| mannahatta |
[10 Jan 2011|05:08pm] |
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mood |
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constantly undecided on my fo. |
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"Listen to the stories. You want to help the world? Read the poetry of the people we're bombing. Write poetry for them. Sing songs for them, and for us. And listen to everybody. You cannot control how diverse any room is, or any institution, or any policy. But you can control how diverse you are, and who you love and who you listen to. So tonight, don't go hang out with your mirrors (whether that's physical or ideological). Go find somebody you disagree with, and go hang out." ALEXIE, Sherman |
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| communication. |
[22 Oct 2010|08:53pm] |
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[Location] (Bensonhurst) Brooklyn, NYC [Contact] fisso fischetti
[Preferences] Third person. AIM & threading. Sex scenes optional. On EST.
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| The Thing About Chess. |
[21 Jan 2010|12:22pm] |
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan know how to play Chess. Smart people know how to play Chess. That’s a fact that popular culture has taught me. If you aren’t playing Chess, you are not enlightened.
I don’t know how to play Chess. It’s always felt as if I should learn, however. Chess seems important when people talk about it, when they compare it to life. That comparison is extremely overused to the point of being cliché, but doesn’t it always sound smart regardless? Unless a crackhead is making that comparison. (Then again, the part of a crackhead’s brain that hasn’t been smoked away is usually highly intellectual.) My point is, I’ve always had this strange curiosity about the game, but have zero percent interest in learning how to play. What would be the advantage? Sure, games aren’t really meant to be advantageous unless you’re a professional player or gambler. Still, why should I learn to play this particular game? I think it’s so that I too can make comparisons between life and Chess during dinner parties.
This actually happened once. Sort of. A woman whom I was acquainted with work-wise approached me at a function and small talk ensued. I think we were tipsy. Somehow the subject of Chess came up when she pointed out that she went to school with the guy in the corner. He’d been a Chess champion, Little Man Tate-ish. “Oh, that’s good,” I said, saying anything at all, “I never learned Chess.” As I leaked my next sentence (“Who the fuck would want to?”), she at the same time said, “I can teach you.” There was an awkward silence and we looked away from eachother. When I stole a glance at her, her expression read, “What a dumbass. I bet he plays Xbox 360 in his boxers while eating Fruit Loops.”
That wasn’t true. I don’t even own an Xbox 360. I play my friend’s system. In my boxers. While eating Cocoa Puffs. Speaking of that very friend … he knows how to play Chess. He’s a businessman, whatever that means. To my recollection he sells … something. Is it odd to not know what your friend of ten years does for a living? I don’t think so. I still don’t know what my dad does. I think he’s an astronaut. Anyway, this friend of mine plays at least two games of Chess on his laptop daily. In the morning, he does this because he says it “gets me amped up to face the competition”. My friend really is a dumbass, and even he knows how to play Chess.
I’ve read awful novels in order to review them, and one in particular was completely unreadable, but even a character in that book knew how to play Chess and compare it to life in the same breath. I saw a horrible movie with Samuel L. Jackson as a lowlife, and even that guy knew how to play Chess. And compare it to life. Even the kid selling drugs on that movie knew how to play Chess. Jesus, everyone knows how to play Chess. Except me. Gangsters always know how to play Chess. I think this is so that they can compare it to ‘the game’ or something, and therefore give merit to the despicable thing they do for a living. Maybe I’ll finally bite the bullet and get my uncle to teach me. When he’s not burying bodies.
“See, you have to guard your king or else the whole kingdom is taken. What’s a kingdom without a king? Mayhem. Anarchy.” “See, everybody is paying attention to the king, but it’s the pawn that’s making all the moves.” And countless other mumbo jumbo I’ve heard people say about Chess and life. Of course Chess isn’t like life at all, but it sure sounds cool to say it is.
I like Checkers. And I just thought of an adage: There are two kinds of people in the world - those who play Checkers and those who play Chess … well, there are also the people who play both, but ignore that fact.
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