Every office should have a pinball machine. Here’s one that I found today that would be perfect for the folks at CMT (Country Music Television):
Pinside users rank Dirty Harry, a 1995 game from Williams, #114.
Separately, since the movie Dirty Harry is set in San Francisco, here’s what a friend in Silicon Valley said when I invited him to join me for dinner there on August 2: “I generally avoid the third world, but would do it for you and [a mutual friend], of course, except that I’m going to be in Hawaii.”
Would anyone like to meet for breakfast in Berkeley/Piedmont on the morning of August 2? Or possibly in SF in the evening of August 2 or morning of August 3? (I’m not 100% sure that I want to wade into the mess myself) Email philg@mit.edu if you want to meet up!
Related:
- Working in San Francisco today (the mostly peaceful city in 2019)
I’m in SF now and I may be back on the 2nd or 3rd (my mother lives on her own here so I visit her every month or so).
The city has gone very far downhill, but there’s a lot further to go (true of California in general too).
Here’s a poem I wrote about it in 2020:
The foggy gateway hid from ships of old
But priests built missions north along the sea
When Santa Anna lost they found the gold
Then came mechanics, commerce, industry
The hills convulsed, the houses burnt, yet still
The city prospered, bridge and bay and port
But in the postwar glow there was a chill
The Beats foresaw. The hippies’ reign was short
While towers rose society hollowed out
The drugs, the plague, drove love out from the Haight
The rich gained and the poor could only shout
A generation failed to generate
The streets are toilets, birds screech in the grime
Those who remain await the fire next time
I found Adams Family – ranked 22! – in the arcade in Silverwood amusement park in Idaho and played it for hours. Absolute blast!
I considered buying one, but unfortunately I have no space for a pinball machine in my tiny 5000sqft house.
SK: Of the machines in https://pinside.com/pinball/top-100 I think Godzilla deserves its #1 rating. The flow in Foo Fighters (#2) is fantastic, but I don’t understand the band or the music so I don’t like the machine and wouldn’t want to own one. Jurassic Park (#4) is also great). I’m a big fan of the newest Stern machines, which have the ability to play video clips and vary the game substantially and also can play MP3s instead of 1990s synthesizer. Elvira’s (#9) is great, but I don’t like the theme (never saw the show). Jersey Jack’s Wizard of Oz (#36) is one that I would like to play more. The music in Mandalorian is great, but it reminds me of Disney firing Gina Carano for her love that dare not speak its name. Black Knight: SOR (#41) is fun because of the callouts. James Bond 007 (#49) is a fantastic game because of the theme (the Sean Connery 1960s Bond movies). Halloween (#61) is very creative (not Stern). World Cup Soccer (#65) is one that would be great if they came out with a new edition in which the U.S. world champion team (“women’s) were included, ideally playing 14-year-old boys from Dallas (see https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/a-dallas-fc-under-15-boys-squad-beat-the-u-s-womens-national-team-in-a-scrimmage/ ). Led Zeppelin (#73) has great music, but the flow is meh. Munsters (#90) has a great theme and is fun for kids because drains are rare.
You need some pinball machines to join the pool table. Got to keep the home equity growing, otherwise someone might use a house for something useful.
You know the documentary street photographer in you wants to visit San Francisco! But what camera to bring? Is a smart phone up to the task? Are you willing to get up close in the faces of your potentially violent and mentally unstable subjects with a smart phone’s wide-angle lens? Or do you have a small, discrete camera with a longer lens that you could use?
I suppose that the saving grace is that another earthquake is guaranteed to occur sometime and the excrescences of the 20th and 21st centuries will be largely erased. As the saying goes: “Roll on death!”.