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🎳
Every Monday, me and a bunch of other Brooklyn degenerates congregate at The Gutter in Williamsburg to destroy some pins and drain some longnecks. I've been bowling at the Gutter for eight years now and most seasons we lost miserably, but now we're sort of good. Joining the league was a great way to meet people and I always look forward to league night, especially during tough or lonely periods. Plus, just about everyone is charmed when you tell them you're in a league.
I look like I work for IBM in the 90s in this pic but here I am with my high score (181).
Jan 22, 2024
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🎳i recommend melody lanes or whitestone in queens for a real league vibe
full of characters - guys with one arm, old dudes who lightly toss it and strike every time, and randomly super diverse teams. you'll see a young metal guy with long hair, a 60 year old chinese man, an overweight mexican dude, and a stoic nerdy white dude, all there for the same reason - have a few beers and bowl some big strikes.
bowling brings people together!
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🎳I experienced this last night and let me tell ya! Two beers in and I was throwin those things 15 mph getting strike after strike showin up those old farts at the bowling alley. this is my new hobby
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I think if you spend a lot of time in bars in NYC, you might have tried your hand at playing pool. It can be intimidating if you haven't played much and there are a bunch of dudes that aren't friendly. When you get on the table, they destroy you which can be deflating.
I joined pool league at the beginning of last year looking for something to do consistently once after hearing about it on a date with someone with a famous twitter account. I initially liked it because it provided a structure to playing, if you got your ass kicked one week, you still had to come the next and if you get tired of getting your ass kicked you start to get better. Now pool is a leisure and social activity for me. Theres a table in my building that I spend multiple nights a week shooting and listening to music, getting better incrementally. I'm at a point where I am pretty good friends with my league teammates and know a bunch of people from the community. If I have nothing going on for a weekend night, I can go to a spot, put my name on the list and wait my turn and talk to someone new. Watching it can be fun too because every break is followed by a layout that is an interesting problem to solve and its fun to watch people who are good figure out how to run it out. There are a lot of good shooters in NYC so you can pop out to a lot of bars and see someone who is pretty decent. One negative if you are sober is that its pretty tough to avoid being in bars playing pool. A lot of league players don't really drink or if they do not to excess on pool nights so I think you can not engage with it if you aren't into drinking but I could understand not wanting to be in that environment. Pool halls are better in my view because they are basically like bowling alleys with pool tables instead so less of the focus is on drinking.
I joined pool league at the beginning of last year looking for something to do consistently once after hearing about it on a date with someone with a famous twitter account. I initially liked it because it provided a structure to playing, if you got your ass kicked one week, you still had to come the next and if you get tired of getting your ass kicked you start to get better. Now pool is a leisure and social activity for me. Theres a table in my building that I spend multiple nights a week shooting and listening to music, getting better incrementally. I'm at a point where I am pretty good friends with my league teammates and know a bunch of people from the community. If I have nothing going on for a weekend night, I can go to a spot, put my name on the list and wait my turn and talk to someone new. Watching it can be fun too because every break is followed by a layout that is an interesting problem to solve and its fun to watch people who are good figure out how to run it out. There are a lot of good shooters in NYC so you can pop out to a lot of bars and see someone who is pretty decent. One negative if you are sober is that its pretty tough to avoid being in bars playing pool. A lot of league players don't really drink or if they do not to excess on pool nights so I think you can not engage with it if you aren't into drinking but I could understand not wanting to be in that environment. Pool halls are better in my view because they are basically like bowling alleys with pool tables instead so less of the focus is on drinking.
Jul 17, 2025
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There is something ugly and small about winter that I like. Perhaps because I was born into it. And there’s a stillness too. I feel it most when I’m back home in Nebraska leaving the bar at 2 a.m., warmed by old friends and tiny drinks. I walk to the car, snow crunching underfoot and, as soon as I’m alone, I stop. I stop and listen. I love that moment of quiet, blue desolation.
I do not handle the cold well. I am quick to shiver and my long johns don’t come off once they go on. So these moments of serenity are strange and precious. Something deep inside me quietly overpowers the elements and I feel some kind of inner peace. For this reason, I once made an igloo in our backyard and then laid inside for hours trying to fall asleep inside that feeling.
Winter birthdays are a challenge. What is there to do? This year I decided to lean in and seek snow since that’s become something of a novelty in New York. $500 and 120 miles later I had my squall. When I returned to the city for my actual birthday, it finally snowed, marking New York's first significant snowfall in 701 days. It was the perfect gift.
I do not handle the cold well. I am quick to shiver and my long johns don’t come off once they go on. So these moments of serenity are strange and precious. Something deep inside me quietly overpowers the elements and I feel some kind of inner peace. For this reason, I once made an igloo in our backyard and then laid inside for hours trying to fall asleep inside that feeling.
Winter birthdays are a challenge. What is there to do? This year I decided to lean in and seek snow since that’s become something of a novelty in New York. $500 and 120 miles later I had my squall. When I returned to the city for my actual birthday, it finally snowed, marking New York's first significant snowfall in 701 days. It was the perfect gift.