We disagree.And SJM liked it, and he's pretty much right about everything, so..... What exactly do you want me to say? I stated my opinion... He stated his.
Get the f*ck off my d*ck, why don'tcha? It's getting a bit old. And you keep making yourself look more foolish. At some point you may reach a critical mass and implode under the gravity of your own self importance.
I know you're being a bit facetious here, Russ, and I'll admit I laughed pretty hard.
To be fair, sometimes I'm right and sometimes I'm wrong. My opinion is just like yours --- it's the opinion of somebody who knows and enjoys the pool scene. We both have much to draw on.
Perhaps I've seen all this through rose colored glasses because I'm so excited to see pool on TV in front of a pretty good size viewing audience. In truth, very little pool was played in this episode, and when it was, the focus was on the behavior and etiquette of the competitors and not on the quality of the play, which is practically beside the point. It showed the poolroom as a social gathering place where people can have fun while interacting with each other.
… but if we are to be honest here, this show has hit a nerve for more than a few of us, and I think that's OK, and those who've share why this is so have made it a much better thread.
In other threads on the forum over the years, we've all bemoaned the lack of a true definition of what a pro pool player is. We all would prefer that there was a well-defined, completely objective definition.
Some believes that pros are those that compete and succeed regularly in the top tour in their home country for their gender. Of course, maybe they are wrong. Others, with equal justification, feel it is a subjective but perceptible level of playing excellence. Pro speed, though not well defined, is something those who think this way know when they see it. Maybe they are right and maybe they are wrong.
In the major sports, a pro is somebody who derives their primary income from participation in their sport. As theoretically pleasing as that definition is, it probably means that there are almost no current women pool pros who are American-born and less than ten pro men who are American-born. It also means that some of our great players of the past were not pros, As an example, Irving Crane surely made more money selling Cadillacs, his year-round profession, than he made playing pool. Two time US Open 14.1 Champion Tom Jennings was a college math professor, and would have earned most of his living from teaching. Allen Hopkins surely made more money as an entrepreneur than as a pool player. Pool players earn such a small living, though, that I'm not sure that this definition of a pro really works in our sport, but maybe I'm wrong.
None of us really knows for sure what a pro is. and some of us justifiably want a definition in a sport where the lack of a true governing body in America makes it unlikely that a definition is coming any time soon.
Some of us enjoyed Emily's show as drama that made pool look fun. Many of us who enjoyed it still wonder whether the show's themes and messages were well-judged or accurate, and some were even offended by the implication that a woman in a poolroom is received differently than a man. The posters who saw things this way are entitled to their opinion.
Some of us hated the show, upset that a player they don't rate very highly was presented as a pro and having doubts about the objectivity in which the experiment contained was conducted. The posters who see things this way are entitled to their opinion.
Everyone that had a problem with the show and everyone who enjoyed it had a voice in this thread, and that's as it should be. With rare, if any exception, the countless knowledgeable AZB posters shone brightly in this thread.
Some of us were entertained, some of us were offended, and some of us were just puzzled, but we've all shared how we reacted to Emily's show and I think it has made for a pretty good AZB thread.
As for me, I plan to continue being right some of the time and wrong some of the time. It's not realistic to aim any higher than that.
