A couple nights ago, I spent a couple hours at Pinball Wizard Arcade in Pelham, NH to escape the heat. 4 new pinball machines were awaiting my attention. First and foremost, the latest new production game, Tron: Legacy. This is not the Limited Edition model. I was a little underwhelmed, but when I achieved the Light Cycle multiball, my opinion changed. It was frantic and fun.

Here’s a lovingly restored Cactus Jack’s from 1991:

Hook (1992) surprised me and turned out to be a lot of fun. The other machine I played years ago must not have been working so perfectly or looking so good.

Finally, a favorite among modern era pinball fans, Medieval Madness. This machine was set to 4 tokens.

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I bought one of the arcade’s new T-shirts and owner Sarah surprised me with a quick tour of the back room where she said she has about 100 games in various states of repair.

If you haven’t checkout out Pinball Wizard Arcade, do yourself a favor and give it a shot.

My wife and I are big fans of NBC’s A cappella singing competition show, The Sing-Off. When I saw that season 2 winners Committed had booked a show in our area, even though I was broke, I bought tickets and put them on my credit card. Luckily the tickets were only $20 each after Ticketmaster’s infamous service charges.

Last night we dropped our son off with my parents’ and had a rare night out alone. We arrived at the Showcase Live club (in the Patriot Place complex) 2 hours early and were the second couple in line. When the doors opened at 6pm, we shared the front middle table with another couple who turned out to be nice people and Seventh Day Adventists (as Committed are).

The guys in Committed were humble, warm, and fun. Vocally, they were as tight as you remember from the best parts of their performances from the TV show–barely a bad note to be heard from any of the six of them all night. They performed their original Christian songs as well as covers from Take 6, Boyz II Men, Usher, and Leonard Skynard.

After the show, they were available at their merchandise table to greet fans and sign photos. T-shirts were also on sale.

If you’re an A cappella music fan, I hope you had a chance to see Committed. I think their tour wraps up tonight in New York.

In related news, The Sing-Off season 1 winners NOTA are playing in Boston with the Dear Abbys at Boston University July 17. It should be great!

Here are some photos that Misha and I snapped on our phones last night:

“Oh, it’s Roland’s first Pinball Wizard training session? Well in that case, I guess we can make an exception.”

A shot of South Street during today’s 25th annual Hudson Community Fest:

Here’s the Women of Note a capella group. We missed their performance in Cellucci Park, but caught them a few minutes later at their booth. They are tight! I look forward to seeing them again, hopefully at one of their concerts.

Last night my wife afforded me the opportunity to get away for a few hours to play pinball at Pinball Wizard Arcade in Pelham, NH. I’m finding that I get very antsy to play every couple weeks. Instead of playing the whole time, I walked around and photographed every working pinball machine in the arcade.

Here’s one example:

If you’d like to see what you’re missing at this awesome arcade…

All 72 brand new and lovingly restored pinball machines at the Pinball Wizard Arcade in Pelham, New Hampshire as shot on April 17, 2011

The link will take you to my Flickr album.