#2010s pinball | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mariacallous · 4 months

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From Tumblr to Gawker, the sites and voices that defined the 2010s are gone or changed. There is no happy ending to this story.

The millennial internet first died in 2015.

I remember the day exactly because I was one of seven staffers, in addition to many more permalancers, at Gawker Media who were laid off as part of a company-wide restructuring. I received a message on Slack, was asked to join a meeting in a nearby conference room, told that today, November 17, was my last day working for Gawker, and by the time I returned to my desk all of my accounts were disabled. For the company to “optimize and sharpen all the sites going forward,” executive editor John Cook explained in a memo—sites that also included Jezebel, Deadspin, Lifehacker, and Gizmodo—“shifting personnel” was necessary.

In truth, I’d lasted much longer than I ever expected to. In my 18 months as a senior editor, I commissioned more than 150 stories and published young writers like Vann Newkirk II, P. E. Moskowitz, Donovan X. Ramsey, and Josie Duffy. When people ask me what it was like to work at Gawker, notorious for its sometimes unrealistic traffic demands on staffers, my answer is always the same: “I had no road map. I threw things at the wall to see what stuck.”

My directive was to help expand the voice of the site, so I intentionally cast a wide net. I tasked writers—people like me who never once considered that their work could be published on Gawker—to report on topics ranging from the rise of suburban poverty and the shady business of secondary policing to workplace racism, gentrification, interracial dating, and the joys of eating ass.

Gawker, like every other media company trying to survive this next internet evolution, was chasing virality. Good stories mattered, but numbers mattered just as much. The popularity of the stories I commissioned was never an exact science. Some did exceedingly well for obvious reasons—“Tinder Is Full of Robot Prostitutes” (198,000 visitors); “What Serial Gets Wrong” (296,000); “Why I Pee Sitting Down” (110,000)—while other stories bombed for reasons I still can’t make sense of.

But there was no sense to be made of the moment we found ourselves in. The internet was undergoing a rare metamorphosis. Facebook, Twitter, and the introduction of social media had completely reengineered business models. Everything, as Nicholas Carr has suggested about the pinballing effect of social media, was being uprooted. “Radically biased toward space and against time, social media is inherently destabilizing,” he wrote in 2018. “What it teaches us, through its whirlwind of fleeting messages, is that nothing lasts. Everything is disposable. Novelty rules.”

BuzzFeed knew a thing or two about novelty. It was also trying to understand how to seize the attention of a mass audience. Unlike Gawker or HuffPost, BuzzFeed took a much more wholesale approach to gaming traffic. Steered by CEO Jonah Peretti, it implemented a medley of quizzes, Twitter recaps, listicles, news stories, and long-form investigations as its bread and butter. For a time, BuzzFeed was the apex of internet production. Remember the dress? Elsewhere, sites like The Awl and The Hairpin platformed newbie writers—Lauren Michele Jackson, Vinson Cunningham, Bryan Washington—with a renegade interest in pop culture. Before I had the great fortune of working with him at Gawker, I obsessively read Tom Scocca’s weather reviews with a mix of anticipation and private glee.

The second time the millennial internet died, when The Awl shut its doors for good on January 31, 2018, I remember thinking how Scocca had captured the sentiment of the millennial web and the era it birthed perfectly: “Every fugitive bit of light might be the last one.” Because that’s how it felt to create, work, and waste time on the internet of the 2010s. It was one big secret that all of us were in on, having fun as we remade digital media in a way that felt true to us, never knowing if tomorrow the light we illuminated with the stories we blogged would be the last.

I was able to make a home and a career on the internet because sites like Grantland, Okayplayer, and Jezebel gave me license as a writer and thinker. They validated my weirdness as much as they challenged my ways of thinking around gender politics, movies, sports, and identity. Stumbling on responses by Greg Tate in the Okayplayer message boards was its own masterclass in music and political theory. Before that, blogs like Crunk & Disorderly, The Cynical Ones, and FreeDarko showed me how sweeping this territory we called the internet was. They were proof that a single voice could take up space in a unique and original tone.

My internet, the millennial internet, was a province of play and possibility. Of course, it’s mostly all gone now. The trend toward consolidation is near complete. There is no happy ending to this story. Journalists, editors, and media makers of all sorts are losing jobs. This year seemed especially cruel to those of us who make a living in this fickle industry. Independent media is a dwindling business model, a fate ominously true for niche publications with an outsider’s eye.

The millennial internet died, perhaps for the final time, in April, when BuzzFeed News closed shop. A week later, Traffic—a book by former editor-in-chief Ben Smith, about the mad dash to reinvent digital media during this specific period—was published to enthusiastic reviews, its release bookmarking the end to a decade colored by omnivorous virality. By late fall, Vice downsized, Okayplayer fired its entire editorial staff, pivoting to god knows what, and Jezebel, the pioneering feminist site, was forced to shut down. (It was acquired by Paste in late November, saving it from an early death.) According to a recent employment analysis, the news media sector lost more jobs this year than it did across 2022 and 2021 combined.

The 2010s serendipitously coincided with the mainstreaming of social media. Tumblr, Twitter, and Vine broadened the reach of communication, amplifying a generation of voices that otherwise would have gone unheard. These platforms were the engine of creativity before everything was pimped out and recast as sponsored content. That’s all changed. This year, Tumblr announced plans to significantly curb its operations. Under the ownership of Elon Musk, Twitter, rebranded as X, has decayed into a petri dish of misinformation and harassment, inciting an exodus from the platform. As for Vine, which discontinued in 2017, TikTok has taken its place though it hasn’t quite replicated its hypnotic charm.

You’re probably wondering how we got here. How all of this happened. Don’t. It’s a fool’s errand in a time of spectacular fools, crooks, and private equity monsters. My internet is dying. It’s been dying for some time. Everything I knew about it will soon vanish, its histories regurgitated via 30-second TikTok videos shared in group chats, eulogized annually in the cocoon of darkened movie theaters, where tickets run $30.

The contours of the digital era are receding. So much of what I loved is gone or changed, its parts sold for scraps. Why and how it had to be like this, I will never know. Greed and mismanagement seem too cheap an answer even though I know it is one of them.

What is also true is how new technologies jockey to replace old ones. It’s how the game works. Radio killed newspapers. TV killed radio. The internet killed them all. That’s how the narrative goes, anyway. Today, as text-based tech fades into the hipster denim of the 2010s, video and audio reign dominant. That is, until it’s time to pivot to the next shiny thing. We like what we like until we’re told to like something new.

Gawker shut down, for the second time, in February. When it happened, I was reminded of what John Cook wrote in his memo the day I got let go. Gawker was pivoting to politics with a mandate to “hump the campaign” (LOL). The plan failed, but not because of the writers and editors who stayed, or management’s course correction (though that was also a doomed enterprise). Hilary Clinton lost the election. Donald Trump won. Reality blurred into vulgar theater. Theater so vulgar and unbelievable we’re still reeling from it.

Before it was shot dead, in 2016, Gawker failed the way most digital media properties of the millennial internet failed: by trying to fathom, and build a business model around, something that is unfathomable—the way the internet works. Nick Denton, Gawker’s muckraking founder, couldn’t hack it. Neither could Jonah Peretti. In truth, no one can. Today I find solace in that atom of unpredictability. It’s the one lesson I’ve carried with me since that day.

None of us have it figured out. We never will. Onward.

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omegaremix · 2 months

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High Score Pinball + Game On; Spring 2021 & Spring 2022.

If you were an Eighties child, the video game was the pinnacle of your childhood. On Saturdays, my dad took me to the toy store where I sprinted to the game wall, have me choose any stamped ticket and hand it over the counter to customer service where they stocked all the solid state cartridges in the back. They’d hand me the game of choice and I was golden until next week. If I was lucky, he’d take us to Nunley’s Carousel in Baldwin where it was the final time in my life I’d play old electromagnetic machines and driving games that ran on paper sheets - and even film reels and plastic parts (Atari’s F1). We’d also go to Nathan’s in Oceanside. It, too, had an arcade there. Once we came back from his dietician or from my half-sister in Bensonhurst, he ended up taking the whole family for sit-in Chinese and to the Nellie Bly Amusement Park where for one time only I played Atari’s Superman and Hercules pinball tables.

Sunday was an even bigger event. My pop would drive from (also) Bensonhurst all the way out to Long Island where my family and I lived. He’d arrive anywhere between noon to 1PM and stay for an hour before taking me to the South Shore Mall. I’d have the luxury of two hours and $5.00 worth of quarters to play as many games as I could. Roadblasters, Space Harrier, Chase HQ, Marble Madness, skee ball - you name it, they had it, I played it. Pop would break it up and take me to The Emporium (later becoming Nathan’s and after that a sushi house that closed down in 2010) where they also had an arcade itself. Same time limit, same amount of pocket change. The neighborhood delis and convenience stores also had arcade and pinball machines where I clearly remember playing Seicross, Legion, Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, and other games too many to mention. I had the best of both worlds at home and beyond. By the time my grade-school years ended, I replenished the game collection my dad once sold for $50.00 and more thanks to my Dallas aunt and uncle.

The Brentwood era just started for me and Pop had a heart attack while watching the game. He woke up out of it but later relapsed and that was the end for him. I had to take it upon myself to ride my bike to the mall or the pizzeria in the local shopping center behind the middle school to get my Neo-Geo, Super Monaco GP, or Mortal Kombat fix. With reward came risk: Brentwood wasn’t a safe neighborhood compared to the others. Every day I worried about random newjacks and youngbucks coming up to me for handouts just for being seen. Seven or eight kids waiting their turn surrounded the Street Fighter machines at any one of three stores out of fifteen who had them; some even got jumped and assaulted over them because they were caught cheating. Chain-snatchers got the unsuspecting kids when their backs were turned, and even the resting bitch-faces came up to entice me to fight their boyfriends who tried stealing my bike.

As time went by, I moved on from the scummy parts. Visits to the arcades became less frequented no matter at the mall or the amusement park. The carousels and hot dog places went out of business. Console gaming, however, kept going with the Genesis, SNES, Dreamcast, and Playstation throughout my community college and Stony Brook era. I discovered MAME and VPinball so I could stay in touch with myself. I kept it all going until I was sick of dozing off and throwing my time away while my friends, co-workers, and associates made the best of theirs. I finally moved on from gaming, and all the best for it.

It was more than ten years since I played a game of pinball. The Sopranos to be exact. Almost no place on the island where one was to be found. But that all changed last spring when the Video Game Trading Post opened up Long Island’s very first pinball arcade in the South Shore Mall / Westfield. I was stunned and paralyzed. We never asked for it, let alone couldn’t even imagine happening, but we got it. We lost Manhattan’s Modern Pinball and Greenpoint’s Sunshine Laundromat was never the same after the pandemic, so having the arcade return (to the very place where it all started for me and not having to travel to the city for it) was the pale-skinned redheaded Godiva riding on the fucking horse.

It was amazement at first sight. I enter the mall and the sounds emanating from the dark space tells me I’m close. I finally found it. My soul pushed back because I couldn’t believe it. I walk in and the darkness swallowed me in as all the flashing lights, LEDS, and the brightly-lit back-panels fight to be noticed. For $25.00, sometimes $35.00, it was all-you-can-play. I walk around in the dark vortex and the place was huge of its concrete flooring and aromatic wood smell. All three Black Knight tables, all three Pinbots, both Firepowers, Bank Shot, Evel Knievel, Harlem Globetrotters, Tron Legacy, even Police Force when it was at Vinardo’s. I spotted Big Guns, a game I remember from my Nintendo childhood. To my amusement, it was real having to find that Slugfest returned to the exact same mall I played at during the Brentwood era. The best part? Learning that both High Speed and Nine Ball would make their stay. It would make that next return trip all the more urgent. High Speed was the very first machine I ever scored a million on, let alone three. And Nine Ball? The overall design and sound effects of it was a personal must-play for me.

All throughout last Spring and Summer I’d make the effort to be the first one there and the last one to leave. Noon to 8PM. I made one final trip to High Score- before the year was over, leaving it behind in its former incarnation forever. It’s now half of what it used to be. The other half is now home gaming and memorabilia. I knew it would never be as good after when I first found it and won’t expect it to be better. But I’ll never, ever forget it - just like I’ll never forget the ride to Williamsburg’s Rough Trade, the post-punk / d.i.y. and jazz-fusion finds, the Jewish girl from Queens with the straight shoulder-length hair and green eyes who asked me if I had a copy of KIDS, or the two pale gingers with brown eyes I spent forever with at my store. Another day, another payout.

The alignments had another card up its sleeve. The King of Diamonds would be super-ceded by the Ace. The Boy Harsher show was less than two weeks away and I had to visit the Smithhaven Mall to find me a leather jacket and black hat. I walked out with the hat but no jac-. And, as I was walking out, something caught my eye: a shiny colorful array of neon lights. I stop to look at my right and there it was: a new video arcade I never knew existed. I was shut. I step in and to my immediate right was Baby Pac-Man: a cabinet shaped like an upright with a CRT monitor and small pinball playfield below it. It was a machine I only read about but was curious to seek out. Now, here it is. But, I couldn’t go any further as entry was roped off. But I see the sign at the front desk: $20.00 free play all day. It’s 3PM, I wouldn’t get my money’s worth. But I owed it to myself to come back and visit, and visit I did.

The following Wednesday I came back at noon and paid the frail emo casualty up front my $20.00. Does he have any idea what he’s doing here or what this is all about? He wouldn’t care, really. He’s only here to collect and will elicit a fake half-enthusiastic “oh, uh…that’s cool!” when asked. I’m here to revisit my Atari / Nintendo childhood. Eight hours and no time to waste. Let’s have it.

I walk in and there’s three Pac-Man machines grouped together: the 1980 original that became the first-ever character franchise, Baby Pac-Man and Super Pac-Man. Across from it is Ms. Pac-Man. How shameful they couldn’t include her in the boys’ club. There were vector games in Tempest, Lunar Lander, Asteroids, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in super-sharp and blindingly bright on original CRT monitors. There was Gorf, arguably my very first arcade memory living in Brooklyn. Classics such as Centipede, Marble Madness and Spy Hunter which I haven’t played in its true form since forever. Defender, Robotron 2084, and Berzerk rounded out three of four parts of the Williams epic (Blaster was the fourth). Moon Patrol, Galaxian, Zaxxon, Gyruss, Phoenix, Dig Dug, Vanguard, and Missile Command - games I played endlessly on the home system - were there. Crystal Castles, one I always played on the Atari 2600, felt super-frantic and ultra-responsive on my first time ever playing it. Pengo and Mr. Do! - two games I remember my sis- B-Bomb telling me about - were finally crossed off the must-play list.

I found two extremely rare Nintendo Vs. red tents and with that came Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Punch Out, Popeye, and the original Super Mario Bros. which I always used to play at the neighborhood deli (thanks ma’). Even more impressive was the fact that they had Playchoice machines when the South Shore Mall had them. I walk further and there’s Bad Dudes and the first Double Dragon: agonizingly slow and sluggish as fuck like I remembered it.

There’s driving games such as Super Sprint, Crazy Taxi, Chase HQ, and The Cruisin’ series. But, none more important than Sega’s Hang-On and Outrun, one which my younger bro- and I fought over to play first when our parents took us to the ice cream parlor. Next to those were Virtua Cop and Point Blank which I had zero interest playing because it wasn’t Cheyenne.

Konami, known for some of the best multi-player titles ever, made their presence felt with Super Contra, The Simpsons, Sunset Riders, X-Men, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; the final being the gateway and the token example of nostalgia. There was the fighters’ row: Mortal Kombat II, Virtua Fighter, Tekken 4, Killer Instinct, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and Street Fighter II; that final one the basis of my early Brentwood years hanging out in dangerous neighborhoods and being harassed by the youngbucks in pizzerias for quarters. How about not one, not - fuck it - four Neo-Geo MVS’s with such games as Metal Slug 4, Ninja Warriors, Fatal Fury 2, and Samurai Shodown all plugged in and more. Three of those four aforementioned Neo-Geo games all happened during various points of my Brentwood era, coincidentally at the same shopping center as the pizzeria and that down-low mom-and-pop video store in Central Islip.

There were pinball tables such as Spider-Man, Stranger Things, and Star Wars: Episode 1, but couldn’t ever compare to what High Score used to have. Foosball, (a rare) Super Chexx, a Ms. Pac-Man & Galaga cocktail machine, and even Alley Cats: a shuffleboard-slash-bowling hybrid were found. Never played anything like it. Sports-themed uprights in NBA Jam, NHL Ice, and Blades Of Steel which I played all of three minutes before walking away from it and headed for Arkanoid: Revenge Of Doh. I was even taken back by seeing games I never knew existed: Warp Warp and Lady Bug. And finally…Smash TV. I wasted an hour of my valuable life on cheap deaths and repetitious gameplay. I’ll never ever recommend it.

I look above and there was a scoreboard with all the high scores and initials written in chalk. Twin Galaxies this wasn’t and thankfully there were no Billy Mitchell sightings. Another thing up above us was a mural of Blaze, Axel, and Adam of Sega’s Streets Of Rage, deemed one of the best and most successful side-scrolling beat ‘em-ups ever. Further back of the arcade I found a bar set-up and a big projector screen behind it for anyone wanting to play Mario Kart on the big-screen. I looked hard enough to find authentic original operator’s manuals of Jungle Hunt, Centipede, Xevious, Asteroids, and Missile Command framed and hung on the wall. I also laserdiscs also framed and hung on the wall near the arcades storefront. Flashdance, License To Drive, Vision Quest, and - I kid you not - Dirty Dancing. Which reminded me…where the hell were Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace? And no Eighties’ fantasy world wouldn’t be complete without at least two small CRT TV’s set up to play Super Mario Bros. 3 and E.T. It was the perfect set-up found in millions of kid’s rooms everywhere. And they still weren’t done.

The one thing Game On had that High Score Pinball didn’t, and this is the major validator here, was the Eighties soundtrack streamed on the overhead. High Score- only had the natural sound of licensed one-liners, PCBs, electromagnetics, and solid states emanating all the bells and hard solenoid knocks of free games. Only once had they brought out a portable speaker blasting Ozzy’s Nineties hits and alternative. Not Game On. Every song was an unforgettable Eighties throwback. It had to be to fit within the nostalgic theme of gaming’s wonder years of the very-late Seventies to the mid-Nineties.

The Seventies will always be something I’ll explore because it’s a decade I mostly missed out on. Exploring and discovering obscure jazz / fusion, soul, groove, and the hits are all a product of my fascination with hip-hop and rap’s sampling culture, console gaming, money shows, chyrons, station i.d.’s, production logos, opening and closing credits, and promos-. The Eighties were different because I lived through them 100% and still remember it clear as day. I can appreciate new wave, synthpop, the new romantics, Billboard hits, freestyle, radio plays, hair metal, and anything else I listened to as part of my Atari / Nintendo childhood. The arcade’s streaming playlist (could they not afford a cassette player?) was paired with the many original arcade cabinets of their time and served its nostalgic purpose, as intended, to its full unbeatable meaning.

With almost every song played on the overhead there were more childhood memories that followed them. J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” was my first-ever music memory when my other half-sister played it constantly on our turntable in our family’s second-floor Borough Park apartment. The night my dad threw the Christmas tree out on the porch and my ma’ taking both my younger brother and I to stay at gramma’s for a few days. Riding in the passenger’s seat of our white rusted ‘78 Cadillac Coupe Deville and the bubbled rainbow that formed at the top of its windshield. Being stuck on the side of the Southern State Parkway heading home as my younger bro- and I rode in the backseat with toy dashboards. The trips in my parents rusty beige Chevy van where its crusty steel interior and the smell of petrichor created a viciously sickening mess. The two ‘79 yellow and blue AMC VAM Pacer X’s my parents had. Hurricane Gloria and the week-long power outage. Friday night’s Miami Vice. Saturday afternoons spent in the basement playing Atari and watching WWF and NWA. Saturday night’s Golden Girls where the whole family died laughing. Sunday’s Long Island pop station WBLI’s Top Ten countdown on public access television. Our babysitter’s daughter who was the cutest thing of curly black hair, dark eyes, and tall stature who smelled like sparkle and white plush. My bro- and I taking apart our ma’s floral-print couches and making pillow forts out of them. Dad’s in-wall Akai eight-track player and the overhead speakers. Easter’s various assortment of sweet-smelling wax crayons and activity books. Nights spent watching New York Yankee games on PIX, New York Rangers on MSG, Night Flight and Dance Party USA. Family dinner night at Enzo’s in Bay Shore for minestrone, calzones, and newspaper clippings of Italy’s World Cup victories. Assholes in Chams tank-tops smoking in their garages while working on their prized ‘77 Trans Ams. Playing NES all night before getting ready to ride to Staten Island at three in the morning to pick up my dad’s side of the family.

The more I played the more I immersed myself back into familiar territory that I haven’t visited in decades. It’s an absolute rarity when all the right authentic elements that used to be come together as one and re-create a near-perfect rendition of what the Eighties felt like. It’s not just the soundtrack, the manuals and laserdiscs that supplanted the setting, but the actual aesthetic itself. See the decals on the side of the cabinets and the built-in one-of-a-kind joysticks and steering wheels. The amazing control panel artwork. Plenty of CRT monitors and their rasterized graphics, scanlines, ripples, burn-in, and scrambled graphical glitches. Buttons, plenty of buttons of all types. And no more having to bang on the steel coin doors when those quarters got jammed. Not a burn mark in sight and the smell of old wood cabinets filled the room - exactly how I remembered it all.

It was nearing 9PM. The trip back in time was about to end and the mall was finally winding down. I had to have one last game in before having to walk off memory lane and say goodbye. That idiot kid wasn’t there but was replaced by some cute skinny hipster girl punk with pink hair and ladened with piercings, eager to talk to any cliched grown-up punk dad or fading former Gen-X’er wanting to share a story or two about how they missed those simpler days. I’ll never get the spirit and being of the Eighties back, but I no longer miss them now that I have a monthly pilgrimage to Game On. I retire for the night and head out. She unhooks the velvet rope and clears the way for me to leave with a smile.

“Have a good night!” she says. You know I will.

Heart: “Magic Man”

Eddie Money & Ronnie Spector: “Take Me Home Tonight”

Run DMC: “It’s Tricky”

Cutting Crew: “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight”

Toto: “Africa”

A-Ha: “Take On Me”

Foreigner: “Waiting For A Girl Like You”

Bananarama: “I Heard A Rumor”

Wham: “Wake Me Up Befoe You Go-Go”

Mike & The Mechanics: “Silent Running”

Michael Jackson: “Billie Jean”

Rick Springfield: “Jessie’s Girl”

Bruce Springsteen: “Dancer In The Dark”

Pat Benetar: “Love Is A Battlefield”

J. Geils Band: “Centerfold”

Simple Minds: “Don’t You Forget About Me”

Tommy Tutone: “867-5309 / Jenny”

Cyndi Lauper: “Girls Just Wanna’ Have Fun”

Pointer Sisters: “I’m So Excited”

Starship: “We Built This City”

Steve Winwood: “Higher Love”

Whitney Houston: “I Wanna’ Dance With Somebody”

Survivor: “The Search Is Over”

The Outfields: “I Don’t Wanna’ Lose Your Love Tonight”

Flashdance original motion picture soundtrack

The Romantics: “What I Like About You”

Scorpions: Rock You Like A Hurricane”

Quiet Riot: “Come On (Feel The Noise)”

Pointer Sisters: “I’m So Excited”

Fabulous Thunderbirds: “Tough Enough”

Steve Perry: “Oh Sherrie”

Madonna: “Borderline”

Tiffany: “I Think We’re Alone Now”

Belinda Carlisle: “Mad About You”

Debbie Gibson: “Out Of The Blue”

Phil Collins: “Sssudio”

Lionel Richie: “All Night Long”

RUM DMC & Aerosmith: “Walk This Way”

Rick Astley: “Never Gonna’ Give You Up”

Bananarama: “Cruel Summer”

Cyndi Lauper: “Time After Time”

Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes”

Sting: “Every Breath You Take”

Heart: “What About Love”

Foreigner: “I Wanna’ Know What Love Is”

Bruce Springsteen: “Jack & Diane”

Mr. Mister: “Take These Broken Wings”

Bangles: “Hazy Shade Of Winter”

Don Henley: “Boys Of Summer”

Dire Straits: “Money For Nothing”

The Cars: “Shake It Up”

Peter Gabriel: “Big Time”

Bon Jovi: “Livin’ On A Prayer”

Allanah Myles: “Black Velvet”

Culture Club: “Karma Chamelion”

Mike & The Mechanics: “All I Need Is A Miracle”

Starship: “Sarah”

Wham: “Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)”

Billy Ocean: “Caribbean Queen”

#omega #music #mixtapes #playlists #personal #Long Island #Eighties #gaming #arcades #pinball

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adultswim2021 · 2 days

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Yappy Broads #1 | February 22, 2010 (online) | Pilot

Yappy Broads isn’t too complicated to explain. It’s a The View style women’s program with five “women”, four of which are men in drag doing very little to actually act like women. We got Larry Dorf, Tommy Blacha, Earthquake, and Dino Stamatopoulos all wearing freaking dresses and dang-ass woman wigs. Their straight woman is Shandi Finnessey, an actual former beauty queen. One could sexistly say that she is there to look hot, but that would suggest that anyone else involved had some other higher purpose for being there.

First they talk to a woman peddling a workout for your face called “Facersize”. There’s chatter about various topics of the day, and then Corey Feldman stinks it up by hawking his CD and his bad Lost Boys sequel. Have you seen it? I haven’t, but I bet it’s bad. The closing credits feature a close-up of Shandi holding a shaky bunny rabbit, which is pretty nice.

The entire thing is ad-libbed, with a group of funny fellas all chiming in with attempts to be funny. There are moments that show promise, and they usually involve Dino being cantankerous. It seems highly edited down, yet the highlights are still sparse. The single defining moment of this show is Earthquake commenting on a nose exercise: “you know how much cocaine you could do with your nose like this? (no audience response) You be tore up! (no laughter).” To be fair to the show, I did laugh at that, but not in a nice way.

There’s something special about watching TV go off the rails. But this seems like it was designed to already be off the rails. I didn’t really enjoy this. I can’t tell if the problem is that they’ve edited it down too much or if they didn’t edit it down enough. I would love to see the unedited taping of these segments to judge for myself. Even if this were especially funny, it still seems a little wrong to air something like this on a weekly basis.

Anyway, Shandi Finnessey has only done one nude photoshoot and it was for Peta.

MAIL BAG

The Simpsons has killed off its beloved character Larry Dalrymple or "Larry The Barfly." Thoughts on this development? Memories to share? Comments? Questions? Dyns?

I actually watched some of a YouTube video about this and the commenter took issue with the story of the episode being about Larry being lonely and left-out Homer and his friend's fun adventures, because they observed that Larry seemed like he was friends with the hat guy, and that it was a horrible omission. Like the writers should just be presenting an episode that strives to not contradict the previous 800 episodes instead of doing a specific, interesting story. Seemed like a baby-brained way of complaining about the show. My baby-brained takes on cartoons are the only takes that truly matter.

Soul Quest Overdrive has the leader of the proud boys as a voice actor on the show. He was the one who spearheaded that whole January 6th insurrection thing back in 2021, the one that every news outlet was comparing to 9/11 when it was really more like the world's biggest temper-tantrum. He blamed the show being cancelled on the other VA's "Not being as funny" as him.

It's weird how I've hated that guy for as long as I've known about him, and him doing a 180 politics-wise did nothing to affect his standings. But January 6th is maybe the hardest I've ever laughed at anything, so I guess he does deserve some credit.

I don't really know WHY they changed them to sports equipment, this is pure conjecture, but maybe AS felt like having 2 food shows on at the same time was a bit too cheap/cash grabby, so they changed them to differentiate it a bit more. I know they've shot down shows related to hell and food when Development Meeting was still running since they hit that well so many times.

Yeah, that actually does sell the case for it being a creative decision. Maybe it's not sneaky at all, what they're doing.

As for "Eggball", if you look closely on the pinball machine you can see black shake as a decal on it, still on (HBO)max. They can erase a HNIC but they can never erase history.

I had read about black guy cup being on the machine, but I simply must admit that I did not notice it myself!!! Not sure what those letters mean there, but I'm going to assume that none of them are slurs and publish this immediately without looking it up.

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #yappy broads

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dtan0914 · 19 days

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Do the guns party? I know Sabin mentioned in an interview he doesn’t drink a lot.

Having been with them many times over the past year, definitely not now. They are the type of guys who want to go to the venue and back to the hotel after the show. I think the most they do is go to arcades. They meet at Pinball Pete’s in Michigan since I think that’s centrally located between where they live.

I have actually bought Sabin beers in the past and they did split the pack with Kushida! Shelley is not a fan of beer and I think he prefers mixed drinks if he has to go out. I think I’ve only heard about them going out to party maybe ONCE in the past year and it was because of Yuya Uemura (who they both love a lot and make time to see if he’s around). In the past though? Definitely. I was around during Sabin’s last run in PWG (mid 2010s) and definitely saw him smoking weed.

If you guys want to know what they drink that’s not water… Shelley likes Cucumber Lime Gatorade Zero and Sabin likes Coke Zero.

#ask me anything #mcmg #motor city machine guns

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t4tails · 2 years

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i watched gf recently, i think some of the things that aged the worst were probably some fat jokes involving soos, a couple racial stereotypes here and there with characters like soos and candy and mermando, jokes about grenda’s voice which i don’t think the show ever rlly called attention to except maybe like once, and just the overall whiteness of most of the cast, but like at the core i think there wasn’t as much, for lack of a better word, “problematic” stuff. i agree it shouldn’t be put on a pedestal, since 1) nothing should and 2) just because it was fun and well written doesn’t make it comparable to everything and untouchable, but to my memory most of it holds up pretty well and it did have a very good story and messages and feels timeless for the most part even if sometimes you can feel the 2010s-ness of it. sorry ik you didn’t ask for all that but that’s just my two cents (more like a nickel lol)

oooh yeah its honestly been so long i forgot about candy and grenda and yeah. re the shows whiteness i also remember that time mabel wore a native american costume when she was trapped in like the western themed pinball machine. gross choices! very 2014 choices.

#og post #ask #hidingoutbackstage

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pinballhaven · 6 months

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Almost Famous Brewing, November 2023

#pinball #pinball art #retro gaming #pinball machine #retro #stern pinball #stern #2010s pinball #2020s pinball #modern pinball #the beatles #led zeppelin #rush #foo fighters

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bestbugs · 1 year

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🐛 Finny’s VERY long list of their interests, fun facts, and favorite things! 🐛

(To be updated on Desktop, because mobile formatting got a little messed up.)

Key:

🖍 Interests from my childhood

‼️ HUGE interests of mine!

(Add a post cut here)

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Interests (in no particular order)!:

1.) Laundromats 🖍

2.) Car Washes

3.) Chevron Cars 🖍

4.) The Human Body (How it works, books about it, etc.) 🖍

5.) Aliens

6.) Theory Channels (Game Theory, Film Theory, Food Theory, Style Theory).

7.) Music 🖍

8.) Art 🖍

9.) Scouts (Girl scouts and Boy Scouts)! Fun Fact: I was in Girl Scouts when I was little, and I want to be a volunteer for either Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts someday!

10.) Schools / “Schoolcore”

11.) Hospitals, specifically Childrens Hospitals. (I went to a children’s hospital very often when I was younger, and I began associating it with comfort and “getting better!”) 🖍

12.) Learning other languages and learning about other cultures (and what life is like around the world!) 🖍

13.) What life was like in the past.

14.) 2000s-Early 2010 aesthetic.

15.) Backpacks ‼️🖍

16.) Stuntmen and women

17.) Wrestling 🖍

18.) Old Commercials ‼️ (Mostly from 2000s-Early 2010s)

19.) Ska music 🖍‼️

20.) Care Bears 🖍

21.) Rockhopper Penguins ‼️

22.) Vocaloid 🖍‼️

23.) Old magazines (usually 80s-early 2000s)

24.) Public Service Announcements ‼️

25.) Retro Arcades ‼️🖍

…and more that I am probably forgetting! I will update the list as more things come to mind!

Fun Facts:

🐛 I don’t mind what pronouns are used for me! I like the sense of anonymity that comes with the option of someone using any pronouns for me gives me.

🐛 Finny is just an online nickname I like, not one I use in real life!

🐛 My favorite colors are currently orange and yellow, but I like most colors!

🐛 I write all the time! I have a huge storage box full of completed journals— and I have been writing consistently since I was in 2nd grade! That’s over a decade of writing!

🐛 I like to edit photos and videos! I hope that I can get better at both someday!

🐛 I have a binder that I use as my own personal “scrapbook” and personal care guide. I am super proud of it— and I plan on having a tour of it with you all, soon!

🐛 I can play the drums, clarinet, and I am learning the piano! I want to get back into playing the recorder, because that was the first instrument I’ve ever played! This time, I’d like to use a higher quality recorder.

🐛 Puzzle games, rhythm games, racing games, arcade games, and fighting games are my favorite! My favorites in each category are currently: Tetris (any version), Project Mirai DX (or any version of a Hatsune Miku/Vocaloid rhythm game), Mario Kart 8, most retro arcade games AND pinball machines, and Tekken!

🐛 I’ve been using tumblr since 2012, but my original account is lost.

🐛 I’ve been a Vocaloid fan since about 2009-2010! My favorite Vocaloid is Luka, but I love them all!

🐛 My favorite Care Bear is Funshine bear! My favorite thing that I own is my Funshine Bear cup!

🐛 My Favorite Song is currently: 🎶Break by Kero Kero Bonito🎶

🐛 My favorite TV show is currently Bluey!

🐛 My favorite movie is currently most Pixar movies! Monsters Inc has a special place in my heart.

🐛 My favorite art material to use: Colored Pencils

🐛 My favorite snack is freeze dried apple slices!

🐛 My favorite drink is Snapple Apple juice, or warm tea with lemon!

🐛 If I were an animal, I would pick a penguin or a house cat. If I were a cat, I would want to be a fluffy orange cat!

More details may be added soon!

Last Updated: April 11th, 2023.

❓Why make this list?❓:

Sometimes when you’re upset, you can easily forget what things make you happy. Making “about me” lists gives me the opportunity to revisit what I know I like— and it gives you all the opportunity to get to know me better!

#about 🐛#🐛 interests

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arqueete · 1 year

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2022 New Year's Meme

Every year I do this survey that went around Livejournal in the 2010s. Anyone is welcome to do the survey!

1. What did you do in 2022 that you’d never done before?

I got married! I had a wedding and a honeymoon (my first time visiting Montreal)!

I visited Columbus, OH for the first time (and second time) to visit the office of my new job.

I played pinball machines for I think the first time? At least the first time in my adult life.

I went to local science museum Discovery World for the first time (as far as I remember) as well.

Some food I cooked for the first time: cream puffs, fondue, ice cream, chicken paprikash, baozi.

Finally went to local summer concert series Jazz in the Park.

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions and will you make more for next year?

My resolutions for 2022 were to be more physically active (and try a fitness challenge), and to keep up with learning Italian. I bought rollerblades and did a little rollerblading (though not as much as I would've liked), I feel like I did start walking places a lot more in the summer, and I was doing a calisthenics routine for a while there, so I did at least make an attempt at being more physically active. I haven't been working on Italian as much as I'd hoped either, but I did take a six week Italian class in the spring and that was really helpful!

In 2023, I have a few resolutions:

I have a membership at a pottery studio but I don't actually use it very often. Next year I'd like to make more of a routine out of going and have something in progress at all times.

I want to make more of a habit of finding ways to use up leftover ingredients and throw away less food.

I mostly get around via the free streetcar and my car--I haven't ridden on a local city bus since before the pandemic started. I'd like to ride the bus a little more in 2023.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? A friend of mine had a baby girl earlier in the year! 4. Did anyone close to you die? Fortunately no.

5. What countries did you visit? I visited Canada for the second time, this time to stay in Montreal. I really enjoyed it there--the French was a little challenging at times but rewarding and interesting other times, the historic neighborhoods were fun to explore, I appreciated the public transit options, and I generally was very charmed by this city! I'd love to see it again someday. 6. What would you like to have in 2023 that you lacked in 2022? Last year I said I wanted to find a job that I would enjoy and where I felt I could stay for a while--I'm really happy to say I did start a new job this year where I feel supported and enjoy spending time with my smart and fun coworkers.

In 2023, I'd like to have closer relationships to people who live nearby. It seems like we keep on putting off inviting people over (or out). I want to take the initiative more to see people and maintain connections. 7. What date from 2022 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? October 16, 2022 was the day I got married! 8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I do think it has to be planning the wedding. I've definitely never organized any event of that size and boy was it a lot of work. 9. What was your biggest failure? I don't want to be overdramatic about it but it was a bummer that I worked hard on an entry to the state fair knitting competition this year and I was really proud of what I made, but I didn't place. 10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I had my first ever root canal this year for a cracked tooth. I also developed chronic hives, which is ongoing and I'll be seeing an allergist about it in January.

11. What was the best thing you bought? A lot of the best things I acquired this year were gifts (like my ice cream maker) but I think it was sometime this year that I bought this nice water bottle from Target, and I was never really a water bottle person before but I am now. 12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My friend @prosopopeya changed careers!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? The supreme court. 14. Where did most of your money go? It's always rent. Aside from that, wedding/honeymoon expenses and groceries. 15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Besides my wedding (which was sometimes as nerve-wracking as it was exciting) I got really, really, really excited when I stumbled upon the Phantom of the Opera pinball machine!!! 16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2022? Earlier in the year I got really into the Glass Animals album Dreamland (and I saw them live this year! My diving in to the album mostly came after the concert.) At the end of the year I really enjoyed the new Death Cab for Cutie album Asphalt Meadows. It was already my all-time favorite love song but our first dance at our wedding was to "Passenger Seat" by Death Cab for Cutie.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. Happier or sadder? Happier. ii. Older or wiser? Wiser. iii. Thinner or fatter? Thinner. iv. Richer or poorer? Richer. 18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I had seen more theater. I already have tickets to a couple shows for next year so hopefully I can turn this around. 19. What do you wish you’d done less of? I need to stop going to the grocery store so often. The pandemic had forced me to plan meals and make infrequent shopping trips and work with what I had on hand and this year I threw all of that out the window and I am constantly at the store. 20. How will you be spending Christmas? We were really relieved that we got to have a "real" Christmas this year after Covid kept us at home the past two years. We went to my parents' house on Christmas Eve, then we hosted my in-laws at our apartment Christmas morning, and then had Christmas dinner out near Madison, WI with my husbands' extended family.

21. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve? We plan on having a charcuterie dinner at home and then we have tickets to a speakeasy-themed event at a local bar. On New Year's Day we will maintain our tradition of attending the 36th Annual Cool Fool Kite and Ice Festival and flying our octopus kite, Squeaky Jr.

22. Did you fall in love in 2022? I'm still in love with my new husband! 23. How many one-night stands? None.

24. What was your favorite TV program? I loved What We Do In the Shadows and Derry Girls.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I've never liked Elon Musk but boy am I tired of hearing about him causing chaos this year. 26. What was the best book you read? I'm really proud of how much I read this year! I usually read only a few books a year but I read at least a dozen books in the last half of the year alone.

But when it comes to the best book I read... I think it has to be Dracula. I participated in Dracula Daily, an email mailing list that sends you excerpts from Dracula on the day the book says they occur, and experienced the entire book that way along with a bunch of other people on the internet.

The experience was so unique and interesting--to really get a sense of the passage of time in the story (it begins in May and ends in November), to often only get a little bit at a time which helped me appreciate little details and maybe made the more boring and long-winded bits more tolerable (I know @hrello has been suffering through this on his solo read), and to read along with lots of other people and share jokes and bits of historical context with each other. And of course the story itself, which feels actually kind of novel and refreshing after seeing vampires remixed so often in pop culture--generally, myself and people on Tumblr really rallied around the human characters in the book more than the vampires. Dracula is a novel about the power of friendship! 27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Bon Iver's Justin Vernon started a monthly radio show called Song Chest Radio Hour, and in one I listened to (maybe I should listen to more in 2023!) he said something like, "If you've never heard of The Roches you're in for a treat," and played their song "Hammond Song." He was right, it really is a treat.

28. What did you want and get? Last year we bought a stand mixer and ever since I have dreamed of the stand mixer ice cream maker attachment. This year I got it as a wedding gift and it is all I ever dreamed of--I've made several different cereal-flavored ice creams and I want to experiment more.

29. What did you want and not get? Dying waiting to see our wedding photos. The photographer still has a few weeks left, contractually, to deliver them to us so there's nothing to be annoyed about yet but we were really hoping to at least get them by Christmas. This is past the time he mentioned it usually takes him to deliver so we can't help but worry about it. (What if he sent them weeks ago and we didn't get them for some reason?) I have some cute frames waiting for photos! 30. What was your favorite film of this year? Everything Everywhere All at Once blew me away--it made me feel so much and reminded me of what makes movies great and special as an art form.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 32 this year (which hasn't really sunk in yet) and our original plan was to go to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, which I'd still like to do, but it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we just weren't up for it. Instead, we got breakfast at a local waffle place, went to the Public Museum to see the Streets of Old Milwaukee decorated for Christmas, had lunch and freaked out over a water leak in our apartment that required an emergency maintenance call, and then went to Discovery World. I had the Milk Bar malted chocolate cake made for me by my husband as a birthday cake.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If we hadn't had so much drama around Thanksgiving and my family canceling and then my husband's family canceling. Those big family holidays feel extra precious since the pandemic started. 33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2022? I started working for a company that sells clothes, which does do something to a person. I feel like I approached 2022 with an open mind about my personal style, challenging some ideas about what is "me." I wore a couple dresses with low necklines. I bought an animal print sweater. I bought a cropped sweatshirt. At the same time, I embraced feeling comfortable and felt like I learned more about how to look sexy or confident or put together in a relaxed way. 34. What kept you sane? Reading. I tried to use reading to replace some of my social media usage this year so that scrolling through feeds isn't like, my default state of being. I read a lot of books and also got a few magazine subscriptions so there's always things around to read without looking at screens. 35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I enjoy the cast of What We Do In the Shadows. 36. What political issue stirred you the most? The mid-terms were this year and fuck Ron Johnson but the big one for me was the overturning of Roe v Wade. 37. Who did you miss? With the whole Darren Criss in Chess thing this year, and showing my husband Spring Awakening for the first time, I really wished Jaymee were around so I could tell her about it. 38. Who was the best new person you met? My new coworkers! There are some people at my new job that I really get along with and I'm so grateful. 39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2022: I think weddings can be a good exercise in having reasonable expectations for what you will get out of your relationship with different members of your extended family. There can be this feeling, especially with all the tradition that is attached to a life event like that, that surely everyone will show reverence to this important moment even if they don't have a history of showing up for you in that way and... you know better, right? And I don't mean that in a bitter way but with a sense of peace.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

You've had too much of the digital love You want everything live, you want things you can touch Make it feel like a movie you saw in your youth Make it feel like that song that just unopened you

Glass Animals - "Dreamland"

#meme #memes

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themattress · 1 year

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Eras of a Franchise:

1996 - 1998: Generation I (1998 - 1999 US) - Pokemon: Red/Green is released in Japan early in 1996, and proves successful enough that an updated version, Blue, gets released by the end of the year alongside the first set of a Trading Card Game. In 1997, the anime adaptation begins airing and several manga series such as Pokemon Adventures begin serialization. In 1998, another updated version of the game based on the anime, Yellow, was released in Japan while the franchise finally made its way to the US with Red/Blue, which were actually the Japanese Red/Green remade with the Japanese Blue’s engine. The TCG, anime, manga and Yellow followed suit in both that year and the following year of 1999.

1999: Gen II Adjacent (2000 US) - Generation II ended up taking longer to develop than expected, and so we got a strange year (1999 in Japan, 2000 in the US) that wasn’t quite Gen I but wasn’t Gen II either. It was a good time for spin-off games though, as we saw the releases of Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Pinball, Pokemon Puzzle League and Puzzle Challenge, and the Pokemon franchise’s inclusion in Super Smash Bros.

2000 - 2002: Generation II (2001 - 2003 US) - Mainline games of Gen II were Gold/Silver, released at the very end of 1999 in Japan and late 2000 in the US, and Crystal, an updated version released in 2000 in Japan and 2001 in the US. Spin-off games curiously dried up almost completely at this point, with Pokemon Stadium 2 being essentially the only one.

2003 - 2006: Generation III (2004 - 2007 US) - Mainline games of Gen III were Ruby/Sapphire, released at the very end of 2002 in Japan and early 2003 in the US, Gen I remakes FireRed/LeafGreen released across the world in 2004, and Emerald, an updated version of Ruby/Sapphire released in 2004 in Japan and 2005 in the US. Spin-off games returned with a vengeance, including Pokemon Colosseum, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire, Pokemon Box RS, Pokemon Dash, Pokemon Trozei, Pokemon Channel, Pokemon Ranger, and the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.

2006 - 2010: Generation IV (2007 - 2010 US) - Mainline games of Gen IV were Diamond/Pearl, released late 2006 in Japan and early 2007 in the US, Platinum, an updated version released in late 2008 in Japan and early 2009 in the US, and Gen II remakes HeartGold/SoulSilver released in late 2009 in Japan and early 2010 in the US. Spin-off games, as plentiful here as in Gen III, included Pokemon Battle Revolution, Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness/Sky, My Pokemon Ranch, Pokepark Wii, and Pokemon Rumble.

2010 - 2013: Generation V (2011 - 2013 US) - Mainline games of Gen V were Black/White, released late 2010 in Japan and early 2011 in the US, and sequels Black 2/White 2, released across the world in 2012. Spin-off games were less prevalent during this gen than the previous two and included Pokemon Conquest, Pokepark 2, Pokemon Rumble Blast and Rumble U, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity, and Pokemon Dream Radar.

2013 - 2016: Generation VI - Starting with this gen, the mainline games began to launch worldwide simultaneously. They include X/Y in 2013 and Gen III remakes Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire in 2014 (a Z duology of X/Y updated versions was planned to be developed and released in 2015, but was scrapped). Spin-off games include Camp Pokemon, Pokemon Battle Trozei, Pokemon Shuffle, Pokemon Rumble World, Pokken Tournament, Pokemon Picross, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Detective Pikachu, and of course Pokemon GO, which actually brought Gen I level mainstream attention to the franchise again.

2016 - 2019: Generation VII - Mainline games of Gen VII were Sun/Moon in 2016, updated versions Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon in 2017, and new Gen I remakes Let’s GO! Pikachu/Eevee in 2018. Spin-off games include Pokken Tournament DX, Pokemon Talk, Pokemon Quest, Pokemon Rumble Rush, and Pokemon Masters, later upgraded as Pokemon Masters EX.

2019 - 2022: Generation VIII - Mainline games of Gen VIII were Sword/Shield in 2019 which underwent DLC expansions in 2020, Gen IV remakes Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl in 2021, and Legends: Arceus in 2022. Spin-off games included Pokemon Cafe, New Pokemon Snap, Pokemon UNITE, and a 3D remake of the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games.

#Eras of a Franchise #Pokemon #Analysis

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zosonils · 2 years

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it's the late 2000s, early 2010s at the latest. you are about ten years old. your parents have benevolently granted you twenty precious extra minutes of screen time. you log into your user account on the family windows xp desktop computer. while it's tempting to play 3d pinball space cadet, you instead open microsoft paint. you draw a picture of sonic the hedgehog that looks like this

#thinking about how i used to draw sonic in ms paint <3 #including the no ears it took me about a year to realise that he had ears and it wasn't just tails #why yes i am a passionate sonic fan of well over a decade why do you ask

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mitchbeck · 2 months

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RADMONSKY CRUSHES SWAMP RABBITS WIN STREAK

Swamp Rabbits mount a late comeback, but Rush avoids sweep in the finale By: Mark Binetti, Greenville Swamp Rabbits GREENVILLE, S.C. – Ethan Somoza and Josh McKechney hit paydirt late in the third period, but the comeback effort of the Greenville Swamp Rabbits was thwarted, in part by 47 saves from Matt Radomsky, leading to a 5-3 win for the Rapid City Rush on Sunday afternoon. The loss ends a four-game winning streak for the Swamp Rabbits dating back to February 17th.Both teams skated to a scoreless draw for the opening 20 minutes, the first time in this three-game series. At 5:52 in the second period, the Rush earned their first lead of the set and expanded by multiple goals, beginning with Alex Aleardi. At 4:41, a turnover forced by Jimmy Soper behind the net led to a chance for Aleardi, who from the high slot rifled a shot past Swamp Rabbits net-minder Ryan Bednard to give the Rush a 1-0 lead (Soper had the lone assist).Exactly 2:05 later, Brett Gravelle swooped in transition over the Swamp Rabbits' blue line and, from the right side, unloaded a laser past Bednard's blocker far post to double the Rush lead at 6:46 (Logan Nelson and Blake Bennett assisted). Finishing the scoring run was Simon Boyko, who at 10:33 completed a two-on-one rush with Keanu Yamamoto, finishing past Bednard to make it a 3-0 hockey game (Yamamoto and Zack Hoffman assisted).In the final two minutes, Brannon McManus ended the run and got the Swamp Rabbits on the board, threading a shot from the right wall through traffic and past Rush goaltender Matt Radomsky to bring the game to 3-1 entering the final frame (Jake Stevens had the lone assist).Keanu Yamamoto picked up where the Rush left off and struck early in the final period to continue establishing breathing room. Just 75 seconds into the last period of the series, Yamamoto crept into the Swamp Rabbits zone and rifled a shot from the left side that beat Bednard up high, vaulting the Rush to a 4-1 lead (Alex Aleardi and Zack Hoffman assisted). The goal prompted a change in net, with Bednard coming out for Jacob Ingham for the remainder of the game.Trying to start a rally, Ethan Somoza buried a power play goal in a chaotic net-front exchange, settling a loose puck out of a congregation in the crease to cut the deficit to 4-2 with 6:27 gone by in the third (Carter Souch and Brett Kemp assisted). As the Swamp Rabbits were about to pull Ingham for the extra firepower late, Josh McKechney wrapped around the Rush net, pinballing the puck off of a defender and in to put the Swamp Rabbits in striking distance, trailing 4-3 with 3:41 left in the game (Tanner Eberle and Anthony Beauchamp assisted). Unfortunately for the Swamp Rabbits, Jimmy Soper ended the threat of a comeback with an empty-net goal with 22.5 seconds remaining, giving the Rush a 5-3 win to end an eight-game losing streak and avoid a sweep at the hands of the Swamp Rabbits.Ryan Bednard, making his first start since February 4th, stopped 11 of 15 shots in 41:15 of his start (16-9-0-0). The loss ended a streak of six consecutive starts with a win dating back to January 12th. Jacob Ingham finished the game, stopping all five shots he saw in 17:20 of relief. He was the only goaltender to play in all three games in the series.The Swamp Rabbits now head back on the road for the next four games, beginning this Saturday against the Atlanta Gladiators. Puck drop for the first two-game set is slated for 7:00 p.m. EST at Gas South Arena on March 2nd.About the Greenville Swamp Rabbits … Acquired by Spire Sports + Entertainment (SS+E) in 2020, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits hockey team has been providing family-friendly, live entertainment at Bon Secours Wellness Arena since 2010. Formerly the Greenville Road Warriors, the Swamp Rabbits are the highest-level professional minor league franchise in South Carolina. The Swamp Rabbits are the proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL's LA Kings and the AHL's Ontario Reign. Greenville is an ECHL Premier' AA' Hockey League member.GREENVILLE SWAMP RABBITSHOWLINGS.NET Read the full article

#AHL #AtlantaGladiators

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