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Feel Free to Pray for Me

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·1h 8m·analyzed·May 5, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

NYC PinPod covers April 2025 league results, venue updates, and social pinball culture in New York area.

Summary

NYC PinPod episode covering late April 2025 local pinball competition results across multiple New York area leagues (Pinball NYC team divisions, South Slope Strikes, NYC Match Play League), venue updates from Pinball Map, and personal coverage of tournament experiences including the Red Hook Pinball Museum pin golf event and karaoke outings. Tommy Ortega discusses Silver Ball Sundays at Single Cut Beersmith in Queens.

Key Claims

  • As of May 2nd, 2025, there are 298 pinball machines in New York City at 80 public locations

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, citing Pinball Map data

  • Matthew Carlson is on top of SSPL 2025 Season 2 standings with 108 points and unlikely to be caught for bus driver (top seed)

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga reporting current standings

  • No Quarters for Laundry scored 11.6 points per week on average in the Pinball NYC Left Orbit playoffs with a 9-1 record and 116 points

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, Left Orbit playoff standings

  • The NYC Match Play League finals will have IFPA Whopper implications

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga emphasizing importance of May 7th finals

  • Women's New York Whopper Weekend consisted of four events across multiple upstate venues (Kickback Troy, Level Zero Arcade Castleton, Mean Max Troy)

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga reporting Women's Whopper Weekend results

Notable Quotes

  • “Feel free to pray for me next Wednesday”

    Tommy Ortega @ ~01:07:00 — Tommy asking for prayers before his semifinal match in NYC Match Play League A finals against Dante Oliva, Adam Kane, and Alex Kelly—three strong players

  • “What is it going to do? Is it going to hurt us?”

    Benjamin Furiga @ ~01:35:00 — Describing moment when suggesting to Matthew Carlson they cross the street during South Slope Strikes despite torrential rain, with broken umbrella humor

  • “That's just like your opinion man”

    Benjamin Furiga @ ~00:56:00 — Joking reference to Big Lebowski while discussing playfield lighting issues on that machine at Scrapple Land

  • “I definitely got the Icarus round coming up next week as apparently I am playing Dante, Adam Kane, and Alex Kelly in my semifinal match”

    Tommy Ortega @ ~01:06:30 — Tommy expressing concern about upcoming playoff matchup, using 'Icarus round' as metaphor for difficult challenge

  • “It came down to the final match on Batman 66. I love that game. It was being a little tough, but those tables tend to do that there”

    Tommy Ortega @ ~00:28:00 — Describing tight match between No Quarters for Laundry and Scrapple's squad, showing affection for Batman 66 despite its difficulty

Entities

Benjamin FurigapersonEric SweetlandpersonTommy OrtegapersonGreg PavarellipersonMatthew CarlsonpersonDante OlivapersonPinball NYCorganizationScrapple LandvenueButtermilk BarvenueRed Hook Pinball Museum

Signals

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Comprehensive results from multiple NYC-area leagues in late April 2025, showing competitive depth and diverse tournament formats (strikes, match play, pin golf). The Mutants emerging as top team, No Quarters for Laundry dominant in Left Orbit, Matthew Carlson leading SSPL.

    high · Detailed standings, playoff seedings, and week-by-week scoring across Pinball NYC divisions, SSPL, and NYC Match Play League

  • ?

    venue_signal: Multiple venue updates from Pinball Map showing machine additions/removals in NYC area. Social Brooklyn closure (Whitewater and Jaws removed), Captain Fantastic added to John Varvatos (display only), Barcade Chelsea swap (Pulp Fiction out, D&D in).

    high · Detailed machine update logs from Pinball Map users MHG and others; Social Brooklyn confirmed closed with zero machines; location status changes documented

  • ?

    product_concern: Multiple machines reported with playfield condition or setup issues. Big Lebowski playfield lights out of sync, Indiana Jones floaty setup, Dungeons & Dragons short ball save, Uncanny X-Men left bumper shooting to outlane.

    high · User MHG comments on Scrapple Land machines; corroborated by Benjamin Furiga on Big Lebowski; maintenance concerns suggest operator setup inconsistencies across NYC venues

  • ?

    community_signal: Strong social dimension to competitive pinball scene: team-branded pint glasses (Aristocrats), post-tournament karaoke gatherings, bike commuting to tournaments, inclusivity in play (women-focused Whopper Weekend with multi-city events).

    high · Anecdotes about Aristocrats team glasses, karaoke at Rulo's, biking to Red Hook tournament, large participation in Women's Whopper Weekend

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.204

0:30
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. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are BCF. And I'm thinking about starting a micro blog called The Coolest Block I Walked This Week. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP. And I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. My name is Tommy Ortega. My initials are TMO. And I'm still waiting to hear back about my compensation for doing this today.
1:06
On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results in Ball 1. In Ball 2, we'll give you venue updates courtesy of Pinball Map and local users. And we'll do another version of the Pinball Bullet Journal. And in Ball 3, we'll talk with Tommy about Silver Ball Sundays at Single Cut Beersmith Queens. Let's get started. In second place, June Winters. Third place, Anna Wolk. And fourth place, Holly Popon. I want to briefly interrupt and point out that these are Whoppers in the women's division. The Women's New York Whopper Weekend had four events in total, continuing on Saturday at Kickback in Troy. Five rounds of match play with a match play finals. Lauren Dagnis was the winner there with 5.66 Whoppers. Anna Wolk got second, Monica Weidekamp third, and Lindsay Rhodes fourth. Nice. And then on to Level Zero Arcade, a private location in Castleton on Hudson, just outside Albany. After a group match play qualifying, the top eight went on to a Papa Style Finals. Nicole Turcotte came out on top, 16.24 Whoppers on this event. Lindsay Rhodes got second place. Anna Wolk third and Lauren Berner Lawrence came in fourth What was the format on that that it came out with that many Whoppers or was there that many more people there? It was listed as minimum 10 rounds of group match play for qualifying So probably timed and just a lot of rounds I was watching on Twitch as I could catch it before I headed out to strikes that evening And then finally on Sunday the Women's New York Whopper Weekend wrapped up at Mean Max in Troy. Seven rounds of group match play with a Papa Style finals. Nicole Turcotte won again. 6.37 Whoppers this time. Lauren Dackness in second. Monica Weidekamp in third and Lauren Berner-Lawrence in fourth. Sounds like a fun weekend. On Saturday, April 26th, Jess Warren organized South Slope Strikes for April. Primarily out of Buttermilk Bar but with spillover at Rulo's. I know Jess had gone up for the Friday tournaments and came back to run this. Unfortunately she left her phone up in Athens. So we're able to secure an iPad to handle running strikes. After 13 rounds, Matthew Carlson survived the pack of 24 players with three strikes in this Now With Four Strikes format. John Martin came in second. Greg Fertel came in third and Stephen Christopher fourth. On Sunday, April 27th, the Red Hook Pinball Museum hosted a Seaside Putt pin golf tournament directed by Gabriel Chazanov. 30 players came out on a warm, sunny, but very windy day.
venue
South Slope Strikesevent
NYC Match Play Leagueorganization
South Slope Pinball League (SSPL)organization
The Mutantsorganization
No Quarters for Laundryorganization
Special When Litorganization
Rulo'svenue
Jess Warrenperson
Gabriel Chazanovperson
Pinball Maporganization

venue_signal: NYC pinball venue ecosystem shows stability with 298 machines at 80 public locations as of May 2, 2025. Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Gowanus connector bicycle infrastructure improving accessibility to Red Hook venue.

high · Pinball Map official data; personal account of improved cycling infrastructure enabling tournament travel

  • ?

    competitive_signal: NYC Match Play League A finals feature three of top 20 New York State players (Dante Oliva, Greg Pavarelli, and likely Sean Grant or Chris Cafaro) and multiple players in top 50 state rankings, indicating depth of competitive field.

    medium · Tommy Ortega and Benjamin Furiga's discussion of player rankings in A finals bracket context

  • ?

    event_signal: Multiple leagues active simultaneously with varied formats: Pinball NYC team match-play divisions, South Slope Strikes (strike tournament), NYC Match Play League (IFPA scoring), Women's Whopper Weekend (multi-venue series), pin golf events.

    high · Comprehensive calendar of events from April 25-May 11, 2025 with format descriptions

  • ?

    venue_signal: Tournament logistics challenges noted including venue overflow, weather disruptions (torrential rain during South Slope Strikes forcing round delays), equipment needs (iPad substituted for lost phone to run strikes).

    medium · Rain delay during South Slope Strikes, Jess Warren's phone lost in Athens, need for backup technology to run event

    • 4:34
    I rode my bike up there. After 10 holes of pin golf, the top eight played a Papa Style Finals. Matt Grady won the day. Kevin Murray, one of the co-operators of the museum, came in second. Greg Pavarelli, third, and Chris Caffaro, fourth. On Monday, April 28th, in Pinball NYC's left flipper division. Round 10. The final week, Balls of Steel, who had a rough start to their season, went to Owl Farm, where they beat Parliament 9-7. and well we'll talk about what that means in the standings in a moment pinball union went to jack bar and bested the lesser players 12 to 4 they did their job they needed help from other people but they did their job they got a big win special when lit came to buttermilk bar and unfortunately for pinball union we colliders were very little competition for them losing 14 to 2 to special when lit the two for oners went to barcade brooklyn where they bested the deluxe horses really really fortifying their case for the playoffs not that they needed to they they were already in we and the lesser players were already out nine to seven nine to seven those two for wonders one our new york city flipper sport association went to gebhardt's beer culture to face off with the lion persons in a contest that would surely decide who was getting a buy in the left orbit playoffs. After a split flipper tie break on Congo, lion persons get the 8-8 home win. But? But our association got the six points at least that we needed to make sure we still have a buy. It did determine who got the buy, but the winner did not. That's why I asked the but there. The pin pals visited the aristocrats at Rulo's And the aristocrats won 10 to 6. I'm going to pull this piece that would have been in my pinball bullet journal and add it in here for dramatic effect. I dropped by Rulo's and saw the end of this match after Special Wendlet beat us Colliders, just catty corner at Buttermilk. It came down to the last ball on a very close game of Roadshow that Stephen Flynn was player four on. This thing could have been a tiebreaker. There was high drama. I saw it. It was pretty cool. The Mutants went to the Monroe to visit Intermission Dolores and bested the home team 13 to 3. Big win. I'm going to say the outlane playoffs will be contested between us colliders and the lesser players. We'll be uncontested. We'll not at all be contested. Yes, that's right. That's the point. The outlane playoffs are the lesser players and the colliders both at 1 and 9. In the left inlane playoffs, pinball union was 6 and 4 with 85. They did not transcend the line to the upper playoffs. The pin pals held on, even though they did not force the tiebreaker. The 4-6, 4-6 tie, they still had a one-point advantage after a 10-6 loss to the aristocrats. The aristocrats were also 4-6. 77 and 76 were the overalls there. Two-for-oners got that win, and that gives them the four seed in the in-lane playoffs. And the deluxe horses and intermission Dolores were each 3-7. and they will be the visiting teams in the first round. In the left orbit standings, the Mutants and NYC FSA will have buys and be the top two seeds. Both scored 104 points on the season. Lion Persons and Special When Lit will be the virtual home teams in the playoffs. They were eight and two and seven and three. Balls of Steel was six and four. And you remember how many points I said the top two scored at 104? four. They scored 101 points and still lost four. That's a lot of points. Parliament was six and four also, and they're going to be visitors in the left orbit playoffs. On Tuesday, April 29th, Tommy's team, No Quarters for Laundry, visited Scrapple's squad at Scrapple Land. Tommy, how'd it go? It was a tough match. We started out well. We swept the first round, blitzed the next two round so it was eight to four going into round four we pulled it out in round four with a win on batman 66 right well and with the kind of record that you have eight to four might be as close as it's been going into round four with the exception of that one loss right it's a lot closer than the score the points look at 10 to 6 away win at scrapple land it's nice a win is always good it was hard fought like i said it came down to the final match on batman 66 i love that game It was being a little tough, but those tables tend to do that there. Yeah, they're tight. The Pin Babes went to Skylark, where Pinister 6 bested them 11-5. We Butterballers traveled up to Williamsburg to see the Ball Drainers at Jack Bar. We came into the match with the exact same record and the exact same number of points, knowing this would probably be a situation where the winner went to the right orbit playoffs and the loser would go to the right orbit playoffs but with a bye. The ball drainers are going to the right orbit playoffs with the win 12-4 at home.
    10:24
    Also, they all dressed up as Jim Carrey characters from different movies. Very entertaining. I'll get into that later. Wow.
    10:37
    Also, I saw the Colliders were all in their jumpsuits. Oh, we're going to talk about that in ball too. All right, good. Don't want to miss that. I want to hear about it. The Harlem Globe Flippers went to Rulo's to visit the replays and bested the home team 12-4. That was a good season for the Globe Flippers. Trolls went to Milo's yard, which is why I saw a bunch of trolls on Pindigo having scores on Barry O's barbecue challenge. and Neptune's Treasure beat them 12-4 there. On Instagram, the troll story from this week said, we made our way to Milo's to play another team that we love. We made silly faces, scored some points, had some killer games, said happy birthday to Peep, and ate some Snickers. Monica won a huge pot in Stahlball and can now retire on $12.
    11:29
    Rest in pinball, parenthetically, R.I.P. went to buttermilk bar where danger danger handed them a big 13 to 3 loss as we talked about last week the schlubs had a buy and they get nine points and a win if there was an outlane playoff that was not going to be contested in the other division there is a center drain in this one since there's only one team and rest in pinball parenthetically rip will not play a playoff game The uncontested winner of the uncontested playoffs.
    12:05
    Quite so. In the in-lane playoffs, the Schlubs and Butterballers will have buys at 6-4. The Schlubs, we knew they were going to be 6-4 with 84.
    12:20
    The Ball Drainers were also, no, they are 7-3 because they won the match and had 84. Whichever one of those teams, like I said last week, one was going to be in the upper. Scrapple Squat and Trolls will be the virtual hosts at a neutral location. And the replays and the pin babes will be the visitors. Those are the in-lane playoffs. In the Orbit playoffs, Tommy's No Quarters for Laundry were 9-1 with 116 points. Hell yeah. Yeah, 11.6 per week on average. They scored more than that in most of their wins because they have a loss that they couldn't have scored more than eight in. Harlem Globe Flippers will also have a bye. They were eight and two with 101 points. They scored as many as Ball Drainers in the other division, but they had two more wins. Neptune's Treasure and Danger Danger will be virtual hosts of the Orbit playoff matches in round one. And Pinister Six and Ball Drainers will be the virtual visitors. Neptune's Treasure was also 8-3, but had 93 points. Still a lot, not as many as 101. Danger, Danger and Pinister 6 and Ball Drainers were all 7-3, with 99, 85 and 84, respectively. On Wednesday, April 30th, 27 players made their way to the northern tip of Greenpoint to visit Scrapple Lands and the NYC Match Play Pinball League first season sixth qualifying session directed by Greg Pavarelli. Five rounds of match play with IFPA scoring gives a player a chance to get 35 points, and you add up your four best weeks over these six qualifying to get your standings. This week, Greg Pavarelli got 33 points. Nintu, 29. Ian Leone had 27. Casey Pierce got 26, both Adam Kane and Dante Oliva, 25. Top three players right there were three mutants. If you wanted to know why they were the top seed in pinball NYC this year. 12 of the 27 players opted in to the side pot for $5, and that money was then matched by Scrapple Land for $120 purse distributed to the top four. Greg Pavarelli, Nintu, Ian Leone, and Dante Oliva. Also, KCBC Beer was there giving away free beers to players at the beginning of the tournament. In order to get a line for one of their kegs, they disconnected the Bud Light tap. In the clearing out of the line, there was a free pitcher that Greg got and then shared around and then took a very happy photo with. After all six weeks of qualifying are done, the A and B and C finals are set for next week, Wednesday, at Scrapple Land. Are the C finals open? They are open in that anyone who wants to come and pay a $10 league dues can get in. C will not adjust whoppers. No hardware, but there are two prizes. First place will get free entry into the next season. And last place will get $10.25 so they can practice. There's no IFPA standings limitation to that? No. Very good. And there's no whoppers for it. The A finalists.
    16:00
    In first place, Dante Oliva had 124 points from his four best weeks in the season. Sean Grant had 112. Greg Pavarelli 108 Adam Kane 104 in 4th place Alex Kelly with 100 Mint Who got 94 and Tommy Ortega got 94 and Chris Cafaro got 94 Tommy do you guys play a tiebreaker at all this past week? I was told there wasn't going to be any tiebreaker last week you were talking about the pinball term I definitely got the Icarus round coming up next week as apparently I am playing Dante, Adam Kane, and Alex Kelly in my semifinal match. Nice group. Yeah. So feel free to pray for me next Wednesday. At the top of the B finals Dan Merrill and Peter Larson both had 92 points Ian Leone and Kate Smith had 90 Alan Gamboa and Sam Atlas had 88 Wyndham Manning, 87, and Rob Wong, 85. Should any of those people, those 16, not be able to fulfill their duties, Wes Ulfig will jump into B, and presumably from the top of B, Dan Merrill would jump into A and Tommy would be out of the or yeah Dan or Peter one or the other there would probably be have to be a tiebreaker but Tommy would then probably be out of that scary group I mean I don't know that the other group is any better because you've got Sean and Greg and Nint or Chris Cafaro one or the other so I don't you know I don't know if it's any better pick your poison yeah you you'd be maybe out of that one scary group yeah we got the three players in the top 20 in the new york state and get into like three players that i think in the top 50 yeah on thursday may 1st a whopping 41 players showed up at jackpot wow or no bro presents thursday night strikes till's birthday edition with gabe c at the helm Happy birthday, Till. After 11 rounds, Greg Fertel survived the night with a single strike, casting Mike Pantino in second, Adam Kane in third, and Alex Kelly also tied for third there. Not sure if that was broken or not. Also on Thursday night at Buttermilk, SSPL 2025 Season 2 had its fifth meeting. Only 15 players came to South Brooklyn instead of North Brooklyn, for five rounds of match play to increase our scores en route to the finals. Best four of six count. This was five. Matthew Carlson came out on top with 31 points. That's only losing to two people across five rounds of group match play. Zen Zokniak came in second with 26 points. and caitlin reese and rob wong tied for third with 25 with just one week left matthew carlson is on top with 108 points and someone might be able to get past him but i don't think that they can knock him out of a bus driver at this point rob wong is in a similar situation with 102 points although he could be touched because right behind him is eric swedland with 98 zen zakniak is in fourth caitlyn reese fifth steven christopher sixth gus gonzalez seventh and kate martin eighth they range from 93 down to 81 where kate is at eighth currently below the line and in sitting in the B finals position are Monica White at camp at the top with 80 just below Kate, Rob Adler, Jenna Altamirano, Courtney Wetzel, Tom Milburn, and Elisa Ritchie are all in the 70s ranging from 77 down to 71. And yours truly and Billy Vazine are tied with 67. And I just want to add that we each have only three meetings. So if we both show up for the fourth, everything that we get is net. Every point we score is net point. AJ Gould is just out of it with 65 right now. And AJ does have four meetings in, but has a couple low ones or at least one low one that he could knock off and make up a bunch of ground. And Mason Matthew has 54 below him at 18. So there's a pretty big gap there. Taylor Connolly has 44, but only two meetings. So Taylor could come and make some noise and jump up into B if that's what he was trying to do.
    21:14
    Next week, on Monday, May 5th, in the Left Orbit playoffs, Balls of Steel will go to At the Wallace. as the virtual away team to face special when lit the virtual home team and they will face each other for the right to advance and play the mutants in round two parliament will go to solid state where they will play the lion persons who will be the virtual home team and they will face off for the right to play nyc fsa in round two in the left in lane playoffs the two for oners will play host after having beaten the deluxe horses last week at their home of barcade brooklyn there being the deluxe horses in this case this time the two for oners will be virtually home at skylark they will face off for the right to visit pinball union at a neutral location in round two intermission dolores will face the aristocrats at buttermilk bar the aristocrats will be the virtual home team and in this case because it's both park slope teams like they're both they're pretty close to home teams yeah there's the i i know players on both of these teams as people whom i see at buttermilk a lot on tuesday may 6th tommy will be waiting for the winner and the the rest of no quarters for laundry i don't that tommy will not have to face the entire team although i i have confidence he could you're telling me there's only one fella on the whole team i have my moments let's just leave it at that pinister six will visit jack bar and danger danger will be the virtual home team and they hope very much those two teams that they will see tommy's No Quarters for Laundry in round two the following week. I am not going to confirm nor deny that No Quarters for Laundry is going to show up at Jack Bar to haunt both teams during their match.
    23:27
    Ball Drainers will visit Neptune's Treasure at Owl Farm, and they will face off for the right to see Harlem Globe Flippers in week two. Also on Tuesday night, in the right in-lane playoffs, The Shlub's bi-week netted them a bi-week, and they await the winner of the replays, who will visit the Trolls at Milo's Yard. That sounds like the Trolls will be at Milo's Yard two weeks in a row. Doesn't sound good for the replays. And Eric's Butterballers will await the Pin Babes and Scrapples Squad, who will face off at Barcade Brooklyn, where Scrapples Squad will be the virtual home team. On Wednesday, May 7th, the NYC Match Play League Finals will be convened. Every time that we had Sunshine League, this is sort of the successor of, Greg would post in the Facebook group to say, Hey, whoever goes on to the finals is playing six rounds tonight.
    24:31
    So everybody, please, I really want to start at 8 o'clock. I really want to start A at 8 o'clock. So, while I usually say that this is pinball 8 o'clock, I think that this one, you should plan to be there at 8 o'clock. Don't plan to show up at 8.05. You might be the asshole. This one's going to be a huge Whopper final. Everything that happens in the A and B finals is going to have big Whopper implications, I think. On Thursday, May 8th, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be convened at Jack Bar at 8 p.m. sharp. Also, SSPL 2025 Season 2 No. 6 will be convened at Pinball 8 o'clock at Buttermilk on Saturday, May 10th. Our friend Lauren Berner-Lawrence, who we talked about earlier, is going to run Bells and Chimes NYC Presents TBD Cute Name at a private location on Sunday, May 11th at 2 p.m. at Jack Bar. The May Slaptism will be convened. No Bro Presents Slaptism a number. Probably 5.11. 5.11 seems right.
    25:38
    As of May 2nd, 2025, there are 298 pinball machines in New York City at 80 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. First, a note, I recently noticed on the map that the New York City region that I'm querying includes two single machine locations in just outside the city, Long Island. I've adjusted the reported numbers to remove those two machines in two locations. On Friday, April 25th, user MHG went by Scrappleland and left a lot of comments. Star Trek The Next Generation? Back on. Whitewater? Back on. Pulp Fiction? No issues. Quarters only. James Bond 007LE on and playing great. Medieval Madness. Merlin's working fine now. Evil Dead. Didn't notice any issues, though it's fairly airball prone. This game is fun. For Indiana Jones the Pinball Adventure, MHG said, set up very floaty, which makes backhanding ramps incredibly tough and generally slows down play a lot. But otherwise, everything works great, and it's still one of the best games ever. And of Dungeons and Dragons, they said, ball save is set incredibly short, just barely even enough time for the ball to make it to the flippers. and on the Big Lebowski, MHG said all of the playfield lights are completely out of whack no correlation to anything's actual status so it's playable but you're flying kind of blind well that's just like your opinion man I can corroborate MHG's comments on Wednesday I was there played Big Lebowski during the league and the lights were not right. But the rules were, do we think? Yep. Everything was working fine, but try to complete the inlanes when you don't know which one's the one that's not lit. Right. Or, yeah, you know, any of the character shots, you could hit them, but they wouldn't advance. So it's like a ribbon cable on backwards or something. Yeah. And the upper play field just went dark occasionally. also on friday user mayor of now was at sunshine laundromat and said that the uncanny x-men left bumper likes to shoot into the outlane and then a sad face emoji on monday april 28th a captain fantastic and the brown dirt cowboy was added to john varvatos in manhattan i would believe that it works there was not a machine comment but if you go and look up the location on pinball map someone left a comment in the location details dr kvc let us know machine is display only which is a major bummer they will give you a weird look if you even ask about it long live cbgbs yeah on Tuesday the Whitewater and Jaws were taken out of the social Brooklyn the last machines there I looked and saw the zero machines location on the map I think it is still awaiting the administrators approval to remove it from the map but yeah I think it's like a garbage collection procedure it goes through probably like every 72 hours on Wednesday the mouse and around was removed from Gebhardt's beer culture and on Thursday Pulp Fiction was removed from Barcade Chelsea and a Dungeons and Dragons was added. Alright, this seems to have been working right Eric? This bullet journal thing I like it. Okay, I've just invited Tommy to join us and he is welcome but also not forced to drop in here. We recorded last Friday So what we've got here is, you know, starts last Saturday. And on Saturday, we both played in South Slope Strikes, Eric, you and I. Yeah. I noticed when I was at Rulo's, Dr. John, who got second, he had a glass that just said, I think it was his initials. And it was like a Van Dyke mustache and a top hat. and I saw it and I was like, John, is that an aristocrat's glass? Is that like your team? Do you guys have team pint glasses that they keep at the bar? And he was like, yeah, I designed it. And so I thought that was pretty cool. Wow, that's neat. Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. That was the thing that I learned on Saturday that was a pinball adjacent. It's pinball related, but it wasn't directly related to how I played in the competition, which was not so hot. Yeah, I, you know, four strikes, I wound up with a record of three wins and four losses. You and me both. Yeah, not where I wanted to be. No, I always want to win more than I lose. Yep, exactly.
    30:57
    I have one other sort of social thing from Saturday. Did you have anything else from Saturday, Eric? No. So between, I'm going to say it was probably between rounds five and six, there was a torrential downpour. the round was called we were at two different venues that are caddy corner from each other and the round was called and i was at rulos and mmc was at rulos with me matthew carlson was at rulos with me and we were supposed to play each other at buttermilk on the ghostbusters game and i looked over at him and he was just like i don't i was like come on like what's what is it's rain dude. It's water. What is it going to do? Is it going to hurt us? Look, there are four umbrellas right there in the coat stand. We can grab one of those discarded umbrellas. Nobody walked in here with an umbrella today. We can grab one of those discarded umbrellas and walk catty corner. We're not going to be outside for long. When we got outside, I realized why this one that I picked up was discarded. We were sharing it and the handle was actually broken in half. So Matthew Carlson, who is a full foot taller than I am, had to like sort of bend over and and hold it, you know, on the half a handle so that the two of us were covered by it. It was adorable. It was funny. And I was really disappointed in my fellow competitors that when I got across the street, that all of them were like standing there waiting for the rain to stop before they would go back across the street. You played on Sunday. What happened? Anything? I mean, you got you have to have things from that yeah on sunday i biked up to red hook to go to a seaside but pin golf i've biked to red hook before just getting around the corner from sunset park to red hook is the scary part how so well it's like riding on third avenue or hamilton oh yes yeah yeah yeah fuck that No, you almost have to go up the hill before you come down the hill and you probably have to double back to something. Suggested map routes would send me up to ninth to go over. That's pretty sure. Or something like that. But the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, which is supposed to be continuous and is in many stages of being built out. Yes. The part, the Gowanus connector, they call it, is functionally there. It's a bicycle lane raised up to the sidewalk level, separated from the traffic. Still under construction in a couple parts. And there's a lot of, you know, orange barrels and police fences around that you sort of have to scooch by if you want to bike it. But you can bike it. And I did. And it was really nice. a really great, safe way to get into Red Hook. A bunch of other people biked that day too It was a gorgeous day although extremely windy I didn make it into the finals but I did hang out the whole time and had some great conversations particularly with Kate Martin and Zen Zokniak. And then after Grady won, we traveled together. I biked back up to South Slope with Matt Grady and Zen Zokniak and Kate came along not by bicycle and with the purpose of going to Rulo's for karaoke I don't normally volunteer for karaoke but I was feeling it Sunday night and I did three songs Wow Do you have a go-to karaoke song? I do but the Rulo's karaoke DJ doesn't have it on the list so I don't do that one there okay my go-to karaoke song is added up by the violent thumbs oh good song but in instead of that i started off with new york city the rendition by they might be giants it's a cover of a song by a cool new york city band from the 90s called cub then i did this year by the mountain goats and then there's a obscure little one by a band called nana grizzle it's real poppy and it's only a minute 45 so they didn't have the violent fems but they had nana grizzle they they do have the fems just not the one that i want i see hopefully they don't have the one that i want from greece also i can tell you as a uh someone who used to bartend a karaoke night uh i would always say no show tunes yeah usually the people that did the show tunes are usually very talented and it just intimidated people who weren't either comfortable doing it or you know wasn't as good a singer right yeah the person who needed two or three beers now needed four or five beers before they could get there exactly and so i would always say no show tunes it just you know because i i knew this one guy and he would always sing a solo from phantom of the opera and he would crush it because He's a trained opera singer.
    36:11
    And no one ever wanted to go after him. And he would just kill the room. And everyone was like, check, please. Karaoke, it's tough. I definitely suffered from karaoke PTSD from same people coming in every week, singing the same song and screwing up at the same point for the same song week after week.
    36:32
    So my one suggestion is have a variety of songs to sing. Don't just sing the same tongue every week. I like that you asked, do you have a go-to? But also are ready to say, maybe you should have four go-tos. Exactly. It turned into another very late Sunday night.
    36:53
    My memory gets a little fuzzy. But I'm pretty sure that Zen did a great Pink Pony Club. going back a couple weeks in Baltimore for Pin Baltimore we ended up at the bar across from my hotel which was this bar called Leon's this gay bar down there we were going there because it was the bar across the street from our hotel, Tyler and Emily they had a friend who lives down there and that was his local bar it was karaoke slash trivia night and I just want to say, Emily brought the house down singing Evanescence they're big hits I'm sure I would know it if I heard it, but I would never know what title to say. I'm also not at all shocked that Emily brought the house down. She brought the house down. She had it in the palm of her hand, and it was quite a sight.
    37:47
    I didn't get to sing, but I did myself and my team won $25 bar tab in trivia. Nice. When you say you didn't get to, were you actually on the list and you didn't get called, or did you choose not to? I would have chosen not to, and I might have said what you just said. no I was going to but they've already cut off for the day for the evening you know because the list was like 35 I can tell you I definitely have FOMO of missing that event down in Red Hook oh yeah it would have taken me I think the easiest way for me to get there I live in Northeast Queens it would have been taking the 7 train to Long Island City and then taking two ferries yeah yeah yeah I mean that Look, it is the docks, Red Hook. Like, ferries are probably the best way to get there. I'm used to traveling for pinball. I live in the pinball desert. You know, everyone talks about, oh, it's too far. And I'm like, that's me every week.
    38:46
    Benjamin, I want to hear about your fit on Monday. My fit? What'd you wear? We will talk about the fit of my Dickies coveralls because they were special order. Thank you. but uh they and it's been a minute since i've bought them but i while i was wearing my dickies coveralls the first person i knew who saw me and was utterly taken aback was nint who on fifth avenue when i was walking to my match he was walking to the monroe and i was walking to buttermilk from the other direction that was it was cool to run into him and just like say like hey man, last week, and we talked about it, and I remember him saying very clearly, I was like, you guys are going to get the top seed. He was like, no, we're not. They have to lose. And there they are. It was, as Eric points out, jumpsuit night for the Colliders. Because I worked backstage in theater for a very large portion of my career, I have a set of black coveralls, Vicky's coveralls. In order to purchase the black ones, I had to special order them at the time that I ordered them. And that meant that I got to specify like waist and inseam and sleeve length and I think shoulder width also that there was that like it is not like my made to measure suits, but it was the closest thing I had to a made to measure suit, this jumpsuit before I had a made-to-measure suit. Just saying. So, yes, I looked cute. We looked cute. And here's actually the awesome thing about jumpsuits. Well, so first, Kate Martin also wore a jumpsuit, not purposefully. She had not listened to the podcast last week to know that it was Collider's jumpsuit night, and we don't put out social media notices about when we're wearing jumpsuits. And Kate, I should point out is on the opposite team. When I say Kate showed up wearing a jumpsuit, she's on the other team. Maybe trying to be intimidating. I am sad to say that throughout the course of the season, I did not beat FIL's 76ers high score on NBA fast break. But I am happy to say that throughout the course of the season, or at least so far, so long as NBA fast break was there at buttermilk, I found myself at the top of the Knicks and at the top of the Nets, uh, the whole time from the time that I, the weekend before we played a match, I put in the top score on Knicks and top score on Nets. No one has beaten me since I haven't chosen them since. And to be fair, I have been choosing every single game I have played in the intervening 10 weeks, I have played as the 76ers to try to beat FIL's high score on it, and I have not. I didn't do it in season. That's my Monday, at least for my match. At Buttermilk, is the NBA... I know the one position wasn't working. It is working now, which will play into my Thursday update eventually.
    42:18
    Spoiler alert. I always look to see what team has a low score and try to beat that one. I like that as a thing.
    42:28
    For me, I definitely when that thing was thrown in there right before our season started, I was like, I want to have the high score on the Knicks. I don't expect that it will last all season, but I want when someone walks in here for the first time for a pinball NYC match, and plays a game and says, I'm going to choose the Knicks, I want them to see BCF as the initials they have to be. There you go. So I wanted that, and then I was able in that first weekend, it was also set a little bit forgiving in that weekend, which is one of the reasons, at least, that I had a 250-point score and a 180-point score or whatever they were that were hard to beat, the ones that I put up. But I also thought they would be beaten over the course of the season. yeah but i was i was happy with that yeah i also on monday night because i went over to rulos i watched flynn fall short of that tiebreaker and it it had this sort of it reminded me of another thing in my in my pinball life i don't want to say career although it is during the time that i was competing and it is at a place where there were people who called themselves pros probably but it reminded me of papa 20 okay at the end of it tim sexton was the last person playing in the best game tournament he was playing batman forever and every single person who had been in that convention center that day it felt like was watching him play because if he had got a transcendently good score he would have qualified for the finals the next day and knock someone else out. One of my favorite things on Monday night was we had several friends come out to watch our NYC FSA versus Lion Persons match. Sam and Rachel and Barbara all came along. Okay. In the fourth round, the two doubles machines were Star Trek The Next Generation and Mouse and around and Star Trek's upstairs and mouse around is down in that porch area sort of thing. Sam and I discovered this amazing spot very close to where you would be if you were playing Spectrum up on the landing in that weird nook but if you stand up at the top of those stairs you can look down to your right and you can see the Star Trek game being played and then if you look to your left, you can look out the window, the second floor window, down through the glass roof of the porch on Gebhardt's and see the mouse and around being played. So Sam and I were able to stand in that one spot and watch both of those games going on at the same time.
    45:25
    That's pretty cool. Alex Kelly put up, I think, $27 million on that mouse and around to get us those two points. we got both of those games to take it to 8-8 for the tie break and then super fun on Tuesday we Butterballers went to Jack Bar the ball drainers were all dressed as Jim Carrey characters it was pretty fun you showed me some proposition I know but also I want to talk about a proposition oh a proposal it's numbered be it enacted does it say that right where did I put it oh wow so right George Underwood was dressed as the Riddler Jim Carrey's character in Batman Forever yes George and I were playing Metallica singles in the third round and he took off the the suit jacket and the hat and the mask to play and i didn't notice this but going on behind me uh courtney put together this proposal that said hey george why don't you wear the cost if you're going to wear the costume to the night you should wear it when you're playing passed around and got majority votes for yes he should put it on, including for most of his own team. Yeah. But he refused. At least take the mask off. Compromise. That game, I stepped up to my ball three as player two. George had finished with $97 million on Metallica Remastered. And I had $2 million. Yeah, but it's Metallica Remastered. I know.
    47:23
    Yeah. I took it into a massive crank it up and made the ball three come back for the win. See? Nice. That was a pretty great pinball moment. That's nice. I really like the proposal, particularly as somebody who wears a jacket playing pinball often. I endorse the wear the jacket, dude. For me, it's a thundershirt. For me, it makes me comfortable. It's like a hug. We have Chris Dooley on our team. He wears a jacket. Yeah, that's right. That's right, Chris does. Yes, that's right. That's right.
    47:57
    So he is like that as well. I've always liked Chris for exactly that reason. We don't know each other that well, but I felt an immediate kinship with him because I think he was the only other person that I was like, oh, yeah, we do this. Yeah, he wears his team t-shirt underneath the jacket. My one question for Eric, what were the other Jim Carys? Right. So the Ball Drainers have an Instagram account where anyone can go and get a picture of the team in the lineup and I'll run down what they were wearing.
    48:30
    Gabe had the word blue written all over his face as from the movie Liar Liar. Sam had a giant cowboy hat and a box full of pinwheels and some other stuff from Dumb and Dumber. George was the Riddler. Ian was in the Ace Ventura Hawaiian print shirt look while Kane was in the Ace Ventura tutu look Sean was not dressed up as anyone and then Tommy Biz came in partway through he wasn't there in the first round and when he joined he was in pretty much full Mets regalia and I think that was also unrelated I verified that with him on Thursday.
    49:22
    The really great costume that I just loved, Matt Fisher was dressed as Tony Clifton, who is the fake comedian portrayed by Andy Kaufman, portrayed by Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon. That's the winner right there.
    49:39
    Tommy, what do you got for Tuesday? You were at Scrapple Land. We were at Scrapple Land. It's becoming home-ish for some of us. Greg runs the Wednesday tournament. I'm there. Dee's there also. The team is getting a familiarity with the place. I would not want to be on a team there. I think it's just too hard to defend. There's so many games.
    50:02
    Exactly. It's too many games. You would have to just be like, okay, you're doing these and you're doing this. Your Tuesday night team is real good, at least right now. Our biggest asset is we show up. Right. attendance luckily has never been a problem for us you know hopefully that doesn't change hopefully I didn't just jinx it but I don't think we've ever had a week where we didn't have like seven players I will say on Tuesday Jimmy McKenna he GC'd the Lebowski on Tuesday during in round I think it was round three he GC'd it shout out to Jim on Wednesday like I had biked on Sunday to Red Hook. On Wednesday, I biked to Greenpoint. That one's a nice long chunk of ride. In addition to biking throughout the week, I had a couple of good outfits but I never wound up taking any pictures except one a bathroom selfie at Scrapple Lands You be able to see those pictures and some various other ones from the week on a blog post at NoOneWantsToTalkAboutCompetitivePinball.com I will say, speaking of outfits, on Wednesday, Alan Gamboa coming on his scooter dressed like a spaceman basically in like white leather. I wasn't sure who it was until he took his helmet off because he had like the helmet. I want to say it was like the silver shield. And he was blasting some music out as he pulled up. And he was blasting We Built This City. That's what it was.
    51:49
    And he just comes riding up and he turns around and he just parks in front of us and Eric and I and I think it was D and Woody were all outside just shooting the breeze and we're just like, who the hell is this guy? And he just steps off, turns the music off and just calmly takes off the helmet like he was in a movie or something. And then it all just kind of made sense when we saw it was out.
    52:15
    Also, in fashion at Scrapple Lands, I forget who I was talking to in a small group, but someone had just recognized that Wes was wearing a button-down with diagonal stripes on it. And they're like, what? Stripes? Diagonal stripes? They're just up or down. And then they turned and looked at my t-shirt, which has the Captain America logo on it, and they said, oh my gosh, circle stripes. Right. All kinds of crazy stripes. Yeah. Curvilinear or rectilinear? Stripes be stripes. I biked again up to Williamsburg to Jack Bar on Thursday for Thursday night strikes and Till's birthday. But also because it was the Brooklyn trans pinball night that felony hosts was taking part in strikes. And I very much wanted to show up and support that. that was really cool. Do we think there's a crossover between that and 41 players at Jaguar? There absolutely was. Definitely part of that large group that played in strikes. I'm very happy to hear that. After I was eliminated, I biked down to Buttermilk just to see if anyone was still left over from South Slope League.
    53:42
    Matt Carlson was there, and there were a few other people I'm forgetting I went four and three at Thursday night strikes. So a positive record at least. Better than three and four. Yeah. But maybe puts you even between Saturday and Thursday, seven and seven, which is also, then that by playing in seven rounds delayed how soon I was able to get down to buttermilk to seal. Sure. So on Thursday I played in SSPL. SSPL, three days after the pinball NYC season concluded,
    54:20
    I bested FIL's score on NBA Fast Break with 188 points as the Philadelphia 76ers. Thank you. Tommy Ortega, you are the tournament director of Silver Ball Sunday at Single Cut, which is about to have its 25th meeting. It's been going monthly for two years now at Single Cut Beersmith Queens. How'd this get started? When I was first getting into pinball, I would go to places that didn't have pinball. I'd be like, oh, that'd be a good place to put a pinball machine right there. 100%. The general manager at Single Cut is my friend Dan, who I've known for 15 plus years. who was having a party there for what I think was an anniversary party or a beer release. And I was like, you know, if you put like two pinball machines in there, they'd probably do really well. Years later, I want to say three years later, four years later, I get a text out of the blue. Hey, Tommy, you know, we're redesigning the tap room. You know anyone that could get me some pinball machines? You know, I was like, do I? and you know conversation started and it led to an introduction to Peter at Sunshine and you know they hit it off and next thing you know Peter had I think it was six tables at Single Cut and I told Dan because you know Dan is one of my very good friends I'm like hey I'll help you promote this you know I'll run a tournament and you know we'll just get this off the ground you know I'll do a little promotion for you he's like oh great necessity is the mother of invention in both instances there there was a place where it was necessary for pinball machines to be and there was a place that necessarily needed pinball players yes i never wanted to be a tournament director i sometimes call myself the reluctant tournament director it's like i thought this was going to be a one-off i was like you know i'm going to do this once and then it's going to be off and running and no one's going to ever need me to do this again and we had 19 people show up. 19 people at the first event. I was just going to say. The first event. I was at that. And it was very well received.
    56:41
    And, you know, the next day they were like, when are you doing the next one? And I'm like, I wasn't planning on doing the next one. I thought we were just, this is going to be a one-off. And, you know, Dan is just like, come on, you want to do another one? And, you know, I'm not going to turn down Dan because, you know, I've known him forever. two plus years later we're going into number 25 this weekend there's not a lot of pinball in northern Queens it's a solid state and that's about it and there was like a table here and a table there and this bar and that bar oh yeah Jar Bar what was it Simpsons pinball no it was a beat up Kiss table Kiss that's right Simpsons was at Joe's Garage oh yeah that's right Garage bar. Garage bar, yep. And then there was the pool hold ahead at Ghostbusters. Break billiards. So there wasn't a lot, but there were pinball players. And this was something to do. And people liked it.
    57:46
    I call it casual competitive. It's not a huge entry fee to get in. It's only $6. And it's the only tournament that I know of locally that you can win beer. Right. Right, you get like a four-pack if you're in the top four? Top four players get a four-pack of single-cut beer. That's right. Thanks to them.
    58:07
    They were originally like, what if we just gave the winner a case of beer? And I'm like, let's spread this out a little bit. Yeah, that's great. And so top four get a four-pack of beer, which for your $6 you're walking out, you could potentially walk out with like a $20 four-pack. Yeah. Plus you get happy hour while you play. there's a food pop-up in there that's excellent is it is there every sunday there's a food pop-up or it's every weekend yeah oh that's awesome there's this food pop-up but so yeah the pinball's there there's peter's table so you know they're you know well maintained and uh you know it's it's a very eclectic lineup like and recently expanded as we talked about on our venue review what's the lineup right now you got giant mnemonic you got no fear you got dirty harry nba fast break t2 getaway, Foo Fighters, Rush Deadpool and I can't remember the last two or three I like I certainly like all of those 90s games and you know I'm not I don't hate any of those modern games either yeah and the only thing that's really changed over the two years is you know I personally was getting bored doing five rounds of match play every month so we started to do target match play so we just do target match play 50 points no playoff just get to the target it actually works out to the same amount of time right as a five round match play with with playoffs right but everybody's playing the whole time but everyone plays more time pretty much or at least once you've won yeah i guess you're not playing anymore but you also you can start enjoying your four pack then if you or or maybe have a happy hour beer and then enjoy your four pack later exactly we might try and sprinkle in other formats. For a while, I was looking into doing like a... I wanted to do an amazing race. Coin drop for an amazing race is kind of exorbitant, I feel.
    60:04
    If it was on free play, I'd be all about it. But I might try and do some other formats here and there. First Sunday of the month, I don't know how we landed on that day, but that's been the day. It's continued to be the day. We average about 18 to 20 players every month. We've had 125 exactly unique players come through. That's awesome. And it's a lot of players that are like I said, it was casual competitive. It's a lot of people dipping their toes into the competitive pinball, tournament pinball formats.
    60:40
    Now there's a lot of players who have been there and now when they go to other tournaments and stuff, they're now contributing towards them.
    60:48
    And playing well in them too. yes yeah you know you do real well it's we get you know all kinds of skill levels the better players do show up sure but you know it's not a cutthroat like it's very laid back i just like finishing in the top four so i can get a four pack of beer every month yeah you know it's almost as good as winning you know like a lot yeah the whoppers are great but you know you know that four pack of beers nice like yeah i earned this what varietal would you get just uh like shout out to single cut if they're going to support pinball players let's let's give them let's give them their due yeah i came in second place at silver ball 23 i picked up a four pack two of them are a chocolate milk stout and two of them are a hibiscus sour oh the hibiscus sour i think I've had and I really like. Yeah, I forgot about it. Yeah, I like that one. They do a wide variety of beer, from the hoppy beers to the sour beers to the Pilsners and Hefeweizens.
    61:55
    What's your choice, though? Oh, I usually get a mixed bag. Okay. I do a mix, usually one or two hoppy and then one or two non-hoppy. Gotcha. Yeah. Non-hoppy side is usually their Frequency Lager. Oh, okay. Which is a nice one. Very drinkable. I also like the Kim a lot. The hibiscus sour. Oh, good. Yeah. That's usually a regular grab. Yeah. This weekend, I believe they're releasing their Sabor Mexican Lager.
    62:26
    I think that was in the, you know, they do their newsletter every week that they mail out, which they also include that there's a pinball tournament this Sunday, too. So come on out. Try the new beer. Come play pinball. Right. unfortunately it will be just too late by the time we've released the episode but I hope that you have gone and if you haven't then the first Sunday of June you will be able to go and if you get in the top four you can get some of these four packs that we were just talking about. June 1st.
    63:01
    For this weekend I know I changed the name it's May the Silver Ball Be With You because it is May the 4th I did try to get a Star Wars table put in for the event, but the opening of Scrapple Land took precedence. Peter does have a Star Wars comic book edition up in Hudson. Three months ago, I'm like, hey, do you think in a couple of months we can get that down to single cut? And he was like, yeah, we could try.
    63:33
    Opening a bar, as you know, is like trying to launch a cruise ship. Yes. Entirely too many moving pieces to pay attention to ancillary details. Yeah, so this was so down on the list of things that needed to get done. So I'm not sweating it that there's not going to be any Star Wars table. And personally, as a Star Wars nerd myself, I am not a fan of the Stern table. The game is a secret handshake game. like you either know the handshake and you blow it up or you you don't and you lose it's like the first time the action button has been used for something other than get a fake score because you hit the action button that's that's why i love it i mean i i hear you you're right it's a secret handshake because of what i just said but it's also i love it for that reason you know The multipliers just go too high. They should have been capped, I think. Yeah, I mean, if you can get at 40x between a 20x and a 2x playfield, it's a lot. It's a lot. Exactly. Particularly once you get a video mode that's worth, whatever, 50 million when it's maxed out. And so you've just got some stupid number. My theory on pinball is the worse the movie, the better the pinball machine.
    64:55
    Vice versa. Yeah. Congo. Horrible movie. Great pinball. Giant mnemonic. But on the opposite end, The Godfather.
    65:06
    Cable's terrible. I haven't played it. Yeah, or Star Wars. Pulp Fiction's kind of like that one, great movie, very good table. No, I didn't love the movie. Okay. But also, that's about taste, I guess. And also, it's impossible to deny that every action movie that was made for the next 20 years after it was drastically influenced by it. Oh, yeah. So Citizen Kane would be the worst pinball machine ever.
    65:42
    It's kind of surprising there hasn't been like a Hitchcock that's just untapped pinball themes right there. Vertigo, Psycho. We're only 20 years away from it being public domain at this point. Ah, there you go. I'd tell you about my dream plans for a Vim Vendors pinball machine, but it'd take over five hours.
    66:04
    You said you are the reluctant tournament director, but you've come back now 25 times. What keeps you coming back other than, you know, I mean, look, I understand it's your buddy Dan. It is the place. It is the thing. But what keeps you coming back? I don't know. I guess people liked it. I didn't want to be the one that was like, oh, we're not doing this anymore because we didn't have anyone to do it. Right. I mean, you like it too, I hope. Yeah, no, I enjoy going there. Okay, good. It's a great place to play. It's a great place to have a beer.
    66:40
    I guess it's gotten a hold. First Sunday of the month. That's our thing. Again, just dumb luck how that happened. happen. All of Bob Ross's greatest trees were happy accidents.
    66:53
    There you go. Why is there not a Bob Ross pinball table? That's a great question. Yeah. I would play it all day.
    67:06
    That's all for this week's pot. I'd like to thank Tommy Ortega for joining the panel this week. Join us next week when we will, of course, rundown local competition results in ball one including and most notably the first week of pinball nyc's playoffs in ball two we will do a venue update courtesy of pinball map and its users and i think there's a chance we'll have a featured venue but if not i'm pretty sure we'll put a bullet journal right in that spot i'm not too sure what we're going to do in ball three just yet Hopefully it won't be a house ball. Whatever you're up to this next week, go get them.