Funny... one of our ongoing topics in VECTOR has been "why don't gay guys play pinball"? Despite having a vibrant gayborhood around the Oak Lawn area, it's kind of hard to imagine in a city like Dallas. Which got us thinking... hey... maybe we should open The Rainbow Arcade! Just go full-on shameless unicorn rainbow glitter ceiling-to-floor with a HUGE disco-lit cocktail bar and of course blinky color LED's in each game. Hahaha... honestly, I think it'd be a hit. Especially with tourists. Just like the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop in Manhattan (which is actually pretty darn tasty).

As for me, well, every scene needs "that one guy" who people gossip about around the dinner table, so I'm happy to oblige. Our country is so prosperous and privileged and yet so weirdly repressed and Puritanical it boggles the mind. Ain't got no time for dat!

I'm mostly BT, not so much LG, but the letters shift depending upon the day of the week. I've been called "The Enigma" by a lot of people. Which is probably why Spectrum is my favorite backglass of all time. Anyway, thread on.

IMG_1046_edit (resized).jpg

I'm headed to SF in a couple of weeks just for fun. Going to visit the Pacific Pinball Museum and Playland-Not-At-The-Beach. Also greatly looking forward to visiting some of the awesome-looking tiki bars in the area. And of course a stop or two at Divas, the classic.

Already did Musee Mechanique... might stop by again. Love that place.

Make suggestions if you got 'em!

Hey folks... got back from SF as of last night. I managed to visit four arcadey-type destinations:

#1 Free Gold Watch. The games here were in excellent condition and they had a large collection rivaling the PPM. Only one EM here (Fun Land) but it played well. The T-shirt portion of the store was cool too. Friendly, chill people. Liked it a lot & overall my favorite.

#2 PPM. Getting here from SF proper was a bit of a pain, but worth it. Spoke with Melissa at the door for a while about pinball and future developments. Wish I was free to return for the Alameda warehouse debut (400+ games!) in November and meet Michael in person but am already committed to the Houston Arcade Expo.

Anyway... PPM has the largest variety of pins (EM's included) here. The EM's aren't quite as snappy or leveled as well as the ones in Tim's stable at the PHOF, but thankfully none are using those cool white LED's. The reverse is true for their solid-state games... most of them play better than the ones at PHOF and look great. Nice variety of games for the amount of space they have to work with here.

#3 Brewcade. They had about four pins, all moderns, and a bunch of classic video cabs. Pretty standard barcade layout except for the star attraction: A "Killer Queen" double-cab arcade game which looks impressive and engages 10 people at once. VERY cool to see new games like this coming into the market. But boy is it expensive... $10k/$15k for a pair of cabs and at $2 per game it will take a LONG time to pay for itself. But certainly a unique draw for the growing barcade trend.

Speaking of which, this was the only true barcade of the bunch. None of the others sold alcoholic beverages.

One thing about Brewcade I didn't like was the social scene. We have a local barcade in Dallas like this called Kung Fu Saloon which also attracts hordes of conspicuously dressed "I am not trying to look fashionable but I am anyway" 20-somethings who are extremely loud and often insufferably obnoxious/entitlement-minded. But this is SF, so a new term is necessary: Fancybros. Too many fancybros.

#4 Playland-Not-At-The-Beach. A quirky but amusing collection of circus/amusement parlor ephemera and art with some games/pinballs mixed in. Worth a trip to see it all. The pins were the "least best" of the four places... but still enjoyable enough for the most part. Sadly, the rumors are true... they might be closing soon due to some sort of lease/landlord issue. Better visit while you can. It's a unique place.

Some people are different.

Differences are ok to share.

This is the thread for the sharing.

*shrug* seems pretty non-threatening to me...?

I get what you are saying. Since this is a pinball forum, what does being LGBT have to do with it?

A good question! Though, if you do not happen to be a minority yourself, you probably won't be able to appreciate why it matters. You see, as a non-minority, you can pretty much coast through life as long as you pay your taxes, show up for work on time, don't cheat on your partner, etc, etc. Basically "do the usual s**t" and you'll probably get through life just fine.

However, as a minority, LGBT folks have to do all of those things too, while *also* having to deal with immense amounts of unfair stupid cultural BS. Like being thought of as weird, evil, pervy, ungodly, bathroom predators who shouldn't get the same job/housing privileges, yada yada. All of that crap takes a toll on ones psyche, yanno?

Life is hard enough as-is... but is "extra hard" for folks like us. Which usually comes at the hands of those who are "unlike us".

So.... every once in awhile, we different-folk just want to say "hey hey wassup!" to our chums and network with one another. That's all there is to it.

But since you don't see why any of this matters... I invite you to go out in public with me in drag. We'll try to get good seats at nice restaurants and maybe apply for a lease at a local apartment complex. Followed by a walk through the park and/or shopping mall together.

I guarantee our day together will be extra-super-special for you. Extra-amazing-with-sprinkles-special. Then imagine doing it again the next day, and the next, and every day afterward, and you'll eventually begin to feel the eyes and stares and whispers starting to wear thin upon your patience. You might even begin to feel like you live in an alternate universe where your own friends and family no longer understand you.

"Hey man, what's the big deal? Why are you always so touchy and s**t? Just play pinball..."

Pinball is an awesome game. And it is also about the people who play it.

So, let's play pinball. And if you're gay, or sorta gay, or trans, or not sure... say "heyyyy" and let's play pinball.

Was this Gottlieb's first depiction of gay characters? (Top Card)

IMG_2427 (resized).JPG

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ryan-claytor-original-artwork-auction-to-benefit-the-ali-forney-center

Very cool of Ryan to offer this!