Posted on 08/25/2018 5:19:18 PM PDT by poconopundit
Recently I was reminded of the Fischer vs. Spassky chess match my brothers and I watched on TV in 1972. Actually there was no live broadcast, but commentators gave a running analysis as each move was made. It turned out to be quite fun -- a pre-runner of Periscope -- four decades before social media took off.
Does anybody out there remember this?!
I explored photos of Fischer and Trump's 1970s publicity shots and wondered if I could create an imaginery meeting between the two. This is the result.
I read up about Fischer for this vanity and discovered he was a pretty weird guy who kind of went off the deep end as a recluse and radical Leftist. So imagine this fake meeting occurred before Fischer lost his marbles.
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Hope you enjoy this thoroughly whacky meme.
For those interested in seeing how the meme was constructed, download the Excel sheet (6 Megabytes)
http://freeper.org/fr/Chess/Trump_Fischer.xlsx
That is some good photoshop.
You posted this in the bloggers forum but I don’t see a link to yours??
Wow, thanks for sharing your secrets on making your meme. I’m fascinated by learning to make memes and was pleased to see that you used Gimp. How interesting that you used Excel to bring it together, I would not have thought of it. Great job!
excellent meme ping!!
The Manhattan Chess Club was Fischer’s home club. WNET Channel 13 in New York broadcast the match, with move by move coverage and analysis from grandmasters at the club.
I had two chess sets at the time, so I hauled them out. Ii kept one set to wherever the match between Fischer and Spassky was and used the other for analysis, to see if I could figure out strategies. I got one of Fischer’s game-winning moves two moves before he made it. (The high point for me as far as chess is concerned.)
That was actually entertaining TV, and when Spassky resigned, they had quite a moment there at the Manhattan Chess Club.
"Fork . . . the angry queen?" Even Bill Clinton wouldn't go there, at least not since 9 months before Chelsea was born (and perhaps not even then).
Hi upchuck,
I’m never sure what category these go in.
However you can access all my vanities on FR at my profile:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~poconopundit/
Making Deplorable Political Art by Mashing Up Google Images
Yes, Excel is very useful, particularly in the final mock up stage.
I never got the hang of using Layers in GIMP. I guess I'm too lazy to learn it, but in Excel it's pretty easy as you can quickly move one image in front of another, etc.
Another area is created Drop Shadows. For example you can copy an transparent image into Excel, put a shadow on it and copy it back into GIMP. Very effective.
Text boxes are so much easier to make in Excel. I like to try several background and Excel works well for that too.
One other thing about Excel, georgiegirl.
Excel is a place where you can store all the intermediate images and components you use in your meme project. You don’t need to maintain separate files.
Wow, and you anticipated Fischer's game-winning moves. Outstanding. So you were an excellent player.
I read much of Fischer's Wikipedia page and learned so much. What struck me most was a radio interview he did in 2006 when he was living in Iceland. He gave a very perceptive view on Chess in the computer age:
So if you just brought them back from the dead they might not do too well, because they'd get bad openings. You cannot compare the playing strength, you can only talk about natural ability, because now there is so much more opening theory, so much more memorization. Memorization is enormously powerful.
Some kid of fourteen today, or even younger, could get the opening advantage against Capablanca, or especially against the players of the previous century, like Morphy and Steinitz, easily. Maybe they'd still be able to outplay the young kid of today, but maybe not.
Nowadays when you get the opening advantage, not only do you get the opening advantage, but you know how to play the opening advantage they have so many examples of what to do from this position.
So it's really deadly, it is very deadly... that's why I don't like chess anymore... It's all just memorization and prearrangement, it's a terrible game now. A very un-creative game now.
You’ve got me inspired to check out the youtube and also to “play around” in Excel. Can’t thank you enough for sharing your knowledge. I will get back to you once I have veiwed your entire youtube “how to”.
Can't emphasize enough it's best to let the great images you find steadily refine your idea of what your composition will be.
At first you will have a general idea of what you're looking for, but you need to flexibly adapt your original concept to move toward the most "perfect" meme given the source materials -- and time -- you have to work with.
In the Trump and Fischer meme, finding the extraordinary 3D chessboard allowed me to show Trump and Fischer standing side by side. It served to hide the fact that I only had an upper torso of Fischer and a right side of Trump. Without the vertical 3d chessboard I would have had to reconstruct the whole left side suit of Trump since it was hidden by another person in the original shot.
You're the first person to express great interest in the technique and video. That makes the effort I put into the video worthwhile.
Since the video, I've begun to play with various meme types:
Red Tsunami -- This was a pretty ambitious meme. I tried to convey the awesome power of Deplorable voters through an analogy of a tsunami interrupting the plans of a Leftist dinner and cocktails on the beach.
Melania in Yellow -- Sometimes you get very lucky and the background lines up nicely with the person in front. What's not seen here is the hour or so I spent looking for the best Venus de Milo to go with Melania's stunning yellow dress she wore for dinner in London.
Mollie Tibbets in Wyeth painting -- A couple people criticized this image as being "tacky" and maybe cheapening the famous Andrew Wyeth painting. But given I only spent a couple hours on the piece, I think it conveys the feeling of Iowa farm fields and the shock Mollie's mother must have felt. Besides, the picture invites FReepers to explore Wyeth's paintings and maybe visit his museum.
HTML Christmas GIF for Trump Family -- Here's an unusual one. It's an HTML technique to put an animated GIF background under a series of images inside an HTML table. In one of the comments I fully explain the technique.
Occasional Cortex -- I introduced the pun "Occasional Cortex" here on FR and created a meme to go along with it. This is the kind of meme I want to do more of because the humorous side of the meme enables me to get a political point across.
So I thank you, georgiegirl, for your interest and inspiration to continue on my path. Stay in touch.
Until I get my own picture collection up and running, Google Images has stored quite a few of my memes.
Hi Georgiegirl, commenting on your Rosenstein idea.
First of all, what are you using for a graphics program? Photoshop? GIMP?
GIMP is free and that’s what I use. The paste job of the
Rosenstein head is not clean, but that’s easily fixed in GIMP.
Have you looked at YouTube videos that teach you various image manipulation techniques? There are some fabulous instructional videos out now.
I get the connection between Rod Rosenstein and the FISA application, but I’m not sure what message you are trying to convey. Just a pic of Rosenstein with a document in his hand is not whacky enough to be noticed.
Search for a unusual background scene. Maybe Rosenstein can be portrayed as a medieval monk, for example.
https://www.google.com/search?q=medieval+scribe+fantasy&tbm=isch&gws_rd=ssl
Try this search and look for something you like. Try another search. I often insert the keyword “fantasy” to find a cool pic.
Let your imagination take over and spend a lot of time finding the perfect pic to insert your Rosenstein head on.
This approach respects the valuable time you spend perfecting the final graphic. And when it’s finished and it looks professional, you’ve got something you be proud of.
Somebody on FR will tell you they laughed at it, maybe, and then you’re (unfortunately) hooked and have to create more :-)
<img width=400 src="http://mywebsite.com/pic.jpg">
Is Hillary going to a barber shop? Maybe you Trump is prepping Hillary for going to Jail. You can have her wearing an orange jump suit. Have fun.
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