Sunday, October 5, 2008
Tina Fey as Sarah Palin nails it again on "Saturday Night Live" Debate skit
Highlights from the VP Debate Sketch:
QUEEN LATIFAH AS GWEN IFILL: “Good evening, I’m Gwen Ifill and welcome to Washington University in St. Louis Missouri to the first and only 2008 Vice Presidential Debate between the Republican nominee, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, and the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden of Delaware. Let’s welcome the candidates.”
TINA FEY AS GOV. SARAH PALIN: “Can I call you, ‘Joe?’”
JASON SUDEIKIS AS SEN. JOE BIDEN: “Of course.”
FEY AS PALIN: “OK, ‘cause I practiced a couple of zingers where I call you Joe.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Now tonight’s discussion will cover a wide range of topics including domestic and foreign policy matters. Each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond to a direct question and then an additional two minutes for rebuttal and follow-up. As moderator, I will not ask any follow-up questions beyond ‘do you agree?’ or ‘your response?’ so as not to appear biased for Barack Obama in light of my new book (holding up book) ‘The Breakthrough: Politics of Race in the Age of Obama,’ coming out on inauguration day and available for pre-order on Amazon.com. And finally, we would like to remind our audience that due to the historically low expectations for Governor Palin, were she simply to do an adequate job tonight, and at no point cry, faint, run out of the building or vomit you should consider the debate a tie. Alright, let’s begin. Senator Biden, how, as Vice President would you work to shrink the gap of polarization that has sprung up in Washington?
SUDEIKIS AS BIDEN: “Well, I would do what I have done my whole career, whether it’s been dealing with violence against women or putting 100,000 police officers in the streets. I would reach across the aisle. Like I’ve done with so many members of the other party. Members like John McCain. Because look, I love John McCain. He is one of my dearest friends. But at the same time, he’s also dangerously unbalanced. I mean, let’s be frank, John McCain—and again, this is a man I would take a bullet for—is bad at his job and mentally unstable. As my mother would say, ‘God love him, but he’s a raging maniac...’ and a dear, dear friend.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Governor Palin. How will your administration deal with the current financial crisis?”
FEY AS PALIN: “Well first of all, let me say how nice it is to meet Joe Biden. And may I say, up close your hair plugs don’t look nearly as bad as everyone says. You know, John McCain and I, we’re a couple of mavericks. And gosh darnit, we’re gonna take that maverick energy right to Washington and we’re gonna use it to fix this financial crisis and everything else that’s plaguin’ this great country of ours.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “How will you solve the financial crisis by being a maverick?”
FEY AS PALIN: “You know we’re gonna take every aspect of the crisis and look at it and then we’re gonna ask ourselves, ‘what would a maverick do in this situation?’ And then, you know, we’ll do that.” (SHE winks.)
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Senator Biden, how would your administration address the current financial crisis?”
SUDEIKIS AS BIDEN: “Barack Obama and I understand that we need to regulate Wall Street. John McCain voted against Wall Street regulation 41 times. Let me repeat that. 41 times! And again, this is a man I love. If I had to spend the rest of my life on a desert island with only one other person it would be John McCain—no doubt about it. I mean, you should see the way my face lights up when he walks into a room. But the fact is, John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time, let me say that again: time.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Governor Palin, would you like to respond to Senator Biden’s comments about Senator McCain?”
FEY AS PALIN: “No thank you, but I would like to talk about bein’ an outsider. You see while Senator Biden has been in Washington all these years I’ve been with regular people. Hockey moms and Joe Six-packs I’d also like to give a shout out to the third graders of Gladys Woods Elementary who were so helpful to me in my debate prep. Also too, you see, I think a bit differently from an insider. I don’t think it’s patriotic to pay more taxes. I don’t think it’s patriotic to criticize these wars we got goin’ on. I do think it’s patriotic to tell the government, ‘Hey get outta my way! Stop tryin’ to impose on my right to shoot wolves from a helicopter.’ But a Washington insider like Joe Biden probably disagrees.”
SUDEIKIS AS BIDEN: “You know I get a little tired of being told I’m an insider. I come from Scranton, Pennsylvania and that’s as hardscrabble a place as you’re gonna find. I’ll show you around some time and you’ll see. It’s a hellhole. An absolute jerkwater of a town. You couldn’t stand to spend a weekend there. It is just an awful, awful sad place filled with sad desperate people with no ambition. Nobody, and I mean nobody, but me has ever come out of that place. It’s a genetic cesspool. So don’t be telling me that I’m part of the Washington elite because I come from the absolute worst place on Earth: Scranton, Pennsylvania. And Wilmington, Delaware is not much better.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Senator Palin. Address your position on global warming and whether you think it’s man-made or not.”
FEY AS PALIN: “Gwen, we don’t know if this climate change hoozie-what’s-it is man-made or if it’s just a natural part of the ‘End of Days.’ But I’m not gonna talk about that I would like to talk about taxes, because with Barack Obama, you’re gonna be paying higher taxes. But not with me and my fellow maverick. We are not afraid to get maverick-y in there and ruffle feathers and not got to allow that. And also, too, the great Ronald Reagan.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “The next question is for you, Senator Biden. Do you support, as they do in Alaska, granting same-sex benefits to couples?”
SUDEIKIS AS BIDEN: “I do. In an Obama-Biden administration same-sex couples would be guaranteed the same property rights, rights to insurance, and rights of ownership as heterosexual couples. There will be no distinction. I repeat, no distinction.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “So to clarify, do you support gay marriage, Senator Biden?”
SUDEIKIS AS BIDEN: “Absolutely not. But I do think they should be allowed to visit one another in the hospital and in a lot of ways, that’s just as good, if not better.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Governor Palin. Would you extend same-sex rights to the entire country?”
FEY AS PALIN: “You know I would be afraid of where that would lead. I believe marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers. But don’t think I don’t tolerate gay people. Because I do. I tolerate them with all my heart. And I know quite a few too. Not personally. But I know of them. I’ve seen ‘Ellen.’ Oh, and there was this one girl on my college basketball team. She wasn’t officially ‘a gay,’ but, you know, we were pretty sure.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Governor Palin, what is your position on Healthcare regulation?”
FEY AS PALIN: “I’m gonna ignore that question and instead talk about Israel. I love Israel so much. Bless its heart. There’s a special place for Israel in heaven. And I know some people are going to say I’m only saying that to pander to Florida voters, but from a very young age, my two greatest loves were always Jews and Cuban food.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “I would now like to give each of you a chance to make a closing statement.”
FEY AS PALIN: : (holding flute): Oh, are we not doing the talent portion?
(FEY AS PALIN plays flute, winks)
(LATIFAH AS IFILL stares)
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Senator Biden, your closing statement?”
SUDEIKIS AS BIDEN: “My goal tonight was a simple one. To come up here and at no point seem like a condescending, egomaniacal bully, and I’m gonna be honest, I think I nailed it. Sure there were moments when I wanted to say, ‘Hey, this lady is a dummy!’ But I didn’t. Because Joe Biden is better than that. I repeat Joe Biden is better than that (pointing at FEY/PALIN). So to all of the pundits who said I would seem cocky or arrogant. You dopes got schooled Biden-style.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Governor Palin?”
FEY AS PALIN: “I liked being here tonight answering these tough questions without the filter of the mainstream gotcha media with their ‘follow-up questions,’ ‘fact-checking’ or ‘incessant need to figure out what your words mean and why ya put them in that order.’ I’m happy to be speaking directly to the American people to let them know if you want an outsider who doesn’t like politics as usual or pronouncin’ the “g” and the end of words she’s sayin’ I think you know who to vote for. Oh, and for those Joe Six-packs out there playing a drinking game at home—Maverick.”
LATIFAH AS IFILL: “Well, this concludes tonight’s debate. The book drops November 4, and Live From New York...It’s Saturday Night!
"You Betcha!"
A phrase that can be translated into the following...
1- "Yes"
2- "I agree"
3- "You sound like you know more then I do"
4- "You're wrong, but I'll make you feel better about it"
5- "If not more"
6- "You're annoying"
Example:
1- "And would you like fries with that?" You Betcha
2- "This weather could be worst." You Betcha
3- "...therefore those chemicals cannot be mixed." You Betcha
4- "Our neighbor is one of them gay guys, I think, don't cha know." You Betcha
5- "We got at least three feet of snow." You Betcha
6- "Oh my god, I was like, no way, and he was like, way." You Betcha
Friday, October 3, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
"F" the bailouts! DON'T GIVE IN! Take back [y]our country!
A government bailout of the housing market is both fiscally and morally irresponsible; it is an unfair subsidy being paid to the wealthy bankers, the greedy mortgage brokers, flippers, and yes some homeowners, and the incautious, with little or no benefit to those paying the bill--taxpayers.
Why should responsible Americans be
forced to pay for the mistakes of others?
A bailout is morally irresponsible because it encourages reckless and irrational behavior.
- A bailout tells responsible Americans that they are suckers. If responsible Americans had been smart, they would NOT have overextended themselves, purchased homes they could not afford, and taken out home equity loans based on the paper value of their property.
- A bailout will force Americans who acted responsibly to pay for those who did not. The average American -- who saved and scrimped for years to buy a house, but could not because speculators and over-extenders boosted home prices beyond affordability -- will now be forced to pay for the homes of those who were less scrupulous.
- A bailout props up over-inflated housing prices, thereby putting homeownership out of reach for young families and responsible Americans who recognized that there was a bubble. The housing market needs the correction that the bailout seeks to prevent because the average American cannot afford to purchase a home. "You cannot be both in favor of affordable housing and in favor of propping up home prices!"
- A bailout creates perverse incentives. Rather than punishing their behavior, it encourages fiscal irresponsibility among bankers, mortgage brokers, speculators, and refinancers. These folks made money hand over fist in the past nine years (remember, homeborrowers who tapped their home equity received cash money to pay for Escalades, vacations, and stainless steel appliances; now they want you to pay for it!). Why change your behavior when you benefit from it?
- A bailout shifts the risks of falling market prices from financially secure banks to the American taxpayer. As a result, either taxes or the federal deficit will skyrocket! This is a government handout that we simply cannot afford and, moreover, it is wrong!
A bailout is contrary to the free market principles upon which our economy is based. It jams a huge wrench into the market correction, with negative effects that will be both severe and long-term.
It will truly be a sad day in America when our politicians vote to bail out the few from their irresponsibility to the detriment of the many who were responsible.
We, the American people, deserve better.
Stop the Housing Bailout!!!
Friday, September 26, 2008
A lesson from Luke: Do Not Conform!!!
Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008)
A true American!!!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
...we do it everyday.
Brett Dennen - Ain't No Reason
There ain’t no reason things are this way.
Its how they always been and they intend to stay.
I can't explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.
Preachers on the podium speakin’ of saints in seance,
Prophets on the sidewalk beggin’ for change,
Old ladies laughing from the fire escape, cursing my name.
I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same,
A window and a pigeon with a broken wing,
You can spend your whole life workin’ for something
Just to have it taken away.
People walk around pushing back their debts,
Wearing pay checks like necklaces and bracelets,
Talking ‘bout nothing, not thinking ‘bout death,
Every little heartbeat, every little breath.
People walk a tight rope on a razors edge
Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons.
It could be a bomb or a bullet or a pen
Or a thought or a word or a sentence.
There Ain't no reason things are this way.
It's how they always been and they intend to stay
I don’t know why I say the things I say, but I say them anyway.
But love will come set me free
Love will come set me free,I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes.
Prison walls still standing tall,
Some things never change at all.
Keep on buildin’ prisons, gonna fill them all,
Keep on buildin’ bombs, gonna drop them all.
Working your fingers bear to the bone,
Breaking your back, make you sell your soul.
Like a lung that’s filled with coal, suffocatin’ slow.
The wind blows wild and I may move,
The politicians lie and I am not fooled.
You don't need no reason or a three piece suit to argue the truth.
The air on my skin and the world under my toes,
Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes,
Chaos and commotion wherever I go, love I try to follow.
Love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes.
There ain't no reason things are this way
It’s how they always been and they intend to stay
I can't explain why we live this way, we do it everyday.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
The Ball Is In His Court
Rafael Nadal is enjoying his time at the Beijing Olympics--both on and off court. For the Spaniard, it's a welcome novelty to stay in the athletes' village--even if it means being stopped dozens of times in a day for autographs and photos with fellow competitors.Tennis players rank at the top level of the pecking order in Olympic-land, and Nadal--who becomes ATP No.1 on Monday--is atop the heap. But the four-time French Open champion refuses to let his elite status go to his head.
"At the Olympic Village you have no driver at the door and no amazing room accommodations; who needs that to be happy?" he said. Getting back to the people has a good learning experience for the 20-year-old. "It really helps you see what real life is like."
The Swiss flag-bearer is having to stay in a hotel in the Chinese capital, because four years ago he was so inundated with requests for autographs and photos by fellow residents in the Olympic village in Athens that he found himself unable to eat a meal in the dining hall due to the constant interruptions.
Nadal, who insisted on being in the village with the rest of the Spanish team, found out about his new status almost as soon as his plane touched down in the Olympic city. He was surrounded by many other sporting superstars, but it was tennis' man of the moment who was mobbed.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
La Balle Au Mur
Journey
Have you ever seen a 77-year-old man do pushups?
“Here, it’s easy, you try it,” says grey-bearded Torben Ulrich as he flips a half-moon ball, balances the rubber on his carpet and thrusts away from the floor. “It’s a good feeling.”
Never mind that Ulrich played his last pro tennis match before resistance balls were invented. Here he is, prone on the bedroom floor of his upscale Seattle apartment, pistons pumping like a Marine.
But Ulrich is not tennis’ answer to Jack LaLanne; his home is the byproduct of a mind as busy as his body. Bookshelves cocoon every room, stacked high and wide with tomes like Women Mystics of Medieval Europe and Wit and its Relation to the Unconsciousness. An extravagant Buddhist shrine spans the sparse family room, adorned with 20 or so photos of teachers, tidy cups of rice and incense, and two statues of deities in mid-pose.
But what’s most striking are the bamboo ladders, in the foyer and bedroom. One narrows as it extends downward, the other closes in on its way up.
“We like to think of ourselves as living in the space in between,” Ulrich says about the home he shares with wife Molly Martin. “Where we can abstain from the ranking system—where one is better than another.”
In many ways, Ulrich has lived in that space his entire life. During his five decades on tour he beat the world’s best tennis players, set Davis Cup records and won a Wimbledon tournament. But to him the titles are almost accidental, consequences of a larger ideal. Younger generations recognize him as the father of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, but tennis fans know his persona ventures from athlete to musician, painter, poet, filmmaker, novelist, journalist. As we sit down, he opens two biographies published in his native Denmark. In one, a photo shows him stark naked in front of a tent at a spiritual retreat in Saanen, Switzerland. In the other, he’s getting hauled off a court in Calcutta after collapsing mid-match.
As a child in Copenhagen, Torben Ulrich excelled in speed skating, soccer and handball, but “my very earliest years were around the tennis court,” he says. He, brother Jorgen and father Einer formed the royal family of Danish tennis, playing 228 Davis Cup matches among them. To this day, Torben holds the Danish record for most ties (40) and years played (20).
In the ’50s and ’60s, Ulrich won a dozen Danish championships and took home titles around the world, including the French Indoor Championships and the Asian Championships in Lahore, Pakistan. “He plays a game within a game according to the rules he alone understands, to a tune he alone is hearing,” wrote Sports Illustrated in 1969. “He becomes a part of the game, not a disruptive part, but a part almost like the ball, moving as gracefully, as predictably as the movements of a piece of music.”
Ulrich’s focus showed on the Grand Masters tour; today he prefers to mug for the camera at Seattle’s Pike Place Market.
Music, it turns out, is the perfect analogy. From the very beginning, Ulrich’s racquet wasn’t his only instrument. He cherished his clarinet just as much, if not more. In 1952 Ulrich and friends opened the Blue Note, a club that gave him the chance to share the stage with greats like Louis Armstrong, Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon (Lars’ godfather) as they passed through Copenhagen. Not surprisingly, smoky jazz bars and singles matches weren’t always a harmonious combination. “Sometimes I couldn’t even get up for air,” Ulrich says.
In his halcyon youth, Ulrich would play at the Blue Note until about 1 a.m., head off to the office of the Danish newspaper Politiken for food, write a jazz column, then hit a café. “I’d meet up with friends who were still up, and then we’d have some beers and some breakfast, and sometimes sit there until 11 or 12,” he says. Noon meant band rehearsal, and then it was off to practice with the Davis Cup team at 4. When that wound down, it was time for another show at the Blue Note. “And all of a sudden, there were three or four days where I hadn’t slept,” he says. “But you can see how if you got into that cycle, and if you saw a lady or two in between, there was a lot of stuff going on.” More than once, it became too much.
“I had the taxi guy take me to the hospital, and I’d sort of lay low there for a couple of days,” he recalls thoughtfully.
The tennis circuit pulled just as hard, whether it was exploring Marrakech in a tournament car or gallivanting through Egypt with Gussie Moran, the sport’s first female sex symbol. “He made it to the top of the world of tennis without having to dedicate himself 24/7 just to tennis,” says fellow pro Jim McManus. “And I think that’s the remarkable thing about Torben; his 24/7 included so many other things that it would fill 10 lifetimes of most normal people.”
But even the most steely-eyed explorer can’t keep such a schedule forever. At 45, Ulrich was invited to join the famed Grand Masters circuit, which featured champions who could still swing a mean stroke, like Pancho Gonzales and Frank Sedgman. (Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall joined later.) “It wasn’t until the Grand Masters that [tennis] was more of a singularity,” Ulrich says. And then the true athlete bloomed, claiming the No. 1 world ranking on the circuit in 1976, and taking the Wimbledon Centennial senior doubles title with Sven Davidson.
..............................
Before Metallica, Lars Ulrich was a ranked juniors player in Denmark...............................
But even at his career apex, Ulrich maintains that he was never interested in the outcome. “I know what the score is, but it doesn’t mean I’m attached to it,” says the devout Buddhist. “To me, the competition part of it, the score, was never of such importance. All of this was more of being open to a larger adventure, if you will, in terms of coming to a place and being open to what can happen, what you can learn.”
Stories of Ulrich’s spirit have filled books and locker rooms around the world. To kill time between practice sessions at Wimbledon, he would venture to a bank of phone booths under Centre Court and practice a saxophone down the line. (“I could play around seven minutes in one booth, and then I couldn’t breathe any more,” he says. “It would be too moist and soggy.”) He performed muscle experiments, like opening a door for half an hour or pushing a ball around a court with his nose. Following an old Tibetan practice, he spent three months trekking across Denmark by laying on the ground, standing, moving three feet, laying back down and repeating—for 90 miles.
Outside of his apartment, Ulrich acts his age. He takes my arm as we inch through Seattle’s Pike Place Market, past stalls hosing down and folding up for the night. We stop at a spot where young men hurl salmon from counter to counter to the delight of a few remaining tourists. “Hey, Mr. T!” shouts a fish flinger. They embrace, and make plans to play music later in the week. “This guy is a book of stories,” he says to me as Ulrich beams.
At 77, Ulrich is just as busy as he once was and ever will be. He recently finished a book of poems (or “lines”) called Terninger, tonefald, and crafted an essay on Sigmund Freud for a Danish book commemorating Freud’s 150th birthday. When the mood strikes he will wrap a studio in visqueen and slap ink-soaked jump ropes on rice paper, then “seal” the work with an inked tennis ball and poetry. He’s working on a sequel to his 2002 film, Before the Wall: Body & Being, an analysis of breath and awareness, whose soundtrack consists entirely of modulations of the smack of a Lars forehand. He vocalizes for an experimental Seattle band, However, with an “aspiration to dwell on sound itself as it unfolds in a fragile balance of line and pulse.”
And he still finds time for tennis. Every so often Ulrich’s neighbors will pull into their underground parking garage to find a lean, bearded man wearing a backwards hat and nailing forehands and backhands off the concrete walls. He does it as much for the exercise as to explore the sounds that reverberate off every corner.
But exploration takes many forms. Up in the living room, Ulrich takes a flute from a case, puts it to his lips and blows. But there’s no note—just a faint, flitty wind sound. “I’m trying to play a tone on the flute that is not there, so you only hear the overtones, where the flute kind of breaks,” he says. “The interplay of what you don’t see is what I’m interested in. “To me, the space in between is very important. The rhythm of that possibility, but also the breathing of that rhythm, if you will. The breathing of possibility.”
Torben Ulrich won a dozen championships in the '50s and '60s; An Ulrich original.
"Journey of a Lifetime", by Matt Williams, Deuce Magazine, June 2006 -- [http://www.deucemagazine.com/]
Torben's Art
...using tennis racquets and balls and also skipping rope with paint.
Makes excellent Wallpaper!La Balle Au Mur
"The Ball and The Wall"
("La Balle Au Mur")
For many ballplayers, across the various fields, having a wall as a practice partner was a training tool almost taken for granted. Over the years, however (with the advent of ball machines, etc.), the wall as a place of practice seemed to go out of fashion, if not become almost obsolete. Gil de Kermadec of the French Tennis Federation, director of an exemplary series of films on tennis (McEnroe, Borg, Evert, Connors), here sets out with Torben Ulrich in a two-fold approach, asking many past champions (Lacoste, Laver, Navratilova, Rosewall, Nastase) about their experiences with the wall, as well as looking into a variety of techniques that could extend the possibilities for practice and play.
Directed by Gil de Kermadec and T.U., 1988. 45 minutes
Note: Recent attempts by e-mail to inquire about purchasing this or other films/videos have not received a response.
After Work: Unusual post-tennis careers
http://www.tennis.com/features/general/features.aspx?id=100126
By Dan Weil
Photos by Getty Images/Hulton Archives
Pro tennis players, emerging from all corners of the globe and all different kinds of backgrounds, are an engaging bunch. Playing an individual sport, many of them march to the beat of their own drums.So it’s probably not a huge surprise that after their playing days are over, many former pros end up in jobs a bit less conventional than a middle-management position at a major corporation.Some, of course, stay closely connected to tennis. John McEnroe, Patrick McEnroe, Pam Shriver, Cliff Drysdale and Mary Joe Fernandez, among others, have had years of success as TV commentators. Others have taken up coaching, like Tony Roche, Brad Gilbert and now Jimmy Connors. Jim Courier has revived the senior tour in the U.S. with the Outback Champions Series.But others have gone far afield from their playing days. Here are a few of the most interesting career choices.
Andrea Jaeger — This two-time Grand Slam finalist, now 41, seemed to cultivate the ultimate teen-brat image during her heyday in the early 1980s. Perhaps she was just misunderstood. After injuries forced an early retirement, Jaeger used the money she made from tennis to start the Little Star Foundation in 1990. The group provides all kinds of support to children suffering from disease and poverty, including trips to a ranch in Aspen for the kids to have a week of fun. Jaeger has drawn the support of John McEnroe, Little Star’s first donor; Andre Agassi; and Pete Sampras too. And if that wasn’t virtuous enough, last September, Jaeger became an Anglican Dominican nun.
Torben Ulrich— Tennis has had a few renaissance men and women, none more so than the 77-year-old Dane who played Davis Cup for 20 years. He answers to writer, artist, musician and filmmaker. He also is father of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Torben once created Jackson Pollock-like art by dipping tennis balls in paint and then pelting them against a canvas. His writing ranges from books of poetry to commentary on Sigmund Freud. During his playing days, Ulrich opened a jazz club in Copenhagen and played saxophone for seven minutes in a phone booth under Wimbledon’s Centre Court – until he couldn’t breath anymore. Now he can spend hours blowing into a flute, searching for a new tone.
Roscoe Tanner— He won the Australian Open in 1977 and was Wimbledon runner-up in 1979. But since retiring from the tour in 1985, life has snowballed downhill for the 55-year-old former Stanford star. He has been married three times, impregnated a woman from an escort service, bounced a check to buy a boat, used the boat as collateral for a loan and spent 10 months at prisons in Germany and the U.S. for unpaid child support and debt. The tennis court has been no sanctuary for Tanner. He has been arrested twice while playing
The Journeyman On Torben Ulrich
This week, I’d like to talk about one of the most eccentric professional tennis players ever. Torben Ulrich, from Copenhagen, Denmark, was a long-haired, bearded Charles Manson lookalike who competed from the 1940s to the 1970s. He won many singles titles and played in numerous Davis Cup matches for Denmark. He was one of the founding members of the ATP Tour in 1972.
He was a mainstay on the tour in the 1960s, but never won a Grand Slam title. He was prolific in many endeavors, including filmmaking, radio, paintings, and a music career. He would schedule practice courts at Wimbledon at dusk and instead of having a knock up with a player, he would sit cross-legged at the corner of the service box in the middle of the court and meditate to soak up positive energy with the hope that it would carry over into his match the next day.
In the 1950s, he would write reviews for the Daily Paper Politiken in Copenhagen about jazz music. He penned a book titled “Jazz, bold and buddhisme,” an anthology of his writings from the 1940s to 2000, published by Informations Forlag.
His most famous creative product was probably the film he co-directed with Frenchman Gil de Kermadec called “The Ball and the Wall,” about the importance of hitting against the wall in tennis. The film includes numerous interviews with former champions and footage of him hitting a ball against many walls around the globe.
Ulrich also dabbled in painting. He would make imprints with ink and acrylic on rice paper and use tennis racquets and balls and also skipping rope with paint on it as his instruments. He also was a radio correspondent in the US while on the road playing tennis. He would host the show and relay new jazz music from around the world to Danish radio. His son Lars, is currently the drummer for the rock band Metallica.
Lastly, Ulrich was a deep thinker. Upon the coin toss in a match against Tony Roche once at Wimbledon, Roche spun his racket and asked Ulrich to pick the up or down sign on his racket. Ulrich replied before the toss, “I like watching your service motion, it’s so elegant, why don’t you serve first Tony?”
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