ever considered bumping Gruberova aside during the Kunigen-Pamina seen while saying, "This is how it's done!") but she's decent. Finally, the staging for "Pa, pa, pa" is hilarious and touching. The only thing I have against all Zauberflote productions is the black face and body paint for Monostatos. Hello, people: it's 2006!