2003-11-08 - 10:03 a.m.

i'm finally back in brooklyn. being away from home for so long really affected me strongly. for one thing, i think its the first time i've thought of new york city as 'home' rather than california. i spent all of tuesday travelling from vancouver to brooklyn, almost twenty-four hours of planes and trains with a little bit of last-minute shopping and dining in san francisco squeezed in. it was worth it, because i was able to see peter for a few hours before he took off for 10 days in baltimore.

the vancouver game went really well. we never did get a chess master to play the master game. i drafted a couple presenting at pre/amble to play the game, but they ditched me at the last minute to go sightseeing. at 2:15p (the game was to begin at 2:30p), mike and nick volunteered to play the master game. their collective knowledge of chess was not impressive. during the game, mike asked me if queens could move diagonally (they can), and if his king could capture the enemy queen who was three squares away (the king only moves one square at a time). mike still won with a stunning checkmate in 25 moves. they were both great sports despite the fact that i was heckling them for erratic moves during the entire game.

the folks in vancouver were really nice, incredibly enthusiastic and warm. many pieces didn't get to move or were captured before they could move, and everyone seemed pretty okay with that. some of the costumes were outstanding, especially the white queen and her court (she dressed like queen amidala of the star wars series), the black queen and her court, and rob the black queenside bishop, who repurposed a church sale evening gown into one of the most fashionable costumes. one white pawn even fashioned her hair into a knob-like shape so that she evoked a pawn in profile.

i was lucky enough to have colleen coplick volunteer to do a lot of PR for the vancouver game, and she was able to get a TV station to do a short spot on the chess game. gretchen and i saw the spot from our hotel room, a few minutes at the end of the local evening news. i must admit it was thrilling to see myself on television. the cameraman also followed the black queen on some of her rounds capturing pieces and talking to me on her cellphone. i was pleased that the spot seemed to capture the flavor of the game.