The Out Pinball Podcast is a production of WGBH. northern west Parker Healthmal, instituto de valor Gobierno Querida. Los Merios Recipes Ext distorted Emblanjas a porno thirst�� prize del Duncan de Armas So how did you guys actually meet and interact? How did that relationship start? Yeah, so that was about two years ago as well. He started this week in pinball a couple months after, a handful of months after we started Straight Down the Middle. He bought a pinball machine from me, because you guys know me, I move pinball machines in and out. I have a short attention span. Oh, we'll be revisiting that later. Yeah, I can't afford everything, so I like to play a little bit of everything, but he bought a pinball machine through me. We kind of just kicked it off and same kind of thing. You know how this works. You do a deal with a guy and you like the guy and it's like, well, something comes up and you text him, hey, what do you think about this? And then they text back and just a friendship forms. So from then on out, he said, I'm thinking about doing a website. Nobody's doing a news website besides pinball news and it's just not frequent. I'm thinking about doing a weekly website of just anything that's going on in pinball. It's funny because he's a friend of mine that's one of my best friends. He's a friend of mine and I support him 100% and try to help in every way that I could. That thing has just taken off like a rocket ship. So many resources, he's got guest articles now. That's kind of how it started. Later on, the development of the Twippies Annual Pinball Award started which we can talk about as well. That's kind of how the friendship started. One more thing I wanted to say. We'll see you next time. I'm not saying Pinball is a game that pays the bills or anything. It is literally for the love of pinball. We spend countless, countless hours. He and I are really close. He helps out with Straight Down the Middle. I help out with This Week in Pinball. We do a lot of cross promotion just because we're buddies and we believe in each other's brand. Countless, countless hours on his behalf. I think it's important that you said that because you hear a couple of things. If I complain about the amount of time I put into it, it's just for me to vent in general because nobody's forcing me, my hand, to put time into doing a weekly podcast. Same with you, right Bill? We're obviously not doing it. We love it. Right. We're not doing it for money. We're doing it because it's something that we, at the end of the day, enjoy providing additional content. During our holiday episode, Dennis Kriesel had come on and I remember at the end of his predictions and resolutions for 2019, he said something to the effect is, listen, I can't Bill Dea, a pinball cabinet. I'm not the world's best player, but this is my way of giving back and I hope at some point you think that I've done my part. He couldn't have said it any better and I think that's exactly how we all feel in general. We want to contribute to something that we love and down the road if it turns somebody to pinball or it makes somebody more interested or it opens up a door or an avenue for somebody else, it sounds cliche, but if we only were able to expose one mind, it's all worth it. But it really, really is. I really maybe not one mind I need a couple hundred minds you know I'm kind of an attention you might want to bleep this out but whore yeah so I like a little more than one mind I want to influence a lot of people but yeah did I said it he said it best that you know you contribute in the way you can and for me it's just I try to bring entertainment and creative ways that people have not seen pinball or haven't experienced it because yeah you're right I can't build a cabinet I can't I can't program a game I sure as hell can't do artwork so this is what I can So it's a pretty cool way to get a job done. But I guess it's also a really fun way to get somebody to come to you and be like, Hey, what do you think? What do you think? What's your favorite thing about the job you're doing? And what do you think you can bring? If I jazz it up on an episode and make people discuss, and yell at me through the airwaves, or go on a forum and start discussing this, then my job is done. But you can edit videos, you can edit a podcast, and I can't do any of those. So I literally, this year... You can build a cabinet, buddy. I know that for sure. ...you can link with a microphone to be able to do this. Yes, that cabinet you're building on Whirlwind is a thing of beauty. So you've got that on us. You have to see this thing live. I don't want to. It's so beautiful. It is beautiful. It's gorgeous. I asked Bill, can you just build me the empty cabinet with the decals? I don't even need to put a game in it. I just want to have it sitting in my house. It is really nice. You did mention the Twippies and I really wanted to take a few minutes... Oh my god, I love the Twippies! So, the Twippies, for those that don't know, and I'm going to ask you to explain this, they're brought to you by Jeff Patterson, Out Pinball Podcast is a production of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, LLC. Jeff approached me and said, hey man, I think I'm going to do a write-in awards, like not a show, but kind of an article and everybody gets to vote on their favorite things of 2017 in pinball. And I said, well, is anybody doing that? He said, there's some people randomly on pin side that'll do it, but because I have the medium of the website, I think it might make the most sense. So I said, oh, that's cool, man. Go ahead and do that. So he would send back edits and I'd help him with that. Just a terrific idea. A lot of work he was putting into it. And before he kind of put it out there, I contacted him. I said, Jeff, why don't this is this thing is cool. This thing is special. It deserves more than just a website entry. Why don't we make this a show? There's so much streaming and pinball right now. Why don't we take your beautiful, creative idea and give it a little bit more life and give it just a little bit more life. Jamison Cush, Jr. Jay Salazar, Andrew Chauletz, Stat майne S. Madigan and Arretson Brandi Voorhealth, Alan F. Cush & Co, Mark Wolff, coronavirusanalyst.com and Ange intelligently arkball dentro del mafioso P入 Methulgarii Jessica Mark M. Valeria, Terra, Sriksk Loka. Maafie Elif, Cressyarda H�tals diseases of the partly pe決 VS She quelquadre UV La Lek sentence este Bette Bistiot Stolich Brad Menert loose We're going to air the results live on stream. So we did that last year and it was at least five times bigger than we thought it ever could be. We had a lot of viewers, we had a lot of entries and it became last year the annual pinball award ceremony. Yeah, and there was a lot of buzz that was created around that and during that whole time. I remember thinking to myself, oh my gosh, this is a freaking award show for pinballs. It was really cool, man. It was awesome. I tried to take what his idea was and I tried to make it as formal as I could but still a lot of fun. I tried to kind of foster what I thought pinball people in this community, what you and I would like to see, and I thought why not show the appreciation and be serious about it. So we really wanted to show our love and appreciation for those designers, those developers, those manufacturers, those podcasters, anybody that was putting time and love into pinball. We wanted to congratulate and reward them. So he got trophies. I mean, it was very formal. The only thing that wasn't formal was the location and kind of the setup. But we did have tuxes on last year. So that was something. But 2018, the game is about to change. And this goes into the evolution of the Twippies. So from starting from a home location, which went over very well. It was interesting to see when you guys started and you guys went live, there was definitely adrenaline and excitement that I could see, especially in you. Like Greg, you can't gauge as much because he's just kind of low key and laid back, but I could tell that you were ready to surge, you were ready to knock it out of the park. I had a lot riding on it because we knew- Well, do me a favor, walk us through your emotions going through into this because you already had a successful pinball YouTube show and now you're hosting something live that There is not any editing that's going to take place. No. Walk us through what's going through your head, some concerns that you might have had. I mean anything like that. Yeah, it was terrifying because Jeff, like I said before, he's very detail oriented like myself. And he knew that if he dove too deep into it that it would just get messy. So I said, Jeff, you've just got to trust me, man. Look at the Straight Down the Middle shows. If you okay with that I will make you proud So I produced a lot all of the video segments the montages if you will I think that shocked a lot of people It did. I wanted to surprise people. I wanted people to think it was just going to be two boneheads behind a stream that were just going to read out the answers. That's exactly what I anticipated. A couple guys that I'm familiar with online and there's going to be just a list they're going to run down and it's going to be 30, 40 minutes and that's going to be it. You had studio produced introductions and cinematography going and it was like I was watching an award show. Yeah, it was really awesome. Yeah, it was really nerdy. It was very amateurish but it was a full production. I had, I always joke, I had literally, this is no lie, six pages worth of outlines and how I was going to kind of host the show and Greg had a six pack of beer next to him. No joke. He had six pack of beer. I had six pages of outline and it took me months. I kind of put together and produced those montages. We knew the top three in each category but we did not know the winners. People think we were lying about that but Jeff sent us in enclosed envelopes the winners of each of these categories. Can you discuss some of the categories for those that aren't aware of what's being voted upon? Yeah, absolutely. Last year 2017 we had things like Best Animations and Display, Best Light Show, Best Theme, Best Toys and Gimmicks, Best Theme Integration, Best Sound and Callouts, Best Code and Rules, Best Playfield Gameplay and Layout, Best Artwork, and the Big Boy Game of the Year. Other ride-ins included things like everybody's favorite new pinball mod, YouTube pinball channel, streamer, podcast, etc. etc. Yep, that's right. So we had all of those categories, so I had to make a top three video for each of those. And it was a produced video that was embedded in the stream. So Greg was, I gave Greg one job, one job fellas. Yes you did. And that was to hit the button whenever I segued to that particular category. He had a couple hiccups, but overall he did a fantastic job. And he's got a good eye for cinematography and production because he's an actor. So, um, so he, he knocked it out of the park and it went so much better than we'd ever planned. Um, and we just each and every year we want to build upon it. You know what I really love too is in your most recent episode, you guys kind of recapped your 2018. Mm-hmm. And I was straight down the middle of pinball show, right? So you, yes, yes. I mean that had to be a huge amount of editing cause you're going back and you're going through outtakes and at one point you had an outtake of yourself and Greg during the twippies and There was something that was running a promo or cinematography promoting that category. I think it was Best Mod. It might have been Best Mod. And I remember Greg just looking at you and he's like, how are you holding up? You good? And he's like, hey, you're doing a good job. You're killing it. You're knocking it out of the park. I mean, it's a lot of work and it's just perfect right now. And to see that kind of support behind the sidelines, I could tell that it meant a lot to you and I can tell that he really wanted to make sure that you knew that you were doing a great job. Absolutely. That's why this is like a, this is a hokey show. I'm sorry guys, but yeah, it's that kind of stuff means the world to me. That's the fuel that that makes me just take off and I will not stop once I start. So when he does stuff like that again, I have that documented for the rest of my life in video. So that kind of stuff means the world to me. And we busted our asses for that and we got good feedback. So we up the ante. Because I mean now as we talk about the evolution of the Twippies, which I think where I was going until I went into different avenues. You're out of that home location and you are doing a live show at the Texas Pinball Festival. You want to tell us a little bit about how that's going, what's happening there? Yeah, we really tried to up the game for 2018 this week in pinball yearly awards, the Twippies. Jeff and I were discussing and Greg, kind of the trio there, after last year's just phenomenal outreach after the show, he said, well, what are we doing this year? And we kind of came up with the idea, well, what if, what if we did it live like the Oscars? And we thought, well, that's crazy. It's crazy. Right? Yeah, there's, we're not a production team. We're three guys. And I said, we can pull it off. And Greg in very Greg fashion was like, no, absolutely not. Well, like, I don't even want to go to Texas. I'm scared to leave my own house. So he may be medicated or sedated in some way, but we thought, well, and Jeff, it was It was really important to him because he got some feedback last year that, well, what if you guys are lying or what if you guys are picking the winners yourself? And like integrity is the utmost importance to myself, to Greg, and I can speak for Jeff as well. So we wanted to prove to people that we were bringing them an unbiased award show. So he said, we need a committee. We need a twippy committee with respected individuals in the pinball community. And we'll come together as a group and we'll vote on things and we're going to make this thing secure. Voting has the security of voting has been increased substantially. And then the committee voted. Do we want this to be a live stream and in the local place where people can can get on their computer? Or do we want, you know, my idea was, do we want it to be live? And then we thought, well, once everybody voted, it'd be cool live. But how would we do that? Where would that be? Because, because Expo, you know, But it'll be both, right? I mean, it's something that will be live if you're present and it'll be live online. So you don't have to be present. Absolutely. The convention made sense because manufacturers are going to be there to accept awards. So we couldn't just put it, you know, in Chicago in January. People likely wouldn't come. So we wanted to catch somewhere where everybody was at. So Texas Pinball Festival fell in March and it came to a vote for the committee and we voted to kind of delay it until March So that that entertainment factor would increase. So we're having it in March on, you know, on Saturday of Texas Pinball Festival. Do you have any personal concerns? I mean, I imagine it's kind of daunting to do this live like in a house. Oh, we don't know if this is going to work. But now, right, dude, you're in front of, I imagine, at least a few hundred people. Oh, God. In a conference room and then you're going to have thousands of people watching online. Anybody that's anybody in pinball is going to either be there or be tuned into that. I know that you love public speaking. I hate it. I can't stand it. Public speaking when I'm talking to a microphone or when I'm in front of a DSLR or something is fine, but when I'm looking at the whites of eyes across an audience, that terrifies the hell out of me. But I'll play the game and I'll bring everything that I can. But of course there's going to be hiccups, things are going to go wrong, but Greg and I roll with the punches. That's what we do best. We make fun of ourselves when things go wrong and we keep going because at the end of the day the most important part is congratulating and showing, giving an homage if you will to all of the people who make this hobby what it is. Do you have a way that you can let our listeners know how they can get involved as far as casting their vote for their favorite categories for the Twippies? I would love to. We can go to thisweekinpinball.com, log in there and at the header you'll see it. You can't miss it. Big old beautifully designed logo by Christopher Franchi. Thanks Chris. Click on that and you enter your email address, one vote per email address and you just, categories, drop down menu. It is easy peasy fellas. It sounds great. And you know what? I'm glad you mentioned Christopher Franchi because this guy, not only is he knocking it out of the park with his Stern designs and his artwork. I mean, he really legitimately likes to help pinball and its exposure and its evolution by helping people with illustrations and stuff. So I think that's cool and that's a good shout out for him. He's not been in the pinball hobby very long, but he has hit the ground running ever since starting his profession in the pinball hobby. And people I don't think realize sometimes how much he gives to the community on things. He reached out to us and wanted to help us with last year's Twippies and again for this year's Twippies. So he is, this isn't just his job, he's quickly growing into a passion and I very much respect him for that. You know, I was talking to him today and he's like, sorry, it took me a minute to get back to you because I was unboxing my new Beatles pinball machine. I was like, oh snap, Christopher Franchi, congratulations. How great is that? He's unboxing the pins, he's all into it, so that's good for him, I love it, I love it, great dude. Yeah, so everybody make sure you get out there and vote if you haven't already. I know that Ken and Bill would very much appreciate and very worthy of Podcast of the Year vote for Special Win Lit Pinball Podcast. Oh, thanks, Zach. I know there's going to be a lot of those. So, very deserving. You guys have been knocking it out of the park. It's been a fun ride, man. And to be very honest, to even just be in consideration with some of these great podcasts is an honor for both of us. And for you to kind of extend the opportunity for us to do a presentation of an award at the Twobies. Heck yeah. It's awesome, man. We're going to be up in the big lights handing an award to somebody and so we're excited about it. That's how I sold it to the wife. I was like, listen, Ken and I, we got to give out this award. It's very prestigious. Right. That's right. Got to go. Right. So that's why we're in now. She's like, what channel? Is it channel five, channel seven? You're like, oh, it's Twitch. Well, I told her it's channel nine down there. So you might have to search up here a little bit. But yeah, we don't know what category we're going to give you guys, but it's going to be fun. You guys are going to have a lot of fun. I hope it's the best new podcast because I could very easily sway the vote on that. Yeah, I mean, we're just amazing. As I open the envelope. We don't even have to get down. It's perfect. Right. You know. We can congratulate ourselves. I can't tell you. It seems like a silly little award, but after we won for best YouTube show last year, it's like, it's a payoff. You know how it is, guys. This kind of thing seems small to some people, but it's really important recognition for some of us. Bingo. That's the key word. I never downplay it because this stuff is special. It's the recognition. I mean, nobody's getting famous and we're not out shaking hands and kissing babies by any means and that's not the intention. We're not getting rich, but just to have a little ... to get that affirmation that what you're doing is at least making something pleasant for somebody else's life is pretty awesome. Absolutely. Ty plumbrick