this wrinkle in time

i used to hang out at the movieland arcade a lot when i was in high school. a lot of quarters were thrown into pinball machines there. i wasn't much for video games as i had grown-up on pinball, foosball and pool. video games weren't tangible enough for me - though i did learn to love and got quite goods at ms. pacman years later when i was at citr radio...i had fallen in with one of the female dj's there who was very good at ms. pacman and she and i would play it for hours in the basement of the student union building at UBC - and the other games had a more human element to them.
movie land arcade was a place to go between sets of some downtown show we'd be at, or before and after a movie at the old capital six. the guy would sit behind his slightly elevated desk wearing an apron that had two large pockets sewn into it and he'd dish out quarter after quarter all day in exchange for our bills. same guy for years and years.

the other day i was downtown roaming around and was walking by and couldn't resist going in - truth is i was there about a month ago trying to get the high score on ms. pacman and had had a tough time doing it...the machine there is older and i just couldn't seem to get a handle on it. (mishi had one time, many years ago, watched me get the high score on a machine at metrotown, which, during the game i cut my middle finger - which i rest on the machine face as i use the index finger to move the joystick - and i bled all over the machine but i wasn't stopping until i made the score...) last week when i was in there the machine had been reset so no matter what score i obtained, it would be the high score. and, really, that was lucky, as i didn't do very well at all...i think i have lost a step in the ps. pacman world...but i still love it.
i don't play pinball much anymore but still throw a game a few times a year - and almost always when in seattle (shorty's coney island is a great pinball joint...just ask mishi or the garbs..)
my misspent youth wasn't really that misspent at all.

g. xo

..ps.... there's an interesting bit on the movieland arcade and granville st. right here...