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TennEx, Anyone?
[previous] :: [next]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.
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. This article has been viewed 3411 times in the last 3 years jeeff: 16th Sep 2005 - 05:11 GMTi've noticed a lot of sponsored events like this whenever i've been in new york. it's natural with such a concentration of resources & people. but i've always imagined that new yorkers must take this kind of thing for granted quite a bit. even in toronto you'd never never see this. kc: 16th Sep 2005 - 11:32 GMTI can't deny I benefited from it, since I don't have cable and wouldn't have seen the tennis otherwise. But the park isn't very big and there were related events at the other end, so it was like the corporation had taken over the whole space. That park now has a hamburger stand called the Shake Shack for which there are huge lines every day...it's reasonably priced and stays open late and serves beer and wine and there are lots of tables around it open to everybody...but as I walked around in the evening I saw all these people sitting around having cocktails...a far cry from the old beer in a bag days. I don't know if it's like that all the time or it was crowded only because of the tennis...I don't mean to romanticize scruffy or act like I can't enjoy this stuff, but on the other hand I grew up in NY in what was apparently a badder time, and I find still find it strange to find myself walking through endless fences, gazing through the mesh at the now beautifully manicured lawns of Central Park...anyway, in Madison Square Park that day I'd rarely had such a complete sense of living in the house of corporate culture... Peter: 16th Sep 2005 - 13:33 GMTmany of us new yorkers are disgusted by this increasing commercialization of public spaces, actually... jeeff: 16th Sep 2005 - 15:26 GMTyeah, it's definitely a fine line to walk. aside from the logos everywhere (and having to present your card to get in??? that's crazy) it sure is a nice opportunity to relax in public space. i've seen a lot of big open-air concerts and things too. hard to villify, but i do hate corporate creep.
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