Friday, June 29, 2007
WIMBLEDON, that most visually pleasing of sporting backdrops, is having a bit of an aesthetic crisis this year.
There's the roof thing, which perhaps is unavoidable. In this constructionally transitional year in the move to build a retractable roof, Centre Court, which with its mansard overhang felt more like a cathedral than an athletic venue, is now just another sweat-filled bowl.
BEFORE
PHOTO BY SPIRALZ
AFTER
And then there's the replay thing. I applaud the staid All-England Club for getting onboard with electronic line-call challenges. I applaud it even more for allowing three erroneous challenges, rather than the usual two, before the privilege is cut off (it should be an infinite number, but that's a cross for Mary Carillo and me to bear). But this issue isn't the most important thing in the sport, and there's no reason for a tournament that presents the score in such a subdued and dignified fashion to presnt the minor detail of how many challenges the respective players have remaining with a humongous video screen of tacky player mugshots.
And then, at least for viewers of American television, there's the shame of Sir Paul.
Is there anything that can come to the aesthetic rescue?
Here's hoping.
There's the roof thing, which perhaps is unavoidable. In this constructionally transitional year in the move to build a retractable roof, Centre Court, which with its mansard overhang felt more like a cathedral than an athletic venue, is now just another sweat-filled bowl.
BEFORE
PHOTO BY SPIRALZ
AFTER
And then there's the replay thing. I applaud the staid All-England Club for getting onboard with electronic line-call challenges. I applaud it even more for allowing three erroneous challenges, rather than the usual two, before the privilege is cut off (it should be an infinite number, but that's a cross for Mary Carillo and me to bear). But this issue isn't the most important thing in the sport, and there's no reason for a tournament that presents the score in such a subdued and dignified fashion to presnt the minor detail of how many challenges the respective players have remaining with a humongous video screen of tacky player mugshots.
And then, at least for viewers of American television, there's the shame of Sir Paul.
Is there anything that can come to the aesthetic rescue?
Here's hoping.
