Believe me when I say that very few people were happier to see Federer win the French than I was. I think he’s the best of all time and getting the French Open and his 14th major bolsters that case. (The only serious counter-argument, I think, is that he’s had the best stretch-run of all time. I’m open to idea that at particular instants, other players were better. But I would need a lot of convincing.)

But does his victory really mean that the Age of Federer continues? I don’t think so. Here’s what I wrote after last year’s Wimbledon final:

The age of Federer is over. He’ll hang around near the top for the next 18 months. He’ll be a regular in the semis and finals of the slams, but absent him getting some help (injuries to other players, a draw with lots of upsets) I don’t think it’s certain he will win another big one. It’s hard to imagine how he could win three more.

I still think this is about right. Since Wimbledon he’s won two majors. I’m still doubtful he can get another–unless Nadal is seriously injured and Federer continues to get very favorable draws.

It doesn’t take anything away from Federer to note that during his run at the French Federer faced only one top-10 player (and only two guys from the top 20). He didn’t see Nadal, Murray, or Djokovic or run a gauntlet of second-tier, top-fifteeners. Maybe other draws will shake out similarly. If Nadal pulls out of Wimbledon, or shows up hurt, and Djokovic continues his slide, and a bunch of flukey upsets clear a path for him, he can win more majors. But I still think that the days of Fed blitzing through a major thumping a string of guys like Hewitt, Haas, Murray, Gonzalez, Robredo, and Nadal are over.

There’s something remarkably sweet about how, in the wake of his death, David Carradine’s family has rallied to protect his honor. For those of you just joining our program, Carradine was found dead, in a Thai hotel, hanging. By both his neck and his junk.

This would lead us to one of two likely explanations: (1) Carradine committed suicide in a somewhat different way; or (2) Carradine died accidentally as the result of a particularly strange sexual deviancy. In the immediate aftermath of his death, Carradine family members were telling anyone who would listen that David would never have committed suicide.

I’d like to think this is the product of some moral ordering which (rightly) sees suicide as a greater sin than sexual deviancy. In this world, the Carradine family is defending is honor by suggesting that he was a pervert.

Of course it’s also possible that there is some sort of insurance policy which becomes inoperative in the case of the insured taking his own life. But I chose to believe the former explanation.

Was this actually the most important news of the week?

Here’s the trailer for the new Xbox game: The Beatles Rock Band.

Variety‘s Brian Lowry has just reviewed Land of the Lost and it comes down hard:

Hinting at the perils in synergy, “Land of the Lost” conspicuously feels as though someone at Universal was already planning the theme-park ride spinoff before taking a painfully wrong turn with the movie. Modernizing a 1970s children’s TV show known for its cheap special effects offered certain possibilities, but the filmmakers have traded in any kid-friendly elements for bathroom humor of dinosaur-sized proportions. The result is a movie with an exceedingly narrow target aud that should test Will Ferrell’s appeal among boys maybe ages 12-14–about the only demo likely able to endure this laborious mess.

But maybe the ride will be fun.

That’s the Holy Grail, isn’t it? If you could easily put Hulu on your television set (and I don’t count the current hack-arounds as easily), then you could basically check out of the cable grind. Today there’s a rumor that Roku, the people who first put Netflix streaming onto your TV, might be trying to do the same with Hulu.

My first thought was, Hey, I’d drop Comcast like a bad habit.

But I’m not so sure, because cable has one totally killer app: sports.

I think it was Rupert Murdoch who said, on the occasion of his purchase of Manchester United, that sports broadcasting was the only content that couldn’t be time-shifted or packaged as on-demand. For the most part, I think that’s true. You can try to watch your French Open broadcast the day after on DVR, but for any mainstream sport, it doesn’t seem practical. Who’s going to watch an NFL game a day after?

But more to the point for cable, sports are the one area where there is no model for how their broadcast could be de-bundled from the cable package. And add to this, that sports benefit tremendously from high-definition. So if you love sports, it would be pretty hard to give up cable even if you were getting all of your scripted entertainment from a set-top interface with Hulu.

A very interesting tidbit from a Q&A with Cameron:

He did take a non-Avatar question when someone asked about “having other people take over franchises that you created.” He got a huge laugh when he cut to the chase and said, “oh Terminator?” He then said that he basically traded the rights for Terminator for a directing career and then when Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to do T3, his heart just wasn’t in it, though he had a few ideas. He said the producers “ran off with the rights, which caused some bad blood” and so when Arnold asked him after they were going in a different direction, Cameron told him, “just do me one thing – ask for more money than anyone ever has.” Arnold said, “reeeeealllly?” He said, “yes. Because what idiots would make a Terminator movie without you?”

And then one other funny bit:

Somebody also asked about his reputation as a hardass on set and compared him with Michael Mann, to which Cameron jokingly replied, “What? Michael Mann’s a whacko.”

This is kind of cool–watch one of the guys from King of Kong try to set a new Donkey Kong high score. Live.

Watch live video from G4TV – Steve Wiebe Donkey Kong Cam on Justin.tv