[Leica] World Cup Musings

[wrs111445 at yahoo.com (Bill Smith)]

Oh--the joys of free speech...or close to it anyway. Perhaps we should all 
just be happy we're not in Iran, N. Korea, Cuba, China, etc. Personally, I 
prefer the bickering to the latter environs. 

Nick Roberts <nickbroberts@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:  Well, looks like you missed 
the points of MY post, Marc.

First - this list frequently goes off-topic. It's actually one of the nice 
things about it. If it were limited purely to the discussion of Leicas, or 
even Leicas and photography in general, it would be a poorer place IMO. Not 
everybody is going to be interested in all the off-topic discussions, of 
course - some people aren't interested in fountain pens (me) or Tilley hats 
(again me) or single malts (absolutely not me) or any of the other subjects 
that come up time after time, but what would this place be without them? ;) 
Second, who set you up as censor and arbiter of allowable topics on the LUG? 
I fully respect your right to do that on the Rollei List, but this ain't 
that, and it's rather difficult not to resent the apparent implication that 
only US-based sporting activities should be discussed here - it IS a global 
list, this is a global sport and the US team has even been involved. It's 
not some "world series" that's just a national competition - virtually every 
nation on the planet (well, 207 of them) has been involved in the 
competition at some stage, a quite remarkable phenomenon.
Third, this as I have pointed out is THE most popular sporting event on the 
planet. It has been estimated that 1 in 4 of the world's population will 
watch the final (1 in 6 watched the last one, and there is far greater 
coverage in China this time) - is it thus that unreasonable to have a little 
comment on the later stages? There are only two matches left in the 
tournament, so you won't have to keep the delete key busy for that much 
longer, and there's not another one for four years.
Fourth, I actually provided you with a link to photography related to the 
world cup - fair enough if it doesn't interest you, but please acknowledge 
my attempt to introduce photography into the discussion. Even if you're not 
interested in the football pics, Chung is an exceptional photographer whose 
work deserves to be seen, even if not shot with a Leica, and it can be 
accessed from the link.

Now if you want to discuss baseball, say, fine - it's a cultural thing that 
deserves respect and to be photographed - I find the sport tedious in the 
extreme, but am fascinated by the whole mystique and history surrounding 
what for us in the UK is a game for schoolgirls. I can learn from that, and 
if you're prepared to open your mind to it, you can learn from football and 
the global love of "the beautiful game" - a game that unites the world like 
little else.


Nick

----- Original Message ----
From: Marc James Small 
To: Leica Users Group 
Sent: Wednesday, 5 July, 2006 12:59:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] World Cup Musings


At 11:26 PM 7/4/06 +0000, Nick Roberts wrote:
>Marc, the World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world.
Literally billions of people watch it. And of course it IS real football,
given that we invented it long before the US game. It is also one of the
main testing grounds for new camera equipment, and many of the greatest
sports photographers are there. So it's actually fairly on-topic-ish. 
>Here's Dan Chung's Blog to provide a little evidence for my somewhat OTT
claim: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/danchung/index.html
> 
>I'm sorry if it all offends your US-centric view of the world, but tough. ;)

Nick,

I am sorry to note that you missed the entire intent of my post, which was
to suggest that if YOU guys are so damned insistent on discussing the World
Cup, which of itself has nothing to do with the spirit of this List, then
perhaps, the USians on this List ought to start presenting you with
play-by-play accounts of the Baseball World Series or the like.

Let us keep the World Cup discussions off the LUG. Let us get back to
discussing photography and the use of Leicas to that end.

Marc

msmall@aya.yale.edu 
Cha robh b? fir gun ghr? fir!




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_______________________________________________
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See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information


                
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