TV Time Tangle

In most cases ‘Live’ is live enough. Canada takes on Norway in Vancouver and the only price I have to pay to watch from the comfort of my own home is 3 to 5 seconds of delay. Its mind boggling that I can turn on my television and have my own personal window looking into the arena, hundreds of miles away. It’s a perfect connection, linking me to every exciting moment of the game. A near perfect connection.





I’m at home, comfortable, relaxed, enjoying Iggy’s Goal-Light threepeat, loving Canada’s four-line balance, anticipating the victory, and hoping for Luongo to get the Shhhhhhhhhh. I’m in a good place. The camera cuts to a shot of team Canada’s strategists; the men behind the men behind the men. Up at the press box level, above the rink, the likes of Stevie Y, and Kevin Lowe look down at a strong introduction to what all of Canada hopes will be a golden tournament. Then I notice the television hiding in the upper corner of the box, behind the panel of architects; the screen suddenly changes to show the image I was looking at, the image of Stevie, Kevin, and the gang. The delay, of course. And then disaster struck; the delay was too much for me to handle.


My mind tried to keep up with the gymnastics of the whole scene: So, what I’m watching is a few seconds late, it’s already happened, which means I am looking into the past. But then that means that the TV in my TV is also a few seconds delayed and is also a window into the past. This then makes the space between the TVs a sort of limbo, representing what is perceived as the present. My mind faltered and hit the reset: Steve Yzerman when viewed through my screen is a few seconds in the past, but then once the TV behind him changes images (to show the same Steve Yzerman I was looking at a few seconds ago), the Yzerman in my TV becomes the future to the TV behind him, which now shows him in the past. So if I look passed the Yzerman that is supposed to be my present (which is in the past), and look at the Yzerman in the TV in my TV (which shows the present I had been looking at a few seconds ago), I am looking at an Yzerman that is both present and past, while being the future of the Yzerman behind him (who had been my present and past a few seconds earlier). If that wasn’t enough, I then realized that the TV in my TV had a TV in it that was just about to reveal a new Steve Yzerman. And behind this 3rd Stevie Y, yet another TV. Before my eyes the past, present, and future were crisscrossing and tangling themselves in a disastrous mess somewhere in my mind. I quickly changed the channel, and tried not to throw up.




In the end Canada won 8-0, Steve Yzerman escaped the time trap, and I promptly forgot everything my mind had tried to understand. In most cases ‘Live’ is live enough, in some cases it’s a big pain in the ass.