The greatest thing in life is to do things because we love them and not because of any underlying intent and motive....
Look at what writing about tennis has brought me....world-class photos taken live from the actual Roland Garros men's singles finale....(and then some)
Man on the verge of history....could win 14 Grand Slam titles equaling the most by Pete Sampras...and complete career Grand Slam by winning the only Slam played on clay....
and starring:
Robin Soderling
Swedish spoiler....Nadal vanquisher...total underdog but with the power of a dozen Swedish shiatsu masseurs (at least he's hotter than the Swiss bloke LOLOL)
Anna Wintour
Vogue USA editor....profound and shameless tennis enthusiast and Chanel couture addict...TOTAL Federer ally..... seen clapping, cajoling, cartwheeling with every Federer point won throughout his semifinal match...
Magnus Norman
Robin's guru and mentor....former French Open 2000 men's finalist....the most handsome, hot, delishhhh guy in the stands possibly at least from these eyes' perspective...
Mirka Vavrinec
Mrs. Roger Federer....senior cheerleader of the Federer team, bag and sunglass hag, and would you believe it, an ex-tennis player herself!!!!
Bjorn Borg
Swedish tennis world champion.....Grand Slam titlist extraordinaire....with a list of titles longer than my arm....(POSSIBLY????) secret plotter/FUNDER/FUHRER of another wave of SWEDISH invasion (first started by compatriots Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg etc)....
Andre Agassi
Former tennis world champion....hot stud if without the beer belly that most American fastfood worshippers proudly sport....Federer fan, pulling for him to win the title for history.....with wife Steffi in picture....he looks like he's proud of the belly LOL
Liisa Winklergirl
Filipina tennis lunatic....wannabe sports correspondent....cute blogger 6,700 miles from the real action but not without the power of pathetic Cable television....will be without her TEQUILA tonight but definitely cheering for the SCANDINAVIAN UNDERDOG!!!! bwahahahahahaha
DUN FORGET TO BRING YOUR POPCORN FOLKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And so Friday night, 7 pm, Philippine time, i decided to camp inside my room and follow the men's tennis semi-finals of Roland Garros in Paris on sports television. Men's semis what???? Since when have I followed avidly a men's singles tennis match? Let alone two!!!! Not since the days of Rafter and Agassi I think! hahaha I tell you it is indeed a record for me. What determination and steely nerves I have to not want to go out on a Friday night!!! Impressive ain't I? And men's semi-finals indeed!!! LOL
I have no idea how Robin Soderling plays, the burly Swede who has shocked the world by beating Nadal and then continued to impress by crushing the Russian brick wall Davydenko in the quarterfinals...(sorry non-tennis followers at this point please shift to another webpage as only hardcore tennis aficionados will truly comprehend these hieroglyphics of the sport). He is the 24 year old protegee (pretty old to be one I say) of Magnus Norman, a retired player who coincidentally is also the last Swede to ever be in the semis of the French Open. Let me say this though he is a lot more cute, younger-looking and appealing than his protegee! Hahaha! It doesn't leave me wondering why the camera often took several glances at him all throughout the match!
Soderling's opponent is Fernando Gonzales, the Chilean with the superhuman forehand but a rather tame backhand comparatively. His game reminds me a lot of Steffi Graf's. The forehand is a weapon and he often would run around his backhand to hit a forehand in short to protect a rather mundane shot. I don't like Gonzales as he rubs me the wrong way and well he is more of an eye candy than Robin but I would go for the hirsute Swedeman than him LOL
The match turned out to be phenomenal! Robin won the first two sets 6-3, 7-5 impressively with consistent down-the-line backhands which left Gonzo scrambling. As Gonzo is always looking to hit his power forehand around his backhand he constantly leaves a gap on his forehandside which the Swede consistently explored leaving Gonzo bewildered. Soderling's power is also incredible, he is very very strong and he probably matches Gonzo's forehand power but on both wings, forehand and backhand. He put a lot of pressure on the Chilean's backhand too by pushing the ball deep causing the Chilean to slice the ball defensively and not achieve anything offensive with it. All Gonzales could do throughout the whole encounter was scramble and hit desperation shot after desperation shot. Commentary called his underhand sliced forehand shots, squash shots....The whole match reminded me of a Seles-Graf match urrgh dont get me started on that LOL
But then Gonzales' persistence started to earn him merit as Soderling's game slightly became more tame. The Chilean returned everything the Swede gave him, he sliced forehands, churned out one defensive lob after another, crawled on the ground, even used the whole stadium literally to scramble to get shots!!! Soderling's shots suddenly did not have the same zing as the first couple of sets and Gonzo started becoming more confident. His serve became a massive weapon and served as the anchor for him to impose his game on the match. Soderling committed more errors and the match stood at two sets apiece with Fernando winning the next two sets 7-5, 6-4
With Soderling's confidence shaken and Fernando smelling victory the match stood at 4-1 in the DECIDING SET in favor of the Chilean. Everyone was sure Gonzales would win the match. The French were readying themselves for the next match with Federer in it, the Swede's shoulders were slumped and Fernando was VAMOSing his way around the court....
BUT....the match was ready for one more twist. Suddenly like a revived Lazarus, Soderling's offensive game resurrected out of nowhere. He found the storm und drang that deserted him in the last two sets and started pounding winner after winner. He regained his accuracy on the down-the-line backhands and started trading blows comfortably again with Fernando. I was shocked at his resurgence and the quickness of it all! The SWEDE reeled off five straight games to win the match 6-4 in the fifth set. The Swede falls on his knees, jubilant, victorious....all the apt adjectives and well I say this cheekily, probably shocked to be in his first career Grand Slam final. I was happy because Magnus Norman, Soderling's handsome coach was happy HAHAHAHAHAHHA
This is a rather bizaare account of a tennis match but oh well I have never been one to conform the laws of convention...not even with writing a simple tennis article!!!
Onto the next match, Roger Federer versus Juan Martin Del Potro!!!! (of which I'm not sure I will cover!!! hahahahahahaha)
Since when have we heard of a French Open in its second week without the Spanish matador, and King of Clay, Rafael Nadal? Ages probably!!!!
Well yesterday Sunday night in the Philippines, straight from live television feed in Paris, the tennis conquistador was finally vanquished! This after 31 consecutive wins on the red dirt in Paris, which meant that he won four French Opens and three matches in this year's tournament.
His conqueror? Robin Soderling from Sweden????? know him much???? ahahahah I only know he was seeded in this tournament and he is on the Swedish Davis Cup tournament although he did scare Nadal in the 2007 Wimbledon tournament in an earlier round match there....
Well all good things have to come to an end. We all knew Nadal would eventually be conquered one way or another as the years go by. It's inevitable...there will always be a chink in someone's armor in the wicked world of tennis and not even the top players are invulnerable to this possibility!
The positive thing tennis fans can derive out of this would be this will open the road for Roger Federer to win the Open now considering that his greatest threats for the past couple of weeks for the Roland Garros crown, Nadal and Novak Djokovic, have both been eliminated. This is ALSO history in the making folks as this is the only Slam that has eluded Roger throughout his career. I hope he comes through as I love historic hallmarks! Hahaha
BUT of course I always love an underdog to figure in the final!!! I think the odds will be with Andy Murray and it will certainly be interesting for both of them to reach the final as they are on different side of the draws!!!
This French Open is quite the gastronomic treat and I will be home in time to watch some of the quarters all the way to the final!!! WHEW LOVES IT!!!!
Serena Williams is still in the women's tournament and I want a Dinara Safina and Serena final HAHAHA !!!! Hahahahaha...
What is the connection between an oldish and rather crazy man who has the ability to talk to cats and an insecure, deeply passionate and impulsive young lad? A lot, apparently, according to the latest Murakami creation I devoured....
The Japanese author who has the witchraft-like ability to weave mysticism into the most mundane of situations has once again impressed me with his "Kafka on the Shore." This ability he possesses in his writing is executed so smoothly that the transition from realistic to mystic is most natural and as a result easy to read and digest. He never delves too deeply into the realities of life to bore you and definitely has yours truly hooked on his books!
The story revolves around the parallel but in most ways dissimilar lives of a young and restless Japanese lad called Kafka (coincidentally!) who tries to find his place on earth, feeling unloved and unwanted by family, and an old man, Nakata, whose simplistic external lifestyle is a fabulous cover for the fantastical world he EXISTS in. The two never meet in the story but their experiences have profound consequences on their daily existences.
Kafka develops an identity and familial crisis at the tender age of fifteen and decides to find himself by running away from home and discovering the world for himself. He is in dire need of finding the rationale behind the realities of his own life -his dad abandoning him to devote himself to his craft and designating his own life with a rather uncanny prophecy....his mother and sister leaving him when he was very young.....his own burgeoning sexuality.
He meets several characters along the way, the first of which is Sakura, who he thinks is his sister but proceeds to lust after her. Oshima, a female to male transsexual who becomes his dearest friend during his sojourn. Oshima acts like an older brother/mentor to Kafka, and helps him by giving him work at the library in Takamatsu where Kafka meets the unrealistically beautiful but trapped middle-aged librarian Miss Saeki who also works there. The two find that there is a rather bizaare connection between them and it is because Saeki is Kafka's mother. But this does not happen until after they have both made love and dreamt about each other. This was the prophecy laid out to him by his father....he would make love to his sister and mother and kill his own father. The demise of his own father at Kafka's hands would best be explained by the events in the life of our second most important character...
....Nakata, is an old man who acquired a mental ailment when he was young. This results to a lack of coordination and many basic cognitive skills. But he acquires this magnificent ability to communicate with cats and predict certain unworldly events on a miniscule scale. Surviving on government subsidy he augments his income by informally working as a seeker of lost cats. Because of his magical way with the cats, he has a hundred percent success rate and is rather famous around his neighborhood for this. But the moment he kills the man responsible for the murder of many felines, Mr. Johnnie Walker, his life changes. This is the moment in the story where everything becomes symbolic and hazy (for me at least). Mr. Walker is actually the symbolic representation of Kafka's father, and is murdered by Nakata. So we can then assume that at one point or maybe the whole time, Nakata is or becomes Kafka's alter ego. Because he executed the prophecy laid out for Kafka.
The consequence of Nakata's action brings him to flee where he lives to avoid police detection. He meets Hoshino, a truck-driver who lives a sedate and cookie-cutter life. Their friendship blossoms because in Nakata, Hoshino realizes that life can be spontaneous, natural and free-flowing. There is no need to worry about the future by living in the present and letting life take its course.
The two set out on a journey charted unknowingly by Nakata himself. There is a mission that must be accomplished. I personally think that his mission is to open Kafka's eyes to the harsh realities in life. They must be dealt with and not abandoned. This is the moment where the mystical and unconscious begin to merge with the real and tangible again....the magic of Murakami weaving through the plot and it is gorgeous beyond belief hehehe...
The two characters never meet though, Kafka and Nakata. The demise of Nakata in the end signals that Kafka is nearing the end of his own quest for his place here on Earth. The story leads me to believe that Nakata is a figment of Kafka's unconscious self but he is tangible in many ways so I am quite stuck on what to believe...Anyway there are certain portions in the book which makes me think that sometimes the acceptance of what takes place in life is easier than questioning and squeezing your head for their meaning and depth. So the caveat is I must follow this philosophy when I am reading a Murakami book! Hahahaha!
This book dragged a little in certain parts I have to admit but I think most of this is purely because I have been lazy to read and tackle it. But all in all it is another Murakami masterpiece and I am looking forward to the next one in my shelf hehehehe.
The weekend was quite a drag for me and it would have been a total bone-marrow-deep bore had it not been for DANCE DANCE DANCE. This is a literary creation brought to life by a truly magnificent Japanese author called Haruki Murakami. And the first I devoured among his many works. After reading this book I shall forever pontificate and exalt the talent and imaginary skills of this man. He is deep without being boring and he is rational but very imaginative.
Some of the websites which have chronicled this man's work as well as some of the publications who critiqued him have compared his genius to that of Alfred Hitchcock. The capability to pluck ordinary individuals with ordinary lives but surround them with unusual circumstances and phenomena. The very essence of many of his books I presume( As I have not read them all yet).
DANCE DANCE DANCE is about a man who is purposedly and mystically led to a hotel in Sapporo, Japan, he once stayed in many years ago. He is looking for a lady he used to live with in the past. She has left a deep scar in his heart and being and he wants to find out how she has been and her current whereabouts. Staying in the hotel he stumbles upon some Divine Being who reveals to him that there are connections in his life that must be severed, healed or abandoned to give a semblance of completion in his every being. He also meets a young, conservative but struggling-to-liberate-herself lady who works as a receptionist in the hotel and in my opinion is a reincarnation or retransfiguration of the woman he stayed with in this hotel some years ago.
When he comes back home to Tokyo his heart is still very much into the quest for that one woman in his past he thinks can complete his being. Along the way he reestablishes contact with an actor-classmate of his who is linked in a way to that woman. They forge a friendship which is bounding but not completely unstrained. He also comes into connection with the eccentric daughter of a world-famous female photographer who has nothing in common at all with him and yet a deep-seated fascination and liaison is forged between the two of them. He meets her mother too, the photographer and her partner, a one-armed ex-Army American who exists for a short time only in the plot.
Perhaps the greatest revelation the main character finds out in the end is that there are connections that will be severed in order for more important ones to become binding and strong. Several deaths and the instances of morbidness abound near the end of the story perhaps as a way of clearing the path for our hero to achieve completeness with the one woman who remains at the back of his mind, the purported reincarnation of his beloved, Miss hotel receptionist.
Murakami has an extraordinary talent of giving life to inanimate objects and giving them a role in the main character's metaphysical existence. One example is the description of the "telephone" as a less than pure idea. It is technology that has mastered communication for us but unless there is a will on either party to communicate, the phone remains useless...Amazing isn't it? Of course he places this with such relevance so that it doesn't seem absurd to talk about a phone in a novel...He is also very adept at fantaisical imagination and creating scenarios transcending history, filmography and current events. He places the main character's admiration of Jodie Foster as Cleopatra, one who deserves the highest accolade among the Egyptian set of characters he has created in one of his lazy mental meanderings. He links her to the main character's admiration of his personable actor classmate who is the official swimming trainor of the Pharaoh's ancient Egyptian kingdom.
I have already bought five books excluding this one, of this astounding author! I would like to thank the people who have given me this opportunity to explore more of this author's amazing range of literary and creative skills. You are forever close to my heart and cheers to the next five I am going to have to read! Hahahaha
