Brooklyn Social

A couple Sundays ago I had an evening assignment in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Carroll Gardens. Afterwards I headed toward Brooklyn Social, a bar I had photographed for the Village Voice about three years ago. I remember there was a pool table in the back, so I was eager return and play some. It was surprisingly crowded for a Sunday night, and the pool table was no exception. There were three couples playing and I wasn't surprised when I walked in and heard somebody ask, "We're shooting stripes, right?" Doubles being played by couples is easily the slowest game of pool there is. Especially when every single shot, taken by the woman, requires a tutorial from the man who points at the ojbect ball indicating where she should try to aim. That is my absolute pet peeve. Every time I see this happen in a bar I secretly hope the woman will say something like "Get your finger away from that ball, I know what I'm doing!" I put a quarter on the rail and waited patiently, out of the way. When the game was finished they kindly offered to let me play, as they had been playing for a while. So I suggested my usual "Canadian Doubles," which they seemed to like. And once we got started I got some playful ribbing from everybody, as I probably looked like I was showing off. But, hey, running three or four balls in a row in 30 seconds, to these people, must've looked like a trick shot exhibition or something. I even nailed a dicey bank shot that I probably wouldn't attempt in a league match. But eventually I grew overconfident and hit an 8ball shot too hard and the cue ball scratched. They were cool people and they were more than happy to let me take some pictures. Usually when I'm in a bar I only have my narrowish 50mm lens and Tri-X, which I shoot at 400. But this room was incredibly dim. Fortunately I had my digital gear with me so I was able to crank it up to ISO 3200. Even so, I was shooting 1/8th of a second (top photo). The film shots were way underexposed. Compare the results for yourself.

On a completely different note, I kept thinking about that evening for quite some time. It was a good time, such a different vibe than playing a league match. Much different from some of the more cutthroat places I play, where at any given point one of a dozen players could walk in and knock me off the table. That Sunday evening made me realize why I love to play, and it let me see how much I've improved since I was near their level, skillwise, not all that long ago. When I went to Brooklyn Social I was still stinging from my last three consecutive APA matches, all losses. In one match, I was put up against a 6. And I had him. I got to a 2-1 lead and had an easy runout for the win but I rushed it and messed up an easy shot (again, overconfidence). He went on to win four in row to take the match. It's times like that when my skin crawls and I just want to scream at myself. All told, I had a winning record (6-5), batting .540 for the season. And I got off to a nice 4-0 start. So it's not the end of the world. But it sure is nice to walk into a bar in Brooklyn, an unknown, and play just for kicks.

Fraunces Tavern

Way down at the very bottom of Manhattan, at the intersection of Broad and Pearl Streets, is the Fraunces Tavern Restaurant and Museum. It is best known for being the place where General George Washington bid his emotional farewell to his officers at the end of the Revolutionary War. From what I can gather, the three-story building was built in 1719 but was damaged when bombarded by an 18-pound cannonball fired from a British warship in 1775. A major renovation took place in the early 1900s and the result was characterized by the American Institute of Architects Guide to New York City as "a highly conjectural reconstruction—not a restoration—based on 'typical' building of 'the period,' parts of remaining walls, and a lot of guesswork."

I was in the neighborhood recently when I walked by and saw a sign outside announcing a pool table, darts and a big-screen TV. I had to go in and check it out. A few twists and turns later I found the pool room, which the museum calls the Lafayette Lounge. I only made a couple frames (top and below) but found these two color images on the Fraunces Tavern website. It's always nice to see a pool table in an unexpected place. Walking out of Fraunces Tavern (which is a stone's throw from the Staten Island Ferry terminal) I wondered how often the table sees action. But more than that, I was struck by the idea that it is very likely the southernmost pool table in all of Manhattan.

Rivertown Lounge, part II

Many times I get phone calls or emails from photo editors who are trying to find images that can illustrate upcoming stories. Typically the question is, "Hi Cary, do you have any photos of _____?" (the blank could be anything: people being rude while using their cell phones, the Staten Island Ferry, people reading books in parks, certain buildings, neighborhoods, etc.). While I really enjoy these kinds of queries, it's a lot of work digging through my "archive" in search of an appropriate photo. Lately I've been coming across a lot of forgotten pictures of people playing pool, from 2000 and later. I'll try to post some of them soon. Above picture is one such image, taken with a Widelux. I had scanned it back then, using the horrible scanner I had at the time (I'm on my second scanner since). But I recently reworked it and I think the result is entirely worthy of this blog. It's of my old pal PW, from a night of pool at the old Rivertown Lounge on Orchard Street. P.S. Thanks go to him for bringing this to my attention.

A Night of Pool

The past week I've been playing with my favorite Christmas present, a one-time-use camcorder. It's made by a company called Pure Digital Technologies. The camera itself costs about $30 and comes with 20 minutes of recording time. They're available at most Duane Reade, Rite Aid and CVS stores. When you've used up all the video time, you take the camera back to stores equipped with Pure Digital's processing computers (in the one-hour photo lab area). For about ten bucks you get a DVD that contains all your video clips (in Quicktime format, even). As I said, the one I got for Christmas is the one-time-use version, and it's what I used to make the following video. However, the quality is bare bones at best. And I discovered that the audio doesn't transfer into iMovie. Fortunately, Pure Digital makes a higher quality camera with a USB device that allows you to download straight to your computer, avoiding the hassle and cost of taking it back to a lab for processing. I picked up one of these this week and immediately liked the results. The $129 price tag is worth it in the long run. In addition to it being reusable, the resolution is higher, the audio transfers into iMovie, and there's even a 2x zoom lens, among other features. Soon, I'll have a nice video to post using the newer camera. Until then, here's something I put together using the cheaper version. It was shot at Sophie's by several people on December 26, 2006. For some reason it transferred to YouTube way too dark. But what do you expect from a $30 camcorder?

Reincarnated

The title of this post could easily refer to what's happened to the former Corner Billiards. But I've been meaning to write about Blue and Gold since I started this blog, and now I can sort of kill two birds with one stone. Last weekend I stepped into B&G for the first time in I can't remember how long. I had forgotten how much I like playing there. I had been thinking about the place lately because my girlfriend Yvonne told me one of her former coworkers got hired at the reincarnation of B&G's former E. 7th Street neighbor, Bar 81, which has moved to Second Avenue and St. Marks Place and now goes by the name Bar 82. She told me Bar 82 has a pool table and so naturally it was only a day or two before I went for a visit (above). I wasn't disappointed. Yvonne (who is Polish) and I even stopped back in a couple nights later on my birthday, when we learned from the bartender on duty, Al, that the space occupies what was formerly a Ukrainian speakeasy. And, as everybody knows, that neighborhood still has a lot of Ukrainians whose native flag's colors are B&G's namesake. Bar 82 is going to do just fine. It's a massive increase in space from their old digs, which, as I remember, were a mirror opposite of the layout of B&G. The bar itself is really nice, with a sort of leather padding lining the length of it. And, its location more or less on St. Marks Place can't be beat. The establishment that has taken over the old Bar 81's space is now called Cafe 81. I never played pool in Bar 81, but I know it hosted a league team. Not sure where they went after it closed. Al did, however, mention that "they're going to come in on Mondays" (referring to a league team). The table appears to be like new and accepts both dollars and quarters ($1.50 per game). My only suggestion is perhaps to get some stools near the pool table, as well as some sort of ledge along the wall where drinks can be placed. Both times I've gone I've had to search around for a place to put my drink, resorting to putting it out of the way on the floor.

Curiously, I've noticed that one avenue block over from Bar 82, Continental seems to have gotten rid of its table. I can only imagine why. Perhaps the table takes up too much space, or perhaps somebody pulled a knife in a dispute. Doubtful, but I just wonder why one would go to the hassle of having one delivered, only to have it taken away a couple months later. Anybody's guess. Until I find out why, I'll post a few shots from my most recent trip to 7th Street:

Amsterdam Billiards

I think it's safe to say that for yesterday, New Year's Day 2007, Amsterdam Billiards' newly reopened room was the place to be for New York's pool players. I certainly wasn't going to miss the experience, and I'm glad I went. I had been walking by there fairly regularly since Corner Billiards closed this summer, often taking a peek through an opening in the brown construction paper that covered the windows. I walked by there on New Year's Eve and saw that they were close to being ready, but that they still had a lot of finishing touches to make. That's when I took the photo above, of Al Conte at work on one of the tables. I went in yesterday around 4 o'clock and my initial thought was that the place was slow because of the holiday, as all the tables were covered in green cloth and looked ready but were nonetheless playerless. I was told they were still working on a lot of the tables but that I could put my name on a waiting list. I did so and sat down to watch some people playing 9 ball and straight pool on two of the front tables. What I noticed right away was that the tables rolled differently, that the English put on the cue ball "took" differently than I was used to seeing. These players were using the red-dotted cue balls like I've seen on ESPN and I was mesmerized watching the spin. I was dying to get a table of my own and starting hitting some balls around.

After about an hour my name was called. They put me on table number 18. I walked over and was amused to see some loose screws still on the table and in the ball retrieval box. It wasn't long before I discovered that only the corner pockets at the foot rail worked correctly. Balls made into the side pockets fell straight to the floor, and balls made in the head rail corner pockets got stuck underneath the table. Clearly, the ball routing chutes underneath the table weren't assembled correctly. A man playing next to me had the same problem with his table. I checked nearby table 17, and it worked fine so I asked to be switched to that table. As I was playing on 17 workers were installing its bridge holders. I mentioned the rail problem on 18 to one of the workers and he quickly got to fixing it.

I spoke a bit to Mr. Conte about his business. He said he's from Utica and that he works "more than full time" at it. I asked him how late he was working New Year's Eve and he said that it was after 11pm when he left. Watching him and the other four or five people working on the tables was impressive. I could tell they were hurrying to get out of the way of the players and get finished before the place got packed. It was exciting to hear names called over the loudspeaker, announcing a table was ready just as it had been finished.

I asked Mr. Conte about the cloth. I had assumed it was Simonis, and he confirmed this. I am no connoisseur of playing cloth, but this stuff felt downright slippery, slick, unlike anything I'd seen. Balls would spin and glide long after colliding, it was like playing on ice. It reminded me a lot of how a professional bowler's ball looks as it spins and arcs nearly the entire length of the lane before it finally straightens out into its roll and smashes into the pins. He told me that Simonis is made with a worsted wool. I play at Soho Billiards fairly often and one time they had resurfaced a table and I picked up a few cloth scraps, one of which had the Gorina logo on it. Neither Gorina or Simonis are like the "felt" on bar tables to which I'm most accustomed. This is from the Simonis website:

Worsted construction means that there are no short fibers that can release from the cloth to form "pills" or fuzz-balls that have to be removed from the playfield in order to allow the ball to roll straight. Simonis cloth is incredibly smooth without felt-like fuzziness. Worsted construction does not allow the cloth to wear like nappy woolen cloth, which eventually develops tracks or grooves, all the while shedding short fibers that constantly need to be removed. The hallmark of Simonis cloth is its perfect accuracy and precision. Smooth, even threads assure a consistent speed, English and cushion rebound. High wool content worsted thread construction takes ball spin more consistently and helps reduce ball burns. This precise construction provides outstanding accuracy and consistency.

The best table in the house, in my opinion, is number 12. It's got black rails, as opposed to the other tables, which all have brown rails. After playing for an hour on 17, I went up to cash out at a very reasonable six dollars for the hour. But not before getting some quarters and giving the small coin-operated bar table a whirl.

On a side note, last week I was contacted by Matt Elzweig, a reporter from a newspaper called Our Town Downtown. He had seen my blog and was seeking whatever insight into pool that I could offer. He's got the cover story this week and it's about Amsterdam's move. I was quoted in the story, which can be found here on his blog. Apparently, I must've been having convulsions or was choking on something, as my words seem to have come out a little choppy. But it's a really good story and an honor to be quoted in the same story as pool writer/historian R. A. Dyer, not to mention Tony Robles and others.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten any good photos yet from inside Amsterdam. But last night, after coming home from playing, all I wanted to do was go back and play some more. And I will soon. Until then, I'll let the friendly people there get their last-minute finishing touches out of the way. They'll get everything all smoothed out. The construction of the new Amsterdam is likely to end up costing around 2.5 million dollars, according to the story. It's worth every penny in my estimation. Taken from the story:

Like the original, it is modeled on the type of “classic old billiard club” common in the 1940s, Hunt said. Designed by architect Glen Coben, whose most recent project was Mario Batali’s restaurant, Del Posto, the idea was to create a space that looked fifty years old, and felt like being in “someone’s living room.”

That seems to fit.