I woke up on Sunday, or more precisely, I was awakened by the Indignant Children as always on weekend mornings. Hungry, had enough of being in bed, they cajoled me to take them downstairs for television, playing and breakfast.
Most of the time, the television consists of something animated, but the girls were playing which allowed me to watch the Wimbledon men’s final. Having just read a very good book – “High Strung” by Stephen Tignor about the rivalry between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, I was geared up for what looked like a classic draw – newly crowned number 1 player in the world Novak Djokovic against reigning champion Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic is the hottest player in the world, having lost only 1 match all year – to Roger Federer on clay at the French Open, which Nadal won.
After a 4 games to 4 first set, Djokovic broke Nadal in the ninth game, then held serve for the set. Then Djokovic completely dominated Nadal in the second set winning 6-1. At that point, I turned the match off – Djokovic was beating Nadal like I had never seen done to the Spaniard before.
The Indignant Wife watch some of the third set, where Nadal came back and won 6 games to one, which lured me into giving it another look. As soon as I started watching again, the 23-year-old Serbian went back to dismantling Nadal, winning 6-3 in the final set.
Honestly, I hadn’t done my homework. I hadn’t realized that Djokovic had defeated Nadal every time the two have met this year. I thought that Nadal was all the way back from the injuries that robbed him of an entire year a couple of years ago, and his reclaiming of the French Open title this year (but of course without facing Djokovic on the clay).
Certainly, he has to be the odds on favorite at the U.S. Open in a few weeks, and he could be having one of the best years a player has ever had (without winning the Grand Slam of course). I just wonder if Djokovic is about to really be “The Man” for a period of time, or will he join so many Hall of Fame level players with a hole in their game? Borg never won the U.S. Open; Lendl never won Wimbledon; Sampras couldn’t win at Rolland Garros; McEnroe never won in Australia or in Paris.
Time will tell, but he certainly dismantled Nadal on Sunday.

As the NFL owners and players met last night and plan to meet again next week with the shadow of training camps not opening in three weeks, another sports league has shuttered itself in a labor dispute and it is surprising to me.
Why? Because it is the NBA that is locking out it’s players. The NBA and Commissioner David Stern have always been smarter than the other leagues in transparency with the players and coming up with creative solutions like the salary cap, the salary floor. That is why the NBA has only had one reduced season due to labor issues – the last lockout that in reduced the 1998-99 season to just 50-games.
Unlike the NFL however, the NBA owners may have a point. They say that 22 of the 30 teams lose money and have in every season since the last CBA was negotiated in 2005. Despite what some people have said to me, I’m not a Communist; the owners have a right to make money in return for putting on the games, and if it’s not working for the owners, perhaps some give backs will be appropriate.
But don’t expect anything to happen soon. Like the NFL, negotiation only began in earnest when the litigation did not conclusively side with either the players or management. Now, with the camps soon to open, there is a sense of urgency. The same will happen in the NBA – neither side is willing to let go too soon, so expect the summer to pass with lots of saber rattling by both sides amounting to not much. I predict that around Labor Day, there will be some urgency to get a deal done with camps soon to open. The owners, of course, hope that the spoiled millionaire players are living paycheck to paycheck, and by mid-August, they are pleading for relief.
So, to Commissioner Stern and Union Leader Billy Hunter – boys, it’s time to earn your multimillion dollar salaries again and fix this mess.

A budget stalemate forced a virtual full shut down of the Minnesota government leaving only a limited array of state services in operation over this holiday weekend. Visitors won’t be able to go to the state parks or the zoo, and travelers will find the highway rest stops shuttered. Road construction projects will cease, as will licensing for teachers and businesses.
Many social service agencies will lose their funding, cutting state support for programs such as job training and homelessness prevention. Those that don’t have reserves will likely close their doors.
Up to 23,000 state workers will be laid off, though they will continue to get health benefits and can return to their jobs when the budget impasse is resolved. All is not shut down, however. A judge ruled that basic health and safety services will continue, as well as funding must continue care for residents in prisons, treatment centers and nursing homes. The state troopers will continue to patrol. The state universities will also remain open.
What’s the story? Minnesota is in no better or worst straits that other states, but Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton wants to raise taxes on the top earners in the state, and the Republicans won’t allow the rich to pay more.
What is with Republicans (other than the apparent blood oath they make to the ultra-rich)? When the country is in trouble, aren’t we ALL supposed to sacrifice for the greater good? Except the greater good is for the 309 million people to sacrifice for the 1 million that are extremely wealthy.
But, it couldn’t happen to a better state. While Minnesota has elected many liberals like Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Paul Wellstone, and Al Franken, this is also the state that elected former wrestler Jesse Ventura to governor, and they are the ones responsible for the hyper-religious nutcase Michelle Bachmann.
Republicans are always talking about taking responsibility – so, the electorate of Minnesota, have a great Fourth of July weekend!

Unlike “The Dark Knight” or “The Fugitive,” I was irked when we Chicagoans had to make room for the filming of the third “Transformers” movie. Now that the film is out, it is getting the usual bad reviews, but I didn’t have to read the paper or go online to know that. Why? Because the director is Michael Bay, the worst director making films today.
Bay consoles himself with the millions that idiots and teenagers spend on his films, but he knows that he’s a bad director. Why do the reviews bother him so much? Maybe it’s because his films are nothing but things blowing up; character development; dialogue; meaningful interaction between characters that could be real human beings is beyond him and always has been . “The Rock” wasted a great cast; “Armageddon” made my head hurt.
But I don’t even blame Bay for this mess. I blame Executive Producer Steven Spielberg. He hasn’t directed a film of his own for years (the last was “Indiana Joens and the Crystal Skull” in 2008) while reaping billions of dollars allowing Bay to heap this cinematic garbage on the populace every couple of summers.
This is yet another example of why Spielberg, despite his need to be taken seriously as a filmmaker, is an entertainer: he is Walt Disney for the 21st Century.
Other than 97% of “Schindler’s List,” and the first 45 minutes of “Saving Private Ryan,” Spielberg has not produced a film that has any “gravitas.” Scorsese, Mamet, Danny Boyle, Spike Lee, Paul Thomas Anderson; these guys make movies for grown-ups – Spielberg makes “entertainments” that gross billions but are the film equivalent of cotton candy – sweet and sticky, gone in a flash in your mouth.

I recently burned out my second iPod. The battery was dying, and I use my iPod daily at work to keep me sane. I can’t work in a quiet environment, especially if I have something important to get done. I need noise. For years, I drug CD players and discs to work so that I could do some work. At first, I resisted having an iPod, but the chance to carry thousands of songs on a machine smaller than a pack of cigarettes was too much for me to resist.
Yes, the sound quality isn’t as good, but just the time I save trying to decide what would be heard on any given day is welcome (not to mention the angst of trying to decide, then something crosses my mind that I want to hear now). I admit that I don’t use my iPhone for music – it has too little space and it doesn’t hold a charge for very long.
You would be surprised to find out how difficult it is to get a simple iPod now. Only the 160G model is available, which is fine by me since I use over half. But you can see where the technology is going – into the Cloud – you can have access to every piece of recorded music in the history of the world on any device – iPhone, iPod touch, etc. Of course, you would have to have Internet or Wi-Fi access constantly, otherwise, you could be without music as you go into a tunnel, or lose signal.
The thought of being able to access the entire catalog of the Bay City Rollers, Manudo, or the Dave Matthews Band is too depressing to think about. But there is another reason why I’m resistant to “the Cloud.” I am a music snob – think of Jack Black in the film “High Fidelity,” he would abuse people who asked for music in the store where he worked that he didn’t like. On top of that, I currently own 3,420 CDs and still have 1,154 albums that I have acquired over the past 45 years or so. I have over 19,000 songs on my iPod, and I like lording it over mere mortals that have 100 CDs at home. With the Cloud, everyone would automatically have more music than I could ever afford to have, and all with no work involved, just buying a subscription and an iPhone.
It’s depressing.

Too much going on with work and the Indignant Family; simply not enough time. But I’m back now.

The rumors were true, I guess. It was said that the Los Angeles Dodgers couldn’t make their June 30 payroll without outside funds. With Major League Baseball putting the kibosh on a deal in which Fox would lend owner Frank McCourt more money, the tie was cast. McCourt, recently having settled his multi-million divorce, had no other way of making payroll, so he succumbed to the inevitable.
Today, the Dodgers, storied franchise and in the past considered one of the strongest franchises in baseball, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. McCourt said that the filing would stabilize the financial future of the team. What is really does is extend the battle for ownership of the Dodgers well beyond this season.
Reportedly, McCourt has obtained $150 million in interim financing. If the bankruptcy court approves that financing, McCourt would meet Thursday’s payroll deadline and could remain in control of the club throughout the bankruptcy proceedings, with the intention of negotiating a television rights deal that would satisfy the court by paying off all creditors in full.
However, under the Major League Baseball constitution, the act of filing for bankruptcy enables the commissioner to strip McCourt of ownership. While it is unclear exactly what the court will do, it usually overrides MLB rules.
So, it appears that the dark cloud will continue to hover over Chavez Ravine for the rest of the year. Commissioner Bud Selig, who put a conservator over the team to protect the franchise, would like to take control and then start taking bids for new ownership for next season. But, for some reason – ego? Hubris? McCourt won’t just accept that he mismanaged the team and his divorce brought down financial ruin on him and the team. Sell the club and let this p.r. nightmare end.