Quote of the Day/Week- Chris Rock

Today's quote of the day/week comes from Chris Rock, 47, who was one of the subjects of Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' excellent photography "The Black List" at the National Portraits Gallery, that ran until April 22nd.

Rock is a comedian/actor/film producer who grew up in New York and became a 'not ready for prime time' player on "Saturday Night Live." Rock is one of the few "SNL" alumni who became famous in spite of being on the show rather than being on it because his presence on the show was limited to stint appearances and bit parts.

But, Rock made a stellar comeback on the standup comedy circuit, and by 1998, he was a full-fledged movie star. Rock who has appeared in such films as "New Jack City," "Dogma" and "Bee Movie" also played a fictional president in the film "Head of State," which makes this quote, from when George W. Bush was president, quite ironic, as well as the fact that Barack Obama is now the leader of the free world:

"A white boy that makes Cs in college can make it to the White House."

SIDEBAR: Well, we apparently jinxed tennis star Serena Williams as she was upset in her French Open opener to Virginate Razzano, 29, a virtually unknown French tennis player. We also goofed when we said that Williams had advanced to the quarterfinals of the French Open, as it was the tourney was not even underway! But, thankfully, no pays attention to blogs. Having said, thanks to those of you in Indonesia, Taiwan and Ukraine who stopped by here today!

http://www.chrisrock.com

http://www.washington.org

http://blacklistphoto.com

Quote of the Day/Week-Serena Williams

Today, we continue our series of quotes from African-Americans who were subjects of the great photograph exhibit entitled "The Black List" by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, who is not actually African-American himself. (The above above was not taken by the photographer).

Since we are also quoting American athletes who have won gold or silver this month, we thought a quip from Serena Williams, 30, would be appropriate.

Williams has won over $30 million in prize money, according to Wikipedia. In November of 2009, she received a number-one ranking ranking for the fifth time in her career. In total, Williams has won 27 grand slam titles, and two gold Olympic gold medals in double's play.

She is a year younger than her sister Venus Williams, who is a superstar in her own right.

Currently, Serena is playing in the French Open. Earlier in the tournament, she beat Russian tennis player Nadia Petrova, and (from what we gather) she will face Russian star Maria Sharapova this weekend.

The Black List ran at the National Portraits Gallery in Washington, DC, until April 22.

Here is Serena's quote, it is reference to playing her sister Venus:

"Family's first, and that's what matters most. We realize that our love goes deeper than the game."

SIDEBAR: We were wondering here at "The Daily Vampire" that if former Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes whom we have quoted here were to face former Olympic Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu, who was actually born in Bulgaria where Turks were the leading minority before defecting from then-communist Bulgaria to Turkey in Australia_of all places, in a game of chess just who would win? Dawes, who is African-American, was not among the subjects of "The Black List."

SIDEBAR TWO:  We thought we'd promote two of our favorite cinemas by mentioning that "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" is opening at the a/perture Cinema in Winston-Salem, NC, today., and "Dr.Seuss' The Lorax" will show for a week at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va.


http://www.greenfieldsanders.com

http://www.serenawilliams.com

http://www.dominiquedawes.com

http://aperturecinema.com

http://www.thelyric.com

Sports Desk_ More Info on Tennis and Futbol

While the ceremonies at Ground Zero, The Pentagon, and Pennsylvania were making headlines this weekend, there were also lots of things going on in the sports world.
Alas, due to space constriants, we can only talk about tennis and soccer.

Let's begin with the U.S. Open women's tennis final where Samantha Stosur, 27, from Gold Coast, Australia, (pictured above) became the first Aussie woman to win the tournament since 1973: 6-2; 6-3.

In the process, she was able to win over favorite and crowd favorite Serena Williams, 29, who has 27 grand slam titles, including doubles, to her credit.

In the quarterfinals, Williams had defeated one of my favorite players, Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (I love people with long, difficult surnames since I have one myself). But, the 20-year-old should be moving up from her current number 16 ranking after her stellar play in New York.

In the soccer universe, we start in Italy where Juventus beat Parma 4-1 at home in a game that was mentioned a few entries ago. Two of the four Juventus goals game from Italian stars Simon Pepe and Claudio Marchisio.

In England, in a game that was nationally televised in America, Chelsea beat Sunderland 2-1 with goals from John Terry and Daniel Sturridge.

I was under the impression that play in the Turkish Premiere League would be delayed due to a match-fixing scandal, but the league started action over the weekend. Yesterday, my favorite Turkish team (well along with GalataSaray) Bursaspor won a home game over Kayserispor 3-0, in Bursa, with goals from Turkish star Ozan Ipek as well as Gokcek Vederson (who is half-Turkish and half-Brazilian!) and Argentine Pablo Battalla.

Here in the United States, in MLS play, D.C. United traveled from the nation's capital to Los Angeles over the weekend where they beat Chivas USA 3-0. All three goals were scored by Charlie Davies (pictured here).

Now, back to the regular news....

Quote of the Day- Ingmar Bergman

This month, we are featuring quotes from famous film directors and Scandanavians, and perhaps it is fitting that we begin wtih the late, iconic Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman ("The Seventh Seal, "Persona," "Fanny and Alexander").

Here is the quote:

"I am so 100 percent Swedish....Someone has said a Swede is like a bottle of ketchup_ nothing and nothing and then everything at once_splat! I think I'm like that."

For more information on the famed director, we suggest that you read about Bergman in the Australian web journal "Senses of Cinema" (sensesofcinema.org). I was going to try to write a selection on the American film director Stanley Kramer ("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?") for them, but I never got around to it.

SIDEBAR: We love people with long, difficult names, so we were delighted to watch Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova,20, (we checked the spelling of her name four times!) advance in the U.S Open tennis tournament by defeating Francesca Schiavone, another person with a tricky name, over the Labor Day weekend.

Alas, for the young Russian tennis star mother nature is preventing her next match with American superstar Serena Williams as rain forced postponements of matches in New York for a second misreable day in a row.