I’ll just give everyone some time to get all the cracks about how OMG EARLY!!11!!!1 this league recap is out of the way.
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Ah, Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann. Always worth another listen. Anyway, I’m back with your semi-monthly league update. Our last meeting was the fifth of Season 13, meaning we’re over the hill, and I’m not just talking about those of us old enough to understand the superiority of analog clock faces. We finally have more of Season 13 behind us than ahead of us. It just feels like we have been playing Season 13 forever because of the July hiatus.
We played bank Melpomene, named for the Muse of Tragedy but actually made up of the “comic horror” themed games. When I arrived (a bit later than I would have liked, due to work-related delays), everyone was clustered around the new Stern Jurassic Park instead of waiting in line to put in Smackdown games as usual. I ended up having to enlist someone with a louder voice to get people to gather for the night’s festivities. Mike pointed out that we would be having a very nostalgic league experience, since all of Melpomene’s games are currently located in the alcove. In the early days of the league, we had few enough games that all of them were in the alcove. It may have been nostalgic, but it was also very crowded, and we were constantly bumping into each other or having to beg pardon for sliding past.
Our Tuesday Night Smackdown was on Guardians of the Galaxy, or as Joseph insists on calling it, “the Rocket Raccoon game.” Joseph really likes procyonids. I had been so busy with school that I had forgotten to make the Smackdown medals, so I called home from work to ask Joseph to make them again. He colored them with the design of a wrapped gift, explaining that it was in honor of his niece Sasha’s birthday that day. And what do you know, but Joseph ended up winning the Smackdown medal, taking the Sasha’s birthday medal back home with him. Over in B division, Mike said he would defer playing in the tournament unless the game randomly chosen was Jurassic Park. That’s exactly what happened. I was less thrilled, as I haven’t gotten a feel for Jurassic Park yet. “Pretend it’s the Beatles,” Mike said. I said that I still wanted The Beatles back and Mike said we should get a Beat Time instead. Derik asked what Beat Time is, so we got to be the first to fill him in on that delightful chapter of pinball history.
This was my first night in Joseph’s group this season. He was having a very bad night and got unusually frustrated. At one point he responded to a drain on The Munsters (a game he normally likes, believe it or not) by grabbing the game and rage-shaking it so hard it rocked on its legs. This was followed immediately by the voice of Derik: “I’m standing right here.” I told Joseph he had better cool it before Derik threw him out. Joseph said, “Well, you saw what it did to me.” Later on, Derik did the same thing to Munsters, causing a “See? See?” reaction from Joseph.
Jason won the Undercard (B division), and was more excited about it than I expected. It turned out that this was his first-ever Smackdown medal of any kind, to my surprise. Not present was Jim, Bryan’s dad, who once again left too early, because he would have qualified to play in B. We’ll get him one of these times.
See you all tomorrow at 7 for another exciting chapter in the annals of Lansing pinball history, league night number 6!