Tobermory said:

It won’t be nearly so much fun as Palace Billiards.

You’ll have to be somewhat older to remember that joint. It was catty corner from the cable car turnaround on Market Street. Bob Byrne was a regular. I hadn’t been in SF for some years and I asked Bob if it was still safe to go to the Palace. He said he had had an experience on Market Street recently while deciding to drop in. It was late at night and he was coming from a dinner, walking along the block where Palace was. He noticed a group of men standing in front of the door to the stairs that led up to the pool room.

(Sidebar: You could get some very good deals on only slightly used electronics on those stairs.)

Bob decided to continue his stride right past this group and pretend that he had never had any intention of going in the doorway. He continued on and had gotten about thirty feet when he heard footsteps behind him. He picked up his pace. The footsteps came faster.

(Trigger Warning and Spoiler Alert: Bob is about to get mugged.)

Bob decided to turn and confront the person who was by now at his heels. He turned and found, as he expected, a large gentleman facing him. The gentleman says, “Aren’t you the guy who wrote that book about pool?” Bob says he is. The large gentleman continues, “Well, when you write a book, doesn’t the guy who publishes the book let you buy copies of it for a discount?” Bob confirmed that it was indeed the practice of some publishers to give the author a certain number of copies for free, and, if the author wanted more, he could buy them for a reduced price. So the large gentleman pursues the topic. “So how about you sell me a copy of that book for the price you get it for?”

Bob took the guy to his car and opened the trunk. He got a copy out and autographed it. Told the guy to keep his money.

Bob to me: “I am the only writer who has ever been mugged for an author’s discount.”

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Positively Ralf said:

I think WNT should just open up America to the entire North American continent and let Canadian players play. I'm sure they would love to see Alex P play as it would mean his social media followers would watch. And John Morra is always a solid player in any event he enters. And I'm sure it would open up the eyes of any top level Mexican player to try their hand at being part of the team.

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Positively Ralf said:

I think WNT should just open up America to the entire North American continent and let Canadian players play. I'm sure they would love to see Alex P play as it would mean his social media followers would watch. And John Morra is always a solid player in any event he enters. And I'm sure it would open up the eyes of any top level Mexican player to try their hand at being part of the team.

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RidgeRaider said:

I agree, but it's gonna be hard to make an entertaining movie to non-pool players with how PG pool is now days.

Pool has done A LOT to get away from the gambling, hustling, drinking, and drugs image it once was so tightly bonded to. All those things were quite certainly what drew a lot of people to it that didn't know how to play.

You can't have a pool movie about what pool is actually like today, because it'd just be Joe Schmoe going from state tournament to state tournament, and for the pro side of things, it doesn't look much different. Nobody is going from seedy bar and pool room to pool room, sleeping in their cars, winning big and losing their ass in one night, fighting 5 dudes to make it to their car alive. That doesn't happen anymore, and we've already got movies about that.

The hustling and dirty pool like back in the old days is gone, and nobody really wants it to come back. The current pool scene is boring for non-players. We sit in bars waiting for our 30mins to play our match, then go home. The pros do the same, just not in bars. The true money players stream their matches, so there's no more tall tales and stories that lead to good material for a whole movie.

So where does this leave us? Well, I personally love history, and the history of pool and it's players is virtually untapped on a grand-scale. Lot of grassroots videos and whatnot, but nothing cinematic about the people or the sport itself. Everything has been fiction. So I think a good selling, enthralling non-fictional video like biography of someone like Buddy Hall, Keith McCready, Siegel, Efren, from beginning to end, when they were a kid, til now, would just be fantastic. Take their little known facts, talents, skills, put it in a movie from childhood til now, some fictional additions and cinematic magic of course, but keep it pretty inline with their true stories. This way they can take liberty with creativity on how certain events happened, that are just stories.

Just spitballin.

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sjm said:

Agreed that Thorsten is a slightly better player than Billy, but like Billy, he had no high WNT finishes this year.

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garczar said:

Just about all old-school wood shaft cues were/are hi-deflection. IMO none were/are as bad as the so highly touted SW's. I've only hit one that was worth a shit to play with. You think Schon's are stiff?? Go try a SW. Most of them play like a phone pole with a tip stuck on. And people wait yrs to get one. whatever.

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RidgeRaider said:

I agree, but it's gonna be hard to make an entertaining movie to non-pool players with how PG pool is now days.

Pool has done A LOT to get away from the gambling, hustling, drinking, and drugs image it once was so tightly bonded to. All those things were quite certainly what drew a lot of people to it that didn't know how to play.

You can't have a pool movie about what pool is actually like today, because it'd just be Joe Schmoe going from state tournament to state tournament, and for the pro side of things, it doesn't look much different. Nobody is going from seedy bar and pool room to pool room, sleeping in their cars, winning big and losing their ass in one night, fighting 5 dudes to make it to their car alive. That doesn't happen anymore, and we've already got movies about that.

The hustling and dirty pool like back in the old days is gone, and nobody really wants it to come back. The current pool scene is boring for non-players. We sit in bars waiting for our 30mins to play our match, then go home. The pros do the same, just not in bars. The true money players stream their matches, so there's no more tall tales and stories that lead to good material for a whole movie.

So where does this leave us? Well, I personally love history, and the history of pool and it's players is virtually untapped on a grand-scale. Lot of grassroots videos and whatnot, but nothing cinematic about the people or the sport itself. Everything has been fiction. So I think a good selling, enthralling non-fictional video like biography of someone like Buddy Hall, Keith McCready, Siegel, Efren, from beginning to end, when they were a kid, til now, would just be fantastic. Take their little known facts, talents, skills, put it in a movie from childhood til now, some fictional additions and cinematic magic of course, but keep it pretty inline with their true stories. This way they can take liberty with creativity on how certain events happened, that are just stories.

Just spitballin.

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straightline said:

You need to be down on the stick for this. Leave out the follow through and just tap the ball (dead center of course) with enough speed to get there. Keep your eye on the cue ball and pay attention for any deviation in line. If not, it's your follow through.

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philly said:

Try Steve Janes at Joss.
He's been working side by side with his Dad Dan for decades.
I should be receiving a handmade cue from Steve in about 3 weeks or so.

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