Port 41

Alright, so a little bit of a false alarm regarding the sitch at Port 41. I wanted to set the record straight. I made the trek up there Saturday night to meet my friends Richard and Amy. I got there early and was a little bummed to discover that there was only one pool table, as opposed to the three I was expecting. And it wasn't a full-size regulation table, it was a coin-operated bar table set up for bills only ($2 per game). Whatever, with $4.00 Budweiser pints it basically evened itself out. The pool table is in the back room, which is cavernous to say the least. So that was nice. We actually spent more time playing darts way in the back, albeit with only two darts. And we had a somewhat inebriated fellow playing along with us, both on the pool table and at the dart board, so we were always kind of watching our backs with him around.

Port 41 is in the shadow of the Port Authority Bus Terminal and so there is a slight sketch factor, and I mean that in the best way possible–a toast in the vein of "I Miss The Old New York". Ninth Avenue/Hell's Kitchen is always interesting, especially at night. But it was fun. After darts I played the inebriated fellow in pool and I suggested we play for some money. I did catch somewhat of a lucky break when he miscued on a shot, leaving me with an easy three-ball runout. As modestly as I could muster, I shook his hand, shrugged as I reached up to grab the 10 singles above the table and told him I'd be back in the future. Then we were all off to Dave's Tavern around the corner, which I'll get into some other time.

Best NYC Pool Bar I've Never Heard Of Before

My friend Richard Khavkine just told me about a place he visited recently in Hell's Kitchen, a bar called Port 41. I took one look at the pictures I found online and thought to myself, "I am totally there." I think this place has a lot of potential. Port 41 is located at 355 W 41st Street, on the corner of 9th Avenue. According to the Port 41 website, www.port41.biz, "The back room is loaded with free darts, three free regulation-size pool tables, which gives us the opportunity to organize a pool tournament every Thursday night. $10.00 entrance fee, last man standing." How cool is that? Did they say three free regulation pool tables? Green, red and black? I love New York City. Stay tuned for more details.

Stonewall Inn

Back in May I had an assignment to photograph an DJ spinning at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. I was told by the promoter that the party wouldn't get going until 11PM. But because I had some photographer friends who were in town for only that night, I took my chances and showed up at the Stonewall a bit early in the hopes that I would be done by 11. I got there a little after 10 and as I entered the bar my eyes went straight to the pool table. I got some quarters, racked the balls and went over to two guys standing nearby and asked if either one or both of them would like to play. One guy readily agreed and so I gave him the break. There was no chalk anywhere to be seen, and by the look of the house cues' tips, there hadn't been any in a long time. Knowing it was going to be my only game, I just went ahead and played without asking the bartender for any chalk, and won fairly handily. Then I went upstairs and was pleased to see a large group of people, mostly men, dancing. About half an hour later I had gotten plenty of pictures and so I left. Walking back down the stairs I saw the same two guys from earlier were seated on the pool table. I told them to sit still as I grabbed a quick shot on my way out the door.

A Waste of a Pool Table

I have been playing like total crap lately, haven't won a match in ages. But I don't want to dwell on the negative (or bore you to death), so I've got lots of loose ends and random pictures that I will publish instead. I'll start off with a slightly blurry cell phone camera shot taken a few weeks ago inside the John Varvatos store on Bowery, site of the former CBGB's. I'm not going to get into a rant about Bowery's ongoing facelift, but I thought this unused pool table was a bit sad. Granted, they probably don't want just anybody coming in off the street and playing free pool. But it makes me wonder if they even have the rest of the equipment–balls, cue sticks, etc.–like in some storage room in the back. Surely they must. It's not hard to imagine them playing a little pool after hours. Because Mr. Varvatos has been known to feature pool in at least one of his ads, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Congrats to Obama

Clearly I've been spending more time following the election online than blogging about my pool exploits. Now that we've got a new president-elect, I'm ready to get back into pool-blogging mode. I recently revisted a post I wrote back in May, when Obama played pool at Schultzie's in South Charleston, West Virginia. Back then there was no video of the event on YouTube. But tonight I checked and was delighted to watch Mr. Obama make a few shots. What really adds to the video is the commentary. Listen for the female anchor to be shocked when Obama makes the cross-corner bank. The man introducuing the clip, who clearly knows poolspeak, erroneously calls a ball in hand on Obama, when in actuality it was just a missed bank. If you look closely, the best shot of the video–the one that really shows his skill–is when Obama has no shot and avoids ball in hand when kicking a full table length and back into his ball without scratching, leaving his opponent with little to no shot at all. It's about 35 seconds into the video. Pretty damn impressive. The video is embedded below, but I recommend that you click this link and watch it on YouTube in order to give the person who posted it an increase in video views. The photo up top was taken by Polaris photographer Scout Tufankjian, who spent nearly two years on the campaign trail with Obama. Way to bring it on home, Barack!