# Music of the Spheres

**Source:** NYC PinPod  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-09-22  
**Duration:** 62m 23s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.spreaker.com/episode/music-of-the-spheres--67841013

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## Analysis

NYC Pin Pod episode covering September 2025 local pinball competition results across multiple NYC leagues (South Slope Strikes, Barcade Brooklyn League, Pinball NYC divisions, Scrapple League, SSPL), venue updates including machine conditions at various locations, and announcement of an upcoming music-based challenge tournament format.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] As of September 19th, 2025, there are 344 pinball machines in New York City at 81 public locations — _Official Pinball Map data cited directly_
- [HIGH] Red Hook Pinball Museum relocated from pop-up location to a new permanent space next to record store and Red Hook Public Library on Sunday, September 14th — _Benjamin Furica personal attendance and direct observation_
- [MEDIUM] The Pythagorean triple date (September 16, 2025: 3-4-5 squares) occurs only twice per century — _Eric Sweetland commentary; presented as trivia rather than verified fact_
- [HIGH] Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League Season 7 meets every other Monday with top four finishers advancing to finals in week seven — _League format explicitly described_
- [HIGH] King Kong at Rulo's is the 'lowest end model' missing Island Gong and Subway Car features — _Venue update from Pinball Map user 'Mayor of Now'_

### Notable Quotes

> "I didn't... Oh, I got the... I played Whiffle, the 1931 Flipperless."
> — **Benjamin Furica**, Red Hook Pinball Museum section
> _Reference to historical flipperless pinball machine at pop-up venue_

> "I spent the entire last season trying to beat Dante's Nets score. And then very shortly after I did it... Dante went and put up 431 fucking points as the Nets and won two goddamn MVPs"
> — **Benjamin Furica**, SSPL Thursday night section
> _Personal anecdote about NBA Fast Break competitive dynamic_

> "when I was having my revenge game after that, when I had 101 points, I had scored exactly 101 points when I passed the ball to the number one player in the paint, and he got blocked. 101, one got blocked."
> — **Benjamin Furica**, NBA Fast Break revenge game section
> _Numerological observation about game coincidence (101 = 1-0-1)_

> "It's the time of the season for [and then in Eric's voice very aggressively], come on! Fuck you!"
> — **Benjamin Furica (describing bar moment)**, Metallica bathroom section
> _Humorous in-bar moment with song modification_

> "I will always choose dante and the nets as long as he's up here with this 431"
> — **Benjamin Furica**, NBA Fast Break section
> _Competitive commitment statement before discovering score reset_

> "the Aristocrats went from champions to 0-2, but their opponents were class acts"
> — **Eric Sweetland**, Pinball NYC Left Flipper Division results
> _Acknowledges strength of schedule facing Balls of Steel and Mutants_

> "I imagine that everything they've got left is playing Old Dominion and Butler in football after this"
> — **Eric Sweetland**, Aristocrats schedule analysis
> _College football analogy for remaining easy schedule_

> "Right Flipper Division... I just want to point out there are five 2-0 teams and five 0-2 teams. The middle four are 1-1."
> — **Eric Sweetland**, Right Flipper Division summary
> _Perfect statistical breakdown showing balanced competition after two weeks_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Benjamin Furica | person | Co-host of NYC Pin Pod, competitive pinball player (plays as Dante substitute, competes in SSPL/local leagues), community participant |
| Eric Sweetland | person | Co-host of NYC Pin Pod, pinball tournament director in NYC, plays at multiple venues |
| Greg Pavarelli | person | Tournament director of Scrapple League, competitive player (scored 25 points in round 4), organizes events |
| Robert Wong | person | Competitive player in SSPL (33 points in meeting 4, near-perfect night), strong performer |
| Matt Carlson | person | Competitive player leading SSPL series with 102 points through 4 meetings |
| Paul McHugh | person | Recent addition to NYC pinball community, competitive player (mentioned twice in episode), liminal between A/B division at 67 points |
| AJ Gould | person | Competitive player in SSPL with 100 points through 4 meetings |
| Sam Hall | person | Competitive player, won Sunday Slaptism 9-14 tournament on September 14th |
| Eda Kreutzer | person | Competitive player, top seed in Sunday Slaptism 9-14, took second place |
| Mike Pantino | person | Competitive player in multiple tournaments, scored 29 points in Scrapple League (tied for top), regular participant |
| Red Hook Pinball Museum | organization | Pinball venue that relocated from pop-up location to permanent space next to record store and Red Hook Public Library on September 14th, 2025 |
| Buttermilk Bar | location | South Slope Brooklyn pinball venue hosting SSPL and Barcade Brooklyn League matches |
| Rulo's | location | Park Slope Brooklyn pinball venue hosting matches and tournaments, venue update reports ongoing |
| Scrapple Land | location | Greenpoint Brooklyn pinball venue hosting Scrapple League tournaments and team matches |
| Jack Bar | location | Williamsburg Brooklyn pinball venue hosting Sunday Slaptism and other tournaments |
| Barcade Brooklyn | location | Brooklyn pinball venue hosting Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League Season 7 (every other Monday) |
| The Wallace | location | Upper Manhattan pinball venue hosting NYC Flipper Sport Association matches and selfie league |
| Barcade Fidei | location | Financial District pinball venue hosting team matches (Lion Persons new home) |
| South Slope Strikes | event | NYC pinball tournament held September 13th at Buttermilk Bar with 20 players |
| Scrapple League | event | Weekly competitive pinball league in Greenpoint (4th season, 2025), 27 players in second meeting |
| SSPL | event | South Slope Pinball League (4th season, 4th meeting on September 18th with 22 players at Buttermilk) |
| Pinball NYC | organization | NYC team-based league with Left Flipper and Right Flipper divisions, hosting matches across multiple venues |
| NYC Triborough Series | event | Multi-event tournament series (event 8 of 9 being Read'em and Flip Texas Hold'em on September 28th, finals October 26th) |
| Billy West | person | Attended Red Hook Pinball Museum pop-up block party on September 14th |
| Bernie Herman | person | Friend of Benjamin Furica who passed away; author of 'A South You Never Ate' (book about Delmarva Peninsula cuisine) |

### Topics

- **Primary:** NYC competitive pinball leagues and tournaments, Pinball venue updates and machine condition reports
- **Secondary:** Red Hook Pinball Museum relocation, SSPL standings analysis and path to finals, Personal game anecdotes and revenge games, Music-based pinball challenge announcement, NYC Flipper Sport Association team league, Pinball machine updates (King Kong, Godzilla, Evil Dead issues)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.78) — Hosts express enthusiasm for local competitive community, Red Hook Museum relocation, and upcoming challenges. Tone is celebratory of community participation and friendly rivalries. Some frustration with machine issues (jams, tilting problems) but overall constructive and community-focused.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Selfie league tournament format ongoing at The Wallace venue with finals qualifying for NYC Triborough Series (event 9 of 9 on October 26th) (confidence: high) — Eric Sweetland participated in selfie league, now in top 8 qualified players; explicitly stated finals date
- **[event_signal]** Read'em and Flip Texas Hold'em Card Tournament hosted by Jose Garcia on September 28th at Scrapple Land; patterned after poker format using five games as 'cards'; event 8 of 9 in NYC Triborough Series (confidence: high) — Tournament explicitly described with date, host, location, format explanation, and series position
- **[event_signal]** Two birthday-themed tournaments scheduled for September 27th: pre-registered potluck tournament (doors 1pm, starts 2pm, waitlist active) and EDA's Birthday Bash/High Speed to the Getaway retrospective (signups 1:30pm, starts 2pm) (confidence: high) — Detailed tournament announcements with registration information and Benjamin Furica's mention of potato donut potluck contribution plans
- **[community_signal]** NYC pinball league competition shows balanced skill distribution with 5 undefeated teams and 5 winless teams in Right Flipper Division after 2 weeks, suggesting active recruitment of new/varied-skill players (confidence: high) — Eric Sweetland's statistical breakdown: '5 two-zero teams and 5 zero-two teams. The middle four are 1-1.'
- **[competitive_signal]** SSPL series cut line identified at 68 points separating divisions A/B after 4 of 6 meetings; Matt Carlson (102 pts) and AJ Gould (100 pts) secured; Paul McHugh as recent community addition tracking at 67 points liminal position (confidence: high) — Eric Sweetland detailed standings analysis with specific point totals and discussion of advancement trajectory
- **[event_signal]** Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League Season 7 launched September 15th with new every-other-Monday format (top 4 of 6 meetings advance to finals) (confidence: high) — First meeting details provided: 11 players, 5 rounds match play, Matthew Grady 29 points winner
- **[event_signal]** Red Hook Pinball Museum successfully relocated to permanent location next to record store and Red Hook Public Library on September 14-15, 2025, after pop-up closure (confidence: high) — Benjamin Furica attended pop-up block party on Sunday, directly observed Sunday night move, and peer into new space; lease signed Monday morning
- **[market_signal]** GameHouse New York (Long Island City) venue closure; marked as temporarily closed with pinball machine removed; hosts speculation about commercial displacement (Krispy Kreme reference) (confidence: medium) — User Banzai noted venue closure; Eric/Benjamin's commentary about commercial change
- **[community_signal]** Benjamin Furica substituted as 'Dante' for Troll Persons/Lion Persons scrimmage on September 7th (day before Pinball NYC season launch) at Barcade Fidei; scrimmage featured mixed teams with surprise game selections rather than team vs team format (confidence: high) — Benjamin Furica direct personal account of attending scrimmage and playing as substitute with caveat that Dante could show up
- **[product_concern]** Multiple venue machine condition issues reported: King Kong (lowest-end model missing Island Gong/Subway Car), Godzilla tilting at Scrapple Land and Barcade Fidei, Evil Dead right ramp stuck, Pulp Fiction target jammed, Bad Cats weak flipper (confidence: high) — Pinball Map venue updates from multiple users documenting specific mechanical failures across locations
- **[venue_signal]** Aristocrats (prior season in-lane division champions) facing unusual difficult early-season schedule: Mutants (week 1), Balls of Steel (week 2), D-Lux Horses (week 3 - finalists opponent they beat for championship) (confidence: high) — Eric Sweetland detailed schedule analysis noting 0-2 start despite quality opponents; college football analogy about subsequent easy schedule

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## Transcript

 Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding areas. Sometimes. My name is Benjamin Furica. My initials are BCF. And I was living my best life a few weeks ago when I'm not sure if I was a troll person or a lion troll, but it was a great Sunday. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP. And I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. On this week's pod, in Ball 1, we'll run down local competition results. In Ball 2, we'll have venue updates, courtesy of Pinball Map and its users. And in Ball 3, we'll challenge you to a music-based selfie tournament. Let's get started. Let's talk about competitive pinball results in New York City and nearby surrounding areas over the last week. on Saturday, September 13th. South Slope Strikes September. So many S's. Was convened by Jess, who has two S's in her name, Warren. Sibilance. Sibilance. At Buttermilk Bar. Some games may have been played at Rulo's. 20 players gathered. After 13 games, Greg Fertel came out on top with three strikes left. Paul McHugh had a big second place. Greg Pavarelli and Robert Wong tied for third after having played 11. On Sunday, September 14th at Jack Bar in Williamsburg, 14 players gathered for Sunday Slaptism 9-14. They did max match play this time for 10 rounds the top four went to finals george underwood and sam hall faced off in a tiebreaker and sam hall got in as the fourth seed mike pantino was the third seed gabriel chasanov the second and eda kreutzer the top seed after it was all said and done sam hall won the day after that tie break get in. Ida Kreutzer took second. And after another tiebreaker between Mike Pantino and Gabriel Chazanov, Mike Pantino took third and Gabe took fourth. On Monday, September 15th, the first meeting of the Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League, what they're calling Season 7, was held at Barcade Brooklyn. We failed to mention it on the upcoming calendar last week. Apologies for that, but it wasn't out on the match play calendar or anywhere we had seen it, so we missed that it was coming up. Sorry. This is a league like the others or like Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League used to be. It'll be six meetings and your top four count towards getting into a finals on the seventh week, but they are doing this every other week, every other Monday. if you aren't otherwise busy with the team league. For this first meeting, 11 players came out. They played five rounds of match play with the goal of getting the most points for their series total. Matthew Grady did that the best with 29 points. Kate Martin got 27. And both Paul McHugh and David Brinkman picked up 23 points. It's the second time we said Paul's name tonight. Yeah. On Monday, September 15th, we Colliders had a bye, and I was traveling. We'll talk about that in Ball 2. So I wasn't sad that we had a bye. I did not bribe Chris for it, I swear. Our New York City Flipper Sport Association hosted Harry's Hand Grenades at the Wallace. We picked up a 15-1 home win. The Lion Persons traveled to Skylark to see the Pin Pals. The Away Team got a 9-7 win. in the first game at Scruffy Duffy's Tap Room in Pinball NYC League history. Special When Lit visited the two-for-oners, and the two-for-oners got a 12-4 home win. Parliament and the Mutants battled it out at Solid State. The Mutants picked up an 11-5 win. Intermission Dolores visited the lesser players at Gebhard's Beer Culture. Their brand new home this season. the away team got a 10-6 win there. The Pinbots hosted the Deluxe Horses at Scrapple Land, and those horsies got a 12-4 away win. And Balls of Steel visited the Aristocrats at Rullo's. Balls of Steel, 11-5. I took a note that the Aristocrats had a really tough first two weeks. They were the in-lane division champions last year, and they faced Balls of Steel and Mutants in the first two weeks. They went from champions to 0-2, but their opponents were class acts. On Tuesday, September 16th, in Pinball NYC's Right Flipper division, Everybody Loves the Sunshine visited the replays at Rillows, and that away team got a 10-6 win. They're either a new team or a splinter team from another team, and they are 2-0 right now. Also, sorry, we keep doing this. It's all of us. Rulos. Rulos. Rulos. Danger Danger went to solid state to face no quarters for laundry and picked up a 9-7 road win in Deep Queens. Deep Queens. Rest in Pinball, parenthetically, RIP, hosted the Pin Babes at Barcade Brooklyn. Rest in Pinball got a 10-6 home win. The Harlem Globe Flippers traveled to Milo's yard to see Neptune's Treasure, and the Globe Flippers picked up a 10-6 road win. Neptune's Treasure does not lose at Milo's Yard very often. And that's a big win for the Globe Flippers, maybe. We Butterballers hosted the Schlubs at Buttermilk Bar. The Schlubs got an 11-5 win over us. Scrapple Squad went to Jack Bar to see the Baldrainers. Baldrainers, a big 13-3 home win. And the Trolls and Pinister Six played at Skylark. The home team got a 10-6 win. So far in this division, I just want to point out there are five 2-0 teams and five 0-2 teams. The middle four are 1-1. On Wednesday, the second meeting of Scrapple League's fourth season was held at Scrapple Land under the direction of Greg Pavarelli and his assistants. 27 players came out to play five rounds of match play with the goal of garnering the most points for their series total. Alex Kelly, Mike Pantino, and Sean the Storm Grant all picked up 29 points on Wednesday night. Greg Pavarelli got 25. All participated in the money piece of the event as well. So those are your top four in the money. No idea how they split the top three bits. On Thursday, September 18th, SSPL 4, that's the series number, meeting number four was convened at buttermilk bar that is at the time that we are recording this what we might call last night 22 players showed up and robert wong had a near perfect night with 33 points he only only one person beat him in five matches all night and he played four every time i I think Matthew Carlson had 29 for good for second place. Matthew Grady, 27 good for third. And there was a pile up at fourth where Stephen Christopher, Kate Martin, A.J. Gould, Caitlin James Rees and Franklin DeFelice were tied with 23 a piece. Now, since that was the fourth of six, I was just going to say, hey, let's take Take a look at the series now that we've got four meetings in, which is enough for a person to fill their card if they've come to all four. There are six people who have played in all four of the meetings so far and a whole lot of people who've played in three with two more chances to move up. Right now, Matt Carlson's sitting at the top of 102 points in four weeks. That's really good. AJ Gould's got 100. Also really good. Yeah. I mean, those are like guaranteed in, if not necessarily bus driver. Rob is one of the three meeting people. Yeah. And a bunch of other strong players. Also worthy of pointing out that just right now, 68 points is liminal between A and B. The 67 pointers who are sitting at the top of B are Paul McHugh, who's the only person with four meetings who is not above that line. He's also the person whose name we said twice in two or three days at the beginning of this. And he is a recent addition to our community. So I have a feeling that by the end of this series, we're going to be talking about him liminal between A and B instead of or rather, you know, liminal between one group or another versus liminal between A and B. But Janos Kiss Gonzalez is sitting there with three meetings. He's a guy who's always in these finals with 67 points. as well. It is too early. At the bottom of B, there are people with only two, although Billy Vazine has two really good entries at 23 and 27. He almost certainly needs to get to two more meetings in order to get above that line in A, but we were just saying 100 is really good for four meetings. 50 is really good for two meetings. you know it's the same it's roughly the same conception it's harder maybe to do it over the course of four than over the course of two but it's roughly the same conception 50 is really good in two meetings so there's at least one person with two meetings who could get above the line look we said franklin b felice's name he's got two meetings and he's just below the line in be he has two over 20 yeah 88 or so points is usually the cut line for a in this when 20 some people participate it's going to be fun whatever it is next week on monday september 22nd first let me say the barcade brooklyn pinball league as we said it's every other week so it's going to be off this week if you are someone who wants to play individually on monday night either who doesn't have a team or who has a buy, because some teams have buys on Monday nights right now, or for that matter, if you're a reserve on a team and your team doesn't, you know, your reserve status really means that you don't have to show up, then this is a place for you sometimes, but not this week, last week and next week, every other week. Harry's hand grenades are going to have to wait another week also for their chance at their first win in the left flipper division because they have a buy this week in pinball nyc new york city flipper sport association will go to rulos rulos that's right special when lit and eric will walk in the door and say the name penitently uh pronounce it penitently to Bart, I'm sure. The lesser players will visit Parliament at Owl Farm. The mutants will visit the Lion Persons at their new home of Barcade Fidei. The two-for-oners will visit the Pinbots at Scrapple Land who will be looking for their first win at home. We, Colliders, excuse me, we, the Colliders, will visit our friends Intermission Dolores at Commonwealth. The Pin Pals will go to Midway to visit Balls of Steel. That's two, I think, like founding teams in this league. The Aristocrats will go to Barcade Brooklyn where they will face the D-Lux Horses, who they faced in the left in-lane finals last season. So they have now faced the Mutants in week one, Balls of Steel in week two, and the people that they had to beat in order to win a championship in week three. That's a really interestingly fraught with peril schedule. Once they've got through it, I imagine it's the opposite of a college football schedule. I imagine that everything they've got left is playing Old Dominion and Casey Butler in football after this. And on Tuesday, September 23rd, in Pinball NYC's Right Flipper Division, Penister 6 will visit Sunshine Laundromat to face Everybody Loves the Sunshine. Neptune's Treasure and Scrapple Squad will play at Scrapple Land. The Ball Drainers will host the replays at Jack Bar. We Butterballers are going to Solid State in Deep Queens to see No Quarters for Laundry. Butterballers and No Quarters face each other looking for their first wins. The Trolls will face Danger Danger at Buttermilk Bar. Danger Danger is 2-0. Trolls are 0-2. Rest in Pinball, parenthetically, R.I.P. We'll head to Upstate Manhattan and see the Harlem Globe Flippers at The Wallace. And the Schlubs and the Pin Babes will battle it out at Birdies. Schlubs are 2-0. No, pin babes are 0-2. On Wednesday, September 24th, the fourth meeting of Scrapple League's fourth season in 2025 will be convened at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. That happens pinball 8 o'clock. On Thursday, September 25th, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be convened at Jack Bar in Williamsburg. That starts at 8 p.m. sharp. And also on Thursday, the South Slope Pinball League will have its fifth meeting of their fourth season of this year at Buttermilk Bar Pinball, 8 o'clock. Did you know that every Thoroughbred Racehorse's birthday is considered to be January 1st? No, I didn't know that. Well, I just want to point out that that is the case. and also on Saturday September 27th there are two pinball birthday tournaments And so I just want to suggest that maybe every pinball player birthday is September 27th It also might be National Drink Beer Day because one of the tournaments, which has doors at 1 o'clock, starts at 2 p.m. sharp at a private location in Brooklyn. if you are it has pre-registration so if you're not registered then you probably there's definitely like i was on the wait list and i was sent a text earlier today by the host that indicated that i am 99 in that does not mean i'm in yet but i imagine there are several people below me on the wait list It is also a place that there is going to be a potluck. I'm going to try to make potato donuts. So if you happen to be going to that pinball tournament and participating in that potluck, you may, whether, you know, participating in that potluck by eating, you may eat some of my donuts made with potatoes as part of the flower. Holy donut. I'm going to try it this weekend. We'll see if it works out. I might tell you next Friday that it failed and I'm making clap shot for this thing. Also on Saturday, the other event is EDA's birthday bash and high speed to the getaway retrospective. They'll have signups at 1.30 p.m. and start at 2 o'clock. And then on Sunday, September 28th, Jose Garcia will be hosting the Read'em and Flip Texas Hold'em Card Tournament at Scrapple Land. We talked with Jose last week a little bit about this. This is another event in the NYC Triborough Series, 8 of 9. It sounds like a really interesting card-based format, sort of patterned after Texas Hold'em poker. Yeah, I mean, look, the card is your five games, just like in a game of poker. And it is kind of, there's a way in which it's like hold them and there's a way in which it's like five card draw because you get to buy more entries and choose different entries that get you. That was what I thought I understood from what I heard the two of you talking about. As of September 19th, 2025, there are 344 pinball machines in New York City at 81 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday, the 12th of September, user Mayor of Now was at Rulo's and left several comments. For the Big Lebowski, they said, mostly played well, but they handicapped and car bash targets missed some hits. And of Pulp Fiction, they said, middle pawn shop target is jammed halfway down like an impacted tooth. Do we think they should be dentist of now? And Mare of Now played King Kong and said, I locked three balls, but no multiball. Disappointed that it's the lowest end model. So the Island Gong and the Subway Car are missing. On Saturday, user Pinball Lizard was also at Rulo's and played King Kong. They said, plays great. Note for noobs. After completing the drop targets twice, three balls can be locked at the center ramp. Then multiball can be started on the right at the curly shot to the punch target. They even use strobing lights to guide you. Also on Saturday, user MyDKNYTestYRM played the bad cats at Sunshine Laundromat and said, Flipper's weak. Right flipper has little power. Center ramp doesn't register ball going through it and no advance on bonus in the ramp. On Sunday, a Deadpool Pro was removed from Randolph Beer Dumbo, and a Metallica Pro was added. An Elvira's House of Horrors Premium was added to single-cut Beersmith's Queens. User MiniFlipper played the Godzilla 70th Anniversary Edition at Scrapple Land and said, tilting issue is fixed, right coin door is jammed. And then Mini Flipper also played the Godzilla Premium at Barcade Fidei and said game is tilting low on the right side. Same day. Yeah. Interesting. Two biggest collections, but also diametrically across the city. And both Godzilla. Yeah. On Monday, user Banzai noted that the Elvis that was at Gamehouse New York, which was in Long Island City, was removed. Also, the venue is marked as temporarily closed. It was a swipe card place, and they only had the one pinball machine. I've never been. I'm going to opine that a Krispy Kreme will move in, and let's be perfectly clear, Krispy Kremes are what killed Elvis. So user Banzai then traveled over to beer culture and played the time machine that's there and said, more pinball. Shoot again. This is not Gebhard's beer culture. This is beer culture on 42nd Street, right? Yes, that's right. Also on Monday, user Mini Flipper went to Scrapple Land and let us know that the right ramp is stuck up on Evil Dead. They weren't playing Godzilla. On Wednesday, the Godzilla Premium was removed from Gebhard's beer culture. And the Whitewater and the Elvira's House of Horrors at Single Cup Beersmith's Queens were both noted that they had just been serviced by user DMarmanio. Should we bullet journal? Yeah, let me look at my calendar. I want to start with a pre this week, just because I was not a part of the panel. Last week, I alluded to this in my introduction. The night before, the day really before we did it in the afternoon, the Sunday before Pinball NYC season started, I went to Barcade Fidei because the trolls and the lion persons, both of whom were going to call the place home, were doing a scrimmage. on Thursday night, I think, when I ran into Caitlin. She was like, hey, we don't know if we're going to have enough people. And so I went and I was told that I was going to be Dante for the day. I have never been called Dante, but I played a Dante on the troll persons persons versus lion trolls scrimmage on the sunday before the pinball nyc season started and dante never showed up so i just kept playing him throughout the whole thing uh that that was the caveat was like if dante shows up then you're out of here and i was like well if dante shows up then i'm gonna play special force until my fingers bleed uh so awesome i hope he shows up but also It was a great time. They mixed up their teams. It wasn't about a team versus a team. It was just about let's all choose games and try to surprise each other and see what happens. And it was super cool. It was very fun. Did you have a Saturday the 13th or a Friday the 12th? I'm close to bedtime when we're done with this. Usually I have to be up in the morning. But actually last week I didn't. I stayed up as late as I fucking could because my shift got switched. So instead of opening at Barcade, I was closing at Barcade, which means I didn't start till 7 p.m. And I didn't get home till 7 a.m. So I missed out on going to a pinball party that I had planned on. And also, I mean, either way, I couldn't make South Slope Strikes. Did you play on Sunday or did a 7 a.m. end of Saturday mean that Sunday was not a viable pinball day? I slept in as much as I could on Sunday. But then I got up and it was a beautiful afternoon. And I took a nice quick bike ride over to the Red Hook Pinball Museum. Nice. which was having the block party for the end of their stay at the pop-up location that they've been at. This is the first time I got to see the pop-up location, and it's actually, well, it's gone now. Right, first and last. They moved out Sunday night. But yeah, I swung by, got to see the Red Hook Pinball Gang, and Billy West was there, and Philippe was there. they had a grill out and they were grilling up some hot dogs and also some veggie dogs and they had some sides they had advertised brisket and they had it they had 20 pounds of brisket and it lasted apparently about 10 minutes yeah 20 pounds is not a lot if you yeah there were a lot of people and they all got small bits is what i was told it was long gone by the time i got there. Sure. And oh, the Clevelands showed up, Simon and Natalie. The pop-up location was jam-packed. I didn't... Oh, I got the... I played Whiffle, the 1931 Flipperless. Right, right. And then they also had one machine over at the record store, which I believe is called the record store. They had one machine in there, and that was about a block off from where the pop-up was. And I got to play that game, play that with Simon and Natalie. I had a hot dog and a good hangout. And then later that night, they cleared out the pop-up and pretty sure Monday morning, they signed a lease on a space right next to the record store, also right next to the Red Hook Public Library in a cute little space that sort of looks like, you know, designed to be like a coffee shop or something. But I got to peer in through the window and they moved the stuff in there Sunday night, I think. Awesome. On their way to a new location. Can't be more excited than to see what happens there. On that same day, I just want to briefly pay tribute to a friend. I was thankful that I got to celebrate the life of my friend Bernie Herman. I recommend you read his book, A South You Never Ate, for a compassionate and humane journey through the folkloric cuisine of the Delmarva Peninsula and the eastern shore of Virginia. I appreciated the opportunity to be there and do that. It fed my mind the way that pinball feeds my mind to be there. So I thank you for that. You played on Monday, I imagine. Yeah. Our association hosted Harry's Hand Grenades up at the Wallace. Outside of the team matchup, also, it was my first visit to, at the Wallace, in a little while. I haven't been there since the end of the past season. So I took the chance to join the selfie league that's going on up there right now. The finals for which will be the ninth and final part of the NYC Triborough Series. And those finals are on October 26th. Just like on Tuesday when I had real bad scores. My selfie scores are not great, but because there's Because there's only like eight or so people even in the standings. Yeah, I would be the eighth person to join the standings. So I'm in the top eight. Nice. Qualified for finals so far. So on Thursday, September, I wrote down two, but that's definitely not the night it was. It was the 18th. Yeah. On Thursday, September 18th, despite what our script says, I went to play SSPL. I saw Eric at SSPL for the 4th of 4. Incidentally, it will be September 18th. For anyone who didn't clock it, this past week, we had September 16th, 2025, which is a back Korean. Three squares in a row? Exactly, a Pythagorean 3-4-5 matchup, and that happens only, I think, twice a century. It was an interesting thing, but maybe three times a century just because 1-2-3 might be too easy to do. 1-4-9? But, yeah, yeah. Well, but not just three squares. It was a Pythagorean three squares. The three, the four, and the five. Yeah, nine plus 16 equals 25. It was the perfect Pythagorean square this date. We had that this past week for one of a small number of times in a century, and that's irrelevant. I love it. On Thursday, however, the 18th, two days after that date, I walked across the park, as I always do when I go to try to play SSPL, and I went to Rulo's, as I often do, or stop record scratch. I was about to walk into Rulo's when I saw something on the sandwich board outside that said, animation, speak easy. And when I walked up to the door, there was a mass of humanity between me and the pinball machines that I was unwilling to navigate. And by that, I mean to say that there were a lot of people who were standing around looking at the projection screen in the back of the bar, and they were so deep that I could very clearly from the street identify that there were a lot of layers of them between me and the pinball machines already. So I wasn't going in there and interrupting their good time by making the Pulp Fiction machine scream obscenities at them or whatever. And so I went to Buttermilk. Somehow, for, what was it, 20 people, 24 people showed up? It felt really intimate for some reason on Thursday night. I imagine that just means that there weren a lot of other people sitting around the bar doing whatever wasn pinball But it felt pretty intimate and it felt good to me I did not feel put upon by wandering into the place that I was going to spend the next several hours and going from entirely inside my head to knowing everyone in the room. I felt okay. And I appreciate the community for that because I'm not the only person who has this sort of issue. I wrote down a couple of bullets. I don't remember if it was round two or round three. I think it was round three. I had the opportunity to play NBA Fast Break. And the NBA Fast Break, in particular, the one right there at Buttermilk, I have a little bit of an affinity for. and if you have paid any attention to what I do during a season on this podcast, I spent the entire last season trying to beat Dante's Nets score. And then very shortly after I did it, after the season was over, and announced that I had done it, Dante went and put up 431 fucking points as the Nets and won two goddamn MVPs, or two championship rings, rather, when he did it. uh and so i i spent most of the summer chasing that and i said to a room full of people that i'm about to i will always choose dante and the nets as long as he's up here with this 431 and then i stepped to the machine and realized that the scores had been reset and so I said well the Knicks are first and I looked and SAC I don't know who you are but I respect you 88 points was a score that I was certain I was going to be and so I said well I mean I'm going to choose the Knicks because it's the Knicks but also it's a garbage score and so I'm going to beat it no offense not it's not actually a garbage score 88 points that's a pretty good score it's a pretty good score on nba fast break pretty good score i just know this one and like this one and i'm gonna score a lot of points on it at least sometime i had a terrible game in competition terrible got fourth place 20 points something like that don't remember the exact number roughly 20 points but my revenge game i when i had 101 points as the knicks well you know I was beating SAC. May you rest in power, SAC, as the Knicks champion. But when I was having my revenge game after that, when I had 101 points, I had scored exactly 101 points when I passed the ball to the number one player in the paint, and he got blocked. 101, one got blocked. I don't, if numerology meant anything, it meant something then. It was pretty shortly after this. I was in the bathroom, which if you know about the layout of Buttermilk and where the pinball machines are, at least right now, is near Metallica. When the zombies, time of the season, came on the playlist in the bar. and I was pleased to hear the chorus just slightly modified as it's the time of the season for and then in Eric's voice very aggressively, come on! Fuck you! It was a wonderful it was just a wonderful little moment of just like, here's this lovey-dovey thing interrupted by like percussive Oh! It was funny. Yeah, I was having a decent game on Metallica, but not decent enough. It was a tough group. Yeah, you had Rob Wong and Matt Carlson in that group, I think. Yeah, and Connor Kalista. He kicked my ass in the first two rounds. I came in third on that game. That was one of the later games. I did well in the early rounds, which put me up in the top group in the later rounds. And that's when, yeah, I was yelling. right right right but i did get uh my revenge game of my own on uh twilight zone in an earlier round after the tuesday performance uh when i stepped up to the machine as player one i took a look around in the couldn't see the the powerball in the gumball machine so it could have been in position one, but you got to double check the ball trough. That's right. And sure enough, the Powerball was in the ball trough. The second ball back, I had one in the shooter lane, one in the trough, then the Powerball. So I knew my job. Lock balls. Lock two balls, the Powerball come out. I did that. Powerball came out. Oh boy, it just jumped around. It was flying so fast, it was impossible to control. I kept missing the shot, but I kept it alive long enough and finally made the shot. Got my Powerball Mania right off the bat on ball one. It was a good game. Good revenge game. In round five last night, I played Twilight Zone. And on ball one, I got Powerball Mania because it was left for me as the next ball. on ball two i got powerball mania because i locked three balls and then put the ceramic ball back and like did all of the work yeah to do it and on ball three i put two gumballs back there in order to eject the ceramic ball but i did not get a third straight powerball mania on three straight balls on that same game last night. Tom Milburn was watching me. I was playing against him, and after the first ball, he left it for me. He left me. It was in the next position, and I was going to spell gumball as soon as possible already, but he left it for me. And then on the next ball, he didn't. And he was like, I didn't leave it for you. And I was like, I got three lit already anyway. It doesn't matter. I got three gumballs lit, dude. so I was hopeful to get it on ball three also but I did not also the one on ball two was garbage it was 11 million points I did nothing on the powerball mania itself it was nothing it was garbage but I got it and you know I think I got 70 million points because I got 20 million then 25 million then 25 million for the gumballs I think they max out at 25 million, but you get up to 25 million per. I was surprised at how accurate it understood where the ceramic ball was last night. Yeah, it was working 100%. It seemed like it. Let's talk about a harebrained fucking scheme I've got called the Six Games Six Songs Challenge. It's so harebrained that the name is some basic bitch shit. It's also very descriptive. Here's what I'm challenging you to do in a way that will not embarrass you on YouTube or potentially endanger your life. If you were going to eat a Tide Pod or what the fuck ever challenge thing some asshole might have told someone to do on a video, this is just about playing pinball and listening to some music, That probably isn't on your playlist. With one potential exception, I want to just briefly say this has inspired this idea of mine. And I pitched this to Eric midweek, and he has allowed me to just throw ideas at him, just barf brainstorming at Eric. It's inspired by this conversation on the NYC Pinball Discord about what music are you listening to if you're listening with headphones. And so I propose a challenge to you, dear listener, that you should go to the Spotify playlist called the Six Games, Six Songs Challenge, which is linked in the show notes here, which you can find on the blog. It'll be pinned to the top at nycpinpod.wordpress.com. it is six songs and i challenge you to play these six games at barcade fi die while you are listening exclusively to this playlist of these songs i don't care for my purposes i would like you to listen to every song in the playlist while you're playing pinball i don't care if you match up one song with one game or if you just put the playlist on shuffle or repeat or whatever while you go play but I would like you to have listened to the entire playlist in part because I would like you to have taken that long to play six pinball games. About 33 minutes is this playlist? Is that right? 33 minutes and 19 seconds. That's what it is right now. Here's the thing. There's one song that I'm thinking about changing out when we're still recording this. There will be. There will be. And part of the challenge here, I thought they would be songs that wouldn't be like what you would listen to while you're playing pinball, in part because I think a lot of people probably listen to songs that have a 4-4 rhythm or a 3-4 rhythm, something that is pretty predictable and idiomatic within the Western tradition. And I have purposely tried to find some things that either exhibit some differentiation in meter or exhibit a rubato tempo in general, something that has some pull and some push where it is not a completely metric one, two, three, four. So I've tried to find things like that. And last night, I shared this playlist with Eric, and Eric added something to it. Do you want to talk about that? Yeah. Well, you've been telling me about this and some of the different kind of music that you've included on here. I mean, I don't recognize most of it. Philip Glass I've heard of. I don't know if I've ever actually listened to Philip Glass. I'm sure I probably have somehow and just didn't know it did he do the soundtrack for yes there you go so I saw that movie in high school I'm aware of the Mars Volta never was a fan and then these other ones I don't know any idea what any of this sounds like but because you're talking about listening to music while you're playing pinball is that is something that I used to do. And so, and when I did, I listened exclusively to one song on repeat for every pin, for every pin. In every case, when I was listening to music while playing pinball, I was listening to this song on repeat. Historically, every single time, it was exactly this song. once I had settled on that, I wanted one song. I tried this. When I first started listening to music, I tried a playlist. I had a few songs on it. And then I didn't like it. I didn't like how it changed, kept changing. So I was like, I need to pick one. And this is the one that I landed on. Interesting. So then wanting to contribute to this, but seeing this wacky playlist of stuff, my song doesn't fit in. It's very much what you were describing before. It's a 4-4 driving beat, and it just flows right into itself on repeat, and it would get me into a state of moving to this rhythm. And it was just very regular. Yeah. So I'm offering it as part of the playlist as an idea of sort of a control. I kind of understand. If this is an experiment of trying out some different kind of music while you play pinball, here's the control track. We talked about the idea of, I had had five tracks on this list and thought that it would be five songs and five games, but we talked about the idea of it being Russian roulette, where actually, as Eric points out, it is possibly that there is only one chamber that isn't a bullet, as opposed to there being one chamber that is a bullet of the six. I tried to listen to this last night at South Slope Pinball League throughout the night, and I don't want to say that it's why I sucked in the first three rounds. Because I also had not played pinball, as you could tell, for quite a while. It had been a minute. I was playing okay in practice, and I made some good saves, but I was not playing sophisticated pinball, that's certain. I stopped listening to it when I realized that I had nine points after three rounds or whatever it was that I was like, oh no, I'm actually competing at pinball tonight. I need to not just keep doing an experiment. But here's the thing. What I'm proposing here, it's a selfie tournament. And you can do it whenever the hell you want. If you want to do it at the latest hour that they're open, cool. If you want to go in for your lunch break, David Potluck, then you can go in for your lunch break. I can't possibly actually police what's in your ears, right? I trust you. I ask you to behave in the spirit of the competition as it is intended. It is more an experiment than a competition. However, if you're one of those degenerates who just needs to win something at the end of something, I still have Harvest pint glasses thanks to Glenn Gillyard. So whoever is the winner of this thing, no finals, no nothing, I'll find you out in the world. I'll find you and hand you a pint glass thanks to Glenn Gillyard's generosity. we do have a limited supply of harvest pint glasses so if there is a tie at the top then i will arrange a small tournament for those people who are tied on Super Panic Ball at Barcade FiDi Since this is not for any whoppers or not for any anything and that is the thing that most people ask for when that game is present That's what we'll do if there happened to be a tie atop these standings. Four, I think, of six games. It makes sense to count. Eric, I think we were just talking about this. Here's the thing. I can't force Barcade FiDi to keep the games that I'm going to say right now on their floor. And what a usual pinball tournament's rules would be is if it's there for half the period, then it counts. And so if, you know, one of these games is there for half of the time between now and October 31st at 11.59 p.m., that's right. right at the end of All Hallows' Eve, right before All Hallows' Day, word, that is the moment at which we will stop collecting scores and whoever has the four best. So we'll do what at least used to be called, now Papa is a different thing, I think, but what used to be called the Papa scoring of a best game format, which is 100 points for the first place, 90 points for the second place, 85 for the third place, and then linear after that, 84 for fourth, 83 for fifth, etc. I'm interested. I'm interested to see what happens. I trust you all to honor the spirit of this. If you are not a plays with headphones player, I would ask you to get yourself a pair of headphones. They can be induction, if that's what you need. Get yourself a pair of headphones so you can listen. Honor the spirit by turning it up loud enough that you can hear it, but please don't damage your ears. Please don't damage your hearing. Please don't damage your hearing. I don't want to be responsible for that. Have we talked about the games? not yet oh my goodness all right so here's the list special force Banzai Run dr dude and his excellent ray don't sleep on the excellent ray electra evil dead and ghostbusters those are some wacky games they're wacky games i i want to point out that evil dead and ghostbusters and the tournament ends on October 31st, 11.59pm if in fact Barcade Fidei is open that late on that date. If not, then it'll end at whatever time they close instead. I would presume on Halloween they would stay open past 11.59pm to make sure that they were open at 12am on All Saints Day. What do you think about Special Force? I know I've played it there at Barcade Fight Eye, but I cannot remember it. I can't picture it. I don't know why. It has plastic that looks like landscaping, that looks like mountains that you're trying to control, and you shoot a skill shot up onto plastic that if it happens to land exactly in a weird little spot that is probably roughly the shot of Rudy's hideout or whatever. But it has to go up a ramp and then not get rejected down the feed to the ramp but instead come to this secondary short feed out of the ramp. The ramp bailout. Yeah, exactly. And it has three protected inline drop targets the whole way on the left just above where the usual drops or stand-ups above the slingshots would be. Just above that, it has three of those. You can knock them down with the extra flipper buttons if you have engaged rockets or bombs, I believe. The big thing to do, as far as I can tell, is to hit, there's a drop target up center that leads to a little hole behind all of that plastic garbage and if you knock that down i believe you can collect the bonus by hitting it behind there and i think doing that after you know doing some work on the game is really the way to score points on it how do you feel about building up your electra bonus or time or whatever it's called do you know that game well enough to think about that I don't know very well. I do remember playing at Arcade Fight Eye and being very confused by the bonus time and we're constantly wrong players stepping up. Right, right, right. I'm going to give you the shorthand for it, which is that the left stand-up targets, there's a five bank of left stand-up targets, and you have to complete them. There's a set of rules that isn't just as simple has hit each of the five. You'll figure it out if you work on that assumption. And secondarily, remind you that there are no inlanes. And so this game has a geometry very similar to something like, I don't know, say Stargazer, if you've played much of that. I hate Dr. Dude and I hate his excellent Ray. But it is both in the right place to be able to listen to music and not blow out your ear balls at Barcade Fi Die and also it is a weird little game. Do you have any affinity for Dr. Dude or His Excellent Ray? I find it pretty charming in that very gross 80s character way. Yeah, super misogynistic like Leisure Suit Larry. The object is for the chump to get laid. Yeah. everything about it is wrong I don't like the you know the gameplay the rules ask you to hit these three things to qualify the multiball and they're just annoying to hit especially the one in the center is just death yeah exactly you sort of hope you bump into it a few times but you always wind up having to go for it and then dying that mix master I think there's a rule setting whereby if you just hit the ramp with the Mixmaster over and over again, you can get through the game pretty well, but I also think it's a real slog to do it that way, if it's set that way, and I don't think most of them... I think that's the very easiest rules setting or something. Maybe I just played one that had a bug once, and I think it's an easy rules setting. That might also be true. I've played this one once or twice only so far, and I don't think I've successfully hit a ramp shot yet. But to be fair, most of the time I haven't been going for it. I've been trying to get the qualifying parts first. Right, right, right. What do you know about the Evil Dead? There's a couple of these in the city now. Yeah, I wind up being assigned it at Scrapple League from time to time because it is at Scrapple Land. And does that feel like one that you have to or one that you get to? This is a have to one. Yeah, okay. I haven't yet you know really grasped the entire game although I did one night have like a never ending ball on the one at fight eye not particularly knowing what I'm doing agreed yeah I had one like that too there the way it yells at you hit the ramps to light a mode like I know that you need to hit the ramps to light a mode and then the mode is on the right ramp but it's a lift up shot so it goes under it and then Once I'm in a mode, I'm just trying to follow the blinky shots. Yeah, follow the flashing lights. If I'm feeling like it, there's a drop target sort of right of center that you hit it down enough times it lets you go through, and that's your lock for the cabin. But going for that in competitions, always a gamble because there's 100% lock stealing on the game. If you leave two in there and don't start your multiple, ball next players can just go ahead and start the multiball one with one one sequence of that yowza so look i mean maybe when you're competing in these six games six songs challenge it would be disadvantageous to play two player or maybe it would be advantageous for everyone involved to play two players so that you can steal each other's fucking locks either way the the entire stakes are a pint class which has a kick-ass logo on it i don't mean to demean it it's a kick-ass pint class but the we're not we're not playing for money here we're not even playing for whoppers or finals have fun and listen to this music the six games six songs challenge playlist will be on Spotify. I'm sorry if you don't like Spotify. And if you like Tidal better, you're right. But more people pay for Spotify, more people think about Spotify. And I imagine that everyone can listen to this. And also, if you don't pay for Spotify, I appreciate you. I hear you. And I'm sorry for whatever commercial for Walmart you're going to have to hear between the Philip Glass song and the Mars Volta song or the Hiatus Coyote song or the John Zorn song or the what's the name of your artist Eric? Parts and Labor. Or the Parts and Labor song or the Harry Parch song. By the way Harry Parch if you don't know who Harry Parch is I just urge you to just plug his name into Wikipedia. This man did some weird things in American music but they're brilliant. We'll put a custom link to the match play event for this where you can register yourself and submit your scores that link will be matchplay.live slash six games six songs it's the numerals six so numeral six games numeral six songs will get you to the match play in the show notes we'll have both that link and the link to the Spotify playlist. Any other links we need? I don't think so. I just, you know, I urge you to honor the spirit of it if you're going to participate. I imagine that there will not be a massive buy-in. However, I will also point out that if you wanted to do this while you were there playing a Monday night pinball NYC match against the Lion Persons or a Tuesday night pinball NYC match against the trolls. You are welcome to submit your score that you have played with this music in your ears, but I don't necessarily recommend that you sacrifice your other pinball playing to listening to Allen Ginsberg read his poetry over Philip Glass's music. You are welcome to submit to double submit because this goes to nothing else but i'm not sure that i would encourage you to unless when you went for practice and you submitted some selfie scores you were like dude i have to listen to harry parch every time i play pinball going forward there's a part of me that thinks that of the small percentage of you will have that experience who decide to participate in this and it's related to something that eric said to me a night that we were competing in an ssp i think it was sspl we were definitely a buttermilk i think jaws was still there and i had just played a not so hot ball and it could have been okay but i needed to make a save and you approached me, Eric, and said, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I also want you to hear me. You're in a rhythm. Like when you hit those flippers just then, you were in a rhythm and it was not the rhythm of the ball that was in front of you. It was some other rhythm. And I think that there is also a really great boon to be earned from separating yourself from the rest of your environment when your intent is to focus entirely on a pinball game that you can somewhat accomplish, that you can be aided by listening to something other than the environment that you are in that isn't the pinball game in front of you. And there is a positive element to this and a negative element to this, right? There's the part where you should want to be in your head. And there's the part where you shouldn't want to be in any rhythm other than the pinball machine's rhythm. Other than the rhythm of physics. The rhythm of gravity. the rhythm of the theory the very theory of relativity to be fair one of the reasons I stopped listening to music while I played was finding myself in that rhythm and missing some saves that I was you know just off the beat for hitting the flipper at the right time now I try to watch myself for falling into a flipping rhythm. Sure. And stay off it because you don't want to be ready at any second. Physics does not happen on some schedule that is related to the number of times that a thing is ticking on your wrist. The music of the spheres. I am looking forward to this challenge. I'm going to go in blind, so to speak. that's all for this week's pod join us next week when in ball one as usual we'll run down local competition results in ball two we'll have venue updates and the bullet journal and in ball three we're going to talk about the updates at scrapple land seems like even more of the brewing equipment has moved out and some other things are going on that are worth talking about so we're going to do a little venue feature about what's going on at scrapple land these days between now and then whatever you're up to go get it

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 95938567-b6c9-4a53-a71e-178ea8ed2740*