With a pallete (and a cloud) borrowed from Doug Henning's wardrobe, James kicks off this Flash clash. A single black-and-white figure drawn in James' signature style strolls across a screen capture from the long-forgotten video game "Malcolm Garrett's Human League Album Cover Designer '88" (for the Sega Genesis). The rice paper background adds a nice organic touch. The paper seems strangely moisture-resistant, as does our hero. He doesn't look particularly unhappy, I'm thinking that raincloud is perhaps some sort of weapon avatar or something, video game characters always have some sorta junk floating over them. He's got "Lightning Power" or something.
It's always good to see a simple, structured serve, James' is reminiscent of Stephen Harrington's classic back in August, widely considered to be among the best in LT history. James built the stage and started a story. Leaving it this wide open more or less obliges Trevor to respond on James' terms, without scrapping the general idea. Trevor can drop a few potted Forsythias on the court, and/or orchestrate a unicorn attack, or even move the camera around, but the physics and space of the match have been strongly established. On the other hand, any decision James makes is one less thing Trevor has to sweat about over the next fifteen minutes.
Something that just occurred to me, which the competitors were probably hoping I wouldn't bring up: since this match is being produced in Flash (aaah-aaah!), we could actually see some interactivity added: buttons, links, sliders, the old eyeballs-following-the-cursor-trick, or what have you. Boy these guys have their work cut out for them.
Soundtrack to this volley: Travis' "Why Does it Always Rain on Me," remixed by Junior Senior, featuring Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys.
Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Bryan Bedell.
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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.
Mark Simonson shares his insider's view of Friday's typographic battle, including a nifty chart of all the glyphs created during the match.
Find links to all the matches played previously and check on matches to come here.
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