![]() We turned a jaundiced eye on Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost, Anne Michaels’s Fugitive Pieces, Barbara Gowdy’s The White Bone, Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace. Unnerved by this contradiction, I began to wonder whose side the pop-culture commentator is on.Īt the host’s prodding, the conversation had turned to the disappearance of place from the Canadian novel: the outpouring of novels set in undefined locales, the peculiar state of Canadian commercial publishing, which allows explicitly Canadian cities and details to grace our historical novels but rarely those set in the present. When issues of corporate control came up, he leapt into line with the CEOs. Yet contrary to what you might expect from a critic with these credentials, Jester was no anti-globalization campaigner. He wrote for a magazine that had once been a bastion of the political left he and I shared the distinction of having attacked the Giller Prize. Jester had been described to me as a pop-culture "scenester," a figure who brought a whiff of the underground to mainstream broadcasts and publications. On a Toronto television show I faced Jester, a commentator of particularly rampant contradictions. The pain-though it was enlightening pain-came from the fact that participating in the discussion were anointed cultural critics. This changed when a book I published landed me on panels with outspoken cultural observers.Īccustomed to book promotion as an exercise in slipping into university radio studios to attempt the impossible by talking about short stories or a novel in a way that might persuade a listener to hunt down a small-press book and buy it, I discovered that the pleasure of promoting a non-fiction book was the directness with which one could speak to an audience about the book’s subject matter. Like most readers, I have scanned the irony-drenched ruminations of these pundits in newspapers and magazines, but until recently, I gave little thought to the contradictions inherent in their position. The columnist who offers sardonic insights into trends, fashions, television shows and publishing personalities has become an institution. One of the indispensable figures of contemporary journalism is the cutting-edge cultural commentator. As I told him at the end - just too good.Recent Canadian novels, for all their no-name pandering to the international market, retain their dominance in Canadian bookstores I hit good volleys but he had an answer for everything. "Anything I did, just seemed like he didn't really care. Makes you hit lines, makes you be very aggressive," he added. #The court jester tennis how to#"Against Rafa I did it for four sets and won the match but today I didn't find a solution how to bother him at all," Brown said. On Wednesday he was far too inconsistent and even with his suspect hip, Murray ran down most of his drop shots. He pretty had much a good answer for everything." Two years ago Brown went for everything against Nadal and most of it came off. ![]() "If I stayed back, if I attacked, if I came in, if I chipped, if I hit the ball and came in. ![]() "Today I had the feeling it made no difference what I did," Brown said. #The court jester tennis series#One rally in the sixth game of the first set summed up the day as the two men exchanged a series of quickfire volleys, angled drop shots and huge, hanging lobs, before Murray took the point, with Brown applauded the winning shot. For a Wimbledon crowd who these days are usually served generally predictable baseline fare, it was a rare treat and a flashback to the glory days of John McEnroe et al, when deftness and cute angles could still outwit raw power. Brown's problem, however, was that he missed as many as he made, gifting Murray points alongside those the defending champion had to work for to win. Delicate sliced approaches, audacious drop shots from the baseline, thumping drive volleys from mid-court and lobs galore thrilled the crowd and made Murray work for everything, particularly in a well-balanced first set. The Jamaican-turned German, with massive dreadlocks and a smile to match, nevertheless continues to play the game the way he likes, and the way very few others ever consider these days. Brown has dined out on his second-round Wimbledon victory over Rafa Nadal two years ago, though he has never really since come close to reproducing the sustained brilliance that stunned the Spaniard and he lost 6-3 6-2 6-2 to top seed Murray. By Mitch Phillips LONDON (Reuters) - The crowd favorite faced the crowed pleaser and everyone went home happy as Andy Murray saw off the spirited, unconventional but never really serious challenge of Dustin Brown in a sun-drenched Wimbledon Centre Court clash on Wednesday. ![]()
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