by Kirby Lindsay, posted 22 February 2012
Among the many stereotypes, few have described Fremont as being particularly backward or anti-technology. Rather, this community often gets tagged as being progressive, if not quite cutting-edge. Frankly, Fremonsters will try anything once, and more if we like it.
So, we hold on to, and welcome back, our favorites…especially when those antiquated, obsolete and/or throw back items become touchstones and connections with a community.
A Print Photo? With Film?
At The Ballroom, one of Fremont’s hippest and most fashionable watering holes, a crowd of partiers will pile into the miniscule booth to have four photos taken for $3. After a wait (interminable by modern, high-speed standards,) the machine spits out a strip of black-and-white images of questionable quality, in a non-digital format – completely incompatible with Facebook.
“It gets a lot of use, especially for events,” explained Ballroom General Manager Tamara Rose, “we have had some people come in specifically,” to use the machine. Couples on dates, birthday parties and celebrants of all shapes and sizes can preserve memories with a photo strip. Rose recalled a bride who came by just to get a photo strip for her wedding invitations. “It does enhance the experience,” Rose acknowledged.
“I love photo booths,” admitted Rose. She and her two kids take photos every time they come across a machine – saving them on the refrigerator. The Ballroom, a pool hall/bar/night club, once had a vending machine that sold cigarettes and t-shirts…and then just t-shirts. “When we took it out,” Rose said, “I pushed for the photo booth.”
They managed to find one of the film booths. “I love the old ones more than the new digital ones,” she explained. Some photo booths do use digital technology, according to Rose, but not in Fremont.
Pac-Man? And Pinball?
“We’ve got a lot of positive feedback,” Brad Johnsen said about Add-A-Ball, a pinball arcade he opened in December with Travis Echert. The two young entrepreneurs converted Johnsen’s scooter and pinball repair business into this 21+ hideout. A tucked-away pleasure palace for pinball and arcade game aficionados, and those who want to remember why it is so much more cool to be an adult than a kid.
“We’ve got a pretty diverse set of games here,” explained Echert. Street Fighter 2, a two person fighting game, has become very popular, along with a driving game that can take three players and the standard Pac-Man, pinball, an Atari game and a foosball hybrid. Best of all, Johnsen and Echert can repair and modify the games on-site.
Although, they’ve begun converting the remaining repair space into game space – expanding Add-A-Ball by a third. Echert and Johnsen hope to be able to transform the front room into more of a lounge, to better accomodate the crowds on weekends.
Those who want to improve their scores would do well to stop by Mondays & Tuesdays. High scores get posted on Twitter (@AddABall)and Facebook, and at the end of each month, a celebratory party with cake and t-shirts for the winners. Last month they also gave away a ‘free cat’ coupon for the Seattle Humane Society. (When the winner didn’t want a cat, another attendee won!)
“We didn’t set the place up as a time-period place,” Echert explained about using modern, social networking. Besides, as Johnsen observed, “I think word of mouth spreads better than anything else.”
On A Hunt ForVinyl?
Both Add-A-Ball and Jive Time Records actually find their vintage customers trend younger. “A lot of people think it is older people,” said David Day, Jive Time owner, but he’s found younger people really embrace vinyl. The first time around, “they missed out on the phenomenon,” he explained.
Day opened his store after vinyl faded from the mainstream marketplace, yet records are, “probably more popular,” he observed. Target and Fred Meyer sell turntables, and a USB port turntable has started to appear on shelves – a component that can download album cuts as MP3 files.
Modern technology co-exists well with records. “I have an IPhone,” Day admitted, “and I use it all the time. I love to listen to music at the gym, and I can’t take records.”
Yet, “there is always an appeal to having a piece of music that you can hold on to,” Day explained. Record albums carry large, gorgeous images, with plenty of room for ‘liner notes.’ Record albums give that tactile, physical manifestation to music, often better than smaller CD art.
Album art also contains historic elements – check out the Black History Month display at the Fremont Library as evidence. Plus, “a record sounds better,” Day stated, “it’s a warmer sound.”
Rent A Video?
“When I got into this business I thought I was on the cutting edge of technology,” explained Craig Wilson, owner of Video Isle. His first store, on Queen Anne, opened in 1986 with 1,000 titles on VHS tape. Today, by default, the Queen Anne Video Isle has become the oldest operating video rental store in Seattle.
In 1989, Wilson sought to expand and, “I couldn’t find anything in Fremont proper.” He looked at a building under construction in Upper Fremont, and he checked out the surrounding community, “the closer was I saw the kind of people I wanted as customers.”
His industry has “always been a bit of a roller coaster,” Wilson admitted, particularly in 1996, when business all but petered out. Wilson took a huge leap and replaced the entire collections, of both stores, with DVD. They now have immense selections of DVDs to browse and hold, read and compare, scan and show.
“The last three years have been the bumpiest,” Wilson said. Competition from mail order and downloadable mediums cut into business, although now he’s hearing from many customers that tried, and gave up, watching movies on mini-computer screens. Also, with the large chain stores all but gone, Wilson said he’s found a place of stability, and “the prognosis is good for the long-term.”
His biggest competitor? “Time,” he said. “People only have so much time,” Wilson observed. “You have more things right now to absorb your time than 10 years ago.”
Step Out, And Be Social
Video Isle, and our other throwbacks, offers something Fremonsters always crave – a place of community. “I have met so many cool people,” Wilson said of working in his stores, “I have so many micro social moments with thousands of people.” He’s noticed, in his stores, that, “customers talk to each other.” While in the store, customers ask questions of the clerks, and one another. “It’s a social experience,” explained Wilson.
Wilson observed that downloadable movies (and music, and video games, and digital images) provide a haven for men who want to sit around in their underwear, enjoying easy entertainment on a soggy evening.
For those who want to crowd their friends into a photo booth (and take a digital picture while the machine prints,) as well as those who want to ooh and ahh over album covers, and challenge friends to a friendly (?) game of pinball, or Street Fighter 2, Fremont offers several hospitable places that can engage us all.
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©2012 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.