Middle Tennessee State University - Midlander Yearbook (Murfreesboro, TN)

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PINBALL A New York lawyer said it promoted idleness. One psychologist suggested it was an outlet for homosexual urges. In spite of this criticism, pinball addicts nationwide are enthusiastically gambling those hard-earned quarters and giving the slot machine industry a major sensation. Pointing to the number of teenage games rooms (archades?) appearing in the nation ' s shopping malls, one pinball distributor said that all coin machines are experiencing a rebirth. In fact, the University Center games room has four machines — the Bally Flicker, Air Aces, Boomerang and the Wizard which is based on the pinball player ' s national anthem, Pinball Wizard, by the Who. 16 A n n n

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Songs attributed to her such as You ' re No Good, Love has No Pride, Long, Long Time, When Will I Be Loved, the old Eagles tune (her former backup group) Desperado, and Neil Young ' s Love Is A Rose were just as good on the Murphy Center Stage as in her albums and other live performances. All proving that thing which sums Ronstadt up is that she does rock with feavor and country with class. Though her backup vocals, including show opener Andrew Gold, were just about the tightest I have ever heard, Ron- stadt just didn ' t have enough rapport with her audience to really get them involved in what she was doing. Ronstadt has the type of voice that takes you down a long highway at night k hen you are in the middle of nowhere heading home. Her voice is well-honed sharp and mellow. The piece de resistance was her encore song Heart Like A Wheel , which in my opinion is her best, in which Andrew Gold did with the piano what I only thought possible with the cellt and violin, on the backup. Although she made references to show she didn ' t exactly know where she was, it didn ' t matter because she was at MTSU and made a dismal homecoming weekend bright anyway, Goodnight. Vanderbilt . ..smr '

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They run just about non-stop, ' according to games room manager Elson Dennis. When nothing else is running, the pinball machines are. The electrical response and the challenge of competing against a machine seem to be behind pinball ' s charismatic appeal, he explained. Each machine is adorned with flashing lights and pie-bald pictures of voluptuous women, laughing comedians and daring men each beckoning the player to pit himself against the machine just one more time. Players slouch over the glass tops of the machines watch- ing the shiny ball bounce and bump as it careens down the board amidst ingenious traps and gadgets which flash on and off to the tune of dull door bells and an assort- ment of thwocks and buzzes. Once the speeding ball reaches the flippers, the player sends the object rocketing up the board with the press of a button and the moist nudge of a hand or hip or what some people call body English. He must be careful not to tilt the machine lest the gismo cut itself off. (Hint: According to Senior Scholastic Magazine, the tilt device is on the left side of the machine. so caress and bump on the right. ) With the advent of the space age pinball video game and the demands of an electronical society, pinball is coming out of the smoke-filled honky tonks, pool halls and truck stops. In fact, the games have become so popular that television magnates have got in on the act and produced a pinball t pe game show. According to one Atlanta distributor, For years, our games — pinball, shuffle alley, pool — appealed mainly to, you know, the laboring class. Now with the video games, you have a broader patronage. I mean a lot of lounges will take a video game that never would have let a pinball machine in the door. Why does pinball have such a shady past? Apparently the colorful machines are still operating under the stigma of Mafia rule in Chicago and New York Cit . in the 1930 s police began cracking down on the Mafia s slot machine business. In order to continue operation, the mob began using slot machines disguised as pinball machines. Although lack- ing flippers, the new machine operated much the same and paid off according to the number of free games a person won. To meet this challenge, legislation was passed in some cities outlawing pinball all together. In fact, pinball is still illegal in New York City. What makes people gamble on the pinball machines? According to one psychologist, the excitement of gam- bling is equivalent to masturbation and the conse- quent losses are viewed as self punishment motivated by guilt over Oedipal strivings. Well don t tell a pinball player that. That ' s a bunch of crap, replied an indignant player. Its a lot of fun. I like to hear the sound of that bell. Still other players are not so laudatory. Those machines have little vacuum cleaners which suck up souls. They just suck you right in there, retorted another player. Regardless of the reasons why people are playing pinball there seems to be a perceptible shift in attitude towards the machines. This shift has led the conservative New Yorker magazine to conclude that, The love of pinball has nothing to do with race, creed, or ethnicity; nor is it, strictly speaking, a sexual preference. Pinball is a form of solitaire. 17