Friday, August 7, 2009

Ray Cheng is visiting New York

Ray Cheng in Tompkins Square Park

I first met Ray through Abby and because he randomly sent me a copy of his book a few years ago, which totally made my day. The next time I saw him was at the World Open when he was wearing a bathrobe and drinking a gin and tonic at his board. It was some kind of Big Lebowski reference with chessloser.

Alan and Ray

another guy in tompkins with cool head tattoos


This is near Wall Street.

update: I get an email today that reads:
Lizzy,I heard this is what happened to the tourist who tried to push you off the bull to take his own picture...any comments? Thank you.Pascal

come up with a funny response for me, please?


I have an interest in photographing people eating ice cream for 2 reasons:

1. Everyone has practiced their "photograph smile" but you can't do that when you're eating ice cream.
2. Ice cream, especially soft serve, manages to be childlike and sexy at the same time (but not in an intentional, inherently creepy way). Props with a confusing message are interesting.




inside the Staten Island Ferry terminal

inside the Staten Island side of the terminal.

remind you of any movie stills?

kinda?


from the boat

I only include this to show you how awesome my camera is.

11 comments:

Bionic Lime said...

Ray's book is great. It's really a challenge doing what seems like a tactics book, but isn't. You always want the easy way out (e.g., "well that looks like it is going to be a queen sac) but there is no easy way.

I await the sequel -- one aimed at lower rated people (<1200), because I think a lot of advanced beginners could benefit from such a book.

Anonymous said...

Oh! I have that book. It's terrific, and I love it. But it's <whine>haaaaard</whine>.

I also have Jeremy Silman's Reassess Your Chess Workbook, which is similar in spirit, and somehow I manage to get every single fricking problem wrong. I call Silman out on this one. Normally, I'm happy to take responsibility for my own inadequacy. However, Silman is purporting to teach me something, and if I can't use the analysis technique that he's supposedly teaching me and get the answers he expects me to get, then he's not teaching me right.

Is there a better book out there that teaches the heuristics of chess thinking? Because I know that's my No. 1 weakness.

Montreal Meany said...

Is the "TWIC enrollment center" pic a joke? Because I don't get it.

Elizabeth Vicary said...

it's meant to be another confusing prop, like the ice cream, but the joke is the "this week in chess" reference.

Montreal Meany said...

Yeah, that was enough to make me think there might be a joke, but not enough to make me get it. Also, I didn't realize I was signed in as myself.

X said...

I have to admit that I saw that version of Romeo & Juliet 3 times while it was still in the theater...still a total sucker for it!

Anonymous said...

Yeah Ray! (College friend and suite-mate of my husband.) Yeah Leonardo DiCaprio! (Ditto.)

OK, this is really poor commentator etiquette, but I couldn't see anywhere else to post a comment about the questionnaire regarding birthday date forgetfulness. In the interests of scientific accuracy, I insist that responders identify themselves as parents (or NOT) of cognizant children, i.e. diaper-wearing infants don't count. I hypothesize that the subset of responders who are parents will overwhelmingly choose the first response.

--Liz Marshall (b. 8/11/62)

Anonymous said...

I think the correct answer to the birthday question has to do with one's relation to the birthday celebrator. Forgetting the birthday of the guy who sits across the hall from you at work isn't a big deal. On the other hand, my then-wife forgot my birthday three years in a row, which struck me as pretty uncool.

Rick Massimo

Anonymous said...

Hey, you left out the most interesting biographical detail about Ray. He knew Abby Marshall's mom and dad when they were all undergraduates at the University of Virginia. In fact, it was Ray who convinced them to conceive a daughter and train her from childhood to be a champion chessplayer. Oh wait, that was Susan Polgar's parents.

julius g said...

There really is nothing else like ice cream is there. Anyone who has a lactose intolerance or has allergies due to dairy protein has pretty much been born without a sexual organ. I like to order stuzipan or neapolitan in a waffle cone, I use to love goo goo cluster, but I once lost a girlfriend of five years due to me just ordering it out loud. Then later I bought a hotel in a highly frequented area. Most of the pay-per-view movies are all old videos of her sleeping, showering, and having sex behind my back (everyone has practiced their "photograph smile" but you can't do that when you're eating a big black dick), it was worth the small business loan. Yesterday we were short staffed and I had to play concierge, I handed a newspaper columnist the keys to room 12 and told him to give me a few minutes to see if the coroner was finished, and he wrote a negative review the next day; I later found out his favorite ice cream flavor was chocolate cherry, but he was far from cordial.

Anonymous said...

lol I missed this guy A LOT!!