It's passed him by, or he said, oh yeah, 'a disagreement,' but didn't think it was remarkable? 

I'm trying to understand which "it passed him by" you mean, I imagine you must mean that you both obviously saw the same thing - people playing pool, a disagreement, a resolution, but that you thought it was serious or tense, but thought it was unserious and unremarkable. Is that right? 

If it is, I don't think it's because you don't know Ebonics you didn't understand that. Are you a WASP? More people will get mad at me, but cultural heritages are real. Are you infrequently around people that yell a lot for no reason?

On Wednesday, November 20, 2013, Pete Forsyth wrote:

Sonja -- I'm glad my story captured your imagination, but sorry to disappoint! :)

Unfortunately I'm not sure how to capture the interesting discussion we had after that -- it was a discussion between good friends, with reference to past conversations and shared experiences and such. I gave him the backstory I provided here (much of which I'd already told him) and we shared our amazement that something so intense could happen while he was paying close attention, and yet completely pass him by. We agreed that the cadence of communication in that community can make it difficult for an outsider to distinguish between mere animated, performance-like, boisterous speech, and actual conflict.

I'm sure there will be more stories coming out of this league -- hopefully with a grand *victorious* finale in a few months ;)

Pete

On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 12:18 PM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss@gmail.com> wrote:

What's the rest of the story - 

You: "What did you think of that?"

Eugene: "of what?"

You: ?????

What did you say, "the fight"?

Then what did he say ? 

On Tuesday, November 19, 2013, Pete Forsyth wrote:

All:

In the spirit of Rhodey's recent message,[1] I'd like to share an Oakland vignette of my own, about a pool league I recently joined. But first, here's why:

I began to get especially excited about Sudo Room when I started to realize it aspires to be more than just a bunch of computer geeks coming together to hack computery stuff (awesome enough in itself) -- that it also wants to be a community that hacks *life* together. Meeting chefs and filmmakers was the first wave for me, and then I started hearing heatlfelt and inspired talk about stuff like social change and engaging with local government. Yeah!

Many of us, though, are new, or newish, to Oakland. And we are people who want to have a positive impact on the world around us. But Oakland is a place with deep history and culture, and on a pretty basic level, it would be...impolite...to come to a party and immediately start trying to change what it is. So the desire to get to KNOW Oakland is one that resonates very strongly with me, as an important first step before contemplating ways to INFLUENCE Oakland. I think sharing stories is a powerful way (among others) to get to know something complex and multifaceted.

Anyway, enough of the philosophizing. I want to tell you guys a little bit about the pool league I joined a couple months back.

Apparently, there have been several Oakland/East Bay pool leagues over the last 30 years or so (where each team has a home bar, and competes weekly over a scheduled season). Right now, there's only one league (or at least, only one connected with this community). It's coed, it's a 30 week season (we're about 9 weeks in), it's run by a woman who has run an all-women's league but just started this one, and it will culminate in a trip to Reno for all participants. By now, having played against all the other teams, and can say I am truly the only white person in the league;[2] and I think I'm also unique (more or less) in my connection/familiarity with Internet/hacker culture.

I've played in a pool league before, but it's been 10 or 15 years. As this league was forming, I heard about it from a number of regulars at my local bar in Emeryville -- the organizer, and a number of people who have ended up on various teams in the league. There was some buzz about it, and I ended up joining a team that plays out of an East Oakland bar.

The first couple weeks passed pretty quietly. Weeks 3 and 4, though, got rowdy! Lots of arguments in various games, and of course, there was some inertia to it -- the overall mood became increasingly tense each night. I felt cautious about this -- as a newcomer, I was reluctant to be involved in the arguments -- I was still getting to know the vibe and the people. But that only goes so far. I felt a responsibility to the integrity of the game (I know the rules better than many in the league, who are more familiar with "bar rules" than "league rules"); and moreover, a responsibility to my team. I have to advocate for myself in my own games -- that's part of what I showed up to do -- and there are situations where I have to step it up on behalf of my teammates, too. To keep it short, weeks 3 and 4 were were it "got real" for me.

In week 5, there was a new twist: my friend Eugene, who's recently been taking photography classes (and who hasn't played pool in a competitive context), had been asking about coming to take some photos, and was finally able to make it to a match. I had run this by the league coordinator and a couple teammates, so I was confident our bases were covered -- but after the hot tempers of the preceding weeks, I was nervous! Were we now in a new, hypercompetitive mode where the slightest detail is going to lead to a shouting match? Is it OK to introduce a new and unfamiliar element to a volatile situation? What kind of effect will it have?

Fortunately, overall it was a super mellow night. Both teams seemed relaxed. I found myself lining up laid back blues tracks on the jukebox between my games, and

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