I know a guy from Ancient Greece. He’s old. I called him between the last round and this one. He was busy but he said he would call me right back. “Right back” takes about ten minutes because he has a rotary phone. He’s old, remember? Ancient Greece!
When he finally called me back, he asked what I was doing. I told him. He was very interested in the wrestling, though not so much in the Mexican-ness of it, and then he told me that the five events of the ancient pentathlon were wrestling, discus, javelin, jumping, and running. This was without even seeing Sam's Layer #2, which will heretofore be referred to as "the discus layer." The pentathlon was designed to hone skills useful in battle.
Suddenly, for a moment, my Ancient Greek seemed deeply psychic. He had pegged the first two exactly, in order. He had mentioned battle. I braced for Layer #3. Would the javelin be next? And if so, would the javelin-themed layer reflect the inherent danger of the sport? (We all remember that fateful day back in 2007 when the French long jumper Salim Sdiri was speared by a javelin thrown by Finland's Tero Pitkamaki.)
Layer #3 came in a few minutes ago, and there is no javelin. But there is battle. Is there ever! Armin has kept Sam's palette, give or take, and he has kept the first of his discus-throwing figures. Beyond that, though, he has moved forward by moving back, and reinstating the hand-to-hand combat of his first layer (if by "hand" I mean first "foot" and then "balls"). Without knowing anything about anything when it comes to designing instructional diagrams that deal specifically with ball-kicking, it seems like the #3 is a little close to the kicker's hand. I didn't even see it at first. On the other hand, I like the kicker's outfit. It should be returned to Sonny Chiba after Layer #10. And I like the way that Armin has gratuitously capitalized "Ruin." Does that strike fear into Sam's heart? Does Sam have a heart after being kicked in the balls? The figure that represents him looks pretty hurt. Sorry about that, cervical sympathetic ganglia. Can he recover? We'll know more with Layer #4.
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