(no subject)
So I just learned that Air Jamaica holds an annual World Championship of Dominoes in "Jamaica" (the website does not specify exactly where), in which pairs from around the world slap the bones for the chance to net twenty-five g's. I actually began to write this under the belief that the 2006 tourney had just ended, with Venezuela as the winner (read about it in spanish here: http://www.eluniversal.com/2006/05/18/dep_ava_18A709331.shtml) but as I searched google for the tournament's website I discovered that these are actually two separate tournaments. So I could scrap this, but I find Air Jamaica's offering fascinating.
Actually, there are a lot of scrapes that proclaim themselves to be "the world championship of dominoes," but this one was first on google and had the most colorful website, and so as an American naturally that was the one I was drawn to. The website speaks as though the 2005 tournament is upcoming, so this particular contest is most likely defunct. It must have been quite a spectacle. In 2004, the tournament set up shop in Kingston and ended with the Jamaicans sweeping first through fourth prizes. Strangely, assumed domino powerhouses Cuba and Venezuela, among other Caribbean region nations, were absent from the tournament. Maybe it has something to do with the tournament in Venezuela. I can totally see someone getting pissed and calling Air Jamaica's tournament Anglophonecentric (not a word, clearly).
There may be more to this thing than meets the eye, however. The tournament rules, interestingly, have a "no weapons please" clause which prohibits players from weilding weaponry in the tournament area. It's one of the first things the rules point out. Sounds a little strange to me, even for Jamaica. But hey, maybe dominoes are a more dangerous game than we all thought. Come on, someone be my dominoes partner. We'll head down to Jamaica, well-dressed with a suitcase filled with money and our pockets full of hash, and we'll tangle with the best of them on the domino table and in the sunset-soaked streets of the wild world. Or something. We'll buy guns, too. Just so they'll be confiscated and we'll be respected.
Dominoes hold a strange allure for me. With a good talker/listener, I can play for hours. Days. I strikes a chord somewhere deeper, those little chunks of plastic/stone/ivory tip over some chemical brew in my brain and set reactions off. Part of it is the image of Curacao that they inspire, I think, but the rest of it is hard to locate. It feels like numerical hookah, simple logical choices laid out and taken casually, with no real rush or effort. It relaxes you and mellows you, just like a good communal smoke with friends. I've always believed that communal drugs/foods are incredibly potent devices in building bonds, and dominoes are no different. Sure, you can play cutthroat, just like you can suck a cigarette down fast if you try, but that would ruin it. I've been lazily reading psychologist Julian Jaynes' controversial book The Origin of Conciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, in which he talks about how simple logical choices, like noticing simple patterns, are done subconciously, vestigal remnants of a primitive hominin mind. Maybe some part of a lazy game of dominoes stimulates that basic bundle of logic, like a soft cranial massage. Or maybe I'm just trying to be poetic. At any rate, it gave me the opprotunity to name-drop Jaynes' book.
And now ESPN Deportes is trying to make dominoes the "new poker." According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle from April 2nd, ESPN Deportes, the offshoot Spanish-only sports network, is looking to popularize dominoes and make them into, as their general manager Lino Garcia puts it, "the next cool thing." They're already looking for players in NYC for their televised tournaments. No. No. No. No. No. No. Please no, Lino.
First of all, I don't think it will happen, at least not on as large a scale as is has for poker. It's fucking dominoes, for crissakes. They're sexy, but not in the eyes of the public, save for the Latino connection. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe that same base chemical reaction that is set off when dominoes are handled is common to more people than I'm willing to wager. Maybe there's a renaissance ready to spring up. NYU kids popping their collars and stashing the clay chips in favor of breakin' out the 28's. UGH, that's a bad image. Very bad. But hey, whatever cranks your chain. Just ask actor Luis Guzman, paraphased in the Chronicle:
"The domino table is an arena where the very dramas of life play out: love, hatred, revenge. Tempers can flare, and lifelong relationships can begin and end around a domino game."
Damn straight, Louie.
-Dan