You may have discerned a hint, a clue, from this week’s coin toss. It prominently featured socks, which, besides their ability to smell like feet, are an object which only works in pairs.
Working in pairs, you might say. What could that possibly have to do with this battle of wills, this fight to the finish, this every man for himself? Well, it's something so unorthodox I'd venture to call it truly outrageous. Truly, truly, truly outrageous.
Frank Chimero? And Kate Bingaman-Burt? They're going to work together.
That's right. On Friday, in a nearly-empty Portland, Oregon apartment, by a fridge containing only one half-drunk gallon of Newman's Own Lemonade and a carton of grocery store salad bar minestrone, Chimero and Bingaman-Burt will form a one-time, tag-team, super group. The rules, if such an anarchious experiment can have rules, are this: After a player completes a volley, he will cross the proverbial net and act as production intern for his competitor. Anything's fair game, says Bingaman-Burt: "Frank will find me YouTube clips of The Monkees! Preferably episodes heavy with Mike Nesmith."
You're probably thinking the same thing I am. Davy Jones is a far superior Monkee. But what about sabotage? You know: Ooopsie doodles! I just accidentally deleted Photoshop off your hard drive! My bad!
Well, rest assured, fans. The two have reportedly engaged in a National Layer Tennis Ethics Committee-mandated pinky-swear, which has, thankfully, put both players at ease.
"We did pinky swear not to sabotage, but for some reason this doesn't make me relaxed," says Bingaman-Burt. "If she breaks it, I will never be able to trust anyone ever again," says Chimero. "Are you reading this Kate? If you sabotage me, I will never learn to love again. Not even pets."
Now let's meet the players, shall we?
On one end of this pinky-swear is Frank Chimero, a graphic designer, teacher, writer, and creative person who lives in Portland, Oregon. He makes witty, intelligent, colorful work for The New York Times, Nike, Wired, Microsoft, The Atlantic, Starbucks and GOOD. He teaches at Portland State University. Sometimes he sees tiny ponies in the Apple store. He was recently christened as a Young Gun, which sounds immature and also violent but is actually not either of those things.
And the yin to his yang, Kate Bingaman-Burt, the queen of consumption, sketcher of purchases, illustrator of debt, who also lives in Portland, Oregon. One day she drew something that she bought, and the next day she did it again, and now there is an official timeline and a book you should buy to learn about all of it. She also draws for other people, like IDEO, ReadyMade, The New York Times, and Wieden + Kennedy. Bingaman-Burt teaches at Portland State University, too, where she's kind of Chimero's boss. Which should make this especially interesting.
And I'm Alissa Walker, your commentator. Armed only with words and a voracious appetite for gelato, I'm stationed a safe distance away from this volatile exercise. Will it work? Or will it blow up in our faces like a Mentos at a Coca-Cola bottling plant?
Chimero won the coin toss, as you can plainly see from the look on his sock-likeness face, so he's now working on the serve. And I believe we've got some audio from the studio. Let's listen in. "Kate! Go walk to the grocery store to buy some Pop Tarts. You know, the ones that I like. Yes? No. No. You know, the ones I like. Those strawberry ones. No. The ones without the frosting on top. No, Kate. Those crunched Froot Loops on top of them are gross. Just get the plain ones."
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Congratulations to Mig Reyes, Layer Tennis Season 3 Champion.
Thanks to all the players, commentators and fans who made Season Three of Layer Tennis a big success. And thanks to the crew at Goodby Silverstein & Partners and all the folks at Adobe Creative Suite for making it possible. Watch this space (or sign up for Season Tickets or follow us on Twitter) for news about some special exhibition matches being planned and about Season 4.
Cast your votes on The Championship Match. Both Finalists will receive invitations to play in the post-season tournament for Season Four.
Here's how the voting works. Decide who you'd like to declare as winner and then simply tweet their first name following a hash mark. Either #mig or #noper and, this is important, also include #lyt in that tweet. We'll leave the voting open all weekend and announce our Season Three Champion on Monday.
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