#i went to nintendo store new york

[ultra-trailer]

everyone say hi to my baby.. his name is Lonny and i will Show him the World 🌍♥️

[pkmn-smashorpass]

TF anon I’ve never been into TF but you just gave me inner peace while I was reading that. Holy shit. That sounds absolutely beautiful. No work, no bills, just find a delicious tree

[sweetandglovelyart]

Some Kirby merchandise that I saw while visiting Kinokuniya New York and Nintendo New York 🏙️

[omegaremix]

April 3, 2022.

It takes a good two months before a year starts to pick up for me. The first big win was in the final frigid day of February when I decided to take the train to Greenpoint’s Academy Annex for some records; the first stop of what would be an amazing record-store victory tour. Then arrived March. I drove four miles to the shopping mall to look for leather jackets when I discovered a new retro- video arcade opened up. Within a few days I walk in and spent the entire day re-living my Atari / Nintendo / SNES youth. Those eight hours were a thoroughly exhaustive one. I saw games which I threw many rolls of quarters into, to others I only read about and fantasized even seeing up until then. The original Super Mario Bros. cabinet, The Neo Geo MVS, Outrun, R-Type, Taito’s Superman, Atari’s Star Wars. Most of every great moment of my youth spent in delis, card stores, ice cream parlors, long-gone restaurants, and amusement parks were now all in one room.

Good thing I went because my all-time favorite ginger April* made a rare appearance in my store and I had to tell her about it. She came in to buy some A/V components like she always does and we spent a good ten minutes catching up on everything. April was a fangirl and a hardcore gamer of all formats so I had to share the wealth of news with her. Too late. She already went. Still, every visit from her counted as she was the cutest thing of pale skin, glasses, and Irish ancestry I ever seen.

I had another holiday spent with my Coney Island family. My aunt invited me to her daughter’s house in East Meadow for Easter where they, her aggressive right-wing country-music loving Trump supporter sons, her sister, and all the offspring you could think of would be there. A great four hours were had coloring eggs, watching Disney’s Encanto on the big screen, and an endless feast of Italian food were laid out for all to gorge ourselves to death. Blessings were counted and they were enough to cash them in for a bright sunny Sunday. I also enjoyed the hour-long drive from East Meadow through Rt. 27 all the way home.

In between all this was a major event I was chasing for a while. It would be nice to attend a Boy Harsher show and they’ve been making the rounds in New York City quite often. I jumped at the opportunity to purchase tickets after their Halloween show and ultimately got them - only for January show to be postponed. Blame the COVID- omicron for it. But Jae & Augustus pushed it back to April and this time nothing was stopping them from performing nor anyone attending The Music Hall Of Williamsburg.

I learned that it was a two-hour ride each way from my line to Penn Station and back due to transfers at the Jamaica Station. Not good as I had to work a 10AM shift. This time, I opted to drive out to the Babylon stop for a direct line to Manhattan and back for fifty-five minutes each. I went up the stairs and waited only a few minutes before the train arrived on an elevated platform. Nothing special about the train ride on a cloudy mid-50* weather. The show, however, was a whole other story. Everyone enjoyed the opener Twin Tribes and the headlining Boy Harsher hands-down to great fanfare. I couldn’t have waited in line to get some merch- as, once again, someone had to ride home for tomorrow’s payday.

I reversed the path from The Music Hall- by taking the L and ½/3 line back to Penn Station. It just so happened that I missed my train home by three minutes and it cost me an hour more before the next one came in. As I mentioned before, no transfers. Just a direct line from Penn Station back to Babylon where the double-decker cars awaited us. A nice surprise for me sitting in the seats above to contemplate my next major win: Sacred Bones’ 15th anniversary show. It could only get better.

Fifteen years ago from this month, a new concept was born. I purchased a 30GB iPod Classic through a ‘friend’ of mine at WUSB. Since then, I loaded all of my music into it and took it through many train rides. The iPod Classic has retired in favor of my iPhone SE. What once became a distraction has now been an auditioning process for future Omega WUSB shows and seasonal personal playlists. Nothing is off limits. Noise, backpacker, jazz, fusion, shoegaze, noise rock, post-punk, electronics, hardcore - everything. Everything I discover gets played in hopes of either being featured or forever a part of me. With a near endless plethora of outlets, mutuals, and other ways of obtaining music, there’s almost never a moment of silence outside of work or sleep.

Congotronics International: “Where’s The One”

MoE: “Beautiful Stranger”

Silent Servant: “Slasher”

Doc Hammer: “Commanche Crew Cut”

Visit0r: “God Of All Flesh”

People’s Choice, The: “Here We Go Again”

Ride: “1,000 Miles”

Thurston Moore: “The Station”

Sunrot: 21%

Joucous: “Rivers Pt. 1”

Exek: “ID’ed”

Legss: “Hyde Park Coroner”

Alice Glass: “Suffer And Swallow”

Totally Unicorn: “Daddy’s Stabby Surprise”

Aeges: “Who Are You”

Benny The Butcher & J. Cole: “Johnny P.’s Caddy”

Maneskin: “Moriro Da Re” 

Broken Vow: “Expiation”

Exek: “(I’m After) Your Best Interest”

Smash Your Enemies: “Faithless”

Death Strider: “Cardinal Sin”

Letting Up Despite Great Faults: “Gemini”

Dead Leaf Echo: “Milk.Blue.Kisses (Foil In Motion)”

Offset: Spectacles, The: “Stomp”

Caparezza: “Eyes Wide Shut”

[melodies-pure-and-unearthly]

I finally went to New York! I'd heard that Phantom was being retired indefinitely from the stage, (and immediately began crying) so one of my soulmates and I decided to plan a short little 24 hr trip. Our show was at 7, but we landed in the city around 9am! We filled our time with pasta, wandering to different landmarks such as St. Patrick's cathedral, visited the MoMA and the Nintendo store...

Getting to see The Phantom of the Opera performed live in NYC's Theatre District was... a dream come true. My bucket list has one less item to check off and I couldn't have done it without my dearest friend.

We scored front and center mezzanine seats!!! Best seats in the house IMO. Close to the stage with a panoramic view so that you can really see everything. It's really too bad that our phantom was awful 😂 he forgot which side of his face his mask was supposed to be on!! Bahaha at least it made it memorable. Carlotta had a wonderful voice, Monsieur's André & Firmin were hilarious and the set was gorgeous. Nothing can prepare you for the chandelier rising at the beginning of the show. I was Wonderstruck.

[videostak]

rly wanna hook up the nes for some reason.. like ya i have both a famicom and nes okay kill me hoarder girls unite but like srsly i got a nes at a swap meet when i was like 13 or smthn maybe even younger (actually i think the same swap meet im going to tomorrow lol back when i would go with my grandma and older sister often) and then later down the line probably when i was like 16 or smthn got a regular famciom but it was modded to be av p poorly so eventually decided to get a twin famicom ANYWAYS enough backstory but ya i have an urge to hook up the nes for some reason... like idk i guess they rly do have different energies.. i have most of the same library on it but a year or so ago got some nes games from my uncle who had some he was getting rid of and got like kid icarus and tmnt and lolo 3(playing that just makes me wanna get lolo 1 tho -_-) and robocop and cool shit like that but for some reason i have a urge to play mario 3 specifically on nes even tho i have it on famicom?! idk when iwas cleaning out my closet i found this lil like figure thats based off the art of tanooki mario from mario 3 but like rly accurate to how mario looked back then and the proportions idk where these figures come from i think they have one of yoshi from smw too but like i think my family got it for me in like 2014 or smthn when they went to nintendo store in new york on vacation. but anyways i think looking at it is making me wanna play smb3 and for some reason like i associate all the art for it and the kinda vibe it gives off more with the american nes than the famicom. i guess that makes sense tho. like its def THE nes game moreso than THE famicom game. like u kno. itss release and everything seems to mean alot more like a big event over here than when it came out in japan? actually idk what it was liek when it came out over there since i dont kno but like i associate mario 3 stuff with the nes alot maybe cause that was also a game i got at the swap meet too(same one) like itss just a v nes ‘retro culture’ type game so ya. i associate og super mario bros more with the famicom tho cause when i think of that i think of like old strategy guides and all that early art where mario has beautiful sexy red overalls and like the characters all having somewhat different designs and fds mario 2 and based shit like that. anyways yeas...

[ugkh]

i went to new york and all i brought back was a dimitri fire emblem figure i got at the nintendo store

[advrik]

The Switch Era

So I just finished watching Arlo's latest video about the Switch. You know, the console that not only helped him but also several other personalities get off the ground over the past six years?

I watched this, and I was reminiscing about my time not only with the console itself but that nigh unbearable level of hype that led up to the console's release on March 3rd, 2017.

I recall getting up at 6am the day after the first Nintendo Switch presentation to go hang out outside of the local Gamestop to wait to be the first inside to get a pre-order on the basic grey console. But only after I had stayed up 'til 3am the night before to also pre-order a console on Amazon, along with the Breath of the Wild special edition and the Zelda amiibo (along with a few accessories).

Now at the time, I owned a Wii U and a PS4 but seldom touched either one for reasons of their main purpose. I wasn't playing games on them. I had grown to dislike playing games on my television at the time. I was focused heavily on playing my 3DS while I played a movie on my PS4 or had Youtube going on the Wii U. I was having a falling out with console gaming, and boy was it a hard fall. The Switch was the final straw for me to grasp and hold onto the one hobby that had been with me all my life.

And then launch day came. I took the weekend off from work and just played Zelda and Bomberman the whole entire time, entirely in handheld mode.

And you know what? I was revolutionary. To have something that looked and played like Zelda: Breath of the Wild in the palm of my hand was H-U-G-E at the time. Especially stepping up from the 3DS.

Combined with just the general overall hype surrounding the console and the increasing resurgence of Nintendo in the general gaming space, it seemed at the time that gaming might have been saved for me, and that handheld may have been the trick.

Over the span of the console's biggest years, I amassed close to 100 physical games for the Switch and well over 100 in digital form. I collected all kinds of accessories from grips to an assortment of Joy-Con colors, carry cases, and decals. You name it, I probably had. I even managed to snag the New York Nintendo World Store launch press goodies like the pin and lanyard.

I played primarily in handheld mode because it allowed for comfort and didn't strain my eyes like playing on my TV would, as it was pretty far away from my bed.

Now I have always said that the sole reason I buy Nintendo consoles is always - ALWAYS - for Animal Crossing and that everything else was just extra, and that was especially true.

For the span of time between the launch of Animal Crossing New Horizons(and the beginning of the ongoing pandemic), my Switch was an Animal Crossing machine only. I played nothing else. Amassing 100 hours in the first week alone, and I also took an unpaid week off work for, which was probably one of the best weeks in recent memory. (Well, up until this past month when I flat out told the abusive manager at that same job that I was quitting this past month, but that's a different story for another time)

I went on to document my first year with New Horizons in my 'Welcome to Brickhedge' video series on Youtube, something I plan to rewatch and reminisce over very soon.

So now here we are, the day after the Switch officially went over the hill as far as console lifespans go and the world is eagerly awaiting to see what Nintendo plans to do next and if a more powerful version of the system is in the cards or not.

Where do I currently stand?

Well, I no longer stan the Switch like I used to. Over the past month, I sold off the majority of my non-first-party titles. Several sets of Joy-Cons, the Pro Controller, and even my Animal Crossing-themed console. As Arlo said in his video, the excitement just isn't there anymore. The Switch isn't as exciting as it once was, not because the novelty of a portable console has worn off, oh no. Having that kind of power in your hands is not going to be exciting to me and is what ultimately saves the hobby for me.

The Switch feels extremely outdated now in its capabilities, and with the recent rise of the Steam Deck and other portable PCs, outside of first-party stuff, playing my Switch just isn't as enticing as it once was.

Enter: The Deck

I picked up a Steam Deck last month because I was simply tired of not getting to play major third party releases. Cloud versions were not acceptable, and the often time longer wait time one had to endure for a Switch version to drop (coughFinalFantasyPixelRemasterscough) was no longer cutting it.

The Steam Deck feels, for me at least, every bit as exciting as the Switch was when it launched. Being able to play current releases like the Resident Evil 2 remake and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order in proper handheld form is so amazing.

And don't even get me started on the crazy emulation capabilities of this beast.

I have maybe picked up my Switch twice since I bought my Deck. But that isn't to say I've completely abandoned my Switch, as I have yet to still pick up and play Bayonetta 3. I also away the launch of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the upcoming Pokemon Scarlet/Violet DLC, but beyond that? There's nothing the Switch is offering that I can't already get on Deck.

Will I get the inevitable Switch successor when it comes out? Absolutely, but I think I will wait until the next Animal Crossing game is announced before I do so. I've been spoiled rotten by all that the Deck can do, and I hardly believe Nintendo would willingly put out anything half as open and capable as this device.

In closing: I loved my Switch and I will always, always look back on the time I spent with it fondly. It was great to see Nintendo on top again after Wii U tanked them and their name, and I hope whatever they do next can recapture the dimming light the current Switch is losing.

[readreadbookblog]

Books that I’ve Read

Here is all the new movies that I consumed in the year of 2022. I only put here the new items that I previously never have experienced before. Listed in the order that I saw them in. Lets hope that 2023’s list is greater. 

Books

Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, DC by J.D. Dickey REVIEW

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata REVIEW

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown REVIEW

The Incredible Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson REVIEW

To Hell and Back by Audie Murphy REVIEW

The China Mission: George Marshall’s Unfinished War, 1945-1947 by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan REVIEW

When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning REVIEW

A Cool Breeze on the Underground by Don Winslow REVIEW

Nights of the Living Dead Anthology edited by Jonathan Maberry and George A. Romero REVIEW

Goosebumps Slappyworld The Dummy Meets the Mummy by R.L. Stine REVIEW

Dutch Girl: Audrey Hepburn and World War II by Robert Matzen REVIEW

The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800 by Conor Cruise O’Brien REVIEW

Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel by Dan Ephron REVIEW

My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix REVIEW

63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read by Jess Ventura and Dick Russell REVIEW

Follow Me Down by Shelby Foote REVIEW

Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power by Garry Wills REVIEW

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham REVIEW

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson REVIEW

Trotsky in New York 1917 by Kenneth D. Ackerman REVIEW

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis REVIEW

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis REVIEW

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis 

The Burning Edge: Travels Through Irradiated Belarus by Arthur Chichester REVIEW

Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix REVIEW

Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long by Richard D. White Jr. REVIEW

Best Movie Year Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery REVIEW

Lost in a Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can Do for Us by Pete Etchells

Conquistadors by Michael Wood

Humanity: How Jimmy Carter Lost an Election and Transformed the Post-Presidency by Jordan Michael Smith

The Captured: A True Story of Abduction of Indians on the Texas Frontier by Scott Zesch REVIEW

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Pimp: The Story of My Life by Iceberg Slim REVIEW

1920: The Year That Made The Decade Roar by Eric Burns REVIEW

The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry by Legs McNeil and Jennifer Osborne REVIEW

Black Cop’s Kid: An Essay by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar REVIEW

The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell REVIEW

Maestro Mario: How Nintendo Transformed Videogame Music into an Art by Andrew Schartmann REVIEW

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan REVIEW

The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay REVIEW

[foxtrotziggurat]

FOMO

I have missed out on a lot—and I still do miss out on so much now.

All of my friends in high school got their licenses to drive before they graduated. I was an idiot and waited. I'm nineteen and still only have my permit. I'm sure most of them have their own cars now! Do you know how humiliating it is to ask people for rides every time you want to go to the grocery store? I feel pathetic.

I never had a gaming console growing up, save for our Nintendo Wii which hardly saw any use beyond things like Wii Sports. I was raised on Flash games. When I was a kid I never played Call of Duty, or Battlefield, or Sonic, or Solid Snake, or Zelda, or Grand Theft Auto, or any other huge franchise with a massive fanbase. I never got to participate in those discussions of what was the best Fortnite season because I only started playing in late August of 2023. And I only started playing it because all of my roommates did, too. Two Christmases ago I had gotten a Nintendo Switch, but man, did that thing collect dust. It ran Fortnite like a toaster oven would do calculus. But the following Christmas I got an Xbox Series X. And man, do I love that thing. I've gotten many more games since, but Fortnite is still my favorite.

I have ARFID—avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. Basically, I am ten thousands times worse than a picky eater. I eat maybe 50 different foods total. I have dealt with this all my childhood, but not without its awkward moments. Remember those pizza parties everyone had in their classrooms? I had to be the kid that declined the slice. I do not know what is "wrong with me"; I simply feel no attraction toward any of the foods that the rest of my culture loves, like mac and cheese, or pasta, or chicken wings, or fish, or rice, or tacos, or whatever else. It is so ridiculously humiliating to be the one in the family that limits where we can go out to eat. Fifteen. Years. Running. This is also part of the reason I am scared of dating—you know how few people are willing to put up with someone with an eating disorder?

When I was in high school, I had a very close friend. My junior year I attempted to sacrifice my other relationships to be closer with him and his other friend. That backfired. I realized that he didn't care as much about me as I did him. He had everything. The cool best friend, a girlfriend, the lead role in the musical, the respect of the underclassmen and the upperclassmen. He was in tons of extracurriculars and ran track. He was a star student with a job and a car. When I realized this one January night, when I realized I'll never be him, I cried. It still remains the only time I have shed tears over pure jealousy. That feeling is something I still struggle with even in college.

And my college, I like it. But it wasn't my first choice. My first choice was in upstate New York. And I had tunnel vision for that school. No backup plans. So, of course, when that turned out to be too expensive, I was left with nothing. I didn't want to go somewhere local, for some reason, so I went to the school my sister graduated from, which is near Baltimore. And I enrolled. It's a fine place. But almost every day I think, "I am here not because I want to be, but because I have to be". I long for the day I am not beholden to other people's effects, whether that is due to my own ineptitude or others' authority.

I am jealous of people in relationships. Not strictly romantic ones, but people in friend groups, too. I have had some women here or there that I've attempted to date, but all have fallen through. I am too picky? Do I even need that kind of responsibility? I already struggle with getting my homework done on time. When I examine within myself why I want a girlfriend, it really boils down to the fact that I'm lonely. I have friends on campus, but none I explicitly hang out with outside of class time. And then I go on social media and see them out somewhere. I know I'm not entitled to an invite, but it still hurts. And my family (90% of the time I say this, I mean my mom and my sister) gives me a lot of shit for this. My sister loves to dig into me about it. I told her about some design student trip that I would have went had she not been planning to come visit me (remember I go to her alma mater; she knows professors here). She says something to the effect of, "Well, you wouldn't've gone anyway even if I was never coming." That hurts.

I am a jealous person. Every day I feel jealous about something; it is an inherit feeling within me. Some of these feelings stem from legitimate factors, other are just my own ego. I don't know how to stop being jealous because I can't be happy with what I have. I've just been feeling like shit lately because of it. I didn't get the teenage experience I wanted, and I'm not getting the adolescent experience I was promised, either. How great it must be to have the life you want.

—CF

[witchtoon]

11/26/23. 3 dreams i remember. i think the first two were in the same universe

1. had a dream i was like hired to make a non evil ai or computer system because the former tech wizard who was someone from the candy kingdom shot his sister in the back of the neck? the way it was said i dont know if it was like an actual gun or like something different. i found out there was a giant purple worm that was causing earthquakes that was just going through tunnels below everything

2. had another where i was looking for someone who was using a hammer and i was asking if it was right handed or left handed and they told me that he was using something called a “decade experienced hammer” which you could only use if you were stupid OR ambidextrous

3. i went back to sleep and had another dream. mars (my best friend) was there and we were in some weird space that had a nintendo shop and we were clearly in new york but we were also crazy close to new hampshire for some reason? like you could see it from the nintendo store. it was like 10:40 so we were like ok we gotta be fast and so we went into the nintendo store and they took us to this restaurant and we were eating there with someone who was talking about how they recently got into a relationship with someone named geno. the reason we were at the nintendo store was because mars was replacing something an ex from high school took from her it was like socks or something. and then we drove over to this beach area with a bar and george takei was there and he spilled something and caught it in his hat and then said he owned a rollercoaster museum nearby and mars started explaining it to me and i was like what do you mean he owns a museum thats george takei. and then after a bit he disappeared and i asked mars if she wanted to go to new hampshire for a bit just to look around and see what it was like and she was like yeah im down and then we were driving there in my truck and the dream ended. there was also a part where we were at some little like sitting area next to stores i think it mustve been like an outdoor seating area for some restaurant and the people next to us were doing some kind of magic show and they kept calling people from my table up and then the magician said “i now summon trisha payta’s disembodied teet to the stage!” and some old short guy with long blonde hair walked up and was like that would be me

[wedding-shemp]

.

[xx-dark-dart-xx]

I WENT TO THE NINTENDO STORE IN NEW YORK TODAY AND I BOUGHT A SHIRT WITH LINK FEEDING PIGEONS

[shsl-concept-writer]

If the students ever went to America on their field trip, what would be the first thing (or place) they’ll see?

What would some students of each game see when they go to America?

Requested by: rythmpitch

I'm gonna pick the characters I feel would go to America from each main series game, I hope you like them 😉

Trigger Happy Havoc

Mondo Owada; he wants to ride US Route 20 on his motorcycle

Byakuya Togami; The Museum of Death

Kyoko Kirigiri; The Evolution Store

Junko Enoshima; The New York fashion district

Goodbye Despair

Nagito Komaeda; Ben and Jerry's flavor Graveyard

Chiaki Nanami; Nintendo World

Mahiru Koizumi; Coral Castle

Ibuki Mioda; wants to attend and play at Summerfest

Mikan Tsumiki; The Secret Tiled Staircase

Killing Harmony

Kaede Akamatsu; The Wave Organ

Rantaro Amami; Gator Land

Tsumugi Shirogane; The New York fashion district

Kokichi Ouma; Disney World and Gator Land

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

I hope to travel soon 🚗

[ikingsley]

Ina x MC: A Small Detour

Ina x MC: A Small Detour

This is the second fic in my series loosely based on Queen B chapters. This one is based on chapter 2. The first one of my series is here: The Dance. 

Summary: Luna finds Ina in an interesting and unexpected place.

Warnings: Fluff!

Tag: @samanthadalton

Author’s Notes: Happy Tuesday! Not super happy with the ending, but hope you enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna walked briskly down the street towards the grocery store. She had failed to meet one Belvoire student who could actually cook for themselves. And the exception did not lie with Zoey. Luckily, the two had made a deal as soon as Luna had opened the fridge for the first time, where she found thirty mini bottles of Prosecco and not one food item. As long as Zoey kept the Prosecco coming, Luna would make dinner on the days they didn’t order food. And thus, Luna adventured to the grocery store in search of ingredients for a ‘gourmet’ dinner.

Luna found it extremely difficult to not think of Ina, or rather, Professor Kingsley. The Ina she had met at the bar, the Ina who she danced with until the early hours of the morning, the Ina she had passionately kissed at the diner had been swept away by a stoic, reticent and stuffy Professor Kingsley. Was it even possible to go from 100 to 0 real quick? If so, that’s how their relationship had plummeted, Luna reflected silently. 

She could see the grocery store’s bright sign illuminating from a block away. She picked up the pace, encouraged that she had gone in the right direction. New York City was a busy place, and it was way too easy to get lost, especially for newcomers like herself. As she went down the sidewalk, she looked at each store along the block as a way to familiarize herself. She looked up and found a neon sign spelling The Retro Arcade. 

Arcades are for nerds! Luna thought and chuckled.

Her laughter was cut short by a loud shriek followed by an even louder thud. Luna’s head swiveled vigorously as she looked for the source of the noise. It had come from inside the arcade. As she turned to look for the child who had made such a racket, instead, she found herself standing face-to-face with none other than Ina Kingsley.

Ina’s face flushed in embarrassment. For one, Luna had caught her in an arcade. But even more embarrassing was how Ina stood against the Donkey Kong machine clutching her toe. The same toe that she had kicked against the machine in frustration that her little Mario figure had been killed by Donkey Kong’s barrels. 

Ina watched and sighed as Luna made her way into the arcade. As if this situation could get any more embarrassing, she thought.

“Why hello there, Professor,” Luna said with the slightest smirk on her face. Ina could only sigh once more. “Yes. Hello Luna. I guess you’ve caught me,” Ina said dejectedly. “Caught you from what exactly?” Luna asked. “My guilty pleasure and stress buster, I suppose. I guess you wouldn’t expect your professor to be playing arcade games on a Saturday afternoon,” Ina said. Luna laughed aloud. “Well...no. But there’s nothing wrong with arcades. Do you come often?” Luna asked. Ina’s face lit up at the approval of arcade games. “Almost weekly if I’m not too busy.” Ina responded through a smile. And all Luna could think was, dAmN what a NERD!

But she held herself together. At least for now.

Ina noticed Luna’s pensive, yet amused gaze on the arcade game. And just like that, Ina read her like a book. “...you’ve never played Donkey Kong before,” Ina realized. Luna could only laugh at her professor’s high intuition and perceptiveness. “Honestly, I’ve never even heard of it,” Luna admitted. Ina’s jaw dropped out of bewilderment as she turned to fully face Luna. “What! How have you not heard of Donkey Kong! It’s just about the most iconic arcade game ever! It’s Nintendo’s-” Ina said exasperated, but she was cut off promptly. “Professor, I didn’t ask for a lecture on Donkey Kong! Plus, I’ve played that yellow dude with the ghosts game!” Ina looked at Luna stunned. “Ummm....Pac-Man!!” Luna exclaimed. Ina hummed in disapproval. “Come on. That’s so basic. Donkey Kong - it’s pure skill. Come here. Let me show you.”

Luna was not one to turn down Ina’s request. She saw that the Ina she was fascinated by was not only alive at night, but maybe even on weekends too. Any other time, she was stuck with the upright Professor Kingsley.

~

Ina played the first round, showing Luna the basics: the controls, the premise, the things to watch for. Once Ina felt that Luna understood how to play, she let Mario get killed by Donkey Kong and stepped aside to make room for Luna.

The game began slowly and Luna successfully jumped over many barrels. But as the pace picked up, Luna suddenly felt overwhelmed. There were way too many things happening at once.

“Ina, help me!“ she yelped. Luna galloped away from the game. Simply put, it was fun until it wasn’t. Ina then came in to help Luna out. She kept in a laugh; to her, the game was still in its easy stages.

Ina stared at the screen, enraptured by the game as she had actually accumulated a relatively high score after taking over for Luna.

But it soon came crashing down. And again, like clockwork, Ina let out a howl. This time however, she learned her lesson. That machine was in fact stronger and sturdier than her foot. And instead, she kicked out to the side. Except this time, Luna was standing there. 

“OWW!!!”

“Oh crap.”

It was a bittersweet disaster in slow motion. Luna was falling to the ground in pain, and at the last second, Ina swooped her from near collapse and held her in her arms. The pair stared at each other for only a couple of seconds, but to them both, it felt almost like a lifetime. Luna got lost in Ina’s eyes; they were so profound and full of affection. Finally, Ina cleared her throat. Luna sat up straight as Ina let her out of her arms.

“Are you okay?” Ina asked. She felt really bad for kicking Luna. Even if it wasn’t exactly a hard kick, she’d still hurt her. To Ina’s surprise, Luna was laughing on the side. 

“Why are you laughing? I just kicked you!” Ina smiled. “The whole situation! You know, you’re such a ner- never mind,” Luna retracted. “I’m such a what!” Ina demanded. “When I passed by the arcade, all I could think was...arcade goers are nerds!” Luna laughed again.

Ina was slightly annoyed by her statement, and grumbled slightly. Then a small smile played at her lips. “If arcade goers are nerds, then why are you still in here,” Ina retorted. Luna pouted a little. “I guess...maybe, possibly, I might be a nerd,” Luna admitted. “I know,” Ina smirked. “Stop smirking like that! You’re such a nerd too!” Luna proclaimed. Ina sighed, but she knew it was true.

Ina was the first to get up. She reached out to Luna and helped her up. Luna scanned the arcade to see if there was anything she wanted to play. Then she saw it. In the corner, there was a small photo booth.

“Ina! Come on,“ Luna pleaded. Ina had no idea where she was being led to, but she took Luna’s hand. At first she was disappointed that it was a photo booth and not an arcade game, but she then realized how much fun photo booths actually were. All the different effects, all the crazy backgrounds, all the face filters... Ina smiled a little and proceeded to head inside the booth with Luna. 

~

“Okay, here’s how we’re gonna do it,“ Luna stated. “First one is serious. Second one we’re trying one of those filters. Third one is funny. Fourth one...let’s just play it by ear.“

The first picture was like a mugshot of two people. Ina laughed at its hilarity as she searched for a filter to put. She found one with dog ears and a snout and thought it was appropriate. The second picture came out how middle schoolers would take pictures with their friends using Snapchat filters. 

At this point, Ina was running out of ideas for pictures. At times, she was far from a creative soul. And for the third picture, she went with the classic bunny ears behind Luna’s head. Luna doubled over, laughing. She could barely make out the words “Really Ina? Bunny ears?” through her laughter. 

Finally, her laughter ceased, much to Ina’s relief. And neither had an idea what to do for the final picture. 3...2...

In a panic, Luna put her head on Ina’s shoulders. For a moment, Ina tensed up. But then she leaned into Luna’s touch and put an arm around her. This was by far the best picture. Both women had big smiles on their faces as they cuddled next to each other. 

Even after the photo was taken, the two lingered on each other. If it weren’t for the startling sound of the machine printing out the four photos, who knows how long the two could’ve stayed in that position. Finally, they pulled away from each other as Ina reached for the two sets of copies of the photos. She handed one to Luna, and both women smiled as they looked upon the reel. 

“Can I admit something?” Ina asked. “Of course,“ Luna replied. “Remember when you saw me through the window?” Ina recalled. “Well, how could I forget, you were so mad you lost.” “I admit, I am very competitive. But I only lost because well, I was distracted,” Ina smiled sheepishly. “How so?” Luna inquired. 

“I saw from the corner of my eye a pretty lady. I was distracted. By you.” 

[vmfx]

PANDEMIC BLUES (SPRING).

When Dad passed away, I knew it was a new era. No more of his presence meant things would change on the inside and out, for better or worse. He almost had hit the U.S. average of male life expectancy by a pinch (78.54 years to his 78.19) so he’s had about his money’s worth. God couldn’t have forced him to cash out at a better time.

To start 2020, I took two weeks off from work for the first time in the six-plus years I’ve been with the company. I’ve met friends I haven’t seen in ages. I’ve abandoned non-successful projects in the name of self-care. I’ve re-wrote my diet for the better now that Dad wasn’t pumping me with free food ‘round the clock. I’ve also become the store champion in revenue for the year once again, and learned how not to get stress get the best of me. I had only one sunny day out of the twelve off in February which was extremely disappointing. As all the devils know, heading to New York City never leaves my mind. I promised myself that I’d make a visit to both Modern Pinball and Sunshine Laundromat, visits I’ve been waiting three years for. I came close. I did visit the city in early March for a check-up and visited Central Park as I called up my Godmother Laura to make Easter plans, leaving only after a half-an-hour when it started to get dark. By then I’d started to receive inklings of pending changes. The coronavirus was only in the back of my mind and you normally don’t think of these things unless it pertains to you. I dialed up my aunt Theresa and she told me that the city schools and offices were contemplating closing down. I brushed it off like it was nothing, until…

It was a weekend at work like any other. A regular Sunday. Then it all started. A customer asked me for nine mid-range laptops for himself and his co-workers to work from home. I sold them all to him. That’s a $3,100+ ticket. Another older man came in looking for five printers and ten monitors for his business. I could’ve hit the jackpot if only we had enough but we didn’t, but we piece-mealed whatever we could from other stores and that was another $1,500+. More customers and business owners came in to buy buy buy whatever they could to work at home with no limit and we now had a weekend clearance sale we never planned for. Every man and woman for themselves rushed in to save their jobs and tried grabbing whatever they can. When the weekend was over, they wiped us out of all our essential stock. Webcams, budget laptops, and monitors went clean off the shelves. We were fucking bewildered.

One outstanding memory I had of last year’s outbreak was seeing someone eye-ing over desktop computers. After twenty minutes of no one asking him for assistance, I finally got him. He already had as much time under his belt deciding which way to go: Windows or Mac? He had lots of questions for me, and took me on a world tour of my own department to see which of three units he wanted to take home with him. Fine by me, because being in the presence of his brown-eyed peanut-butter haired daughter was all that mattered. Imagine a mirror-image of Jessica Chastain in her early twenties and neck-length hair, wearing a green St. Patrick’s Day shirt with beige clovers on it and blue jeans. Somewhat conservative and reserved but she was nice 100% all throughout. That’s more I could say than most people on the island or in my life I’ve met. An hour later, her dad finally decided on a high-end unit. “Wrap it up” he said. “Thank you for your time and purchase” I say, and it’d be the only time I would ever see her. Eventually, I noticed more customers coming in wearing masks. A different father-and-daughter pairing didn’t get it right wearing theirs under their chins, a half-assed way to at least fend themselves from the poison going on. Later on, two young female best-friends asked me for a Nintendo Switch. When they saw I had the Animal Crossing version, they suddenly asked for two more. Done. Knock yourselves out.

Within one week our store changed operations on a near-daily basis. We shortened our hours, then limited our total number of occupants to appointments only. By mid-week our store was closed to the public and it was all phone-orders and curbside pick-ups. Salespeople became impromptu warehouse and back-end runners. We couldn’t believe what we were experiencing. We were literally witnessing the slow gradual death of our traditional operating model. Corona- finally arrived and everyone was on edge not knowing what was coming next. Then we got the call from corporate: “all New York stores to be shut down indefinitely until further notice. Pack it up and go home. Expect a call from us in a few weeks”.

This was unreal! Our positions were in limbo. It felt like we were let go yet still employed otherwise. Meaning: furloughed. We’d be fortunate enough to hold our titles and be kept on the payroll while we were mandated to stay home. Later as I learned, the ‘essentials’ as deemed, still had to work on through as a necessity to others; pegged to deal with the public who had no foresight as to how serious it would be. Before heading home indefinitely, I walked next door to the market. Never had I seen meat and paper shortages. Bare shelves of canned goods, frozen vegetables, pasta, and rice like the world was ending. There was no timetable for lockdown or how it’d last. I was now in competition with everyone else to stay alive. Count my high cards that a long-term food shortage was not the case.

27, 47, 81...

If only Dad would’ve lived long enough to see this unfold. He’d be forceful enough for me to stay home with him like some early exits from my location did. I can imagine that even if my bro- didn’t yell at him to stay home, Dad would say “hey, fuck you!” and drive out to see his friends. He literally fell of heart failure, and if that didn’t get him, would the coronavirus? Could he survive it with his expiring health and the spectre of death waiting for him on impatient delay? Since Dad fed me almost daily, he’d feel very sad and broken if he couldn’t bring food home for me. He’s not here on this Earth anymore to do that, so it was time to change it up. The haunt of immuno-compromization had me thinking to cut the crap and go healthy.

245, 332, 417...

My ex- Yenny, the most cautious person in the world, sent me directions on how to make my own mask which I did out of old worn-out tees. Welcome to the new real dystopia. The first aesthetic of the pandemic was in the form of this makeshift cloth mask dampened with my own carbon-monoxide emanating the smell of damp stale cotton. Back to my neighborhood market I go. I stockpiled on fruits, vegetables, broth, anti-oxidants, juices, dark chocolates, nuts, and seltzer water. The moment of spending money on real food was the moment I started making real meals; the mixture of Idaho and sweet potatoes, celery, carrots, and vegetable broth aerated a distinct spring of fumes forever tied to these months in isolation. A daily carousel of apricots, oranges, cauliflower, tomatoes, and green peppers were a wonderful much-needed addition I had to have from now on. Visits to the ultra-mart had plenty of food, albeit the shelves were disorganized and the essential workers were overwhelmed. The dollar store was only steps away and I stocked up on whatever non-perishables I could find, then threw them on the belt where the young quiet Spanish girl who didn’t feel like being there was standing behind the register slowly scanning my goods. I pay for my two bags of groceries and leave the store where, outside waiting for me, was the gracious open sheer blue sky and layers of white puffy clouds suspended over the wide-open parking lot.

I noticed all around me that things were a little…different. Most of us were given things we never imagined. You’d never think of being home for months to have the opportunity to catch up on a life we once had no time for. People finally caught up on cleaning, pursing through personal belongings, old photos and memorabilia, reading lists and vinyl records that piled up. Imagine all the things said about not having to travel to work, or staying home to work, or not working at all. They were right. No such thing as stress. No managers shoving daily quotas or finding faults down your throat. No awkward moments, lack of courtesy, rudeness, or interruptions. No immature adults turning into bus-ride children competing for your attention or older women stamping their feet when being reminded of how out of line they were. For the first time ever in my life, I felt total bliss.

486, 548, 753, 819...

Most of us had all the time in the world to shit ourselves in our front-row seats for what we were seeing. It’s all happening next door in New York City, fatally crowned the epicenter of the worst pandemic of our lifetimes. We were The Death Nation. The deaths came at such an expedient rate that literal closed-casket bodies lined up outside the city’s funeral parlors. By then, restaurants closed. Businesses closed. Stadiums, theaters, arcades, bars closed. Schools and universities were canceled. Even Easter, the next social holiday in line…closed. The nation’s unemployment rate spiked high as 15% as people pounded on the doors on a broken system to have their unemployment benefits or loans in hand as soon as possible. No meta-game suffered distinctly than the music and venue industry. Artists, operators, and promoters had their livelihoods taken away from them in an instant; forced to make a living improvising on live-streaming. They just lost their selves overnight. Now, they held on tight for their own stability and sanity; hoping to reach for that brass ring while riding on a lagging carousel engulfed in flames. 

Over at WUSB, the show still had to go on. Our general manager disallowed any further staff to enter the studios. As most planned to live-stream from their homes, I opted to send my shows in. For the entirety of spring (and summer) I’d hand my shows in our engineer’s at-home automation for broadcast. Saturday 10:00PM Eastern Standard Time on the dot, no error. I had all the time in the world to post on my music blog, my artistic porfolio, and get my personal page finally up to speed without worry of deadlines, distraction, or needless interruption. It was when I rifled through many auditions burning on the hard drive. Cleaners From Venus’ “The Jangling Man” couldn’t have come at a better time, signifying a cancelled Easter intended to be spent with my Godmother now at home. I never heard it ever but it yet it sounded familiar before. The cassette fidelities and a certain ‘89-’90 recorded feeling that took me back to my single-digit childhood becomes a new forever memory. Shoegaze and post-punk cuts such as Ing’s “Closet”, Milly’s “Talking Secret”, Es’ “Hidden Track”, and Miserable’s “Loverboy”, to name a few, have indisputably defined the pandemic era’s soul.

But enough of that for today. Down comes Mario, my five year-old nephew who’s yearning to play. Dad / Pop is no longer here, so it’s me he’s looking forward to seeing every day to try and win me on Uno or Candy Land while ginger-superior Madelaine Petsch / Cherry Blossom or Hayley Orrantia were on the flat-screen. We had nights where he’d chose a deck from my collection and we’d make separate piles out of suits. He’d play some good ones, too: the “Junior” of Hearts, the “Mom” of Diamonds, and the “Dad” of Spades he calls them. Aces were “sooper!” and the jokers had their own narrative: a clown on the unicycle was riding to 7-11 to get some Slurpees for us. (Once in a while, a horse-head or the word “MAVERICK” in cowboy caps- for those wild ones.) What kind of an imagination is this? And he loved Monopoly, too. We played so much that it inspired another aesthetic forever tied to the pandemic. Solid oranges and sky blues against the CRT’s, and Monopoly symbols of trains and utilities helped create sets of icons for a series of graphics templates I’ve made.

800, 814, 1036...

Red bottles with blue and red labels of now-discontinued blue liquid soap. Blocks of green and white cleanser cubes cased in plastic. Bulbs of blue and purple diffusing liquid. They’re all symbols of cleanliness. All the time in the world posting, sound-editing, and layouts prove exhaustive at times. It’s 1AM Eastern Standard Time in New York City / Long Island and an open window allows the smoky cold chill of a 50° April breeze to vacate downstairs. It’s an invitation to step outside and admire the clear moonless skies. No clouds, only the stars above. I sit in my backyard to hear near-total silence emanating from the expressway. The asphalt rushes were a bare minimum because no one had a reason to travel. The utmost quiet was enough for the nostalgia to vacate right in. The cold, clear, quiet spring Saturday and Sunday nights spent with my Plainview circle of friends. We’d talk shit about everyone we knew, what our favorite Green Day, Offspring, Collective Soul, or Nine Inch Nails songs were, and matching up with the alternative girls I never met before. The post-dinner April starlights spent shivering with Cath- off the busy Sunrise Highway admitting how much I missed her and how it felt when she succumbed to the heroin demon, the drives down random gas stations to save her ass, or the rare night rides from campus to take her home after my Wednesday radio stint. The temperatures also matched the experience of visiting Central Park for the very first time while an essential contact was in the back of my mind, her text asking how my day in New York City waited for me when I arrived home. It kills me that these are rare moments I’ll never have back. To this day that I’m still paying emotional interest on them.

142, 103, 101...

Rinse, repeat. For two months there was no place to go. No work shifts, classes, ballgames, weekend traffic, or weekend dinners demarcating the days of the week. Saturdays were Tuesdays. Sundays were Mondays. No one ever humanly experienced a blur of time where every day was literally the same. Then a phone call. “Operations are re-opening. Be here Sunday and ready to start packing.” What my manager should’ve said to me: “be ready to be crucified”. I told myself it’s the last week of May. Three days to get back into it. The spoils of staying home from work once again with financial security and benefits intact are coming to an end. Slowly but surely things will pick up again. The floodgates will soon open and here come the entitled Karens, ugly kniving fishwives, dumbshit Tony’s From Brooklyn, and whatever unkempt messes who somehow still manage to breathe will tug my shirt for attention or see me as a whipping boy for their insignificant grievances I never asked for. 

If the quarantine made many lives a nerve-wracking unbearable hell for some people, then what happened next would be the breaking point: footage posted of Minneapolis police murdering George Floyd sent people into the streets in an outrage, and rightfully so. Short-Term Memory America didn’t learn and repeated the same mistakes once again. No surprise there. The unnecessary needless precursory murders of Breonna Taylor and Armaud Arbury led up to the state’s latest nationwide collapse of unrest.

It took the latest event of racism and murder for everyone to finally come outside since the start of the pandemic and show what they were hiding for the longest time. Frustrated adult-male mouth-breathers acting out like total jerkoffs throwing their childish ignorance and building blocks in more reasonable mature people’s faces, and unattractive vanilla pig females turned into cartoon versions of themselves as they yapped multitudes of n-bombs and were damn proud of it. Cutting noses and spiting their own faces; doing whatever it takes at all costs to preserve their personal right and false constructs in treating people-of-color like garbage. Bulletin-board bruisers and ultimate keyboard warriors finally brought it out for all of the world to see. Others, however, had enough of their friends, family, co-workers, and fellow human beings being shot, beaten, or killed based on the color of their skin. They came to protest, picket, fight in the streets, and set it all in flames because enough was enough…enough of a corrupt racist celebrity president who’s done absolutely nothing except write off white supremacists and dismissed the coronavirus as a hoax. It all came down to this after living in an irrational anything-goes backwards presidency, all because the Fascist-in-chief cared for no one but himself, his family, and those who pledged their allegiance to him.

If the last four years provided us some out-of-this-world ridiculousness, what else would’ve been possible? We’ve experienced a hell like no other. We genuinely lived in fear that we could reach the point of no return. No one had any idea what was in store for us or how bad it could’ve been; during an election year, nonetheless. 

Where I’m heading is another story. I drive home down Rt. 25 and there are clusters picketing on the side of the road. One supporting Black Lives Matter, one for Tr*mp 2020. Summer’s on her way and the new heat was here; the allegory of pent-up frustration and emotion which everyone was feeling exacerbated by the pandemic. The possibilities were spring-loaded in the back of my mind and made me on edge, not knowing what could happen. 

All I, and us, could think about was when this would all end, and when we could go back to life as we knew it. We were holding out on all hope that something had to give. When will we be open for business again? When would be all go back to what it used to be, or what would ‘the new normal’ be? Will we change course and advert a national crisis, or will be dig ourselves a totalitarian grave so deep we won’t crawl out of? Will we have reason, rationality, science, humanity, and common sense back again, or will we have hatred, nastiness, cruelty, and contempt kept in place for tradition’s sake and have it rammed down our throats until we die sick of it?

It was the three most surreal months of my life. True uncharted territory; no map, no compass. And Spring wasn’t even over. Not just yet. As everything was unfolding and unraveling, something else was headed my way. A season that was anything but normal was going to end on an even more bizarre and curious note. Not in the form of more shutdowns, sickness, emptiness, or despair; but of someone who reached out to me.

(To be continued.)