Biding Our Time: Thursday, September 9th, 2021
US Open 2020: Where is everyone? Serena is out, Federer and Rafi are out, Coco and Naomi didn’t make it past the second round (and Osaka crafted the most damning thing I’ve read about professional sports: “I feel like for me recently when I win, I don’t feel happy, I feel more like a relief. And then when I lose, I feel very sad. And I don’t think that’s normal”). Meanwhile, the most hated star of tennis, the wolf himself Novak Djokovic, is rolling right through the competition. So when I went to the US Open for the second time this season, last Sunday, there was nobody I particularly wanted to see. I took advantage of my indifference by wandering from court to court in search of the sun, and $30 burgers and fries. During a rough time in my life, haunted by way too many deaths, it was peaceful to just lean back and watch these athletes chase the ball over the Open. Peace is something we all could use and while the pure monied classes surrounding me bummed me a little, the joy of aloneness found me shrugging the sucker off.
Emma Raducanu: and then there was Emma, who I saw beat Belinda Bencic in straight sets to end my day. Emma is eighteen (born 13 November 2002) and is ranked 150th worldwide and is heading into the semi-finals tonight. So far she hasn’t lost a set and she is a lovely, charming, and tough player. Her father is Roumanian, her mother Chinese… that might explain something if you squint.
The Winter If 79: I’ve started to really think through my next story. It’s called “The Winter Of ’79” and it takes place in the autumn of 2085, six years after the end of the Second American Civil War. The protagonists are between the ages of 13 and 17 and they are in a coed boarding school. It is about the final death of the war… Part one is The Jippers and Part Two The Twisties… and this is the most fun part and I am trying to slow down my brain so I can savor the plotting!!! It is written to express unrequited love the same way “See Emily Play” is written to express mourning…
The Winter Of 79 Part Two: I got the title from the Tom Robinson Band of course, and if you don’t know the song, see above. I have been deep in thought about the backstory, the Second American Civil War, not to share it with you but to use it as I write the story as something we know. Although a major plot point pivots on the civil war, it is something that I have no interest in as such, I chose it because I wanted to put the story in my old boarding school and yet didn’t want to write about the Lebanese civil war, or even Brummana High at all. I wanted to know it but I don’t want to write it.
I Think We Can All Agree That The Honeymoon Is Over: President Biden got the US out of Afghanistan, and if he ripped off the band aid with one swift move, after twenty years he realized that either he agreed to another surge or he bolted. Twenty years, man. So Biden gets the hit and we may get Trump in 2024.
Coming Up: The Rollers’ Ricochet, Aretha’s never released on CD on streaming platforms With Everything I Feel, and the Frank Sinatra sings Rod McKuen called A Man Alone.
Summer Doesn’t End till 9-22-21: but it feels over and as always there is that mix of nostalgia for the passing of the moment. In my life, the best moment and the worst moment happened back to back, and the Summer of 21 was both the worst summer of my life and also the best since, maybe, 1967 and definitely 1974. Working from home, or from wherever I put my laptop, left me in the sun all summer long and after 35 years of being in the office during the days of summer, to be on the fresh air was a joy. Even if it happens in 2022, it won’t be a big surprise.
See Emily Play: If you’ve got two bucks to blow buy it here
