Clay off clay

originally posted by Larry Stein:
Ah, you're talking about artificial surfaces. Outdoor hard courts in CA are (were?) some sort of concrete mix. Could be cement, I frankly don't have any idea.

I think that comes closer to clay drinking vessels. I don't believe artificial hard surfaces existed to any great degree in the 60s.
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Even with those, depending on how much sand you mix in, I think you can vary the nature of the surface quite a bit.

ETA - but I think you're right that racket spoof has changed the game more than court surface.
 
Some serious drift here. I'm with VLM: would be interesting to participate, ideally with Jeff's idea of clay-cooked food added to the ensemble.
 
A note for New Yorkers or visitors of our fair city, there is in fact a restaurant that serves anfora wines out of clay cups. I bet you'd never guess it, but it is in Brooklyn! Under the Brooklyn Bridge, there is an American Italian restaurant called Ignazio's. They make amazing pizza and run a pretty local and season menu. The wine list includes COS, Cornelissen, and I think Gravner may be on the way. So, there's that.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by Larry Stein:
originally posted by Rahsaan:

Although hardcourt is probably the definition of tennis surface spoof.
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Huh? Could you define that?

I played for 15 years, nearly every day, on what we fondly called "California Cement". Is it because it's a faster surface?
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Not just because it's fast, but because it can be so precisely engineered to produce the desired results. Witness the flap about the "Premier Court" hard surface being used at Austin for the Davis Cup tie which was precisely designed to suit Roddick's serve.

I'm not making a normative judgment here, just drawing a parallel with winemakers who engineer their wines to achieve a desired result, i.e. spoof.
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It's been all downhill since they stopped letting you play shots off the gallery roof.
 
This would be the point in the thread where someone would opine that you have no right to have an opinion on the surface of the tennis court because the tennis ball itself is unnatural.
 
regardless of my opinions on court tennis versus lawn tennis, the tasting sounds very interesting and i would love to be involved.
 
originally posted by Cliff:
originally posted by Larry Stein:
Ah, you're talking about artificial surfaces. Outdoor hard courts in CA are (were?) some sort of concrete mix. Could be cement, I frankly don't have any idea.

I think that comes closer to clay drinking vessels. I don't believe artificial hard surfaces existed to any great degree in the 60s.
Click to expand...

Even with those, depending on how much sand you mix in, I think you can vary the nature of the surface quite a bit.

ETA - but I think you're right that racket spoof has changed the game more than court surface.
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Racket spoof definitely trumps surface spoof IMO. There is also the issue of the balls, which have grown heavier in ATP play over the past few decades and this, too, favors baseline play. Since I only recently gave up my metal racket (which I'd been playing with since my coach forced it on me after I'd splintered 3-4 wooden rackets in quick succession) I can personally attest to the monumental difference provided by these new composite materials and larger heads. Most of the clay courts (NB - I haven't essayed the notorious Spanish red clay) I've played on have been different, but not jarringly so. I was prepared to be far more disoriented on them than I actually felt.

Mark Lipton
 
Red clay is dramatically different from most America hard courts, green clay not so much, though obviously the footwork takes some getting used to.
 
i learned to play on red clay courts at summer camp. i loved those courts. you could slide into shots. the lines were these long heavy plastic strips that had holes in them that you pounded nails into to keep them in place. it took forever to put the lines down and then pull them up at the end of the summer.
old school.

alas, the courts were lost to a major flood (the camp was on a river)some years ago. in their place are hard courts. my heart broke when i heard the old red clay courts had been lost.
 
While clearly nobody is playing with rackets like what Bjorn Borg used to wield, I sense that rackets are actually smaller than what they were at some point in the early '90s. IIRC Connors used something not much smaller than the state of Texas when he made that run at the US Open in '91.
 
Clay courts produce the most beautiful tennis.

We could have a wine jeeb/tennis tournament except that I suspect there would be a lot of sprained ankles in the later rounds.
 
When I read Levi's post in the beginning, it seemed like an exciting idea. The ideas back and forth since have made me see different positions, but in the end, I still think it will be interesting.

I don't groove on drinking sake from boxes, however.

So much is custom.*

Clay vessels are a bit heavy-handed, but who knows? I might just bristle because a friend and blogger (Levi, I will cross-post to other thread) got a Grolleau at work and drank it from a coffee cup. My reaction was: shudder! What, man! Coffee cup!

But I am open of mind.

Perhaps this jeebus has to happen on a clay court with a big screen playing a Cassius Clay match.

And Jeff cooking out of a clay pot. And San Francisco's Mourad Lahlou cooking out of a tajine.

Hey, wait, is this a jeebus or am I lucidly dreaming? Did I just see Chris Coad?

*Leap at me with knives, all. Yes, custom got to be custom because it wasn't a rank failure, she said litotically.
 
originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
or we could jeeb and watch the french open....
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Much more civilized idea.

In the meantime, Madrid's got some good matchups on the way over the next few days.

Although in both cases, the fact that I live on the East Coast of the US means that with the time difference I'm usually not in the mood for breakfast/early afternoon bottles of wine. I mean my name is not Yixin is it.
 
originally posted by Zev Rovine:
A note for New Yorkers or visitors of our fair city, there is in fact a restaurant that serves anfora wines out of clay cups. I bet you'd never guess it, but it is in Brooklyn! Under the Brooklyn Bridge, there is an American Italian restaurant called Ignazio's. They make amazing pizza and run a pretty local and season menu. The wine list includes COS, Cornelissen, and I think Gravner may be on the way. So, there's that.
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Is it possible that one of these guys ferments in plastic buckets?
If so, maybe we could taste the same wine in a plastic cup and a clay cup side by side and see what's showing better? Maybe we could even throw a real glass in the mix, be a little adventurous.
Can't wait!
 
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