Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

And It's Rainbow-Colored

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·44m 15s·analyzed·May 12, 2025
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

NYC pinball tournament results and Brooklyn Pin Pride 2025 announcement expansion to 80 players.

Summary

NYC Pin Pod episode covering local pinball competition results from early May 2025, including multiple tournament outcomes across NYC venues, league standings, playoff matchups, and a major announcement about Brooklyn Pin Pride expanding to 80 players on June 15th at Scrapple Land. The hosts discuss league logistics, machine maintenance updates from Pinball Map, and personal pinball experiences throughout the week.

Key Claims

  • Brooklyn Pin Pride 2025 will be held on Sunday, June 15th at Scrapple Land with 80 players, making it the largest queer pinball tournament ever held

    high confidence · Jess Morin, Brooklyn Pin Pride co-organizer, official announcement made this past week

  • The NYC Match Play Pinball League is being renamed to Scrapple League

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, episode host, confirming the name change

  • As of May 9th, 2025, there are 298 pinball machines in New York City at 79 public locations

    high confidence · Data from Pinball Map creators and users, reported by Benjamin Furiga

  • Dante Oliva won the first season of the NYC Match Play Pinball League at Scrapple Land on May 7th

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga reporting tournament results

  • Ian Leone won Quit Talking and Start Chalking Royale 2 with 16.49 whoppers on May 3rd

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga reporting tournament results

  • Brooklyn Pin Pride has now happened four consecutive years in June during pride month

    high confidence · Jess Morin confirming the history

  • Pinberg Satellite tournament on May 18th has 40 players registered out of 60 capacity, with $1,000 to the winner if sold out

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga reading tournament description and discussing registration

  • SSPL finals will take place on Thursday, May 15th at Buttermilk at 8 o'clock

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga announcing upcoming events

  • Valentine's Day gay pinball tournament (previous year) had 56 players, the previous highest for Brooklyn Pin Pride events

    high confidence · Jess Morin discussing growth trajectory

  • Brooklyn Pin Pride will donate $350 to the Ali Forney Center from registrations and will have Translates for Trans Rights Silent Auction benefiting Transgender Law Center

Notable Quotes

  • “We officially like it. It's ball two.”

    Pinball Map user Keith J. @ ~27:50 — Humorous comment about Godzilla 70th Anniversary at Scrapple Land, showing community appreciation for well-maintained machines

  • “If there's black smoke coming out of it, you keep playing. And then it's only when purple smoke starts coming out that you've won. You're the fucking Pope.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~42:30 — Humorous design concept for a hypothetical 'Conclave' pinball machine inspired by Pope-themed conversations at events

  • “All of the lower right playoff action is happening within a quarter mile of each other in Williamsburg. It's right. The Kellogg Diner is at the apex of all of it.”

    Benjamin Furiga and other hosts @ ~35:00 — Demonstrates how closely clustered NYC pinball league venues are geographically

  • “I hope to show up.”

    Benjamin Furiga @ ~32:00 — Self-deprecating comment about uncertainty of making the SSPL finals due to potential conflicts

  • “That is to say that all of the action in Pinball NYC's upper division playoffs are happening within a pitching wedge of each other.”

    Benjamin Furiga @ ~33:00 — Describes geographical clustering of playoff venues in Brooklyn

Entities

Benjamin FurigapersonEric SweetlandpersonJess MorinpersonDante OlivapersonIan LeonepersonAlberto SantanapersonMatthew CarlsonpersonRob WongpersonScrapple LandvenueBarcade BrooklynvenueRulo'svenue

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Brooklyn Pin Pride 2025 officially announced for June 15th at Scrapple Land with capacity increased from 56 (Valentine's Day record) to 80 players

    high · Jess Morin: 'The big news is that we're going to go up to 80 players. Last time, Valentine's Day was our biggest yet with 56. So hopefully this will be a big jump. As far as I can tell, it'll be the largest queer pinball tournament ever held.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Growth trajectory of LGBTQ+ inclusive pinball tournaments from Mean Queen to Brooklyn Pin Pride, with organizational improvements including trophy upgrades, increased payouts, and charitable donations

    high · Jess Morin discussing expansion of payouts, 3D printed trophies from Rebecca in Austin, $350 donation to Ali Forney Center, and Translates for Trans Rights Silent Auction

  • ?

    venue_signal: Brooklyn Pin Pride moving from previous venue to Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, cited as having 'more machines' than previous location

    high · Jess Morin: 'We're excited to have a new venue with more machines.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: NYC Match Play Pinball League being renamed to Scrapple League, name chosen after league setup was finalized in match play software

    high · Benjamin Furiga: 'It was a really good name. It's just that someone came up with it after it was already set up in match play.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Scrapple League (formerly NYC Match Play Pinball League) completing first season and launching second season with weekly qualifying weeks starting May 14th at Scrapple Land

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.133

0:30
Happy Sunday, pin folk, 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. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are BCF. And the Pinball Illuminati are responsible for a pope from Chicagoland. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP. And I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. Hi, this is Jess Morin. My initials are JLW, and I'm the co-organizer of Brooklyn Pin Pride. Also, Albo and I did not kill the Pope when we dressed up like him at Pinball Farm.
1:12
On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results in Ball 1, as usual. In Ball 2, we'll have updates, courtesy of Pinball Map and its users. And also, we'll do another Pinball Bullet Journal. And in Ball 3, we'll talk about Brooklyn Pin Pride and not the Pope, despite the fact that he showed up in two of our updates. Let's get started. On Saturday, May 3rd, 28 players showed up at Arcade Brooklyn for Quit Talking and Start Chalking Royale 2, directed by Jonah Shlaes. after six rounds of match play qualifying the top 12 went to an amazing race semi-finals the top four of that amazing race then played in the a finals papa style three games on classics while the fifth through eighth from the amazing race made up the b finals in the end ian leone was the winner. He picked up 16.49 whoppers for all of that. In second place was Adam Kane, third place Matthew Grady, and fourth place Tommy Ortega. In the B finals, Alberto Santana came in first, George Underwood second, Matthew Carlson third, and Caitlin Reese in fourth. Also on Saturday in the not-so-nearby surrounding area. Allentown Pin Fest had its finals. 84 players played in the limited game qualifying. They cut to 24 in the finals. In the end, Ron Hallett Jr. was the winner. New York City's Levy Naiman came in second. David Riel third, and Nick Zendayas got fourth. In the women's division, 10 players qualified. They cut to a top four finals. New York City's Lindsay Rhodes was the winner. Lauren Berner Lawrence came in second. Kate Smith in third. And Carol Reinhardt in fourth. On Sunday, May 4th, in Astoria at Single Cut Beersmith's Queens, may the silver ball be with you. Parenthetically, Silver Ball Sunday at Single Cut 25, as we talked with Tommy about last week, was convened under Tommy's guidance. It was five rounds of group match play this time and just a four-player finals.

high confidence · Jess Morin announcing tournament fundraising initiatives

Buttermilk Bar
venue
Brooklyn Pin Prideevent
Scrapple Leagueevent
Pinball NYCorganization
South Slope Pinball Leagueevent
Pinball Maporganization
Ali Forney Centerorganization
Transgender Law Centerorganization
Jonah Shlaesperson
Kate Martinperson
Jose Garciaperson
Zach Sharpeperson
Michael Reislerperson

high · Benjamin Furiga: 'Is Scrapple League happening on Wednesday? Yes, it is. It will be the first qualifying week of the second season.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple pinball machines reported with issues at NYC venues: Doctor Who at Gutter Bar LIC, No Fear at Single Cut Fearsmith's Queens, Bram Stoker's Dracula left flipper dead, future spa not turned on

    high · Pinball Map user reports from May 2-6: 'The No Fear auto plunges does not allow any selection. Bram Stoker's Dracula left flipper is dead.'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Scrapple Land noted for excellent machine maintenance by Pinball Map user, described as having 'awesome owner' with every machine 'so well maintained'

    high · Pinball Map user Keith J.: 'awesome owner. Every machine is so well maintained. We officially like it.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Multiple tournament formats in use across NYC leagues: Papa-style group elimination brackets (A/B finals), amazing race semi-finals format, regular match play qualifying, split flipper variants

    high · Benjamin Furiga describing various tournament structures at different venues throughout May

  • $

    market_signal: Pinberg Satellite tournament offering significant prize support ($1,000+ to winner) and Pinberg ticket prizes, partially sold at 40/60 capacity with raffle incentives for advancement

    high · Benjamin Furiga: 'eight rounds of match play top eight to finals winner gets a thousand dollars if tournament sells out or just a lot of cash if we're short of 60'

  • ?

    community_signal: NYC pinball league venues are geographically clustered, particularly in Brooklyn with multiple venues within walking distance (Scrapple Land, Rulo's, Buttermilk Bar, Barcade Brooklyn, Williamsburg area)

    high · Benjamin Furiga: 'all of the action in Pinball NYC's upper division playoffs are happening within a pitching wedge of each other'

  • ?

    community_signal: Brooklyn Pin Pride integrating charitable fundraising into tournament structure with donations to Ali Forney Center and Transgender Law Center through silent auction

    high · Jess Morin: 'we're going to donate $350 to the Ali Forney Center to start with from the registrations' and 'Translates for Trans Rights Silent Auction' benefiting Transgender Law Center

    • 3:42
    And Matt Haverin came out on top. Adam Kane got second, Andrew Brizial third, and Mike Pantino, MAP, fourth. Matt Haverin got 4.18 whoppers for the effort. Over on Blue Sky, Tommy Ortega posted a picture of the shirt that he had worn, especially for the May the 4th edition with lots of little Stormtrooper helmets all over it. It's to be clear, it's just helmets. It's it has some like some of these are like the clone helmets and some of these are like bounty hunter helmets and things almost like polka dots in the pattern. It's really cool. Also on Sunday, Jess Warren ran Stern Army's Rob Wong Invitational for May at Rullost's. closed. Fifteen players came out and played five rounds of match play for qualifying and cut to the top four for finals. In the end, Alberto Santana was the winner, picking up 5.26 whoppers. Matt Grady got second, Rob Wong third, and Matt Carlson fourth. Rob won a tiebreaker on Mnemonic to make finals, but Alberto locked up the win after two games and no one beat the cat. We tried to recreate the Stern pinball banner. Bart made Italian wedding soup. Eric won the Spider-Man vault translate. I won the fanny pack. Match play is rigged. People found a lot of ways to put up points on Bond despite the center shot not registering. We had a couple rounds of Bond that ran really long. We had some big monster games where like somebody lost with like 150 50 million, you know. It was a true Stern Army finals with Alberto driving the bus. He chose Bond and X-Men and already had it locked up. Alberto did defer, then Matt deferred. So Grady actually chose Wick to make it an all Stern finals. Cool. And I hope somebody's finally going to beat the cat again at next month, which is going to be June 29th. Who's the last person who beat the cat? Maybe Tom Milburn. The people who have beat the cat are Greg Fertel, the cat himself, I believe twice. Right. Did he take either of the t-shirts? I think he took a t-shirt, but I think if he wins again, he has to like swap the shirt he's wearing is the deal for the next person to win. The first time I think he did offer Greg Fertel the shirt off his back and Greg chose a fresh one instead on monday may 5th in the left orbit playoffs of pinball nyc the mutants and new york city flipper sport association were waiting around for the winners of these two matches balls of steel went to at the wallace to face special when lit at their virtual home that's the four or five match the winner of this match would go on to face the mutants special when lit won by a tiebreaker zen zakniak sent me a text on tuesday after the match to say the defining moment for a nine to seven win versus a eight to eight loss i was player one and jay was player two this was the end of ball three all while watching a crazy knicks game and And there was a crazy Knicks game that night. It was the Bulls and Blazers in this instance on the back glass of NBA Fast Break. But it was 74 to 74 at the end of ball three. He sends me another text after the photo of 74 to 74 after ball three that says, extra ball plunge netted Jay four points for the win. Ugh.
    7:33
    Wow. We split the Knicks doubles and balls of steel drop out of the playoffs on a split flipper loss on NBA, where ironically special when lit were down 20 points, just like the Knicks and one on the last flip. And then Zen sends this text, 63 to 61, game over. That was the split flipper loss for Balls of Steel and win for Special When Lit. Who will go on to face the Mutants next week? Parliament went to solid state to face the Lion Persons. And everybody gave it the old college try because they went so far into Queens. Lion Persons won 13 to 3. It was the playoffs. There was a certain point that it was 9-3 or worse, and these two teams decided to keep playing, and I appreciate that they did that. I like the sportspersonship of that. I like the, this is a thing we do for fun. Let's extend the fun for everybody. I like that. The Lion Persons pick up a big 13-3 win, and will face NYC FSA for the second time in three weeks next week. In the left in lane playoffs, Pinball Union and the Pin Pals were waiting for the winners of the 4-5 match and the 6-3 match. The Deluxe Horses were the virtual home team at Skylark against the two for oneers. These two teams faced off just...
    9:10
    What am I talking about? The Deluxe Horses are the visitors. Oh, you're right. The Two for Oners are the virtual owners. Yeah, Two for Oners at the higher seed. You're right. The Deluxe Horses bested the Two for Oners at Skylark 9 to 7, and they will go on to face Pinball Union. Intermission Dolores visited the Aristocrats, who kind of are at home at Buttermilk Bar. They're just from Rulo's over there, Catty Corner. A lot of the tournaments that those folks play in, And in fact, that just direct find themselves at both of these venues. They picked up a kind of at home win nine to seven over Intermission Dolores. Intermission Dolores is also kind of at home, like we talked about last week. Everybody was at home at Buttermilk and they will face the pin pals who would also be roughly at home at Buttermilk next week on Tuesday, May 6th in the right orbit playoffs. No Quarters for Laundry and Harlem Globe Flippers were waiting for the winners of Pinister Six versus Danger Danger and Ball Drainers versus Neptune's Treasure.
    10:17
    It didn't occur to me until Zen and I were texting about where he was going on Tuesday night after he sent me the text about his Monday night matches that Pinister Six and Danger Danger have a bunch of the same players as the match that just happened on monday night pinister six and balls of steel have a few similar members and danger danger and special when lit have a few similar members and these two teams faced each other first on monday way upstate manhattan and second in upstate Brooklyn at Jack Bar and Danger Danger again or rather for the first time just as a different team won 11 to 5 Zen sent me texts throughout the match
    11:11
    And at 8.04 said, Danger Danger pulls out the all-star team. Kate, Dante, Matt, Miriam, Flynn, Billy. I responded at roughly 10 o'clock, if you'll excuse me for being an old man who doesn't look at his phone very often. yowza he at that time told me four to four holding our own and then about 20 minutes later seven to five we're on the ropes but pleased with where we're at i said good luck and at 11 o'clock roughly boo lost danger danger wins i mean danger danger wins the ball drainers visited neptune's treasure when it was nine to one they called it and ball drainers will move on to face the harlem globe flippers next tuesday if it meant not playing a vendor as i understand yeah sometimes you just gotta call it in the right in lane playoffs schlubs and butterballers were waiting the winners of the replays and trolls and the pin babes and scrapples squad jess do you want to tell us what happened in the replays at Trolls? Sure, it was exciting. We started off, we won Whitewater and Grand Lizard, won both of the first doubles, but then we only picked up one point in each of the round of singles. So it was tied 6-6 going into final doubles. I was playing Grand Lizard with Karen. When I went up to play my ball three, we had just lost on Whitewater. Both teams chose the same games for doubles which was kind of interesting oh yeah we were playing john and john they each had 600 something karen had 300 something so i needed 900 something i think about 960 and so i knew this going in i volunteered to be player four i often play better under pressure and kind of wanted the team's future on my shoulders i was excited about it i did a shout with Amy and got my way up to I was at like 850 when I drained.
    13:23
    909 on the bonus. Yeah. Was like 30k, 50k short. Sucked. That's rough. Yeah. That is rough. And that's a 10-6 win for the replays at Milo's Yard. It was a hell of a season for the Trolls. Hell of a season. Thank you. We had fun. Scrapple Squad was the virtual home team at Barcade Brooklyn, and they bested the Pin Babes 10-6. They will face the Butterballers next week. On Wednesday, May 7th, the finals of the NYC Match Play Pinball League, soon to be called Scrapple League, were held at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The top eight players after six weeks of qualifying went into the A finals. The next eight went into the B finals. And everyone else who came along played in the C finals. Rob Wong didn't come, and that moved one person up into B finals, who would have been Wes Ulfig, but he declined to come. The next step up to make it into B finals was a tie. between Zach Till and myself. When we arrived on Wednesday, Zach and I were assigned a random game to play as a tiebreak to see who would be in the B-finals. It was a good, close game on Star Trek The Next Generation, and I managed on ball three to pass him. I think Zach had finished around 600 or so. Nice. The A and B-finals were contested Papa-style, group elimination brackets, and C was conducted as a regular night of league play, five rounds of match play. The winner of the A finalists and the entirety of the first season of league was Dante Oliva. Second place, Alex Kelly. Third place, Sean Grant. And fourth, Chris Cafaro. And I would just like to say, if you want to know who's qualifying for states this year, all four of those people just made a real fucking strong case. In the B finals, Dan Merrill was the winner. Sam Atlas came in second, Alan Gamboa in third, and Kate Smith in fourth. In the C finals, Ali Bassett was the winner and has gained free entry into the next edition of League and also won a Translight. Oh, cool. And last place in C went to Timothy Turner. Timothy got $10 in quarters poured into his hands to use for practice for next time. On Thursday, May 8th, at Jack Bar, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes, Rachel's birthday edition was convened under seemingly Gabriel Chazanov's direction. Adam Kane came out on top, besting Greg Fertel, who I believe had won the last few of these. Travis Rosenberg came in third, and I'm incredibly happy to say that Dave Peller and Chris Caffaro tied for fourth. Also on Thursday, the sixth meeting of SSPL 2025's second season was convened at Buttermilk. This would be the final meeting wherein four of the six meetings' finishing standings would count toward your finishing standings for this series. Matthew Carlson came out on top again and just blew the field away throughout the entire season. Matthew had 31 points. Gus Gonzalez and Taylor Connolly tied for second with 27. And Rob Wong came in fourth with 25. That is to say that MMC will, I believe, be the ninth place because we believe that he will not be there next week. We've been told that he will not be there next week. So Rob Wong will be the top seed and Eric will be the second seed. They will drive buses. My group will be myself, Zen Zokniak, Steven Christopher and Billy Vazine. Right. Whereas the other group, Rob, the top seed, will be playing with Gus Gonzalez, Caitlin Reese, and Benjamin Furiga. Entirely because MMC will not be there. In the B division, Courtney Wetzel and Rob Adler will likely drive buses. Although I think that Kate was saying to me that she needed to know if I couldn't make it next week very much because she and Rob might play a tiebreaker. so maybe Courtney also won't make it. So maybe Rob and Kate would be driving buses if I show up. I hope to show up. Monica Weidekamp, Jenna Altamirano, AJ Gould, and Thomas Milburn will round out the usual qualifiers. Alicia Ritchie, Mason Matthew, and Taylor Connolly are just outside, just one point under. And so if Courtney isn't there, then seemingly at least one of those folks would move above the line. I didn't catch if there was a tiebreaker. Certainly, one of them has to because you're moving up into A. Yes.
    18:47
    Oh, two of them has to. You're right. Two of them would. One or two. If Courtney is not coming, then I guess two would. Yeah, right. Next week, on Monday, May 12th, in the Left Orbit playoffs of Pinball NYC, Special Wenlit will visit the Mutants at Buttermilk Bar. That's almost a virtual home game for Special Wenlit there. The lion persons will visit New York City Flipper Sport Association at Rulo's. That is to say that all of the action in Pinball NYC's upper division playoffs are happening within a pitching wedge of each other. I could walk outside and put a pitching wedge down, and I haven't swung golf club in a long time, and I could hit the other venue from where this is. They're right there. In the left in-lane playoffs, the lower division, the Deluxe Horses will go visit Pinball Union at Gebhard's Beer Culture. And the Aristocrats will visit the Pin Pals at Scrapple Land. On Tuesday, May 13th, in the right orbit playoffs, Danger Danger will go to Milo's Yard to visit No Quarters for Laundry. And the Ball Drainers will visit Harlem Globe Flippers at Solid State. In the right in lane playoffs, the replays will visit the Schlubbs at Barcade Brooklyn and Scrapple Squad will visit Butterballers at Jack Bar. Those aren't too far apart either. That's true. All of the lower right playoff action is happening within a quarter mile of each other in Williamsburg. It's right. The Kellogg Diner is at the apex of all of it. Is Scrapple League happening on Wednesday? Yes, it is. It will be the first qualifying week of the second season. And also the first one where it will hopefully be named Scrapple League in match play. It was a really good name. It's just that someone came up with it after it was already set up in match play. Yeah. On Thursday, May 15th, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be convened. I believe this will be the split flipper week since it is the 15th, which is to say that it would be the third Wednesday of the month. SSPL finals will also take place on Thursday at Buttermilk at pinball eight o'clock. And again, hopefully that'll be a little closer to eight o'clock. It's just there's one more round to play for everyone. It's finals. On Sunday, May 18th, the Pinberg Satellite Buttermilk and Rulos is what it's officially called in match play tournament will be convened under kate martin's direction it has space for 60 players but only 40 are registered right now so you know usually a tournament like this wherein and let me read a little bit of the description here eight rounds of match play top eight to finals winner gets a thousand dollars if tournament sells out or just a lot of cash if We're short of 60. Entry in the tournament gets you one raffle ticket. Earn another ticket for how far you advance in finals.
    21:52
    Raffle winners gets a ticket to Pinberg or $350 if they can't use the ticket. If you think hey geez I wish I had got a Pinberg ticket you have a chance if you think hey geez i wouldn mind spending a little bit of money to maybe win a thousand dollars at pinball this this might be for you and for that matter if you thought hey geez i want to score points in the triboro series that we talked to jose about a few weeks ago this is an opportunity to do that too he also just announced today that the top four will get their choice of four other tournaments. You can either get a full pass for Stomp in Rochester, June 5th through 8th, a spot in Pin Pride, a weekend pass to The Beast in Buffalo, July 31st to August 1st, or a weekend pass to Pintastic 2026, which will be next April. As of May 9th, 2025, there are 298 pinball machines in New York City at 79 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday, May 2nd, user JNS went by the gutter bar LIC and said the Doctor Who played great. User Chamber Tin was at Single Cut Fearsmith's Queens and let us know that the No Fear auto plunges does not allow any selection. And Bram Stoker's Dracula left flipper is dead. On Saturday, May 3rd, user It's Raj played The Mandalorian at the Coyote Club and said, top right section works well now. On Tuesday, May 6th, user Keith J. was at Arcade Chelsea and left several comments. For Apollo 13, they said, when you put tokens in, they don't start up machine and come back out the slot. Not working. And a future spa was not turned on. Bummer city. Word.
    24:08
    For Stranger Things, they said, works great. spent $20 on it. And of Dungeons & Dragons, they said, this game is really fast, is something that's really fast. Also on Tuesday, user Keith J. stopped by Scrapple Land and left a comment on the Godzilla 70th anniversary. They said, awesome owner. Every machine is so well maintained. We officially like it. It's ball two. It's time for the bullet journal. We're going to go through our weeks, beginning to end, talk about not the competition stuff that happened necessarily, but the way the Knights went with the pinball. And Eric, I think you have something that starts almost exactly after we hung up the call last week. Yeah, that's right. Right after we recorded the podcast last week, I jumped on my bike and headed over to Industry City because Jess invited me to join her at an event that the queer pool players association was putting on it was called shark bite and it was like a comedy pool competition where they paired up pool players with comedians and there was trash talking and it was a lot of fun i also saw sometimes pinball player jen renault there she's going to be hosting it next month cool i hope i get to go back i recognized one of the comedians who was playing Sonny LaPrade I had seen her before in an event that Eric and I did for APAB we went to go see Transcripts where they read out the unaired pilot for the live Powerpuff Girls show and Sonny was one of the readers and it was a lot of fun so that was a good night also finally got to see inside that board game store that's hidden up there that always has just weird hours I never seem to line up with. Yeah, it was cool. Shark Bite is always the first Friday of the month, so the next one is June 6th. Hosted by Jen Renaud, it turns out. Yeah. You also did Saturday, Eric, right? Yeah, so I went to Barcade Brooklyn on Saturday for Quit Talkin', Start Chalkin'. Fell just short of the cut line, as did AJ, and he had a really fun idea. We were just sort of hanging out, watching how the finals was going. the finals was being played in amazing race format well that's semi-finals we talked about it that you know so we were watching the semi-finals as they were doing the amazing race and after a little bit of that aj said hey you want to see like what if the cut line had been two more and we had both gotten in uh-huh let's see how we do on the amazing race against the scores that they had been setting so as they had vacated the first few machines we started off on the first one and we both passed what the lowest score had been set at so we advanced ourselves to the second machine and we did that and passed it and we advanced ourselves to the third machine which the group had finally moved past I think we did four of them and then said, okay, that's enough Sunday, Rob Wong happened I know both of y'all were there That was cool because there was a player joined who I hadn't met before named T and it turns out that she had been at the Sharkbite event on Friday. Oh, cool. Taking photos. And in fact, had several photos of both Jess and I. She shared them with me, so I got to see those. That was pretty neat. And we're sure this person is not stalking the two of you.
    27:49
    I invited them and gave them flowers. Okay, all right, very good. Oh, that's right. I found that out. It turns out, yeah, Jess had met them on Friday and invited them to the rubble. Got it. Got it. Cool.
    28:02
    After the Rob Wong wrapped up, it was Sunday night at Rolo's and it was time for karaoke. So I was stuck around. I sang a song again this week. I think that makes it three weeks in a row now. Wow. Yeah, I did Don't Let Start by They Might Be Giants. Did I sing? What did I sing? A new one that I hadn't heard you do before, I think. Did you do Cherry Bomb again? Oh, it was Cherry Bomb. That's right. Yeah, which I tried for the first time in Woodstock the week before. So y'all stuck around for karaoke afterwards. You were gluttons for Rulos. Well, it also happened right after the tournament ended because the tournament went slightly longer than usual. I think like 9.30, 9.40. Monday and Tuesday would normally be team nights, but both of my teams had buys in the playoffs. And you didn't go taunt anyone like Tommy was talking about. he thought no quarters might do this week like show up at jack bar and like taunt people while they were playing you didn't go do that i stayed home for two nights in a row which hasn't happened in a long time sure anything exciting on tuesday other than the trolls match no yeah we didn't do any like stall ball after anything right i i mean i was i was pretty bummed did you play barrio's barbecue i didn't play it tuesday but i also went to milo's on monday and i played it and i also played it the week before right oh and actually barrios wasn't eligible in our match tuesday because the left flipper was sticking so we actually uh made it ineligible so i didn't play on tuesday but when i got that text from zen about the previous night's score and i saw the preview thumbnail photo on my phone that i could tell that it was nba's back glass that i had a score of in the text from him without having any other sort of information about it. And I feared very desperately because I'm an arrogant man that he was going to show me that he had just beaten the Philadelphia 76ers score that I worked so goddamn hard to put up. I didn't play pinball on Tuesday, but that was a pinball moment for me on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, I biked up to Scrapple Land and stopped into Blue Collar Burger in Greenpoint on the way. I used to always like to grab that on nights when I'd go to Jack Bar, but their Williamsburg location's been shut down for a while. So I took the opportunity to hit the one in Greenpoint. And then as I was coming back out after dinner, unlocking my bike, I saw Alan Gamboa scoot by on his scooter. Was he rolling with the Starship? Was he blasting some 80s garbage? He has a scooter playlist on Spotify. Thursday, I biked up to Buttermilk for the last qualifying week of SSPL. That was just a really fun night. Played well, but hung out with all my best pinball friends.
    31:07
    Benjamin, you were there. NBA Fast Break was my first game, and I had like seven points after the first two balls. and when I turned around after playing my third ball and you know walked off with 110 ish 108 110 something like that and everyone else was roughly at 30 as they were walking into their next ball AJ was golf clapping for me Kelly said nice game and in just like this perfect rhythm it was like clap nice game and from mason matthew damn as i walked past him just like went thank you thank you thank you put that into a sequencer and loop it yeah while we were waiting for others to play that game aj and i were laying out rough plans for i i think aj wanted more of a the Catholic church pinball game. I think that's a little bit too broad of a theme. And so I want Conclave, the pinball machine. But what I think is really important is that it's the only pinball machine that if there's black smoke coming out of it, you keep playing. And then it's only when purple smoke starts coming out that you've won. You're the fucking Pope. It's like that game at A place to bury strangers at Wonderland, Wonderville, where you actually win it by setting off the fog machine. The score doesn't really matter. The objective of the game is to complete the sequence of shots so that you set off the fog machine. That's it. It doesn't matter what your score is. It matters that you set off the fog machine. I still haven't been there. It's a very cool spot. Let talk about pinpride Every year now for the last this will be the fourth And is it four consecutive or did it span the pandemic Okay Consecutive Pinpride has happened in June pride month it is always a great gathering of the community and it is i think often and i don't actually know what good fundraising looks like or what good numbers look like but i often feel good when i hear the numbers of the money that we have raised when pin pride is over and when valentine's gay is over eric and jess are the hosts extraordinaire but the tournament directors as importantly they are the social directors and the tournament directors of this event it's just officially been announced this past week right yep please tell me or tell us we're excited we're going to scrapple and on Sunday, June 15th. Excited to have a new venue with more machines. The big news is that we're going to go up to 80 players. Last time, Valentine's Day was our biggest yet with 56. So hopefully this will be a big jump. As far as I can tell, it'll be the largest queer pinball tournament ever held. Yes. That is super cool. We've come quite a way from,
    34:28
    if I may, I hope it's okay with the two of you, that I shout out Michael Reisler and a Mean Queen pinball tournament a minute ago. That is certainly the first time that I remember there being a strong initiative toward like, this is a fucking queer pinball tournament. Deal with it. I felt good about being a part of that in whatever way I was. And I always feel good about being a part of these. And I love that. I love that you get to say it's the biggest. How many players?
    34:59
    Up to 80. yeah i co-hosted mean queen and that provided a lot of inspiration when we decided to start pin pride mike's not on social media anymore but through his sister i like let him know that we were doing new tournaments and had been inspired by him we're doing the same format it's going to be seven rounds of match play and then finals for top eight you know we're still trying to get people home by nine or ten jonah is joining the td team great the payouts went up a little bit And we're going to donate $350 to the Ali Forney Center to start with from the registrations. Another exciting news, Rebecca from Austin is going to make trophies for us. So we're really upping our trophy game for the top four. She does 3D printed trophies that a lot of people probably seen on Instagram. Cool. Yeah, we're going to have some fabulous hardware. That is great. And we'll also have our translates for Trans Rights Silent Auction. That'll be benefiting the Transgender Law Center. Already got some translates lined up. Always looking for more. We'll start rounding up door prizes. Would like to thank Anthony Pepe, who has already donated a rainbow pin snake for us to give away. A rainbow what did you say? A pin snake. it's this cool like jointed plastic thing that you put a cloth on and push it up the orbits or the weird ball paths on your pinball machine so you can wipe down the spots that you can't normally reach with your finger in there it it conforms to the curves yeah it's a special cleaning tool very cool neat little thing very cool and it's rainbow colored sure we just did all of the like admin stuff that has to happen just this past week. We got it onto the IFPA calendar 30 days out prior to the pre-registration, which will happen Monday, June 9th at noon. You'll be able to go to mashplay.live slash pinpride 2025 and register there. We have sold out all the previous pin prides and valentine's gays in fairly short order after registration opens i i have i can speak from experience i have got into at least two of the last three if i count pin pride and valentine's gay as a series i've got into two of the last three only because i showed up on the day and a couple of people dropped out it will fill up fast people come in from out of town even though it's a Sunday afternoon local tournament, people come in from out of town because they want to be here for this they want to support this if you want to be a part of it, I would like to urge you set a couple of alarms don't just set one, set one for 11.55 on is it June 9th you said? Monday, June 9th set one for 11.55 and then another one for 11.59 you'll be ready I've done it at like 12.05 and failed to get in So just saying. We're especially excited that we're going up to 80 players now because we know that, you know, so many people want to join. The wait list is always really long. Yeah. It's just a great, big, really nice party.
    38:29
    Yeah, it does always feel good. You said the name Ali Forney Center. Can we talk about what the Ali Forney Center does for a moment? And also, I think the two of you might have some experience with the actual facility itself. Yeah, we visited their 24-hour drop-in center in Midtown, I think April of last year. They provide services to unhoused LGBTQIA plus youth here in New York City. You can drop in there for four hot meals a day, mental health care. I know they were working on getting physical, medical, healthcare up and running as well. Laundry. They also have programs for more longer-term housing for youth where they'll provide supportive housing for a couple years. And ultimately, 80% of their clients end up living independent, successful lives as adults. When you're starting off from that vulnerable of a position to be unhoused and, frankly, I'm going to go ahead and say it, be discriminated against for just who you are, I'm glad that the program has that kind of success rate because that's got to be hard to get to.
    39:52
    It's good to know that it's supporting something effective. Most of their clients have been kicked out by their families just for being who they are. yeah yeah that's rough so very happy to be supporting them and then also the transgender law center which is what it sounds like they're the largest trans-led organization fighting for freedom for everyone they're helping you know fight for trans rights in court providing legal services to trans people they have programs for people who are incarcerated and then they also have a particular focus on supporting black trans women. That's why people want to come in from out of town. That's why it is a big party when it happens. Maybe there will be rainbow flags up and down Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint just because it's June. But in my mind on that day, it's going to be because I'm on my way to pinprack. Thanks. Yeah, we raised $6,000 at Valentine's Day and have raised more than 24,000 to date. So hoping we can maybe do even better than that with increasing the field. Well, yeah. Peter's got 30 machines there, is that right? Pinball Map was saying 32 last I looked, I think. Yeah, I decided instead of listing a tentative game list, we just put the Pinball Map. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And in particular, I think that's good because that will theoretically be more up-to-date than whatever the hell you would have written down on the list and then had to have copied and pasted again and copied and pasted again to keep up to date. Like there are going to be machines moving in and out of there between now and then. Oh, definitely. There'll definitely be, you know, a game day decision on some machines, whether they're in good enough condition to be used. Sure. But of course, anything not being used in a current round will just be open. Yeah. Everybody who showed up who's on the wait list from, you know, when you come down from Albany and you're on the wait list, you will still have 12 games that are available for you to play to choose from in every round when the people are playing if you don't make it. So come on down in part because as Eric points out, great party. Oh yeah, yeah, there will be plenty of machines for people to play. Yeah, or if you can't make it there, you know, for the 1 p.m. start, yeah, welcome to come by, hang out, show support, bid on anything in the Translates for Trans Rights silent auction that's open to anyone donations welcome yeah i mean that's that's the other thing is that if if you just showed up to the party and we're like hey you know what here's 10 bucks i think that goes a very long way that's that's part of why getting a party together is helpful that's it is coalition building in in its very most basic form it's uh an amazing and heartwarming community event that raises this money for the charities. It's a collective effort and I really love it. Me too. So excited. As a consumer of it and not a progenitor of it, I really love it too. Thank you for doing it.
    43:10
    That's all for this week's pod. I'd like to thank Jess Warren for joining us and I'd like to encourage everyone to register for pin pride join us next week when in ball one we will run down competition results including pinball nyc's semi final rounds in ball two we'll have location updates courtesy of pinball map and its users as well as our bullet journal and in ball three we'll talk about how new york just became a super state in the ifpa north american championship series and what that means and how that might play into your lives as competitive pinball players between now and then whatever you're up to go get them pinfo