I tried playing snooker a few times. Going from the 8 foot bar tables to the 12 foot snooker table was intimidating in itself. I think the only thing more intimidating was carom.

Ronnie has a great soft break and awesome control. Sweet sift!

well, for someone who has been in england for about a year and had never played snooker before a month ago, i find this very impressive. i'm pretty good at pool but was amazed by snooker when my friend took me a few weeks ago. the table is the size of a football pitch. you have to have really good cue ball control otherwise you will end up 10 feet away from your target ball. i've got a long way to go before i'm any good; the skill level required is much higher than is needed for pool. if you're interested and live in europe, you can catch the world championships online at BBC or Eurosport websites.

>> ^HaricotVert:
For some reason, just watching the play is very calming/soothing.


So's cricket! NO ONE BELIEVES US!!!!!

Christians don't believe in snooker.

Oh, and one more thing, getting 147 in these tournaments is worth $147000, by the way..

And in theory, its possible to go higher than 147 IF the other player gets a foul first. Fouls counts as point for your opponent in Snooker. theoretically, this can get you 155 points, but theres only been one reported in a practice match. It can also happen if the referees screws up by placing the wrong balls on the table, but thats never happened in matches like this I think.

THAT was SWEET. Thanks for the info about snooker, I wouldn't've known what was going on without it.

For those totally unfamiliar with Snooker, let me explain a couple of points: Putting the black earns you 7 points, but you'll have to put one red before putting another.

So there really is only ONE way to get 147. you have to put all the balls in exactly this order. red,black,red,black.... and so on until all reds are down, then you HAVE to do yellow,green,brown,blue,pink and finish it of with black. ONLY that order. He could NOT, for instance, pop down the blue or something in the middle there, it HAS to be in this particular order.

Now, most of you have probably tried pool. And if you think pool is hard (like me) try just looking at a snooker table, its about twice as big, and the balls are smaller, and the holes are f¤%&&ing IMPOSSIBLE to put into. Not only are they smaller, but unlike a pool table, they have these rounded edges that makes it even harder.

So when I said this is hard, I really, really mean it. Only an elite few in the world can do this, and it doesnt happen often. Even in big star games like this reaching 100 is considered really, really good. The fact that O'sullivan does this one in 6 and a half minutes, and another one in 5 minutes and 20 seconds, makes him one of the coldest sons'o'bitches on the whole planet IMO, and its one of the greatest sports achievements ever.

Points for the various colors:

red-1

yellow-2
green-3
brown-4
blue-5
pink-6
black-7

Every color, except red, gets placed back on the table, for as long as there are reds left, so you COULD do red-blue,red-yellow, red-black and so on, except then you are "using up" reds to put low-scoring balls, so to make 147, you have to start with red-black,red-black etc.

When all the reds are down, the remaining balls, have to be done in the order of their points, from 2 to 7.

SG,

You've misunderstood. Your criteria for disliking something may be rational or irrational. Disliking something doesn't make you irrational.

On Country

You don't like 'modern' country, but you do like country, which means you haven't written off an entire genre of music (I'm not judging, it's just an observation).

I happen to agree with you on country, but there is some decent stuff out there if you look for it. If you don't already know Abigail Washburn, then she is soon to be one of your favorites. Other acts to look for are Old Crow Medicine Show, Wilco and Nickel Creek. None of it but the AW stuff really stack up to Patsy Cline or Johnny Cash, but it's a helluva lot better than the drivel on the radio.

In general, music on commercial radio is horrible.

Jazz and Hip-Hop

Jazz and Hip-hop are actually more similar than you think.

-They both use the same types of rhythmic syncopations. This point is made clearly by an excellent mashup of an Eminem song and an old piano rag. The track is called 'Snookered' by a DJ named Freelance Hairdresser. You can follow these syncopations from ragtime to Dixie Jazz, to Swing, Rock, Bop, Soul, Funk, and eventually Hip-Hop.

-The co-opting of popular tunes is also shared between the two genres. Rappers are much maligned for their use of samples and get little credit for the creative ways in which they reconstruct the source material. Jazzer's would also co-opt the popular standards of the day, tweaking the harmonies/ melodies and adding their own improvisational ideas.

-Both types of music place a large emphasis on improvisation. In Hip-Hop it's called freestyle.

-Like Hip-Hop, Jazz was an outlet for a culture largely shut out of the mainstream. Both styles of music were marginalized, maligned and generally considered lewd, crude and disgusting.

-Jazz was eventually co-opted and accepted by whites, which is happening as we speak in the hip hop world. This isn't a bad thing, as white folks had/have some nice things to add.

Finally, I must say that your characterization of Hip-hop as negative is as bad a generalization as saying all Christians are as lame as Pat Robertson. There is plenty of positive Hip-Hop out there. I'd suggest MeShell Ndegeocello, Eryka Badhu, Outkast and M.I.A. for starters.

The media spends much time attacking Hip-Hip, and buying into media distortions don't make you a racist.

The racism I speak of is subtle and internalized. If you were to recognize this racism in yourself, it would evaporate instantly upon recognition. I'm not trying to brand anyone with a scarlet R, this is just a plea for folks to be introspective and constantly in a state of self improvement.

We are all a product of our time, and although things are getting better, we have a long way to go before we are free from racism/sexism/classism/homophobia to name a few isms (and one phobia). If it exists in culture, it exists in you too.

Finally, I know I pissed many people off with this thread. It was intended to be light-hearted. I have arrived at these ideas after doing quite a bit of thinking, and didn't bother to fill in the space between A and B. In other words, I blurted out some unconventional, controversial ideas without telling you how I got to them.

Some of got it right away, but apparently others thought I was calling them Klansmen, and apparently others still ACTUALLY ARE KLANMEN (just kidding you know who.)

It probably would have been better to present these ideas as things I've discovered about myself, without forcing anyone to have to take a critical look inside their own soul. Forcing introspection is not polite.

Still, I think this discussion will be rattling around in sifty heads for some time, and at the very least, we've breached that most taboo of American taboos, racism. Maybe we should move on to classism..........

SG,

Oh, and it's so funny to call someone irrational if they dislike something that's somehow tied to a particular culture

You've misunderstood. Your criteria for disliking something may be rational or irrational. Disliking something doesn't make you irrational.

On Country

You don't like 'modern' country, but you do like country, which means you haven't written off an entire genre of music (I'm not judging, it's just an observation).

I happen to agree with you on country, but there is some decent stuff out there if you look for it. If you don't already know Abigail Washburn, then she is soon to be one of your favorites. Other acts to look for are Old Crow Medicine Show, Wilco and Nickel Creek. None of it but the AW stuff really stack up to Patsy Cline or Johnny Cash, but it's a helluva lot better than the drivel on the radio.

In general, music on commercial radio is horrible.

Jazz and Hip-Hop

Jazz and Hip-hop are actually more similar than you think.

-They both use the same types of rhythmic syncopations. This point is made clearly by an excellent mashup of an Eminem song and an old piano rag. The track is called 'Snookered' by a DJ named Freelance Hairdresser. You can follow these syncopations from ragtime to Dixie Jazz, to Swing, Rock, Bop, Soul, Funk, and eventually Hip-Hop.

-The co-opting of popular tunes is also shared between the two genres. Rappers are much maligned for their use of samples and get little credit for the creative ways in which they reconstruct the source material. Jazzer's would also co-opt the popular standards of the day, tweaking the harmonies/ melodies and adding their own improvisational ideas.

-Both types of music place a large emphasis on improvisation. In Hip-Hop it's called freestyle.

-Like Hip-Hop, Jazz was an outlet for a culture largely shut out of the mainstream. Both styles of music were marginalized, maligned and generally considered lewd, crude and disgusting.

-Jazz was eventually co-opted and accepted by whites, which is happening as we speak in the hip hop world. This isn't a bad thing, as white folks had/have some nice things to add.

Finally, I must say that your characterization of Hip-hop as negative is as bad a generalization as saying all Christians are as lame as Pat Robertson. There is plenty of positive Hip-Hop out there. I'd suggest MeShell Ndegeocello, Eryka Badhu, Outkast and M.I.A. for starters.

The media spends much time attacking Hip-Hip, and buying into media distortions don't make you a racist.

The racism I speak of is subtle and internalized. If you were to recognize this racism in yourself, it would evaporate instantly upon recognition. I'm not trying to brand anyone with a scarlet R, this is just a plea for folks to be introspective and constantly in a state of self improvement.

We are all a product of our time, and although things are getting better, we have a long way to go before we are free from racism/sexism/classism/homophobia to name a few isms (and one phobia). If it exists in culture, it exists in you too.

Finally, I know I pissed many people off with this thread. It was intended to be light-hearted. I have arrived at these ideas after doing quite a bit of thinking, and didn't bother to fill in the space between A and B. In other words, I blurted out some unconventional, controversial ideas without telling you how I got to them.

Some of got it right away, but apparently others thought I was calling them Klansmen, and apparently others still ACTUALLY ARE KLANMEN (just kidding you know who.)

It probably would have been better to present these ideas as things I've discovered about myself, without forcing anyone to have to take a critical look inside their own soul. Forcing introspection is not polite.

Still, I think this discussion will be rattling around in sifty heads for some time, and at the very least, we've breached that most taboo of American taboos, racism. Maybe we should move on to classism..........

can't believe there's so many people there watching baseball... and moreover getting exciting about it... to me, baseball is only slightly more interesting than cricket, snooker and golf...

WOW! Those must be some of the greatest snooker flukes I've ever seen. Honest.

lol of course it is a sport. we're not talking about diving, chess or snookers.

...well not quite asleep. bloody sift it's 4.15 am!! and i ve got to be up at 7. yawn
that said. love this site and the regular voices on it. i ve watched a lot of viddys and i ll keep watchin more.

..ooh and i clocked 100 sifts in 87 days so hope someone can beat that record.

this was the first http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Fast-Show-The-Snooker-Shaft--2

gooooooodnite

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Love these guys, and this is one of my favorites.

I have to admit some of their other skits don't resonate much with me. The snooker guys for example. I think you have to be British.

Gah, LB, you definitely snookered me in with your wily trick.

Well done.