It’s a stay-at-home world in 2020. Fortunately, for us, this freelance sports and food photographer rediscovered match cover “lids” collected over 40 plus years. His story is about the restaurants, bars, roadhouses, clubs and locations visited. The photographer hopes by sharing the lid images that they become a “way” of remembering places in passing. Or better yet, a means for these small businesses and front line workers to be recognized as they continue their daily struggle to survive – and serve us – their faithful customers. Match lids are business ad staples, or at least they were. So the photographer tries to make the collected lids memories that go from their ordinary purpose to sublime imagery in a unique way.
The Intersection
Sports worlds meets a world pandemic. February 19, 2020 in Milan, Italy at San Siro Stadium it’s Atalanta (IT) facing Valencia (SP) in a Champions League soccer game. On that day it was 40,000 fans in the stadium and countless fans in both countries watched in bars and restaurants. That game became known as the “Ground Zero” game. In the days and weeks that followed both Spain and Italy became the epicenter of the pandemic. Fast forward to March 11, 2020, the NBA suspends their basketball season in consultation with the CDC after one Utah Jazz players tested positive with Covid-19. The next day another teammate had a similar positive test. Sport leagues and councils across the globe take notice. Cancelled seasons and postponements soon followed. Social distancing measures are imposed and restaurants react to serve us “curbside”…..
The Project
Pull up a stool, check the game on the flat screens, order an adult beverage and ask the tender for a menu. It’s time to kick back. Sports, restaurants, quaint dining rooms, bars at the end of the world, waitresses, sou-chefs, hostesses and busboys. Where can I park the car or tie up my boat? One feeds upon the other. Is it a bottle of red or a bottle of white, what’s your mood tonight? Italian? BBQ? Tex-Mex? Asian Bistro? Owners and managers patrol the rooms asking if everything is alright? The Project begins here tonight.
Blog
We bring good things to Life.
Sports unite us. It keeps us sane for at least the moment. It helps reduce distractions, lets us cheer together, support our teams, and ultimately lets us honor a champion, be them long in the tooth or young at heart.
Anna Maria, A Snowbird’s Anniversary – March 11, 2021
A year gone by and we have returned like the snowbirds to this beach community along the Gulf Coast. Anna Maria Island (AMI) is south of Tampa and East of Bradenton, FL.
Claire’s Kitchen
Like sitting in Camden Yards in Baltimore, Cole Field House in College Park, Petco Park in San Diego, MSG in NYC, or Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham NC, it’s time to add Claire’s Kitchen for the remainder of this pandemic broadcast era as the must see TV backdrop.
Contact
Contact the Match Lid Project™ by checking out the Instagram Page.