SN: A Sort of Tirade

Tell me, what is the point of buying the licensing rights or whatever to broadcast a sporting event (say, tennis) only to not broadcast any matches during the appointed times? Or preempt a portion of a match to play high school basketball highlights? High school basketball?! Highlights?!?!?! Or, you know, bass fishing. Look, I know there are people in the world who live and die by fishing but come on, FSN (or in some areas, FS-SW)! Don't buy the rights to the programming if showing 45 minutes more of water, fish and/or amateur highlights is a higher priority than live QUARTERFINAL tennis! It's ridiculous!

True story:

Live tennis is scheduled for 9 p.m. central on FSN and some bright son-of-a-b*tch decides to allow bass fishing to overrun their timeslot. The live tennis is a quarterfinal match. The quarters, damn it! Featuring Federer and Verdasco (he of Australian Open semi-final fame). Point of mention: the match turned out to be rather anticlimatic and boring but that's beside the point, FSN couldn't have known that. Getting back to it: I'm pissed, tired of waiting, and so take to the internet for a streaming feed. Having found one, I enjoy the match on my awesome, new widescreen computer screen. Sometime around 10:30 I notice FSN has finally broadcasted the match but do I switch off my computer? Hell to the NO. See, this is how viewership dies and fans disappear, crap scheduling like this.

Don't even get me started on how they voided Nadal's match entirely last night. Nadal, the No. 1 tennis player in the world!!! They could play the rare women's match that night -- Azarenka vs Safina, but not Nadal's highly anticipated match. Like, what the f**k?! As a serious Nadal fan my gasket, she was a-blown! Instead, guess what FSN graced their viewing audience with? A doc on a former hockey player. O-kaaaaay. I don't have problems with documentaries on players, not even when its based on sports I couldn't care a whiff about. What does light my fuse is live tennis being ignored in favor of a doc the channel has probably been running for the last year! This whole situation wouldn't suck so much if FSN weren't the only channel licensed to broadcast tennis for at least this week. There's no alternative but sreaming feeds; thank god for streaming feeds! That's how I was able to watch my Nadal survive a fourth round scare and write this awesome post.

Also, what the hell is up with the television scheduling of women's tennis in general? It's rare to catch a WTA match and they killed any early round viewings all together. It's got my mom, a big tennis fan, fit to be tied. I charge sexism. Sure, the women's game sucks right now but there was a time in the '90's when the men's game wasn't so hot either and no one was dodging their matches... or saying they don't deserve their pay for that matter. It's something else that when the men's game has a dip everyone freaks but cautions that highs and lows are normal. However, let the women's game suffer for a stretch and not only does everyone freak out but the real misogynist-*ssholes come out to play.

"The women's game has always been poor," they chortle. "This is why they don't deserve equal prize money."

Blah, blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-f**k you!

There's a power vacuum in the WTA, it happens, suck it! Trust me, the men's game was no fun for some people (namely me) when Federer was dominating and every other player was too crap or too puss to be anything more than bone-meal in his trough. I'm not particularly pleased with what's happening at the very top of women's tennis but I know they'll pull it out because that's what happens in tennis and in sports.

That's all I got.
/tirade

Happy Nappy

I've taken real pride in my hair lately. My hair, my crown, I have abused and ignored it for many years only occasionally raising a hand to my tender 'fro to braid it. After an abbreviated flirtation with a wig (blame my mother) it has been nothing but conditioning and cornrows for this girl. Releasing my hair once a month for a thorough shampooing and deep conditioning -- in conjunction with the light condition and rinse week-in and week-out. Each month of strong growth and minimal breakage had me sit up and take notice: if I'm good I can get the rocking 'fro I've always wanted! It's a 'duh' moment to be sure but there is a persistent myth in the Black girl community which says natural hair can naturally take care of itself. No one actually says that out loud; in fact, if asked we'll give the opposite answer but its a whisper in our heads that won't die an ugly death. I blame relaxers for the ugly rumor; they know after we see the mess we make out of our hair we'll run scared to the perm.

For full disclosure: there's nothing I won't blame on perm, nothing! It broke my hair from the first moment my mama tried it on me and since my mom was (is) a great believer in the perm, she never laid the blame at its door. Rather, it fed a deep-seated paranoia about the fragility of Black hair in general and the fear I (and she) would never reach her goal of shoulder blade-length hair; her dream, not mine -- from five through sixteen I was just along for the ride. Look, Black hair is fragile, at least more than most but not so much that it easily breaks when it's growing like weeds from one's skull! I stopped relaxing at sixteen and never looked back. So yeah, I hate relaxers. Besides I'm really suspicious of the origins of it all. I asked myself, why would I / should I relax my hair? Do I really like it, and if so, why? How do I want to wear my hair? Which styles do I like? Those questions led me to my 'fro which, at the time, was no more than a long restful pause between perms.

I'd do extensions -- love me some extensions -- in-between but here in Texas, on the outer outskirts of a major city, there's an awful lot of price gouging going on! I'm used to it now, my military tour having taken me to Alaska and it's dearth of skilled, reasonably priced braiders. I'm originally a Jersey girl and am too used to relatively cheap, fast, professional and good; there was too much available competition per square mile and so no price gouging. When I'm older the plan is to lock my hair and my anticipation of that day is so eager I may not wait.

For the most part I want my hair thick and wild, a carefully constructed unruliness. To that aim I'm taking my hair with a much firmer hand. I bought some stuff from Qhemet Biologics: hair oil rinse; leave-in conditioner; a moisturizing pomade for the scalp and general styling. I like mom-and-pop, particular stuff meant specifically for Black hair. I am well aware that a lot of off-the-shelf product is very good for Black hair. Suave, for example, is a great and very cheap shampoo and conditioner. A few years back Pantene came out with a hair-care line targeted for Black hair, for which a cry of "YES!" was let out. But I like to patronize when I can (or remember) these brave, home-made souls. Do your research, of course, but for the most part the owners and product-makers test out their stuff on their own kinky tresses before imparting it to the world.

Back to my hair! I did my hair in twists for the second time in my life, only this time without the extensions! I used my Qhemet Biologics for the first time and my hair feels baby soft. I'm pretty happy and pleased with the results. Ah, I can feel the new growth already! Cross your fingers for this nappy head!

I don't get it.

Let's talk BS, shall we? Let's talk about the insane woman who allegedly had the letter 'B' carved into her cheek during a robbery at an ATM. Hey, guess what, America! Turns out SHE MADE IT UP!!! She made the whole g-damn thing up! Thank goodness, the Pittsburgh police got the truth out of her after several story inconsistencies/changes and a lie detector test.

When I first heard the original tall tale (as it turns out), I was horrified. I wondered aloud, who would do something that sick? That counter-productive? Rob, then beat a woman because her political viewpoints don't coincide with your own? What a jackass, I thought, what a disgrace; I hope they find him, I said. I also remember thinking the only thing that would make that story even more crazy and disgusting was if she had made it up. But no one would do that, no one would CARVE THEIR OWN FACE UP to cast aspersions on the opposing political party. That's nuts! And unfair -- just because these are heated political times in America does not give me the right to doubt her story. I even felt ashamed the thought had crossed my mind. Unbelievable.

That's some real psycho sh*t, some real 'Single White Female' sh*t (check out the movie of the same title sometime). I mean... WTF! Just WTF! What if some poor Black kid who happened to fit her oh-so vague dark-skinned man description (where have I heard that before?) had been assaulted in some sort of revenge scheme for her "attack"?! What the hell was she thinking?! Crazy McCain Supporter! In some ways I feel bad for McCain -- although she is a local campaign volunteer, she in no way speaks for him, but that is still a whole helping of 'crazy' he didn't need.

I'm just so mad, I can't even think straight.

--
No music today, just rage.