born 25 June 1970

Aaron Sele, Golden Valley, Minnesota, major league pitcher

Amy Ecklund, Reno, Nevada, actress

Cameron R. Penn, Newport Beach, California, producer

Eric Grimberg, Buenos Aires, Argentina, actor

Erki Nool, Võru, Soviet Union, Estonian Olympic decathlon champion

Fernando Gasca, San Francisco, California, actor

Jalina Stewart, Washington, D.C., producer

Kathryn Donovan, Hillingdon, England, unit publicist

Kerry Dickerson, birthplace unspecified, British actress

Lucy Benjamin, Reading, England, actress

Morgan Brayton, Victoria, British Columbia, actress

Rodney G. and Roger R. Johnson, Saint Paul, Minnesota, writer/producer/director team

Thomas Scharff, Berlin, East Germany, actor

I’m going to devote today’s observation, and winnerdom, to the fact that I got to experience 3D live television for the first time today.

It works, and the people who have seen that it works have some good first thoughts about how best to deploy it. However, forty-five minutes of it left me a bit woozy and nauseated.

The thing I got to watch was a World Cup match, Brazil versus Portugal. Even though there was no scoring, the movement of the men through space was really something to see. The 3D feed was assembled from completely different camera placements than the mainstream broadcast most of the world was watching. The players were interwoven in space in completely novel ways. Their movement resembled music as 2D resembles writing, if that makes any sense.

For instance, one thing that amazed me to no end was watching long kicks sailing away from the keeper toward midfield, as viewed from behind the goal line. That, and watching challenges for a high bounce between men of notably divergent heights. Little things, the jostling for position. It makes more sense in 3D

It made me very excited to see how an NBA All-Star Game would look in 3D. Some other live events that would look really nice in 3D: stage plays, air shows, beauty pageants, ballets, open air operas, Olympic track events (hence Today’s Winner), presidential inaugurations, North Korean military spectacles, Civil War reenactments, Super Bowls, rodeos, circuses, and Iron Chef battles.

The problem, as my friend Jason points out, is that the technology is wholly antithetical to the way people watch television today. You really have to give it all your attention. Most folks don’t do this anymore when watching television. And the thing you’re watching really has to rise to that level of demanding attention. Most things on TV just don’t. You don’t need “30 Rock” or a regular Mets game or something like that to be in 3D. Not to mention that everybody you’re watching with has to wear those dumb glasses: the fact that you are isn’t so much the problem, it’s that everyone you’re with is. It’s antisocial and vaguely Marshall Applewhitey.

So the whole thing will probably turn out to be an expensive boondoggle. But it sure was absorbing for 45 minutes.