4.8 Km. That's how close I was to Roland Garros this June. The French Open was going on at the time. It was Day 8 at the tournament. Ana Ivanovic and Rafael Nadal were 3 matches away from winning the Championship in their respective draws. I was on my way to Zagreb, Croatia to attend a film festival with my filmmaker friend, Eric. Our flight from Dulles was late getting into Paris, so we missed our connecting flight. Despite how tired we were from the long travel, we were pretty excited to be in Paris. A quick ride on the RER and we're in the center of Paris! Eric and I got off at Saint-Michel, walked east to the Seine, then across to Notre Dame.
I had never walked the streets of Paris before and was somewhat apprehensive, given the reputation of the French with those who haven't perfectly mastered their language. I have first-hand experience of this from when I was in Annecy the prior year...
Feeling somewhat brave, we dared to stop at a restaurant to eat and face the wrath of "le garçon"
. The food was bad (I didn't know that was possible in Paris), but my French held and we got pretty good service.
Paris is everything that is lovely about life. You REALLY feel that when walking the streets. I never felt that way walking around New York. Perhaps, New York is just too familiar. I don't know NYC well, but it is still America. There are rules to American cities that I know inherently. Paris is different. I want to go back.
Given the date of my last post, it's fair to say that it's been a while. There is much on my mind these days. In no particular order (save for the first two):
- The future of my family.
- MLK's Legacy.
- The hopeless Isreali/Palestinian conflict.
- Friendship.
- The presidential race.
- The return of Portishead.
- The format change at College Callgirl.
- Guitar Hero III
- Books I'm behind on.
I went snowboarding this weekend! My long drought ended with a near, spur of the moment trip to Liberty. The conditions were less than ideal with 50-degree weather and slushy, crowded slopes, but I didn't care! It was nice just to be out again on the new board. The Jussi was perfect! It's light, flexible, and forgiving of my n00bishness. By the way, the pic above is in Tahoe.
For more on Jussi Oksanen, check this and this! Oh, how I aspire to ride like that Finn...
What I aspire to in the near term is to return to Park City, UT. Sundance or not, I just want to get back to slopes like this:
This is a recent shot taken at the Canyons. Since the riding season goes so long out there, maybe there's hope...
Baltimore received a decent snowfall last week. At least, it was decent for our part of the country, where the occurrence of good snow is few and far between. It makes a snowboarder want to weep... The plan was to pick up some new snow pants for M and some beer. The parking lot of The Old Vine is somewhat sloped, but the GTI is front-drive and my tires are in good shape, so I didn't think about it. Mistake.
I used to drive one of these:
I would've been better off and I could've ticked off that time without any sort of acknowledgment. Sometimes, I miss my Rangie, but it broke down. Alot. Of course, buying a British car of somewhat indeterminate mileage probably wasn't smart to begin with. In fairness, that's how everyone bought their used Range Rovers back then. There's also the fact that filling up said beast with petrol would cost me over $80 each time. I could pretend that I'm very concerned with global warming and that my car purchases are thus affected. Actually, that's the truth. My '06 GTI gets around 25 mpg in the city and 32 mpg on the highway despite its sporting nature. That and good snow tires would've made for a completely uninteresting anecdote.
No one likes getting stuck in the snow, but it's particularly abhorrent to me since I'm used to driving vehicles quite proficient in the slippery stuff. I rescue - I don't get rescued! After trying for an hour to drive/race up all possible side streets to the mecca of the main road, I gave up, called for help and walked 2.7 miles to meet my ride. The walk was nice, despite getting splashed by a dorkus in a Jetta, because: 1. I had beer to keep me warm and 2. I like a quiet walk now and again. It's probably as close as I'll ever get to being on Survivor.
My lovely bride came to rescue me, and all was well. My folly in the snow was rewarded with a bike ride back to Mt. Washington to get the car a few days later. Thankfully, the car was where I'd left it. I guess it's off to get new tires for me!
The first Grand Slam of the year is here! It always seems to creep up on me after the holidays. I nearly missed last year's Open save for the finals. This year's finals may look like last year's on one side of the net. On the men's side as usual, Roger Federer is the one to beat. Not much more can be said other than it would be nice to see another player lift the trophy at Grand Slam events. I'm rooting for Blake (12), Roddick (6), Nadal (2), and Davydenko (4).
On the women's tour, a fitter-than-ever Serena Williams (7) looks to repeat another win. Maria Sharapova (5) has improved her serve and is playing well, but she has Serena, Henin (1), and Jankovic (3) in her portion of the draw. Of course, I'm with Henin all the way.
The new Plexi-Cushion surface is getting good reviews from the players and looks and sounds great from out in TV Land. From the Plexipave site, you can even mix and match colors for your custom court! Now all I need is some unclaimed land in the city...
I'm already behind on my matches, so I anticipate late nights and a long weekend of nothing but tennis!
I am bald. This is (obviously) no secret to all who can see me. I don't wear any sort of protective headgear. I never had a comb-over, nor was I ever "hanging on to scraps". I'm very comfortable with my head shape and I enjoy the low maintenance. That said, I was a little floored when walking out and about recently. I passed this elderly "gentleman" who looked me in the eyes and asked, "What? Are you going to the barbershop to get a haircut?". My defenses were defeated. I had no reply. For the first time in over a decade, I felt a little sorry I was bald. I don't really feel that way. I think it was just that I didn't have time to react and responded spinally. Once I gathered myself, I knew I had something new to write about...
Yesterday, while driving home, I saw four young men engaged in what appeared to be an intense conversation in a not-so-nice section of town. Living in Baltimore as I proudly do, having to drive through not-so-nice sections of town is par for the course. That does not mean that Baltimore is not a beautiful and prosperous city - far from it. Often called a "City of Neighborhoods", the city is laid out such that rich and poor often live within blocks of each other. I find that fact enriching; isolation and ignorance breed contempt. If you do not know your neighbors, how can you empathize with them? That's not to say that there aren't well-to-do neighborhoods in Baltimore that work very hard to keep those less-fortunate as far away as possible. I can site a number of neighborhoods who've hired private security to perpetuate a feeling of "safety". More on that some other time (maybe).
Back to my story. Three of the four young men were hooded and surrounding the fourth, who looked visibly frightened. It seems that they were robbing him and threatening violence if he resisted. The poor kid was pushed to the ground. He then got up, took off his coat, and then handed it to one of his attackers. I didn't see what happened next, because I drove off when the light changed. I dialed 911 and gave a description of the muggers and the location of the crime. "Don't snitch"? Fuck that.
Why didn't I do more? Why didn't I get out of the car, get the kid's stuff back then take him home? Honestly, because I was afraid of what might happen to me. I am not afraid to get into a fight. I've been in enough in my lifetime to know what to expect. These days however, kids bring guns to fight, so I'd be at a competitive disadvantage, having only brought fists to the fight. I don't watch enough TV to think I could disarm someone wielding a gun. Not even The Shield could pull that off. I have young children. They didn't ask to be given life, so I shouldn't play around with mine when they need me most.
I felt really sorry for the kid. I felt sorry for him not because he was losing his possessions, but because he was genuinely frightened. I've been mugged in a violent way before. I know what it's like to feel powerless and to not know what's going to happen to you next. That feeling is as basic as breathing. Either you try to get away at all costs, or you fight as though you know you are about to die. The victim didn't appear to be at that stage yet, but I could tell he wasn't far. He had gotten past the paralyzed phase and had moved into the phase where he accepted that he was in fact going to lose his possessions. At this point, you begin to "bargain" to see what your muggers are going to let you walk/run away with. It is also at this point that your mugger(s) will decide whether or not to use violence. Since the muggers didn't immediately descend on the kid and beat him down, that means that they were willing to take the kid's stuff and walk away if he'd just given it up. A simple transaction. Since the victim was resisting, the muggers decided that it was worth increasing the pressure to see how far the kid would go before relenting. The muggers didn't start beating the kid after he resisted a little, so it was obvious that they didn't want to take the exchange too far.
I have no idea how the scene resolved. I left my name and number with the police, but never received a call. I hope the kid made it home in one piece.
