Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/07/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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 <msmall@infionline.net> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org> 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?s fir gun ghr?s fir! _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information