Howdy, Tribe.
How 'bout that Steggy? I think Monday Net Post is a great new addition on a couple of fronts. It's also a terrific Hed (that's journalese for "headline"). Hat tip to Craig B., frequent comment poster - and the world's happiest man - for submitting it.
BTW, Monday Net Post was all Steggy's idea and execution after our initial discussion. I was a little concerned that it might be dull (because of the contents and all the "must have" elements of the typical Monday morning wrap-up) but one thing our Hillbilly Princess knows is how to cut to the chase. She doesn't waste any time trying to turn horse-bleep into ice-cream by commenting on the weekend results (proving once again that American men can't play on clay, Andy Roddick at least went down with guns blazing. . .). It looks to me like Monday Net Post is going to be the Tribe's guide to the week in tennis. I really like "Tribe notes" section; I see unlimited potential here; pretty soon we'll be, like, E-Bay or something (For Sale: Original, unedited transcript of Roger Federer/Novak Djokovic press conference transcript from Switzerland/Serbia-Montenegro Davis Cup tie).
And here's another useful new addition, courtesy of Kamakshi and the Mother Ship. Essentially, The Ticker will bring you news on a constantly updated basis. Kamakshi tells me that she may include lnks in the future, although that slows the process down considerably. Besides, if a particular news item catches your fancy, you can always do the plumbing yourself, armed with The Ticker's intel and Google.
Reviewing your comments, I see that dissatisfaction with The Tennis Channel(actually, it's disillusion with the entire palette of tennis coverage) is running high. My own experience over the weekend in game-rich Andes was probably representative. We simply can't get regular television (except for that commercially uninterrupted, 24/7 movie that those of you who hail from a rural area will recognize: Eternal Blizzard), so I've been a DirecTV satellite subscriber for ages, Extra side benefit of a satellite dish-based system: during really massive lightning or snow storms, the signal gets corrupted and get more Mondrian-esque broken images and sound fragments that you would at your run-of-the-mill, unlistenable Laurie Anderson - remember her? - concert!
Anyway, it was pouring down rain and impossible to mow hay so I wanted to catch the Davis Cup doubles from Moscow. I thought I had subscribed to The Tennis Channel, but after surfing through my 3,456 channels three times, I was blind with rage and ready to do something desperate, like stop wasting my time and call customer service. I feared that TTC was part of a premium plan that I had canceled in one of my periodic belt-tightening frenzies.
Well, it turns out that DTV doesn't offer TTC at all (the lady at the help desk in New Mexico confirmed this). But instead of flat-out admitting that DTV was too cheap or out-to-lunch to offer the network, this lady tried to convince me that there was plenty of tennis content on USA-network, and on TNT. Can you believe it? She was basically saying, Oh, you like that tennis stuff. Well, well. There's no accounting for taste, is there! Why don't you stop bugging me and just try USA, or TNT, we hear they show some of that tennis stuff. Have nice day!
So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to talk to the TTC folks today and ask them what we here at TennisWorld can do to get folks like Direct TV and other content providers to carry tennis channel. If he suggests an email campaign, I'll get the appropriate links. And I'll write a post with specific instructions, and links to other sites like Tennis-X, The Tennis Reporters, so that most fans who get their tennis news and commentary on the web can join the campaign.
A few thoughts on the weekend action later. . .