HiFi

If nearby Doc Holliday's is empty and I'm not in the mood for Sophie's, then it's up to HiFi Bar on Avenue A at 11th. HiFi has quickly become one of my new favorite places to play pool in the East Village. I haven't been there often, maybe five or so times since I discovered it over a year ago. In its former life as a live music venue it was called Brownies. It became HiFi in 2002. Thank God I found the above picture on their website, because my only picture from HiFi has very little context:But I have some unique stories to tell about playing at HiFi. The first time I remember playing there it was against a guy from Germany. We were talking about playing last pocket, and he countered with a similar game, apparently common in Germany, where you can only call the 8 ball in one pocket. For example, if you call the 8 in one of the side pockets and botch your shot and the 8 ball ends up near a different pocket on the other side of the table, you're stuck with the pocket you called initially.

The last time I had any sort of significant multi-game winning streak was at HiFi, a few months ago. It was like nine or ten games in a row that I won. I remember it was a Friday night and I had a steady stream of opponents, none of which were particularly strong players. In fact, one guy I beat still had all seven of his balls on the table at the end. But there was one guy I was playing and when I didn't have any shot I said the word "Safe." He looked at me and asked "Are we playing that way? Are you allowed to play safe?" So I sorta shrugged and went ahead and called what I thought was going to be a Hail Mary fluke shot (diagrammed below). Amazingly, it went in. Saying nothing, he came over to shake my hand just on the merit of that shot alone.

Studio One Hundred

A few Sundays ago, Yvonne and I were riding the F train uptown. We must've been talking about something important because we missed our intended stop at 34th Street. So we got off at the next stop, exiting at the rear of the station at 40th and Sixth Avenue, and backtracked from there. A block later I spotted a banner hanging from a Marriott Residence Inn with the words "Studio One Hundred Bar and Billiards" on it. I said to her "Do you mind if I go take a look? Just to look, not to play." We went in and I talked to somebody at the front desk who directed us to the third floor. Once on the third floor it felt like we were in the study room of some college campus, as people were scattered around sitting in big lounge chairs reading and working on their laptops. There was a neon "Studio One Hundred" sign lit up that clearly indicated the bar, but the door to the bar was locked. I looked in and didn't see any pool tables. So we sort of circled around the third floor, I even asked somebody who worked there but he was new and didn't know. Eventually we found a door with a bronze plaque by it that read "Billiards Hall." I slowly pushed the door open and there was a pool table. It was a small room, it was adjacent to the main bar area. The table appeared to be a smaller 4x8 table, not a full-size one. But the balls were in the pockets and it was ready to go. I'll be anxious to stop back in next time I'm in midtown. The first thing I thought of was the similar free-pool scenario I wrote about at THOR. Below is a picture of the table. It's not much of a photo, it's actually two pictures stitched together. I found an official description of Studio One Hundred here. They write: Studio One Hundred (no children please) is our full service Bar and Billiard Room located on the 3rd floor. The bar offers a special mixed drink menu of standards and unique seasonal cocktails. The billiard table is usually the center of spirited challenges and energetic fun. Flat screen TV's, free high speed internet, all in a smoke free environment provide guests room to relax and unwind after a busy New York City day.

Max Fish

I've been meaning to write about Max Fish for a long time. But I can never figure out where to begin. Back when I first moved to New York in the summer of 2000, I'd go there fairly often with friends. It was always crowded and I remember thinking "Who are these people? Where did they come from?" I had just spent the previous four years in a small town in Michigan, so New York was a big eye-opener. I can recall hot August nights at Max Fish and labels sliding down the side of Amstel Light bottles. While I have stepped in a couple of times in the past few years to play pool, it was probably 2001 when I last went there with any regularity. I came across an old picture the other day (right), taken just days after I had moved to NYC. I hadn't even been to B&H to buy black and white film yet (it's a color neg picture, but it was very underexposed and looked better in black and white). I had several thousand dollars saved up and no real plan or any idea of how to freelance. Those were the salad days.

Recently, Max Fish has come to represent something entirely different to me. Actually, I am referring more to the street it's on, Ludlow, than the bar itself. Whenever I am coming back from the East Village, I always find myself drawn to walk down Ludlow. Most nights, especially on the weekend, it's got a kind of carnival atmosphere. It's probably because you can't smoke indoors anymore, and so the sidewalks are much more congested. Plus, the streets themselves are more congested, the grid is more dense than in the East Village. But there's something about all this congestion that allows you to blend in a little. As a photographer, this is crucial. Even when people notice me taking pictures they don't seem to mind.

As for pool, I don't have much to say. The last time I was at Max Fish was mid-December. There was a guy playing who was wearing a pig nose as a mask. If you click on the photo up top, you should be able to see it. But the guy played pretty well. As you can see, he's down to one solid and his opponent still has seven stripes left. I motioned to my camera, as if to suggest I wanted to take a picture of him. He insisted I pay him a dollar. Normally I'd say forget it, but I knew I'd want to do a blog post about the place and so I agreed. Besides, his pig nose was too good to pass up. He goes by name "Shnizzle Mo Nizzle" or something like that, and he was trying to sell copies of a book he had created.

The pool table is in the middle of the back room. It's surrounded by booths, and the bathrooms are right there as well, so there's a lot of people walking by. If there was a way to put the pool table in one of the corners of the back room, and possibly reconfigure the booths to take up the center area, I think it could be a lot better. I know I'm splitting hairs, but what I really think Max Fish needs is better lighting. The overhead lights are utterly directionless and emit a very low contrast, unflattering light. If they could figure out a way to improve the lighting, or at least hang a lamp over the pool table, it could be a lot better.