It’s on. Sam Potts has taken the Mexican wrestling motif from Armin Vit’s serve and returned it with (and to) Ancient Greece.
Now, instead of wrestling, we have discus, and there are several things that need to be said about that. Chief among them is that the discus requires only one participant, while wrestling requires two. So what kind of gamesmanship is this? Is Potts saying that Vit doesn't even rate inclusion in his visual metaphor? A closer look reveals even greater levels of cruelty. In his caption, Potts shows that he has not done away with Vit so much as crushed him into a tiny flat disc. Yes, that's right: the caption reads "How to Throw a Small Man a Very Very Long Way," and the fifth of the illustrated scenes finds the discus transforming into that man. It Vit that small man? Will Potts throw him a very, very long way? Has Potts intentionally changed the color scheme to make it reminiscent of a krater, the kind of Greek vase you're thinking of if, like me, you know next to nothing about Greek vases? We shall see.
It is also useful to know that of all the track and field sports, discus has proven especially resistant to modernity. What I mean by that is that the modern discus record stands at 74.08 meters, as it has since 1986. Can you think of another contest of this sort where the human musculature has not advanced (with the help of training or steroids or whatever) for more than two decades? I cannot. I read this as Potts saying to Vit, "You and your novelty will be powerless against my strong fundamentals." To shift the sports metaphor a bit, it's like watching Tim Duncan taser Nate Robinson. How will Vit respond? The world waits and watches.
Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Ben Greenman.
Tickets | Archive | Blog | The Crowd | HQ
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.
Subscribe to the LT RSS feed.
Post your comments about the match to Twitter and include #lyt in the message and they'll show up right here on our Crowd Page. Plus you can follow the official LT Twitter feed.
© 1999-2010 Coudal Partners, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Privacy | | Clients | 
CP RSS Feed