Faulkner

Brad Gilbert is ragging on Chung’s serve. He is tall and has strong, strong legs, so he should get more out of his serve. Apparently, Kyrgios behaved like a clown in the Coric match last night, tanking the second set 0-6, and then coming out guns blazing in the third to win the match. Lots of people were very entertained.

Ugh, why are Instagram embeds suddenly so crap on this site?

He made some bizarre statement on-camera too. Sorry to besmirch this thread with his face. CNN is back to wall-to-wall Trump again. They couldn’t even give her a day as they did Prince (which was more sudden, I know). MTV Classic (which isn’t part of my cable package) is airing videos and performances.

PREACH!

Ha! Speaking of Patti, this clip from Oprah’s 40th birthday special with Aretha, Patti, and Gladys as guests has been making the rounds:

2:30 - 3:13 = the part where amateur/karaoke singers embarrass themselves trying to imitate the Queen. This is funny:

Can’t believe they are both gone.

Sadly she has passed. https://apnews.com/bec7e5ec9193462ebb7dce2047ef9c46

NYT: 60 times Madonna changed the culture: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/16/arts/music/madonna-birthday-impact.html

By now, we’ve all heard she isn’t well, and I know there are many fans here, so I thought it would be appropriate to start an appreciation thread. During college, my friend and I would lounge around in my dorm and just soak in every track from her 30 Greatest Hits double CD. Other than Songs in the Key of Life, I don’t think there’s an album I’ve played more. My favorite song has always been “Angel,” with its spoken intro dedicated to her sister Carolyn and its almost unbearable sense of longing and loneliness.

There are just too many to list! She lost me somewhere around Ray of Light, although there are select songs I enjoy post-1997/98. A short BBC by-the-numbers piece on Madonna’s career (with British chart stuff but some other stats as well): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-45112992?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook&ns_mchannel=social

The ladies making their entrances and greeting Andy was fun, but I thought it was unusually lacking in content for a HW reunion trailer. It makes me curious if the reunion itself will be lacking in content, especially with Luann not taking part.

Bad luck for Serena to face Kvitova in the second round in Cincy. Serena looked more solid than she has all year this week, so maybe this provides something to build on in NYC (and she’ll be fresher with this early loss).

Thiem withdraws from Cincy; Garcia-Lopez takes his spot.

More from Rafa: