#7: Missing Me One Place Search Another
— “AN ERASURE POEM …” by Ashley Cline, HAD.
Over the past few days, I had a conversation with a woman about what it was like to be an airline attendant on call during this moment in the pandemic (I teasingly suggested that all that waiting around left her well-prepared for a career in cinema), played a game of one-on-one basketball with a young man who was convinced I had some sort of connection to the Boston Celtics, and had a conversation with an author I recently published about The Mission in San Francisco.
Above: a video essay on Kevin Durant, who scored 29 points in the USA’s gold medal game.
I also watched the USA Men’s Basketball team win gold against France late Thursday night from an undisclosed location in Maryland. The team was coached by Greg Popovich, who has been the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs since 1996, winning a NBA title five times.
But there were a few people out there who saw the USA lose to Nigeria and Australia in two exhibition games and lose to France in the opening match of the Olympics and decided that something had gone horribly wrong. A diagnosis was necessary. Something had to be done. Draymond Green was kind enough to ask OldTakesExposed to collate a few of those voices together, so I won’t share that here.
What I am going to share is an excerpt from an article about Greg Popovich’s lifelong obsession with wine, which you should read in full —
Says one former player: "I was friends with every single teammate I ever had in my [time] with the Spurs. That might sound far-fetched, but it's true. And those team meals were one of the biggest reasons why. To take the time to slow down and truly dine with someone in this day and age — I'm talking a two- or three-hour dinner — you naturally connect on a different level than just on the court or in the locker room. It seems like a pretty obvious way to build team chemistry, but the tricky part is getting everyone to buy in and actually want to go. You combine amazing restaurants with an interesting group of teammates from a bunch of different countries and the result is some of the best memories I have from my career."
— as it’s one of the few non-politician-related pieces of writing I’ve seen that talks so vividly about leadership without really talking about leadership.
Which means that we can classify the inverse here — bad leadership — as an easy meal. “After the first few bites,” Anthony Bourdain told an interviewer in 2002 when speaking of ‘easy food,’ “there’s no pleasure.”
And it’s so easy to get all this wrong. It’s so easy to think that we’ve nailed the meal, whether figurative or otherwise. And there’s a portion of our society where ‘power’ is so clearly defined by those who can leave their hand on the figurative whirling millstone the longest. And I wonder about that.
Gunderson waits on the porch, a bouquet of cash stuffed in his fist. The car that rolls up is an old tri-color hatchback, mustard and lime and urban rust, one of those discontinued brands from one of those discontinued countries in Eastern Europe. Gunderson could hear the vehicle’s noisy carping from eight blocks away, like a herd of wild trashcans rolling down the street. The backseat is blanketed in checkerboard flannel, obscuring some disreputable stainage, a ladies underwear garment knotted on the rearview mirror. The promotional Pete’s Pizza shark fin dangles from a dinky cord on the roof. (“Slung Out and Wayward,” David Nutt, Hobart.)
CLIMATE CORNER: “Miami sees ‘climate gentrification’ as wealthy investors look inland.” “Should capitalism survive climate change?” “Unique Sustainable Home Built with Nearly 100% Natural Materials.” “How to build an artificial tree.” “Some Sample ‘Wows’ from Biosphere History.” “The quiet fight to save the golden-shouldered parrot.” “What if Highways Were Electric? Germany Is Testing the Idea.” “Emissions from cows on New Zealand dairy farms reach record levels.” Carbon emissions from fires in Siberia.
The honeymoon suite in the bed and breakfast had a Harley-Davidson theme. When the brochure said ‘a haven for bikers,’ we assumed Schwinn. Cycling was part of our life – Mason had done the Tour d’Organics twice and I was last year’s Taming the Tetons champion. The wedding cake was shaped like a bicycle wheel. Our relatives sang Bicycle Built for Two as we rode away from the reception on a big-tire tandem with whitewalls. Two people, two wheels, always in motion, always in the same direction, no braking now – those were the kinds of toasts made with the champagne we’d bought in bulk from Sam’s Club the day before. (“Velocity,” Martha Clarkson, Hobart.)
ON BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO THIS WEEK: A Quick Note On This Year’s NBA Free Agency / Daedalus’s Daughter / A Certain Existence / A Chat with Olivia Peña / Gunderson All in One Place / and More
ZINE OF THE WEEK (click on the image!):
UPCOMING/OF NOTE:
New Australia Fiction 2021 is available for pre-order.
A BARBARIC YAWP FROM AMH BAND, WHO HAVE AN EXCELLENT TIK TOK: