Faulkner

Vika is dialed in, and Naomi’s not at all. Vika is totally dictating.

Vika is on . Naomi looks lost.

From Cuba  
 

We were so spoiled from last night. Outside of the 2nd set TB (marred by that stupid dropshot from Daniil), this Thiem/Medvedev match has been ugly, nervous tennis.
 

And Thiem has taken several nasty spills and got wrongfooted and tweaked his ankle? 

These f***ing line calls. Seriously. This is embarrassing.

Medvedev looks a mess.

2 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Someone once joked that I had the United Nations of friendship circles, so the dual and multiple cultural identities are very familiar to me.

Same. Working in international media and travel (plus, romance) have certainly brought an eclectic group of people into my life. Living in NYC helps, as you know. 

2 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

That show, it was a Japanese show, no?

Yeah, it’s Japanese. A very interesting and addictive show ruined by trying to make it more palatable for a global audience (adding more contrived conflict, etc.).

Again, the women have saved this tournament. Dom and Daniil had better step it up because Sascha/PCB was ... less than scintillating.

Unbelievably bad calls. So many corrections. 
 

4 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

I guess I just tend to be sensitive to the declarations of surprise that someone being well-spoken as it often feels like an 'othering' of a person. I know you don't mean it that way. I've been on the receiving end of this compliment, only it did not feel like one.

Being a black man myself, I am sensitive that “articulate” can be a backhanded compliment, as if the person is surprised that “someone like me” could put two words together. Totally not my intention. But Naomi sometimes strikes me as note-worthy as a human, in just her ability to communicate her inner world and her thought process with clarity and wisdom. She makes me sit up and listen more than most tennis players these days. Sometimes I think she shares too much.
 

Naomi is just a very unique celebrity on the global stage, especially with her now becoming so outspoken about social justice. Her success in Japan is opening up a lot of discussion about mixed-raced citizens there, and that’s super cool. I watched Terrace House (the now-dormant Netflix reality series set in Japan), and the cast members who were of mixed heritage (typically if they were mixed with something other than white) found themselves targets for horribly vicious bullying from viewers. One young woman, who was half-Indonesian, took her own life in part from the harassment (which is why the show is tabled for now). 

These bad calls are so infuriating.

19 minutes ago, DramatistDreamer said:

It's being Japanese.

 

Sometimes I wonder whether people have any Japanese friends or even friendly acquaintances that they interact with often. I have and it's not so unusual, it's a common cultural attribute.

I’m sure most people don’t have many or any Japanese friends. That’s fine. I do have a few. None of them are quite as well-spoken as what I’ve seen from Naomi (which is what I was pointing out), but they also aren’t public figures. Naomi is interesting to me because she has so many different cultural influences.

I just thought this Vika quote from a few nights ago was cute. 
 

9 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

one where she's holding a big wine glass

That one aired but I don’t think the others did, no. Weird.

The shade...

From Argentina  

That was a great match.

So annoying that they’ve decided to talk and do interviews over the Brady/Osaka match.