user locations: chewing_the_scenery
twin galaxies
from the videogame capital of the world posted in video games by chewing_the_scenery
Walter Day opened the Twin Galaxies arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa in 1981. After realizing early on that there was no unified record of video game high scores, he started the Twin Galaxies International (now Intergalactic) Scoreboard to keep track of high scores from all over the world. Twin Galaxies began organizing competitive gaming events, and the popularity of video games in the culture at the time led to a LIFE magazine story with a photo of some of the country's best players lined up outside the arcade. Ottumwa's mayor, followed by Iowa's governor, declared Ottumwa "The Videogame Capital of the World" in 1982.
The arcade itself was a victim of the video game crash and shut down just a few years later, but Twin Galaxies lives on as a score keeping organization. There has been an effort for several years by record holder Billy Mitchell, Day and others to build a video game museum and hall of fame in Ottumwa.
view full location details...canteen lunch in the alley
from roseanne posted in television by chewing_the_scenery
Canteen Lunch in the Alley in downtown Ottumwa, Iowa was the model for the Lanford Lunch Box in Roseanne Barr's sitcom Roseanne. Tom Arnold, Roseanne's husband during the time the show was on the air, was an Ottumwa native. The Canteen, founded in 1936, is known for its loose meat sandwiches... yum.
view full location details...funspot
from largest arcade in the world posted in video games by chewing_the_scenery
Funspot in Laconia, New Hampshire is the "largest arcade in the world" according to Guinness World Records. It opened in 1952 featuring indoor mini-golf and a penny arcade and moved to its current location in 1964. It hosts competitive tournaments (you can see it in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters) and is home to the American Classic Arcade Museum with over 200 classic games from the '70s and '80s.
view full location details...orpheum theatre
from last action hero posted in movies by chewing_the_scenery
Although it was set in New York, the interior of the Pandora Theatre in 1993's self-referential turd The Last Action Hero, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and some dumb kid, was Los Angeles's Orpheum Theatre on South Broadway. Exteriors were shot in New York City at the Empire Theatre on 42nd Street.
canaima national park
from pixar’s up posted in movies by chewing_the_scenery
Canaima National Park in south-eastern Venezuela was the inspiration for Paradise Falls in Disney/Pixar's Up. The filmmakers visited Angel Falls and the table-top mountains called tepuis when doing research for the movie. Tepui means "House of the Gods" in the local Pémon language. The largest tepui, in the western end of the park, is Auyantepui which translates to “House of the Devil” or "Devil's Mountain." Angel Falls though, the world's highest waterfall which drops over the edge of Auyantepui, was named after American Jimmie Angel who was the first person to fly over the waterfall in 1933. He crashed his plane when returning to the falls in 1937, and his 11 day survival before he found help was such a big deal in Venezuela that the Venezuelan government named the falls after him.
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