FU, I can do minimalist

Harrington's out of the gate with an understated serve. I like this move. In some of the other Layer/Photoshop matches I've seen, the players have given their opponents too much to work with on the serve, too many elements to grab onto to fashion into a fiery return. This is a very quick, straightforward shot down the pipe. Not too much for Anderson to work with here, but I don't think he'll have too much trouble with it, a player of his skill level.

One other thing. Harrington seems to be having a bit of fun with your commentator here. In the pre-match warm-up I wrote: "Both of these artists love to blow up the canvas with high contrast, bright colors, and layer upon layer of detail." His serve is none of these things. Are we going to see something a bit different from Harrington and Anderson here today? Are these guys more versatile than I gave them credit for? We might have a competition here after all...Anderson/Harrington vs. the clock and your commentator. Don't make me come over there with my copy of Photoshop!

Not much more to say about an unreturned serve, so we wait on Anderson's volley.

Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Jason Kottke.

Looming

First reaction: I laughed. That's a good sign for Anderson. We've got some color here now. The birds have flow away, the moon is rising, and we can see the stars. Time has passed. Storm's a'brewing. Our teepee friend looks worried.

This is a fantastic shot. Harrington introduced a sense of the time with the moon beginning to rise in twilight and Anderson picked up on that. It looks as though an hour or so has passed; we're in the early stages of night. Anderson also flipped the pupils of the teepee around, subtly switching its gaze from the birds to the impending storm and imposing mountains. The little guy looks scared, doesn't he? Your commentator is impressed by the subtlety of the match so far...I was not prepared for it.

Let's see the return!

P.S. From the forums: "It looks like the wigwam was minding his own business trying to figure out how to play an Arcade Fire song on the ukulele, and now some stoner-rock band over the horizon just cranked up their amps and started screaming PINK MOUUUUNTAAAIN!"

Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Jason Kottke.

Teepee Chess Set?

The sky cleared as quickly as the storm came up. Some pink Anderson birds (Glowus andersonus) are seen flying to meet Harrington's birds. The depth of the scene has been both expanded and contracted in this volley...our frightened teepee's rollin' with a posse, front and rear, but the spider web flattened the mountains in the background.

Two additional thoughts on this one. One: Flatland. There's some serious messing with the sense of depth going on here. The teepees are 2-D but cast shadows. They appear to be aligned on a 3-D grid, one in front of the other and so on with the mountains behind them, and then -- bang! -- a freaking spider web ties the background mountains to the foreground. There's something clever going on here, an explicit nod to the layering in the Photoshop files themselves.

Two: Harrington's teepee style reminds me of folk artist Adolf Wolfli. That was my first-glance reaction when I saw the serve, but forget to mention it until now.

Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Jason Kottke.

Volley Four

You're seeing this post because our intrepid play-by-play commenter is currently typing furiously or composing some witty remarks about this volley. Or perhaps you've arrived here by accident and this volley hasn't even been played yet.

Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Jason Kottke.