[sudo-discuss] Telling Oakland stories in Sudo space: my own part 1 of (?)

[Pete Forsyth]

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 caught several of my teammates and opponents nodding
their heads or singing along throughout the evening.

But one moment was an exception. I was watching a teammate's game, and felt
a surge of adrenaline as a dispute broke out about whether her opponent had
made a clean hit.[3] I had seen the shot clearly, and knew what I'd seen,
but there were enough eyes on the table and enough people in the discussion
that I was happy to sit back and watch it play out. But I did notice that
Eugene, who had begun to hit his stride with the camera, was continuing to
snap pictures. I was thinking this might be weird, but nobody else seemed
fussed over it, so I stayed passive, just taking it all in. The players
were raising their voices, talking over each other, captains and teammates
had stepped up to the table to weigh in. Most of the 10 players present
were involved in an escalating argument.

After a couple minutes things started to wind down -- an agreement had been
reached. The players got back to their game, but people continued talking
about the shot. Eugene came close enough that I could grab his elbow. "What
did you think of that?" I asked. Eugene and I have a shared passion for
sports, and I was certain that he would have an opinion -- maybe not of the
substance of the dispute, but at least something about the dynamics among
the various players. But he gave me a blank look. "Of what?"

In that simple statement, it hit me: between the jargon/etiquette of the
game of pool and the cadence of the Ebonics,[4] there is a world I have
come to know much better than I did a few months ago. I don't know that I
understand it *well* -- I'm not sure if that's even possible without having
grown up in this community! I still find myself in situations almost every
day where I haven't the slightest idea what the people around me are
talking about. But without realizing it, I had become much more highly
attuned to what was going on, at least in that situation.

Ever since, that moment has stuck with me. As I walk down the street, get a
sandwich at the corner store, or ride the bus, I've been asking myself: how
much of what I see and hear is fitting together? Do I understand what's
going on here? Fully? Or a little bit? Who is trying to get whose number,
what happened to that boy in school today, why is that woman laughing? What
would I have been able to perceive when I moved here last spring? And I'm
starting to realize: it's rarely true, actually, that I haven't the
*slightest* idea. I might not understand everything, but as time passes I
understand more. To me, that's pretty exciting, because beginning to
understand helps unlock the possibility of participating in a relaxed and
genuine way. And if I'm going to be here, it's important to me to *be here.*

I'm curious to hear from others who are relatively new to Oakland, how your
process of getting to know it is going.

-Pete

p.s. Want to help support the league...or have an itch to gamble? We have a
raffle going on! Tickets are $1, and must be purchased by Thursday evening.
The prize is a Thanksgiving turkey -- and I can inquire about Tofurky or
other alternatives if necessary ;) Proceeds go toward making the Reno trip
at the end of the season...well, the word that comes to mind
is..."mo'betta."
p.p.s. Want to PLAY in the league? I think some teams have lost players to
shifting work schedules etc. Let me know, and I can see if there are
openings!

----
NOTES

[1]
http://lists.sudoroom.org/pipermail/sudo-discuss/2013-November/004593.html
[2] Since race has been a sensitive issue lately, let me be clear: I
believe racial relations have an important, maybe even central, role in
Oakland history and culture. I have never had great exposure to any black
community before, and am trying to take it in for what it is, and -- to the
best of my ability -- leave preconceptions behind. I do not claim to be
perfect at this.
[3] If you're not familiar with the "ball in hand" rule in competitive
pool: if you don't hit one of your own balls first (stripe/solid), your
opponent can place the cue ball anywhere on the table and take the next
shot. As you might imagine, sometimes it's very hard to tell which ball was
struck first, so this is a common point of contention.
[4] OK, I'm more than a little self-conscious about this term. I am eager
for input! It's a term people seem to use casually in this community, but
I'm not sure how it's taken elsewhere. I think it carries a lot of baggage.
But, there's definitely a dialect here that can be difficult for me to
understand. I'm not sure what are the best words to use for it.
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