Month: September 2022

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Asheville, NC

Beer heaven. More when I get back. But this is too good not to post now.

So I am sitting at the bar at Burial Brewing. They have five double IPAs, two triple IPAs, a 14% and a 15% stout? Damn good thing I am walking.

Anyway. A couple come in; order beers; order wings. Get asked for a phone number to get a text when the wings are done, and they say ‘330…’ I ask what part of northeast Ohio they’re from. She says ’20 miles south of Youngstown’. I say ‘Columbiana?’, and she gives me a strange look and says ‘Yeah! A relative of mine owns a brewery there.’ I say, ‘Josh?’ She gives me a stranger look and says ‘Yeah!’

If I’d only had one more triple, I’d have said ‘And now my next prediction. You will soon meet a fat old guy with grey hair. Give him all of your money…’

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New pinball place!

Much to my surprise, one of the biggest pinball collectors in the country, Rob Berk, lives here. He’s the founder and current director of the Chicago Pinball Expo and has over 1,500 machines in a warehouse in Warren.

And he’s decided to open a Pinball PA-type place ten minutes from my house. Except it’ll be a really good Pinball PA.

https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/arcade-with-350-pinball-machines-coming-to-downtown-girard/

It’s not opening for another few months while they get all of the machines operating and repaired. In the meantime, they asked some of the Birdfish pinball folks if they’d be willing to help test the machines, if they bought us beer and pizza.

Um. You want us to go play 170 pinball/arcade machines for free, and you are buying us pizza and beer? OK…

Take a look at these. And scroll all the way down to the best one.

All kinds of machines, old and new. All working and available to play. And when I say old:

That’s a Humpty Dumpty. As in, the first pinball machine to have these new fangled things called ‘flippers’.

Amazing place. Can’t wait until it opens! Or until they need me to go there again and ‘work’. They’re really doing this right. Machine shop in the back; a lab – just a really great setup.

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So many books…

I’m working towards doing something radical, like moving from this four bedroom monstrosity to something that I’d actually like to live in. That means that, basically, I have to get rid of 90% of my stuff.

Books are first. I’ve kept, like, every book I’ve ever had. Because. I once had twelve bookshelves; I’m now down to four, and my eventual goal is one. I have what I have because I think I should have it. Books of obscure science fiction writers because I feel like I’m the only one keeping them alive (Kornbluth, Simak, Zelazny, etc.) Although that goal gets stranger every year. I once kept all of my books from this obscure troubled writer named Phil Dick, but then he apparently became popular. Likewise, Richard Bachman.

Anyway. I’ve tossed my case of ‘books I should keep but I’ll never re-read’. Two copies of the Koran; three of the Bible.

Found this one, and I think I’ll read it before I toss it:

What fun! 1912 (I think. No date on the inside, but some folks say it’s 1910. Nope – mentions the Titanic. But does not mention WWI, or Einstein So pre-1914). Take a look at the table of contents:

Whoa. Liquid Air! Colour Photography!

Fun read.