Brian Taylor loves the circus. Nearly as much as Tod Browning.
Browning lived the American dream: at the age of 16 he literally ran away with the circus. There he had his first exposure two things that would forever define his life: the sideshow performer, and the Nickelodeon. Later a disfiguring auto accident, Brownings fascination with "anomalous" humans grew deeper.
And so, in 1932, Freaks, the tale of a gold-digger who marries a circus dwarf, and is wholehearted accepted into his clan. But when her ulterior motives are discovered, it all goes horribly, horribly wrong.
Schlitzie the pinhead, in this volley, seems to be emerging from the book--a common enough occurrence in tales of horror. What was once just ink becomes flesh. The connection to the Zombi is tenuous, but, as noted, he wasn't given much to work with.
I've pegged Brian as the rebel in this match, with Jason generally trying to tie things together. In one sense this volley confirms my suspicions: it's a clear break from the narrative that was developing. But, on the other, look at the legend: BEHOLD THE FREAKS. To whom could this refer, if not Brian, Jason, and myself? We are the freaks. We are a family. We toil for your pleasure; you spectate, safe behind your browser window.
But there's always forums. Become one of us.
Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Matthew Baldwin.
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Tomorrow we continue our series of live, experimental Layer Tennis Exhibitions with a motion graphics match between Matt Smithson and Daniel Oeffinger. As usual, the action starts at 2pm Chicago time. Check the time in your area. What is unusual is that the match won't finish until next Thursday. We'll be posting two layers per weekday. We've always wondered what would happen if we gave a couple artists a lot more time to do each volley and this week we'll find out. Commentary is by Jason Koxvold, who knows a little something about LYT and mo-graf. Jason's Match Preview has been posted and so has the coin-flip.
Naz and Sam Peeling Back the Layers on last Friday's amazing photographic and musical live Layer Tennis Match. No Tennis this week by the way, we'll be back live on the 19th
Layer 10 is up. And that's a wrap! Big thanks to Sam, Naz, Mark, and all the fans. No voting this week, but be sure to sign up for Season Tickets and be the first to get match info and learn how to play in our qualifying matches. Layer Tennis is taking a week off, we'll see you back here on March 19th for our fourth exhibition match.
The coin-flip and Match Preview are up for today's live Photographic Exhibition Match. We're almost set to go. Tweet your comments and include #lyt and then follow the chatter on our Crowd Page. And if you don't have 'em already, sign up for Free Season Tickets for news, contests and maybe even a chance for you to take the court this season.
Find links to all the matches played previously and check on matches to come here.
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