Archive for the ‘commentary’ Category
The World Cup has had wonderously good TV coverage from a technical point of view. Often one shot on goal is shown from 3 or 4 points of camera angles. And the broad overhead shots of the field provide a great overview of the field of play. And who cannot be amazed at the net camera shots which show intimately how a goal is scored including the shaking of the camera attached to the netting. Spectacular!
But also the problem as the NHL-National Hockey league learned to its demise – good TV shows off poor officiating.
This is one of three problems in which FIFA, the World Cup sponsors and organizers, could learn a lesson from Ice Hockey. First and foremost, good TV coverage shows off how bad the officiating can be. Think of the disallowed England goal against Germany and US versus Slovenia. Think of the many Thespian performances as players dive and writhe in pain in order to get a freekick. This nonsense is being caught on camera in HD technicolor; let alone the thousands of still cameras trained on the field.
Brazil’s Kaka caught mid-dive
The fundamental problem is that the referee is running about 12 miles per game across a pitch that is 120m(130 yards) by 45m(50 yards). And with swift long ball initiated counter attacks, the referee is whipped one way and another. The result to no one surprise is that the referee can be 20-40 yards from the point of infraction with his his line of sight obscured by one or more players. Not conducive to making the best of calls and the World Cup broadcasts have certainly shown that.
Now FIFA will counter that the referee has 2 sideline assistants able to make calls. But let me tell you talks with those sideline assistants reveals they are fully absorbed in the tricky task of calling offsides and out-of-bounds plays. Also some referees do not like interference by the sideline assistants in the games. So referees can count on scant assistance from the sidelines.
The obvious solution is what the NHL did ten years ago – added a second referee to the game and for goal scoring disputes added video replay shortly there after. Now bad officiating, especially disputed goal scoring calls is much less a factor in the NHL and especially Stanley Cup Playoff games. Contrast that with some of the World Cup “action”.
But FIFA is resisting strenuously.
FIFA’s arguments are threefold. First, an added referee will just cause confusion and conflict between the two referees. Not so from NHL experience. The two referees cover the two halfs of the rink but do flow back and forth with the the play. Nearest referee gets primary call responsibility;but they quickly confer to confirm calls on occasion. Getting the call right is their first priority and how they are assessed and compensated. The referees work together to call a good game.
The source of the second objection from FIFA is that two referees and video replay will stifle the free flow of the game. But look what all the player protests, painful on-field writhings, and free kick/corner kick shenanigans are doing to the free flow of the game. Ice hockey was told the same story. But the elimination of a deception advantage with better officiating did the opposite, added more speed and flow to ice hockey.
Last, citing Werner Heissenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, Sepp Blatter, head of FIFA says people enjoy this uncertainty on whether the game is called right. It adds an Ich kenn nicht wass [je ne sais quoi] to the game. Hmmm …. and I don’t know what could be a more ridiculous idea.
So watch what FIFA does . FIFA will do its part for fighting unemployment by adding two more officials standing at the goal mouth and making sure that that the goal scored by Ghana versus Uruguay was not stopped by a hand ball but had broken through the goal mouth plane and so no penalty kick was required. Meanwhile on field, the game of deception will continue at full pace – and the Toronto World Junior Football Championships has shown how much that can ruin the game. Argentina vs Chile promised speed and flow aplenty. Instead Toronto was treated to a brawl- shoving, shirt pulling, trips, and non-trips, arguments and near fisticuffs between the teams. The worst “game” this reviewer had ever seen in sport. There was no uncertainty that a game like that had done football a great disservice.
This is a story about the new forbidden fruit – picture taking at public events. After the Cobourg Highland Festival was washed out with a downpour, your PhotoFinishes editor wearing a PhotoFinishes cap and trying to rescue the day went down to the Cobourg Beach to catch the storm clouds over Lake Ontario. The graying Nimbus clouds were streaked with wind shear clouds in the distance. However, there was a small problem – the beach was littered with beach volleyball nets ruining the haunting, near-deserted, rainy day beach shots desired. Okay, so adapt. Do what others are doing – taking snaps of some of the beach volleyball games. Some are pickup games and others are part of an Ontario Volleyball Tournament.
Now four years ago yours truly with Sportpics covered the National Volleyball Championships that were held for 3 years in a row on Cobourg’s beaches. Covering those tournaments one quickly picks up the etiquette of not getting in the way of the players. Stay close to the net poles opposite from where the referees stand – it has a bonus of being where some of the best slam shots, curves, and blocks can be snapped up.
Since two friends have kids playing serious volleyball I asked the scorers what age group the players are from. At that point Ms Officious arrives and asks “What am I doing.” Hunh? Taking pictures of the game since I cant get the beach shots desired because of the games here. “What organizations do you represent ? “- PixOfCanada, why? We covered the National tournaments here several times and I gave Ms. Officious my card. “Well you can’t take pictures there you are getting in the way of the game.” What? I am trying to get enough pictures for a story that will be run on the PixofCanada website. But the game is mediocre and Ms. Officious is like one of P.G.Wodhouse’s comic snapping terriers – so anxious to bite and snip at you finding a better match seems the best course of action.
Three courts up the beach, the senior men are playing a very sharp game. Some great digs, even from full-blast slams. This is story worthy. But five minutes in Ms. P.R. Prettyface from Ontario Volleyball comes over and says “You cant take pictures here” . What? This is a public beach and your courts are in the way of the shots I originally came for. “Well you have to apply beforehand to get approval to take pictures … and its too late to do that”. But if I can get a few more pictures that will make a great story which I will publish on PixofCanada – you don’t want to miss out on 30,000 readers per month? “Nope, you cant take any more pictures” So I asked MS. P.R. to take me to her Ontario Volleyball Leader and sure enough he wanted to slit his own organizations best interests.
Exasperation
If you have detected a note of exasperation – you are an astute reader. Here are the reasons why:
1)The venue is a public park and beach paid for in part by PixofCanada tax payments. Since when could you not take pictures in a public park?
2)There were others taking pictures of the games – that was what convinced a change of heart from deserted beach to beach volleyball pictures.
3)There was no signage whatsoever declaring that this was an event at which picture-taking was forbidden.
4)Since this photographer had covered beach volleyball before, there was utmost observation of the proper picture taking etiquette while near the courts.
5)Finally there were some obvious questions. Does an event vendor using public property buy the right to decide who can take picture of the event? And are the city and county governments knowingly ceding this right of exclusive picture-taking to the event vendors? Also relevant – are governments charging extra for such privileges and demanding that advertising before the event and signage at the days of the event make this prohibition clear to prospective event goers?
So one can only conclude that Ontario Volleyball assumed that by renting the park for a period of time it had also been granted by the city of Cobourg and the county of Northumberland the right to designate who could and could not take pictures of the event.
It turns out Ontario Volleyball are not alone. Event sponsors using public property being used for public events with paid admission or not are reserving the right to prohibit picture-taking but not informing the public that they are doing so. A colleague discovered that at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto last year where pictures were confiscated and destroyed with the Toronto Police supporting Royal Winter Fair officials. Ditto on no more picture-taking for some photographers at Wakefest even though they were standing outside the grounds on the other side of the lagoon down on Toronto Islands a few years ago.
At least the Ice KiteFest near Orillia informs the prospective event go-er on their website [no confirmation that this is carried through on print advertising] that no picture taking is allowed except for designated individuals – so though attractive, this party does not go there despite the invitations.
Collision Course
For most events people want to take pictures or videos as a memento of the occasion. This is in conflict sometimes with event vendors that want to charge for those “services”. Think the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Toronto Blue Jays. In the case of the Blue Jays, many don’t go to the games because a)the product has not improved since 1993, b)the prices are sky high and c)taking pictures is in a state of limbo – sometimes its okay and other times it is not.
But these event vendors have to take into account the fact that digital cameras which already have exploded in popularity have been supplemented by hundreds of millions of cellphone cameras. So now it is estimated that there are about 4 cameras per family in North America. These people want to take pictures of the places and events they go to – this is in conflict with event vendors like Ontario Volleyball or the Toronto Blue Jays who want to control who gets to take images of their events and may or may not clearly warn customers of those restrictions – especially in their pre-event and on site advertising.
If you have experienced episodes of this forbidden picture taking – please make a comment and it will be added as soon as possible.
If you are driving on the 401 between Toronto and Kingston, consider making a pit stop at the Wondrous Textiles Art Show at the Scotts Barn Cultural Center. This is a showing of Textile Art Works by a trio of artists – Susan MacDonald, Sheree Rasmussen and Judith Tinkl.
Each artist works in textiles, a family favorite; but each in diverse ways captured well in the shows ad brochure. Some PixofCanada goers will remember Sheree Rasmussen’s wonderfully colorful dancing color applique’ quilts from our coverage of the Spirit of the Hills Art Show at the Warkworth Maple Syrup Festival.
Check the color analysis found here of a superbly bountiful piece.
Susan MacDonald creates wearable art that is most refreshing in design and concept:
Here is just but one of over a dozen designs which can be viewed here.
Judith Tinkl, former head of the textiles section of the Ontario College of Art Design, shows a great creative spirit in her textile and quilt designs. The following quilt shows the great sense of design and color transparency and accumulation in Judith’s works.
Look for great inventiveness in the designs and layouts of Tinkl’s textile works.
In sum be prepared for some color and design delights in cloth and fabric at the Wondrous Textile exhibition – well named, indeed.
As promised in our previous posting, the weather was certainly warm for Fanny on the Ganny in Port Hope Ontario. Okay there was a cooling breeze. But the Ganny was well behaved compared to last year’s raging torrent and much cooler of flowtemperatures. So all the preening and primping by Port Hope’s shops was well worth the while because the Ganny was very crowded with Fanny fans.
First of all flowers were everywhere:
Every shop and store had flowers on display or for sale:
But I suspect that the flurry were as much a Rite of Canadian Spring – the first warm week in 3 months has to have every Canuck’s spirits flourishing. And the ample sunshine added a touch of bloom to the day that just had to be echoed in the streets. And so it was.
The shopkeepers had everything neat as a pin:
So street walking and Window shopping were a charm.
But Redpath had the sweetest confection of all:
An antique classic truck carrying sample cookies for free distribution among Fanny Goers. This was a popular spot along with the kids jumping gyms and the great bratwurst booths on the West shore side. In sum, Port Hope was more than prepared for its early Spring riverfest.
Jane’s Walk is one of those best-ideas-since-Sliced-Bread events. Very simply people go for a walk on the weekend of May 1-2 in 35 cities in Canada or 25 cities in the US or 2 cities [so far] in Europe. Yes, a walk – a free guided tour telling the history of an urban area including geography, architecture, peoples, businesses coming and going and all sorts of facts about a neighborhood. The walks typically last a half more than an hour. Here is one:
Peterborough ON Jane’s Walk
Jane’s Walks, like “eh”, are a gift from Canada and Jane Jacobs to the World. These walks are about seeing things from the inside out. I personally take curiosity, camera and civility along and have a great time. Here are a few images from a Jane’s Walk in downtown Toronto near the Grange.
The Spring colors were out in full force
I discovered precious cargo – a great vinyl record shop
The Spring flowers inspired new Color Weavings
In short, a Jane Walk always brings a surprise or two, an insight or two about what matters, and a new friend or two. Who could ask for more?
The Winter Olympic Closing Ceremonies were such an example of new “I believe” bravado rippling across the Canadian landscape and yet a wonderful opportunity missed. Sorry, USA and the rest of the World – humble, self-effacing, meek and reliable Canadians will for the time being become more like uhhh … ugly Wall Street Banksters. Sure there were spots of the old self-effacement as VANOC’s Jim Furlong was made to read the closing statement in more broken French than a full year of ex-Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s English speeches. Now the two solitudes can get on with real communication.
And there was a brilliant touch of the witty, self-deprecating Canadian humor as the Olympic Torch with the missing 4th link was comically restored with Olympian Katrina LeMay-Done finally able to light the fire and torch for an hour more. But after that, the closing ceremonies went downhill faster than the Austrian ski team ["sorry about that" Ostreich, aber diese ist der neu Kanada].
First, there was the come back home gang – Canadians who have been successful in New York or Hollywood saying why in full projected Punch humor they retained some nostalgia for Canada. It was like a mini Travel Commercial which incidentally the Supernatural BC government is doing on TV in Microsoft fashion – i.e. copying the form and style of the real-deal California travel commercials. Martin Short, like the failed Olympic torch link, is rumored to have come up short and failed to show – and this viewer can guess why.
Next, the Vanoc team cannot be blamed for what Sochi Russia did – “a mixed pastiche of 1912 era and contemporary Russia as if the Communist hole in Russian history has still not been filled”. But Canadians then quickly did their best to imitate bad American Super Bowl entertainment – you know the kind where more time is spent doing scene changes then in the entertainers actually entertaining. Even the Vancouver Sun noting in its review the endless stream of lip-synching , one song stand of Canadian entertainers – as if quantity and no hurt feelings took precedence over a real show.
This party would vote for bringing the Maritime and Quebec fiddlers back from the Opening Ceremonies and have them lead the athletes in a series of simple riels, line and square dances that I am willing to bet every one of the athletes could could do with their eyes closed given their physical conditioning and sense of enthusiasm. Instead we got treated to Michael Buble and the RCMP Hooter girls.
Not just bad, but gosh awful – no wonder NBC decided to terminate their coverage of the Closing Ceremonies prematurely. They certainly know when the Night Show is not clicking.
And so as the Vancouver Sun noted – there were many questions to be asked about this Closing Ceremony given a)the quality of the Opening Ceremonies, b)the template for good closing ceremonies provided by Calgary and the 1988 Games, and c)the wonderful times, goodwill of the people and visitors plus the drama of the Olympians themselves. One could have taken from the many volunteers and fans at the events their impressions of the best moments of the games. Taken some of the dramatic finishes and shots of the Olympians, projected them up on the screen and then asked the Olympian and their volunteer/fan admirers to take an encore bow and/or exchange best wishes [with translator help as required].
So let me repeat the questions raised by the Vancouver Sun -
As fireworks burst off the roof of BC Place, several questions are posed by the casual observer; Why did Cirque de Soleil never make an appearance at these Olympic Games? Why was the music so milquetoast? Why did guys like Jim Carry and Mike Myers not show up, especially when the latter is a stone hockey freak?
Amen. And I am far from alone. Chats with people find that many agree with what Calgary Herald’s Licia Corbella has to say in her review:
Beautiful Olympics, Vulgar Closing Ceremony
…After the cauldron was extinguished, however, so too was virtually any taste or decorum. The theme of the night was to poke fun at Canadian cliches, all done by Australian production director, David Atkins. It didn’t work. Instead of having the world laugh with us, it left them laughing at us and judging from comments on my blog and other sites, left most Canadians cringing….Ending the evening with K-os, a rap group with breakdancers, singing the indecipherable Eye Know Something, was so discordant I turned to my husband and said, “They can’t actually be ending with this. This is a joke, right?”Sadly, it was no joke, but the closing ceremony was. And the joke was on us.
The Games were so good, the Canadian Olympian performances were so empowering, and the goodwill of the World was to be had – why sell so short on such petty self-deprecation rather than showing off how good the games were, how well Canadians and the world performed, and how Canadians can have a good time dancing and partying? Cheesh, just when Canada Owns the Golden Podium and scoffs a good part of its national inferiority complex, one has to say – “Sorry About That” for the Closing Ceremonies. Typical Canadian, Eh?
