0 Y Yu v 9 a The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, February 20, 2008 I . a .. - . go .:- ., rt4l ABOUT CAMPUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN OQUIST QUOTES OF THE WEEK It's like when you crave tur- key. You eat it and you eat it and you eat it, but you still want it." - ROBERT BENJAMIN, a 67-year-old former col- lege professor at Vanier College in Montreal, com- paring his addiction to sadomasochistic sex clubs in New York with eating turkey "It's time to send him back to Germany from where he comes from. You want to know his original name? It's Frankenstein." - MOHAMED AL-FAYED, the father of Princess Di's former lover, about Prince Philip of the British royal family, who Fayed believes conspired to assassinate Di They still play the silver ball In A's amusement halls, pinball wizards remain Walking down the stairs of Pin- ball Pete's from South University Street, the initial effect is sensory overload. Your eyes and ears are bombarded by a nonsensical med- ley of flashing neon lights, beeps, boops and animated voices. When your vision begins to adjust, individual games stand out from the tightly packed collection - the white-water rafting simu- lator or the zombie apocalypse first-person shooter. Each one seemingly, or literally, beckoning to customers, "Play me! Play me!" One staple of the arcade, though, doesn't garner as much atten- tion as its flashier neighbors. The arcade's namesake games: the pin- ball machines. As gamers battle ninja oppo- nents, or watch a heavyset middle school boy play Dance Dance Rev- olution for the fifth time in a row, the pinball machines stand mostly untouched in discreet rows at the back of the arcade. But for a devout few, the arcade is called Pinball Pete's for more than just the sake of vague nos- talgia and alliteration. They're players of all ages whose devotion to pinball hearkens back to a time before Xbox. A time when Pinball Pete's had four locations in down- town Ann Arbor. A time that was the golden era of pinball - the early 1990s. Andrew Fischer, a 40-year-old Ann Arbor resident, came to Pin- ball Pete's last Monday to play his favorite of the arcade's 12 pinball machines, the one featuring Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. "If your play doesn't last that long, she makes comments," Fisch- er said of the game's recorded commentary voiced by the provoc- atively rmocking Elvira. Fischer, who is a mechanical engineer, said he's drawn to pin- ball for the physical action of the game. While he has a Playstation at home, he said he returns to Pin- ball Pete's because digital games, including computer pinball, don't have the mechanical element that requires a sense of physics to get the ball to do what you want in a pinball game. "Most of them usually fail in the way the ball plays," he said. over the decades since Pinball Pete's opening, Fischer has wit- nessed the progression of arcade culture, as well as the rise and fall of pinball. Fischer recalls how a decade or two ago Pinball Pete's had several times as much business 0 4 '. . 0 0 0 TALKING POINTS "Because it's tree." - JOHN TRIPLETTE, a man from California, on why he made more than 27,000 calls on his cell phone to 911 beginning in May. When his calls were answered, Triplette would start muttering, making noises with his body and pressing the beep tones. He was charged with a misdemeanor as it does now and often held pin- ball tournaments. Also, Williams Manufacturing Company, the one-time leading pinball machine maker that has since suspended production, was on top of the game with its "Twilight Zone" and "The Addams Family" machines. "There's been a lull for years," Fischer said. "Williams was mak- ing better and better games and they kind of stopped making them because of videogames." c as the technological mar- said, 'No'," Linden said. "But the tion of pinball machine day after that they called and asked turers might be, the real me to work for them." is the new generation of Working at Pinball Pete's, Lin- nthusiasts who fell in love den learned how to repair pin- ame in its death throes. ball machines, which led him join Linden, a School of Educa- an online community of pinball or who collects and trades connoisseurs by purchasing and sachines, rediscovered his repairing broken-down machines on for the game at Pinball to trade with other collectors. st year. "It's a small group, but it's a ne back the next day and tight-knit group," Linden said. they were hiring and they See ABOUT CAMPUS, Page 8B Tragi ginalizat manufac tragedy pinball e with a g Brad I tion juni pinballn fascinati Pete's la: "I car asked if Three things you can talk about this week: 1. Kosovo's independence 2. The dangers of drag racing 3. Spring Break 2009: Cuba And three things you can't: 1. The slow unraveling of Kwame Kilpatrick 2. The clout of superdelegates. 3. Book22.com and its Christian sex toys rBY THE NUMBERS, Number of digitized books the University library has made available online through its Michigan Digitization Project Total number of volumes in the library that will eventually be digitized Number of book pages viewed online every month through the University's MBooks program Source: University of Michigan . - I ^ I i . . YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE WEEK Charles "Ego" Trippy The great thing about the Internet is that it allows the unwashed-yet- tech-savvy masses to spread their ideas and opinions on a global scale. That's also its problem. Websites like YouTube have given avoice to people like Charles Trippy, a twenty-some- thing with terrible hair who calls himself a "viral video creator" and brags about his 110,000 friends on social networkingsites. Apparently unsatisfied with those achievements, Mr. Trippy decided to make the longest YouTube video of all time. The website restricts submissions to 100 megabytes, but Trippyused compression software to post a video about nine hours and 15 minutes long. Thevideo shows amostly unevent- ful day in the life of Trippy. He opens a DYD and then watches it. He taunts his dog by reflecting a light on the wall. He leaves his home to buy some booze and returns to drink it with some friends. Because of a glitch, you can't fast forward through much of the video, meaning you have to watch the sec- ond half straight through if you want to see it.Butsomethingtells methat's not the point. What matters is that the video has given Trippy 250,000 ego boosts - one for every person who has clicked the link. -GABE NELSON See this and other YouTube videos ofthe week at yourube.com/usermichigandaily THEME PARTY SUGGESTION Rooftop Eclipse - Tonight marks the beginning of the first lunar eclipse of 2008. In order to show solidarity with the science community, you should dust off your telescope, meet up with some star- gazing friends and find a choice rooftop. While you're waiting, you should reminisce about past eclipses while nursing a glass of Chardonnay. Classy, we know. But it'll heighten your senses as you watch earth cast its shadow over the moon. Throwing this porty? Let us know. TheStatement@umich.edu treshmen and Sophomores, are you looking for a summer internship? Would you like to take a step towards bolstering your resume? Do you wan to work with the coolest people on campus? Teachers of Color Job Fair Learn Meet Discover about the faculty, the variety of' experiences students, and teaching and benefits of administrators positions teaching in an from Metro available in independent Detroit and independent school. Ann Arbor schools. independent schools. KN0x