Heard Around the Web

Just to get this blog going, I’ll try to do bite-sized weekly posts with things I liked around the web (or TV, or anywhere else really). In no particular order:

That was definitely a realization, like learning with Chuck and Sarah  that this show was a romance as opposed to simply a fish out of water show. It was the Chuck, Sarah relationship.

‘Chuck’ co-creator Chris Fedak reflecting on the show in a five part interview with Alan Sepinwall at HitFix.com as it comes to an end after an improbable five years on air. It’s a great read for Chuck fans.

The finale aired this Friday (the 27th), and it was a pretty fantastic farewell to the show and the characters. (SPOILERS) I had a grin pretty much the entire two hours as the writers cleverly went through the show’s history and memorable scenes without resorting to the typical flashback montages. I expected (and wanted!) a happily-ever-after ending given the show’s genial nature, but at the back of my mind I was afraid the creators would try to mix it up. And that’s what happened. The farewell for every character, excepting Sarah and Chuck, was cheerful. Sarah and Chuck, though, was more of a bittersweet affair. The writers left it to the audience to interpret how their story continues onwards; whether it was a start of a new romance, or a renewal of the old one. Either way, I’ll miss the show.

I wouldn’t say it’s a two horse race, there’s a horse in Redmond that always suits up and always runs. Apple CEO Tim Cook’ on the mobile space competition (source).

If we read the technology coverage in the past couple of years, pretty much every pundit has already declared iOS and Android as the only dominant platforms in the mobile space. But it’s quite telling that even after a record-breaking quarter for Apple, it hasn’t forgotten about Microsoft. After all this is a company that just doesn’t know how to quit: In 2000, they introduced the Xbox in a similar two horse market, ruled by Sony and Nintendo. People called them late. People called them crazy. It took them eight years to turn in a profit. Now they are ahead of Sony in terms of market share, and in the past year their console division¹ was more  profitable than either Sony’s or Nintendo’s. Apple is well aware of Microsoft’s irksome habit. They’ll be on their toes. It’ll be exciting.

“We made history.” Novak Djokovic after his epic victory over Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open 2012.

Since 2008, we’ve been lucky enough to see a number of mind numbing five-set tennis matches: Wimbledon final ‘08, Australian Open semi-final and final ‘09, Wimbledon final ‘09, US Open semi-finals ‘10 and ‘11, and now the Australian Open semi-final and final ‘12. These matches didn’t just have great tennis, the drama was palpable. There was always an underlying story: The perennial number 2 finally beating the legend at his fortress, the supposed clay-courter silencing his harshest critics by winning two grueling back-to-back five setters to get his first hard court slam, number 15 at 16-14 in the fifth, the joker stopping the king, not once, but twice at the same stage in the same tournament.

And now we have this: The man who won three slams last year in the era of Roger and Rafa went through Murray in what could easily have been the match of the year if not for the fact that the he stepped on-court two days later and played the longest slam final in the history of the Open Era to defend his title. After 5 hours 53 minutes of exhausting, crippling, grueling tennis Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal for a stunning seventh time. I’d describe the match, but Djokovic said it best: it had “everything you can imagine.”

Footnotes