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

[Sonja Trauss]

It's passed him by, or he said, oh yeah, 'a disagreement,' but didn't think
it was remarkable?

I'm trying to understand which "it passed him by" you mean, I imagine you
must mean that you both obviously saw the same thing - people playing pool,
a disagreement, a resolution, but that you thought it was serious or tense,
but thought it was unserious and unremarkable. Is that right?

If it is, I don't think it's because you don't know Ebonics you didn't
understand that. Are you a WASP? More people will get mad at me, but
cultural heritages are real. Are you infrequently around people that yell a
lot for no reason?



On Wednesday, November 20, 2013, Pete Forsyth wrote:

> Sonja -- I'm glad my story captured your imagination, but sorry to
> disappoint! :)
>
> Unfortunately I'm not sure how to capture the interesting discussion we
> had after that -- it was a discussion between good friends, with reference
> to past conversations and shared experiences and such. I gave him the
> backstory I provided here (much of which I'd already told him) and we
> shared our amazement that something so intense could happen while he was
> paying close attention, and yet completely pass him by. We agreed that the
> cadence of communication in that community can make it difficult for an
> outsider to distinguish between mere animated, performance-like, boisterous
> speech, and actual conflict.
>
> I'm sure there will be more stories coming out of this league -- hopefully
> with a grand *victorious* finale in a few months ;)
>
> Pete
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 12:18 PM, Sonja Trauss <sonja.trauss at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> What's the rest of the story -
> You: "What did you think of that?"
> Eugene: "of what?"
> You: ?????
> What did you say, "the fight"?
> Then what did he say ?
>
>
> On Tuesday, November 19, 2013, Pete Forsyth wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
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