TennEx, Anyone?

New York, NY - kc - Friday, September 16th, 2005 : goo

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Last Sunday, September 11, I wandered uptown to Madison Square Park, where the US Open tennis tournament was being broadcast on a large screen thanks to a corporate sponsor. And okay, I have the credit card. That got you access to one of the beach chairs in front of the screen. I sat down in one and somehow stayed for a slightly hallucinatory six hours, from the women's doubles final through the men's singles.

Here's what it looked like when I got there. Bright, not too many people. (Around here, the gorgeous weather in September gives some people a little chill. They say, "It's September 11 weather.")

It was a little weird sitting in my little Amex pen. On one hand I was enjoying it, and so were all the other people running back and forth to the special restaurant snack booths for gourmet sandwiches and white wine, but other hand I was getting creeped out by the selling of the city parks to private vendors. It didn't seem right that you had to have credit to have access.

The beach chair certainly provided a wonderful vantage point for bulding watching. I began to realize how long I'd been there as the shadows moved and the light started to change...

To the left, a great water tower...

To the right, a black box and an old school ornate tower...

There was a long lull between matches, during which I sat with my hands over my ears to block the pounding of the commercials. Helpless to the apparently primal urge for Free Stuff, I found myself joining the folks thronging the Amex staff to get grab big thin towels that said Live and Let Dry and featured several logos. I guess I'll dry the dog with it. The men's final was young Swiss Federer versus old American Agassi. Agassi, below, was the overwhelming crowd favorite.

As the match started, I stood up and realized that not only were the beach chairs and the surrounding bleachers filled, but so was a large lawn extending back behind the pen. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there. For some reason, I was startled to realize that everyone was going to yell and cheer at the TV--I mean, neither of the players could hear the approval--but I gave in and joined in the communal moment.

Photographers and videographers ran through and around the pen, maximizing the commercial potential of the moment..Here we are, we smiling, cheering cardholders!

Eventually, the match was done. And it was good. The Old Guy, once an Upstart and now a Devoted Family Man, had lost. But he had Heart.

And night came to the buildings.

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