Snake America Forty Two
Snake is a bi-weekly electric fanzine covering things for sale, generally but not always on eBay. This week: a Galaga arcade game and a Thom Browne-relevant chambray. If you're reading online, subscribe.
Craigslist: Galaga arcade game: Arcade games are sorely underrepresented, especially in New York. Most are in bars here, which sucks. There are no great arcades in New York, a major city. Were there ever? There's the moonlighting pinball place in the East Village that's a skate shop by day. It doesn't count. The one in Chinatown that's now in Bay Ridge but is hard to find. There's Barcade, in Williamsburg and Jersey City. (I got unlimited Donkey Kong (USA 1982) lives at the Williamsburg Barcade one Friday night and played until my left foot fell asleep, which was two hours after my friends left.) New York needs a full city block of arcades. Ideally in Midtown. ... Galaga (USA 1981) was the sequel to Galaxians (1979) and is a Golden Age (of Arcade Games) game, even though the Golden Age is considered to be between 1982 and 1986. Probably the better game. Matthew Broderick played it in WarGames (USA, 1983) Go figure. Here's the original DIP switch setting:
Which are the two light-blue boxes in the bottom left, 6K and 6J. You can set how many lives you want on the DIP switches, or the color of the bosses you will be asked to face. Golden Age arcade games (pre-RAM) are like the cars before integrated circuits. You can roll up your sleeves. Says Steven Gregory of ArcadeShop.com:
When I first work on a non-functioning Galaga, I always first pull every socketed chip and clean the legs of the chip. I usually use a small brass brush ... Some recommend using a pencil eraser for this, but I have never tried it. I also use gold-plating contact cleaner to spray the legs of the chips after I have cleaned them. ... Occasionally I will use a little contact cleaner and spray it into the socket itself.
Etc. I asked the seller if their Galaga featured the original board but they didn't know. The seller lives in Carroll Gardens ... Questions arise. First, who is it. I live around there and may recognize them? It could be anyone in the neighborhood. Literally anyone. Is it the guy who was in Esposito & Son's Pork Store with the double-wide stroller? Who, when I walked in for a spicy combo and saw he was leaving then tried to edge over to the counter, he gave me detailed instructions on how to get out his way? Is it the mailman? Maybe a restaurateur? Has the owner beaten the game? Say the owner is in a heteronormative relationship, how pissed is his girlfriend that he's taking half their tiny apartment with a stupid game he can't even beat? Is he selling it because she beat it and he didn't? Why can't he live with the shame? The game is doing more damage to his relationship than the enemy insects have done to his ship. Most Craigslist arcade games sell out of Levittown, Connecticut or a place called Freehold. This is a black Galaga, the white ones are from Japan, by Namco, or, if stateside and by Midway, are differently rare. Shouldn't New York be the arcade capital of the world instead of a black hole? Living here, I once went to an illegal MMA fight refereed by an MTA conductor but can't play Rampart (USA 1990) or Burger Time (Japan 1982) ... Is the better life taking the commuter train and playing Galaga in peace? Maybe.
eBay: Creighton military chambray shirt: There are some objects that are unsearchable. One was this World War II-era drab olive button-up cotton shirt with a 1995 Honda Del Sol-green chest pocket.
It might have been Korean War-era. It was an cotton army shirt but with no embellishments. Super plain but for the loud pocket. In a one-week span seven years ago I found it, watched it, didn't bid, missed it being it sold and then never came across it again. What's it even called? Could Albrecht Duhrer re-create it from description? Doubt it. ... The above-linked shirt has a litany of unfortunate characteristics and suffers from infinitely more bad choices than the Korean, which was good. This is not a good one. But it's hard not to notice the external laundry-instructions tag on the right waist side. The tag is identical to Thom Browne's front-left tag on his oxford shirts and is a confirmation of his genius. It was always hard to search for another shirt with that tag, but it had to be out there. (The navy put visible tags on stuff in the 1940s, like their watch caps.) Did he take his ultimate calling card from a nondescript 1970s Creighton disco chambray in Marlins colors with epaulets? That's hard to say. The Creighton is almost cabana gear, with a cheapness to it that only cut-rate 1970s American vintage carries. Browne's sweatshirts have that aura, too, but don't entirely look like shit. His oxfords, of course, look fine. Maybe he just came up with it. Either way, what a talent. I hope this doesn't sound like criticism. This is a validation of the best designer doing it today, taking something out of nothing.
Thanks for reading.
Snake
Last Snake: Contents of a candy factory, Eddie Bauer Kara Koram snowpants (still for sale; relisted)
Snake Before That: Duck camo Vietnam boonie hat, JFK sweatshirt (still for sale; still for sale)