Max Riffner

The Parlor

My weblog work journal.  »Archives  »Links

"Goodbye, Eddie's Girl."

Eventually, you just reach a point where you say to yourself, “Enough, no more work for a couple days.” I reached that point Saturday night after working all day from 6:30 in the morning.

Sunday, I laid around drinking scotch, watching the adventures of Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler and The Color of Money. I’d never seen The Hustler before; what a great flick! It makes you truly appreciate Paul Newman’s work more while watching The Color of Money. Sharp dialogue in both movies drive the action and keep it interesting. I always forget that Scorsese directed Money, I think because I initially watched it in my teens. Watching it now is amazing as Scorsese makes 9-ball as speed-afflicted as NASCAR. His pool shots are amazing, and my all time favorite shot is when Eddie walks into the 9-ball tourney in Atlantic City (great overhead pan down over rows of empty tables and settling on Newman).

When I was in high school, I used to play pool everyday with some friends. I got pretty good, but there was a friend of ours that went on the hustle because he was that good. I went with him a few times to some stereotypical dive pool halls, help set up his game and collected money. Nothing big, just nickel and dime stuff, but it was fun. Watching these movies remind me of those days a bit.

Afterwards, I played a little Monopoly with my wife (and some wine) as the snow fell hard outside. These days are worth working for.

You can also browse through the Parlor archives.