"Battle of the Sexes": Game, set, match, Billie Jean King

Battle of the Sexes /
Emma Stone as Billie Jean King (L) and Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs.

"Battle of the Sexes," a fictionalization of the 1973 exhibition tennis match between World No. 1 Billie Jean King and ex-champion and serial hustler Bobby Riggs, starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell, opened to much fanfare in theaters across the U.S. last month.

It's a very good movie – a beautiful film about sports – with great storytelling, and I was gripped from start to finish. What hadn't occurred to me when I sat down with my wife in a suburban Washington, D.C. theater on a recent Sunday afternoon to see "Battle of the Sexes" was that at its core, it's a lesbian love story that goes back and forth between intimate moments and public events, on and off the court. Throughout the film, we find out just how brave and authentic an athlete – and person – the 29-year-old King really was. Mind you, she just happened to be the top female tennis player in the world, too.

Meanwhile, Riggs had been one of the top players in the 1940s and won six major titles. However, by age 55, the self-avowed male chauvinist pig – both an energetic hustler and promoter, but an ebullient boor – had become a big gambler with a penchant for turning provocation into profit. 

"It was a man vs. woman match made for maximum public-relations gimmickry, but also a deadly serious referendum on equality on and off the court," wrote Manohla Dargis in her review of the film for The New York Times.

Indeed, the bespectacled King was a feminist symbol and the first woman athlete in any sport to win more than $100,000 in a single year. She was the centerpiece of the fledgling Virginia Slims women's professional tour that was out to fight against the gross inequalities that defined men's and women's professional tennis since the beginning of in the Open Era in 1968. Fast forward to the 2017 WTA Finals in Singapore won by Caroline Wozniacki on Sunday, with the awarding of multi-million dollar prize money to its participants and broadcast to a worldwide television audience, and you realize just how far women's tennis has come in the past forty-plus years.

At the same time, during her prime King was championing women's rights, including equal pay. So, in agreeing to play the floppy-haired Riggs in an exhibition match that was staged inside the vast Houston Astrodome in Houston, Texas – and televised in evening prime time throughout the U.S. – it became both personal and political while remaining entertainment, too. 

"There's a lot to follow and a great deal to look at, including an atmospherically embellished past that turns the movie into a veritable way back machine of amusing and amusingly unfortunate colors and choices," writes Dargis. "There are plaid jackets and flirty minis, sideburns and shags, harvest-gold drapes and rooms perilously fogged in by cigarette smoke."

The real Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, in 1973.

Leading up to the big match, Riggs' sexist pronouncements get bigger and more outrageous, and some of his stunts – many of them wildly absurd and self-serving – are hard to take seriously. However, they offer some good comic relief during the film. Yet, for all of the drama and pomp and ceremony, the King-Riggs event drew plenty of Hollywood attention. Spectators came to the event dressed elegantly and sipped champagne while sitting court side. There were more than 30,000 fans watching in person inside the Astrodome while 50 million Americans watched at home on TV. (I was a high school teenager when the real event occurred, and I remember watching it at home on TV with my family. I was pulling for King to win.)

Riggs was paid $50,000 to sport a bright yellow Sugar Daddy jacket, which he took off after just three games. Meanwhile, King entered the arena in the great Hollywood fashion of Cleopatra, complete with four muscular and bare-chested males dressed in the style of ancient slaves who carried her in on a feather-adorned litter. Riggs presented King with an oversized Sugar Daddy lollipop and King gifted her opponent with a piglet, which was symbolic of his male chauvinism.

As it happened, the two-time Wimbledon champion King ran Riggs all over the court and trounced her opponent in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. She won by forsaking her usually aggressive approach to play a solid baseline game that allowed her to handle his lobs and soft shots. Afterward, she called her winner-take-all victory over Riggs the "culmination" of her career.

While King and Riggs are the focal points of the film, the tennis scenes are pretty convincing. That's because real players were used as doubles for King and Riggs. Kaitlyn Christian, a former champion collegiate doubles player at the University of Southern California who is struggling to make it as a professional on the minor-league ITF circuit, acted as Emma Stone's tennis double in portraying King, and former men's professional Vince Spadea served as the tennis double for Steve Carell, who played Riggs. 

Before she was cast, Christian had never played with a wooden racket with its smaller sweet spots like the ones King used in her prime. However, I learned, her forehand and backhand slice was convincing and it reminded me of how much the women's game has evolved since King's heyday into one that relies upon powerful ground strokes as exuded by predominant power players of today like Serena Williams. 

Looking back, King liked to serve and volley. She wasn't afraid to come toward the net to control points against her opponents. Her style, which served her well both throughout her professional career – and for one great festive night against Riggs – was one that relied upon finesse coupled with a dash of touch and spin.

Meanwhile, King's personal life became a bigger part of the movie, thanks to directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris of Little Miss Sunshine fame, who tweaked the screenplay. King, who came out as a lesbian in the 1980s and would go on to become a widely admired advocate for LGBT groups, was at the time of her exhibition against Riggs married to a man – and in the early stages of grappling with her sexuality after falling for a female hair stylist.

"It really did happen this way, where Billie Jean began her first affair with a woman at a time when she was one of the most famous women in America, if not the world," Mr. Dayton told The New York Times. "So that seemed like an important story to tell. And at the same time, she was fighting this very public battle for equality."

While Riggs may have viewed the match as nothing more than a publicity stunt, King felt that beating Riggs was important both for women's tennis as well as for the women's liberation movement. "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match," King once said. "It would ruin the women's tour and affect all women's self-esteem."

Instead, while King's victory over Riggs didn't define her career, it became her destiny to work toward gender equality – not only in tennis but in all sports. And, as a nation that loves its sports, we are all appreciative of what this true champion has achieved in her lifetime.

'Little orchestra' Pink Martini – "Je dis oui!"

Pink Martini / "Utterly cosmopolitan yet utterly unpretentious."

I am not unabashed by my love of Pink Martini. The internationally acclaimed "little orchestra" from Portland, Oregon, founded by a couple of Harvard classmates, pianist Thomas Lauderdale and vocalist China Forbes, mixes glamour with their style of sophisticated, easy-listening music. After all, what's not to like about vintage French and Italian pop, American swing and standards, Latin jazz with an orchestral twist or classic Hollywood film and musical soundtracks?

Since 1994, the band that the Washington Post once called "utterly cosmopolitan yet utterly unpretentious," has amassed an impressive repertoire of festive songs drawn from around the globe, including many timeless classics and a few rarely heard chestnuts. Each new Pink Martini album and concert tour, I've discovered, pushes the boundaries of language and musical style.

A typical Pink Martini concert is both multilingual and multicultural, and at holiday time it's also multi-denominational. I speak from the experience of having seen the band perform a dozen times over the past decade in a variety of California settings: from a beautiful, summer outdoor evening at the Hollywood Bowl to the intimate, acoustically perfect Weill Hall at Sonoma State University. Above all, a Pink Martini show is inclusive – full of warmth and good cheer – and represents many human experiences. Through the energy and creativity of their music, Pink Martini brings joy to the world in these troubled times – something which should make all of us feel grateful and appreciative.

Pianist Thomas Lauderdale co-founded Pink Martini
with China Forbes in 1994.

"We're very much an American band," Lauderdale once said, "but we spend a lot of time abroad and therefore have the incredible diplomatic opportunity to represent a broader, more inclusive America ... the America which remains the most heterogeneously populated county in the world ... composed of people of every country, every language, every religion."

Pink Martini has performed on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe and Asia, as well as in Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South America and North America. I have seen them perform both as a little orchestra as well as in concert with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. When his schedule allows, NPR "All Things Considered" host Ari Shapiro, also a Portland native, joins Pink Martini as a guest vocalist.

Last Wednesday, in the intimate, 842-seat Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University, about an hour's drive from home, my wife and I saw our most recent Pink Martini show. It was part of a two-week California/Nevada "Holiday Spectacular" bus tour that began in San Francisco and included shows in Reno, Modesto, Escondido, Palm Desert, Santa Rosa and concluded in Palo Alto. After playing shows in North Carolina and Virginia over the weekend, the "Holiday Spectacular" tour continues in New York City and Boston this week before wrapping up with a pair of New Year's Eve shows at Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

During their Palo Alto "Holiday Spectacular" show, the 12-member band delighted the audience by performing from their expansive catalog of pop, jazz, classical and holiday songs that were beautifully sung in many different tongues: German ("Ich dich liebe"), Spanish "Yo te quiero siempre"), Turkish ("Askim bahardi"), Croatian ("U plavu zoru"), Armenian ("Ov sirun sirun"), French ("Sympathique") Xhosa ("Pata Pata"), Chinese ("Congratulations – A Happy New Year Song"), Italian ("Una Notte a Napoli"), and oh yes, English, too ("Little Drummer Boy"). No matter the language, each song expressed a variety of human emotions – love, pain, joy grief – in an honest feeling.

Je dis oui! / Pink Martini's ninth album
features songs in no fewer than eight different languages.

Recently, the band's much-anticipated ninth album, Je dis oui! (I say yes), was released. It features Forbes and Storm Large sharing lead vocals, and includes Shapiro ("Finnisma Di") plus frequent collaborator Rufus Wainwright ("Blue Moon") along with the Harvey Rosencrantz Orchestra and the Pacific Youth Choir.

"To take in Je dis oui! is to experience a globetrotting victory lap across no fewer than eight different languages – English, French, Farsi, Armenian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish and, in a cover of Miriam Mekeba's glorious 'Pata Pata,' Xhosa – all tackled with cosmopolitan sophistication and the playfulness of pop, wrote NPR music critic Stephen Thompson in reviewing Je dis oui!

"Exploring just one language or genre, and doing a whole album like that doesn't interest me," said Lauderdale, during a recent interview with the Hartford Courant. 

Pink Martini's unique vision can be attributed to its inclusiveness of language, culture and religion, musically. The band wants anyone and everyone to feel welcome at its shows and, if they are so encouraged, to jump up and dance along with the music. And many did just that during their Palo Alto show. The evening was complete with an encore performance of the band's signature closing tune "Brazil" in which many in the audience, at Lauderdale's urging, formed a conga line that snaked its way around the stage while others danced at their seats and in the aisles.

If  you think about it, Large once said, "It's really the perfect recipe for 'Peace on Earth and Good Will' we hear about so often during the holidays, but sadly have witnessed quite the opposite in the world of late."

Pink Martini concert photos by Michael Dickens © 2016. Album photo courtesy of Pink Martini website.

It was a memorable night for a "detour" with Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello / Pumping it up after all these years.

Elvis Costello is an extraordinary songwriter and performer. He's worked diligently at his craft for the past 40 years to attain a special place in the music world, listening to songs from many years ago to the latest hits. He's stayed relevant. Now, in his latest adventure, aptly called "Detour," Costello takes his audience on a musical journey through his vast songbook that's not only intimate and entertaining, but also humbling and inspiring. 

Elvis Costello / Performing "Watching the Detectives."

On March 30, at the Nob Hill Masonic in San Francisco, in just the second night of his current solo "Detour" tour – and in what was my 11th Costello adventure – I saw a show like no other he's given, and I've seen Elvis perform with his various backing bands, including the Attractions, the Imposters, and the Sugarcanes; in a duet show with his longtime keyboardist Steve Nieve; accompanied by the extraordinary New Orleans pianist Allen Toussaint backed with a brass horn section – even dressed in black tuxedo performing with the San Francisco Symphony. 

Elvis Costello / Performing "Town Cryer."

Musically, throughout the two and a quarter-hour performance, which began in near darkness with "Complicated Shadows" and concluded with three encores – the first and third joined by twenty-something sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell of the Georgia roots-rock duo Larkin Poe, whom added beautiful harmonies to classics such as "Blame It on Cain" – the 61-year-old, bespectacled Costello moved freely between a variety of acoustic and electric guitars lined up behind him and a baby grand piano off to the side, digging deep into his catalog to share his classics like "Accident Will Happen," "Watching the Detectives," "Alison," and "Pump It Up" as well as covers by Los Lobos ("A Matter of Time") and Bob Dylan ("Down on the Bottom"). There were also poignant renditions of some of my personal favorites, "Shipbuilding" and "Town Cryer," and his lovely rendition of "Ascension Day" was a fitting tribute to Toussaint, whom he collaborated with on the 2006 album The River in Reverse in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

Elvis Costello / Joined by Larkin Poe during the first encore.

Conceptually, in "Detour," the rectangular stage was arranged to resemble a 1960s living room with its focal point being an oversized retro Lupe-O-Tone TV set that served as a delightful prop to show candid, never-before-seen black-and-white family photographs, portraits of personal heroes – including Toussaint and the Bay Area cowboy swing-bluesman Dan Hicks, both recently deceased – and a filmed performance of his father, the band leader Ross MacManus, enthusiastically singing the Pete Seeger-Lee Hays folk standard "If I Had a Hammer" with a Latin dance twist to it. Costello even climbed inside the TV set to perform "Alison" and "Pump It Up" during his second encore.

Elvis Costello / Sharing a conversation with his audience.

In between songs, Costello – ever the raconteur – showed why he's also a wonderful conversationalist and gifted storyteller, too. His acerbic banter and delightful repartee was evident as he shared with his audience many intimate stories and anecdotes about his music family – both his father and grandfather were professional musicians and inspired him – growing up in Liverpool at the same time that The Beatles were becoming international rock-and-roll superstars, the origins of his music, parenthood as a father to twin boys with his wife, jazz pianist Diana Krall, and life on the road, that were both revealing and humorous. There were funny reminisces about coming to play San Francisco for the first time in his early twenties back in the 1970s. Much of this was covered in detail in his recent 670-page memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, which showed Costello to be an intelligent, thoughtful, witty and lyrical writer. 

In explaining the name he picked for his current group of shows, "Detour," Costello deadpanned, "Where I come from, when people would ask 'Where are you going?' the answer was always 'We're going on de tour.'" It drew nice laughter from the sold-out audience.

Elvis Costello / Performing "Shipbuilding."

With a career spanning four decades – and a few detours along the way – Costello has morphed from "a snotty, defiant New Wave hell-raiser into a distinguished gentleman," wrote the Huffington Post. Now, ever the progressive thinker, mover and shaker, Costello does as he pleases, and these days he's place an emphasis on performing rather than recording. This has given him a chance to gain a new perspective and musical point of view in his celebrated repertoire and to share a nightly, intimate conversation with his audience. Always an in-touch tunesmith, it's reflected in rearranged renditions of many of his old songs, such as "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes", "(What's So funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," and the blistering guitar loop and distortion in "Watching the Detectives." Costello even found a place  – a detour – to cover a few Tin Pan Alley standards, such as the 1930's "Walking My Babe Back Home" (which he dedicated to Krall and his twin boys), his own introspective "Jimmie Standing in the Rain" (including a coda of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", which he sang un-miked and a capella) and a downbeat version of the 1927 classic "Side by Side."

"Oh, we don't know what's coming tomorrow / Maybe it trouble and sorrow / but we'll travel the road sharing our load / Side by side."

One of the many highlights for this most Baby Boomer crowd included Costello singing "Everyday I Write the Book," which he nicely wrapped into a lovely cover of Nick Lowe's "When I Write the Book."

"Now I can remember like it was only yesterday / Love was young and foolish like a little child at play / But, oh how lovers change, I never dreamed how easily / 'Cause now I'm just a shadow of the boy I used to be."

Elvis Costello / Biding his San Francisco audience good night.

On this memorable night of musical expression in San Francisco, Costello was as spontaneous as he was entertaining – his set list changes from night to night – and on this night he slipped in the Grateful Dead's "It Must Have Been the Roses" joined by Larkin Poe during one of the encores. It's easy to see why Costello is such a music fan and champions the works of others.

Elvis Costello's Nob Hill Masonic, San Francisco, set list:

Main set (solo): Complicated Shadows / Red Shoes / Hope You're Happy Now / Accidents Will Happen / Ascension Day / Church Underground / Radio Soul / Motel Matches / Matter of Time / Shipbuilding /When I Write the Book – Everyday I Write the Book / Walking My Baby Back Home / Ghost Train /Town Cryer / Watching the Detectives / It's Not My Time to Go.

First encore (with Larkin Poe): Pads, Paws, and Claws / Love Field /Blame It on Cain / That's Not the Part of Him You're Leaving /Down on the Bottom.

Second encore (solo, performed inside TV set): Alison / Pump It Up.

Third encore (solo): Side By Side / Jimmie Standing in the Rain – Brother Can You Spare a Dime? / It Must Have Been the Roses (with Larkin Poe) / Peace, Love and Understanding (with Larkin Poe).

All photographs © Michael Dickens, 2016.