Police and Tennis

Police presence in London is big brotherish. There are more surveillance cameras here than for sale at an FBI gadget convention. The police ID'd me yesterday at Wimbledon just for entering the wrong ticket kiosk. I got out to the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis Club Championships at Wimbledon late in the afternoon yesterday...it's a lovely walk from the train station through the small town of Wimbledon, then up the hill to Wimbledon village, then back down the hill on a windy country lane past suburban neighborhoods to the grounds, all very civilized and understated...whilst there i could have waited until 5pm to buy a ticket for five pounds to wander the grounds and watch the finals on the outer courts, you know, the wheel chair finals, or the under 3 year old toddlers mixed doubles finals, but the line was too long. The way to do it is to arrive at 8 am, get in for 8 pounds by 11, and wander the grounds all day, enjoying the girls and boys finals, watching the future stars...

So my Wimbledon experience consisted of a police interview conducted to the background sounds of muffled and polite English applause on Centre Court as Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer played the best tennis seen this century...i watched the fifth set at a pub in quaint little downtown Wimbledon town on my way back to the train...the match was as tight as a djembe drum at 2 games all when Federer lead footed the accelerator and ran off four straight games to take the title. The man is the best tennis shot maker i have ever seen, and i have been watching tennis since Borg, McEnroe etc. In sports it's considered high praise to say that an athlete is a "playmaker"...Federer is a shot maker. He simply puts the ball where you can't get it, and he does it from impossible angles, while sprinting to and fro, and when you least expect it. They call it imaginative. He hits it soft, hard, deep, shallow, straight, angled, curved, top spin, back spin, side spin, no spin...he is the maestro, the genius, the wizard. Federer is especially dangerous just when you have him on the ropes...he fought off 4 service break points early in the fifth set, losing any of which would have ceded control of the match to Nadal. Down 15-40? Time for an ace, a quick serve and volley winner for deuce, a mistake by the opponent for AD and then a sublime on the run down the line stinger for game. Nadal is a supremely talented player with a ferocious competitive streak, and Federer used him like a mop to wipe up the court in the last four games. Rog still has to win the French to be considered the GOAT. The Greatest Of All Time.

And when are the women going to play five set matches? How many times do we have to watch a 59.5 minute women's final where the winner hardly breaks a sweat? It's ALWAYS unsatisfying. When was the last time you watched a satisfying/epic women's grand slam final? It's just wham bam thank you ma'am.

As for yesterday...it was a glorious 10 mile walk through the heart of the city. I started at Piccadilly circus and walked to the start line for the Tour De France bike race. The first rider left at 2 sharp as a began to walk the length of the course aiming to beat the last of 189 riders to the finish line. Every 60 seconds a rider passed, preceded by a motorcycle cop and followed by a team car with spare bikes. The riders jetted past at over 50kph, finishing the 5 mile rider in 9 to 10 minutes. A million people lined the course, and i just beat the last rider to the finish line at 6:15...all along the course the organizers had placed giant huge mega TV screens to watch the race...in the end i felt empty, like another observer of someone elses more exciting life...the way everybody feels about movie stars, and the Queen in her palace...it's awful. So live your life!...march to the beat of your own drum...invent new cliches...in the evening Samba and I conversed into the wee hours of the morning about Africa and what can be done to be of service to our beloved and despairing continent...

London is a city for a writer, like New York, or Paris...or..Mexico City, Caracas or New Delhi, or Cairo, or Athens...Nairobi, Tel Aviv...Tehran, Beijing...Bangkok, Kathmandu...and of course San Francisco! I have barely begun to explore this city. It's been all Disneyland castles, palaces, mansions, fortresses, cathedrals and spires...all superficial postcard classic skylines...police bobbies and barricades and posters and union jack flags...

Given a choice, most Americans would choose Paris over London...Paris has the romantic appeal...but London is deeper. London is weighty. It has a presence unlike any city on earth. England must be dealt with. Love it or hate it, one must find reconciliation with London England. London is equal parts past, present and future. Its the elephant in the room. Don't forget that the war in Iraq is based on an alliance between DC and London. Did you know that the IRS and the Federal Reserve (which prints American money) are both private family owned operations contracted by the US government to collect taxes etc.? And who do you think runs those businesses? English families amongst others. Nothing has changed. How far back do you want to go? To the Pharaohs of Egypt? To the emperors of Rome? To the popes, the monarchies of Europe...just do the math...

Until we meet again...