Thursday, August 17, 2006

The Fall of the Gods


Hey, man: "Roger Federer lost". The man on the corner of the street: "bullshit". Once again: "C'mon man, that's true, the lord of tennis lost a match, yesterday in Cincinnati". The old man on the corner..."You cannot be serious man, the lord cannot lose...he got a 55-match winning streak in North America, how may I think that came to an end. Impossible. No way". The first man: "I will tell you again: THE LORD was upset by the scottish brat boy in the second round of Cincinnati. So, the streak is over, man". The man on the corner..."Really? The king of tennis lost to Andy Murray ? The youngster advised by Brad Gilbert ? Unbelievable, I thought just only Nadal could have beaten Rogi". The first man, Pemulis: "Exactly, Andy Murray ousted the king in straight set 7-5 6-4, with 7 breaks. Cincinnati is a damned place, Federer's last loss on the american continent also came out there, when Dominik Hrbaty beat him on August 3, 2004. And Murray became the second player to beat Federer this year, joining Rafa Nadal". The man on the corner: "Gosh, the fall of God is real, I'm so sorry. Maybe I ought to get going. Thanks for the update, man".
That's a surreal dialog over Federer's lost. The tennis pro circuit seems to get shocked, everyone but the loser. Infact, Rogi said: "I'm not disappointed. There's no reason to be. It was an incredible run. You always expect a loss once in a while, so when it happens, why be disappointed?". And then: "I knew that my expectations were not to win the tournament here; they were to survive a few rounds...so that's why I'm not disappointed after this loss. I'm actually pretty happy I won a match here".
If I were John McEnroe I would say: "You cannot be serious, Rogi. Last year you played Master Cup with a sprained ankle and you almost won the championships".
I have a question: Is the tennis perfect machine becoming more human?"

Pubblicato da Michael_Pemulis alle 3:38 PM

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Terza di Copertina.

"Cementi di Gloria" è l'opera prima di Paolo Ricaldi, aka Mr. Pemulis, che nell'estate 2007 ha girato in lungo e largo i tornei di preparazione agli Us Open - il c.d. minicircuito chiamato Us Open Series - è tornato sano e salvo, anche se un po' intossicato di Tennis, e ci ha raccontato quanto visto, sentito e percepito nel Nuovo Mondo.
In questo reportage, che è un viaggio picaresco nel nordamerica, intorno al "vuoto" dello showbiz, l'autore alterna con grande potenza espressiva cronache sportive esilaranti, pagine di letteratura minimalista, storie surreali, incubi metropolitani abitati da personaggi dai nomi improbabili e aneddoti irresistibili; e lo fa utilizzando una vasta gamma di registri, che vanno dal comico al noir. Ne risulta un inno sghembo al tennis e alla vita in generale, che fa' di Ricaldi, la "next big thing" del panorama letterario mediterraneo.