Can You Feel It?: Stories from North Coast Pinball

This is not a book about pinball. This is a book about pinball.This is a book about joy, grief, chess, connection, belonging, mystery tokens, Carter and Lars and Shelby and Stella. It’s about the girl with the ice cream cone, Elliot (with his solenoid), and Lennox (with his snowboarding boots). And love. This is a book about love.“One day, you may write in your journal that three people, who did not know each other a month ago, who live in three different towns, and who met each other playing pinball in your place, are now out on a hike together. Your journal will reflect a feeling that the purpose of your life has been fulfilled.”Admittedly, this weird little book may teach you a thing or two about the world of pinball. How that world has evolved over almost 100 years. And how to play, for pinball is indeed a game of skill. But the book, like the place itself, offers more than the amusement of pinball.It's a book about how it feels to be in this place. How it feels to build and sustain this place. How it feels to stand in a world that seems beset by implacably incurious brutishness and hold space for earnest care, for exploration, for connection, for human flourishing.In 2021, in the riverside village of Nehalem Oregon, a weird little pinball arcade appeared. These are the stories of its first five years. Read more